5 Things You Need to Know Today: May 17

1. Leadership MetroWest  has about a dozen seats left for its Thursday, May 19, Leadership Roundtable from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. at the McCarthy College Center, Framingham State University. (No school - lots of parking!) The topic will be Boomers & Millennials: Collisions and Collaborations. Leadership MetroWest is a non-profit organization promoting civic engagement and informed community leadership in MetroWest. The Roundtable Series is part of activities marking the 25th graduating class from the Leadership Academy. No speeches. No power point. Capitalize on the powerful skills each generation brings to work and share your thoughts. Businesspeople, municipal officials, small business owners, corporate professionals and members of community organizations are welcome! $35 fee.

2. What if you could tell everybody in Hopkinton about something? What would you say? Start a blog on Hopkinton Patch or tell us about a blog you already have and we'll pull a feed from it so you'll get a few more readers. Gene.cassidy@patch.com for details.

3. Did you know the Revs U-16s (and U-18s) played in Hopkinton Saturday, May 14? The U-16s defeated another Mass. club, South Central Premier, 2-0 at the Fruit Street fields. New Hampshire's Peguy Ngatcha scored in the 18th minute on a cross from Hopkinton midfielder Jack Hilger. Goalkeeper David Hepp, from Natick,  got his fourth shutout of the season.

4. Clean the bottom of your boat. The Department of Conservation and Recreation has set aside $71,000 to pay for eight full-time boat ramp monitors to watch for zebra mussels attached to hulls. The monitors will be stationed at seven lakes from late May through early September. A zebra mussel is a highly aggressive freshwater mollusk that can cripple an ecosystem and endanger native fish and plants. It can be carried from one body of water to another on a boat hull. Boaters can use hot water, steam, Lysol, bleach or vinegar to decontaminate their hulls. Hulls left out in freezing weather for the winter are decontaminated. There have been no zebra mussel findings in the eastern part of the state. Sightings from 2009 in the Connecticut River watershed were contained. For more information call the DCR Lakes and Ponds Program at 617-626-1250 or click this link. 

5. (From HHSPress.org) Student reporter Sean Pettepit writes that Splatter Cactus, a Hopkinton ska band, will play their first major performance at Exposurefest on May 21st at the Worcester Palladium all-ages venue, 261 Main St.  The seven-piece band plays covers and composes their own material. Splatter Cactus includes Hopkinton High School students Lucas Carbonneau (guitar), Ben Hall (bass), Dan Quigley (vocals), Tyler Mourey (guitar), Joey Grabmeier (drums), Ryan Hendry (horns) and Joe Barra (saxophone). More than 1,000 people are expected at the Palladium show. Band members say they want to play in front of people as much as possible through the summer before some of the members leave for college. Ska, which is bouncy dance music, originated in Jamaica before gaining popularity in England and landing in the U.S. in the '90s.