Category: Haley Shoemaker
Musician From Middleborough Plays Bass Trombone in National Symphony Orchestra
GUILFORD
New Bedford Standard Times
Haley Shoemaker
Boston University Washington News Service
December 1, 2009
WASHINGTON—Matthew Guilford decided to make a career out of playing the bass trombone after breaking his arm on the football field while a student at Middleborough High School. The injury, he said, gave him more time to practice music.
“I then joined … the Greater Boston Youth Symphony,” Guilford said. “After I got a flavor of what that was like I was hooked.” He said performing gave him the same adrenaline rush as when his football team scored a touchdown.
For the past 18 years Guilford, who is 44, has been living and performing in Washington. His main job is at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where he is the only bass trombone player in the National Symphony Orchestra.
He is also an associate artist-in-residence at the University of Maryland’s main campus in suburban College Park, Md., and a faculty member at The Catholic University of America. He also gives private lessons, arranges music and performs with many other musical groups around the city.
Guilford, who began playing the trombone when he was 9 because his mother loved the sound of trombones, said he had a wonderful trombone teacher in Middleborough named Jerry Shaw. “Jerry Shaw is the salt of the earth,” said Beverly Salvato, Guilford’s mother. “He could be playing in any symphony, yet he’s teaching students.”
Guilford said Shaw put a lot of effort into working with each student. “He spent a lot of time with me; he was a tough but kind teacher,” he said. “I owe a lot of my successes to him. He’s an extremely dedicated person.”
Guilford said good teachers have to be consistent in their behavior toward their students, just as parents have to be consistent in dealing with their children. If a teacher behaves inconsistently, the students will be confused about what is required of them.
Guilford said that Shaw was always consistent in his teaching and that as his student he always knew what was expected of him.
Shaw, for his part, remembers Guilford as “an amazing, fun-loving guy, with a great ability to focus. When you told him something he needed to fix, he would get it right the next week.”
His experience with Shaw inspired him to teach, Guilford said. “I get just as much, if not more, satisfaction working with students as I do performing,” he said. Shaw said that Guilford recently sat in on one of his lessons, and that they have discussed teaching techniques.
Guilford also plays all low brass instruments, including the trombone, euphonium, trumpet and contrabass trombone. “Sometimes I play them with the symphony, too,” he said.
In addition to practicing at least a couple hours a day, Guilford said he has a cardiovascular routine to keep his lungs healthy and to stay in shape. “I have been playing for 35 years,” he said. “It’s a very physical, it takes a lot of air, you have to work out.”
He also does solo appearances as often as he can. He performed with the Washington Trombone Ensemble. “I played a solo and they backed me up,” he said. “They are some of the best trombone players. A lot of them play in service bands, the Air Force and Navy; they’re all wonderful players.” He is having a piece written for him to perform with the ensemble in March.
He also has had two recitals at the University of Maryland and plans to do another in the spring. He said, “It’s good to get out from the back row of the orchestra and just be a soloist.”
Guilford’s family members have attended many of his performances, “I love to go and watch him. I can go and close my eyes and hear him playing Maybe it’s because I am his mother,” Salvato said.
Guilford recently performed songs featured in videogames, ranging from Pac-Man to more-current games. A video screen showed images of the games as he performed. “It brought a lot of young fresh faces into the concert hall. I thought it was pretty fun,” Guilford said. “My son wanted to come, but the concert was beyond his bedtime, so I brought him souvenirs.”
In his spare time, he also arranges music, “I take a piece that already written, it could be for anything, a rock band or the violin, and write it so it’s playable on the bass trombone,” he said. Guilford did a recital about eight years ago of songs that he had arranged. “As a trombone player we don’t get a lot of Bach or Beethoven. We have to beg, borrow and steal. That’s where transcriptions and arrangements come in. I’ve thought about arranging some rock tunes for a trombone ensemble. I don’t think hip-hop would work though,” he joked.
