Dynopalooza, a virtual concert featuring several up-and-coming BU musicians, will raise money for the Boston-based nonprofit Hyde Square Task Force, which supports underserved youth. The concert takes place Saturday, May 8, starting at 5 pm.
you know one thing we haven t really talked about is what it s going to be like for these kids to go back to school. so many of their classmates are gone. so what s the school going to look like when they finally do go back to class? it s going to be nearly impossible for them to recuperate. definitely. what a story. tens of thousands of runners set for today s 118th boston marathon. the victims of last year s attack were honored last night at fenway park before the red sox game. the tribute includes large banners, one from every state, stretched out across the outfield. earlier runners were offered a policing ahead of that 26.2 mile effort. the marathon is held on patriots day, a state holiday in massachusetts. officials want it to be a festive occasion but make no mistake, law enforcement will be working overtime today to make sure nothing like last year takes place. abc s brian ross investigates in boston. reporter: the city seems in a festive mood with a record number of
inside what s known as the bunker, the underground high-tech control room where kurt schwartz, director of the state s emergency management agency, showed us around. more than 100 newly installed cameras along the 26.2-mile route will be monitored, twice as many as last year. we have expanded across the board. reporter: last year, surveillance cameras helped to pinpoint the alleged bombers but only days after the attack. the challenge this year is to stop any possible attack before it happens. anything of trouble, any person that s presenting a concern to us, may be monitored very quickly. reporter: in addition to the cameras, some 4,000 police officers will be on patrol along the route. 500 of them will be undercover in an effort to keep the festive spirit from being overwhelmed by the police. i don t want it to be an armed camp, that people feel intimidated by the police presence. reporter: boston s new police commissioner, bill evans, a runner himself who was in last
intimidated by the police presence. reporter: for people who were directly impacted by the bombing, it will be a day freighted with emotion. heather abbott, who lost the lower part of her left leg when the second bomb went off, will run the last half mile alongside a woman, a complete stranger at the time, who found her on the ground and helped save her life. do you have a sense of what that s going to feel like for you? i can only imagine that it s going to feel very invigorating and sort of like a sense of closure. you know, having her at that event last year in a much different position, knowing that i can run again, partly because she helped me. reporter: i think it s safe to say there are two top priorities for the 118th running of the boston marathon. one, safety, of course. two, showing the world that even though boston got knocked down last year, this year it is back up and stronger than ever. dan harris, abc news, at the
year s marathon, will be on duty all day this year. what will you be looking for? well, i think, you know, we ll be looking for somebody who just doesn t feel right. the characteristics. a lot of the officers underwent training looking at the characteristics of someone who might be carrying explosives. reporter: evans officers have already put their training to the test. when a mentally unstable person was spotted during a memorial tribute this past week with a backpack that turned out to have a rice cooker with confetti in it. it was a hoax but the bomb squad was taking no chances. it was a nice drill. we did what we were trained to do. reporter: the winners of last year s marathon from ethiopia and kenya were all but forgotten because of the bomb attacks. but they re both back this year. i came here to support, yeah. reporter: to support boston. you re not scared about running? no, i m not. okay, i m not scared because i know that there is security. reporter: brian r