GARDNER, MA – September 6, 2022 – Mount Wachusett Community College held an orientation for new and transfer students on September 1, 2022 in preparation for the start of its 59th academic year on September 7, 2022.
“We are looking forward to welcoming students back to our campus,” stated MWCC President James Vander Hooven. “The life that students and faculty bring to the halls and classrooms has been missed, and I personally have missed interacting with our students, faculty and staff in person.”
Highlights of the Fall Semester include:
– United Way Day of Caring on Friday, September 16. Students, staff, and faculty will be volunteering at various locations in the community as part of this annual event.
– In celebration of Constitution Day the Brewer Center for Civic Learning and Community Engagement will be hosting a voter registration table in the Student Center on September 20 from 10 am to 2 pm.
– Pregnant and Parenting Student Expo will be held on Wednesday, September 21st. Our Student Parent Support team will be meeting with pregnant and parenting students to explore the services available to assist them as they pursue their educations.
– Community College Night at the Woo Sox will be held on Thursday, September 22nd. MWCC and the Massachusetts Association of Community Colleges organized this statewide evening to watch the Woo Sox take on the Syracuse Mets
– Tea Time Speaker Series returns with “Puerto Rican Declaration of Independence” on Friday, September 23 and “Gender Identity and Understanding LGBTQIA+” on Friday October 21.
– MWCC will be at the North Central Chamber of Commerce “Work North Central” Hiring Event at the Wachusett Mountain Ski Lodge on September 27 from 10 am to 1 pm.
– The MWCC Dental Clinic, co-located with the Community Health Center in Fitchburg, will hold a ribbon cutting to celebrate a significant enhancement to the clinic facility on September 28th.
– The NEACAC College Fair will be held at Mount Fitness on Tuesday, September 27th. Representatives from nearly 100 colleges and universities from all over New England and beyond will be on hand to talk to high school students and other individuals.
– The Coffee and Career Fair returns on Wednesday October 5. MWCC welcomes businesses and recruiters to campus to meet with students and graduates.
– Horticulture students have been raising pumpkins this summer in anticipation of the first MWCC Pumpkin Fest on October 5.
– The Fall Open House will be held on Saturday, October 29. Potential students are welcome to tour and can apply and be accepted on the spot.
MWCC admissions are rolling, students can apply and register for classes up through the first week of the semester. More information on upcoming events at MWCC can be found at mwcc.edu.
Silva promoted following record-breaking commercial sales with the bank’s LifeDesign approach
(Leominster, Mass.) Fidelity Bank today announced it has promoted Joseph Silva to Chief Lending Officer. In this role, he will be responsible for all lending activities across the bank, including Commercial, Residential and Consumer, as well as Cash Management.
Silva began working at Fidelity Bank in May 2021 as Senior Vice President, Chief Commercial Banking Officer, where he led all aspects of Commercial Banking and Cash Management sales with a focus on growing the business while also embracing Fidelity Bank’s LifeDesign approach to banking.
“In his first year with Fidelity Bank, Joe has led record-breaking growth in commercial loans and makes him the perfect leader for all of our lending programs moving forward,” said Christopher W. McCarthy, President & COO. “Joe embodies our LifeDesign approach to banking in all that he does and has experienced much success in helping our business clients realize growth and success while achieving their financial goals.”
Silva received a bachelor’s degree in Interpersonal Communications from the University of Rhode Island and is also a graduate of the Bank Leadership Program from the Darden School at the University of Virginia.
United Way of North Central Massachusetts (UWNCM) is pleased to announce our newest initiative, Board Connection, which will be kicking off in October with an in-person event. This initiative is designed to help bridge the gap between non-profit organizations and professionals residing in our shared communities by helping to connect qualified individuals with openings on various boards (Board of Directors, Advisory Boards, Committees, etc.).
