text:
The heart of the school lives
in you.
extraordinary When our schoolhouse closed, we learned that the Eliot School was greater than just a building. We learned that our strength and perseverance
lived in the hearts and minds of you—our students, teachers, donors, and staff. You brought the spirit and the values of the Eliot School into your homes, your communities, and online. You were determined to sustain the vitality, creativity, and the good that we do in our communities through arts education—and we are grateful. Thanks to you, we are turning a corner on the uncertainty of the past and working step by step toward a truly vibrant season of new beginnings.
Abigail Norman Executive Director
" We will continue to support our teachers, listen to our students, and do all we can do to fulfill our mission: inspiring lifelong learning in craft and creativity for all."
a story of by Abigail Norman
The Eliot School's partnerships with Boston Public Schools date back to 1874. Fast forward 150 years, the year before COVID, we taught more than 2,146 children in classrooms around Boston, as well as 15 young people recruited from those classrooms into our intensive Teen Bridge program.
proud of our team, our artists, and our young people for the energy and the creativity with which they embraced all the technology and all the challenges.
When we work with a school, we develop long-term, multi-year relationships with principals, teachers, and students, teaching art and woodworking along with their other scheduled classes, all year long. We are embedded in those schools as part of the fabric of what they offer their children—our children. So, when COVID hit, our teachers worked with BPS developing our online classrooms and assembling art kits for children to use at home.
During normal times, we typically partner with a dozen or more public schools and up to twenty other sites each year— Boston Public Libraries, Boston Centers for Youth and Families. When in-person learning was suspended, our communitybased partners suspended their after-school programs. Yet we managed to teach some 1,300 BPS students in this pandemic year.
Our entire team mobilized with incredible speed. Our teachers taught from their living rooms, with their families and pets in the house. Teen Bridge moved instantly online. Our Artist-in-Residence program went instantly online, and I am incredibly
What did we lose?
The pandemic completely shut down our in-person classes. A bank loan and federal relief funds allowed us to keep paying teachers and staff through June. In July, I sent an email furloughing 80 faculty members. That was one of the harshest days in my entire working life.
School Year 2018 – 19 11 Staff 8 Full-time
3 Part-time
School Year 2020 – 21 120 Teachers
• Executive Director • Development Officer • 2 Program Directors • Program Coordinator • Program/Development Asst. • Registrar • Assistant Registrar • Facilities Coordinator • Shop Assistant
3 Full-time 117 Part-time
10 Staff
8 Teachers
9 Full-time
2 Full-time
1 Part-time
6 Part-time All others on furlough
The heart of the school lives in…
isit our YouTube channel V to watch more of these stories in greater depth.
Program Director, woodworker
Alison Croney Moses
contemplates art education in light of emerging societal challenges. Through professional development and curriculum, can we create classrooms that affirm our students?
pg. 4
pg. 6
Carol Price shares her
family's heritage of sewing and repairing with her students as well as her community. When the pandemic started, she used her creative skills to make masks for others.
pg. 8
Milliner, teacher, and citizen mask-maker, Denise Wallace-Spriggs faced the challenge of teaching and the disappointment of losing creative opportunities during COVID. How does she sustain her creative practice?
pg. 10 Jasmanie Gonzalez took
an unconventional route to woodworking after taking a class at the Eliot School. He never imagined returning to his old high school to teach woodworking in English and Spanish.
pg. 12 The first class of Teen Bridge graduates reflects how learning the creative practice of making art over the years has changed them, their thinking, and their outlook for the future.
pg. 16
Jen Turpin is a teaching artist at Boston Green Academy. She took her classroom online, prepared art kits for her students to take home, and helped them process difficult times and emotions though art.
Teen Bridge
What would you do to support a creative space that you love? Geoffrey Chasin, a donor and student talks about what the woodshop means to him, and why he gave toward the installation of a clean air system.
pg. 14 Board Chair Melony Swasey and Board Member Dana Rashti discuss the challenges of governance amidst the confluence of the pandemic and the social upheaval that rocked the country nationally and locally.
pg. 18
The Board
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The vision of affirming classrooms lives
in Alison.
I am a woodworker and have been Program Director at the Eliot School for eight years.
I started as an Eliot School woodworking teacher in the Boston Public Schools and saw first-hand some of the classroom challenges that all teachers experience. We recognized that our students and teachers have a variety of identities, and that all young people engage in their learning differently. All of our kids had social/ emotional needs that we wanted to be able to meet. So the Eliot School held workshops about classroom management, culturally responsive curriculum, and trauma-informed teaching practices.
Cedar Pod Peeking 2016, Cedar wood, milk paint, 7" x 7" x 7"
Still, we wanted to think of professional development as an arc and support our teachers further. Executive Director Abigail Norman and I just committed one day to invest in a deep-dive professional development series. We focused the first year on racial justice, with intensive workshops available to everyone: BPS teachers, teaching artists, charter school
teachers. We had a great turnout and response, which told us people needed this. The next year we focused on social/emotional learning. And then the pandemic hit. People were getting sick, dying. Young people no longer had the support in school or at home that they used to. Racial injustice was bubbling up in the society as a whole. Art teachers were saying our classrooms could be a space for young people to process this experience. Quickly, we planned a four-week series called SPEAC, Supporting the Processing of Experiences through the Arts during COVID. We collaborated with two partners also doing
great work, Open Door Arts and Wheelock Family Theater. About 70 teachers completed the series. We talked about implicit bias, the history of education through the lens of race, and disability. We dove into the social/emotional needs of students and teachers, and strategies to celebrate and affirm their identities. The feedback was amazing. One teacher said, "I wish I had gotten this before when I was in school learning to be an art teacher." There was a lot of personal growth. Pretty quickly, the teachers built trust and community, and tapped into the vulnerability needed to truly reenvision what teaching art can be.
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The heart of the school lives
in Jen.
The best part of working in Boston Public Schools is being part of that larger community
(such interconnectedness yet separate individual personalities for each school) and being able to help youth development in the city that I love and have lived in for so long. I've worked for Eliot School at Boston Green Academy for three years. When the pandemic started, like many people watching the news for updates from the mayor, we were expecting that in two or three weeks, we'd be back. Then the mayor said seven weeks, eight weeks. My first thought was, if I'm feeling a little anxious about this, how are my youth feeling? Some students were terrified. Some students were thinking of summer vacation.
Jen Turpin's virtual classroom backdrop with works of artivism helped students feel "heard" and welcome.
For myself, art was a way to process complex emotions. Knowing that my students wouldn't necessarily be able to engage with their communities in the same way or be with each other, I wanted to make sure they had
access to creative materials in their homes. I created art kits, so everybody got a bag with a sewing needle, thread, fabric, felts. Some got crayons, watercolors, washable markers, paper. That way, even if they weren't going to come to online classes, they had familiar materials to work with. With the murder of George Floyd, we paused all of our planned online art challenges to talk about what the students were feeling. They brought up Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and they mentioned that their voices aren't always heard, and if they are heard they're not respected or listened to.
So we gave the option: Do you want to work on this art project to help emotionally, or do you want to do a piece of artivism, where your voices could be seen?
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The heritage to sew and repair lives
in Carol.
My dad taught me how to sew. My dad was a tailor in the United States Army and served for 23 years.
He came from a family where everybody sewed. His mother made beautiful quilts. His sisters did wedding dresses. My grandmother thought it was important that even the guys should know how to sew and be able to repair their own clothing. Everybody should be able to sew a button back on. My favorite part of sewing is coming up with the concept of how I want something to look, and then as I'm sewing, it evolves into something else. I've been working at the Eliot School since 2004. I love teaching, particularly when someone comes in my classroom who doesn't know how to sew. People come to my classroom with a desire to learn and leave with the ability to sew. That's rewarding to me. Through the classes I've met different people from all walks of life. Some people that were my students ended up being friends. There is such a caring community. When the A small selection of the many vibrant fabrics Carol collects at home for sewing.
schoolhouse closed there was definitely a sense of sadness, just to be cut off from what you enjoy. I miss teaching. It absolutely does help to be creative during this pandemic because it allows you to focus on something other than all the negativity that's going on in the world. I was happy to make masks for others, to help other people and still be creative. Some people were looking at this pandemic like it was a time of doom, which it was. It was a sad time, but like they say, "crisis creates opportunity." It gave me that opportunity to use my skills to help others.
My phone was ringing off the hook for the masks. I gave masks to strangers I met on the street, to people in my neighborhood. One lady I gave a mask to actually started crying. She just thought it was so beautiful. Our interview with Carol Price happened to take place around the two-year anniversary of the passing of her son Kendric Price. A beloved son, basketball player, coach, and youth mentor, Kendric was murdered in 2019. We are grateful to Carol for granting the interview.
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The mastery of materials lives
in Denise.
I am a milliner. I make hats. I am also a theatrical craftsperson, which means I make costumes.
I do fabric dyeing, fabric modification, silkscreening, making armor, and things like that. I love teaching at the Eliot because of the curiosity of the students. I always say to people who take a workshop with me that I'm going to learn more than you learn, and I have 30 years of experience doing this. I am always meeting another person's idea, and then helping with that idea—and I learn a ton in the process. I really love teaching those classes, and I miss it. I miss being with people. My specialty is to try and mind meld with my students, figure out what they're trying to make, and then help them have success making that hat. There are a million and a half hats that you could possibly make, but I want to know what hat you want to make. I help students learn skills along the way that they can use to make more things. In her studio, we see a corner of Denise's worktable with some tools and materials for making hats.
I tell my students that you don't really learn things if you do it perfectly right the first time. All the learning happens in the mistakes. When you make a mistake, you see, "Oh that's not what I wanted!" That's when you really learn to manipulate materials. Really, what I'm teaching is how to manipulate materials and processes. I'm sure everyone was in a different place when the schoolhouse closed. Workshops and intensives, we had to cancel them. Nobody felt safe, and it was absolutely the right thing to do. The Eliot School was kind enough to honor our contracts for those first classes that got canceled. That was really generous.
