The Boston Globe - 02.09.2019

Shirley Leung

With the
memorials on
Boylston
Street to mark
the Boston
Marathon
bombing com-
pleted and
Martin’s Park
open, the
Richard family
tells me it’s time.
Time, they say, to field the last Team
MR8 of runners who raise money for the
Martin Richard Foundation. The family
created the nonprofit in memory of 8-year-
old Martin Richard, who was killed when

pressure-cooker bombs went off near the

Marathon finish line in 2013.

Since then, nearly 1,000 runners have

been part of Team MR8 in Boston, Chicago,

and New York City marathons, generating

about $1 million annually for the founda-

tion dedicated to sportsmanship, inclusion,

kindness, and peace. With registration for

the 2020 Boston Marathon opening on

Sept. 9, the family felt it was the right time

to tell people of their decision.

“This is bittersweet for everyone,” said

Denise Richard, Martin’s mother and presi-

dent of the Martin Richard Foundation’s

board.

For Team MR8 — the name comes from

Martin Richard’s initials and his favorite

sports number — the final year’s fund-rais-

ing effort is being positioned as creating a

“legacy fund” for the foundation. The Rich-

ards are not setting a financial goal.

Although the major fund-raising vehicle

for the foundation will go away after 2020,

Denise stressed that the foundation is not

going anywhere and that “our mission isn’t

changing.”

Still, the change signals a new chapter

for the Dorchester family, which suffered so

much from the 2013 attacks. The Richards

were spectators at the Marathon finish line

when the two bombs detonated six years

ago. Denise lost sight in one eye; daughter

Jane, then 7, lost a leg. The blast cost the

father, Bill Richard, some of his hearing;

Henry, the oldest child, then 11, miracu-

lously suffered no physical harm.

Since the tragedy, the family has been in

the public eye, starting the foundation in

2014 and later becoming a driving force be-

hind the creation of Martin’s Park, a 1-acre

public park and playground overlooking

Fort Point Channel that opened in June.

The shift, as Bill put it, “allows us as a

family to take a step back from Boylston

Street and the emotional toll.”

“It’s a logical conclusion,” he added. “It’s

the right time for us.”

Next year will be a transition year not

only for the foundation but also for the

family. By next fall, Henry will be off to col-

lege, and Jane will be starting high school.

Bill and Denise are proud of Team MR8,

and the couple will very much remain in-

volved in the foundation and in the com-

munity. The foundation has given out more

than $2.3 million to projects and programs

that reflect its mission. Bill said the foun-

dation has about $5 million in its coffers,

and the plan is to focus more on giving

LEUNG,PageD2

A new chapter for the Martin Richard Foundation

From left:

Denise Richard

and daughter

Jane cheered

on 2015 Boston

Marathon

runners;

children

enjoyed the

opening of

Martin’s Park

in June;

sculptures

along Boylston

Street honor

victims of the

2013 bombings.

Business

THE BOSTON GLOBE MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2019 | BOSTONGLOBE.COM/BUSINESS

D

JESSICA RINALDI/GLOBE STAFF/FILE 2015 JOHN TLUMACKI/GLOBE STAFF PHILIP MARCELO/ASSOCIATED PRESS

By Christopher Rugaber

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — The United

States and China on Sunday put in

place their latest tariff increases on

each other’s goods, potentially raising

prices Americans pay for some clothes,

shoes, sporting goods, and other items

before the holiday shopping season.

President Trump said US-China

trade talks were still on for September.

‘‘We’ll see what happens,’’ he told re-

porters. ‘‘But we can’t allow China to

rip us off anymore as a country.’’

The 15 percent US taxes apply to

about $112 billion of Chinese imports.

All told, more than two-thirds of the

consumer goods the United States im-

ports from China now face higher tax-

es. The administration had largely

avoided hitting consumer items in its

earlier rounds of tariff increases.

But with prices of many retail

goods now likely to rise, the adminis-

tration’s move threatens the US econo-

my’s main driver: consumer spending.

As businesses pull back on investment

spending and exports slow in the face

of weak global growth, US shoppers

have been a key bright spot.

‘‘We have got a great economy,’’ said

Senator Pat Toomey, Republican of

Pennsylvania. ‘‘But I do think that the

uncertainty caused by the volatile tar-

iff situation and this developing trade

war could jeopardize that strength,

and that growth, and that is, I think,

that’s a legitimate concern,’’ he told

ABC’s ‘‘This Week.’’

As a result of Trump’s higher tariffs,

many US companies have warned they

will be forced to pass on to customers

the higher prices they will pay on Chi-

nese imports. Some businesses,

though, may decide to absorb the high-

er costs.

In China, the authorities began

charging higher duties on American

imports at midday Sunday, said em-

ployees who answered the phone at

customs offices in Beijing and Guang-

zhou.

Tariffs of 10 percent and 5 percent

apply to items ranging from frozen

CHINA,PageD2

Consumers

apt to feel

escalation

of trade war

INSIDE

LABOR

Apps bringing gig economy

to restaurant work.D3.

TALKING POINTS

Rhode Island gets $19 million

for infrastructure work.D3.

By Diana Cai

STAT

I

n the landlocked sub-Saharan country of Malawi, often only

land separates wells for drinking water from sewage in toilet

pits.

Cholera, a highly contagious bacterial disease found in con-

taminated water, becomes a concern when that dividing line

disappears during each year’s rainy season. A natural disaster

like Cyclone Idai, which struck in March and devastated parts

of three countries, makes identifying clean water even more urgent.

When UNICEF and Brazilian cholerascientists arrived to test sam-

ples just days after the cyclone hit, they needed a local partner who

was up to the task.

They found one in Gama Bandawe and his lab at the Malawi Uni-

versity of Science and Technology. Just four months earlier, Bandawe

had unpacked a 20-foot container filled with the testing equipment

he needed from Seeding Labs, a Boston nonprofit organization that

collects lab equipment in high-income countries and redistributes it

at a lower cost to labs in low- and middle-income countries.

“We were able to show them, here are our laboratories, and here’s

the equipment that we have. The next day, samples started arriving,”

said Bandawe, the head of biological sciences at the university. He be-

lieves it was the equipment his lab had — that other labs lacked —

that made his suitable for the project.

“It was magical,” Bandawe recalled when he and his students un-

loaded the shipment from Seeding Labs and outfitted the lab.

The idea for Seeding Labs began when Nina Dudnik, the founder

and former CEO, returned to the United States after conducting re-

search as a Fulbright scholar in a sparsely equipped lab in Côte d’Ivo-

ire. After starting graduate school in 2001, Dudnik and her friends

formed a student group to raise awareness of research being conduct-

ed abroad. They thought about how they could help scientists in

emerging economies conduct their research more effectively.

SEEDINGLABS,PageD2

KAYANA SZYMCZAK FOR STAT

Candido Silva

(top) readied

lab gear last

month for

shipment to

Nigeria. Above,

Gama Bandawe

(rear center)

and colleagues

in their Malawi

laboratory. At

left, Enoch

Achigan-Dako

instructed

students about

“miracle berry”

cultivation.

Delivering

on a promise

Boston-based Seeding Labs

distributes usedlabequipmentto

researchersinlower-income countries