SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2020 COMMENTARY STEVE KRAUSE RAW Art Works breakfast 30 years! showcases artistry, positivity By Bill Brotherton Johnny ITEM FEATURES EDITOR LYNN — More than 100 successful local women (and RAW Ambassador we hardly three men) attended a fund- Alisha Bautista raising breakfast at Raw Art helps Michele Works’ downtown headquar- Chausse create ters Friday morning, sur- a ower, which knew ye rounded by some 200 pieces represents the type of art created by the kids who of support she has Some days you never forget. Ever. They bene t from RAW’s programs. received in her life. stay with you. For whatever reason, their All couldn’t help but be They worked on the impact lingers long after the event has impressed with the four con- project during a faded away. dent, independent, RAW- group art exercise One of those days occurred 30 years ago some young ladies who spoke at a fundraising Saturday when I received a phone call at from the heart about what breakfast at RAW this gem of an organization home from Tom Dalton, friend and former Art Works on has meant to them. colleague, that our executive editor, John Friday. S. Moran, had died unexpectedly in Florida “Everyone needs a RAW after having a heart attack. He was only 52. in their life,” said Penny After the shock wore off, I re ected on Gravelle, an English High ITEM PHOTO | SPENSER HASAK the 11-year carnival ride that working for School senior. “The Big Guy” had become and concluded RAW is a youth arts organi- lm school, leadership devel- ing the sense of self I had at safe place to be, with compas- that few people, at the time, had in uenced zation, rooted in art therapy. opment, employment oppor- age 17, and it was RAW that sionate and understanding me more as a reporter and a writer. Thirty It offers a variety of free pro- tunities, and college access/ played a major part in that.” leaders and classmates who years later, that opinion has not changed. gramming from painting to career exploration programs. Gauthier, a St. Mary’s High are always there when you John was de nitely a “Runyonesque” lmmaking for kids age 7 to The breakfast event sold senior, said “RAW is a second need to talk to someone.” character. In fact he even looked like Stub- 19, using art to ask kids “what out two weeks ago, and the home to me. I’ve learned a Bautista, a sophomore at by Kaye’s “Nicely Nicely” from “Guys and is really going on” in their non-pro t started the day lot here. When I started, as Lynn Vocational Technical Dolls” — which is a collection of Damon lives, giving them the tools to one-third of the way to its a seventh-grader, I was so Institute, has been coming to Runyon tales. He didn’t wear a pinky ring, be creative and envision new $55,000 fundraising goal. self-conscious and scared … RAW for more than 10 years. but he should have. possibilities for their future. Doneeca Thurston, execu- I feel supported and comfort- “I was really, really shy the John had a larger-than-life personality “Our core belief is that kids tive director of Lynn Museum/ ed every time I’m here. (The rst day I walked into RAW. too. Everything he did, he did big, whether need to be seen and heard, Lynn Arts, served as modera- staff) radiates positivity.” But right away, I thought it was walk (you could hear him rumbling and that everyone has a sto- tor. Thurston, a Lynn native Gauthier said she’s inter- ‘I’m OK here.’” down the corridor from a mile away), talk ry to tell,” said Executive and 2008 Classical High grad- ested in a cosmetology career, Acosta, a freshman at En- (a distinctive voice that rose to the level of Director Kit Jenkins, who, uate, was joined on stage by that college is not part of her glish High, agreed, “RAW a growl as if on cue) or smoke (he loved his with founder Mary Flannery, RAW students Heady Acos- plan, even though counselors helped me come out of my cigars and his chewing tobacco). opened RAW on Feb. 1, 1994. ta, Alisha Bautista, Angie and friends tell her to go to shell and has helped me grow He had a way of connecting with peo- Back then, there were 16 Gauthier, and Gravelle. college anyway. “RAW gives so much. Even on a day I’m ple that was genuine and effective.This youngsters in a one-room stu- “Sixteen years ago, I was a me every single resource for feeling low, at the end of the even extended to when he was cross with dio. Today, RAW occupies all student in this very building. me to follow the life I want. day at RAW I’m happy.” you (and I was on the receiving end of a three oors of the 37 Central I am a RAW grad, and this It has prepared me for the few Moran rampages, but it was all good Square building, serving some place changed my life,” Thur- world outside of RAW.” Bill Brotherton can be when it was over). 