Guilford’s music of choice is rock from the 1970s and 1980s. “I don’t listen to a lot of classical music, honestly. When my kids get into the car they turn to certain radio stations, mostly hip-hop, pop and rock,” he said. “My kids are turning me on to other music, like Kings of Leon and Jay-Z.”
Guilford studied music at Boston University and then transferred to the New England Conservatory, where he stayed on and received his master’s degree. Later, he joined the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, played with many musicians all over the country and went on tour with a road company of “Les Miserables.” I think that’s what he’s talking about. You can’t have a Broadway performance anywhere except on Broadway.
Guilford frequently gets to travel with the National Symphony. Each year the orchestra goes to culturally underserved parts of the country and stays for about 10 days and performs.
“My first trip was to Alaska, and it was amazing – we got to see polar bears,” Guilford said. He also has traveled with the orchestra to Maine, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska and Louisiana. Next year it is going to West Virginia. “You get to go to places that you would not normally choose to go to, but we always end up having a great time,” he said.
His family—his wife, Rayne, and their two children, a 10-year-old son and a 6-year-old daughter—has traveled with him on some of his trips. “They’ve also got a taste for travel,” he said of his children. “They’re at an age where they still think I am cool because I perform in front of a bunch of people. When they become teenagers their sense of coolness might change.”
The orchestra also travels internationally, and Guilford has been to Europe numerous times and to southeast Asia. In June, the orchestra was in China and Korea. “Travel is a great perk of the job,” Guilford said.
He said he wants to live in Europe before his kids get too old. “I need to find a way to make it happen,” he said. Italy is his first choice. “It’s the best place on earth – the culture, the food – they just have it down. I have to figure out how to live there.”
###
Organizations Help Portuguese Immigrants Adjust to U.S. Life
PORTUGUESE
New Hampshire Union Leader
Haley Shoemaker
Boston University Washington News Service
Nov. 12, 2009
WASHINGTON—People who emigrate to the United States face social, cultural and, often, language barriers. Unaware of their rights, the new arrivals frequently need help in getting their children incorporated into the school system and may find it difficult to become involved in the local community.
For immigrants from Portugal, national and local organizations aim to decrease the obstacles they face when newly arrived in the United States.
In Washington, PALCUS, the Portuguese American Leadership Council of the U. S., takes positions on laws that directly affect the Portuguese community and acts as a voice for people of Portuguese descent and those whose backgrounds are in Portuguese-speaking countries. Laws relating to visa waivers and deportation are often their focus.
In New Bedford, the Immigrants’ Assistance Center works directly with immigrants to help them apply for citizenship and find adequate housing, food and clothing. It also assists with their medical needs, advises them on their individual rights and generally helps them integrate into the American way of life.
Though founded almost four decades ago by members of the local Portuguese community, the center today offers assistance to all immigrant communities. Still, given the high percentage of Portuguese-Americans in the city and the region, working with that community is an important part of its activities.
The organization’s purpose is to act as the voice of the immigrant population in New Bedford, said Helena Marques, the center’s executive director. “We do a lot of one-on-one work with people.”
“We are aware of PALCUS, and PALCUS being in Washington is a good thing. We are more of a direct service, we’re right on the front lines of issues, where I think PALCUS is more like an advocacy,” Marques said.
Her non profit, multiservice agency helps serve about 5,000 immigrants per year and also reflects the immigrant population it is helping, she said. “We’re all bilingual and bicultural. There are about five languages spoken here.”
The organization holds fundraisers and speaks about the issues of the immigrant population. It also works directly with the community and offers food from the Boston Food Bank, works with local schools such as Roosevelt Middle School, holds English-language classes and provides help with citizenship.
“We also work with deportation, unfortunately,” Marques said. “We do a lot of exchanging information between the United States and Portugal.”
In the 2000 census 1.15 million people of Portuguese descent and 65,875 of Brazilian descent were counted in the U.S. Of the 203,120 people in the U.S. who emigrated from Portugal, 66,625 live in Massachusetts, according to the census. Of the 212,430 persons from Brazil living in the U.S., 36,670 are in Massachusetts, with a large proportion of them living in the New Bedford area.
