Essex Heritage Events and Activities
Upcoming Events
Essex Heritage Photo Safari
featuring Tamron
Saturday, June 1, 2013 • 8am -
12pm
REGISTER at
www.essexheritage.org
The Cox Reservation
82 Eastern Avenue, Essex, MA 01929
Capture magnificent views of the Great Marsh, the Essex River, the back
of Crane Beach, and Castle Hill and Choate Island from the Cox
Reservation! Reservations required.
Click here www.essexheritage.org or
more information about the Photo Safari program & to register online.
Saturday, June 1, 2013 • 9:00am
- 12:00pm
Featured Partner Event
Essex County Greenbelt Association
Presents:
Celebrate National Trails
Day, Barrett Reservation, Middleton
Celebrate National Trails Day by helping to construct a new path
through the woods at the Barrett Reservation, Middleton. Work boots and
enthusiasm welcome! Stay tuned for more information and to get driving
directions. Reservations required. This
event is free, but please email ecga@ecga.org or call Greenbelt at 978-768-7241
to register.
June 14 - 16, 2013 - Essex
County Greenbelt Association Presents 24th Annual Art in the Barn Weekend - Featured
Partner Event
Cox Reservation
82 Eastern Avenue, Essex, MA 01929
Mark your calendars! Art in the Barn, an art show benefitting Essex
County Greenbelt, will be held June 14-16 at the Allyn Cox Reservation in
Essex. Enjoy this weekend long exhibition and sale! Proceeds benefit
Greenbelt’s land conservation efforts. $5.00 one-time parking fee.
Click here to learn more about this event www.ecga.org
Wednesday, June 19, 2013 •
7:00pm - Featured Partner Event
The House of the Seven Gables
Presents:
Seven Lectures at The
Seven Gables: Giles Laroche
115
Derby Street, Salem, MA 01970
Salem’s noted children’s author and illustrator will delight the
audience (young and old) with demo of his art form, discussion and reading of
his latest book “If You Lived Here - Houses of the World.
Reservations recommended. Essex Heritage and Seven Gables Members $10;
Non-Members $15. Please email sweber@7gables.org or call The House of the Seven
Gables at 978-744-0991 ext. 104 to reserve your seats.
Regional Matters
Mayor Bill Scanlon
Accomplishments
In my last posting in this BLOG, I reported on the decision of Mayor
Bill Scanlon to retire from public service.
That decision is an important one for this region and I want to
reiterate on that decision in a little more detail. I have
known Bill for a number of years ever since I spent a very enjoyable year
coaching his son Bart on a youth hockey in the Town of Danvers. Bill will be missed as the Chief Executive of
the City of Beverly. He has been a great
leader of that community and has stabilized the financial condition in the
city. He has been a great advocate of
community cooperation and has cooperated whenever a regional effort that could
make the Garden City into a more efficient entity and worked diligently to
reduce costs by working collectively with other communities in the region. Bill has been an early and most committed
member of this regional community whenever the work of Essex Heritage was being
considered. The wonderful collection of
businesses that now populate the property that came to Beverly to restore and
update the United Shoe Machinery complex now known as the Cummings Center would
not have been possible without the forward thinking and vision that Bill
Scanlon exhibited. That facility has
brought a new energy and vitality to the North Shore community that he managed
through nine terms in office. He has
also worked for a number of years with the Commonwealth on the creation of a
traffic interchange in the North Shore Music Theater area. This improvement seems poised to be developed
and will open another tract of land that will certainly improve economic
conditions in the community that he has led for two decades in the near
term. Bill will be missed, but one only
must observe his achievements to measure his value to the City of Beverly.
Strong Local support For Bombing
Victims
Since the bombs exploded in Boston 10 days ago the city, the region has
mobilized in support of those impacted.
In a recent edition of the Salem News I saw three large ad setups
indicating that three members of the Essex Heritage Corporate membership team,
C. P. Berry Homes in Topsfield, North Shore Bank headquartered in Danvers and
Institution for Savings in Newburyport produced ads indicating their support of
the One Fund and by their participation urging individual support. I suspect that there are other participating
Essex Heritage Corporate members that have also supported these efforts as
well.
There is another contributor to the effort that focused its support
particularly directed towards the family of Martin Richard the young boy killed
by one of the bombs. Young Martin’s dad
Bill grew up in Salem. E. W. Hobbs who offers popcorn, ice cream and
candy kisses from their iconic location at the Salem Willows held a fundraiser
on a recent Saturday when all of the proceeds from the sale of the world
renowned popcorn sold that totaled over $14, 850.00 was contributed to the
Salem Five Fund for the family.
