Editor’s note: Newsmakers is a regular feature spotlighting accomplishments of Newton community members, businesses and organizations.

Newton North grad named Thoreau Scholar

Findlay C. Toone, a graduate of the Newton North High School, is entering college this semester as a Thoreau Scholar.

The scholarship is named for the 19th-century naturalist and author Henry David Thoreau and is given annually to only eight Massachusetts high school seniors.

Toone, daughter of Haiden Huskamp and Robert Toone Jr., has been interested in helping the environment since age 7 and learned about agriculture at Newton  Community Farm

She joined the Massachusetts Youth Climate Council and served as chair of its Biodiversity Committee, collaborating with experts to provide recommendations on conservation and agriculture to Governor Maura Healey.

Toone is attending Yale University, where she plans to study ecology and ethology.

Robert Joyce. Courtesy photo

Newtonian named to Campaign for Catholic Schools board

Robert Joyce of Newton has been named to the Board of Advisors for the Campaign for Catholic Schools.

The organization specializes in policy advocacy for Boston area Catholic schools.

Joyce serves as senior vice president and private wealth advisor at Merrill Private Wealth and has been a loyal supporter and friend of CCS since 2011. He served on the $10 million CCS campaign to renovate the circa 1915 St. Gregory School in Dorchester into what is today the Lower Mills campus of Saint John Paul II Catholic Academy, a co-sponsored academy of CCS and the largest Catholic elementary school in Massachusetts.

“We are incredibly grateful to Bob for saying ‘yes’ to our invitation to join our Board of Advisors as we continue to define what a sustainable and successful future looks like for urban Catholic education in Greater Boston,” CCS Vice President of Development and Strategy Mary Myers said.

Joyce graduated from Harvard University and Boston College High School.

Heather Treseler. Courtesy photo

Newton poet wins Massachusetts book award

The Massachusetts Center for the Book has announced the winners of the 2025 Massachusetts Book Awards, celebrating the most outstanding books published in 2024 by Massachusetts authors, artists, and Heather Treseler of Newton is among them.

Treseler secured the prize for poetry for her collection “Auguries & Divinations,” which tells of a young woman reaching adulthood, attuned to the unspoken rules (and liabilities) of women’s lives, the suburban underworld, and the energies of eros.

“It’s a great honor to receive the Massachusetts Book Award in poetry for Auguries & Divinations, a book that explores the pleasures and perils of coming-of-age as a young woman and celebrates the largesse of love in its many forms,” Treseler said.