HOLYOKE—Kyle Sullivan, assistant vice president at John M. Glover Insurance Agency, recently celebrated his 10th anniversary at the firm.

John M. Glover has 19 offices in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Hawaii. Sullivan, a third-generation broker, has worked for the business with his father since 2010 in the Holyoke office. 

Sullivan sells home, auto, and business insurance and became assistant vice president in 2016. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Nichols College. To better assist his commercial customers, he also holds a Commercial Lines Coverage Specialist certification through the Hartford School of Insurance. 

Sullivan previously worked in the restaurant industry for 10 years, which gave him excellent customer-service experience along with a unique perspective on insuring restauranteurs.

He works with commercial clients who range from contractors, real estate investors, restauranteur, and the owners of car dealerships and auto body shops. 

“I work with clients to understand their business and recommend a coverage plan that provides the best protection,” he said.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought changes at John M. Glover Insurance Agency that find Sullivan working from a home office. 

For more information, find Sullivan on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, or email him at ksullivan@jmg.com.

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Keynote speaker, a New York Times op-ed columnist, to talk about social justice

NORTHAMPTON—In honor of its 30-year anniversary, Valley Community Development will hold a celebration on April 12 at the Hadley Farms Meeting House, and Executive Director Joanne Campbell is grateful to announce that the organization’s $400,000 anniversary fundraising goal has been met.

“Many donors this anniversary year are institutions, small businesses and individuals who have been long-time contributors to Valley Community Development,” said Campbell. “They stepped up to a higher level this year, and we are pleased and honored to have their support, which will strengthen the agency financially and programmatically.”

Campbell noted that $32,000 was also raised from first-time donors to the nonprofit.

She said the celebration is one new way to educate community members about the nonprofit’s mission to empower people with low and moderate incomes to manage and improve the quality of their lives through the development of affordable housing, economic opportunity and small business development.

The event is open to the public and will kick off with a cocktail reception from 6 to 7 p.m. Dinner and the keynote speaker, Charles M. Blow, an op-ed columnist for The New York Times, will be offered from 7 to 9 p.m. Tickets cost $125 and are available online by visiting valleycdc.com.

Blow writes about politics, public opinion and social justice. He is a CNN commentator, and, last year, was a Presidential Visiting Professor at Yale. He is also the author of the best-selling memoir Fire Shut Up in My Bones, which tells his story of growing up in the Deep South with a fiercely driven mother and four brothers, and his escape after a trauma.

At the celebratory event, Blow will speak on the general theme of social justice.

“It will be very timely and appropriate for the work we’re doing right now,” said Campbell. “Valley Community Development is involved in navigating the crisis in housing and serving people with very low incomes. We collaborate with regional and local organizations to work on these local issues.”

Campbell said financial giving this year is almost double that of a typical year, with many donors taking advantage of the Massachusetts Community Investment Tax Credit (CITC) program, which allows state and federal tax incentives for giving.

Increased support comes as the organization is expanding its reach. “We are hopeful that we will be able to expand and sustain our small business program, which is now staffed by a part-time coordinator,” Campbell said.

“The money we’re raising is also helping small businesses, and first-time and existing homeowners,” she added, noting that donations are still encouraged. “It’s a way to continue the programming we have and look for new ways to give to the population we serve as well as reach out to underserved populations, immigrant communities and households of color. We’re always looking for new ways to reach these groups.”

Since 1988, Valley Community Development has created 224 units of affordable housing in Northampton, Easthampton and Amherst. It has counseled over 8,000 homebuyers and homeowners and educated over 1,500 businesspeople.

The organization now has goals that call for expanding its geographic reach, creating deeper community connections and assisting more new homebuyers and small business owners.

Its development of The Lumber Yard in Northampton, which will create 55 affordable family apartments, is ongoing and expected to be completed in May 2019. Campbell said a second project in Northampton, expanding 15 traditional single room occupancy (SRO) units into 31 units each with a fully accessible bathroom and kitchenette at Sergeant House on Bridge Street is also in the early phase of development.

The agency is also looking for a location to develop an SRO in Amherst.

Sponsors for the anniversary celebration include: bankESB; Florence Bank; Greenfield Cooperative Bank/Northampton Cooperative Bank; PeoplesBank; Dietz & Company Architects with Western Builders; Goggins Real Estate; Jack Hornor and Ron Skinn; Dorothy Nemetz and John Todd; Pamela Schwartz and Joel Feldman; Freedom Credit Union; Sally and Al Griggs; Richard Abbott; Berkshire Bank; Country Bank; Ruth Elcan; Fierst, Kane & Bloomberg LLP; Greenfield Savings Bank; KSK Insurance Agency; and Way Finders.