PALCUS unites the Portuguese community throughout the nation by inviting its members and prominent people of Portuguese heritage to its annual gala event, said Fernando G. Rosa, the organization’s vice chairman.
“Our next gala will be in Massachusetts,” he said. “There is a committee planning the event; it might be in Fall River, New Bedford or even Cambridge. We’re not sure.”
PALCUS focuses on policies and legislation relating to the Portuguese community. “We’re not trying to solve any problems for any individual on an individual basis; that is not what we do,” Rosa said. It may sometimes refer a case to another organization, he explained, but “we do not have a staff that solves individual problems.”
PALCUS works with members of Congress to hear about what their Portuguese constituents want and to discuss the issues the group is advocating. “We have allegiance with Congress, we have people who will call us back, or we will make contact with Congress members,” he said.
One of the biggest issues PALCUS deals with is deportation and its affect on families. “Some of the conversations we’ve had have changed some laws” Rosa said.
PALCUS meets with community leaders from California to New England, who advise them on issues they should support in Washington. “We deal with issues more on a national level, issues that could affect all of the community, all at once,” he said.
Becoming an active member of PALCUS, or even helping at a local immigration center, allows one to become “involved in an organization,” Rosa said. “It not so much is a benefit for you, but for the community. Individuals continue coming together and bring different issues to the table and to the conversation.”
###
Following Frank’s Money
FRANK FEC
New Bedford Standard-Times
Ayesha Aleem and Haley Shoemaker
Boston University Washington News Service
Nov. 5, 2009
WASHINGTON – Health care and climate change may be among the major issues before Congress. But with his approaching reelection bid, the financial sector is a high priority for Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.
As chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Frank plays a key role in legislation that regulates the financial services and banking industry. As of Sept. 30, Frank’s 2010 reelection campaign had received more than $200,000 from individuals and political action committees associated with the financial industry—insurance, securities and investment companies—according to OpenSecrets.org, the Web site of the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan organization that tracks money and politics.
In the first nine months of this year, Frank had already raised approximately $1.1 million, the highest amount among House members in the Massachusetts delegation, according to his campaign’s third-quarter filing with the Federal Election Commission.
FMR Corp., which owns Fidelity Investments, is one the largest contributors to the congressman’s campaign committee, contributing $22,650 from individual employees and $2,500 from the Fidelity political action committee, according to OpenSecrets. Companies cannot contribute to political candidates, and so they set up political action committees to which their employees may contribute.
Contributions associated with Boston-based Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. make up the third-largest group. Individual employees donated $7,500 and the Liberty Mutual political action committee gave $10,000.
“Chairman Frank is a local congressman and someone we are proud to support,” Liberty Mutual spokeswoman Adrianne Kaufmann said in a statement.
However, the top donor to the congressman’s campaign committee was ActBlue, an independent organization based in Massachusetts that raises funds for Democratic candidates. Contributions totaling $26,450 were made to Frank through ActBlue, according to OpenSecrets. ActBlue provides individuals with online fundraising tools to contribute to Democratic candidates, Adrian Arroyo, the organization’s deputy communications director, said.
Insurance companies are the single biggest source within the financial industry of donations to Frank’s war chest. The insurance sector contributed approximately $120,000 from individuals and company political action committees, according to OpenSecrets.
For example, the political action committees of Georgia-based Aflac and the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America donated $5,000 each to Frank.
“We believe that it is important to be a part of the government process and to make them aware of who we are and how we are different from major medical insurance,” said Laura Kane, vice president of external relations at Aflac, the largest provider of supplemental insurance in the United States.
Supplemental insurance, as the name suggests, is additional insurance that provides coverage in excess of a person’s primary insurance policy.
