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Thursday, September 16, 2010 Dedham Transcript wickedlocaldedham.com DEDHAM TOWN HALL, 26 Bryant St. Hours: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. and Wednesday 8:30 a.m. - 7 p.m.

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254 Second Avenue, Needham, MA 02494 www.wickedlocaldedham.com Andrea Salisbury, Editor 781-433-8322 or asalisbu@cnc.com Edward B. Colby, Reporter 781-433-8336 or ecolby@cnc.com Tom Fargo, Sports Editor 781-433-8372 or tfargo@cnc.com Erin Prawoko, Photographer 781-433-8374 or eprawoko@cnc.com Carlo Petrillo, Retail Sales Representative 781-433-8238 or cpetrillo@cnc.com Lynda Glassey, Automotive Display Sales 508-626-3946 or lglassey@cnc.com Lynn Green, Real Estate Sales Representative 508-626-3833 or lgreen@cnc.com Classified Sales Representative 1-800-624-7355 Legal Sales Representative 1-800-624-7355, ext. 7967 Reprints of photos or pages, 1-800-624-7355 or photoreprints@cnc.com Billing inquiries, 1-800-894-5141 Circulation To subscribe or to report delivery problems, 1-888-MY-PAPER The Dedham Transcript (USPS # 151-040) is published weekly by Community Newspaper Company, 254 Second Avenue, Needham, MA 02494. Periodicals postage paid at Boston MA and additional mailing offices. Annual cost of home delivery via mail is $34 in-town, $63 out-of-town. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to The Dedham Transcript, Circulation Department, PO Box 9149, Framingham MA 01701. Richard J. Daniels, Chief Executive Officer Greg Reibman, Publisher 781-433-8345 or greibman@cnc.com Wayne Braverman, Managing Editor 781-433-7810 or wbraverman@cnc.com POLICIES Advertisers should check their ads each week. This newspaper assumes no financial responsibility for typographical errors in advertisements, but will reprint without charge that part of any advertisement in which an error occurred if the error was that of the newspaper. This newspaper assumes no financial responsibility for photographs reproduced in the newspaper, although every effort will be made to return original prints in good condition upon request. Community Newspaper Company. All rights reserved.

Q&A WITH ALEX SHUMWAY

One of the four Greater Boston Gala Girls

LIFE OF THE PARTY

By Andrea Salisbury
STAFF WRITER

About Alexandra
Age: 38 Neighborhood: Precinct 1 Favorite Gala Girl party theme: The Oscars Where to Watch: Dedham and Milton Public TV or on your own schedule on YouTube at youtube.com/user/gbgalagirls

Ingredients: Four married, working mothers, one party theme, a budget of $200, the perfect kitchen and a camera. Shake it all up and you get the Greater Boston Gala Girls. Every month local public access viewers in Dedham and Milton watch sisters Jennifer Palmer, of Milton, Jocelyn Meek, of Brockton, Dedhams Alex Shumway and close friend Jen Gibbs (also the owner of Maribu in Dedham Square) provide the tools to put on a party for 10. The idea for the show, Shumway said, was formed after watching the Food Network one day. She realized that there wasnt a program on the Food Network that taught people how to host an inexpensive, fun party. From there, the women went to Dedham Public TV and in February of 2010, the first episode of the Greater Boston Gala Girls aired. In each episode, viewers are provided with how-tos on everything from appetizers to cocktails to party games to a customized sound track. And, Shumway said, all of the elements for the party, including the games, recipes, CD cover and music, can all be downloaded from a link on the Gala Girls Facebook page. Shumway recently sat down with Dedham Transcript editor Andrea Salisbury to talk about some of the fantastic party themes the Gala Girls helped develop. How Greater Q :Bostondid theGirlswhen Gala begin? : My sisters and I, A we grew up our parents

that summertime is a whole mishmash of camps and daycares and special events, but going back to school is going back to the normal routine.
COURTESY PHOTO

The Greater Boston Gala Girls are, from left, Jen Gibbs, Jennifer Palmer, Alex Shumway and Jocelyn Meek.

One Q :themefan-generateda was Party in Shoebox for Nick Iuliano. What did that involve? : He lives in a studio apartment in the Back Bay and he laughed and said his apartment was the size of a shoebox. The signature cocktail we made up was called In the Nick of Time The game was a PowerPoint Jeopardy game all about him.

always had cocktail parties. We remember sitting at the top of the stairs hearing them have fun. You could say, we always grew up having parties for someones retirement or someones birthday even Arbor Day. A few years ago, we were joking around and I said, do you notice that no one ever invites us to their house. My older sister, Jennifer said, nobody else does this, nobody else has dinner parties, nobody else has cocktail parties and nobody else has Christmas parties. They all rely on us to do it. So we started asking everybody and they said, Well, you know, you guys do it better, you have such good ideas and it is too expensive and I dont have enough time. What is the Q :each episode?premise of : Since so A life and everybodyisisjobs busy with kids and and everyone pressed for time and pressed for money, what we asked was: What if you got a group of 10 people together and everyone agreed to throw one party once a month? f you watch our show, we will give you a theme. We will give you three appetizers to make. We will make you a signature cocktail. We will give you a sound track and a game. And you can do it all for $200 or less. So, at the end of it, you host one party for $200 and

you go to nine other parties throughout the year. How do you Q :with theispartycomea up of ideas? : Wine involved lot A times; I am not going to lie to you. Some of the parties weve done, like the Oscar Gala, I always host the Oscar Gala, so youd think that I watch all of the movies. I dont. It is just a great excuse of the party. Ive been hosting it for (pauses) 12 years. Every year it just gets bigger and more extravagant. But the biggest Oscar Gala weve ever had was nine people and six of us are related. We always call it the gala as sort of a joke, so that is where the Gala Girls came from. With the Derby Day Party, Jen Gibbs, years and years and years ago, she bought this hat and said one day she was going to go to the Kentucky Derby because she needed an excuse for this big hat she bought. So she said, can we do a Derby Day Party so I can wear my hat? We had neighborhood friends over and we had kids over and the game was the horse race. How Q :Back todid you develop the School party? : Donna (Greer, of DedA ham TV) asked if we could do a back to school thing. I said we can, but remember, ours are really grown up parties. So our spin on it would be

Where Q :episode?do you film every My kitchen. kitchen A :justwe have a My window lends itself very well, because big behind and this gigantic island. the best Q :: Whattoisgo Oscar.party? I got Its A such a provensoformula for us right now. It is fun. The games are fun. This is the one where the husbands come, and we are all looking at the dresses and the guys arent like Oh my God, look at what Sandra Bullock is wearing. But on the other hand they are in on all of the games. What in Q :the crosswas involvedparty? Local for Local :A promotion with the Farmers Market and A After Dark. We created a Deli whole party around shopping at the farmers market. It was all locally grown food, and Matt Cawley (of Centre Deli) came and made a pizza. Dedham Transcript editor Andrea Salisbury can be reached at 781-433-8322 or by e-mail at asalisbu@cnc.com.

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