Garballey, a School Committee member for three years and a Town Meeting member for five, said he has proved he can work with others, citing “accountability and transparency.” The UMass/Lowell graduate who is a graduate student said he would work to restore local aid and rebuild Thompson and Stratton.

He concluded: “Is age the only measure of wisdom and integrity?”

O’Brien, who called himself Andy, said: “Most don’t know me, but many children do.” The Arlington resident said he has been a substitute teacher for three years. “We face unpopular choices,” he said.

Thielman noted that in 1985, when he was president of the student body at Boston College, the school’s president, Father Monan, referred him to the Rev. Robert Drinan, known for his anti-Vietnam War protests. Thielman wanted to go to law school, but Father Drinan told him: “The poor need you, and you need them; you can always be a lawyer.” Thielman went to Peru, where he helped build schools for the poor -- work he continued after BC law School.

"I can be an agent of change for Arlington and Medford,” he said.

Valeri, a lifelong Arlington resident, said he has “planned an elaborate speech, but I decided to tell a story.” The account concluded that “people were discouraged and didn’t want to vote.” He said: “I plan to truly represent people.”

Worden, in a deep radio voice familiar to Town Meeting members, quoted Martin Luther King: “’Life’s most urgent question is – what are you doing for others?’” He began to describe how he has answered that question for four decades but stopped. To some of those who chuckled, it must have seemed as if he were cutting short a Town Meeting orator.

The cost of healthcare is too high because of insurance companies, and “that a disgrace,” he said.