Since being elected to office in 1980, Frank has enjoyed relatively easy reelections and that is not likely to change in 2010. Frank’s challengers, as listed on the Federal Election Commission Web site, are Republicans Earl Henry Sholley and Keith Messina. Through Sept. 30, Sholley raised almost $17,000 and Messina raised $600, according to their filings with the Federal Election Commission. Tarah Donoghue, communications director of the Massachusetts Republican Party, said that the party is unsure whether a primary will be held.
“The conservatives from Rush Limbaugh through all the right-wing Republicans have spent a lot of time attacking me, and I have had to spend some money to refute these inaccurate acts,” Frank said. “So for example, recently with my campaign money, I sent out a mailing to my district responding to these acts. Because even if the candidate himself doesn’t have money who is opposing me, if I don’t refute these lies, then they stick.”
One of the main reasons for raising large sums of money is to counter efforts from independent organizations like so-called 527 groups that can threaten an incumbent’s position, said Harry Gural, press secretary for Frank. These are tax-exempt organizations created primarily to influence nominations, elections and appointments or to defeat candidates for public office.
Frank has already spent more than $900,000, mostly for operating expenses such as staff salaries, candidate travel and fundraising expenses, as indicated on the Federal Election Commission Web site.
He has also contributed $300,000, through five separate payments, to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, according to the most recent commission filing.
“As chairman of a major committee, I am expected by the Democrats in the House to give $500,000 to the Democratic Congressional Committee,” Frank said. “When I solicit my funds, I tell people much of the money you give me I will be giving to other people.”
As a chairman, Frank said, he is able to raise more money than some other Democrats.
“I want there to be a Democratic majority. It makes a tremendous difference,” Frank said. “For four years, Republicans were in control of the committee that I serve on, and I was very frustrated.”
In the past three years, with Democrats in control, “we’ve got much more done,” he said.
Frank said he does not accept funds from the top 10 companies that receive federal aid under the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Citigroup, Bank of America and American International Group (AIG) are the top three companies in this group.
####
Capitol Hill Takes H1N1 Precautionary Measures
H1N1 PREVENTION
New Bedford Standard Times
Haley Shoemaker
Boston University Washington News Service
Oct. 21, 2009
WASHINGTON--Many workplaces, including offices on Capitol Hill, are taking precautionary measures in the hopes of preventing H1N1 flu outbreaks.
For Hill staffers the seasonal flu vaccine is available free of charge from the House physician’s office; as of Wednesday, a limited supply of the H1N1 flu vaccine was available in the House physician’s office, said Kyle D. Anderson, the communications director for the Committee on House Administration.
“We received our initial limited supply, though I don't have specific number of doses,” Anderson said in an e-mail message. “Like everyone else, we're expecting more over the next few weeks but don't have firm dates as to when and how much we'll be receiving.”
First priority for the vaccine will be given to congressional employees who are pregnant or live with or care for infants less than 6 months old, Anderson said.
Members of Congress are not given priority, Anderson said.
The office of Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., is taking extra precautions, according to Harry Gural, Frank’s press secretary. “Our staff is aware of this problem and I know people are making special efforts in this regard,” he said.
Hand sanitizers have been put in the office and employees are encouraged to get the H1N1 vaccination and to stay home if they experience flu symptoms, Gural said.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that all employers provide “sufficient facilities for hand washing and alcohol-based (at least 60 percent) hand sanitizers in common workplace areas … and that they provide tissues, disinfectants and disposable towels for employees to clean their work surfaces.”
Gural said while they encourage the office staff to get the vaccine, it is up to each employee to make the decision.
“I am not aware of any plans to mandate H1N1 vaccinations, and if there were it would be a state, not a federal, issue,” he said.
Gural said that the office has received about a dozen letters from constituents who are opposed to a mandatory vaccination.
Most businesses will be affected by the H1N1 flu this year, according to the Harvard School of Public Health. The school’s survey found that only one-third of business owners “believe they could sustain their business without severe operational problems if half their workforce were absent for two weeks due to H1N1.”
Many companies have encouraged their employees to work from home, if possible, to prevent spreading illnesses. However, House rules do not allow staff to work from home, Gural said.