550 youth annually in visual ston said, with her proud mom Gravelle said “RAW is spe- reached at bbrotherton@ Believe it or not, John could hold his own and expressive arts groups, looking on. “It was amaz- cial to me. It’s always been a itemlive.com. rubbing elbows with the heavy hitters de- spite his lack of panache. He just knew in- stinctively how to handle people. INSIDE He was a newspaperman’s newspaper- man. He could sniff out a local story from JM Electrical is Opinion half a world away, and he was the very de - Keeping immigrants’ nition of news junkie. As such, he asked you hopes alive. A4 to do some odd things, and some darn near • impossible things. wired into Lynn eld Shribman: Dreaming One of my favorite Moran stories came of victory in New during the San Francisco earthquake in By Thor Jourgensen brothers, John and Andrew’s rst names) is Hampshire. A4 1989 that happened right before Game 3 of ITEM STAFF also a Lynn eld company to its core. Paul the World Series. The phone rang at 11 at Guarracino, a Windsor Estates resident, Sports night and it was him. LYNNFIELD — When they aren’t install- founded the rm in 1985 and JM occupied of- St. Mary’s girls “We got a Swampscott kid at that game,” ing ultramodern building controls, JM Elec- cers around town before settling two years basketball wins 18th he says, as I’m wondering how in the world trical Company, Inc. employees, beginning straight game. B1 ago on Broadway in the former Sports Medi- he even knew this. with Principal Matthew Guarracino and his • cine North building. “Here’s a mobile phone number. Call him brothers, display a passion for charity. English and Classical Matt Guarracino and wife, Angie, live with and do a story.” “It makes you thankful for what you have. split cross-town rivalry Ever try to call a mobile phone in the mid- their children on Chestnut Street where he We are a family company,” said JM Human series. B1 dle of an earthquake? Somehow, I got the changes from work clothes to running wear Resources Manager Whitney Mugford. MORAN, A3 JM (an amalgamation of Guarracino’s and ELECTRICAL, A3 Victim, suspect dead KIPP engineering grant will help following Saugus shooting STEM grow By Elyse Carmosino ITEM STAFF By Steve Krause SAUGUS — A dramatic ITEM STAFF Friday afternoon that be- LYNN — The KIPP Academy Lynn middle school gan when a man was shot has received a $15,000 grant to implement a new in front of the Cliftondale seventh-grade engineering curriculum that aims to Mobil station ended with a prepare students with the necessary skills to advance report of the shooting sus- their studies in the eld. pect’s death about an hour The funds come both from the Baker-Polito admin- later at Woodlawn Ceme- istration and the One8 Foundation, a group that ac- tery in Everett. tively promotes the STEM (Science, Technology, En- The victim, identi ed gineering and Math) curriculum in schools. only as a 63-year-old sta- “Science has become more and more important in tion mechanic, was shot the past few years,” said Torie Maher, development shortly after 12:30 p.m., director for KIPP Massachusetts. “We are focused on triggering a search for a college and career, and we feel STEM is really import- cream-colored Mini Cooper ant for our students.” with a black roof, reported- KIPP was among the schools last October that ac- ly driven by the shooter. tively participated in a citywide STEM fair, serving Emergency medical as one of the four host schools. personnel transported Maher said science isn’t something that one learns the victim, who suffered merely in a classroom or a lab. gunshot wounds to the ITEM PHOTO | SPENSER HASAK “It’s something that happens everywhere,” she said. head and chest, to Mas- “We want kids to understand that STEM is for ev- sachusetts General Hos- With crime scene tape and a tarp around the site, Saugus and State Police investigate Friday’s fatal shooting at the Cliftondale Mobil Station. eryone, especially for people who aren’t historically pital. He was later pro- represented in the science eld. We want all people to nounced dead. tim lying on the ground direction of Revere.