Members of Valley Community Development’s Board of Directors are: president, Peter Jessop; vice-president, Amy Fyden; treasurer, Richard Abbott; clerk, Pat Byrnes; and members Maxene Anderson, Richard Bauman, Madeline Weaver Blanchette, Maureen Borg, William Fontes, Theresa LaValley, Donald Perry, Greg Richane and Carol Walker.

For more information about Valley Community Development, its five-year strategic plan, the anniversary celebration, to buy tickets to the 30-year anniversary celebration, or to donate, visit valleycdc.com.

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Events at the Integrated Preschool on Round Hill Road and Clarke’s K-8 program at Leeds Elementary School are part of continuous 150^th Anniversary Celebrations in 2017

NORTHAMPTON— As part of its 150^th anniversary celebrations to be held this fall, Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech will hold two open houses on Nov. 3 at its Integrated Preschool on Round Hill Road and at its K-8 Program co-located at Leeds Elementary School.

The events are free and open to the public and are offered as a way to show community members how Clarke teaches children who are deaf or hard of hearing to listen and talk.

From 9 to 11 a.m., community members are invited into the preschool at 45 Round Hill Road to observe students and their teachers, playing and learning in a listening and spoken language environment, along with peers from the community.

From 12:30 to 2:30 p.m., the K-8 Program at Leeds Elementary School will open its doors to the community. Visitors will have the opportunity to meet and interact with students and staff, visit classrooms and learn first-hand about the program.

Staff members will be on hand at both locations to answer questions and to offer tours to anyone who is interested. Visitors to the preschool can also experience the observation rooms, inside which parents of Clarke students can watch their children in their learning environment.

Registration is required for each open house by contacting Jan Folts at jfolts@clarkeschools.org.

Clarke Northampton’s Parent-Infant/Toddler Program and Integrated Preschool is led by Marian Hartblay, director of Early Childhood Services, and embraces Clarke’s philosophy that a student’s family is his or her most influential asset.

“Clarke’s work often begins with families shortly after an infant is diagnosed with hearing loss,” Hartblay said. “We meet with families in their homes, at the center and through virtual telepractice visits, made possible by technology. At age 3, children come daily to the preschool.  While our students are learning to listen, observe actively and interact with new concepts and people, their parents and other family members are learning, too.

“Parents, grandparents and other adults in the child’s life find a support network of families and professionals at Clarke, where they can share and learn,” she added.

Claire Troiano is the director of Mainstream Services and the educational administrator of the K-8 Program. She said the program—also family-centric—is led by creative and committed professionals, teachers who are all master level teachers of the deaf, and speech-language pathologists, all specifically trained in developing listening and spoken language in children who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Clarke’s Mainstream Services Department originated in 1977 and celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. It provides itinerant teacher of the deaf services in mainstream schools to students who are deaf or hard of hearing, as well as consultation and training to staff.

The open houses—and several other recent events—are held in recognition of the school’s 150^th anniversary to underscore Clarke’s rich history in serving children who are deaf or hard of hearing and their families by teaching them to listen and talk.

Throughout 2017, Clarke will host additional events in the four other cities in which it provides services: Boston; New York City; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Jacksonville, Florida.

Clarke serves children from birth to age 18 who use hearing technology—including cochlear implants or hearing aids—to maximize their access to sound; they receive individualized support from Clarke’s teachers and therapists. The school has been teaching children who are deaf or hard of hearing to listen and talk for 150 years. It also continues to evolve to best meet the needs of children and families today through its toddler, virtual tVISIT, preschool, K-8 and mainstream and summer programs, as well as through is hearing center, comprehensive educational evaluations, and research and professional development.

As part of the 150th Anniversary celebrations, Clarke has established an 1867 Society, for those who make gifts of $1,000 or more, and it is actively raising funds with the hope of serving more families with children who are deaf or hard of hearing—in this region and across the globe.

Upcoming anniversary events will also be held: Oct. 26 in Dedham; Nov. 6 in New York City; Nov. 8 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Dec. 9 in Jacksonville, Florida.

For more information on the anniversary events, or to donate to Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech or join its 1867 Society, contact Lillian Rountree, chief development officer, at lrountree@clarkeschools.org or 973-453-5635.

Learn more about Clarke at www.clarkeschools.org.

