Comedian Juston McKinney Returns To Park Theatre

Acclaimed New England comic takes the Jaffrey stage on May 20

JAFFREY, New Hampshire (May 15, 2023) After a legendary performance at The Park Theatre in the summer of 2022, acclaimed comedian Juston McKinney returns to Jaffrey this Saturday, May 20, at 7:30pm for a one-night-only event.

Born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, McKinney has appeared on numerous Comedy Central shows, including his half-hour Comedy Central Presents special and his own one-hour special. He has appeared several times on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien and a Showtime Comedy Special with Rob Gronkowski. He has appeared twice at Denis Leary's Comics Come Home at the TD Garden. His TV & movie credits include The King of Queens, 100 Centre Street, The Zoo Keeper, and Here Comes the Boom.

Tickets for the Juston McKinney show are all $25, and seats are reserved. Purchase online at theparktheatre.org or by calling the box office at (603) 532-8888.

The Park Theatre is located at 19 Main Street in downtown Jaffrey, NH, just 95 minutes from downtown Boston. The theatre's bar, The Lounge, will be open at 5:30pm with music from Bernie & Louise Watson.

Nova Arts Hosts "That Thing in the Spring" this Weekend

"That Thing in the Spring" is here this weekend at Nova Arts! For complete information about this festival of music and arts, see https://www.novaarts.org/thething

Nova Arts is supported by and under the fiscal sponsorship of Arts Alive, and is supported by the Putnam Foundation and the Osier Fund. Events take place at 48 Emerald St, within Brewbakers Cafe & Terra Nova Coffee. novaarts.org

A Co-bill of Stellar Folk & Roots Music at Nova Arts Saturday June 10

Massachusetts-based duo Mark Mandeville & Raianne Richards share a night of folk music with Greenfield, NH native Liz Simmons, who will be accompanied by cellist and Berklee grad Casey Murray, at Nova Arts on Saturday, June 10th. The concert will be an uplifting and introspective evening of folk music with American Roots as its broad point of reference. Purchase tickets here: https://www.novaarts.org/events/lizsimmonsmarkandraianne

Little by little, you will get to know Mark Mandeville & Raianne Richards through their unmistakable vocal harmonies, poetic lyrics and down-to-earth personae. They are a married musical couple based out of Webster, Massachusetts. These prolific and hard working Massachusetts-based artists have contributed over seventeen albums within their first decade and toured consistently throughout the US and Canada.

Their songs poetically reflect personal experiences as factory workers, teachers, community organizers, and natives of post-industrial mill towns in central Massachusetts. The memories of days gone by and toils of history can be better remembered through songs such as "That Old Machine" or "Winds of Change." Listeners feel refreshed lyrics with references to elements in nature.

Accompanying themselves on guitar, harmonica, ukulele, penny whistle, electric bass, and most uniquely clarinet, their live performances are both musically captivating and spiritually uplifting as audiences are carefully balanced between serious songs and humorous commentary – concert goers will leave feeling a bit more human, as if they have experienced something genuine.

Mark & Raianne are famous among regional fans for their annual Massachusetts Walking Tour which defines them as true troubadours journeying with their instruments and humble voices, from stage to stage, town to town throughout the state on foot each June. Between tours, Mark and Raianne serve as music educators at Blackstone Valley Music in Uxbridge, MA.

Nova Arts is supported by and under the fiscal sponsorship of Arts Alive, and is supported by the Putnam Foundation and the Osier Fund. Events take place at 48 Emerald St, within Brewbakers Cafe & Terra Nova Coffee. novaarts.org

Senator Comerford to Host Eleven Office Hours in the District and Virtually in Spring and Early Summer 2023

Office Hours to be held in person across the district and virtually

Senator Jo Comerford, District Director Elena Cohen, and Constituent Services Director Rachel Klein will be hosting office hours throughout the district and via Zoom, beginning in late April through June 2023.

Senator Comerford and her team seek to be as accessible as possible to constituents living in the 25 cities and towns of the Hampshire, Franklin, Worcester district.

All in-person locations are wheelchair accessible and no advanced sign-up needed. All zoom office hours require advanced sign-up to receive the Zoom link.

