Unfinished business
By Adrian Walker – Globe Columnist / January 30, 2010

For Dr. Selwyn Rogers, there was a precise moment when the agony of Haiti crystallized.

The Brigham and Women’s trauma surgeon was working in a small hospital in St. Marc last week, mostly performing amputations on earthquake victims, when he noticed a pair of patients: an 84 year-old woman and a 2-year-old girl.

“That stark contrast was incredibly devastating,’ Rogers said yesterday. “But it was inspiring to see that, beyond all of the heartbreak and despair, the Haitian people were incredibly resilient and valued life beyond all else and still found ways to hold each other and cry and laugh despite all this.’’

Rogers, who’s 43, is the chief of burn, trauma, and critical care at Brigham. He is from St. Thomas, not far from Haiti, but hadn’t had direct contact with the nation until he joined a Partners in Health team that went there several days after the quake struck.

His work at the Brigham, performing trauma care every day, barely prepared him for the scene he was thrust into. He chose two words to describe it: austere and horrific.

Boston area colleges fundraise for Haiti
By Erin P. Kelly/Huntington News – January 28, 2010

Two weeks after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, university students and student organizations in the Boston area are planning the most effective ways to help survivors and victims affected by the disaster.

Kamil Gedeon, a junior chemical engineering major and vice president of the MIT Caribbean Club said he has been working with other MIT students to host a Haiti relief donation drive and a Haiti Relief Benefit Concert that will occur on Friday.

The Haiti Relief Benefit Concert will take place at 7 p.m. in Kresge Auditorium at MIT, said Matthew Goldstein, a first-year graduate student and a member of MIT’s Alpha Phi Omega fraternity, who has been attending student-led Haiti Relief meetings and helping to plan the concert. The performers have yet to be determined, Goldstein said.

“The benefit concert is the big thing MIT students are doing [for Haiti relief efforts],” Goldstein said. “The concert is open to anybody around Boston, and the admission fee is making a donation of $5, but we are hoping people will donate more than that. We have a goal to raise $10,000, and we’re going to be giving the money to Partners in Health.”

Boston College students are also doing their part to help out. At the school’s home hockey game against Boston University last Friday, BC raised $4,700 in donations from fans that will be donated to Catholic Relief Services, said Dan Ponsetto, director of BC’s Volunteer Service Learning Center.

On Wednesday, the student government of Boston College sponsored a dorm walk in which they went from residence hall to residence hall asking for donations, to Partners in Health, Ponsetto said.

Despite franchise, local pastry shops strong
By Jessica Melanson/Huntington News – January 28, 2010

The sound of a single jingling bell was the only interruption of Maria Merola’s animated conversation with her pastry shop regulars that Tuesday morning. The regulars, an older couple, sipped coffee and ate a cannoli in Maria’s Pastry Shop, what which the owner called a “comfortable” bakery at 46 Cross St. in the North End.

Merola said her pastry shop is one of the Boston bakeries that still offers one-on-one service. Meanwhile franchise donut doughnut shops have heavily integrated themselves into Boston’s food industry since the 1950s, increasing competition with local stores.

A recent study by the market research firm NPD Group Inc. completed a study about the most doughnut – heavy cities in America. Providence, R.I., ranked first. Boston was second with 20.4 shops per 100,000 people.

A search using Dunkindonuts.com’s store locator lists 289 branches within 10 miles of Northeastern University. Likewise, a Yellowpages.com search for pastry shops in Boston finds 117 bakeries, encompassing both local and franchise shops.
Despite the high number of franchise pastry and doughnut stores, Boston still has many locally-owned bakeries. For instance, Mike’s Donuts at 1524A Tremont Street St. in Roxbury has been around as a neighborhood bakery since World War II.

Roxbury natives flock to Mike’s Donuts because it is a “local, family-type place,” according to the store’s owner, Bruce Weinograd. Mike’s has been a bakery for 67 years, and it started selling doughnuts in 1970.

Many independent doughnut shops sprung up in the area during the 1950s, but have since closed because of competition with the Dunkin’ Donuts franchise, said Weinograd. Mike’s Donuts continued to flourish, however, because of its family environment and the quality of its products.