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Two hundred people to bounce basketballs from the Boys & Girls Club to the new center

WEST SPRINGFIELD—Led by a Basketball Hall of Famer, 200 people dribbling basketballs will march from the Boys & Girls Club of West Springfield to Union Street on Saturday, Oct. 14 as the West Springfield High School band plays Florence Bank’s “Always” song.

In an event aptly dubbed the Florence Bank Dribble Parade, bank and city leaders and area residents will celebrate the opening of the bank’s new Hampden County Banking Center at 1010 Union St.—the bank’s first branch in Hampden County. At the same time, it will also honor its partnerships with the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the Boys & Girls Club. A rain date is set for Oct. 15.

The parade and grand opening event will begin at 11:30 a.m. at the Boys & Girls Club, where Florence Bank President and CEO John Heaps Jr. will speak and present club leaders with a gift of $50 per participating dribbler, up to $10,000. The parade, led by a surprise Hall of Famer, will then step off into Main Street from the club at 12:30 p.m. and proceed down New Bridge Street to the banking center.

Up to 200 people will each dribble an Under Armour basketball, purchased locally at psi 91 in Springfield for the event, without stopping on the .6-mile parade route. Children interested in dribbling in the parade are invited to register to take part in the event at www.florencebank.com/dribble; registrations will be capped at 200, and each child will receive a free basketball.

Dribblers must be at least 5 years old and must be accompanied by an adult. All dribblers should arrive at the West Springfield Boys and Girls Club, at 615 Main St., West Springfield, at 11:30 a.m. to check-in and receive their basketballs.

Mayor Will Reichelt and other West Springfield leaders are expected to march in the parade and take part in the festivities at the banking center, which will include face painting, games, basketball competitions, and demonstrations by the Court Jesters, a comedic basketball troupe. Two food trucks, the Bistro Bus and Log Rolling, will provide meals.

“This festive celebration will honor our new branch and its employees, as well as the important relationships we have created and nurtured in Hampden County,” Heaps said.

Florence Bank opened its new, full-service Hampden County Banking Center on Aug. 24, prompted to expand into Hampden County by the mergers and buyouts that have defined the banking landscape in past years, leaving Springfield without a community bank headquartered there.

The Dribble Parade and celebration comes one month after a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held at the branch on Sept. 14 with Heaps, bank staff and community leaders in attendance to officially commemorate the opening of the bank’s 10^th branch.

In 2007, Florence Bank opened a loan production office in West Springfield, the success of which is responsible for transforming the bank’s total commercial loan portfolio to more than 36 percent from Hampden County-based businesses. That success also made clear the need for the full-service branch.

In the next three to five years, Florence Bank plans to open additional branches in the Greater Springfield area.

All of Florence Bank’s products and services will be offered through the center, located at the corner of Memorial Avenue and Union Street in one third of a 9,000-square-foot plaza that will also hold other commercial tenants.

The Hampden County Banking Center has eight employees including: Branch Manager Maureen Buxton; Assistant Branch Manager Stephanie Moore; Commercial Lenders James Montemayor and Henry Downey; Mortgage Loan Originator Susan Seaver; and John Ernst of Florence Bank’s Financial Group, who will be available by appointment.

Florence Bank has branches in Amherst, Belchertown, Easthampton, Granby, Hadley, Northampton and Williamsburg and is headquartered in Florence.

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Area events to highlight the school’s rich history and celebrate its continued success at transforming the lives of children who are deaf or hard or hearing

NORTHAMPTON—Founded in downtown Northampton in 1867, Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech will begin its 150^th Anniversary celebrations on Sept. 30 at 10 a.m. with a re-dedication of the commemorative stone on Gothic Street that marks the school’s original location.

Alumni of the former residential program on Round Hill Road will lead the celebration, joined by current staff, board members, students and young alumni of the current Clarke Northampton campus. They will gather at the stone at 64 Gothic St.; the inscribed boulder was placed in 1967 by alumni honoring the 100^th anniversary.

The day’s events—and celebrations at Clarke campuses up and down the East Coast in coming months—will underscore the fact that Clarke has a rich history in serving children who are deaf or hard of hearing and their families by teaching them to listen and talk. The ceremony is free and open to the public.

Christine Skwersky, chair of the Clarke Schools Alumni Council (CSAC) and a 1987 alumna, will serve as master of ceremonies, and the Rev. Peter Ives, a former and longtime minister of First Churches—which served as the place of worship for many Clarke alumni over the years—will offer the invocation and benediction.