We invite you and your associates to attend this event free of charge on October 12, 2022, from 5:30 – 7:30 pm at Great Wolf Lodge in Fitchburg. The event will include an educational panel highlighting what it means to serve on a board, a resource fair featuring over 40 agencies with open board seats, light refreshments, and a wine/beer cash bar. Registration can be completed by emailing Lisa Normandin at lisa@uwncm.org. We hope you will join us in this great opportunity to learn how you can become more involved in your community.
GARDNER, MA – September 1, 2022 – Mount Wachusett Community College held a pinning for its Dental Assisting program graduates on Friday, August 26, 2022.
“I would like to take the opportunity to congratulate each of you and thank you for choosing the Mount for your education,” noted MWCC President James Vander Hooven. “Tonight is just the beginning of your next journey, as you enter this field, a caring field I ask you to stay in touch with us and with each other. We look forward to your continued success.”
Students were welcomed by Dental Education Program Director Cynthia Cadoret, and were pinned by faculty members Kristen Columbus, Nicole Galloway, Kaitlyn Geise, and Kelly Jancaitis.
The Dental Assisting Certificate is one of three dental education options at Mount Wachusett Community College. MWCC also offers a two-year Dental Hygiene Associate Degree and a new Dental Radiology Certification program.
Photo caption left to right: Christina Raisdanaee, Stephanie Constant, Xenia Rodriguez, Mary Miller, Alyssa Patnaude, Olivia Olmeda, Abigial Sarante, Sophia Wenning, Sky Hutchful
The students who earned their Dental Assisting Certificate are:
Stephanie Constant – Leominster, MA
Sky Hutchful – Fitchburg, MA
Mary Miller – Gardner, MA
Olivia Olmeda – West Townsend, MA
Alyssa Patnaude – Keene, NH
Christina Raisdanaee – Leominster, MA
Xenia Rodriguez – Fitchburg, MA
Abigail Sarante – Leominster, MA
Sophia Wenning – Leominster, MA
To learn more about the Dental Education Programs offered at Mount Wachusett Community College, please visit mwcc.edu.
Painter Susan Wadsworth has created beautiful images of Mother Nature in all her glory in recent paintings of scenes witnessed and studied in Maine, Vermont, and Ontario. She travels with a sketchpad that takes in the tiny, the gigantic, and everything in between. She has employed her eye for the telling details that an insightful artist can pick out of immense expanses, as well as the majestic sweep of those big vistas. These subjects of study and celebration are “Mountains, Trees, Rocks, and Seas: Small to Mighty.”
The work is mostly very recent, and features Ms. Wadsworth’s latest interests, including the challenge of executing huge pastel murals, capturing stunning sunsets at sea, and employing a new freedom with ink in the landscapes of mountains and trees. This is the artist’s first solo show at a commercial gallery, and she is very excited to be exhibiting so much new work.
The big “show piece” in the exhibition is Quoddy I. It was inspired by the Quoddy Head State Park in downeast Maine, near the Canadian border. It is the fifth very large piece (42″ x 108″) that Ms. Wadsworth has completed since April 2020, in addition to three “smaller” pieces — each a mere six feet wide.
The medium for all of these is pastel and ink on paper. Formerly the artist always began with pencil, later going over these lines with India ink. Now she finds she can do smaller studies applying the ink directly. But with very large pieces, she still relies on some underlying graphite lines to work out the overall structure of the composition. Further on in the process, she adds pastels in multi-colored layers — as many as 20 such layers! These she rubs by hand to achieve a smooth finish. The ink is the final ingredient, contrasting very energetically and solidifying the entire work.
The Covid crisis of 2020 forced many exhibitions online. This turned out to produce a unique opportunity, as Ms. Wadsworth had much less to worry about in terms of “frame-ability” of her paintings. “I could submit works, large or small…I was free to experiment with sizes and formats,” she says. “And thanks to the visionary support of Tamar Russell Brown and Gallery Sitka, that is exactly what I will be doing with this upcoming show.”
