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Animal control officer handles all creatures great and small

Animal Control Officer Jennifer Condon with two of her dogs at home. (Courtesy photo)

By Alice Waugh

Almost every day is dog day afternoon for Jennifer Condon, the animal control officer for eight towns including Lincoln.

When someone calls their local police to report a stray pet, a dog bite, a sick or injured raccoon, or even a DUI arrest when there’s a dog in the car, the police in turn call Condon, who drives over from Maynard to deal with the issue. “If anything pertains to an animal, I’m on scene, domestic or wild,” said Condon, who is also the animal control officer for Concord, Hudson, Maynard, Northborough, Southborough, and Wayland.

Condon owns Boardman’s Animal Control, which has one full-time and one part-time employee in addition to her. She inherited the business from her father, who was also a multi-town animal control officer. As a senior state animal inspector, her job also includes inspecting barns and livestock to make sure the animals are healthy and well cared for. 

Her day starts at 6:00am when she does “roadkill run” in some of her towns. She’s able to remove a dead deer from the road with a winch system on her truck, and sadly, she sometimes has to humanely put down animals who were hit by cars and are still alive but badly injured (she’s licensed to carry a handgun for this purpose).

One of the more common calls Condon gets is for stray dogs and cats. “Dogs love me — they just come running up to me,” she said. Cats are harder to corner and she usually doesn’t try unless they’re sick or injured, in which case she transports them to veterinary emergency care. She checks each pet for an owner’s microchip, but if it doesn’t have one, it goes into her kennel for seven days, after which it goes to a shelter. 

Therein lies the rub. “You can’t be an animal control officer and not love animals,” she noted — and on more than one occasion, that’s meant she’s adopted an animal who wasn’t claimed. At the moment she has five dogs, including a Bernese mountain dog and a golden retriever who was found covered in paint by its previous owner, who had mental health issues. But that’s not all — her household also includes 13 rabbits, 36 chickens, two goats, two cats, birds and a ferret

“When you have to hold onto an animal for seven days, sometimes you fall in love,” she said. “You can’t be an animal control officer and not love animals.”

Condon does most of her field work when residents make animal-related calls to police and they in turn call her. Some callers ask for help with wildlife they’ve spotted near their home — most often coyotes and raccoons but also the occasional bear, bobcat, or turkey that may be sick or injured. She advises them to leave the animal alone (especially if it’s breeding season) unless it shows specific signs of illness.

Many calls involve dogs who are on the loose (though Lincoln does not have leash law), acting aggressively, barking excessively, or have bitten someone. When a dog bites a person, it must be put in 10-day quarantine even if it’s up to date on its shots. A pet bitten by a wild animal must be quarantined for 45 days.

When it comes to misbehaving dogs, Condon stressed the importance of proper training. She often refers people to professional dog trainers and approved dog day care centers — they can call her office at 978-897-5596 office or email admin@borardmansanimalcontrol.com.

Sometimes the calls are from the police themselves. She’s had to take charge of animals when police find them neglected or abused in cases where police deal with car accidents, domestic violence or drug abuse, elderly owners who can no longer care for their pets, deaths, house fires, etc.

Some of her more memorable cases haven’t involved pets. Condon was once chased down by a bull in Northborough, and she used to try to catch bats and other wild animals that had gotten inside homes, though those calls (as well as calls about injured or apparently orphaned animals outdoors) are now referred to a pest control service or a wildlife rehabilitator.

There’s no such thing as a typical day, and the variety of calls keeps the job interesting (see A year in the life of Lincoln’s animal control officer” below). A week in summer might include calls about a dog attack, a suspected rabid raccoon, a loose animal, a lost cat, kittens dumped at the side of the road, and a “dangerous dog” hearing with town officials (dogs that are deemed dangerous must go into an immediate 10-day house quarantine). 

“My mind is so open that nothing surprises me,” Condon said.

Fortunately, she’s never had to deal with a rabid dog, though her father did. Condon is allowed to shoot an animal suspected of having rabies if it’s obviously preparing to attack, but she can’t shoot it in the head because the brain needs to be intact for post-mortem testing. Dead pets (cats and dogs) suspected of having rabies go to a vet for testing, but for a wild animal, she has to decapitate it and send the head by courier to a state lab in Boston.