During COVID when people were making masks, it suddenly became relevant to have sewing skills. Suddenly craft was at the forefront. Sewing, this skill that maybe people thought was old-fashioned and outdated and not very useful anymore and just something you did to please yourself—it suddenly became one of the most important things that we could be doing. People started emailing me from all over the country, "What are you doing about masks?" People were dragging their sewing machines out of hiding to make hundreds and thousands of masks. It was really interesting to be involved with a worldwide group of people who were sewing masks, whether you knew them or not.
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The heart to give back lives
in Jazz.
I never thought I'd be teaching woodworking. I was working at a hospital, just got promoted to a lab. Around the same time, I was taking the Basic Box class at the Eliot. Somehow, making the box made me think of the lab, and how I didn't want to be in that cubicle—not with my desire to interact with people. I left that job and started working at the Eliot School as a shop assistant, which gradually grew into teaching. I realized that was my calling. There I was going back to teach at my old high school, English High. To be honest, graduating high school was not an easy path for me, so going back to teach felt like patching up old scars and giving back. I was able to teach kids from a similar background, who may have had a learning disability or just didn't understand the language. I learned woodworking all over again in Spanish to speak with most of my Latino students. Bouncing back and forth from English to Spanish to communicate with students was rewarding. I had kids from all over South America, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico.
We created things in the class that brought out their inner artist, their inner woodworker. It felt great to show students that with just the proper techniques, they could believe in themselves and make things. The sky's the limit. When the coronavirus came, I thought I was going to be out of a job. You can't teach woodworking online. Fortunately, Abigail, our Director told us to start renovating. While the schoolhouse was closed there was an opportunity to do upgrades. Though I had fears of getting sick, I was relieved that I was able to keep a full-time job and learn a lot of skills in the process.
I had an amazing boss, Andrew Riiska. He's a woodworker and a person who's been in the trades since he was about 11 years old. I learned so much from him about patience and how maintaining good tools and equipment is crucial to woodworking. "A bad carpenter blames his tools," Andrew would say. Fortunately, I was surrounded by other teachers in a similar crisis, all sharing ideas and supporting each other. I learned quickly how to start teaching digital art fabrication online. The community made it easier to adapt to online teaching, to branch out and learn other new skills.
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The heart of the woodshop lives
in Geoff.
I live nearby in Brookline. I found out about the Eliot School pretty much when we moved in, and I've been coming here about 12 years. The physical space is such a beautiful space to work in. It's well lit with high ceilings, and it has a ton of hand tools and machine tools. I live in a condo. I do not have studio space at home, so it's really important to find a shop like this shared space for woodworking. The real draw—the teachers and coaches are extraordinary. Many of them are retired woodworkers or real artists who know a phenomenal amount about woodworking and love to share. There are guys in their 70s and 80s that come by and want to share what they know, and they know a lot. I go to the open shop on Saturdays. There are always a ton of different people at different skill levels from North Bennet Street School graduates to rank beginners. There is always such a nice camaraderie, sharing information, just joking around. My time there is really quite special.
As COVID-19 got worse, we didn't know how long it would last. Woodworking was very hard to do at home. It was frustrating. When I talked to Executive Director Abigail Norman, she told me about the problems with the airflow, how we needed all these extra plans and filters. We got into a conversation about what it would cost, and I decided to give money to the school to help fund this. It was Abigail's idea to launch a drive for clean air, a mini fundraiser. She asked me to talk to a gathering of people from the woodworking community about why I was giving money and why the school was important. We thought that some other people would also like to contribute. I was certain they missed it as much as I did.
We raised enough money to put in the whole air exchange, the HEPA filters, and ionizers. I think it's going to exchange the air every ten minutes. For the woodworkers and for everybody, it will be a safe place to work. Am I looking forward to coming back and seeing my friends again? Yes. The shop will reopen better than it ever was. Hopefully, it won't lose the community feel, the camaraderie, the expertise—everything that makes it so special.
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The hearts of future artists live
in Teen Bridge.
Anita: A valuable lesson I've learned is that it's okay to try, and if you don't get it, you just keep working on it. I have so many areas in art that I feel like I'm lacking, but through Teen Bridge I've been able to learn, especially from the teachers. And even though it doesn't go the way I like—sometimes I hate some of the work I make—I still try to improve and make it better. Vlad: My Teen Bridge experience was awesome.
Honestly, when I first started, I was very antisocial. I didn't know much about art or mediums. But now I feel like I've gained a lot of people skills, communication skills, and art skills.
Grace: I think for me, practicing art has really
changed how I look at the world. I don't see just shapes and colors anymore. You really kind of break things down. It gives you a more creative outlook in general. It helps with problemsolving, and it just really widens your view overall. You are able to remove yourself from the logic piece, and you can be creative and have fun and loosen up a little bit. That's been a pretty big change for me.
Isaac: I plan to become an artist, professionally.
I hope to make a stable career out of it in my adult life. I have a lot of memories about this program, and they're all great. I think my favorite ones have to be the summer Artist-in-Residence programs that I participated in. Those were really fun, especially being able to present our work at the end of it, and have it in galleries. That was really cool. Pictured left to right: Isaac, Anita, Grace, and Vlad
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The heart of the school lives
in the Board.
Dana: When COVID hit, it occurred to me what a loss it was going to be for our community, because there was so much emotional stress during COVID. Even before the pandemic, the School was such an important part of people's
lives, giving them a creative outlet to balance their lives and feel fulfilled. The fact that this outlet wouldn't be available to people for a period of time felt like a real loss for the community at large. Melony: As an individual and as a trustee,
I was really concerned about the emotional wellbeing of the staff. We had really big decisions to make, urgently, and we didn't know how those decisions would land in people's personal lives and work lives. We had to consider what was happening for Abigail, the Executive Director. There were so many pressures on her at that time, and I would say that she weathered that storm so elegantly. I actually don't know how she did it emotionally and psychologically, but she just dialed in. She did have our support, but she was really at the forefront of the big decisions, day in and day out.
Dana: One of our challenges was that we had
six new trustees, more than ever before in one period of time. They barely had a chance to assimilate, understand the school, or identify with its mission. We tried to overcome that through remote retreats and a lot of interaction to bring everybody into a common vision of the school. In retrospect, I would say it's important to always have new blood coming to the board, but every board should think about its board tenure and planning of succession in a way that is well paced and allows for constant renewal and continuity in the process.
Melony: I have just been so proud of the School during this time. You know, the entire staff is always working furiously behind the scenes to pull off all kinds of remarkable things. But with protections stripped back, with things exposed and laid bare, we witnessed how much they actually do—including that, during this time, we were awarded funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. So we were getting recognition on the national level, regional level, the state level, even in the midst of a pandemic.
Melony: As a board, during this time, we got to practice how to talk more explicitly about
the importance of equity. I think a lot of people come to the conversation feeling it's a good thing, but not quite understanding how to enact it and embody it. This is something we are learning by doing. This moment invited us to understand how critical it is for the School—because of our programming, because of our funding, because of the way the community receives us—how important it is for us to actually name and claim and be proud of thinking about equity and justice. As an individual board member, I'm proud of that. This is a learning process for us, and I feel hopeful about the direction we're moving in.
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donors & supporters thank you to our Many thanks to the following organizations and individuals who generously supported the Eliot School with a donation of $100 or more, from January 2019 through December 2020.
Funders Aetna Foundation Andrew B. Young Foundation Anonymous Foundation Baltimore Community Foundation 916 Foundation Fund Barr Klarman Massachusetts Arts Initiative Boston Cultural Council* The Boston Foundation: Remmer-Fox Family Foundation Shawkemo Family Fund Sands Family Fund BPS Arts Expansion Fund at EdVestors** Cabot Family Charitable Trust C. F. Adams Charitable Trust City of Boston COVID-19 Fund Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston David V. N. Taylor Foundation Deborah M. Noonan Memorial Fund The Episode Foundation Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund Fritze Family Fund Hoppin Family Fund Jockers Family Foundation Joe Kalt & Judy Gans Foundation Lawrence Madoff Family Charitable Fund Linde Family Foundation Martha & Paul Rizzoli Family Foundation Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association
Massachusetts Cultural Council* Massachusetts Cultural Council Cultural Facilities Fund Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism McCoy Family Fund of Essex County Community Foundation MENTOR Charitable Fund Mott Philanthropic LLC Murray Family Foundation New England Grassroots Environment Fund New World Foundation September 20th Fund Patricia C. Remmer Charitable Trust The Plymouth Rock Foundation Rhode Island Community Foundation Robert & Susan Mayer Charitable Foundation Schwab Charitable Fund Tauck Family Foundation
Corporations & Businesses Adjective Art & Framing Inc. Amazon Smile Anonymous Arborway Auto Service Center Benevity Blanchard's Liquors Bloom Architecture Boing JP's Toy Shop, LLC Boxed.com
Brendan Behan Pub Burns Design Burns Tools Center & Spring Acupuncture Centre Cuts Corporation City Bench City Feed and Supply Claremont Consulting Counterpoint LLC Decorator's Workroom East Boston Savings Bank Eastern Bank Charitable Foundation Eastern Mass Guild of Woodworkers, Inc. Ellen & Janis Real Estate Team F. L. Putnam Investment Management Co. Fiore's Bakery Fire Opal Flour Bakery & Cafe FoMu Fresh Hair Google Matching Gifts GSA Solutions Hannah Street Consulting Hanover Insurance Group Harvest Co-op Market Haystack Mountain School of Crafts Il Panino Cafe & Grill Isobar Italian Pizza & Subs Jamaica Plain Arts Council Jamaica Plain Historical Society Jameson & Thompson
Picture Framers JMKP Inc. Johnson Paint JP Licks JP Taekwando Kevin Cradock Builders, Inc. Madden Planning Group Mann-Rodgers & Commonwealth Funeral & Cremation Services Mario's Pizzeria Merck Foundation Milky Way/Bella Luna Murdock Mailing Muskat Studios NE Moves/Constance Cervone & Janet Deegan New Leaf Flores Nike-Converse Paint Bar Payne Bouchier Fine Builders Polar Beverages Real Deal Robiar Massage Therapy Rustic Spirits Margarita Sam Adams Brewery Stan Hatoff's Gas Station Taylor House Bed & Breakfast Temple Israel The Makery Unlimited Sotheby's International Realty—Good Boston Living Vinndio Salon Women in Development of Greater Boston
* Funded in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency, and by the Boston Cultural Council, administered by the Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture. ** Funded in part by Boston Public Schools (BPS) Arts Expansion, a multi-year effort focused on access, equity and quality arts learning for BPS students. The BPS Arts Expansion Fund, managed by EdVestors, is supported by the Barr Foundation, The Boston Foundation, Katie and Paul Buttenwieser, Klarman Family Foundation, Linde Family Foundation, and other foundations and individuals.
