The following article was written by several of the members of “Pays to Write,” an afterschool club at the West Somerville Neighborhood School. The students are hoping to establish a school-wide student newspaper.

Somerville’s own Kenneth F. Cook served with distinction in the U.S. Army during the Korean conflict. — Photo by Claudia Ferro

By Gabriela Martínez

Kenneth F. Cook, known by many as the crossing guard for St. Catherine’s, was Private First Class and member of 196th Field Artillery Battalion in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. He did everything from operating 155mm Howitzer canons to manning the telephone lines and driving back for ammunition.

Social Media & Community Engagement Specialist Meghann Ackerman, Senior Planner of the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development Dan Bartman, and Deputy Chief Stephen Carrabino were on hand at the meeting to inform and engage with interested members of the Ward 6 community. — Photo by Amy Swain

By Amy Swain

Residents of Ward 6 gathered at Somerville Community Baptist Church last Thursday, November 5, for the latest ResiStat meeting for the area.

Refreshments were served, agendas were dispersed, and the Davis Square semi-annual neighborhood meeting opened with Mayor Curtatone addressing the most recent happiness survey. Questions requested information on general happiness as well as satisfaction with physical beauty of the neighborhood, the neighborhood in general, and the city of Somerville. Each category showed an overall increase in happiness between 2013 and 2015, and no average response fell below 7.5 out of 10.

First of all, we want to thank all active duty service men and women and all our veterans, who fought for our freedom to live in this great country of ours. God bless you all and thank you for your service. A ceremony honoring them will be held this morning at Dilboy Post in Cutter Square at 10 a.m. Then join Historic Somerville and representatives from the City of Somerville at 2:30 pm, for a Veterans’ Day Remembrance Ceremony at Milk Row Cemetery (next to Market Basket). Local members of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts will conduct a ceremony to remember those veterans from Somerville who are buried and memorialized in this hallowed ground.

By Josie Grove

Fragile Island of Peace is documentary filmmaker Jamil Simon’s examination of the search for “peacebuilding” opportunities in the troubled nation of Burundi.

Somerville-based documentary filmmaker Jamil Simon is working on his latest film, Fragile Island of Peace. The film is a documentary about conflict in the small East African nation of Burundi. Simon is interested in a conflict resolution style called peacebuilding.

I am not a poet by any stretch of the imagination, nor I an English Major. Thanks to the computer, I can now spell. I am a Somerville resident for the past six years. I started this poem as a parody to Bruce Springsteen’s song Born in the U.S.A. and as I progressed with the poem I kept rewriting and adding words (about 20 times) and then changed the title to Born and Raised in the U.S.A. During the rewriting and reading what I wrote, I realized to my surprise that the poem was, for the most part, in chronological order. Thanks to my Cousin Patty who was a big part in the finishing of the poem with ideas and words that I needed to complete the poem. Thanks again for reading my poem.

On a recent visit to Cuba I was lucky enough to travel with a group of 15 to a restaurant named Finca Agroecological El Paraíso, located in Pinar del Rio overlooking the Viñales Valley, about a 3 1/2 hour drive west of Havana.

— Photos by Claudia Ferro

Central Paper, a full service retail paper store, opened its latest location here in Somerville’s Ball Square at 691 Broadway.

An Open House took place on Tuesday, Nov. 3, and many turned out to meet the staff and check the wide array of papers, envelopes, invitations and more.

By Tom Bannister

Two classrooms at the Kennedy School had the opportunity to take part in some exciting adventures through the Waypoint Adventure program this past month. Waypoint’s mission is to help youth and adults with disabilities discover their purpose, talents and strengths through the transforming power of adventure. Both classrooms participated in team-building sessions prior to the adventures, during which students defined “teamwork” and engaged in a team-building activity that required them to put teamwork into practice.

Amidst grading seemingly hundreds of college writing papers; I found the time to interview Somerville artist Angela Cunningham. Cunningham is a resident of Winter Hill, a full-time studio artist working out of the Mudflat Studio in East Somerville, as well as President of the Board of Mudflat Studio. Last month she co-curated the Lost Theatres of Somerville exhibit at the Studio along with Tracy Redmond. The Lost Theatres exhibit was courtesy of David Guss and The Somerville Museum, who own the intellectual and theatrical rights.