Event scheduled for March 21 at Look Memorial Park

FLORENCE—When Florence Bank presents the awards in its 16th annual Customers’ Choice Community Grants Program this year at an event slated for March 21, it will reach the $1.05 million mark in terms of grants made to community nonprofits over almost two decades.

Thanks to the 10,111 votes that were cast in 2017, 57 organizations from across the Valley will receive the funds. Representatives from those nonprofits will be present at the Garden House at Look Park from 5 to 7 p.m. to accept the grants, view photographs and displays from previous Customers’ Choice events and sample hors d’oeuvres by Seth Mias Catering.

Until the grants are announced that evening in a celebratory manner, complete with Champagne to toast the million-dollar-milestone, nonprofit leaders will not know the amount of the grants they will receive.

“We are pleased to reach this tremendous marker of giving in the Pioneer Valley,” said Florence Bank President and CEO John Heaps Jr. “We are honored to be able to invest in these organizations that benefit our employees, customers, neighbors, families and friends.”

This year, funds will bolster such initiatives as staff mentoring of new volunteers for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampshire County, based in Amherst, so that 200 children on the organization’s wait list might be paired with a role model.

“I feel incredibly honored to be a part of the Customers’ Choice Community Grants initiative,” said Jessie Cooley, director of Big Brothers Big Sisters, noting that the bank has provided her organization with roughly $9,200 in funding since 2014. “Florence Bank is a great partner with us. This is a cool, community-based effort.”

Aline Gubrium, secretary of the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) at Pelham Elementary School, is likewise grateful that the PTO will receive a grant this year. “For a small school, with one class per grade, we face a tight budget,” she said.

The school is very community-focused, and funding from the bank will be used to support family events offered each month throughout the year as well as gifts that are made each holiday season to families in need, she said.

“The support that we get from Florence Bank really helps to boost the ongoing efforts to keep these events going,” Gubrium added.

The Customers’ Choice Community Grants Program is an annual offering founded in 2002, through which Florence Bank customers are invited to vote for their favorite local nonprofit in hopes it will receive a share of grant funding. In its early years, awards of $50,000, and later, $75,000, were offered each year by the bank; in more recent years, $100,000 in grants have been disbursed each spring.

To qualify for a community grant, organizations must receive at least 50 votes. For the first time this year, eight organizations that received between 40 and 49 votes will be invited to attend the event and be in a drawing for one additional $500 award.

This year, in addition to the Pelham Elementary School PTO and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampshire County, there are 55 additional grant recipients. They are: Dakin Humane Society, Friends of Forbes Library, Friends of Williamsburg Regional Library, The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, Cancer Connection, Northampton Survival Center, Amherst Survival Center, Friends of Lilly Library, Easthampton Elementary Schools PTO, Jackson Street School PTO, New Hingham Regional Elementary School PTO, BARC, Inc., Northampton Senior Center, Northampton High School PTO, Emily Williston Memorial Library, Hospice of the Fisher Home, RK Finn Ryan Road School, Safe Passage, Friends of Hilltown Cooperative Charter Public School, Belchertown Day School, The Edward Hopkins Educational Foundation, The Friends of Clapp Library, Amherst Regional Public Schools Parent Guardian Organization, Kestrel Land Trust, Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School, Grow Food Northampton, Williamsburg Firefighters Association, Friends of the Amherst Senior Center, Tapestry Health Systems, Inc., Friends of M.N. Spear Memorial Library, Cooley Dickinson VNA & Hospice, Leeds Elementary School PTO, Hampshire Regional High School, Easthampton Community Center, The Hartsbrook School, Northampton Community Music Center, Easthampton Band Boosters, Northampton Community Rowing, Hitchcock Center for the Environment, ServiceNet, The Belchertown Police K-9 Unit, Hilltown Community Health Centers, Whole Children, Bright Spot Therapy Dogs, Bridge Street School PTO, Cooley Dickinson Hospital, John F. Kennedy Middle School PTO, Mass Audubon Connecticut River Sanctuaries, Our Lady of the Hills Parish, CISA, Belchertown Firefighters Association, MANNA Soup Kitchen, Inc., Center for Women & Community at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Center for New Americans and Granby Senior Center.

Cooley, of Big Brothers Big Sisters, said her organization serves about 180 young people each year. While there are about 200 children on the wait list, there are no funds available to train the mentors who might pair with them.

“It’s very important for us to have funding and support from our local businesses and our community members. We really rely on that,” Cooley said, noting that she was recently notified that community block grant funding has been lost for this year.

“It takes quite a bit of funding to create and support a new mentoring match,” Cooley added. We need to recruit new mentors and conduct interviews and screenings with families and children so that we can make thoughtful matches and provide appropriate supervision. All of that takes a significant amount of staff time.”

The Customers’ Choice Community Grants program is a year-long initiative. Customers’ of the bank can vote via paper ballots at each bank branch location or online at https://www.florencebank.com/vote.

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

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Event is a fundraiser for the 30-year-old nonprofit

NORTHAMPTON—Valley Community Development is calling all bicycle riders to “Bike for Community” in its Seventh Annual Pedal Poker Ride on Sunday, Oct. 1, starting at 9 a.m. with courses ranging from 10 to 45 miles, at Look Memorial Park in Florence.

The event is a fundraiser for the nonprofit, which is celebrating its 30^th anniversary year and has launched a $400,000 fundraising goal to help it act on goals outlined in a five-year strategic plan.