Donors $25,000+ Abigail Norman Anonymous
$10,000 – $24,999 Elizabeth Barringer & John Clark Anne & Sean Gavin Cristina Rosa Nelson Rebecca Norman Dana Rashti Nerine & Eric Warasta Jerry Wheelock & Elizabeth Wood
$5,000 – $9,999 Sue & Rob Bushman Susan Mars Bonnie McBride Mary & David Smoyer
$1000 – $4,999 Paula & Russ Antonevich Jim & JoAnne Blakey William Buffett Drs. Marikim & Bruce Bunnell Eric Campbell & Agnes Farkas Caleb Carvalho Neema Chaiban Katherine Chaurette & Martin Thomson Ann Coles Kathy & Bob Cunha Joanna & Zander Damp Marion Davis Deirdre & Jamie Day Sarah Delaney Betsy Disharoon Catherine Dooley Bonnie Duncan & Dan Milstein Gail English & Andrew Haines John-Paul Ferguson Charlie & Judy Fox Karen Haas & Greg Heins Bruce Haggarty & Deb Rivkin Hylton & Mimi Jolliffe Barbara Krakow Douglas Lemle & Micaela Wilson Ken Lindgren Alice Lorch & Matt Lesniak Sandy Madden & Ed Forte George & Stefania Mallett Pam & Stuart Mathews Caroline & Alan McCoy
Karen Smith McGarity Colleen McKiernan Norman Meltz Maureen & David Moses Steven Muller Nicole & Terry Murray Margaret Norman Christine Olsen & Robert Small Vicki & Dan Paret Nicole & Geoff Parsons Frank & Margaret Pettorossi Nina Reis & Jeff York Martha & Paul Rizzoli Antoinette Russell & Louis Bailey Jodi Schmidt & Peter Smith Dr. Brian Shaughnessy Joy Silverstein John Skibo Melony Swasey David Taylor Elizabeth Wolffe & Philip Gregory Henry Yager Priscilla Yang & Nathanael Gray Ari Zimmet
$500 – $999 Cathy Abbott Henry & Tish Allen Mark Allyn Sarah Babb Scarlet & Sam Batchelor Donald Buchholtz Anne Buckley Robin Colby & Jared Alperin Bart Dahlstrom & Richard Webster Susan & William Elsbree Don Eunson & G. Douglas Evans Peter & Andrea Enzinger and family Jascha Franklin-Hodge & Kevin Derrick Sarah Freeman Caroline & Ralph Gakenheimer Elizabeth & Simon Griffiths Sherry & Daniel Horn Robert E. Johnson Christine Johnston Marsha Kaminsky & Aaron Krakow Robert King Amanda & Michael Lapham Katina Leodas Sherilyn & David Levy Ellen Lidington Toni Loiacano & Matthew Williams Andrew Marquis Carole Mathieson & John Iappini Lida Maxwell & Japonica Saracino Catherine Mosgofian Julia Mullen Natalie Olsen & Andrew Hall Mimi Pichey
Rebeca Plank Amelie Ratliff Elizabeth & Wilson Rickerson Cate & Michael Rioles Charles Sandler Christine Schaffer Brooke Scibelli & Dyllan Nguyen Sheara & Jeffrey Seigal Joanne Shaughnessy Howard Shrobe & Anne McHugh Jonah Spector Paul Spinale Jan Spitz & Steve Truslow Joe Stanewick Madelyn & Harold Thomas Robert & Naomi Tuchmann Janet Veasey & Bob Binney Meredith & Mark Wallace Jessica Welch & Jamie Maguire Jae Williams
$100 – $499 Rania & Jean Abouhamad Donna & Bob Alger Marsha & Tom Alperin Barbara Altman Robert Amelio Mary Ames Mary Louise Amrhein & Gerard Greene Judith Anderson Emily Anesta & Alexander Bourgeois Nancy Angney Richard Angus Anonymous Roberta Apfel & Bennett Simon Cindy Arias & Josiah Oberholtzer Milicent Armstrong Barbara Attianese & Alan Meyers Seeta Badrinath & Jeff Dvorin Lewis Baer in honor of Joy Silverstein Myrna Balk & Ramon Greenberg Alison Balster Elaine Barlas Caroline Barnes Elissa Barr Ros Barron in memory of Harris Barron Seymour Beckford Erin Bennett Michael Bentinck-Smith Karen Bergstrand Barbara & Carl Berke Eric Berke Barbara & Alan Berns Oren Bernstein Carla Bettano & Laurie Glassman Lisa Bevilaqua Robert Bienkowski
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Kate Billman-Golemme Sarah Bishins Wendy Bliss Derek Bloom & Lauren Becker Phyllis Bluhm & Moishe Werbe Viki Bok & Dick Jones Archer Book Travis Book Terry Boutelle & Jim Zigmont Alex Bowers & James Liu Helen Braun Josh Briggs Alexander Brodsky Deborah & David Brooks Laura Soul Brown Susan Hardy Brown Priya Budde & Ryan Croteau Alice Bukhman Holly & Daniel Burnes Helen Burnham & George Jacobs Frank Burns & Joanne Zitek Sue & Frank Cabezas Carlos Caicedo Caitlin Callahan & James Norris Jean Capizzi & Micah Sachs Constance Cervone & Janet Deegan Geoffrey Chasin Sally Cheek & Linda Lesyna Alicia Chick Alain Chinca Anne Cody & Ben Forman Amy Coe & Carol Rohl Stephanie & David Cohen Cornell Coley BJ Comerford Marjorie Connelly & Peter Bigham Katie Connolly & Sander Cohan Cynthia & Dean Conway Kristine Cortese & David Warner Leslie Coughlan Renita Croney Powell & Rhys Powell Donna & James W. Currie, Jr. Ethan d'Ablemont Burnes Maxine Dalton Kate Dare-Winters Margaret Darling in memory of Kendrick Price Phillip Davis Thomas R. Davis Yvonne & Mack Day in honor of Deirdre Day Eliza Deissler Premal Desai Bea Dhebar Larry DiCara Ira Dobrow Darlene Donovan Tracy Donsky & Gideon Gourley James & Wendy Dorsey Conny Doty Alan Drabkin Paul Drolet
Johanna Dwyer Jerel Dye Ellen Dyer Joshua Eagle John Earley Susan Emmerson Gayle & Michael Epp Jane Epstein Jennifer Erbe Leggett Abigail Erdmann Carol McCarthy & David Eure Stephen Evans Sandra & Chet Fenton in honor of Jim Thompson Fabio J. Fernandez & Christine Dunn Tracey, John & Kate Fiasconaro Matt Files Laura Fischman Molly & Will Foley Martha Fowlkes & Frank Egloff Sam Franklin Andrew Franklin Janet Free Mary French Craig Friedland Ronne Friedman Mary Fries Thomas Fry Delong Jennifer & Will Fulton Hannah Gagnon Helen Galarneau Brian Gallagher Linda Garbus Carol & Steve Garfield Paula Georges & Dick Clapp Joanna Gervais Lorna Gibson John Gioia Anne Giovanoni Robert Gittens Michael Gleason & Mary Ann Sullivan Andrew Golden Jasmanie Gonzalez Kristina Goransson Nancy Gorman Verseckes Laurie Gould Kristin & Tom Griffin Marni Grossman Marah Gubar Mark Gudema Joanne Guzzi Maya & Giora Hadar Aaron Schmidt Deborah & Eric Hall Elisa Hamilton & Bill Unsworth Korie Handwerger Sheila & David Hanson Steven Harriman Brad & Nicole Harris Anne Harvey Lars Hasselblad Torres
Charlotte & Kurt Hemr Carrie Alyea & Peter Herman Hans Hesselein Sharon Hessney Devin Hill Maggie Hill Kathleen Hirsch & Mark Morrow Ann Bevan Hollos Clare Horkan & Kenneth Christopher Lisa Houck Andrea Howard Jennifer Hughes Nancy Huntley & Davin Gummerns Abby Hykin & Gordon Hanlon Dorothy Jacobson Marnie Jain Ashwini Jambhekar Cydcharise & Gareth Jeyes Coleman Johnson Cynthia Johnson & John Wortham Jennifer Johnston Brenda Jones Karen Jones & Bob Medas Rosemary Jones Beth Jordan & Chris Possinger Cecilia Joseph Tammy & Jody Kalt Thomas Kane & Susan Richey Shira & Michaela Karman Jeffrey Katz Janet & Charles Kawada Edward M. Keane Barrie Keller & Steven Kaufman Melissa Kelley Kat Kennedy Christine Keochekian Janice & Robert Kerwin Adelaide Ketchum Thomas Keydel & James Lipsky Maureen Khung Elaine Kiley Theresa Kim Kathryn King Alan Kissack Christopher Knight Gregory Kohs Laura & Christopher Kollett Jennifer Koonz Stanley Kramer Andee Krasner & Clark Freifeld Jean & Jordan Krasnow William Krier & Robert Sharrett Ron Kulich & Marianne Gibbons Beth & David Labbe Helen Lang David Lapin Honor Lassalle Paula Lazar Ashley Lazonick Harding Rita Lee
Carol Levin Susan Levin Roselle Levy Erica Lockwell Elena & Ron Loukas D. Mara Lowenstein & Martin Schmaltz Wanda & Mark Luettgen Mitchell Lunsford Bridget Lynch & James Stark Virginia Lyons de Neufville Bligh Macdonald Beth & Kevin Mahar Matthew Maher Maureen Maher Judith & John Mahoney Kris Manjapra & Saugato Datta Jane Mansfield Jean Maras McIntyre Adam Mark Elizabeth Marks Erin & Rob Martin Marilyn Mase & Rick Dunfey Kimberly Mason & Jeff Seo Susan & Robert Mayer Michele & Chuck McAfee Robert McKee Larry & Patti McKenna Leah & Ian McMillan Pat McSweeney Sarah Poulter & Craig Metzer Anthony J. Meyer Margaret Minor Wood Farzana Mohamed & Paul Levy Clifton Monteith Martha Moor Marleen Moore Jane Morgenstern Marilyn Morrissey Anna Moshner Mary Murphy & James Buggie Patrick Murray Fifile Nguyen Titilayo Ngwenya Lira Nikolovska Olivia Niles Lucy Nims-LaFleche & Paul LaFleche Laura Northrop Melanie Northrop Tracy O'Brien & Michele Waters Robert Russell O'Haver Trudi Olivetti John O'Loughlin Erika Pabo & Eric Wehrenberg-Klee Roger Pachter & Lynn Susman Violette Paragas Krina Patel Tiffany Patterson Su-Ping Pearson Meghan Perdue & Nick Lavallee Jay Perreault in honor of Prof. Joe Stanewick