In May of this year, the artist “escaped” to Maine for 10 days, “knowing only that I wanted to draw rocks.” She found plenty of inspiration at Bailey Island, Pemaquid, Schoodic, and Quoddy, this last location nestled beside Quoddy Head State Park. From her base in Lubec, she hiked, stopping to sketch when she found a view that was especially beautiful and inspiring. She produced 10 studies and took numerous photographs. From these, she pieced together the vistas now that appear in Quoddy I. The large pieces might appear to be from one point of view, but in fact they are meticulously constructed combinations of at least five different viewpoints. She compares these to some landscapes well known to admirers of Cubism. The difference between her own work and those cubist paintings, says the artist, is that her vision is more “organically connected.”
Ms. Wadsworth’s understanding of her own work tends to change and develop over time. This process is reflected in the relationship between different artistic schools and even across national borders. An admirer of Chinese and Japanese art, she has long studied the rocks depicted in Chinese scrolls, perhaps once imagining bearded sages strolling in the hills at a leisurely pace, surrounded by the natural beauty of the exotic rock formations looming over the river below. (Well, exotic for North Americans, perhaps. Obviously, the Chinese, accustomed to their surreal, bulging rock cliffs on the banks of the Yang-tze, may find the mesas of Monument Valley quite exotic indeed.) The rocks that she draws from life in New England and in Canada, do not exude peace of mind. “These rocks suggest trouble,” she says, “but one that is negotiable. And the light, I hope, suggests spiritual hope.” In other words, the images drawn straight from nature are often quite beyond words, but they conjure up powerful thoughts and feelings when she takes another look at one of her landscapes months or years afterward. “The inner content of my work,” she muses, “sometimes evolves with the work itself or becomes evident later on.”
The artist directs viewers to the kanji — Japanese characters — that she sometimes includes along with the images. These can be imperfectly translated as “transform…transcend…eternity…breath…true…be,” among others. The use of kanji is purposeful in terms of meaning and the graceful, decorative emphasis on planes that we see in Japanese screens. The kanji create a kind of “pictorial tension — a play of planes and flatness” — in place of traditional perspective.
This Sitka show also has small tableaux of unframed pieces, of a size (c. 10.5″ x 13.5″) that fit comfortably into the artist’s drawing backpack. She executed many of these as “walk and draws.” She hikes until she is tired — or inspired. Then she sits down and begins to draw.
Another new section for the show will be Ms. Wadsworth’s sunsets. These were completed on two different cruises — one through the Panama Canal in late 2021, and the other in March 2022 from Brazil to Barbados. The artist intensely studied these spectacular sunsets, taking as many as a hundred photos, in the process catching many subtle changes in the color and composition of the sky, the sea, and the sun in the course of one shoot. The artist created drawings from those photos. “I tried to create a focused essence of each sunset,” she observes, “without all the encircling details that are possible but often distracting.”
The last bank of drawings at Sitka will be “mountains and trees” done on walks near the Vermont border and at Lake Temagami in Ontario. Here the artist plays with color and layered lines, seeing them more as “energy lines.” She maintains: “There is always something else going on that is more than just a mechanical reproduction of reality.”
Susan Wadsworth earned a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree at Cranbrook Academy of the Arts near Detroit, and an MA in Art History at Tufts University in Medford, Mass. Readers who want to learn more about her work or the Gallery Sitka show can contact Ms. Wadsworth or the hostess of the exhibition, Tamar Russell Brown, at the numbers and email address listed above.
LEOMINSTER, MA – Leominster Credit Union held their annual Election of Board Officers for 2022 – 2023 at their April meeting.
Richard A. Sheppard was appointed Chairman of the Board. Sheppard serves on the Executive Committee and has served on the board since 2006.
Michael J. Sauvageau, Vice Chair. Sauvageau has been on the Board since 2007. Sauvageau serves on LCU’s Executive, Credit, Investment and Compensation Committees.
Nancy L. Graves, Treasurer. Graves serves on the Executive, Audit and Advisory Committees. She has served on the LCU Board of Directors since 2004.