Since the time that I was a youth in Salem, during three of the summers
when I was in high school in the early 1950’s at St. John’s Prep I worked
preparing popcorn and scooping ice cream at that location. Ever since that time spring does not
officially begin until I can enjoy my first box of popcorn from Hobbs’s. The time this year has passed, but we needed
a refill and went to the willows to purchase a bag for our home. We were unaware of the effort of Charlie
Hobbs to raise funds and were turned away by the unbelievable, incredible line
that was purchasing bags, boxes or vouchers for popcorn. My wife did not stand in the line and for
that we are sorry. Congratulations to
the folks at Hobbs Emporium that sold over one thousand bags or vouchers for
future pickup for their sensational effort for a most worthy cause.
Salem State University Honored
for Community Service
Salem State University, its leadership, student and staff has been
identified and recognized for its commitment to volunteerism, service learning
and most importantly community involvement.
The university has been named to the 2013 President’s Community Service
Honor Roll that recognizes the university nationally. Some of the community programs identified
their involvement with students from the Ford School in Lynn and commitments to
local community service organizations like the Salem Partnership, regional
groups like the Essex Heritage and North Shore Chamber of Commerce.
City of Gloucester Approves
Second Cultural District
The City of Gloucester has announced that the Massachusetts Cultural
District is making the fishing community the first community in the
Commonwealth to have two designated cultural districts. Previously the Council
had approved the Rocky Neck region of the community a cultural district. According to the Massachusetts Cultural
Council web site at www.massachsettsculturalcouncil.org these districts are
attracting tourism, local artists and job opportunities. In addition to the two Gloucester cultural
districts, Cape Ann also has two other identified cultural districts in
Rockport (downtown near Dock Square and the Essex River Cultural District in
Essex. These locations certainly add to
the charm and allure of this region and are part of the reason Essex Heritage
takes such great pride in promoting.
This region is a place for tourism visitation growth and the economic
advantages to the Commonwealth, Cape Ann and the entire Essex National Heritage
Area.
Danvers Finance Committee
Hearings Begin
Late in April hearings began by the Danvers Finance Committee to make
adjustments or to offer approvals of the Danvers department budgets before they
are presented to the Town Meeting for final approval. In due course all of the administrative
elements that make up the General Government budget and the spending plans of
the Danvers School and the regional budget of the Technical and Agricultural
School as it pertains to the apportionment attribute to Danvers was approved or
adjusted. The process is not without
some measured and thoughtful questions on certain budgets. This year there was an attempt to reduce the
school district budget and to bring its total more in line with the level of
increases in the general government budget.
Those two budgets were followed by detailed presentations by the Police
and Fire Departments and the Public Works Departments. Those presentations were followed by a number
of Warrant articles that needed exposure.
In general the finance committee hearings were well run by the town
leadership, Chairman Sweeney and the presentation of the deliberations as
delivered to the Town Meeting appears to be ready.
Danvers Swamp Walk
I recently received an e-mail from George Saluto who with his crew has
accomplished so much with the Danvers Swamp Walk. The project is an excellent
one and whatever we could do to help support their efforts would be most
worthwhile.
Here is a brief update from George:
We have completed
the Danvers-Wenham Swampwalk. We have raised about $40,000-but have depleted
our piggy bank. Thanks in part for a grant from Essex Heritage, we have been
able to fund three 'SwampWalk' directional signs on the Rail-Trail that bear
the ENHA logo. We still have a final, unfinanced need for extensive
interpretive signage.
Medical, Senior’s and Disability Matters
COPAA
The following information was provided by the Cornell Orthotics and
Prostheses Amputee Association (COPAA) Sent to Her Membership Concerning
Bombing Disabilities. I am happy and
proud to be an active member of this group.
I want to bring you
up to date on what we are doing as the COPAA and as a partner of the Amputee
Coalition of America. As I advised
before, Director Rose Bissonnette has been asked by the ACA to be the Peer
Visitor Facilitator for Massachusetts to coordinate visits to help the victims
of the bombings last Monday who lost limbs. She contacted me Tuesday afternoon
and she asked me to be one of those who might help. I immediately brought you all up to date and
I have tried to keep you all informed as we go along and as I hear from Rose.
First of all, I have
had an outpouring of offers from many of you.
I do so appreciate how many have asked how they can help these latest
victims of limb loss. I know we all feel helpless, but also we each share
something with each of these folks. We want to reach out, to help, to tell our
story and to let them know that there is hope after amputation. Many of us have
gone on after our amputation to return to activities we did before we lost our
limb. Many are as active if not more now. I know how important we feel to let
others know that, and it is going to be helpful as time goes on even more. Right now, of course, though, it's not about
us, but about the victims and their story and the best thing we can do is be
there for them, listen and help them with their first step in their
journey. That will be the first step
that we need to take as we try to help these folks who have lost limbs so
catastrophically and so tragically. Helping them find their way on their
journey will be a delicate and sensitive task, but I think we have some pretty
incredible members in our association and I know Rose will have others who will
be just as incredible. For most of us,
we are giving these bombing victims more help and better information than any
of us received when we lost our limbs. Be proud of the work we have done in our
COPAA to get to that point!
