Launched in 2005, WellesleyWeston Magazine is a quarterly publication tailored to Wellesley and Weston residents and edited to enrich the experience of living in two of Massachusetts' most desirable communities.
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good works "the impact has really been tremendous" his name in the small rural community of Palo Solo, where Sally Gladstone's family owns a cof- The library opened in 2005, and it has fee farm. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt also donated 7,000 books to be placed in libraries and changed the educational prospects for the schools across Nicaragua. children of Palo Solo's 39 families. In addi- "We just liked the people, and the kids were always so nice and unspoiled," explains Kitty tion to lending books, the facility offers Gladstone, Richard's widow, who still lives in Wellesley. "It just seemed like a natural thing, remedial tutoring, along with classes ranging when he died, to do something like that." from folkloric dance to computers to painting and drawing. Dubbed the Lone Tree Institute ("Lone Tree" is an English translation of "Palo Solo"), the organization also sponsors youth and community baseball teams, a nod to Richard Gladstone's passion for the Boston Red Sox. "The impact has really been tremendous," says Alixe Huete, a Wellesley native and a Lone Tree Institute board member. "It increases their self-esteem beyond imagination. Watching the little girls and boys dance, and seeing the gleam in their eyes when they look at their parents in the audience, it's so rewarding." "Books mean so little to most kids in this country, but they just mean so much to them," says Kitty Gladstone. "I went down there thinking I would feel sorry for them, and I ended up feeling sorry for the people here who have so much and don't even know what they have." The library buzzes in the morning, when school kids come over during recess, and We l l e s l e y We s t o n M a g a z i n e | f a l l 2 0 1 3 again in the afternoon when classes are held. In a recent survey, 100 percent of Palo Solo families said they utilized the library in some way. "It's not like the Wellesley Public Library, or a library in the United States," says Sally 158