Winter means things are quieter for Condon, since people and pets tend to stay inside. In contrast, during the pandemic, she had more calls than she and her two employees could handle. “Everyone went out and got puppies, but most of these dogs weren’t socialized,” she noted — and once they and their owners rejoined the outside world, the dogs behaved aggressively with other people and animals or were neglected when their owners went back to the office.

In cases of neglect or mistreatment, “I’m very honest and very direct,” Condon said. “I’ll work with people, but people need to work with me in terms of fixing a bad situation.” Sometimes, however, owners have threatened her when confronted. “People are very protective of their animals, even if they’re bad people,” she said.

In an animal emergency, Condon advised people to call the police, who will immediately contact Condon and respond as needed. The state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife explains what to do if you find a wild animal that might be sick or injured and also maintains a list of wildlife rehabilitators that people can call.

A year in the life of Lincoln’s animal control officer

Total calls in 2024:

  • Animal/wildlife calls 40
  • Miscellaneous calls: 37
  • Barn inspections: 30
  • Complaint calls: 15
  • Lost dog calls: 7
  • Lost cat calls: 5
  • Other cat-related calls: 4

Here are some of the more unusual calls in Lincoln that Condon handled in 2024:

  • RP [reporting party] reports that a housing unit has been left empty and a cat was left behind. They have a possible home for the cat. ACO [animal control officer] can do transport but cannot take the cat in.
  • RP reports that she had an incident with a dog walker with seven dogs. RP states the dogs were all over the place and the walker had no control.
  • RP found a deceased owl on the property, looking for guidance on disposal. ACO advised to bury or double bag and into the trash.
  • RP reports that she had an issue with dogs were being walked on leashes and one got away from the owner. The dog ran at her, and she felt as though the dog was going to attack her. ACO contacted [the owner] and advised him that the dogs should have muzzles on specifically because of the incident. ACO advised that dogs are unpredictable and need to be in full control, and that it’s in best interest of the dogs to be muzzled; otherwise, they are being set up to fail. Owner states that the dogs will be leashed and muzzled going forward.
  • RP advises that a mother duck was killed and the babies were collected and now in a box. RP found a rehabber to take them.
  • Police advise that a Great Dane is back wandering near the Weston line. ACO received text from Weston ACO who states she believes that the dog belongs to a construction person bringing the dog to work and letting it do whatever.
  • Angell Memorial Hospital reports that a stray puppy, black and tan in color, was brought in by a Lincoln resident who found the puppy abandoned and injured. Per vet, the dog came in dehydrated, coat was clean, mentally abnormal, lethargic, with eye swelling.
  • RP from Buddy and Friends Rescue is calling because [residents] have applied to adopt a dog and part of their screening process is to check in with the local ACO to determine if applicants are responsible dog owners. ACO confirmed with Town Clerk that both dogs currently owned by applicants are licensed and up to date with three vaccinations (rabies, distemper/hepatitis/parainfluenza/parvovirus, and leptospirosis).
  • RP reports a coyote that is unable to move and his back legs appear to be badly damaged. Police on scene asked ACO to relocate animal to be euthanized. ACO contained the animal and contacted police to return to have euthanized. Animal euthanized with no issues.
  • Blue heron located in back parking lot on the edge of the wood line. Injured bird noted to be standing on one leg; when we approached, the bird attempted to fly away but was unable to. Wrapped blue heron in a large towel and secured in an animal carrier. Called Tufts [Veterinary Emergency Treatment & Specialties] and given green light to bring in blue heron.
  • A dog missing out of Sudbury now in Lincoln seen running down South Great Road towards Tower Road.

Correction — and more information

Lincoln resident Stewart Coffin in a July 4 parade in Lincoln. Photo courtesy Alaric Naiman.

The July 2 “News acorns” included a photo of a past July 4 parade participant that was misidentified. The photo of the gentleman bicycling in the 1983 parade while carrying a canoe on his head was not Mike Farny but rather Stewart Coffin, another legendary Lincoln outdoorsman. 

