Community Heart & Soul Wants to Hear Your Story
Winchendon Community Heart & Soul Logo designed by Vyrdolak
© 2022 By Light Unseen Media
Winchendon's Community Heart & Soul core team is looking for ways to reach and connect with Winchendon residents for short interviews that will record and integrate the experiences, viewpoints, goals and hopes of as many and as varied persons as possible. The minimum number of interviews the team needs to record is 300. The team is looking to interview young people, senior citizens, veterans, working people, parents, single folks, Republicans, Democrats, lifetime townies and newcomers. Every single Winchendon resident contributes to making Toy Town what it is, and every one of them has a voice to be heard.
The Community Heart & Soul Foundation was founded by Lyman Orton, whose family began and still runs The Vermont Country Store (whose catalogs are familiar to some Winchendon residents). The basic principle of Community Heart & Soul is that communities become stronger and more unified when every resident is able to share their feelings, opinions, hopes and goals for the town they live in. Every resident of a town is investing money and risk in that town, whether they own property, send their children to local schools, run a business, work in a local business, pay taxes or simply pay rent. A community is created by its people; without those people, it is nothing.
To help communities find their unique sense of identity and purpose, the Foundation launched a program of $10,000 Seed Grants, which would pay for training and support in collecting, sharing and understanding feedback from town residents. In 2021, HEAL Winchendon applied for a Community Heart & Soul Seed Grant. Winchendon became the only town in Massachusetts to be awarded a Seed Grant.
Winchendon's Community Heart & Soul core team overlaps with the Master Plan Implementation Committee, and sees Community Heart & Soul as integral to the Master Plan itself. It's not simply a stand-alone project, but something that ties into, and ties together, many groups and projects working to push Winchendon forward and upward toward the future. But it's Winchendon's residents--Toy Town taxpayers, voters, workers, families and youth--who hold the reins in guiding their community's way.
The Community Heart & Soul team will be asking residents if they'll give interviews at town events, gathering places, community rooms and businesses in the coming months. But residents don't have to wait to be asked. Anyone who would like to share their input is welcome (encouraged, urged and invited) to contact a team member and set up a time. Interviews can be done on Zoom. Space will also be available at the Winchendon CAC for interviews.
How does it work?
Team members will be recording interviews, most likely on their cell phones using an app called Otter, which automatically transcribes speech as it records. The questions asked are:
What matters most to you about living in Winchendon?
What would you like to see be the same in Winchendon five years from now?
What would you like to see changed?
Is there anything else you would like to share about Winchendon, your life here & your hopes for the future?
Are there any other people we should talk to?
Interviewees can then "check off" some additional projects they would be interested in working on (this is strictly optional).
The interview has two other parts.
Before the interview starts, interviewees will be asked to sign a release form allowing Winchendon Community Heart & Soul to use their statements, as well as releasing the recordings and any photos that might be taken (if any).
After the interview is recorded, interviewees will be given a link to a short, anonymous demographic survey so that Winchendon Community Heart & Soul can make sure that a wide diversity of residents are being talked to, and no significant groups are being inadvertently left out. Both the signing of the release form and the demographic survey can be done on the spot on a cell phone (there are QR codes and text links available), or the interviewee can take the link for the demographic survey home to complete on a computer.
The whole interview may take as little time as ten minutes, or longer, depending on how much the interviewee wants to say. The questions are intended as "stepping off points" and there is no limit on answers. Winchendon Community Heart & Soul will be listening to what Winchendonians really think and say, not aiming for specific responses.
The Winchendon Heart & Soul Core Team currently consists of: Inanna Arthen, Melinda Bowler, Deb Bradley, Abigail Bradley, Tamarah Casavant, Shaina Cunningham, Angelina Dellasanta, Jeremy Diaz, Doneen Durling, Erica Eitland, Camille Hart, Paul Hackett, Miranda Jennings, Jane LaPointe, Janet Lee, Ava Newton, Minna Scholten, and Molly Velasco.
