The Friends partners with the Conservation Commission as stewards of the sanctuary. Their initiatives include Community Work Days, tending the Formal Garden and raising funds for the Horticultural Fund.
The Friends of Hall’s Pond
Jo Albrecht, founder
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
During the course of 2020, our team suffered losses. In June, our Co-President Ellen Forrester stepped down after suffering a personal loss. In late September, longtime Board Member Bruce Wolff died from complications due to Parkinson’s Disease. On October 2nd, our President Frank Caro died unexpectedly after a brief illness. Losses notwithstanding, the Friends of Hall’s Pond is carrying on. Our Board has elected Bob Schram and John Shreffler to serve as Interim Co-Presidents to fill out the remainder of the unexpired terms. Our other Officers, Jim Franco (Treasurer), Diane Ryan (Recording Secretary), continue to serve. Harry Breger continues to design and produce the newsletters. A special thanks to all our volunteers, too numerous to name here. Volunteers are an essential part of our team and we always welcome and need more.
John Shreffler, Co-President
John Shreffler has been a resident of Brookline since 2003 and currently serves as a Town Meeting Member for Precinct Two. A greenspace advocate, he also serves on the Board of the Brookline Greenspace Alliance and regularly volunteers at Hall’s Pond and in the Minot Rose Garden. He also serves on the Solid Waste Advisory Committee and is active in the Town Meeting Green Caucus. He is currently retired but continues to be an active poet and has been internationally published at odd intervals.
Kim Santo, Co-President
Originally from New York, Kim Santo has lived in Boston since 1996. She discovered the Sanctuary on a hot summer day in 2010 and instantly fell in love with this hidden gem of Brookline. She regularly volunteers at Community Day events and enjoys seeing so many people take part in the care and maintenance of this precious natural preserve. A “Triple-Terrier” graduate of Boston University, Kim also works full-time at BU where she assists students with off-campus housing concerns, addresses student conduct both on- and off- campus, and teaches a wellbeing workshop that allows her to tap into two of her lifelong passions – tea and tea culture. Kim also serves as co-chair of the Boston Town and Gown Association (“BTGA”), a coalition of higher education administrators and city officials committed to promoting safe, respectful, and collaborative communities. During the summer, you’ll likely find her along the hillside overlooking Amory Park with a gong fu tea service and a book. She always has extra cups for anyone who is filled with curiousi-tea.
Priscilla Smith, VP for Information Technology
Priscilla Smith has been living in Brookline for 40 years, almost in the backyard of Hall’s Pond. She has retired, after a career working in computers, mostly in the retail industry. She has been associated with Friends of Hall’s Pond for over 20 years, at least, and volunteered at a large number of community days. She has been working with the Summer Maintenance crew since Frank started it.
James Franco, Treasurer
Jim Franco is an Amory Street resident for over thirty years who along with wife Ellen has two children who graduated Lawrence School and Brookline High School. Halls Pond Sanctuary was a favorite family destination and serving on the Board is an honor but also an opportunity to help make sure our community jewel will continue to thrive. Jim is a Precinct 1 Town Meeting Member
Karin Weaver, Recording Secretary
Karin Weaver, raised in Chicago, has been a resident of Brookline since finishing university in 1983. Her now-adult two children were raised here and went through the Brookline schools. The whole family has been involved with Halls Pond and the Sanctuary for decades – walks, picnics and birthday parties in Amory Park, and even a significant first date in the Sanctuary’s formal garden! Karin is a retired program manager and worked on projects managing data acquisition, collection, curation and retrieval for financial services and intellectual property companies.
Karin is involved with the volunteer maintenance program and has declared war on the invasive plants in the Sanctuary (the plants are still winning but the war is not yet done). In her spare time, she is working on a translation of Virgil’s Aeneid.
Board Members
Harry Breger, Publicity Director
Harry Breger is a Brookline resident who recently retired after 30 years as a senior graphic designer at Boston University’s department of Publications Production. Since 2007 Harry has volunteered his printing experience to help produce the Friends of Hall’s Pond newsletters, along with announcements, invitations, and posters for Friends of Halls Pond events. Harry is also a member of the volunteer maintenance team.