Patricia Pirone & Orson Moon Kathy Plimpton Susan Porter Carla Powdermaker Alicia Powell & Marvin Wang Vivian Pratt Ann-Marie & Fred Pucillo Sue & Bernard Pucker Bridget Quinn & Brian Jones Leslie Quinn Laura Raisty Amy Rands Thaddeus Razdow James Rebitzer Sarah & Tom Reed Michael Reiskind John Riley Kathryn Riley Wendy Rist Fran Rivkin & Amy Macdonald Daniel Roche Katrina Rogachevsky Janice Rogovin & Leo Newhouse Tom Rose & Susan Scully-Rose Femke & Slug Rosenbaum Ana Rosenblum Jennifer Rosinski-Croteau & Scott Croteau Elizabeth Ross Thomas Rourk Peter Rowe Sarah Rubenstein Jared Rubinstein Lois Russell Ann Ryan Mitch Ryerson & Alice Wolf Steven Sackmann Anthony Sammarco Gail Sarno Tony Schwensen Peter Shapiro Laurie Sutherland Karen Sebastian Vicky Seelen David Segal Jo Seibel Eliot Sennett Jill Shiel Sara Shinn Susan Siebert & Bart Mitchell Annie Silverman Ellen Simons Arlene Snyder & Paul Rabin Leo Sorokin Lucille & Richard Spagnuolo Teresa Spillane Corinne & Matthew Spinale JoAnne Steeves Jaclyn Stiles Trout Kaye Stroshine Alicia Svenson
Marilu Swett & Carl Spector Rebecca Szetela Lisa Talayco & Bruce Graubart Megan & James Talkington Patricia Thomas Margaret Thompson Lynn Tibbets & Robin Benton Christy Timon & Abram Faber Christina Tinglof & Michael Zahniser Frank Tipton & Jonathan Krasner Paul Tomkavage Peg Tuitt Sarah Turner Cynthia Upchurch Karen Victor Sebastien Vigneau Maria Vitagliano Wilma & Panagiotis Voukydis Denise Wallace-Spriggs & Marshall Spriggs Debra Wallbridge Jane & Paul Walsh Brad Warren Lynn Waskelis & Tim Newell Rosalind Water Barbara Watkins Alice Watson & Alastair Bell Kingsley Weihe Andi & Eric Weil Emma Weiler & Corey Steinman Rebecca Weintraub & Adam Klauber Mark Wheeler Carl Whitaker Heidi Whitman & Bob Mathews Barbara & John Wicker Hugh Wilburn & Michael Rogan Katherine Pharibe Wise Bob Wolcott Annie Wong & Wayne Chin Carrie & David Worn W. Katherine Yih & John D. Spence, Jr. Ellen Zellner Janine Zieg & Eric Frank Linda & Jerrold Zindler Rachel Zolacha & Kevin Berry
A Final Word In preparing this list, every effort was made to assure that gifts received in 2019 and 2020 were listed accurately. We extend apologies to anyone whose name was inadvertently omitted or misspelled. Please contact Titi Ngwenya, Director of Development & Communications with any inquiries at firstname.lastname@example.com or call 617.553.9206.
board, advisors & staff Board of Trustees 2021 Melony Swasey Chair Unlimited Sotheby's International Real Estate Eric Warasta Treasurer Moody Lynn & Lieberson, LLC Karen Smith McGarity Secretary Marion Davis Jamie Day Edward Forte Karen Haas Farzana Mohamed Fifile Nguyen Jae Williams
Board of Trustees 2019 & 2020 Bridgit Brown Neema Chaiban, Goulston & Storrs, LLC Joanna Damp Jamie Day Marion Davis Emily Fannon Accenture Edward Forte Forte Architecture + Design Karen Haas Museum of Fine Arts Boston Aaron Krakow Krakow & Souris, LLC Bonnie McBride Sportsmen's Tennis & Enrichment Center (retired) Farzana Mohamed Fifile Nguyen Dana Rashti AllWays Health Partners Martha Rizzoli Citigroup (retired) Karen Smith McGarity Melony Swasey Unlimited Sotheby's International Real Estate Melvin Tutiven East Boston Savings Bank Eric Warasta Moody Lynn & Lieberson, LLC Jessica Welch Lowell, Blake & Associates Jae Williams Emerson College
Advisory Council 2019 & 2020
Henry Allen Discount Foundation (retired) Robert Amelio Emerson College (retired) Drew Bagdasarian DRB Associates Enerio "Tony" Barros Special Assistant to Mayor Martin J. Walsh Lori Smith Britton Community Resource Consulting Raquel Cardoso Rafael Hernández K–8 School/ Boston Public Schools Cornell Coley Coley Communications Katie Connolly Milton Academy Deirdre Day Smartbear James Dorsey IHC Global Insight Lee Englert Steppingstone Foundation Fabio Fernandez Artist, Educator, Private Dealer Nicole Fernandez Julio Fuentes Curtis Henderson Boston Neighborhood Network (retired) William Henderson Henderson Elementary School (retired) Devin Hill JP Morgan Securities Andrea Howard West End House Alex Jacobson Jameson & Thompson Picture Framers Janet Kawada Massachusetts College of Art & Design (retired) Jordan Krasnow Goulston & Storrs, PC Paul Levy Toni Loiacano CannonDesign James Maguire Merck Family Fund Kris Manjapra Dept. of Studies in Race, Colonialism & Diaspora, Tufts University George Mallett Artists for Humanity (retired) Michelle Millar Fisher Museum of Fine Arts Boston Nicole Murray Titilayo Ngwenya Fuller Craft Museum Meredith Olson Wallace Brigham Health/Brigham & Women's Hospital Leslie Reid
Madison Park Development Corporation Michael Reiskind Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council /Jamaica Pond Association Molly Rubenstein MIT D-Lab Antoinette Russell Eaton Vance Investment Counsel Mitch Ryerson Ryerson Design Paul Spinale Islington Capital Partners Jan Spitz Norman B. Leventhal Map Center (retired) Sandra Storey Jamaica Plain & Mission Hill Gazettes (retired) Robert Tuchmann Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LP (retired) Thomas Welch Thomas F. Welch Associates
Board Emeriti 2019 & 2020 Bob Cunha Braulio Felipe Dept. of Property & Construction Management, City of Boston Charles Fox Charles Fox Architect David Hodes Friedman Dept. of Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (emeritus) Curdina Hill Clearways to Freedom John Iappini Marathon Associates Carolyn Ingles Shattuck Hospital (retired) Ramón Martin Brigham & Women's Hospital Marilyn Mase Wentworth Institute of Technology/Independent Artist Kevin Moloney Barron & Stadfeld, PC (retired) Terry Murray Eliot Street Capital Margaret Patterson Asri Onur Sergici Hancock Whitney Bank Terry Power The Power Company Joy Silverstein Fresh Hair Salon Mary Smoyer Boston Public Schools (retired)
Staff 2019 & 2020 Administration Abigail Norman Executive Director Alicia Chick Development Officer Iris LaPaix Development & Communications Assistant Tanya Nixon-Silberg Team Assistant
School & Community Partnerships Alison Croney Moses Program Director Verónica Ramírez Martell Program Coordinator Taylor Dean Assistant Program Coordinator Charlotte Huffman Teen Arts & Professional Development Coordinator Camila Bohan Insaurralde Youth Program Assistant Amber Torres Youth Program Coordinator Jennifer Turpin Professional Development Coordinator Nalitza Valentín Teen Arts Specialist Julissa Zavala Teen Arts Specialist Ian Haines Team Assistant
In-House Program Claudia Fiks Program Director Ian Haines Summer Program Coordinator Dyllan Nguyen Special Projects/Summer Program Coordinator Angie Arriaga Millet Registrar/Office Manager Julia Cseko Assistant Registrar Brooke Scibelli Special Projects
Facilities Andrew Riiska Facilities Coordinator Jasmanie Gonzalez Shop Assistant Tam Willey Custodian
finances Statement of Financial Position FY20
Statement of Activities & Changes in Net Assets FY20
Revenue & Support
Cash Accounts Receivable Investments Prepaid Expenses Total Current Assets Property & Equipment* Less Accumulated Depreciation Total Property & Equipment
$238,075 $16,538 $1,710,893 $13,880 $1,979,386 $773,787 $(380,334) $393,453
Total Assets
Tuition Contracts Grants Donations Miscellaneous Income Donations In-Kind Operating Revenue Net Assets Released from Restrictions
Net Revenue & Support
Liabilities & Net Assets
Accounts Payable Sub-lease Deposits Accrued Expenses Current portion of long-term debt Total Current Liabilities Long-Term Debt Net Assets Without donor restrictions With donor restrictions Total Net Assets
$7,672 $2,700 $37,955 $6,595 $54,922 $196,097
Programs General/Administration Fundraising Total Expenses Change in Net Assets, Operations Net Investment Return Change in Net Assets, Operations Net Assets, Beginning of Year
$1,585,209 $536,611 $2,121,820
Total Liabilities & Net Assets
General/ Administration
Scholarship 20% Programs 76%
Grants 34%
FY19 and FY20 Philanthropic Support
General 68%
Our Investment Reserve comprises a board-designated General Reserve and three smaller funds: Donations Grants
Capital Maintenance 3%
Contracts 21%
FY20 Reserves As of 6/30/20 Capital
Tuition 20%
*Our building and land are fully depreciated and do not appear on our Balance Sheet.
