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Wednesday, November 09, 2011
Quick
Article Index . . .
Music Together teacher training workshop in Westport
on December 1, 2 and 3.
Providing Our Constituents Access to Cost-Saving
Co-Pay Assistance Programs.
This
November please remember our Westport veterans.
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Music Together teacher training
workshop in Westport on December 1, 2 and 3. EverythingWestport.com Wednesday, November 09, 2011
Music
Together®, the national early childhood music and movement program
developed in Princeton, New Jersey, is offering a three-day Teacher Training
Workshop at the Macomber Community House (Westport
Friends Meeting), 930 Main Road
in Westport, MA, on December 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. The
teacher training is open to anyone desiring an overview of music development,
including parents, university faculty, students, and preschool directors or
teachers. Workshop participants will learn Music Together’s
research-based approach to teaching music and movement to children ages birth
through kindergarten. Participants
who successfully complete the training will be eligible to teach Music
Together parent-child or preschool classes, either at an existing Music
Together center or by applying for a license to open and operate a Music
Together center of their own. The flexibility of challenging part-time work
with young children and parents appeals to musicians, actors, dancers,
parents, and educators. No formal academic degrees are required. The
workshop provides opportunities to assess children’s rhythmic and tonal
development, techniques for presenting musical material, and strategies for
lesson planning. There will be live early childhood music demonstration
classes on each day of the workshop, teaching children and their parents
using the Music Together curriculum. Since
1987, Kenneth K. Guilmartin, Founder/Director of
Music Together LLC and coauthor of Music Together, has been a pioneer in
teaching parents and caregivers how to nurture their children’s musical
growth. “The whole purpose of the Music Together program is to enable
children, as well as the adults participating with them, to become more
comfortable with musical expression, and to develop musically at their own
pace,” says Guilmartin. He adds, “Childhood music
development is a natural process just like language development.” Recent
research shows that children’s innate ability to make music is strongly
supported as children observe the adults with whom they have an emotional
bond actively engaging in making music. This is possible regardless of the
adult’s own musical ability. Music making is fun and engaging for children,
parents, and teachers—and, as a highly beneficial side effect—contributes to
the development of language and other intelligences, including spatial and
mathematical. The
Music Together approach to early childhood music is taught worldwide at more
than fifty teacher trainings per year. For more information, visit www.musictogether.com.
Licensed Music Together teachers currently teach children in parent-child and
preschool classes in approximately 2000 communities in 49 states and over 20
foreign countries. In addition, many teachers trained by Music Together apply
the curriculum and philosophy in preschools and childcare centers. The
cost of the three-day workshop is $475. Graduate Credits, CMTE Credits, and
CEUs are available for completion of the teacher training. For
additional information about the workshop or to register, visit our website www.musictogether.com,
or contact Lisa Chouteau at 800.728.2692 x329, or email: lchouteau@musictogether.com. Providing our constituents access
to cost-saving Co-Pay Assistance Programs. EverythingWestport.com November
10, 2011 An
opinion editorial by State Senator Michael J. Rodrigues "In
July of 2003, our neighbors in Rhode Island became the 49th state to act and
pass a law to provide patients access to co-pay assistance and prescription
discount programs. The law reduced out-of-pocket expenses for consumers,
helped patients stay healthy and reduced long-term health care costs for many
hardworking families. Lauded
as a leader in the national health care arena, Massachusetts is now the only
state in the nation banning access to similar co-pay assistance programs.
This is the perfect time for the Massachusetts Legislature to do the right
thing and follow our neighbors’ example in Rhode Island. Yesterday,
the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing held a public hearing on
legislation I filed to allow co-pay assistance programs. Consumers, patient
advocacy groups, and others testified in favor of my legislation, Senate Bill
548, which removes the existing barriers, reduces long-term health care
costs, helps patients stay healthy and provides access to the co-pay
assistance programs forty-nine other states already permit. Today,
many hardworking families and individuals across the SouthCoast
region are struggling to keep up with increased health care costs during this
difficult economic time. Paying more out-of-pocket costs than families in
neighboring states, many residents are skipping an entire day of medications
to save money, while others face the daily choice of feeding their families
or buying prescribed medications. Why
is this? Many health insurance companies based right here in Massachusetts
also insure consumers in neighboring states, like Rhode Island and New
Hampshire, where prescription discount programs are permitted by law. The
irony is consumers who purchase the same health insurance coverage as someone
who resides in Massachusetts can actually use prescription coupons to lower
out-of-pocket costs, while consumers in Massachusetts are simply out of luck
because of the ban against co-pay assistance programs. Allowing
access to co-pay assistance and prescription discounts will not only provide
financial relief, it will allow consumers to no longer face the harrowing
choice between feeding their families and buying prescription drugs.