Ann Frechette
Ann Frechette, M.Ed., PhD., has lived in Brookline since 1998 with her husband and three children. Ann started bringing her now-adult children to Hall’s Pond when they were in preschool to volunteer at Community Day events and then was recruited to serve on the Maintenance Committee. An avid gardener and nature educator, Ann is interested in maintaining the sanctuary as a resource for the community to learn about the natural world, play a part in its preservation, and work together as a community around our common interest in sustaining the environment for human habitation.
Neil Gore, Board Member and Bird Specialist
Neil Gore is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Brookline and Chelmsford. He and his wife Susan have been Brookline residents since 1976, and in the Hall’s Pond neighborhood for the past 27 years. As a birdwatcher, he is frequently at the Pond and in Amory Woods. Hall’s Pond is probably the finest birding area in Brookline, due to the diverse botanical and landscape features concentrated in such a small area.
Neil appreciates and supports all the varied features of Amory playground: As a tennis player, he has utilized the courts and noted the upgrading of that facility and program in the last several years; and as the father (and coach) of Zack, a soccer and baseball player in the Brookline programs, they have spent many enjoyable hours on the fields.
Neil is a participant in the Pond’s maintenance work, and is learning more about the ecology of Hall’s Pond. Despite the location in the midst of this busy and often noisy urban area, Hall’s Pond is a uniquely serene, inspiring, and uplifting area. He is devoted to the well-being of this wonderful park, with its diversity of benefits to the community, all four seasons of the year, and welcomes the opportunity to be of help.
John Harris
John Harris is a Brookline resident and Town Meeting member representing Precinct 8. John is an environmental activist and bicycle advocate. John is also musician and leader of a band that sometimes can be heard at Hall’s Pond on Community Days.
Helen Herman
Helen Herman and her husband moved to Brookline 10 years ago from New Orleans. Helen has several degrees from Tulane University and a law degree from Loyola. Over the years she was a social worker, a law clerk and law school instructor. Her last job before retirement was Dean of Students at Tulane Law School. She has two adult daughters and two grandchildren. She has been a Town Meeting Member representing Precinct 1 since 2008 and is a member of the Brookline Medical Reserve Corps as well as a member of our volunteer maintenance team. She enjoys travel, photography and taking courses and baking (too much for her own good).
Charlotte Koonce
Rob Meyer
Rob and his wife Anne moved to Brookline just 2-1/2 years ago, having lived in Arlington for 45 years. A mostly-retired primary care pediatrician, Rob continues to teach MGH pediatric residents and Harvard medical students. He was thrilled to discover Hall’s Pond, joined the Friends, volunteers on the maintenance crew when he can and loves taking wildlife photos at the Pond: “There is always something new to discover.”
Fran Perler
Fran Perler, a Brookline resident since 1982, is originally from New York City. Fran had a long career as a Principal Investigator leading a small basic and applied Research group at a local Biotech company. After retiring she returned to science as a part time consultant. She is an avid photographer and birder contributing photos and a dragonfly essay to the Friends of Halls Pond. She participates in the Halls Pond volunteer maintenance program and volunteers at the Brookline Senior Center food pantry. Fran is an Associate Member of the Brookline Council on Aging and co-chair of its Recreation Department Committee.
Jenette Restivo
Jenette is a nature enthusiast, mom, and a professional writer and content strategist. She lives in Brookline with her husband and two teenage boys, who have spent countless hours learning and observing in the sanctuary. Jenette has spent her career in science and environmental writing, working as a writer and producer for ABC, CBS, National Geographic, PBS, History Channel, and Discovery Channel. She is the former Director of Content Strategy for the largest organization dedicated to connecting children and nature, the Children & Nature Network. Jenette launched her own website, Childhood by Nature, six years ago where she has published hundreds of blog posts with ideas on how to raise young naturalists. She is the author of four books on nature for kids including 15 Weeks of Nature; Mammals for the Young Naturalist; Birds for the Young Naturalist; The Nature for Toddlers Activity Book. Jenette is working on an upcoming book for Bloomsbury Publishing called City Safari, a young naturalist’s guide to wildlife in the city.
Mia Szymkowicz
Janet Wynn
Janet Wynn is a long-time Brookline resident. She is a very active member of our volunteer maintenance team.
Ellen Forrester, Board Member Emerita