I want to thank all
of you who responded and assure all of you that I have submitted a list of all
who offered to help into Rose tonight. She will then sort through them, take
the information sent to her, and notify us when we will be needed. It won't be
right away, as this has been a traumatic event, which the victims need to deal
with before anything else. Their road to recovery will begin once they get sent
to rehabs or when they are settled in the hospital awaiting other medical
issues to heal. It might be next week or
the week after or beyond. That is when
they will most need us. We will wait until the time is right, when some healing
has started. For some, the healing will
require a lifetime.
The plan is to pair
a civilian amputee Peer Visitor with Veteran amputees from the military who
have also volunteered to help. Both will
be with one patient to give two perspectives.
I will keep you all
updated as I hear of more developments. So far they are reporting 14
amputations, with more anticipated in the coming days/weeks.
I am incredibly
proud to represent this wonderful Association. I want to thank every one of you
who have made an offer to help. I can assure you we are all being considered
based on ACA criteria. The process will also include a CORI check, of course,
and so a lot of paperwork will need to be done early. If you volunteered you will probably hear
from Rose directly, but she may contact me. I have forwarded all your contact
information to her for her consideration.
Thank you to all who
stepped up. To the rest of you, I hope you all are doing the best you can in
your own daily lives. I will keep you all posted. Your support is greatly
appreciated.
Also, you should
know that not only am I keeping Keith Cornell up on what I know, but also he is
in the loop with many others in his field. He is also very busy doing his part
to help, and he is grateful as well to all of you who have volunteered.
Our sister group at
Whittier in Haverhill, MA may see an increase in their patient load with Boston
Marathon bombing victims. We send along to them our thoughts now as they gear
up to prepare to take patients at some point along the way. As you may or may
not know, Whittier is an excellent wound care facility as well as having Keith
and his lab there on site. Needless to say, they also are a fantastic,
multi-faceted hospital and rehab. Any patients who go there will receive the
best of complete patient care.
Thank you all again
and I am here for anyone who wishes to talk or has questions. For those who
cannot volunteer to go in, please know that your thoughts and prayers for the
victims and for those of us who are going in will be greatly appreciated as we
find the right words for these difficult times.
May God Bless you
all! “Posie” Mansfield
Globe OP ED Article on
Amputations in the Boston Globe Sunday Edition
In light of the Marathon bombing and the fact that over 250 were
injured and 14 people are now amputees, The Boston Globe Sunday edition offered
a most interesting and informative opinion piece that focused on a member of
the Globe staff (Beverly Cronin) that has been an amputee since shortly after
birth for forty-five years, but is a staunch advocate that she is not
disabled. She outlines in her opinion
piece how important it is to maintain an inner strength and continue with
life’s pursuits. Her passion is for
swimming where she has become competitive. Her story was inspiring and was well
presented. In light of the opening and
movement of current patients to the new Spaulding Hospital Rehabilitation
hospital on the waterfront in Charlestown made the column even more topical.
North Andover Speaker Series
presented Information on Mental Health
On May 7th the North Andover speaker series presented a workshop for
youth and teenagers on anxiety and depression.
The program outlined behavior patterns that precede depression. The presentation was most timely and
provided much current information on a persistent problem in many communities
around the region.
People in the News
Former 8 year mayor and long time State Senator from Lynn “Chip” Clancy
has received permission to bring a law suit in State courts against the City of
Lynn for over $35,000 in salary and other benefits. This event and that fight could make the
election when he lost in a recount to the present Lynn CEO look tame by
comparison.
Personal Observations
Area SAT Scores Released are
Results considered
In late April 2013, The Boston Globe North released a list of average
SAT score achieved by students registered in communities north of Boston. The list included a number of communities
outside the borders of Essex Heritage and the list provided no eye-opening
revelations and the confirmations of the communities with elite educational
opportunities produced no surprises. The
average scores in the vast majority of Essex Heritage communities averaged
between 1500 and 1650, and the top communities averaged between 1550 and
1700. One did not need to analyze
those recent SAT scores to identify the elite communities as other factors are
in play. There are several of those communities that have boasted of academic
excellence over the years and they are easily identified. There are a few communities that have been
plagued by financial difficulties and have diverse populations of school age
youth who are trying to learn and gain an understanding English. The tests in these communities have resulted
in slightly lower averages. The Commonwealth educational agencies have long
attempted to help those communities. There
are clear choices that can be made if one is seeking a new community where they
would like to live and have their offspring educated.
Primary Election Results for
Open Senate Seat Complete
At the end of April, the primary
election for the Senate seat vacated by John Kerry, in his new role as
Secretary of State, was completed and the two parties have candidates for the
general election scheduled for June 25. 2013.
Regardless of party affiliations don’t forget to cast your vote in that
special election between Ed Markey and Gabriel Gomez and that election should
be most contested.
On the local level a number of communities have scheduled town
elections for selectpersons during the month of May and we urge voting in those
contests as well as in many ways the volunteer leadership of the local communities
will be chosen.
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