I am pleased to continue to offer information on the activities and
events of the valuable Essex Heritage organization and the work that they do
for the region.
Essex
National Heritage Area Activities
Event Calendar
July
7, 2014 to July 11, 2014 • North Andover Historical Society, 153 Academy Road,
North Andover, MA -This summer, send your children on an historic journey!
August 2, 2014
• Salem Maritime National Historic Site, 193 Derby Street, Salem, MA
Celebrate Four
Centuries of Salem's Maritime Heritage!
August 4, 2014
to August 8, 2014 • Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site, 244 Central
Street, Saugus, MA. Space
is now full for summer 2014. Park for Every Classroom is a FREE
professional development program for K-12 educators of all disciplines.
August 4, 2014
to August 8, 2014 • North Andover Historical Society, 153 Academy Road, North
Andover, MA. This
July and August the North Andover Historical Society will once again
present its legendary summer day camp -- Adventures in Time. A summer
enrichment program for boys and girls, ages 7-13 (suggested).
August 9, 2014
• Appleton Farms, The Trustees of the Reservations, 219 County Road, Ipswich,
MA. With a
state-of-the-art digital camera in hand, capture Appleton Farms, considered to be the oldest continuously
operating farm in the United States.
August 20,
2014 • The House of the Seven Gables, United States, 115 Derby Street, Salem,
MA. Enjoy a
night of history as author Matthew Thomas takes us back to colonial days in New
England when locals defended their land.
Essex
Heritage News
New Essex Heritage Commissioners
Elected
At the Annual Spring Meeting of the Essex National Heritage Commission
on April 30, eleven community representatives were elected to serve on the
Commission, each for a three year term.
These regional leaders serve as “the eyes and ears” of their communities,
organizations or businesses and act a sounding board to test and create new
initiatives at Essex Heritage.
The Essex National Heritage
Commission is supported by a volunteer 150-member Board of Commissioners. Commissioners live and/or work within the
boundaries of Essex County, and they represent the communities, businesses,
organizations, educational institutions, and resources of the region.
“Commissioners are ambassadors and advocates for this region,” said CEO Annie
C. Harris, “Essex Heritage is pleased to welcome the slate of 11 new
Commissioners, and we’re grateful for their volunteer support and leadership in
promoting regional cooperation among the Area’s resources and organizations.”
The following individuals were elected to serve as Commissioners:
•
George Carey, Founder and Owner of FINZ Seafood
& Grill, Salem
•
Ann Marie Casey, Executive Director of the North
of Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau, Salisbury
•
Susan Gould Coviello, Executive Director at
North Shore Health Project, Gloucester
•
Thomas Dexter, Financial Advisor at Wells Fargo
Advisors, Beverly
•
Laura Dow, Owner and Manager at the Vista Motel,
Gloucester
•
Angela Ippolito, Chair of the Swampscott
Planning Board, Swampscott
•
Thomas MacDonald, Director of Sales at the
Hawthorne Hotel, Salem
•
Posie Mansfield, Administrator of COP Amputee
Association, Wenham
•
Dr. Paul J. Maurer, Senior Vice President of
External Relations at Gordon College, Wenham
•
Kevin Rourke, Senior Vice President and Team
Leader of Corporate Banking at Salem Five, Salem
•
Pamela Yameen, Family Business, Butcher Boy
Markets, North Andover
Happy
Holidays - Memorial Day, Anniversary of D Day and Independence Day
We certainly hope that during the last couple of weeks that you were
able to enjoy three patriotic holidays and used the time to remember the
numerous members of the military services who have given their lives to support
the freedoms we enjoy. These are three
very special days - Memorial Day, the 70th Anniversary of the Invasion of
Fortress Europe, and the date we celebrates the Independence we chose from
England in 1776.
Regional News
Retirement of Danvers Town
Manger
At the regularly scheduled
Selectman’s meeting of the Danvers Selectmen’s on June 3, 2014, Town Manager
Wayne Marquis shocked the numbers of the board and the residents watching on TV
with the announcement of his retirement on or about 10/3/2014. His departure will complete a 35 year term as
the Town Manager after an apprentice as the Assistant Town Manager for five
years.
