Corps Members and Team Leaders alike stay warm during morning greeting armed with Timberland City Year outerwear. And coffee, too.

December in Massachusetts is cold. It will snow before the New Year. I will slip on ice as I walk down my driveway. I will run out of ice melt and find that the hardware store has sold out of it.

These are the things that, after 18 years of New England winters, are simply just facts to me.I used to believe that I thrive on the cold, perform well when my blood is ice cold, and enjoy the icicles that form on my face on those especially cold days. But I’m getting old – relatively speaking, I’m the oldest I’ve ever been - and lately, I have been finding myself drawn to warmth.  This year, however, I have most certainly been provided with the means to stay warm. Timberland has been my savior throughout this cold, rainy and breezy late autumn and early winter. I am never seen without my City Year fleece vest during my AmeriCorps service year. It keeps my core temp up and comes in a striking red. The bomber jacket is next in my arsenal of cold weather gear.  It keeps my arms warm and, with the State Street Foundation logo on the right side, helps me look official. On the days below freezing temperatures, I break out my WFD (Weapon of Frost Destruction): the City Year All Weather Jacket. Armed with my outerwear and Timberland boots (also provided for all City Year corps members), I am ready for any weather Boston throws at me. Except for heat. But this is Massachusetts in December and we don’t think about heat.

I would like to send a big thank you to the folks at Timberland for giving me the will to walk out of my Dorchester apartment into the wind, the cold, and the rain every day so I can undertake my journey to the Tobin K-8 School in Mission Hill and keep the youth of Boston in school and on track.