CAPTION: Beacon Hill Runners Lisa Terrasi, Heather Haney, Virginia Dodge, Kim Bilderback, Pauline Donnelly and Joe Selvaggi are seen at Coldwell Banker office on Chestnut Street.

As more residents set their sights on the Boston Marathon and other upcoming road races, the fledgling Beacon Hill Runners (BHR) group aims to unite those from the neighborhood who are active in the sport.
“We all have a mutual interest in running and bringing people together,” said Pauline Donnelly, who founded BHR with her boyfriend, Joe Selvaggi, and fellow Beacon Hill resident, Terry Yeo. “There are so many people from the neighborhood that we recognized from running. It seemed like the next step.”
BHR held sign-ups in mid-October at 75 Chestnut, which drew around 20 runners, from beginners to marathoners and ranging in age from their early 20s to their 60s. The organization soon launched a Google Group that allowed members to get together for informal runs around the neighborhood. On Dec. 5, the BHR put together a group to participate in the Fifth Annual Boston Jolly Jaunt, a 5K run and walk on the Boston Common to benefit the Special Olympics.
“I would like to think BHR will add to the overall sense of community and friendship in the neighborhood by helping us all do something fun and healthy together and perhaps meet some sporting or fitness goals,” Yeo said,
BRH plans to begin a program in early 2010 that would allow members to meet at a designated spot each day for an informal run. “Another goal is to have long training runs through the winter,” Donnelly said. Conditioning workshops for sprinters are also in the works.
Several BRH members also plan to take part in the 15th annual Boston Prep 16 Miler, a January practice run for the Boston Marathon, as well as the historic road race itself in April.
For now, however, the group’s main objectives are to increase membership and create a social network between the many runners from the neighborhood.
“Boston is a runner's paradise, but most runners here - even on Beacon Hill - go out and pound the miles in total isolation,” Selvaggi said. “We hope that this club will bring together runners of every ability to find running partners or simply to share running stories at the local pub.”
Visit beconhillrunners.com for more information about Beacon Hill Runners,

A little more than six weeks after Mayor Thomas M. Menino made history with his election to an unprecedented fifth consecutive term in office, the City Council rejected a proposal for mayoral term limits by a vote of 6-7 Wednesday.
During the council’s weekly meeting at City Hall, City Councilor Maureen Feeney, chair of the Committee on Government Operations, submitted Docket #1007, which recommended barring the mayor of Boston from serving more than two consecutive four-year terms. The docket was filed by City Councilor at-Large Sam Yoon, who, along with his running mate Councilor at-Large Michael Flaherty, was defeated by Menino in the Nov. 3 mayoral election.
“In this country, we have term limits for president. This city would be well served by having term limits for mayor,” said City Councilor Chuck Turner, one of the proposal’s advocates.
City Councilor Sal LaMattina, who opposed the measure, suggested that the decision be left up to the city’s voters.
“The voters should decide on term limits,” LaMattina said. “If you’re serious about term limits, let the people decide.”
Two amendments to the proposal were also narrowly defeated, including one from City Councilor City Tobin that would bar the mayor from serving more than three consecutive four-year terms and another from Councilor at-Large John Connolly that recommended a limit of six consecutive two-year terms for city councilors.

The Vincent Club, located at 71 Brimmer St., rolled out the red carpet for guests on the evenings of for the debut of a brand new holiday tradition, "A Vincent Carol."
Vincent Club President Barbara Manning, a resident of Beacon Hill, was delighted to announce that the event raised more than $50,000, which will go directly to the Vincent Memorial Hospital. The Vincent Club is an organization dedicated to supporting the health and well-being of women through its educational forums and its fundraising activities for the Vincent Memorial Hospital, which is now the Obstetrics and Gynecology service at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Fostering friendships through these efforts is central to its mission. For more information on the Vincent Club, visit www.thevincentclub.org.
Pictured, left to right, are Vincent Club members Lisa Macalaster of Pinckney Street, who sang the solo "It's Indigenous;" Cynthia Duryee of Myrtle Street, who recited "The Night Before Christmas;" and Jennifer Donaldson, also of Pinckney Street and a member of the tap-dance ensemble.

Christmas 2009

This is a good Christmas coming.
There is hope in the air.
Despite the many jobs losses and business closings that have come with the recession, there is abundance everywhere.
Last year at this time, there was so much uncertainty about the national economy and whether or not it was going to survive or collapse, that this crisis of confidence cast a shadow over everything else in our lives.
When the giant financial institutions on Wall Street closed their doors, when the markets dove, when our retirement accounts tanked, when real estate values adjusted downward, those of us with an understanding about how the world works knew that we weren’t facing the end, and we weren’t.
The crisis was not one of poverty, as the noted economist John Maynard Keynes wrote at the beginning of the Depression in 1933.
The crisis was one of abundance.
Indeed.
The year has passed. We have not disappeared as an economy. The nation stands strong.
Christmas is here, again.
The family is around the table, again.
Loved ones travel vast distances and cross great divides to be with one another.
At midnight on Christmas Eve, many churches everywhere will be filled with revelers summoning the holiday.
For our children, the arrival of Santa Claus is awaited with great anticipation, with cookies and milk left by the fireplace for him.
And in the morning there are presents under the tree, with our children eager to be up early and to get to the tree…and to their presents.
Ah, now to the joys of the rest of the day, and to the American, New England Christmas Day dinner, on the one day of the year when we stop running about, when the economic juggernaut shuts down for the day, although nothing is quite like it used to be.
Savor this Christmas Day. Love it, if you can.
Haves your sense sharpened, as Longfellow did.

“I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on Earth, good will to men!”

From all of us to all of you, a very Merry Christmas.