If someone in Frank’s office does get sick, he or she is allowed sick days like most other offices. “We encourage people to stay home when they're sick,” Gural said.
##
Pet Store Regulations: A Growing Trend
PUPPY MILLS
New Hampshire Union Leader
Haley Shoemaker
Boston University Washington News Service
October 21, 2009
WASHINGTON—Everyone loves puppies, but not everyone knows where his or her own puppy comes from or how the animal was treated before it was sold.
Now, federal and state lawmakers are paying attention to the problem.
In the past two years, many bills have been introduced in state legislatures to increase regulation of “puppy mills,” which critics describe as large, overcrowded and unsanitary facilities.
Two years ago, Congress attached a provision to the 2007 farm bill that banned the importation of young dogs from foreign puppy mills.
By requiring that imported dogs be in good health, vaccinated and at least 6 months old, the sponsors, including Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said in a letter to the House and Senate Agriculture Committees that they hoped to “ensure that physically immature and potentially unweaned puppies are not forced to endure harsh, long-distance transport and that consumers are not unknowingly subjected to buying unhealthy pups.”
In the letter, Frank and the other sponsors said they were “outraged by the operation of puppy mills both in the U.S. and abroad.”
Legislation to support animal rights represents “a growing trend across the United States,” said Dale Bartlett, deputy manager for animal cruelty issues of the Humane Society of the United States. He said 10 states have enacted laws that restrict or regulate puppy mills in some way.
In Massachusetts, state Sen. Robert Hedlund, R-Weymouth, introduced Senate Bill 774, which would limit breeders in the state to 25 dogs over the age of six months at any time.
A related bill in the Massachusetts State House (House Bill 344) would ban “debarking,” the practice of relieving dogs of their ability to bark “by taking a screwdriver to sever their vocal cords so the mills can be established in residential areas without the neighbors ever knowing about it,” Bartlett said.
“Both of these bills are current, they’re both still in the chamber they originated in and they’re still alive and kicking,” Bartlett said.
Frank, in a statement last month, said: “We ought to ensure that puppies are not raised in abusive conditions. In the past, I have supported efforts to curb abusive practices associated with mass dog breeding activities. I will continue to support efforts that prevent animal cruelty.”
In puppy mills, their critics say, dogs sometimes are in desperate need of veterinary care, are forced to drink unclean water and are kept in rusty and broken cages with accumulations of feces and urine.
“The females are bred until they give out, then they are taken outside and shot,” said Martin Mersereau, director of the cruelty casework division at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. “They are not socialized at all, which is really difficult for the dogs because they’re pack animals. It’s like the holocaust for dogs.”
Massachusetts is known as a “pet store state,” said Kathleen Summers, manager of the Humane Society’s puppy mill campaign, “because there are many local pet stores that carry imported puppies [from out of state].”
The Humane Society has received complaints about pet stores throughout Massachusetts, including the mini-chain Debbie’s Petland. One of these complaints came from Danielle Maloney, who said she bought a Bullmastiff puppy last May from Debbie’s Petland. The puppy was sold to the store by Hunte Corp., a Missouri-based animal broker, Maloney said.
Soon after she purchased the dog, she said, it was diagnosed with severe Giardia, an intestinal infection. She added that the puppy infected her other dog and that she had to disinfect her entire house because the disease is highly contagious.
Maloney said she returned the dog to the store and sought reimbursement for her veterinary costs as well. The store refunded the purchase price but would not reimburse her for veterinary fees because she did not take the puppy to a store-approved clinic, she said.
When the Humane Society receives such a complaint, it passes it on to local animal control authorities or, in some cases, to the state attorney general’s office. “We get far, far more complaints than we have investigators,” Summers said. “In some cases, if we get multiple complaints on a store we’ll take further action, such as litigation or investigations, but it depends on the circumstances.”
Kim Duross, owner of Debbie’s PetLand, was not available this week to comment on Maloney’s complaint and her store employees said they were instructed not to talk about the case. However, in a previous interview Duross did defend her business, saying, “We have never received any complaints from the Humane Society.”
