Hunnewell Track and Field is receiving a long-awaited addition: new modular team rooms. The 28-by-59-foot building will include lockers, meeting space, storage, and bathrooms, serving the football team in the fall and softball and girls’ lacrosse teams in the spring. By moving these teams into space near the field, the project will also free up locker room space inside the high school.

Originally funded by the Annual Town Meeting in 2018, the team rooms faced years of delays before receiving additional funding last fall as part of an approximately $2.2 million project supported by both the town and private donors. The rooms are the latest phase of improvements to Hunnewell Field, following the addition of lights, an upgraded sound system, bathrooms, and a concession stand. The team rooms are expected to be completed this fall.

Liliko, a new Asian market offering a variety of snacks, drinks, beauty supplies, and stationery options, opened August 29 in Wellesley Hills. The store, providing the community with products from across East Asia, is a source of both pre-made food like tuna or salmon onigiri as well as specialty ingredients such as glutinous rice or tapioca flour and LGM Spicy Chili Crisp.

Located at 268 Washington St., Liliko has replaced the Subway in the strip mall next to Quebrada and across the street from Marathon Sports. Every day of the week, Liliko is open from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM, establishing itself as a source of Asian goods for Wellesley residents.

On September 2, Gloria Steinem, the journalist and organizer who became the most recognizable face of American feminism, died at her home in New York City at the age of 92. A 1956 graduate of Smith College, Steinem began as a freelance journalist, gaining fame six years later for her scathing undercover exposé about working as a Playboy Club waitress in degrading conditions. Rising to national prominence as the leader of second-wave feminism, Steinem cofounded Ms. Magazine in 1972, giving the movement a durable platform for ideas surrounding gender-based violence, reproductive freedom, and the Equal Rights Amendment. President Obama honored Steinem with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013. 

Steinem had a notable connection to Wellesley’s community. In 2013, she invited eleven-year-old Emily Willrich from Hunnewell to a Simmons College event for writing a Wellesley Townsman op-ed protesting the shabby conditions of the girls’ softball fields. Steinem asked for a copy of her article, encouraging Willrich to continue fighting for equality. Additionally, she delivered the Wellesley College commencement address twice, once in 1988 and again in 1993. Remembering Steinem last week, Wellesley College President Paula Johnson recounted her conversations with Steinem, affirming that “She will always be a part of the Wellesley community.”