“My plans for biking across Labrador in 1983 hit a snag because of an impending Quebec North Shore and Labrador Railway strike. So I started considering alternate plans, but none were ever very practical, so this was really just a stunt,” Coffin told the Lincoln Squirrel. “The canoe is my 50-lb. Kevlar [Big Dipper] that I made. I am riding my wife’s bike, much easier that way. Went the whole parade distance. Would not attempt it in traffic.”

Coffin, who now lives in Carlisle, moved to Lincoln in 1964 and became known for his hand-made canoes and paddles, voyages through the Maine and Canada wilderness (some of which are described in his book Black Spruce Journals), and skill at making three-dimensional puzzles. His daughter Margaret Coffin Brown and her family still live on the Old Sudbury Road property. He gave an illustrated talk, “Stew Coffin Lives in Lincoln,” in 1983 (video here).

A Fourth of July footnote: Coffin was not the most famous cyclist in the history of Lincoln’s annual parades. That would be Norman Hapgood, who rode a unicycle along the route for many. years.

Seniors at The Commons mentor staff with English tutoring and more

(Editor’s note: This article is based partly on material supplied by Gabriella Pais of Montagne Powers.)

Retirement offers almost endless possibilities for how to spend one’s time—travel, golf, a new or renewed hobby — but seniors like Elaine Smith and other residents at The Commons in Lincoln are busy helping those who help them.

Smith is the founding member of RAMP, the Resident Associate Mentoring Program, where residents with skills, experience, and time are paired with Commons associates who need mentorship. Often, the employees work with resident mentors on English as a second language, but they offer other types of help as well.

RAMP is a voluntary program, but associates are paid for the work time they spend in their classes. An associate’s supervisor will direct them to RAMP if they are seeking assistance, at which point they’ll meet one on one with a mentor. Since its inception, about 40 residents have tutored an equal number of associates.

Smith and others started the program via FaceTime in 2021 during the Covid epidemic and later switched to in-person sessions. “When I looked around, I could see there were a lot of [residents] who were quite intelligent and had various expertise in the work world and otherwise. There were people who had a lot to give,” she said of her fellow residents. When they went to the head of Human Resources, “they were very much in favor of what we wanted to do.”

One supervisor who’s recognized the benefits of associate enrollment in RAMP is David Aviles, the campus plant operations director. An associate for whom David has seen positive outcomes for is Marcia Alves Xavier de Souza, the lead housekeeper of assisted living, memory care, and skilled nursing. Marcia has worked at The Commons since May 2021 and was promoted to supervisor after only six months. As a housekeeping leader, she must be able to both run an efficient team and advocate for herself and her colleagues, and speaking English more fluently allows her to meet those goals. Marcia and her ESL resident mentor have worked together in hour-long structured lessons that include homework.

De Souza’s first language is Portuguese; she understands English but is still learning to speak it more conversationally. She and her resident mentor have been working on her English speaking and writing skills for the past several months. “My teacher is very patient with me, and every Tuesday and Thursday I have my class,” she said. She’s also getting extra practice by sharing and strengthening her skills at home and in her church. 

Aviles has seen great improvement in de Souza’s comprehension and use of English, and he understands the value that the program holds for someone in her role. “She is a very important part of the Plant Operations team. She has about nine to 10 employees under her that follow her direction,” he said. In fact, he feels enrollment in the program should be a required part of training for new associates who need assistance. “We have about five new hires and they’re all excited about this program,” he said.

While many associates enroll in RAMP to improve their English, mentors also help in other areas including legal forms, personal finance, and even piano lessons. In one case, RAMP helped a woman navigate the complex legal process required to become the guardian of her niece who was visiting from another country. Another associate recently earned their American citizenship thanks in part to help from RAMP.

“It felt like one of my kids had gotten into college — I was so happy,” said Smith, a retired Wellesley College chemistry professor.

Tutors, associates, and The Commons all benefit from RAMP. “It’s an example of how they feel about what’s being done for them,” she said as she displayed a heartfelt thank-you note from one associate. “You get a tremendous feeling of satisfaction in knowing that you’re helping someone who needs the help.”