More information can be found here: https://senatorjocomerford.org/spring-2023-office-hours/

May

Friday, May 19 - In-person with Senator Comerford and Elena - walk-ins welcome
10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. - Hatfield Memorial Town Hall, 59 Main Street, Hatfield
2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. - Athol Public Library, Conference Room, 568 Main Street, Athol

June

Friday, June 2 - In-person with Senator Comerford and Elena - walk-ins welcome
11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. - Beals Memorial Library, Trustees Room, 50 Pleasant Street, Winchendon
2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. - Petersham Memorial Library, 23 Common Street, Petersham

Tuesday, June 13 - Remote via Zoom with Rachel and Elena
9:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.
4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Twenty Percent of Massachusetts Towns Say: Change the Flag and Seal!

On Saturday morning, May 13th, a 17-year old high school senior named Alice Jenkins, not yet able to vote in town affairs, stood up to introduce a resolution to a hushed crowd gathered in the historic Westhampton town hall for annual town meeting.

Alice spoke movingly about the history behind the flag and seal of Massachusetts: how the bones of an Indigenous person had been taken from the Town of Winthrop and used in modelling the proportions of the Indigenous figure on our state flag and seal; how a photograph of a Chippewa chief from Montana had been used for the facial features on the Massachusetts symbol. She spoke of the sword of Myles Standish, chosen by illustrator Edmund Garrett as the prototype for the sword held over the head of the Indigenous figure on the Massachusetts flag, a sword Standish is known to have used to ambush and kill Native people.

Before Alice resumed her seat, the Town of Westhampton had voted unanimously in favor of changing the flag and seal of Massachusetts.

In Becket on Saturday evening, about 100 voters gathered for the town meeting in the auditorium of the elementary school and listened as Al Blake told them, "Our town--like every city and town in Massachusetts--is required to fly this flag. We teach it to our children in grade school as part of the core curriculum. But tonight we have an opportunity to call upon our state legislators to change our state flag and seal, so that all citizens feel welcomed and valued...

"During this process some people have said, 'You are trying to change our history.' To them, I say, 'Unfortunately, we cannot.'

"All we can do is change the official symbols of our state to show that building better relationships with Indigenous people is important to us. This historic dialogue is taking place right now, with Indigenous leaders sitting on the Special Commission. After all these years they deserve our full support."

With that statement, the Town of Becket, with only one person raising a hand in opposition, became the 71st community to call upon the state legislature to change the flag and seal.

A few towns, such as North Brookfield and Monson, where our twice-impeached former president still enjoys a strong following, have voted in recent weeks to oppose the resolution to change the flag and seal. But the conversations supporters were able to hold with voters in those towns were vigorous and informative and, by and large, congenial.

That dialogue in itself should be regarded as something of a victory as we reckon with the institutional racism embedded in the Commonwealth's official symbol.

Towns across the state have been voting since 2018 on the simple proposition that a white hand holding a sword over the head of an Indigenous person is not an appropriate symbol of the highest ideals of the Commonwealth. It never was.

Since mid-April, when we last posted an update on this grassroots effort of local democracy pushing for statewide change, the towns of W. Newbury (unanimously, with a round of applause for Jillian Knowles' speech), Newbury (thank you, Cynthia Raschke), Harvard (by overwhelming majority, following Ginger Kendall's lead), Hanson (due to the hard work of Marianne DiMascio, in a town where Trump beat Biden in the last election; Hanson is now the first town in Plymouth County to vote for the change), Ashby (a Welcoming Town, thank you, Evie Gleckel), Belchertown (91 – 54), Grafton (decisively, in the home of the Hassanamisco Nipmuc tribe), Merrimac (overwhelmingly, following Lance Hidy's speech) Ipswich (353 - 121, with the state senate minority leader, Bruce Tarr, present and, we hope, listening carefully), and Lee (44 – 39, at 11:30 pm, after a crucial save from Jody Shafiroff, when the original sponsor had to leave the meeting early) have all voted to change the flag and seal, while the towns of Pepperell and Hawley have joined N. Brookfield and Monson in opposition.

We may get a chance to revisit this issue in Hawley, where the number of people voting against the resolution (14) was outweighed by the number of people who signed the petition to get it on the town meeting warrant in the first place (17). Turnout matters.