There is very little doubt that
under his leadership, he left the Town much better off than he found it four
decades ago. I will not attempt to list
the numerous accomplishments that Wayne has presided over during his term. The town as second to none in the
Commonwealth as far as management is concerned. Throughout his long association
with the town and despite all of the numerous improvements that have been made,
the community has never had to call for a budget override. All of the projects were completed on time
and under budget. It is clear that the
task of finding a replacement for Wayne will be a daunting task.
It has been a pleasure to know him and to
serve under him as a volunteer both with the seniors in Town and as a member of
the Finance Committee. Good luck and
pleasant days in the next phase of your life.
Community Preservation Act
Several years ago, The
Commonwealth of Massachusetts enacted legislation that allowed communities in
the state to adopt a tax connected to real estate taxes on property in the
community. This new tax that was between
1 and 3% could be collected and then allocated to make grants to local
organizations that were focusing on the preservation of property with historic
overtones, affordable housing and open space acquisition. These funds are
enhanced by a similar fund by the State, but the funds are not always available
to be used for the stated purposes.
Several communities in this region have adopted the act and in 2014 a
number those communities are currently entertaining grant proposals to act towards
the approved projects.
At this point, the Town of
Danvers is not a participant and I have long felt that the Town of Danvers
should be a participant. I suspect that
adding a new tax is holding back their participation. That participation would be a boon to a
number of potential projects in the town.
I have recently let my thoughts be known in a message to the town but
extra efforts on my part to a wider base might be needed to convince the decision
makers in that community.
Salem Power Station - Footprint
Power Station in Salem to begin its modifications
One day in late May the iconic
Power Station on the Salem Harbor shut down to begin its conversion to natural
gas. After a 63 year life, the station began a new life on its road to
continuing to be provider of energy services to the region. I should note that
my association with this site predates the building of the Power Station. The power plant replaced an excellent baseball
park on Fort Avenue, on the way to Salem Willows, where I played baseball as a
youth growing up in Salem.
Starting in July, the existing
plant and its well known smoke stack towers will be torn down, and one of the best
known sites on the coast of the North Shore will be no longer visible from the
water. The plants towers are well known
by boaters in this region as they are visible from south of Boston to
Gloucester. The towers will be soon
gone, but the life of the Salem Power Station will go on in the future as a
benefit to the region.
North Shore Elder Services News
NSES Moving to NEW LOCATION
A letter from their director gives their new address as 300 Rosewood
Drive, Suite 200, Danvers, Ma 01923.
Dear Friends,
While June will be a busy month
for us, only our address is changing! Our phone numbers and our email addresses
will remain the same as will our commitment to our consumers. For information
about our move, feel free to leave us a message at 978-624-2298.
As always, we are dedicated to
Life Made Easier.
NSES will be offering a concert at the North Shore Music Theatre on
9/13/2014 to benefit the support of the numerous programs offered by NSES to
make life easier for seniors on the North Shore of Boston. For more information on how to purchase tickets
for the event SEE BELOW
Irish Tenor Ronan Tynan in
Concert
Benefitting North Shore Elder Services
Saturday, September 13, 2014, 7:30 p.m.
North Shore Music Theater
To purchase tickets:
www.nsmt.org; 978 232 7000
Right of passage for the elderly
Reprinted From the Pages of the
Boston Globe provided by the executive Director of North Shore Elder Services.
By Farah Stockman
Boston Globe Staff May 28, 2014
My 98-year-old great aunt points to the antique clock. “Pat gave me
that for my birthday,” she says, referring to her late husband. “It has always
kept perfect time.”
Of course, she can’t see it any more. Her eyesight dimmed years ago.