The Commons in Lincoln held a celebratory luncheon for RAMP resident tutors and associates on March 19 prepared by RAMP associates. Click on image below for larger versions with captions.

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Lincoln teen turns Girl Scout Gold into action

Lucy Dwyer (fourth from left) and other honorees at the Leading Women Awards Breakfast hosted by Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts.

Lucy Dwyer, a senior at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, earned her Girl Scout Gold Award (Girl Scouting’s highest honor) for her work developing an age-appropriate curriculum on menstrual cycles and self-care for fourth-graders to prepare those who experience menstruation sooner than expected.

Lucy was honored in March for her outstanding Gold Award project. She was chosen as one of three teen panelists and award recipients for the Leading Women Awards at the Boston Marriott Copley Place, sponsored by the Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts.  

Lucy’s Leading Women presentation led to her next opportunity; she was a featured speaker at a Mass NOW event at Boston Public Library in support of the “I AM” bill to promote equitable availability of feminine products to all menstruators, regardless of their ability to pay for them. This bill has passed the state Senate unanimously, but the House has yet to bring it to a vote. Lucy’s voice will encourage House members to increase access to disposable menstrual products in prisons, homeless shelters and public schools.

Ms. G predicts an early spring on Groundhog Day

Ms. G gathers data for her long-range weather forecast on Groundhog Day at Drumlin Farm.

(Editor’s note: this is press release from Mass Audubon in Lincoln.)

Ms. G did not see her shadow on an overcast Groundhog Day morning (February 2) at Mass Audubon’s Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary in Lincoln, which means everyone can look forward to an early spring. If the Official Groundhog of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts had seen her shadow, we’d all be facing six more weeks of winter.

This is the fifth straight year that Ms. G did not see her shadow. Over the 16 years she has been making her prognostications, she is now even with eight predictions apiece of early springs and six more weeks of winter. Unlike in the past, this year she agreed with her Pennsylvania peer, Punxsutawney Phil.

The always anticipated seasonal gathering at Drumlin Farm again attracted an enthusiastic mix of attendees, from Ms. G fans including lots of families with kids to nature lovers and weather followers, the latter happy to consider woodchuck folklore as meteorologically valid for a day.

Mass Audubon Metro West Regional Director Scott McCue welcomed those participants and others to the Groundhog Day celebration, which also featured family-friendly groundhog crafts, opportunities to observe other resident wildlife, and exploring the 291-acre sanctuary’s trail network. McCue and Senior Teacher Naturalist Tia Pinney discussed how New England wildlife survives the winter and how the changing climate is impacting their habitats.

This year’s format was a bit different, with Ms. G’s meet-and-greet and prognostication taking place in the sanctuary’s Farm Life Center rather than outside. Ms. G is in the midst of hormone-related hair loss that is common among juvenile females, despite being completely healthy. Due to that hair loss, our Wildlife Care experts decided, out of an abundance of caution, to keep her indoors safe from the chilly winter weather.

Although Ms. G couldn’t go outside, she enlisted the help of approximately 30 kids in attendance who went out to look for their shadows but did not see any. They reported their findings to Ms. G, who then made a prediction of early spring. Ms. G is grateful for her helpers this year and is already looking forward to being back outside next Groundhog Day.

My Turn: Hometown hero enchants a crowd

By Lynne Smith

Most of us watched the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.and have read and seen details since that time, but hearing Lincoln native Winston Pingeon describe his long day — spent mostly in riot gear as a U.S. Capitol Police Officer — made the horror fresh again.

Pingeon described to a group at Bemis Hall on January 19 how he and fellow officers moved from one defensive position to another as the crowd surged forward from the base of the Capitol, up the steps, and finally into the Capitol building. While drafted to work early with his riot team, he was really only warned of the potential for violence on the morning of the sixth. Outnumbered by 58 to 1, the entire Capitol Police force of nearly 2,000 officers along with D.C. Metropolitan police officers soon became overrun, with the National Guard awaiting approval to go assist.

A self-portrait of Winston on Jan. 6, 2021 after he’d been in riot gear for 12 hours.

