Essex Happenings, JUNE 15, 2011

Essex Happenings…June 15 ESSEX HERITAGE ACTIVITIES SECRETARY OF STATE WILLIAM GALVIN PRESENTED 2012 HISTORIC PRESERVATION AWARD TO ANNIE C. HARRIS Secretary of the Commonwealth William Francis Galvin, Chairman of the Massachusetts Historical Commission, presented an award to Annie C. Harris, to receive the Massachusetts Historical Commission’s 2012 Individual Lifetime Achievement Award. “The Massachusetts Historical Commission is proud to recognize the extraordinary accomplishments of this year’s awardees,” said Secretary Galvin. “For nearly 40 years, Ms. Harris has demonstrated outstanding preservation leadership and innovation at the local, state, and national levels, and has made significant contributions to the preservation of the Commonwealth’s historic resources.” Annie C. Harris received her Masters of Architecture from MIT and an MBA from Harvard. She began her career in Lowell, where, as part of the early Lowell Plan study team, she helped create the city’s innovative, urban National Historical Park. Then, Ms. Harris worked for the Crowninshield Corporation, an early leader in adaptive reuse and historic preservation, and in the City of Boston, where she specialized in federal historic rehabilitation tax credit projects. She later switched to the nonprofit sector, becoming the third executive director of The Salem Partnership, a public-private alliance that facilitates collaboration between businesses, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies to promote projects that restore and revitalize Salem’s historic assets. The Salem Partnership, under Ms. Harris’s direction, assisted in the expansion of the Maritime National Historic Site’s boundaries, development of the National Park Service’s Regional Visitor Center in Salem, restoration of the historic Derby and Central Wharves, and construction of the replica tall ship Friendship. Under the auspices of the Salem Partnership, Ms. Harris led the effort to create the Essex National Heritage Area—comprised of the 34 communities of Essex County—which was officially designated by the U.S. Congress in 1996. The Essex National Heritage Area formed its own management corporation in 1997, with Ms. Harris as the founding Executive Director of the Essex National Heritage Commission, where she remains today. The National Heritage Area and its affiliated commission oversee projects that preserve, promote, and protect the region’s historic structures, scenic roadways, maritime resources, and archival materials. Ms. Harris also serves in a national leadership position as the Vice President of the Executive Committee of the Alliance of National Heritage Areas. In November 2010, she was appointed for a two-year term to the Planning Committee of the National Park System Advisory Board. Ms. Harris has been active for many years in civic and community organizations around Salem and the North Shore, and has been on many committees and boards. She served for twelve years on the Salem Historical Commission—for six as its chair—and has lived in the McIntire Historic District in Salem for more than 30 years. This is the 34th year of MHC’s Preservation Awards program. Projects are considered annually for awards in the categories of Rehabilitation and Restoration, Adaptive Reuse, Education and Outreach, Archaeology, Stewardship, and Landscape Preservation. Individuals are considered in the categories of Individual Lifetime Achievement and Local Preservationist. Secretary Galvin serves as the chair of the 17-member Massachusetts Historical Commission. Secretary Galvin will present the awards at an afternoon ceremony on May 30, 2012, at the Massachusetts Archives Building at 220 Morrissey Blvd., Dorchester. Ms. Harris is one of 12 individuals, projects, and organizations to be honored. The Massachusetts Historical Commission is the office of the State Historic Preservation Officer and the State Archaeologist. It was established in 1963 to identify, evaluate, and protect important historical and archaeological assets of the Commonwealth. Visit our website to learn more about the Commission’s programs. ENHC PARTNERS: COMMUNITY AND ORGANIZATIONAL Danvers Family Festival Baron Mayer Award I am very pleased that the organizers of the Danvers Family Festival have named a Barron Mayer Award winner for 2012. I will not be able to attend the dinner when she will receive the award, so I have sent the following message to be read at the dinner to honor Anna Bertini. Anna, I want to offer you my warmest congratulations on being named the 2012 Baron Mayer Award. You are a most worthy and deserving recipient of the award. Your efforts to make this community a better place for all of us to live, work and enjoy has been exemplary and I am proud that my name and yours will be linked as Baron Mayer Award winners in the future. It is most unfortunate for me to say, but I find the location of your award presentation very difficult for me to attend and I wanted to offer my congratulation in this manner. I wish you continuing good luck in the future and I am certain that you will continue to be a wonderful participating member of this community for years to come. Thomas M. Leonard. 2011 Baron Mayer Award Winner Garden Dedication at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital Last year, just after I was discharged from Spaulding-North Hospital, a project to create a healing garden at that location was undertaken. As a result of the help and treatments received at the hospital, my wife and I decided to provide support of that project. The work is now complete and the garden was dedicated earlier this month. We were invited to the dedication ceremony and were most pleased with the way the garden was completed. It is a wonderful addition to the hospital facility and will be a welcome addition for many patients. Boys and Girls Club Artists The artists from the Boys and Girls Club in conjunction with the Peabody Essex Museum and the North Shore Community Development Corporation have created a mural for the Salem Point area that will be viewed and dedicated on June 12, 2012. For more information, contact the club at 978 744 0915 or at www.bgcgs.org. More information from North Shore Elder Services COMMUNITY HEATH AND ELDERLY AFFAIRS Annual Senior Picnic in Danvers The Family Festival Senior Picnic will be held on Tuesday, June 26th from 11 AM-2 PM at the Danvers Council on Aging, 25 Stone Street. Danvers residents, age 60 and older, are invited to enjoy a wonderful luncheon of – grilled sausage with pepper and onions, marinated chicken kabobs, homemade rice pilaf, cole slaw, hot fudge or strawberry sundaes. Tickets are $5.00 each and will be available beginning Friday, June 1st at 10 AM. There will be open seating (both indoors and out) for this event. Entertainment presented by the legendary Paul Wayne. The Kiwanis Club of Danvers will assist with cooking and serving, as always! This event sells out every year, so get your tickets early! 