Nor can she hear it, even with her bionic ear. Yet, the clock has stayed put,
until now, along with everything else: The doll that won first place at the
Topsfield fair, standing at attention under a plastic shroud. The once-white
baby shoes, turning gray. The dusty martini glasses, forgotten in a cabinet,
inscribed with the initials of a long-dead groom. These are the objects that
make up a life; the things which make her home her home. Who will she be once
she has left them for a room in an assisted-living facility hundreds of miles
away?
It’s a human instinct to hang on
to what we have, even after we’re gone. There’s a certain immortality that
comes from our possessions living on in libraries or museums or in the homes of
our children. These days, people even try to cling to their own dead bodies,
and their pets, by freezing them in cryogenic tombs. They must be driven by the
same feelings that prompted ancient Egyptian kings to be embalmed and buried
with piles of gold.
But for most us, the end of life
means surrendering what we own. We spend our youth and middle age acquiring
things that define us — houses, clothes, paintings, books — only to give them
up, one by one, in old age. When the eyesight goes, so does the car. When the
hearing goes, the stereo. When memory goes, and the pot is left burning on the
stove, we are forced to give up the kitchen. We cling to our things as long as
we can. By the time we relinquish them, so many are out of fashion.
Still, the relinquishing must go
on. Being elderly is about taking stock of life, and keeping only what’s
absolutely necessary.
“You want to take that clock?” I
ask.
She shakes her head. The clock
radio with the big red numbers is far more important.
My great aunt — the daughter of
Italian immigrants, who worked in a dress factory and married a World War II
veteran — never bought herself expensive things. Yet today she frets about what
will become of her treasures: her menagerie of porcelain animals, her flock of
angels, her Christmas village.
As she grew frail — so frail that
too hard a hug might have snapped her like a chicken wing — she sent me home
with an old brooch fished out of a jewelry box.
But her apartment is still full
of items she couldn’t give away fast enough: a candle her grandmother bought so
as not to give birth in the dark, to be mailed to her daughter. A gang of dolls
for Melissa, the dear soul who took her out to lunch every Wednesday for the
last eight years. A folder with my father’s name on it, full of photographs. My
dad’s sister, who spent a week here sorting and clearing, has already collected
her inheritance: an impressive stack of Tupperware.
Standing in the clutter of her
cast-off possessions, I have a new appreciation for the Viking kings, whose
weapons and ships were set ablaze on their funeral pyres, to cement their
social standing in Valhalla. It strikes me as odd that, in a culture as
materialistic as ours, we go meet our maker empty handed.
It is amazing to discover, in the
end, that all that is truly essential fits into a single hot pink suitcase.
I wonder if, deep down inside, my
aunt feels liberated by the lightness of so few possessions. “You all set?”
Melissa asks, tears in her eyes.
But I recognize that my aunt is
mourning the loss of her things as deeply as one mourns a death. The giving up
of one’s own house, of one’s own place in the world, is a rite of passage; a
ritual with no name that each American family performs its own way. Tomorrow,
Melissa will drive her to the airport, where a six-seater plane co-piloted by a
grand-nephew will fly her into the clouds, toward an unknown place.
On her last day in the apartment
she knows by heart, she nods bravely: “I think I’m ready.”
Farah Stockman can be reached at
fstockman@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @fstockman
Community Activities
Summer Dinners return at Appleton Farm in Ipswich
Community Award in Beverly
Ground Broken for Veterans Memorial in Wenham
COPAA Notes
During the last few months, I
have been actively involved in a new not for profit organization that focuses
on providing networking opportunities, information and support to people that
have experienced the loss of a limb.
The organization named COPAA (Cornell Orthopedic Prosthetic Amputee
Association) meets monthly in Beverly and is welcoming new members from the
North Shore to Lower Merrimack Valley at no charge. If you or someone you know anyone that has
lost a limb, we welcome participation and COPAA welcomes new members that are
seeking material that provides data on how life can be more comfortable. COPAA focuses on possibilities rather than
disabilities. We are in the process of
developing a web site that will provide substantial information, but in the
short term any questions can be answered by contacting our President “Posie”
Mansfield at posie_m@verizon.net.