Interestingly enough, many Massachusetts residents are on multiple
medications and can incur significant out-of-pocket expenses even when
insured. By reducing out-of-pocket costs with these discounts, consumers will
save money, adhere to their medications and reduce their long-term health
care costs. However,
opponents of allowing co-pay assistance programs dispute these facts,
asserting drug companies are using prescription discount programs as a ploy
to market expensive brand-name drugs, drive up health care costs, and make a
profit of unknowing consumers. There is no data to back up their argument
proving that consumer access to these discounts has had any negative effect on
healthcare costs in the other forty-nine states where co-pay assistance
programs are permitted by law. In
fact, it is widely known that Massachusetts has a “mandatory generic
substitution” requiring neighborhood pharmacists to dispense the use of available
generic medicines, unless a doctor prescribes a brand name. However,
opponents argue permitting co-pay assistance will drive up brand-name usage
and costs. Just
the opposite is occurring. In the forty-nine states with an existing or
similar co-pay assistance law, the national trend has shown an increase in
generic usage and a decrease in brand-name drug utilization. In 2009 generics
accounted for 75% of U.S. prescription drug volume, up from 57% just five
years ago. After passage of a co-pay assistance law in 2003, our neighbors in
Rhode Island witnessed year-after-year increases in generic drug usages and a
decrease in brand-name drug usage. As
the only state that prohibits access to co-pay assistance programs, we
prevent money from going back into the pockets of consumers who have rare
diseases or consumers for which no generic alternative drugs exists,
including multiple sclerosis, cancer and rheumatoid arthritis. Why
would Massachusetts be against saving consumers’ money and saving lives, especially
when rising health care costs have become overwhelming concern for so many
households? This
is unfair. As a
leader in health care, it is unlike Massachusetts to stand idle and do
nothing to rein in out-of-pocket costs for consumers and help patients stay
healthy. Forty-nine states permit co-pay assistance programs by law, while
our state does not. Massachusetts can once again be a leader and become the
50th state to help our hardworking families by passing Senate Bill 548 to
allow access to co-pay assistance programs." -- State Senator Michael J. Rodrigues This November please remember our Westport veterans. EverythingWestport.com Wednesday, November 09, 2011
Inset: Chester Sandborg,
a WWII veteran who was at Normandy, enjoys a Senior Center breakfast with his
sunny-side-up smile. Sunny,
but cool and breezy weather is predicted for Friday's Veterans Day
celebration at Beech Grove Cemetery. Please be there for 8:45 a.m. to honor
and remember those who fought and died to preserve our freedoms. "Each November
our country comes together to remember veterans who served their nation and
those who paid the ultimate price to preserve our country's freedom. We are
eternally thankful for the sacrifices our soldiers and their families make
for our country. Without the brave efforts of all the soldiers, sailors,
airmen, and marines as well as their families, our country would not stand so
boldly, shine so brightly and live so freely." Marion Berry,
Congressman "As
we celebrate Veterans Day, the thoughts and prayers of all Americans are with
the families who have lost a loved one. We pray for our soldiers in Iraq,
Afghanistan, and throughout the world and wish them Godspeed in their return
to the loving arms of their families. No other group of Americans has stood
stronger and braver for our freedom than our troops and veterans. To all the
veterans and their families—thank you for your courage, your character, your
strength. Every American owes you a debt of gratitude that words cannot
repay." Marion Berry
Above, left:
veterans and Selectmen Jim Coyne (left) and Antone Vieira
share breakfast and a few laughs with chaplain, Navy Lt. (ret) Emil Fuller
(center). Right: Veteran Claude Ledoux with his
lovely wife.
Above, left: from
the left, veterans Lino Rego,
Ed Alveres, and new Veteran's Officer Jerry
LeBoeuf. Right: The Ladies Auxiliary
of American Legion Post 145. EverythingWestport.com Sunday,
November 13, 2011 Jan
Hall, co-owner and book buyer at Partners Village Store in Westport was
recently chosen to co-chair the New England Children's Bookseller Association
(NECBA). She will share the duties for 2 years with Ellen Richmond of the
Children's Book Cellar in Waterville, Maine. NECBA
was established in 1987 to discuss matters of interest to children's
booksellers. It soon became an active interest group under the auspices of
the New England Independent Bookseller's Assoc. (NEIBA). In addition to
educational programs for the membership, NECBA has an email listserve and newsgroup, maintains a directory of New
England Authors and Illustrators of Children's books, works on the
development of the Children's Holiday Catalog with staff and supporting
publishers, and has an active Galley Review Project of forthcoming books for
the NEIBA membership and IndieBound Program of book
recommendations by independently owned bookstores. Partners
Village Store, 865 Main Road, Westport, MA. For more information please call 508.636.2572. © 2011 Community Events of Westport. All rights reserved. EverythingWestport.com |