Any resident who would like to be interviewed can sign up for an appointment using this link: https://calendly.com/miranda-jennings/interview or contact Miranda Jennings at the Winchendon CAC.
The Courier will be sharing, anonymously, some of the comments residents have given in their interviews. Here is a first sampling:
I love the open space in the town and I love the fact that people are recognizing the open space and want to do something to to improve recreation and the ability for people to get out and enjoy nature. There's lots of trails, lots of trails being developed. I like the small town feel working together. People are, you know, care about one another.
What would I like to see changed?
A small place where people can gather together as a community, a real community space, like, used to be the grocery store, you'd always bump into people at the grocery store and, you know, just chit chat and forget about what time it was because you were catching up with neighbors. And now there's not like a real central place for people to meet. So I think something that brings the community together, all aspects of the community, doesn't matter who you voted for or what your personal philosophies are, a place where we can all gather.
The Seeds of Hope banner project was part of Winchendon Community Heart & Soul. Winchendon students and adult artists created art which were printed on pole banners and displayed on Winchendon's main thoroughfares (Central, Front, Spring and School Streets) during the spring and summer. Many thanks to DPW Director Brian Croteau for his assistance in moving the brackets and putting up the banners!
Photos by Inanna Arthen
Shannon O'Brien Appointed new Chair of Cannabis Control Commission
Shannon O'Brien
Photo courtesy of the Massachusetts Office of the State Treasurer
According to an announcement from the office of State Treasurer Deborah B. Goldberg, former (1999-2003) Massachusetts State Treasurer Shannon O'Brien will be sworn in as the new Chair of the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) on Thursday, September 1, on the CCC's fifth anniversary. Ms. O'Brien will be taking the reins from interim Chair Sarah Kim, who has served since the departure of previous Chair Steven Hoffman.
With two operating cannabis businesses and five more at various stages of development and licensing, in a town of 10,354 people, Winchendon has a concrete interest in the workings of the often bog-slow and Byzantine CCC. Established after Massachusetts (and Winchendon) voters resoundingly approved legalizing the sale and use of recreational marijuana in November, 2016, it has often seemed as though the CCC's hidden purpose must be to prevent marijuana businesses from opening.
In the announcement, Ms. O'Brien said, "I look forward to working with the other commissioners, agency staff and stakeholders to ensure that this industry is well regulated while enhancing economic benefits for the citizens of the Commonwealth. The industry has grown rapidly since the voters legalized recreational cannabis in 2016, topping $3 billion in sales this past spring. While the law was intended to create new economic opportunities for diverse communities and those previously harmed by harsh drug laws, this promise has not been fully achieved, leaving many aspiring equity entrepreneurs with a very challenging pathway to achieve the success that larger corporate interests have enjoyed. I am eager to get to work implementing some of the positive changes written into the recent reform law passed by the Legislature, including new access to capital for entrepreneurs, on-site consumption, and enhanced oversight of Host Community Agreements."
Ms. O'Brien served in both the Massachusetts House and Senate, after first being elected at the age of 27. As State Treasurer, she restructured the lottery commission and the Abandoned Properties Commission and refinanced the state debt, saving the state approximately $500 million. She forced the public disclosure of a $2 billion cost overrun in the "Big Dig" Central Artery project. In 2002, she was the first woman nominated for Governor by a major political party (Democrat) in state history, losing a close race to Republican Governor Mitt Romney. After leaving public service, Ms. O'Brien worked as an Emmy-nominated consumer advocate journalist for Boston's channel WLVI and for three years was CEO of the Girl Scouts of Greater Boston. She is the founder and principal of the O'Brien Advisory Group.
The Chair of the CCC is required to have experience in corporate management, finance, or securities. Treasurer Goldberg said, "I am confident that [O'Brien's] financial background, experience in corporate governance, executive management, and business development, combined with outstanding leadership skills and an acute knowledge of the legislative process, will help the Massachusetts cannabis industry be fairly regulated, equitable, and successful."
Winchendon will hope for a speedier and smoother process for its pending cannabis businesses from here on in.