7th Annual World Elder Abuse Awareness Day Elder abuse, like domestic violence and child abuse, comes in many forms. Experts recognize it, as a public health crisis for which there is no socio-economic borders. Millions of older Americans are abused, neglected, or exploited each year with an estimated 84% of the cases going unreported. However, June provides a great opportunity to shed light on the problem of elder abuse and generate support for your programs and services. June 15th has been designated as World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, with 2012 marking the 7th anniversary of World Day. This year the White House Office of Public Engagement, in collaboration with federal partners from the Administration for Community Living/Department of Health and Human Services, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Department of Justice, is hosting a daylong symposium in recognition of the 7th annual World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. The event is being held the White House on June 14, 2012 to highlight the problem of elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation. This historic event will bring together public and private partners with key roles in addressing financial exploitation from across the nation, including the unique role that financial exploitation plays in the wider problem of elder abuse PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS Life Celebration of a Former Bank Executive Last week I attended a celebration of life for a former boss and the President and CEO of the Salem Five Bank. He was President of the bank for about half of the forty years that community bank employed me. Al Cole replaced the President who hired me and was quite a bit different than that president. Al was much more participatory in the day-to-day business of the bank. The life and accomplishments of Alton P. Cole was celebrated at a gathering with many former and present bank employees and several of his family members at the Hawthorne Hotel in Salem. Al was the leader of the bank for twenty years and helped create the road towards community participation that is so prevalent today. He was also responsible for creating an Eastern Massachusetts mortgage origination strategy. That strategy continues today as the Salem Five Mortgage Company Is still one of the leading mortgage origination firms in the Commonwealth. Al was a great leader and at the same time was a good friend. It was under Al’s leadership that this bank under took the creation and development of the Pickering Wharf project that many believed could have been responsible for the current resurgence of the waterfront in Salem and the expansion of the Salem Maritime Historic Site. His influence was not limited just to Salem as he served as the volunteer president of a regional organization, The North Shore Economic Council for Economic Development that was a forerunner of the North Shore Economic Alliance recently organized by the college institutions in this region. He lured Robert Curtis, the then long term Town Manager of the Town of Danvers to lead the organization and provided space in a bank owned property to house the Council. The work accomplished by that organization may have been a bit ahead of its time, but the work accomplished by that group, laid the groundwork for regional groups including Essex Heritage that followed the accomplished regional objectives of the North Shore Economic Council. He is survived by his wife and three sons and a stepdaughter, several of whom who were in attendance at the celebration service. Mr. Cole was a graduate of Bowdoin College in Maine and served in the United States Navy during World War Two. He was employed by several banks in the state including a bank in Worcester where he worked before he came to Salem. He has lived since his retirement at Hilton Head in South Carolina, but during the summers, he would often come back to visit his roots in New England. Al was an avid golfer and enjoyed sports of all kinds. I greatly enjoyed my participation with Al and feel strongly that he was a great leader for a community bank and an entire community. He made the organization, warm and caring, but at the same time the bank was competitive and most businesslike, and provided aggressive programs that provided excellent banking services to the residents of this region. Al Cole was a most committed mutual savings banker and was a strong contributor to the economy and the growth of the City of Salem, and will long be fondly remembered by those of us who worked with him and benefited from his leadership. He made this community stronger when he was the leader of the Salem Five Cents Savings Bank as it was then known and certainly was a contributor to the life of the City of Salem during his tenure at the bank. 50TH Wedding Anniversary My wife and I recently celebrated five decades of marriage at an informal event organized by our two sons held before about 50 members of out family and many long term personal friends including some members of our wedding party. The event included a mass celebrated by an old childhood friend, Father John O’Donnell followed by a brunch all held on the campus of St. John’s Prep. We are most appreciative of the generosity of the Xaverian Brothers and the current Headmaster and staff for their help in making this event so special. We wanted no gifts so we asked for and received many contributions from guests to the Danvers Food Pantry and the St. john’s Prep Scholarship Fund. After the recent award program offered by Essex Heritage and now this initiative organized by out two sons, we want no more special events for either of us. Celebration in Topsfield On a most inclement afternoon on Saturday, June 2, 2012, we attended an open house at a condominium project in Topsfield. The developers were in attendance at the Essex Heritage Hero event and invited Marge and I, to a clambake to help promote their real estate effort. The project called English Commons at Topsfield was most impressive and we enjoyed speaking with several people that we have known for many years. The event was most enjoyable although it took a substantial effort to attend with all of the rain that fell during our visit.