Virginia C. Wood - Biography
Virginia Wood, of Groton, declared her candidacy for State Representative of the 1st Middlesex District on December 16, 2007. The First Middlesex District is comprised of the towns of Groton, Townsend, Ayer, Pepperell and Dunstable.
Recognizing that our communities are faced with some very serious fiscal challenges, including the struggle over how to pay for town services, school budgets requiring overrides, a weakened local economy and state initiatives that usurp local control and mandate distribution of fiscal resources, Virginia decided that her unique background and training would help at the State level to bring solutions to these troubling issues.
Virginia was raised in the town of Sherborn, Massachusetts. The youngest of four children, her parent's instilled in her the important qualities of confidence, community service and civic involvement. Her mother, also Virginia Wood, a special education teacher, worked with inner city children suffering from emotional and educational disabilities. Virginia's father, John Wood, worked as an investment counselor. He was a partner of Standish Ayer and Wood for most of his life. When not at work, he also volunteered for the Town serving on the finance committee and zoning board of appeals for a number of years. John and Virginia were always very active politically.
Virginia's father was also famous for his weekend work crews, which his children came to refer to as "King Kong Slave Labor Camp". Weekends were spent cutting, splitting or stacking wood, or doing some other hard manual labor. Virginia's father made all the children work hard taking care of the property which included a large organic vegetable garden and numerous four legged animals. Being a girl was no excuse for not knowing how to run a chain saw, use an ax, or stack a cord or two of wood. The house had 12 fireplaces and wood stoves, so making sure the supply of wood was ready for the next year was a daily chore.
It was through her parents that Virginia developed her love of politics. The first campaign she worked on was for her Republican neighbor George Sprague who was running for re-election as a State Representative. In 7th grade, Virginia helped knock on doors with Mr. Sprague's wife, attend political teas, hand out bumper stickers and put up lawn signs.
The next campaign Virginia worked on was for John Anderson who was running as an independent for president. While attending Phillips Academy Andover, Virginia spent many weekends on street corners collecting signatures to get the candidate on the ballot.
From Andover, Virginia attended Colby College in Waterville Maine. There she majored in government and economics. It was in Maine, that Virginia became aware of the environmental movement. Upon graduation, Virginia moved to Washington DC and went to work for Greenpeace USA. Virginia found that while Greenpeace's tactics brought beneficial attention to many environmental problems, at the time, they did little to develop solutions to the problems. Virginia decided to attend Babson Graduate School of Business where she developed the skills necessary to work within the system to bring about long run change.
After graduating from Babson, Virginia and her husband moved to Groton where she took a job with the Fundamental Action to Conserve Energy (FACE) in Fitchburg. As part of a new community, Virginia felt it was important to get involved. She ran for and won a seat on the Planning Board. When Fitchburg's local utility was bought and the energy conservation programs that FACE had been running (in collaboration with the utility) were phased out, Virginia took a job with the City of Fitchburg.
Virginia's work with the City included helping community organizations and leaders in the administration of Block Grants to improve poor impoverished neighborhoods. She had additional success writing grants for the City. Working for the City, Virginia saw how government can have a positive impact to help those who lack the resources to help themselves.
It was during this time, fourteen years ago, that Virginia decided to run for State Representative, the same seat she is seeking today. Although she was not victorious in the results, she felt she was victorious in the positive manner in which she conducted her campaign.
Shortly thereafter, Virginia bought Ken's American Café with her husband, and she redirected her attentions to getting the new business off the ground. Still a member of the Planning board, the pending sale of Gibbett Hill caught Virginia's attention and her desire to assist in saving this scenic vista made her decide to run for Selectman. Virginia served two terms as a Selectman for the Town of Groton in addition to her previous seven years on the Planning Board. Virginia was passionate about being a selectman and enjoyed working as a part of a team to solve problems. During her second term, she worked hard to help the Board develop goals and objectives with measurable benchmarks. During Virginia's tenure, the Board had a number of accomplishments, and laid a solid foundation for the future.
Since the fall of 2003, Virginia has stepped back from politics in order to devote her full attention to running Ken's American Café. Now with the hiring of a new chef/manager who will run the restaurant, Virginia is in a position to return to the political life that she has missed.