Former Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski spoke at a Boston high school and took part in a ribbon cutting for a state-of-the-art weight room on Wednesday.
Gronk came with his family to host the event at New Mission High School alongside Boston Publi…
Massachusetts
Fraud Fighters: Helping seniors spot scams
The Suffolk County District Attorney’s office has hit the road to educate seniors about all the scams they need to watch out for.
Looking at everything from romance to home repair scams, these frauds cost consumers $8.8 billion in 2022.
At a Fraud Fighter event at the Boston Elks Lodge in West Roxbury, Jackie Lamont from the Suffolk County DA’s office talked to a crowd of seniors.
“This is our theme for today. Stop! It’s a scam!” she said. “You get a phone call from someone who says they’re from the government and that you missed a court date and you have till 7 p.m. to pay this fine, absolutely not! Stop! It’s a scam!”
The seniors showed up to find out how to protect themselves. This Fraud Fighters presentation is a multi-agency anti-scam effort led by Suffolk County DA Kevin Hayden.
“Well, born a little bit out of personal experience,” he says. “So my parents have been affected by exactly the things that we talk about in this presentation. And just because we know how important intervention and prevention is, and we know how important it is for people to know about this stuff before it happens, because once it does happen, it becomes problematic.”
The workshop is aimed at helping older adults and all residents spot scams and avoid schemes soliciting money, by giving them the details of common tactics used by criminals.
“We could be doing this every day, there’s people are going to be targeted every single day,” says Lamont. “And unless we talk about it more and more …..you could hear people sharing their own personal experiences, and many of them said I was embarrassed. Some were getting emotional as they were talking about it, and we want to give them a safe space to not only learn, but to share what they’re going through.”
There were warnings about shipping or delivery message scams, computer hack scams, phone scams and warnings not to buy gift cards, or get fooled into taking out a cash advances or loans to pay anyone for anything! And to never sign paperwork unless you have closely reviewed what it says.
“I thought it was very informative,” says Nelson Mardirosian, a West Roxbury resident who attended the event. “And it’s serious stuff. I mean, in the past, I’ve gotten a couple of calls in the past, but I just hung up on them. And, we’ve had people coming around to doing some kind of work on the house and so forth…but there’s some more serious stuff that people fell for going to the bank and forth to get money, and that’s, it’s awful.”
“ I thought it was wonderful. I thought that folks came and allowed people to share their experiences. The information was extremely helpful,” says West Roxbury resident Vicki Soler. “The places that you can report stuff to the agencies that are willing to help you to, get out of the mess that you may have gotten yourself into, I think that was the pieces of information that I found most helpful.”
The DA says today’s con artists are very good at what they do, and they target vulnerable people for a reason.
“We want them to be aware and educated so they know that they know that they can stop and that it’s a fraud,” Hayden says. “Trust yourself, and know that the scammers are out there. And if it doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t right.”
You can check out the Suffolk County District Attorney’s website for more information on Fraud Fighters and to find the dates of upcoming workshops. There is also information on where you can turn for help. The DA’s office encourages everyone who has been the victim of a scam to report it. You should not be embarrassed about it. Law enforcement is there to help.
You can get that information here.
Boston-based dance troupe creates culture of empowerment through its art
It started with three friends. And five years later, a group of women is using dance to inspire and empower others across the Boston area and beyond.
“We use dance as a way to show how we’re empowering each other and how we can all get along, and we all have the same purpose,” Kayleigh Lucci, one of the directors of We The Females, explained.
Yiota “YoYio” Zeitinidis, Kayleigh Lucci and Erin Davis have been part of the Boston dance community for years. In 2019, the three friends decided it was time to create something all their own.
“Because Boston is definitely a very male-dominated city as far as, like the cultural aspect, our music, dance. And so it was really important for us to be able to come together and showcase the women’s talent and have it be run, directed and created by women,” Davis explained.
“It’s been five years now of We the Females and we just continue to grow, and the relationship that we have is only for the better,” Zeitinidis added.
We The Females, or WTF, does much more than just perform – the members also use their talents to teach, support local businesses, do youth outreach, and run a streetwear line.
“Our main mission is to essentially empower women and young girls in the Boston dance area, give back to the community,” Davis said.
In 2020 they launched the “We’re the Future” program for girls starting at age six through high school. They offer financial aid scholarships for those who may otherwise struggle to afford classes, and welcome dancers of all levels.
“Everyone will feel safe, everyone will feel seen, everyone will feel comfortable,” Lucci said.
Sales from a clothing line help fund the programs, and also help young girls nuture another set of skills in the process.
“It’s all different artwork from young girls about what women empowerment means to them. So, we have some really, really cool things from girls that are 3 years old all the way to 17.“
We The Females also offers adult classes, including a weekly offering at Boston Dance Studios – a Black woman-owned business. Crew members also visit other studios, including locations in Martha’s Vineyard and Worcester, and host workshops throughout the year.
The company welcomes new members, hosting open auditions once a year. These are in the form of a tag-team class – free to dancers who attend the session.
“The energy in the room is just incredible. Everyone leaves here just, like, so inspired and so happy,” Zeitinidis said.
The process is meant to challenge people and bring new talent to the crew. That talent includes people like Camila Escobar, who joined the troupe late last year.
“When I decided to do the audition, I said to myself, I don’t know how well it was going to go, because I was a little bit rusty,” Escobar told us in Spanish. “But the vibe the day of the audition was just crazy. The studio was full of people, everyone cheering to each other. It didn’t feel like a competition, it literally felt like a community of women empowering others.”
Escobar came to Boston from Colombia and was looking to reconnect with her artistic roots. She said she got that and much more.
“They’re sisters, you know?” Escobar told us in Spanish. “I really miss that feeling and I love that I’m here. I feel they have my back and that they also support me even though I’m one of the new ones in the group.”
And that ability to uplift and inspire isn’t limited to dancers- it’s also something felt by those who watch them perform. Lucci had a specific story to tell:
“There was this little boy in the audience, and he did a comfort dance, and he obviously came for the game, and, he came up to one of our dancers. And I think it’s very meaningful, especially because it wasn’t one of us. And it shows that all of the women are have the same mindset. But the little boy was very nervous to tell her that he likes the performance and all. She said, which is so powerful, thinking back, just to never stop dancing.”
“The mom sent us an email later that night basically saying how we changed his life, and he recorded our video. Didn’t stop watching it the entire ride home.”
The founders hope that at the core, the message they spread is to embrace people as they are and support one another in a common goal.
“I think, what’s made our company so successful. Everyone is so different. And I think that a lot more young girls that turn into young women need to celebrate that amongst themselves and just really embrace their Individuality and feel comfortable to be who they are,” Davis said.
For more information on the troupe, visit their website here or follow them on social media.
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