FY20 Operating Expense
Donations In-Kind 3%
$1,232,413 $240,002 $155,144 $1,627,559 $111,418 $78,729 $(32,689) $2,154,509
Net Assets End of Year
FY20 Operating Revenue
Donations 22%
$303,290 $314,700 $520,100 $326,580 $1,179 $50,292 $1,516,141 $—
• The Capital Maintenance Fund stores cash for repairs anticipated through a Systems Replacement Plan. • The Scholarship Fund contributes 5% of its assets each year to cover tuition for students from lowincome households.
• The Capital Fund accumulates resources for an eventual capital campaign. $–
lifelong learning Classes & Workshops
Teen Bridge
People of all ages and walks of life took classes in studios at our Eliot Street schoolhouse, Jamaica Plain Annex, and satellite facilities. In 2019, our menu of classes included 260 unique workshops, classes, and summer intensives including woodworking and furniture, fiber arts, sewing and fashion, visual arts, photography, mixed media, and other crafts.
A select group of dedicated teens from our School & Community Partnerships participated in a year-round program outside of school time, with art instruction, mentorship, job training, and summer employment. They developed their skills during Saturday classes, and explored art opportunities, met with professional artists, visit ed the MFA, Stonybrook Fine Arts, and other city resources. During the summer, the teens worked as Art Teachers' Aides and as interns with our Artist-inResidence. Teens progressively helped to recruit, lead, and mentor each year's new participants.
Each year, a Boston-based artist engages across our programs to create public artwork on a resonant theme. Second-year Teen Bridge participants support the artist as interns during an intensive process of collaborative design, art making and community engagement. In 2019, L'Merchie Frazier worked with our teens and in collaboration with children's social justice group Wee The People to create New Urban Monuments: Stand Up Inside Yourself, which rethinks public monuments to embody community values. In 2020, Carolyn Shadid Lewis, a multimedia artist and filmmaker, worked with our teens to create InterGeneration, conversations between teens and their elders, storytelling through audio recordings and hand-made, stop-motion animation.
Summer Program for Children Seven sessions of week-long art enrichment classes included hands-on learning in woodworking, animation, robotics and Legos, visual art, sewing and fiber arts, photography, and inventions.
School & Community Partnerships We believe all young people have the right to great art education and opportunities. Through our School & Community Partnerships, we brought art instruction to young people where they study, play, and live. Our partners included Boston Centers for Youth & Families, Boston Public Library branches, Boys & Girls Clubs, and community centers at low-income housing developments. In 2019, our sites were located throughout the city, including Dorchester, East Boston, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan, Roslindale, Roxbury, and South Boston. As the needs of Boston communities evolved, so did our partnerships. Our students reflected the demographics of our partners: 58% live in low-income households; 31% speak a first language other than English, and 20% have special needs. Weekly Art Class in Boston Schools: Before COVID, we provided classes at as many as 15 public and charter schools during the school day. Our curriculum supported literacy and STEM and aligns with Common Core, serving a broad range of learners. Our many multi-year partnerships provided the continuity to build high quality, sequential education for children in grades K–12.
+1000 Art Kits
3,951 ~1,415
Students in 2018 – 2019
Students in 2020 – 2021
Eliot School assembled over 1,000 art kits and got them to students in the Boston Public Schools during the COVID-19 crisis, so they could continue to create for online classes, for themselves, and their own well-being.
In 2018 – 19, we taught 3,951 students. In 2020 – 21, despite having to furlough teachers and close the schoolhouse, we taught about 1,415 students in this pandemic year.
Space Expansion Project As far back as 2005, the board and staff recognized the need for improved and expanded space, with handicapped access as top priority. A community engagement began with a needs assessment in 2017. In 2018 and 2019, architects researched onsite expansion, and development consultants researched off-site and hybrid options. COVID-19 interrupted that momentum. In 2020, we put this work on hold for a later time. Now we have the opportunity to plan for rebuilding better than we were before. It will take us a couple of years, as people gradually feel safe returning to close quarters indoors. We will have a brand new clean air system and safety protocols. We will work on increased racial equity across all programs and a radically welcoming environment.
PO BOX 300351, Boston MA 02130 617.524.3313 | firstname.lastname@example.com eliotschool.org


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Sensual love making is the style of sex that focuses on the physical sensations related to our five senses: touch, audio, visual, smell, and sight. With sensuality often being a term with a sexual connotation, promoting sensuality under the sheets is a sure-fire method for promoting intimacy and enhancing the physical pleasure and fulfillment of your sex.
Being a sensual lover means being in tune with your partner's body and their physical response to sex and being in tune with yourself and the things you enjoy/the sensations you prefer to cater to under the sheets.
Want to know how to be a more sensual lover? Take some of these tips with you the next time you and your loved one get down and dirty!
Foreplay is an Absolute Must!
With sensual love making, the key is to take things slow. You don't want to jump straight into things, and with foreplay, you allow your body to succumb to the anticipation of the pleasures soon to come, thus enhancing the sensations that follow. As you practice foreplay, do things that help engage all of your senses as they warm themselves up for more sexual practices.
Take your time engaging in deep, slow kissing as you caress your partner. Touch them from above their clothing to further build the excitement of skin-to-skin contact, rubbing their breasts, their bulge, or their vulva from atop a layer of clothes. As you kiss, focus on verbal communication to further heighten the senses.
Don't engage in dirty talk quite yet, as sensual love making is all about building connection, and instead focus on complimenting your partner and expressing your love for them, as well as your gratification in being their chosen partner, whether this is in life or just this particular sexual circumstance.
As the foreplay continues sending blood to your genitals, move into more aggressive forms of it when you can no longer take the build-up, such as providing a sensual blowjob or sensual cunnilingus.
Dress Up!
In an effort to ensure the visual aspect of sensuality is met, it is important to present yourself in the most alluringly of erotic and enticing ways. Start by making sure that your body is clean, your hair is brushed, etc., and that overall, you are presenting yourself as clean and tidy. Sex is a spiritual practice, and you want to make sure that you are honoring this moment by taking the time to present yourself to your partner in a way that embodies the significance of the interaction.
To further enhance the visual aspect of sex, you can't go wrong with dressing yourself up! We aren't necessarily talking about full-on role play costumes, although that sure is a hell of a lot of fun, and really, a little bit of lingerie or your favorite pair of undies and bra will do just fine. For the gentlemen, the same goes! Go for the best fitting underwear, perhaps an accent of leather, if you are into a touch of BDSM, or clothing that brings out the best in your body.
Every single person is special and beautiful, and you deserve to carry yourself with the sexual confidence that you are rightfully entitled to by taking the time to dress up for the occasion. This will have your partner drooling over you as their eyes lock into a sensual stare of love and desire.
Touch, Touch, and more Touch
Physicality is a keystone element to sensual love making. If you want to know how to be a more sensual lover, focus on the slow, gentle caresses of your partner's entire body. Of course, the genitals are your go-to area for inducing pleasure, but sex is like an ecosystem, and this ecosystem exists throughout the entire body.
As you engage in intimacy, ensure that you are collectively exploring your erogenous zones, as these areas throughout the body induce sexual responses that feel oh-so refreshing. Give the feet a light tickle or massage, gently kiss and caress the breasts, put a delicate hand on the lower back of your lover to draw them closer.
Continue moving slowly, remain in tune with your body's shared movements, and to further enhance sensuality, perhaps hold their cheek in your hand or brush their hair to the side as you lock eyes and focus on the sensations being felt.
Dirty Talk for Audio Pleasure
Talking dirty is the absolute best way to enhance the audio-based pleasure of your sensual love making. By talking dirty, you are able to verbally express the ideas contained within your mind and sensations that are running through your body.
As you engage in your sex, tell your partner how incredible they make you feel, or take it a step further by hinting at all the insanely dirty things you want to do to them. By engaging in dirty talk, your partner will relish the positive affirmations, and they are sure to appreciate your breaking down any barriers of comfortability with them. It shows that you are comfortable, open, and willing to share what is going on in the kinkiest crevices of your imagination.
General Communication
It's not easy to talk about sex, but it is critical at the very least. Even more difficult yet is talking about your sex while having sex!
As an asset in how to be a more sensual lover, it is essential that you can openly communicate the things that both feel amazing and those that do not. You are the owner of your own pleasure, but sometimes it takes another person to help you achieve the epitome of fulfillment, and considering we do not read minds, this is most effectively executed when communication is at its highest.
Sensuality is all about succumbing to physical sensation, but not sensation that doesn't feel good! It is absolutely not an insult to ask your partner to adjust their positioning or to try moving at a different speed or angle if something doesn't feel right, as this will do nothing but lead to more sensual sex that results in the big, elusive O.
Temperature Play
Temperature play involves utilizing varying temperatures both within the body and on the external surface of the body to heighten pleasure. To enhance the physical sensation of touch, relating to sensuality, try experimenting with light forms of temperature play.
Run an ice cube along your partner's back, bringing it close to their genitals, and watch them shiver in the wild cooling effect. Perhaps place the ice cube in your mouth before engaging in oral sex or having sex while underneath the warm flow of a shower.
The true culmination of temperature play can be found with Venus, the warming vibrator and dildo. With the ability to reach temperatures of 100+ degrees Fahrenheit, this warmth will showcase to your clitoris and vaginal walls a never-before known take on goosebump-instilling sensuality.
Sensation Play
A Wartenberg Wheel, also known as a BDSM pinwheel, is a perfect tool for a touch of sensation play and for sensual love making. It forces you to focus on the minute, delicately painful yet highly exciting sensations as the spikes roll across your erogenous zones, and for the partner who is in charge, they get to enjoy being the purveyor of such sensation.
As they use the wheel, they can further learn your body and the things that you enjoy while exploring sensation play, and this is a great way to add quite the tasty spice to your love life and to increase sensuality in a bedroom environment.