Mayor David Narkewicz will speak about Clarke’s history and presence in Northampton; George Balsley of the class of 1965 and Rodney Kunath, a 1958 alum, both CSAC members, will speak about their Clarke experiences; and Emma O’Neill-Dietel, a Clarke Philadelphia alumna who is now a freshman at Smith College, will speak about how Clarke changed the trajectory of her educational experience.

Claire Troiano and Marian Hartblay will talk about the Clarke they remember as young teachers and the Clarke Schools of today; Troiano is the director of Mainstream Services and the educational administrator of the K-8 Program, co-located at Leeds Elementary and Clarke Northampton, and Hartblay is the director of Early Childhood Services at Clarke Northampton.

Interim CEO Doug Scott will speak about Clarke’s future goals.

As part of the anniversary celebrations, an Open House will also be held at Clarke Northampton, 45 Round Hill Road later this fall. Community members, and anyone with a child who is deaf or hard of hearing, are welcome to attend to observe and better understand Clarke’s listening and spoken language education.

A second, local anniversary celebration will also take place on Thursday, Oct. 12 at Union Station.

Throughout 2017, Clarke will host additional events in the four other cities in which it provides services: Boston; New York City; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Jacksonville, Florida.

Thanks to a $50,000 bequest from John Clarke, a wealthy Northampton businessman who lost his hearing in his later years, Clarke School for the Deaf was founded in 1867 in Northampton, offering residential educational services for children who were deaf or hard of hearing.

When Clarke’s residential program was flourishing, students often did not enter the mainstream, learning or working alongside peers with typical hearing, until they were teenagers. Today, with the advent of technology such as cochlear implants, most students enter the mainstream by age 6. For this reason, 20 years ago, Clarke transitioned away from running one residential campus here to operating five campuses along the East Coast that together serve more than 1,200 children and their families.

Clarke has campuses in Northampton and Boston; New York City; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Jacksonville and a preschool program in Orlando, Florida. Clarke serves children from birth to age 18 who use hearing technology—including cochlear implants or hearing aids—to maximize their access to sound; they receive individualized support from Clarke’s teachers and therapists.

Among its wide range of programs, Clarke offers early intervention services for children from birth to 3, preschool classes, and a team of itinerant teachers of the deaf who serve students in mainstream school settings from preschool through high school. In recent years, Clarke has also developed a virtual learning program through which it uses technology to reach children and families globally.

“I don’t think Clarke would still exist if it had tried to hang on to what it used to be,” said Ward Caswell, president of the Beveridge Family Foundation, Inc., which has supported Clarke for roughly 50 years. “The transition has been marvelous. It’s rare that you see such a high level of success in dealing with change.”

Clarke Northampton, led by Hartblay and Troiano, offers early intervention services, an integrated preschool and a team of mainstream teachers of the deaf. Clarke also operates the Clarke Hearing Center, led by Laurie Smith. Clarke’s Mainstream Services Department originated in 1977 and celebrates its 40^th anniversary this year.

Clarke, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is currently funded by foundations such as Beveridge, which supports its model for listening and spoken language, as well as private organizations, businesses and individuals.

While Clarke today is serving nearly 300 children from birth to age three, it has identified that there are roughly 60,000 families with children in that age group who will need services by the year 2020, giving Clarke strong motivation to continue to expand its mission so that it can reach and teach more children who are deaf or hard of hearing.

As part of the 150^th Anniversary celebrations, Clarke has established an 1867 Society, for those who make gifts of $1,000 or more, and it is actively raising funds with the hope of serving more families with children who are deaf or hard of hearing—in this region and across the globe.

“We have to be very nimble and figure out how to provide services to more families,” said Bruce A. Rosenfield, JD, executive director and one of three trustees of the Oberkotter Foundation, which also is a lead supporter of Clarke. “Clarke is uniquely poised to do this.”

In recent years, Clarke has implemented new, innovative teaching tools, such as Project LENA, a technological coaching tool for parents, and the fun and educational Listening Walks at the Zoo, held in both Philadelphia and in the Boston area and expanding to New York City in the spring of 2018.

Combined with the listening and spoken language tools Clarke has employed for many years, it is introducing sound to babies born into an otherwise silent world and inspiring young people who excel academically and grow into playwrights, actors, physicians and audiologists.

Upcoming anniversary events will also be held: Oct. 26 in Dedham; Nov. 6 in New York City; Nov. 8 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Dec. 9 in Jacksonville, Florida.

For more information on the anniversary events, or to donate to Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech or join its 1867 Society, contact Lillian Rountree, chief development officer, at lrountree@clarkeschools.org or 973-453-5635.

Learn more about Clarke at www.clarkeschools.org/.

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