The In Anne’s Spirit foundation is celebrating fifteen years of continued service to the community. Robert D. Putnam to speak at the celebration about his new book Our Kids.
This year The Borghesani Foundation and In Anne’s Spirit is sponsoring a very special evening to celebrate the caring, hard-working community that has grown up around the foundation named for their daughter Anne who was senselessly murdered in 1990. The foundation and its many supporters are like a second family to the Borghesanis. This is an opportunity to celebrate the foundation’s growth and the work they have done to fight violence in schools and communities for the past fifteen years. The event is open to the public and will be held at the beautiful deCordova Museum in Lincoln.
Robert D. Putnam PhD Is Keynote Speaker
Fifteen years ago Dr. Putnam helped launch the foundation when he spoke about his then current book, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Renewal of American Community at the inaugural event. This year he returns to discuss his recently published and highly acclaimed book, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis. He will speak on “Inequality and opportunity: the growing class gap among American young people and the implications for social mobility.” The public is welcome to attend and learn more about this exciting new book and Dr. putnam will be signing books after the talk.
Dr. Putnam is the Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University. He is founder of the Saguaro Seminar which brings together leading academics, political figures and practitioners to study social issues.
His current book examines the troubling state of income inequality in America and its terrible consequences for social mobility among children of the middle and lower classes. (See box above.)
About the book, David Gergen, advisor to presidents and CNN political commentator says:
“In yet another path-breaking book about America’s changing social landscape, Robert Putnam investigates how growing income gaps have shaped our children so differently. His conclusion is chilling: social mobility ‘seems poised to plunge in the years ahead, shattering the American dream.’ Must reading from the White House to your house.”
Anne’s Story
“At the time of Anne’s death our family was supported by so many in the Lexington community and beyond. I often felt we were being held up by our friends, family, and neighbors,” says Anne’s mother Betty Borghesani. She believes that The Borghesani Foundation is an outgrowth of Anne’s loving and generous spirit and wants to celebrate the love, hard work and dedication of those who continue to support it.
Anne Borghesani was a bright, vibrant young woman with hopes and aspirations like any of our young people in Lexington. She was connected to her family and friends, always had time to listen, and was an active participant at LHS and in her town. She loved travel, learning about different cultures, and had aspirations of attending law school and being a public defender.
Anne Borghesani
Anne graduated from LHS in 1985 and from Tufts in 1989. Ten months later in 1990, Anne was accosted by a stranger and murdered while walking from her apartment to the Metro in Arlington, Virginia to meet friends to celebrate her 23rd birthday.
The first year after Anne’s death a scholarship was started in her name at Tufts. A year later Anne’s classmates initiated a scholarship at Lexington High School to be awarded to a graduating female who exemplifies Anne’s qualities of school and community spirit. This committee of classmates has continued to encourage the growth of the scholarship, maintained relationships with the former scholarship recipients, and they meet annually to select a new scholarship recipient. They are motivated in their work by friendships forged at Lexington High School and Anne’s memory.
About the Foundation
In Anne’s Spirit was created in 2000 by Anne’s friends and family. In Anne’s Spirit is a non-profit, voluntary organization dedicated to reducing the incidence and effects of violence by promoting development of healthy children and families. A yearly newsletter goes out to supporters describing the grants made by the foundation. Donations received from this newsletter have enabled In Anne’s Spirit to support inner city day camps, after-school programs, victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse, violence prevention projects such as anti-bullying and dating violence programs – in addition to continuing to support the growth of scholarships in Anne’s name at Tufts and Lexington High School. Without the generous support of so many in the community who still remember Anne, this work would not have been possible.
About the Event
A Celebration of Community
With Keynote speaker
Robert Putnam
Author of “Our Kids”
Sunday June 28, 2015
6:00 to 8:30 p.m.
At the deCordova
Sculpture Park and Museum
51 Sandy Pond Road, Lincoln, MAPre-keynote wine reception at 6 p.m.
Talk followed by a community conversation and book-signing
with coffee and dessert.
The museum’s exhibits and Sculpture Park will be open during the reception
For reservations and information, please call (781) 862-7309 oremail Borghesani@inannesspirit.org
Honorary Event Committee
Nancy and Joel Adler, Lexington Town Meeting Members
Prof. Drusilla Brown, Director of Tufts Program in International Relations
Michelle Ciccolo, Lexington Board of Selectmen
Norm Cohen, Lexington Board of Selectmen
Linda Cohen, Friends of Cary Library Board Member
Margaret Coppe, Lexington School Committee
Margaret Counts-Klebe, LHS Scholarship Committee
Dan Fenn, Founding Director of John F. Kennedy Library
Hon. Jay Kaufman, State Representative
Florence Koplow, former member Lexington School Committee
Lyn Lustig, Tufts Scholarship Committee
Jerry Michelson, LHS Scholarship Committee
Dr. Daniel and Barbara Palant
Susan Vickers, Founder of Victim Rights Law Center
Steve Volante, chair of LHS Scholarship Committee