Food Play
Food allows you to taste, and taste is often an aspect of sensual love making that goes ignored. With food play, however, this is simply not the case! Food is pleasurable in itself, and similar to sex, hunger is a biological response that leads to fulfillment when satisfied. By bringing the two together, you enhance the experiential intimacy of the moment while promoting sexual intimacy as well. And plus, a little bit of sugar or spice always does the trick to have a bit of added fun!
There are all sorts of ways that you can incorporate food play into your sexuality. From simple engagements like classic whipped cream to more erotic strategies, like using food as an insertable sex toy (whos getting hungry?!) is a wondrous means to ensure that your partner is left full and happy on both fronts of these critical aspects of life.
The Environment
When a place is clean and smells good, it allows the body to reach the height of relaxation. With this, never underestimate the simple pleasures of a nicely lit candle or the scent of essential oils burning in a nearby aromatherapy diffuser!
These are both proven strategies for enhancing sensual love making through relaxation, allowing negative emotions such as stress or anxiety to slip away, and showcasing to your partner that you are willing to take the extra step to ensure that your environment is sensual and calm.
As well as utilizing your environment to enhance the smell, one of the five senses, you can also use it to enhance sight. Clean your space up to make it inviting to your partner, wash your sheets, so they smell nice and feel soft, and hang some dimmed string lights along the bed to create a space that is conducive to sensual love making on all fronts.
Seriously, it will be so worth the added effort it takes to do so, and you will feel like you have been transplanted to a heaven of sexual bliss.

subset: commoncrawl


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Wild East Photography
Wild East Photography is a wedding service operating out of Edmonton, Alberta. Chantelle is the owner and lead photographer behind this business, and she enjoys preserving moments that deserve to live long in the memory. She is thrilled to work with a diverse range of clients, but she particularly enjoys collaborating with to-be-weds who enjoy the outdoors.
Services Offered
Owing to a photojournalistic approach, Chantelle is able to document your special occasion as it happens. Pointing her lens at a variety of scenes, she enjoys showcasing the many milestones, happy moments, and wonderful highlights of the event. As such, she is able to provide couples with images that show authenticity in romantic, warm, and captivating ways. Owing to her propensity for working outdoors, among nature, Chantelle is adept at including stunning backdrops, incorporating breathtaking views, and framing wonderful portraits. Ultimately, Wild East Photography wants to weave a narrative into the photos she captures so that your romantic connection can be documented alongside the tale of the celebration. Whether capturing a sunset behind the newlyweds, a couple as they hug in the snow, or another charming scene, eye-catching results are her objective. Other features of this service include:
- A one-event-per-day policy
- Second photographer
- Additional hours
- Digital files
- Prints
- Albums
Photography Services
One event per day, 2nd shooter, add'l hours, boudoir shoot, engagement shoot, high-res, multi. locations, trash the dress
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Wild East Photography Real Weddings
Edmonton (Alberta)


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Mitsotakis-Erdogan meeting scheduled as Athens and Ankara eye quieter summerPoliticsForeign Policy
The imminent meeting between Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis with Turkιση President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Brussels will be the third since their first meeting in 2019. Undoubtedly, it will be the most difficult.
Athens aiming to boost EU-Balkan momentumPoliticsForeign Policy
It has been almost three years since the signing of the Prespes Agreement (June 12, 2018) between Greece and North Macedonia and bilateral relations are improving, as evident during the visit of Prime Minister Zoran Zaev to Athens last week.
Athens taking nothing for granted as it waits for talks with Turkey to resumePoliticsForeign Policy
As it awaits a formal invitation from Ankara for the resumption of exploratory talks, Athens is trying to predict Turkey's next moves.
Turkey continues Aegean jostling as Athens sends envoy to Syria, renews backing for Western BalkansPoliticsForeign Policy
Unresolved bilateral issues continue to cause friction in Greece's relationship with Turkey as Athens looks to renew its presence in the Eastern Mediterranean and support for the Western Balkans' efforts to join the European Union.
Greece holds Western Balkan meeting to reaffirm support for neighbours' EU prospectsPoliticsForeign Policy
Greek diplomats have been consumed by their country's relations with Turkey and the developments in the Eastern Mediterranean over the last couple of months.
Athens takes stock after PM's first talks with Erdogan, Balkan leadersPoliticsForeign Policy
Athens appears satisfied with the results of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis's first appearance last week at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where he also held a series of meetings with foreign leaders and investors.
Killing puts strain on Greek-Albanian relations after stalled efforts to reach dealPoliticsForeign Policy
The death of a 35-year-old Greek man, Konstantinos Katsifas, who was shot by the Albanian police in southern part of Greece's neighbouring country last Sunday has provoked concern in Athens and Tirana about a potential deterioration in bilateral relations.
Kotzias takes next step in effort to reach name deal, settle Balkan issuesPoliticsForeign Policy
Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias is due to visit Ohrid in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) this week for a new meeting with his counterpart Nikola Dimitrov, just a few days after their talks with UN mediator Matthew Nimetz in Vienna on March 30.
Grand projects and even loftier ambitions drive Greece's energy project bonanza
Following a bleak few years, Greece's energy sector is starting to show significant potential, with several major projects moving forward.
Athens aiming to step up diplomatic contact with neighboursPoliticsForeign Policy
Athens is seeking ways to keep open the channels of communication with neighbouring countries with which bilateral relations are strained due to unresolved diplomatic issues.


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Celtic: Frank McAvennie bemoans Hoops' wasteful finishing
Celtic's wastefulness in front of goal was to blame in their Champions League defeat to RB Leipzig in midweek, according to former striker Frank McAvennie.
The Lowdown: Hoops beaten by Leipzig
Ange Postecoglou's side suffered a damaging setback against the Bundesliga outfit on Tuesday night, all but sealing their Champions League exit in the process.
It was a bitterly disappointing night at Parkhead, with Celtic actually playing well for much of proceedings but Leipzig proving to be far more ruthless.
Such fine margins can make all the difference at the top level and it looks to have cost the Hoops a shot at the knockout rounds.
The Latest: McAvennie rues poor finishing
Speaking to Football Insider, McAvennie said he was proud of Celtic's efforts but bemoaned their profligacy in front of goal:
"The biggest thing was creating chances and not scoring them. Celtic have always had people to score goals. It would be a different discussion if they took their chances.
"From where they were last year to now, it is night and day. Everyone is complaining because they got knocked out of the Champions League with the amount of chances they have had. One against Real Madrid, I was there and I was so proud of them.
"It could have been a completely different story. They could have been through already if they had taken their chances. The game is all about taking chances."
The Verdict: Must improve in that area
In the Scottish Premiership, Celtic are so dominant in many games that a lack of ruthlessness isn't an issue, with opponents eventually ground down regardless.
Will Postecoglou sign a new deal?
At the very top level in Europe, however, it is a very different story, with games being decided by which teams have the most clinical finishers in those couple of key moments.
It is something that Postecoglou and his players must work on moving forward and also ensure that it doesn't hamper their title chances up against Rangers.


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JFrog Ltd. provides DevOps platform to achieve continuous software release management platform enabling organizations to deliver software updates across any system in the United States. Its platform acts as bridge between software development and deployment, which enable organizations to build and release software faster. The company's products include JFrog Artifactory, a package repository that allows teams and organizations to store, update, and manage their software packages at any scale; JFrog Pipelines to secure packages; JFrog Distribution that provides software package distribution with enterprise-grade performance; JFrog Artifactory Edge that utilizes and leverages metadata from JFrog Artifactory to facilitate the transfer of the incremental changes in software packages from their previous versions; JFrog Mission Control, a platform control panel that provides a view of moving pieces of an organization's CSRM workflow; and JFrog Insight, a DevOps intelligence tool. Its products also comprise JFrog Pro, JFrog Pro X, JFrog Enterprise, and JFrog Enterprise Plus products that offer ongoing updates, upgrades, and bug fixes, as well as cluster configuration, multi-site replication, and SLA support. The company serves technology, financial services, retail, healthcare, and telecommunications organizations. JFrog Ltd. was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.
$26.76 +0.80 (3.06%)
As of 01/27/2023 15:59:57 EST IEX book CBOE book
2022 © Stock Market MBA, Inc.


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Hi! My name is Evan O'Connell and I work in communications, campaigns and policy. I am currently working as a Senior Manager for Media Relations at Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, making the case for a globally coordinated COVID-19 vaccine response and for strengthening and protecting routine vaccination programs.
I have worked on US election campaigns (as briefings director for Amy Klobuchar and deputy campaign manager/communications director for Joe Sestak), as a communications consultant (both freelance and with Aspect Consulting, now Leidar) and as an in-house communicator (EY and INRAE).
A French and American citizen, I grew up in the UK, Ireland and Belgium before attending Sciences Po Paris (the Paris Institute of Political Studies – where I obtained a degree in Central and Eastern European Studies and an MA in Finance) and Charles University in Prague (in the Czech Republic – where I did a year abroad at the Faculty of Social Sciences).
For more info on my professional background, please check out my LinkedIn. You can also visit my Twitter and Mastodon feeds for more of my thoughts on anything and everything.


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Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 November 2021 | 13(13): 20072–20077
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print)
#6937 | Received 26 November 2020 | Final received 07 October 2021 | Finally accepted 19 October 2021
A rare photographic record of Eurasian Otter Lutra lutra with a note on its habitat from the Bhagirathi Basin, western Himalaya, India
Ranjana Pal 1, Aashna Sharma 2, Vineet Kumar Dubey 3, Tapajit Bhattacharya 4, Jeyaraj Antony Johnson 5, Kuppusamy Sivakumar 6 & Sambandam Sathyakumar 7
1,2,3,5,6,7 Wildlife Institute of India, Chandrabani, Dehradun 248001, Uttarakhand, India.