Guilio G. Greco, Assistant Treasurer. Greco most recently held the position of Chairman. Greco serves on LCU’s Executive, Audit and Investment Committees. Greco has served on the Board since 1978.
Joseph V. Quintal, Clerk. Quintal serves on Executive, Credit, Compensation and Advisory Committees. Quintal has served on the Board since 2006.
Joining the officers on the 2022-2023 Board of Directors are; Robert J. DelleChiaie, Joyce G. Leger, Henry C. Kulik, Jr. and John W. Reedy.
Fidelity Bank only central and western Massachusetts-based bank to appear on Forbes list; recognized on Banker & Tradesman Fast 50 list
Leominster, Mass –Fidelity Bank has experienced recognition over the summer for its commitment to client satisfaction and growth. The bank today announced it was named one of Forbes “America’s Best Banks in Each State 2022.” Forbes announced the list on June 21. Additionally, Fidelity Bank was recognized by Banker & Tradesman as one of this year’s Fast 50 in Commercial and Residential Lending. Banker & Tradesman announced the list on August 15.
In an article published by Forbes, more than 26,000 U.S. citizens from all 50 states participated in in-depth interviews, providing an overall satisfaction score, and answering several questions based on six facets of their banking relationship. Forbes reported that only 2.7 percent of all banks nationwide made the cut for the best-in-state rankings.
Fidelity Bank is the only bank based in central and western Massachusetts to appear on this year’s list.
“Part of what makes Fidelity Bank unique is our LifeDesign banking approach of providing care, clarity, and confidence when guiding our clients as they make important financial decisions,” said Ed Manzi, Chairman and CEO, Fidelity Bank. “This recognition is a clear representation of our LifeDesign approach in action and our commitment to building strong, personal relationships with each and every client.”
Banker & Tradesman, a leading publication for news and insights for Massachusetts banking, commercial, industrial, and real estate industries, recently named Fidelity Bank as one of its Fast 50 for Commercial and Residential Lending, placing 13th for number of commercial loans. Fidelity Bank experienced a 133 percent increase in the number of commercial loans, with a total 28 commercial loans in 2022 compared to 12 commercial loans in 2021. The Fast 50 is compiled from data collected by the Banker & Tradesman market share module, ranking the 50 fastest-growing loan providers in Massachusetts, comparing the number and volume of loans from January 1 through June 30, 2021, to the number and volume from the same timeframe in 2022.
“As our commercial loan team works hard to build deep relationships through our LifeDesign approach to banking and C.A.R.E. process, our clients are confident in the decisions they make to help them achieve their goals,” said Joseph Silva, Chief Lending Officer, Fidelity Bank. “Banker & Tradesman is a respected publication in our industry and to be recognized as a Fast 50 is certainly an honor.”
Leominster, MA – Leominster Credit Union will hold a Shred-A-Thon at its 910 West Boylston Street, Worcester, MA location on Saturday, September 17, 2022 from 9:00AM – Noon.
Members and non-members can get rid of old, sensitive documents by shredding and recycling them at the Shred-A-Thon. All items will be shred on site by a secure shredding service, New England Security Shredders.
Members of the community can bring up to three legal size file boxes or three 13-gallon kitchen trash bags to be shred for free. However, we will be accepting donations for Habitat for Humanity during the event. The Shred-A-Thon helps raise awareness about recycling and of course the importance of shredding personal documents to protect against identity theft.
Important documents to bring to the Shred-A-Thon include bank statements, tax returns, medical bills, credit card statements and other personal documents.
With a proud heritage dating back more than 20 years, current owners of Paula Meola Dance & Performing Arts, Mary Elizabeth Tinervin and Matthew Kooyomjian are pleased to announce that as of August 24th, 2022 we have rebranded our business as MEM Dance Theatre “Sharing the Arts Together”
We have added a tagline of “Sharing the Arts Together” to succinctly encapsulate our primary mission of offering an accessible and inclusive environment for everyone; regardless of whether you enjoy taking an occasional class and performing or you love competing as a member of our Dance Company. The goal is to support each other and appreciate the differences and gifts we share.