Pingeon grew up in Lincoln and graduated from American University in Washington, D.C. While art was his passion, he decided he wanted to get a “real job” in law enforcement and applied to the Capitol Police Force. After seven months of training, he joined as an officer in 2016, just in time for the Trump inauguration in 2017.

Describing his time as an officer, Pingeon said he found meaning by serving as the Ceremonial Honor Guard, memorably for Ruth Bader Ginsburgh as she lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda — the first woman to be so honored. Admitting that he had not been interested in politics before his service, he began to recognize and speak with the legislators. In the process, he learned more about what went on in the nation’s capital and found camaraderie with members of Congress, staffers, and of course his fellow officers.

After spending Christmas 2020 in Lincoln, Pingeon reported to his first day on duty in the new year just two days prior to January 6th. He was told to report at 8 a.m., hours before his usual shift time of 3 p.m. As he recounted the day, he remembered being glad he had eaten breakfast in the headquarters building before he went to the north side of the Capitol to gear up and await further orders. Instead of his normal patrol uniform, he donned his full riot gear including gas mask, armor, and a baton.

Hearing about the crowd on the ellipse and conversing on the police radios, Pingeon and the other officers were tensely waiting for a crowd but still not expecting what was about to happen. He showed photos of the outnumbered police force at the barricades, and of him and other officers being assaulted. As the mob surged forward, Winston’s gas mask was deliberately shoved to one side and he was punched in the face. As he was pushed to the ground, his baton was ripped out of his hands and stolen from him. He described how he feared that it would be even easier for someone to steal his holstered gun and turn it on him and others. Fortunately, fellow officers helped him up and he continued to push back the wave of angry protesters. He said it was impossible to even imagine the building would be so violently breached, but that was obviously the unfortunate reality of what happened. Photos taken that day showed Pingeon near the first window area that was initially breached. 

Winston Pingeon in his days as a Capitol Police Officer.

At one point, he responded to an “officer down” call on the radio and went to help but realized that others with emergency medical training were on the scene, so he returned again to the interior perimeter of the building. The siege continued for many hours and a precarious calm did not return until late in the evening when the legislators were finally able to return to certify the vote of the electoral representatives. He described how painful and devastating the events of January 6th and its aftermath were to him personally and to the Capitol Police force as a whole. 

As impressive as Pingeon’s story is, his demeanor after his presentation was a further demonstration of his character. Attendees at Bemis Hall asked many questions, some of which were personal and clearly brought back difficult memories of the day. He shared the self-portraits and drawings he has since created and said that art has helped him recover from this intense experience. He took time to answer us thoughtfully and introduced us to his proud father seated in the back of the room.

Lincoln is fortunate to be the hometown of such a man. We congratulate Pingeon and wish him success in his important new career developing technology for law enforcement.

Winston’s art can be seen on his website at winstonwatercolors.com.

“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their letters to the editor or views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.

Veteran recalls military service and how it shaped his life

Editor’s note: This article was written and submitted by Montagne Powers, whose clients include The Commons in Lincoln.

Dan Chamberlin during his Navy career.

Dan Chamberlin and his wife — affectionately known as Salli — live at The Commons in Lincoln. Their path to their current home bucolic home, however, extends around the world.

Dan was 22 years old and had recently graduated from Denison University when he decided to enlist in the Navy. He entered Officer Candidate School in Newport, R.I., in June 1952. “After graduating, I had a little bit of leave time and I went home and saw my college sweetheart [Salli] and then got shipped over to Japan, where I was stationed happily with my best friend from Officer Candidate School,” he said. “We were stationed in a cryptography unit that served the commander of the Naval Forces of the Far East, so we were a very large radio station with a cryptography or code adjunct to it.”

As a cryptographer, Dan handled sensitive communications. “I was dealing with those Navy messages which were coded, and I was responsible for encoding anything the admiral wanted to send out, and for decoding anything that came in for his attention,” Dan recalled. One notable moment during Dan’s naval career happened when “I was on duty overnight on the 23rd of June in 1954, and that was the precise moment of the signing of the armistice in Panmunjom, which effectively ended the shooting in the Korean War. That message came in and I decoded it.”

