When Cristina Morales was about to give birth to her second child in Mexico, her husband’s work brought the family to Boston. That was in 2012. They settled in Acton and Morales’s daily running route brought her up Pope Road and down Strawberry Hill Rd. Her children would often join her on her runs. Morales regularly stopped at a tree that had a sign remembering someone named Danny. He had died in 2003, the same year Morales first became a mother. Morales would speak to Danny, asking who he was, what he liked, how he died.
Cut to 2021. The pandemic was quite hard on Morales’s second child, then a fifth grader. Morales signed her daughter up for a class at the library run by Danny’s Place. Danny’s Place invites people to “Find Yourself Here” and describes itself as providing “a non-competitive, safe space for young people to discover their true authentic selves.” Unfortunately, Morales’ daughter was too shy to attend the library program. However, the staff of Danny’s Place offered some other programs, and Morales’s daughter attended some and found the organization supportive and helpful as she navigated the challenges of pandemic life.
Morales noticed that Danny’s Place could use some help with social media – her forte. For the next year, Morales volunteered as the social media manager and was subsequently hired as the organization’s operations manager.
On the twentieth anniversary of Danny’s death, Cindy McCarthy, Danny’s mom, showed pictures from back then and talked about the tree where the accident happened. That was when Morales put two and two together for the first time. It was a sudden realization that Danny’s Place was named for the very Danny that Morales had wondered about and talked to during her runs. She had been at Danny’s Place for a year and a half before she made the connection. She now shared the story, and a tearful hug, with Danny’s mother.
Last week, Morales led a visitor on a tour of Danny’s Place’s new space, where the program moved in September 2023, in the former church that had previously housed the Office of Michael Rosenfeld, Architect. The building was quiet, as it was during school hours. Morales pointed out the library, where participants can relax during transitions, with games and books; the sensory nook with materials for regulating and calming down.
The “launch pad,” just inside the glass doors from the sweet little postage stamp yard between Danny’s Place and Twin Seafood, had fun wobble cushions and a mural of penguins–the organization’s mascot. Morales pointed out one penguin wearing a beret, meant to resemble a participant in the program who always wears one.
In the conference room, Morales showed the visitor colorful paper reminders of workshops kids had engaged in– sayings such as “I’m not good at it…yet”. Once a week, Program Coordinator Renn Duffey transforms the conference room into a dungeon for Dungeons and Dragons games.
Upstairs, comfortable chair pillows lined the wellness nook where kids love to ring the metal “singing bowl” before a grounding exercise begins.
And the Spark workshop has a variety of art materials kids can experiment with to find their favorite medium.
Morales’s daughter has made strides at Danny’s Place, as have many of the three hundred fifty kids ages 8 to 18 in programs offered this year. Programs are at no cost or include a nominal materials fee, and participants come back season after season. Who wouldn’t return to this haven, this soft, clean, and quiet retreat?
This visitor wanted to ask, “Do you take grownups?”
Franny Osman is a volunteer editor and writer for the Acton Exchange.