Merrimack Valley Magazine

NoteWorthy – 6/27/21

June 27, 2021 by Kristin Cole

AROUND THE VALLEY

GLFHC Honors Secretary Sudders During Annual Gala

The Greater Lawrence Family Health Center (GLFHC) celebrated the work of all those who guided residents through the COVID-19 pandemic during its 16th Annual Making a Difference Gala on Thursday, June 17.

The organization presented Massachusetts Secretary of Health & Human Services Marylou Sudders with the Making a Difference Award for her leadership through the pandemic. Sudders is head of the commonwealth’s COVID-19 Response Command Center and oversees 12 agencies and MassHealth, with a combined budget of $24 billion and 22,000 public employees who deliver essential services that touch the lives of one in four state residents.

The dedication and importance of community health centers (CHCs) was the focus of the event’s keynote speaker, U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan.

The gala raised nearly $85,000 through sponsorships and donations, which will benefit the health center’s Keeping the Promise Capital Campaign. The $3.5 million campaign will renovate its flagship Lawrence location and provide better medical services to patients throughout Greater Lawrence. The Haverhill Street site is the largest and busiest of GLFHC’s six locations, accounting for 33% of GLFHC’s 62,000 annual patient visits.

MRT Announces Five New Shows for the 2021-22 Season and Returns to Live, In-person Performances in November

With safety as a paramount goal, the Merrimack Repertory Theatre (MRT) announced five shows to continue the 2021-22 season, including a return to live, in-person performances in November. The season will include the world premiere of “The Rise and Fall of Holly Fudge” by Trista Baldwin, a new concert of Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway classics, the East Coast premiere of “Best Summer Ever,” and two productions that were postponed due to the pandemic.

The new roster will also include the previously announced “Wild Horses” by Allison Gregory, which will be available at alternative locations and on video from Sept. 15 to Oct. 3. The company will return to in-person performances at the Nancy L. Donahue Theatre in Liberty Hall with “The Rise and Fall of Holly Fudge,” on Nov. 26. After the holidays, the season will continue with the previously postponed “Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End” by Allison Engel and Margaret Engel; the concert “Back Together Again: The Music of Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway;” and the east coast premiere of “Best Summer Ever,” written and performed by Kevin Kling.

In addition, the MRT will present a special, non-subscription musical event: “Woody Sez: The Life and Music of Woody Guthrie” in February 2022. For more details on all of the MRT’s upcoming shows, visit here.

Lawrence Partnership and MCCI Announce $1.1M Venture Loan Fund for Lawrence Businesses

The Lawrence Partnership and Mill Cities Community Investments (MCCI) have announced that 11 lenders and key partners including the city of Lawrence and Essex County Community Foundation have committed to supporting a renewed and restructured Venture Loan Fund to allow for greater flexibility in loans to small area businesses as a response to unprecedented challenges on the back end of the pandemic.

The $1.1M fund offers loans to established and start-up firms in Lawrence that cannot currently access financing from a traditional bank or credit union lender and leverages public, private and philanthropic investments around a shared goal: more businesses starting and growing in Lawrence.

The fund is capitalized by the following 11 financial institutions, each committing $100,000:. Enterprise Bank, Merrimack Valley Credit Union, Eastern Bank, Jean D’Arc, DCU, Pentucket Bank, Align Credit Union, The Savings Bank, Reading Cooperative Bank, Massachusetts Capital Growth Corporation and The Institution for Savings. The city of Lawrence and Essex County Community Foundation support the fund with loan loss reserves.

The program is open to Lawrence-based businesses that would benefit the community. Loans are between $5,000 and $100,000. Businesses interested in learning more about the Venture Loan Fund can visit here.

Baker-Polito Administration Announces Legislation to Make August and September 2021 Sales Tax Holiday Months

The Baker-Polito administration filed legislation to establish a sales tax holiday for the months of August and September. This plan aims to support local economies and promote economic growth and opportunity as the commonwealth continues to recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

State tax revenues for Fiscal Year 2021 (FY21) continue to significantly exceed projections, with revenues to date 14.9% above benchmark. Strong revenues across the board have allowed the commonwealth to grow the size of the Stabilization Fund and be poised to end the fiscal year with a significant surplus for the FY21 budget. As a result, the Administration is proposing to support the commonwealth’s taxpayers and downtown economies by designating the entire months of August and September as sales tax-free.