Dan arrived in Japan as a bachelor but his fiancee joined him in August 1953 and they were married soon after her arrival. He had a house built for the two of them to live in a nearby Japanese town because he didn’t have the required priority points to secure married housing on the naval base. “I commuted to work on the train and she stayed home, and that lasted until October of 1954, at which point I received orders to a ship,” he recalled.

Salli returned home to the States, newly pregnant, as Dan boarded the flagship for the U.S. Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. “She delivered our firstborn and I was meanwhile floating around the Mediterranean with the admiral on board and hitting all the best liberty ports,” he said.

Dan had been accepted to Harvard Business School but wasn’t able to delay enrollment until the end of his military service. However, he asked the Navy for early separation, which was granted. Once he landed, Dan and Salli met in Massachusetts at an apartment neither had seen, with a child he had not yet met. 

Dan and Salli Chamberlin today.

Salli and Dan have been married for 70 years and are enjoying life at their home at The Commons. Dan’s service has inspired patriotism and call to duty in his own family — his granddaughter is currently a captain in the Marines. 

Reflecting on the value that serving in the military added to his life, Dan said, “I was a small-town boy and Salli and I went to a small college and I think the lesson I learned was independence. We both had loving parents who gave us everything we wanted. That first night, I was trying to fall asleep in a barracks surrounded by a barbed wire fence with a Marine guard with a .45 automatic and for the first time in 21 years, I couldn’t go where I wanted to go when I wanted to go. I was just like ‘son of a gun, this is what it’s like being out on your own, and you can do this,’ and I was able to apply that in other severe changes of environment, like going to graduate school or going into a strange city for my first job or having a child. With any major change in life, I know I can do this.”

Stringer redefines “colorblind” in art focusing on race

By Maureen Belt

Rob Stringer works on his art at the Tack Room.

Lincoln resident Rob Stringer has dabbled in art his whole life, even taking art classes to round out his college study of religion and philosophy, but it wasn’t until May 25, 2020 that he used its power to take on racism. 

“The day George Floyd died — when he was murdered — I knew I had to do something,” he said.

What that “something” would be did not come to him right away. He had a delicate act to balance. The country was already deeply divided politically and racially, and he wanted his actions to provoke positive reflections of current events, not to be discarded as virtual signaling. 

“I am a cis white male who lives a privileged life,” said Stringer, speaking from his transient office, which on this day was the Tack Room restaurant in Lincoln. “But I wanted to do something, and I kept wondering, ‘What can I do that’s authentic?’ I didn’t want to go to protests and then just go about my daily life. I didn’t want to do anything ephemeral. I kept asking myself, ‘What can I do? What can I do?’”

The answer was in his art. 

Until George Floyd’s death, drawing was the medium Stringer relied on for expression. But the horrors surrounding George Floyd — whose brutal killing by law enforcement was captured on video and generated a global uprising for racial equity — called for something more dramatic. In an earlier life, Stringer worked in sales, marketing, and product development, so he regularly prepared slide decks using PowerPoint. He subsequently discovered that Google Slides offered broad options in color and shape. 

Stringer downloaded another artist’s image of George Floyd, then began overlaying it with colored dots simulating the Ishihara color vision test to create his own portrait. After a bit of trial and error over about five hours, an impactful rounded image of the murder victim appeared, created from various sizes of gray, black and blue dots. The colorblind motif was intentional, as Stringer has red-green colorblindness. 

Beneath the portrait, Stringer put Floyd’s dates of birth and death and name in a basic black font. He emailed the digital image to the online printing venue, VistaPrint, which cast it on a 12-inch-by-12-inch canvas. The finished work was so moving that it inspired him to do more. He next used the same formula to portray Breonna Taylor, who was killed by police two months before Floyd. 

Stringer’s portrayal of Emmett Till.

Stringer soon completed a series of Black people killed by police including Daniel Prude, Crystal Danielle Ragland, and Rayshard Brooks. He then created images of Blacks killed in hate crimes, which include Treyvon Martin, Martin Luther King Jr., and Emmett Till. From there, Stringer’s work evolved to include Native Americans murdered by law enforcement or from hate crimes. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicated that though Indigenous people made up 0.8 percent of the population from 1999 to 2011, they made up 1.9 percent of police killings. His First Nations collection includes images of Sitting Bull, Zachary Bear Heels, and a dedication to missing and murdered Indigenous women.  