We encourage students to participate in all classes and performances throughout their journey at our School. Starting with the initial exposure to Dance and the Theatre Arts, students continue to learn about the many Cultural Differences within the United States and in other countries; which often mark key Historical Milestones through the choreography depicted in performances. Mary Elizabeth and Matthew’s academic, performing and teaching credentials as described on the MEM Dance Theatre website, www.memdancetheatre.com provide families and their children through the teenage years, and adult students a safe, fun and skilled experience in studying dance and the theatre arts. In doing so to continue to help harness and empower young minds, cultivate a broad base of community relationships, and sustain a successful business model which will continue to provide ample and enriching resources.
We are always welcoming new students to our School, and please join us at our upcoming Open House on August 24th as well as our other performances throughout the year!
Mary Elizabeth Tinervin, Owner, Artistic Director and Ballet Mistress
Matthew M. Kooyomjian, Owner and Executive Directo
Fitchburg, MA — Making Opportunity Count (MOC), the North Central region’s community action agency dedicated to fighting poverty, has announced Dr. Paul S. MacKinnon as its new Board President. MacKinnon, who has been with the board since 2018, succeeds Oscar O’Connor who retired from the board after 18 years of service.
“It’s been an honor to serve as President of MOC’s Board of Directors,” said O’Connor. “I’m proud of our many accomplishments over the past years and I’m confident MOC has a bright future under Paul’s leadership as they continue to grow and expand their impact in the community.”
MacKinnon is an accomplished executive leader and is currently the Corporate Vice President and Chief Operating Officer/Chief Nursing Officer at Health Alliance Clinton Hospital. MacKinnon received his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts Medical School – Graduate School of Nursing and has held key leadership positions at Saint Vincent Hospital, UMass Memorial Medical Center and Steward Health Care. As a Registered Nurse for over three decades and Family Nurse Practitioner for over two, he has been a member of numerous healthcare associations, local boards and community organizations. MacKinnon most recently served as MOC’s Board Treasurer for the past three years.
“MOC’s mission to empower families to achieve economic stability is as critical as ever,” said MacKinnon. “For years, I’ve witnessed staff and leadership live MOC’s mission in everything they do. I’m honored and humbled to play a role in this inspiring work, and look forward to leading this effort with our experienced and dedicated board of directors.”
The change occurs at a time of strength and growth for MOC as the organization has increasingly worked toward integrating access to healthcare into their human service portfolio.
“I’m deeply grateful to Oscar for his leadership, vision and dedication to our mission that helped us to grow and broaden our impact in the community over the past decade,” stated Kevin Reed, executive director of MOC. “I’m equally excited for our future under Paul’s leadership. His wealth of experience and advocacy are perfectly aligned with MOC’s vision for our future as we rise to meet the growing demand for services that bring wellness to our clients and community.”
About Making Opportunity Count
Making Opportunity Count, Inc. (MOC) was established in 1966 for the primary purpose of promoting the well-being of low-income people in the cities and towns of North Central Massachusetts. The MOC service area encompasses 30 cities and towns (Ashburnham, Ashby, Athol, Ayer, Barre, Berlin, Bolton, Clinton, Fitchburg, Gardner, Groton, Hardwick, Harvard, Hubbardston, Lancaster, Leominster, Littleton, Lunenburg, New Braintree, Pepperell, Petersham, Phillipston, Princeton, Royalston, Sterling, Shirley, Templeton, Townsend, Westminster, and Winchendon). MOC’s mission is to empower families to achieve economic security by eliminating barriers and creating opportunities. MOC works to fulfill this purpose by providing direct services, collaborating with other public and private entities and by applying comprehensive strategies that help to address the complex issues of poverty. Core programs include Child Care & Head Start, North Central WIC, Family Resource Center, Meals on Wheels, The Counseling Center at MOC, healthcare programs, and more. For a full list of programs and services, visit www.mocinc.org