Today, with the unanimous support of the voters in Westhampton and the nearly unanimous vote in Becket, we can accurately say that more than 20 percent of the towns and cities in Massachusetts are now formally on record in support of changing the flag and seal.

The Special Commission established to recommend a new design for the Massachusetts flag, seal and motto is expected to resume meeting in the coming weeks.

The six Indigenous leaders who serve on the Commission have called upon their colleagues since 2021 to come together and totally revise the seal and motto.

They have the solid backing of city councils and town meetings across the Commonwealth.

Get in touch through the homepage of changethemassflag.com if you would like to help your city or town join the growing list of communities demanding action on this long stalled racial justice measure.

Massachusetts is still flying a flag of white supremacy.

That is a shameful thing.

None of us should stand for it.

Write to Governor Healey today and tell her to retire that flag of shame immediately, until the Special Commission completes their work and the legislature acts to create a new symbol of peace, justice, inclusion and harmony for the Commonwealth.

Three Re-Elected to GFA's Board of Directors

Winchendon resident Douglas R. DeLay
Photo courtesy of GFA

Gardner, MA--The Annual Meeting of GFA Federal Credit Union was held on April 26th in the Community Room at 229 Parker Street. Directors, Members, Officials, and employees shared in the Credit Union's successes of 2022, along with the strategies that will continue GFA's member-focused advancements and vision for the years to come.

At the 2023 Annual Meeting, three individuals were re-elected to the Board of Directors to serve additional three-year terms, the re-elected Directors include:

Charles P. Bowles: Mr. Bowles is the retired President & CEO of GFA Federal Credit Union, having held that position from 1984 to 2008. Mr. Bowles has served as a member of the GFA Board of Directors since 1988. He is a graduate of Western New England University, having earned a BBA and completed graduate studies at WPI. Mr. Bowles is an active member of the Greater Gardner community, having served on numerous boards, including MWCC Board of Trustees, MWCC Foundation, and the Greater Gardner Chamber of Commerce where he also served as Chair. Mr. Bowles also served as a member of the Board of Directors and Chairman of EasCorp Corporate Credit Union. Mr. Bowles was recognized by the Greater Gardner Chamber of Commerce as Citizen of the Year in 1995 and recognized in 2004 as MWCC's Citizen of the Year. He resides in Rindge, NH.

Douglas R. Delay: Mr. Delay is the retired Purchasing Manager of Latrobe Specialty Steel Distribution, a division of Carpenter Technology Corporation. He was elected to the GFA's Supervisory Committee in 1988 and served on that committee until 2003 when he was elected to the Board of Directors. In early 2022 Delay was elected to the role of Chief Governance Officer of the Board of Directors. Mr. Delay has over 40 years' of experience in the field of business management. He is a graduate of Nichols College with a degree in Economics and resides in Winchendon, MA.

Mark Hawke: Mr. Hawke serves as the Gardner School District's Director of Finance and Operations. He previously served as the Westminster Town Administrator, and the Mayor of the City of Gardner for just over twelve (12) years. He was elected to the GFA's Supervisory Committee in 2009 and served on that committee until 2012, when he was elected to the Board of Directors. In early 2022, Hawke was elected to the role of Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors. Mr. Hawke is a graduate of UMass Amherst with a degree in Political Science and Anna Maria College with a Master's in Business Administration. Mr. Hawke has also served on the Board of Directors of Gardner Square Two, Inc., Board of Incorporators at Heywood Hospital Board of Trustees of Mount Wachusett Community College and coaches multiple youth sports including hockey, soccer and basketball in the area.

"GFA Federal Credit Union is proud to have these individuals volunteer their time to serve as members of our Board of Directors," said Mark J. Hettinger, President and Chief Executive Officer, "we thank our Board for their focus on the evolving needs of our members. Together, we look forward to finding new ways to help our members reach their financial goals."

The candidates were recommended by the Nominating Committee and elected by the Membership. The nominating committee has the task to nominate the best candidates to serve as representatives on the Board of Directors. The elected board members have the business acumen, knowledge of and commitment to GFA's core values. GFA's Board of Directors serve as representatives of the general Membership. Being elected by the Membership, Directors ensure that governance is practiced in the best interest of GFA's Member-Owners.