Debbie’s Petland, she said, has been in business for 50 years and doesn’t do business with puppy mills. It deals only with brokers who support regulation of breeders, and with breeders who are licensed by the U.S. Agriculture Department.
The brokers, Duross said, “make sure they’re up to date with vaccinations and that they are on a feeding program so that you don’t jeopardize the health of the inventory stock.”
Duross contends that pet stores are more heavily regulated than most restaurants.
“We’re extremely heavily regulated by the board of health and seven different regulatory agencies that check on us all the time,” she said. “The MSPCA [MSPCA-Angell, a nonprofit organization in the fields of animal protection and veterinary medicine] can come in our stores all the time, the Department of Agriculture, animal control officers; everybody is always in there to check up on everything, everything is disclosed to anybody.”
Massachusetts has also had problems with brokers and breeders who have sold dogs to local pet shops, including Kathy Bauck of Minnesota, identified as “one of the largest breeders and brokers in the country” by Deborah Howard, president of Companion Animal Protection Society in Cohasset. Her organization filed a criminal complaint in April 2008 against Bauck that led to her conviction on four counts of animal cruelty and torture, Howard said.
Using hidden cameras and sound equipment, an investigator for Howard’s organization gathered information that led to the criminal proceedings.
“She’ll probably be losing her [U.S. Agriculture Department] license in a few months, but she will still be able to sell on line,” Howard said.
Bauck's lawyer, Zenas Baer said, “The insidious thing is that the owner was convicted only because she placed trust in someone who was working to shut her down, this CAPS employee who wanted to capture evidence of inhumane treatment of animals.”
In Howard’s view, “The whole industry is about profit. Dogs you see in pet shops don’t come from reputable breeders. Reputable breeders don’t sell to pet shops because they’re more discriminating.”
At animal shelters such as the Humane Society & Shelter-South Coast, in North Dartmouth, “most of the dogs we get come in stray or from pet shops,” said Melinda Ventura, the executive director. “We are not seeing litters of puppies coming through the shelter; we get the stragglers.”
Across the United States, there are more than 4 million adoptable dogs, without good homes or families to care for them, according to Mersereau.
The advice from the Humane Society’s Summers: There is really no way to tell where that puppy in the window of a pet store came from, unless you research the broker and breeder that sold to the pet store. “Just go and see how the mother is treated, and if they aren’t treated in a way that you would treat your animals at home, then you shouldn’t buy from them.”
####
New Hampshire Students’ Art Works Honored in Capitol
ARTISTS
New Hampshire Union Leader
Haley Shoemaker
Boston University Washington News Service
September 22, 2009
WASHINGTON—A busy underground hallway tunnel that connects the Capitol with the House office buildings is also an art gallery for work by about 400 high school students from across the country, including two from New Hampshire.
Alyssa Pittera, a high school senior from Coe-Brown Northwood Academy in Northwood, said her work, Blooming Rockers, is a scene from her house.
“I wanted to do a still life because I have never used that medium before with paint,” Pittera said in a telephone interview. “The scene I set up is an antique chair, but I put my own spin on it because I made the plant coming out of the chair.”
Her art is part of the annual program, An Artistic Discovery, which began in 1982, in which House members from every state hold competitions to find student artists to represent their districts. The art chosen hangs in the tunnel gallery for a year.
Art work to represent New Hampshire’s congressional districts was chosen in a competition in the spring at Plymouth State University. School art teachers submitted student works and a panel of judges picked the art to display in Washington. Pittera’s painting was chosen to represent Rep. Carol Shea-Porter’s 1st Congressional District. Representing Rep. Paul Hodes’ 2nd Congressional District is Krista Ciacco’s drawing, Mail Bonding,
Ciacco, a 10th grader from Fitzwilliam who attends Monadnock Regional High School, said that she has taken many art courses throughout school and that her winning entry was “a still life project for my art class.”