4 Durgapur Government College, Durgapur, West Bengal 713214, India.
1 email@example.com, 2 email@example.com, 3 firstname.lastname@example.com, 4 email@example.com , 5 email@example.com, 6 firstname.lastname@example.com, 7 email@example.com (corresponding author)
Editor: Nicole Duplaix, Fisheries & Wildlife, Corvallis, USA. Date of publication: 26 November 2021 (online & print)
Citation: Pal, R., A. Sharma, V.K. Dubey, T. Bhattacharya, J.A. Johnson, K. Sivakumar & S Sathyakumar (2021). A rare photographic record of Eurasian Otter Lutra lutra with a note on its habitat from the Bhagirathi Basin, western Himalaya, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 13(13): 20072–20077. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.6918.104.22.16872-20077
Copyright: © Pal et al. 2021. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publication.
Funding: Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, National Mission for Sustaining Himalayan Ecosystem (NMSHE),
Grant No. DST/SPLICE/CCP/NMSHE/TF-2/WII/2014/[G].
Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: This work is part of project initiated under the National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem Programme funded by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India under grant no. DST/SPLICE/CCP/ NMSHE/TF-2/WII/2014[G]. We are thankful to the director and dean, Wildlife Institute of India, for their guidance and support. We are grateful to Mr. D.V.S. Khati, principal chief conservator of forests and chief wildlife warden, Uttarakhand, for granting us the research permission and Mr. Shrawan Kumar, Mr. N.B. Sharma, deputy director, Gangotri National Park, and Mr. Sandeep Kumar, divisional forest officer, Uttarkashi, for providing necessary support and cooperation. We thank Dr. S.A. Hussain and Ms. Sayanti Basak for their help in identification of the species.
Abstract: The Eurasian Otter Lutra lutra is an elusive, solitary animal that has one of the widest distributions of all palearctic mammals. Once widely distributed in Asia, the Eurasian Otter population is now vulnerable to urbanization, pollution, poaching, and dam construction. Eurasian Otter distribution in the Indian Himalayan rivers is little explored, and information from this high-altitude riverine ecosystem is sparse. This publication reports a rare photographic record of the Eurasian Otter which confirms its presence in the high-altitude temperate forest of the Upper Bhagirathi Basin, western Himalayan region. The otter was recorded during investigations of terrestrial and aquatic fauna in the Bhagirathi Basin (7,586 km2, 500–5,000 m) of Uttarakhand State, India from October 2015 to May 2019. Among aquatic fauna, Brown Trout were found to be abundant in high altitude river stretches, with a catch per unit effort of 1.02 kg h–1. Additionally, 26 families of freshwater macroinvertebrates underscored a rich diet available for the Brown Trout, which in turn is a potential food source for the otters. The riverine ecosystem is undergoing dramatic changes because of the increasing demand for hydropower plants in the Bhagirathi Basin. Although mitigation measures are currently in place for fish, the presence of otters further necessitates the need for targeted management for high-altitude Himalayan rivers. There is an imperative need for intensive otter surveys using methods such as camera traps in riparian habitats along the Bhagirathi River and its tributaries.
Keywords: Anthropogenic pressures, camera trapping, hydropower projects, otter, riverine ecosystem.
Information on otters of the high-altitude riverine ecosystems in the Indian Himalayan region is lacking. Eurasian Otter Lutra lutra (Linnaeus, 1758), is the only otter found in high altitude (>2,000 m) mountain streams and rivers (Prater 1971). The species has the widest distributions of all palearctic mammals (Corbet 1966); however, due to human pressures, they have disappeared from most of their range (Yoxon & Yoxon 2019). There is lack of information about its population status in Asia, where it is believed to be under tremendous pressure because of poaching (Roos et al. 2015). The species is classified as 'Near Threatened' on the IUCN Red List, and is vulnerable to the pelt trade (Roos et al. 2015), climate change (Gupta et al. 2020), and habitat destruction & pollution (Roos et al. 2015). It is listed in Appendix I of CITES, and in India, is listed in Schedule II (Part 2) of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
Scattered records across Asia are indicative of otter distribution along all the major river systems, ranging to the southernmost parts of Sumatra, Indonesia (Corbet & Hill 1992). However, its distributional range in the Indian Himalayan region is still unclear, with research suggesting that it is mostly confined to river plains and foothills (Atkinson 1882; Hussain 2002) with the exception of a few high-altitude records from the Trans-Himalayan regions of Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh (Conroy et al. 1998). The earliest records of otter from the state of Uttarakhand (Atkinson 1882) date to the 19th century, when they were recorded from the Ramganga River and Dehradun. According to Atkinson (1882), the Eurasian Otter was found throughout the Terai and in all the larger streams along the Himalayan foothill. Apart from its distribution in the Indian Himalayan region, this species has been recorded from the northern mountainous region of Pakistan and Punatshanghchu basin of Bhutan (Yoxon & Yoxon 2019). There are no recent confirmed records of the Eurasian Otter from Nepal (Yoxon & Yoxon 2019). Based on their distribution records from mountainous habitats in neighbouring regions (Image 1), their presence was long anticipated in the high-altitude river systems of Uttarakhand state. However, studies in low elevation areas have indicated that otters have declined drastically from most stretches of the rivers in Uttarakhand due to habitat loss/degradation caused by hydropower projects, anthropogenic pressures, and poaching (Nawab 2008; Chopra et al. 2014). Recent attempts to confirm otter presence in lower part of Bhagirathi and adjacent Alaknanda basin using sign surveys yielded no sightings or any indirect evidence of their presence, although suitable habitats were found in both the basins (Hussain 2002; Rajvanshi et al. 2012).
Here, we report a photographic record of Eurasian Otter from the high-altitude temperate forest of the Upper Bhagirathi River Basin, Uttarakhand state. The study is the part of a long-term monitoring of wild flora and fauna under the National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem (NMSHE) project (Task force IV). Surveys were carried out in different areas of Bhagirathi Basin (7,586.71 km2), to develop baseline information on faunal species of terrestrial and aquatic components. Based on their records specifically from the high-elevations in other basins of Himalaya, we also aimed to understand the habitat availability in our study area, as well as the potential faunal composition which supports the dietary needs of the Eurasian Otter in such landscapes. As such the camera trapping surveys were paralleled with the aquatic habitat, fish and macroinvertebrate faunal surveys to investigate the reasons dictating their rare preference for the high-elevation streams and rivers of Himalaya.
Materials and Methods
The Bhagirathi is a large glacial fed and turbulent Himalayan river that emerges from Gangotri glacier (Gaumukh), 30.9250N & 79.0820E at an elevation of 3,812m. The valley has a broad U-shape at higher elevations characteristic of glacial origin, but at lower elevations the river has cut a narrow V-shaped fluvial valley. Along the 217km long river the elevation ranges from 480m to 3,200m with an average gradient of 1.25% (Rajvanshi et al. 2012). The basin encompasses diverse habitats: tropical and sub-tropical forests (500–1,200 m), temperate forests (1,200–2,800 m), sub-alpine forests (2,900–3,200 m), alpine scrub and meadows above 3,200 m (Rajwar 1993). Human habitations in the study area are confined below the elevation of 3,000 m (Image 1).
Data on the seasonal distribution of mammal species were collected using camera traps (Cuddeback C1, WI, USA) from October 2015 to March 2019 broadly covering two seasons: summer and winter. Camera trapping was carried out in two stages. In the first stage (October 2015–September 2017), preliminary survey for all the mammals was carried out along the elevation gradient of 500 m to 5,200 m. At each site, camera traps were deployed in locations likely to be used by animals inside the forest, alpine meadows, along the river beds and other such microhabitats (Sathyakumar et al. 2013). In the second stage (October 2017 to March 2019), camera traps exercise was carried out only in the high elevation habitats (2500 m to 5200 m) targeting Snow Leopard Panthera uncia, Leopard Panthera pardus, and their prey species. To survey evenly across the various habitats, we divided the basin into 16 x 16 km grids, which corresponds to the average home range of the largest mammal in the area, the Himalayan Brown Bear Ursus arctos isabellinus. We subdivided these cells into 4 × 4 km (first stage) and 3 x 3 km cells (second stage) deployed camera traps in 3–6 of these smaller cells within each 16 x 16 cell. A total of 318 locations were sampled during this period (Image 1).
Simultaneously, fish and macroinvertebrate sampling was also conducted in the river stretches of Bhagirathi Basin. Rivers were sampled from March 2016 to December 2018 at every 500 m for the higher-order streams (4th and higher) and 200 m interval for the lower order streams (3rd and lower). This method was followed to target equivalent representation of all streams, as the lower order streams often did not extend more than 500 m in length (Sharma et al. 2021). In total, 38.92 km of river stretch was sampled with a total of 51 sampling points spanning across the Bhagirathi River and three of its major tributaries Kakori, Jalandhari, and Sian using cast nets for fishes and D-frame dip net for macroinvertebrates. The catch per unit effort (CPUE) of the cast net was calculated by dividing the catch of each sampling site by the number of hours fished (Morgan & Burgess 2005). The fishes were caught and released post-sampling. The water quality parameters were recorded using a multi-parameter water monitoring kit, while the microhabitat characterization was done based on Bain & Stevenson (1999).
Camera trapping effort (78,828 trap nights) across the basin resulted in 28,257 captures of different mammal species. Excluding Eurasian Otter, a total of 39 species of mammals were recorded during the survey belonging to 13 families in five orders (Pal et al. 2020). A solitary otter was likely first photo-captured on 25 September 2018 at 1352 h, although the species could not be definitively identified as the capture was too close to the camera. Another photo of an individual was captured on 14 February 2019 at 0546 h (Image 2). Based on the characteristic features such as the conical tail, lighter underside, the bare and black rhinarium with a W-shaped upper margin, the otter species was confirmed as the Eurasian Otter (Hussain 2013; Menon 2014). Along with photographic capture we also captured a 30-sec video recording, where the otter was observed moving on snow. The species is known to survive in extreme cold conditions and has previously been reported at an elevation of 3,700 m in the Himalaya (Prater 1971) and up to 4,120 m in Tibet (Mason & Macdonald 1986).