Individuals are welcome to sign up to ride in the race, during which bicyclists pick up five cards at different locations along the route and compete with them in a poker hand to win prizes. The grand prize is a $500 Martha’s Vineyard getaway.

The registration fee for the 45-mile bicycle ride is $60, and the suggested start time—depending on the rider’s speed—is 10 a.m.; the 25-mile bicycle ride has a suggested started of 11:30 a.m., and registration is $35. For the 10-mile bicycle ride, the cost is $35 and suggested start time is noon. The cost of registration includes a meal and a local brew.

Food from the Mothership Food Truck and beer from Berkshire Brewing Company will be available. SAG support for riders who are fatigued, injured or have problems with their bicycle will be provided by Speed & Sprocket Cycle Works of Holyoke and bike adjustments prior to the ride will be offered by both Pedal People Co-op Inc. of Northampton and Speed & Sprocket.

Riders are welcome to register in advance at pedalpokerride.com/index.php/register/ or on the day of the ride, one hour before the start time of the course of their choosing.

To view the course for the ride, visit pedalpokerride.com/index.php/maps/.

For more information, please call Julia Zegarra at 413.586.5855 x170, email jz@valleycdc.com or visit www.valleycdc.com.

Valley Community Development seeks to empower individuals with low and moderate incomes by developing affordable housing, encouraging homeownership and offering small business assistance to help individuals create sustainable employment.

The next few years of the organization’s future is outlined in a strategic plan developed by its board in 2016. The goals are: to expand its geographic reach, create deeper community connections and assist more new homebuyers and small business owners. Valley Community Development also plans to develop over 200 new apartments in the Valley, starting as soon as this fall, when it will break ground on The Lumber Yard, at which it is creating 55 affordable family apartments in Northampton.

For more information about Valley Community Development or its five-year plan, visit valleycdc.com.

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To call attention to the anniversary and involve more members of the community at large, Jean Travis, a member of the Event Leadership Team and coordinator for what’s called the Fight Back Ceremony, said this year’s event will feature Izzy Gesell, an author, motivational speaker and humorist as well as a prostate cancer survivor.

Gesell will take to the stage at 10 a.m. on Saturday during the ceremony aimed at fighting back against cancer. Gesell has spoken around the country and around the world for 25 years. He is donating his time to the event and plans to talk about the role humor played in his own process as a cancer survivor.

“We wanted to add something unique and powerful for the anniversary,” said Travis. “We hope people from the surrounding communities can come out to hear him.”

A 24-hour event, Relay For Life gives participants the opportunity to celebrate the lives of people who have battled cancer, remember loved ones lost and fight back against the disease. Teams of participants will take turns walking on a temporary track at the park to raise money for cancer research and programs that benefit cancer patients and their families.

“Cancer is not funny,” said Gesell. “But humor is more than telling jokes. It has many functions that most folks don’t understand or make use of. You could say humor is an under-utilized tool, especially for those fighting cancer. It can help us manage our stress and stay resilient.”

His presentation, “Humor as a Resilience Tool,” will focus on how humor can strengthen the bodies, hearts and souls of cancer survivors, their families and caregivers. He will speak at 10 a.m. on Saturday.

At 6 p.m. Friday, the Survivors Lap will be held; cancer survivors will be invited to walk a lap around the track to honor their courage and resilience. The Luminaria Ceremony will follow at 9 p.m. to recognize those who have passed on and offer hope and comfort to others. The Fight Back Ceremony will begin with Gesell’s speech the next morning and call people to take personal action and fight back against cancer. The event will conclude with a closing ceremony.

The Relay For Life of Hampshire County’s Event Leadership Team is made up of Travis, Patty Greene and Mary McCarthy.

To learn more about the event or donate, visit main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLCY17NE?pg=entry&fr_id=80842.

To learn more about Gesell, visit izzyg.com.

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A bake sale and craft fair with over 30 vendors will also be held at the event until 1 p.m.

The annual Purple Run was started in 2012 and has raised over $5,000 for the American Cancer Society; proceeds from this year’s run will go directly to the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life of Hampshire County in June.

The goal for 2017 is to have 500 runners and walkers take part. Organizers are also looking for sponsors and volunteers to assist.

For more information or to register, contact Tom McCusker at (413)-313-2525 or visit http://www.purplerun.net.

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The event will also include a 2.5-mile walk. Highlights include professional timing and several different classes of awards. For the first time, the event will also include a vendor/craft fair in front of the Dow Pavilion inside Look Park from 9 a.m. to noon.

To register visit http://www.purplerunforacure.com/. The registration fee is $25 per participant.

Check-in will begin for all walkers and runners at 9 a.m. at Look Park’s Dow Pavilion, with the race launching at 10 a.m. Refreshments and entertainment will be offered.

For more information, please contact race coordinators at info@purplerunforacure.com or (413) 585-1141.

Proceeds from the run/walk/fair will benefit the American Cancer Society via the Relay For Life of Hampshire County.

Held around the globe, the American Cancer Society Relay For Life is an event that allows participants to celebrate those who have battled cancer, remember loved ones lost and fight back against the disease.

This year’s Relay in Hampshire County will be held from 3 p.m. June 19 through 3 p.m. June 20 at Look Memorial Park in Florence. This Relay For Life has raised in its 17 years, over $1.5 million and plans to raise at least $250,000 this year.

For more information about the Relay For Life or to register a team, go to www.relayforlife.org/hampshirecountyma.

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