At a ceremony at the Capitol in the summer for all of the student artists Ciacco said she met members of Congress and attended a lunch. Pittera also attended the ceremony and said she saw her art in the tunnel.
Shea-Porter said that at the ceremony she met with a number of students and their families and teachers.
“It was a celebration of the arts in the 1st District, and we talked about how art is good for the community and helps the local community because it promotes small businesses,” she said. “At the event we celebrated the students’ art and its impact on the community.”
Pittera’s close attention to detail in the fabric in her art work reflects her other career aspiration: to be a fashion designer.
“I have made clothes for myself since I was a freshman,” she said.
“I have made dresses for dances and shirts, and I am making a shirt for my friend right now. I also made a dress for a girl who was trying out for American Idol.”
###
A Traveler’s Guide to Visiting the Capitol
CAPITOL HILL
New Hampshire Union Leader
Haley Shoemaker
Boston University Washington News Service
September 16, 2009
WASHINGTON – People from all over the world are drawn to Capitol Hill to learn about America’s history, to see great art, to launch or advance their careers or to catch a glimpse of some of the nation’s most influential people. The range and abundance of activities for people of all ages, interests and tastes makes the Hill a must-see place for many visitors to the capital city.
To Tom Fontana, director of communications at the new U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, the center is “the highlight of the Capitol.”
The underground facility has a restaurant, gift shops and exhibits that tell the story and history of Congress and the legislative processes.
According to Fontana, 40 to 50 historic documents are on display, as well as 24 statues relocated from the National Statuary Hall Collections. The statues are a diverse group, ranging from John Swigert Jr., the late Apollo 13 astronaut, to Sacagawea, the Native American who accompanied Lewis and Clark on their journey of exploration.
In the Capitol itself, visitors can watch Congress in session. For the architecturally minded, the building is clearly influenced by ancient Greek architecture, and yet it has a modern feeling because the statues, relief sculptures and frescos throughout that reflect American history.
For those interested in history and museums, Capitol Hill is the place to be. In the area are the Library of Congress; the Supreme Court; the National Postal Museum; the Sewall-Belmont House and Museum, which explores the changing role of women through history; the Folger Shakespeare Library, featuring the world’s largest collection of Shakespeare’s First Folio editions; and the historic Union Station, along with many more museums within walking distance.
To escape and unwind from the busyness of the Capitol, the U.S. Botanic Garden may be a perfect place to go with friends and family, or to just escape for a few minutes.
There are three main gardens, a conservatory and 15 plant galleries, as well as temporary outdoor exhibits, “There is so much diversity in the plants, said Sally Bourrie, the public relations coordinator for the garden, that “regardless of your mood you can find something that fits.” She pointed out that there is also a children’s garden with a well, a potting bench and a bamboo arbor.
The newly renovated conservatory features plants from all over the world, and there are also streams, benches and a ladies’ garden patterned after quilt designs. The gardens, Bourrie said, “are also organic and sustainable; they use less water and fewer chemicals.”
One of the gardens, Bartholdi Park, was designed by Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi, the designer of the Statue of Liberty. Its plantings, Bourrie said, change to reflect modern trends in home gardening.
Capitol Hill is also known for its wide range of restaurants.
Art and Soul, a southern and soul food restaurant, is owned by Art Smith, the former personal chef for Oprah Winfrey and a regular on the Food Network.
Chef Bart Vandaele’s Belga Café, the first Belgian restaurant on the Hill, is renowned for its wide variety of Belgian beers.
If you are looking to see politicians and other Washington influentials, a seven-minute walk from the Capitol takes you to Charlie Palmer Steak, part of a nationwide chain.
If shopping’s your game, Union Station is not only a railroad and public transit terminal but also a shopping mall with many shops as well as a variety of restaurants. And there’s more shopping throughout the Capitol Hill area, including local shops and many well-known chains.
GETTING THERE: For those who want to travel by air, Washington is only a one hour and 19 minute flight from Logan International Airport. By car Washington is xxx miles from New Bedford.
###