An image of the Eurasian Otter was captured near the Dabrani region, which is the confluence point of Jaulighad, and Songhad tributaries with Bhagirathi River. It was captured at an elevation of 2,700 m near the bank of Jualighad approximately two km away from its confluence with the main river. The area is characterized by highly rugged mountainous terrain (Image 2). The river forms a deep constricted V-shaped valley in Dabrani together with a high runoff and steep gradient. The area where the otter was captured is characterized by big rocks, boulder fields, and deep crevices. Such habitats are considered as ideal denning and breeding sites for the Eurasian Otters (Hussain 2013). Dense bankside vegetation is also an important determinant of otter's presence as crucial resting sites (Kruuk 2006). The vegetation in the area where otter was photocaptured is a dense temperate riverine habitat with steep slopes covered with conifer- broadleaved mixed forests characterized by the presence of tree species such as Alnus nepalensis, Betula alnoides, and Cedrus deodara. The habitat in the upstream river changes to sub-alpine where species such as Rhododendron sp. and Pinus wallichiana are found. Other mammals recorded from the same location are common leopard, Himalayan Goral Nemorhaedus goral, Himalayan Tahr Hemitragus jemlahicus, Himalayan Serow Capricornis thar, Himalayan Langur Semnopithecus schistaceus, and Yellow-throated Marten Martes flavigula.
Adapted for a semi-aquatic life, Eurasian Otters are primarily piscivorous with fish contributing 80% of their diet (Webb 1975; Ruiz-Olmo & Palazon 1997). Throughout our surveys we found the exotic Brown Trout Salmo trutta to be the only fish species inhabiting elevations above 2,500 m, with a CPUE of 1.02 kg h–1 ranging between 0.22 to 2.65 kg hr-1 across all the sampling locations. As accounted for in our surveys, the high elevation streams (>2,500 m) of Bhagirathi Basin comprise 26 families of macroinvertebrates most of which belong to the Order Trichoptera, which is considered as a major diet of the Brown Trout (Fochetti et al. 2003). This underscores a habitat rich in diet for sustenance of the Brown Trout, which in turn could be a potential food source for the Eurasian Otter in the high elevation river stretches. The aquatic habitat in the high-elevation basin was characterized with dissolved oxygen (8.65±0.59 mg/l) and total dissolved solids (44.72±20.02 ppm) with a low water temperature (7.55±3.09 °C) across the sampling duration supporting the sustenance of Brown Trout. The water flow was recorded to be swift across the width of the river ranging between 1.5 to 4.4 ms-1 with a microhabitat predominantly defined by fast flowing cascades, runs and rapids. Further, the Eurasian Otters are known to move large distances (adult male: 38.8±23.4; adult female: 18.7±3.5 km) (Durbin 1998; Green et al. 1984; Kruuk et al. 1993; Kruuk 1995) along the length of the river (which possibly include lower elevations). As such, other studies documenting the presence of fish species such as Pseudecheneis sulcata, Tor tor, Schizothorax richardsonii, Opsarius bendelisis and loaches of the genus Schistura possibly indicate a rich ichthyofaunal diet for the Eurasian Otter (Rajvanshi et at. 2012). It thus makes it evident that the potential food available for Eurasian Otter has been identified along the stretches of Bhagirathi River and necessitates the need for more surveys to document Eurasian Otters in the Himalayan region.
In a four year effort, Otters were recorded only twice. Although a large network of camera traps was used in the study, very few were deployed near rivers or streams. Of 318 cameras deployed in the basin, only five cameras placed within 1 km distance from the river or stream. Otters may have been present in deep gorge areas, but as the sites were inaccessible they could not be sampled. Otter presence often goes unnoticed because of their elusive, solitary, and nocturnal habits. We recommend more dedicated surveys using camera traps to understand the status and distribution of Eurasian Otter in the region. A large chain of tributaries supports Bhagirathi; most of them are still in pristine conditions. Additionally, their presence should be explored in the similar habitat in other catchments of Uttarakhand. There is an urgent need to understand the scattered population of Eurasian Otter in order to effectively protect this species. Removal of bank side-vegetation, construction of dams, draining of wetlands, aquaculture, and associated human-made impacts are some of the potential threats to Eurasian Otters (Roos et al. 2015). Dams have further been implicated in the decline of the Eurasian Otter (Foster-Turley et al. 1990; Macdonald & Mason 1994).
Currently the Bhagirathi River is dammed at 11 locations (Image 1), which has changed the hydro geomorphology of the river. The river has been altered drastically from a swiftly flowing stretch (due to steep gradient) into a vast stretch of semi stagnant water with a characteristic flat gradient and large volumes of water (Agarwal et al. 2018). Fish diversity in Bhagirathi River is also currently declining and is threatened by blockage of migration routes, disconnection of the river and floodplain, changes in flow regime, change in physiochemical attributes (Agarwal et al. 2018). Destructive fishing practices in the lower order tributaries of the Bhagirathi, which are potential spawning grounds and nursery sites for many cold-water fish, are risking the viability of the fish populations imperative for the otter's diet. In addition to the existing pressures on the aquatic ecosystem, there are four more dams commissioned, one under construction and one proposed hydropower project in Bhagirathi River, which will potentially affect 70% of river length (Chopra et al. 2014). While mitigation strategies are currently being adapted to reduce impact on fish, otter presence further necessitates targeted management for the high-altitude Himalayan rivers. Mitigation strategies need to be revised to include a wider range of flora & fauna and consider the impact on the riparian ecosystem.
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Hezbollah helps propel Lebanon's new prime minister designate to office
Washington Institute fellow says Hezbollah prefers to rule over a failed state, recommends U.S., EU sanction corrupt Lebanese leaders
Last week, billionaire businessman Najib Mikati was appointed as Lebanon's new prime minister-designate.
The Sunni Muslim sailed into the position with little opposition: He received 72 votes while former ambassador Nawaf Salam received just one, 42 members of parliament voted blank and three did not vote.
Lebanon's two largest Christian parties did not vote for him, however, which is telling.
But Hezbollah did, which is also telling.
"Today, with signs that hint at the possibility of forming a government … that's why we named Mikati, to give an extra boost to facilitate forming a government," Muhammad Raad, the leader of Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc, told reporters before the vote.
Lebanon is in a tailspin to a total collapse at the moment. The country has not had a government for almost a year, the economy is crumbling, its currency is losing value and the capital, Beirut, is still reeling from the devastating explosion at its port nearly a year ago.
To accommodate Lebanon's diverse population, the three primary positions are divided by religion: the prime minister must be Sunni Muslim, the president a Maronite Christian and the speaker of the parliament a Shia Muslim.
While the country hopes that Mikati's appointment will bring political deadlock to an end, some fear the void will be filled by Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed terror group based in southern Lebanon that reportedly has a stockpile of more than 150,000 missiles hidden in civilian areas.
An opinion piece on Sawt Beirut said Mikati takes his orders from Hezbollah and blames the Lebanon's "deteriorating situation" on Hezbollah.
"Hezbollah's policies have lost Lebanon its investments and its good relations with Arab countries and destroyed the global confidence in it. It also led to economic, financial, and social collapse, where people are starving, and lacking medicine, as well as other vital services such as electricity, and water," the oped says. "Lebanese are paying today the cost of Hezbollah's policy, which controls the country's politics, economy and security."
And Mikati, the author writes, is taking his orders from Hezbollah.
Mikati was Lebanon's caretaker prime minister for several months in 2005 and prime minister in 2011 for three years.
"In both cases, Hezbollah essentially imposed him on the country to serve its own interests," wrote Hanin Ghaddar, a fellow in The Washington Institute, who called on the United States and the European Union to sanction the corrupt leaders of the country.
"So what has really changed, and why did Hezbollah and its allies back this particular outcome? The answer is obvious by now: they prefer controlling a failed state over allowing reforms that chip away at the power they gained in the 2018 parliamentary election."
She continued: "This game of buying time is one that Hezbollah and other elites have mastered over the years, most recently during Lebanon's maritime border negotiations with Israel. The United States and Europe should not let Beirut use this tactic to delay punitive measures against those who perpetuate corruption or hinder reforms. Doing so would only play into Hezbollah's hands and extend the humanitarian crisis indefinitely."
Israel has its own concerns about Hezbollah and a Hezbollah-backed government. The terror group – an Iranian proxy – could fill a vacuum should Lebanon sink into anarchy. Recently, Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan warned the organization that Hezbollah could drag the region into war if its activities are not reined in.
He told the UN Security Council that if UNIFIL, the UN's peacekeeper mission charged with monitoring the Lebanon-Israel border since 1978, doesn't curtail the group's activities, "Hezbollah may drag the entire region into a war that would only bring great destruction on Lebanon."
"Iran is working day and night to help Hezbollah obtain precision-guided missiles and other advanced weapons," he said.
While Hezbollah's popularity has taken a downturn in Lebanon recently – especially with reports of lavish weddings and gatherings that party members enjoy while the country suffers – their social welfare system may still hold sway.


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FOUR SEASONS PRIVATE RESIDENCES LAKE AUSTIN. Rising above Lake Austin and encompassing 145 acres of pristine natural landscape and private waterfront, this modern home of timeless quality is crafted for the highest levels of privacy, comfort, and convenience. Designed to blur the boundaries between indoor and outdoor and capture the natural setting and views, this residence is one in a collection of 188 homes that enjoy exclusive access to amenities including: The private Lakeside Marina and Clubhouse - lakeside leisure with a wide variety of boats to choose from for a day of fun on the water. The Upper Clubhouse - designed to merge with the lake horizon, with an infinity edge pool, ample lounge chairs and private cabanas. The Theater - an immersive viewing experience whether for large-scale gatherings or private events. The Athletic Center and Private Spa - rigorously designed to address every aspect of well-being and encompassing over 60, 000 square feet for an unprecedented variety of athletic pursuits, relaxation and renewal. These exceptional amenities are managed by Four Seasons, the gold standard in luxury hospitality. *The materials, designs, square footages, features and amenities described herein are subject to change and no assurance is made that these amenities will be of the nature described or available in the project. Use of certain amenities may be subject to fees set by the condominium association from time to time. The images presented herein are made from the photographs artistically assembled and retouched in order to approximate an impression of what the human eye will perceive at different heights, from different condominiums units. The developer is not responsible for any error or omission in its interpretation or effect. This is not an offer to sell, or solicitation of offer to buy conditions units in states where such offer of solicitation cannot be made. HOA dues and taxes are estimates only.
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Wedding Extravaganza '23
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