“I am not running out of subjects,” he acknowledged with disappointment. “My hope is that maybe their family members will see the art and that they find that it’s respectful.”

After so many portraits of murder victims, Stringer changed his course to creating images of minorities who inspire. That line includes U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, Rosa Parks, and Ruby Bridges. “I’ve been interested in power dynamics and the dynamics of race for a long time,” he said. “And in the back of my head I was feeling guilty that I was not doing more.”

Stringer didn’t create these images (which he describes more as graphic design than fine art) to make money, so he had no plans to market them, but some people who viewed them asked for prints. VistaPrint charges him $20 for the print, so he sells it for $29 and gives the extra $9 to a nonprofit — specifically, the METCO program.

Stringer’s most popular images are of Breonna Taylor and Emmett Till. He is sold out of his prints of Jean McGuire, the first Black woman elected to the Boston School Committee, a founder of the METCO program and at, 92 years old, a living icon of the local educational community. 

“It’s affirming to me that I was able to create something that impacts other people,” he said. “It makes me want to continue. These pieces spark conversation and they spark thought and they change people’s minds, and you can’t ask for more than that.”

View Stringer’s online “I See You” gallery here.

Lincoln teen and her horse excel in team sport

By Maureen Belt

Leah Drew and Jazzy.

Dressage is the perfect fusion of artistry, aesthetics, and athleticism between horse and rider that dates back to ancient Greece. The goal is for horse and rider to move in harmony while performing complex, rhythmic walking, cantering, and trotting routines within a 20-by-60-meter arena. A panel of judges rates different aspects of each performance from 0 to 10, with 10 being ideal and seldom achieved. 

The rider gives “aids,” or cues to their horse, communicating the next move. Aids are delivered through subtle movements of limbs, hands, feet, seating positions, balance, breathing, and with the exception of competitions, voice. The secret is for the rider to conceal the aids from everyone except the horse, a skill that takes time to perfect. Essentially, dressage is a meticulously choreographed discipline that requires years of commitment. 

It’s this level of commitment that earned Lincoln teen Leah Drew and her Hanoverian gelding Jazz Beat the top spot this summer at the North American Youth Championships, a continent-wide team event. Leah and Jazzy (as she affectionately calls her equine partner) represented Region 8, which included all competitors from New England and New York. 

Weeks later, Leah, 16, and Jazzy, 12, placed a respectable tenth in the U.S. Equestrian Federation’s Dressage National Junior Championships for 14- to 18-year-olds. In addition to racking up ribbons, Leah cold-calls sponsors and manages fundraising and social media accounts for both the New England Dressage Association and her region of the U.S. Dressage Federations.

Leah took her first lesson at age 5, though she’s been on horseback since before she was able to walk. Riding is a passion she inherited from her grandmother, Roberta Berry, who owned the Berryfield Farm horse farm on Weston Road. It was at Berryfield Farm in 2019 that Leah first rode Jazzy.

“She loved horses,” Leah said of Roberta. “Neither of my parents are that big into horses, but I am.” Roberta Berry passed away last December and Berryfield Farm was sold this summer. About 18 months ago, Leah and Jazzy began training four days a week with Hope Cooper and Jane Karol at Bear Spot Farm in Concord, where Jazzy lives. 

Three of those four days begin with Jazzy being walked on a loose rein in an arena. As he warms up, he progresses to faster gaits. The team practices new moves required for upcoming competitions before he and Leah tune up their established moves. On the fourth day, which is usually a weekend, Leah and Jazzy walk in the great outdoors, stretching and strengthening muscles with uphill climbs and rides through fields. Getting Jazzy outside the arena is important, Leah said, because it keeps his mind fresh and entertained. 

To get ready for podium appearances, Leah’s day begins with strength training in the predawn hours four to six days a week. Like all elite athletes, she values the importance of being in shape. “I really noticed it’s helped me a lot,” she said of her weight-lifting regime. “I’m stronger and healthier. I eat well and I drink a lot of water. Before I began working out, I wasn’t strong. I could not sit deep in the saddle, and my legs would be flopping around so my aids weren’t effective.” 

The connection between Jazzy and Leah was not immediate. “Sometimes it takes a long time for the rider and horse to connect,” she said. “Jazzy and I have been riding together on and off for three years. It took a while and now our partnership is very solid. I know all the things he’s trying to tell me. But there are some people and horses that match really well only a month before competition.” 

Leah says her strength training and her increasing experience and confidence have helped solidify the partnership with Jazzy. Their first ride together, she said, was difficult and she doubted they would reach full potential. A week before their first show, they began riding seriously and it paid off. Leah and Jazzy had two good rides, and their scores continue to improve. 

The word “dressage” (pronounced “dress-AZH”) comes from the French and means “training.” Literally, dressage means the art of riding and training a horse in a manner that develops obedience, flexibility and balance while maintaining a calm and attentive disposition. The U.S. Equestrian Federation serves as the national governing body and the Fédération Equestre Internationale in Switzerland is the world headquarters. 

Leah’s favorite part of dressage is the subtlety of the aids between her and the horses she rides. Each horse has an interesting and unique personality and challenges. For example, Jazzy is an exceptionally tall and a long horse. For context, most horses stand between 15 and 17 hands, or around five feet eight inches from ground to shoulder. Jazzy is 18 hands (six feet) and weighs 1,800 to 1,900 pounds — and he’s also a high-energy horse. 

“It makes compacted movements more difficult,” Leah said, because Jazzy needs to compact his body and pay very close attention to her aids. On the flip side, Jazzy’s size gives them an edge in the big movements required in competitions. 

Leah credits her teammates, who are among her closest friends, and her trainer Hope’s sense of humor with helping to settle any nerves that rise before competitions. She also sticks to a routine of having a light breakfast, then listening to high-energy rock and roll. Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” is a favorite. She then goes over her routine on foot in the barn before focusing on Jazzy, helping him relax. Then Leah simply trusts. She trusts that she and Jazzy have put in all the work they need and that they will perform their best. 

Competing is one thing but getting to and from a competition is another, since dressage competitions are held all over the country. Wellington, Fla., is a frequent destination for Leah and Jazzy. The horse leaves first in a trailer with other show horses driven by Mark Choper, owner of Fairway Horse Transport. Leah packs his gear ahead of time and is usually in class at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School when Jazzy begins his journey. After school, Leah hops in the family car and they drive to the show.

Leah said she feels fortunate to be surrounded by such a supportive family — her father Jonathan, mother Rachel, and younger brother Aaron, as well as grandparents and uncles. If everyone can’t make the trip — which is often the case — Leah can always count on at least one parent being at her side. Rachel, despite not being too much into horses, calls herself the “human groom.”

“She makes sure everyone has food and water, and that we have a good place to go for dinner,” Leah said.

Leah plans to continue dressage through college and has an eye on international and Olympic competitions. Meanwhile, she maintains a strong GPA at L-S, where she’s a junior. Top grades are part of the deal she made with her parents when they agreed to back her serious commitment to dressage. 

While competing in New England, Leah treats show days as absences, but when she’s in Florida, she works with a tutoring company. “Before I leave, my teachers give me information on what the class will be learning while I’m gone, and it’s up to me and Palm Beach International Academy to stay on top of the workload,” she said. 

Besides being a champion in dressage, Leah is a champion for it. “I would recommend that anyone who wants to and can, to go into dressage. It’s a really, really beautiful sport and you meet some of the coolest people through it,” she said.

Her ambition has already given her at least one valuable life skill. “I have more patience,” she said. “It’s really hard work, but I’ve learned that if I keep at something, that it will come eventually. And dressage has definitely made me super mature because it’s a lot of work, and it’s a lot of responsibility to take care of a horse.”

Last weekend, Leah and Jazzy performed at Mt. Holyoke College at the New England Dressage Association’s symposium featuring British dressage rider and five-time Olympian Carl Hester. Leah, who was the youngest performer at this event, was selected as a demo rider from a pool of more than 100 applicants (all other participants are adult professional riders). The pair will also compete for the first time at the Young Rider level at a future Adequan Global Dressage Festival in Florida.