If enacted, this proposal would be an expansion of the annual sales tax-free weekend, which the Administration officially designated as August 14 to 15.

U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan Applauds $1.8 Million Federal Research Grant for UML

U.S. Representative Lori Trahan applauded the awarding of $1,813,500 in federal grant funding to UMass Lowell (UML) by the Office of Naval Research (ONR). The grant will enable the university to collaborate with Brown University, the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), and the Naval Undersea Warfare Center on research for legged robots that will assist sailors with shipboard firefighting and maintenance.

The program, led by the NRL in partnership with UML and other leading research institutions, will increase the impact and use of robotics by the United States Navy and the Department of Defense.

JDCU Awards $17,000 in College Scholarships

To help defray the costs of higher education for local college students, Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union (JDCU) awarded $17,000 in college scholarships to members through its MoneyStrong College Scholarship and Employee Scholarship Programs. The recipients are comprised of both soon-to-be and current college students.

JDCU granted funds to 21 students. Of the winners, 17 are high school seniors gearing up for their freshman year of college, and four are currently attending various colleges in the area.

The scholarship winners include:

Michelle Ly from Chelmsford High School, UMass Lowell

Joseph Luis Dulac from Dover High School, Georgia Institute of Technology

Jason Tyler from Dracut High School, University of Connecticut

Lilly Saadah from Dracut High School, UMass Lowell

Skylar Phan from Dracut High School, University of Connecticut

Andrew Shapiro from Innovation Academy Charter School, Fordham University

Donna Ly from Lowell High School, UMass Lowell

Edmire Kabia from Lowell High School, UMass Lowell

Matthew Chege from Lowell High School, Howard University

Timothy Xuan Nguyen from Lowell High School, UMass Lowell

Haylee Coupal from Pinkerton Academy, UMass Lowell

Kylie Coupal from Pinkerton Academy, Rivier University

Halle Bangura from Tyngsboro High School, Princeton University

Trevor Freelove from Tyngsboro High School, University of Tampa

NECC Announces Funding Available to Help New and Returning Students

NECC journalism / communications major Bryan Fernandez, of Lawrence, is now on track to complete his degree with high honors by the end of August thanks to the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund.

Northern Essex Community College (NECC) recently received an infusion of over $2.58 million from the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund, which the college directing toward student support.

Specifically, the funding will be used to help current students pay off college debt and cover educational expenses related to the disruption caused by COVID-19 and to assist both new and returning students with educational costs for the summer and fall semesters of 2021.

The majority of the funding, $1.63 million, is direct student aid, designated to help students with educational expenses, which include tuition and fees, books, course materials, Internet, food, living expenses, etc. This funding is available to students taking credit courses, including high school students in the Early College Program, as well as students taking noncredit courses through Pies de Latinos, the Center for Adult Basic Education, and Corporate and Community Education.

NECC has also opted to use an additional $957,000 of the institutional funds which it received through the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund to support students. The funding is being allocated for fall laptop bookstore credit, a “Start Right Grant” for new students, and “Finish What You Started” grants for returning students.

Merrimack College Class of 2021 Graduate Receives the Jaffarian Family Scholarship

Jaffarian Volvo Toyota named George Dimopoulos the winner of the Jaffarian Family Scholarship at Merrimack College. Dimopoulos graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business management and marketing this past May, with his junior and senior years occurring during the recent COVID 19 pandemic. Since graduation, he has joined Data Pivot Technologies in North Andover as a Sales and Marketing Specialist.

Pentucket Bank Bids Farewell to Retiring CEO Scott Cote

The leadership team at Pentucket Bank is preparing to say farewell to current Bank Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board Scott Cote as he nears the date of his retirement on June 30. Cote will remain in his role as chairman of the board following his retirement.

Scott Cote, who has been president since 2008, joined Pentucket Bank as executive vice president and Chief Credit Officer in 1998 following an already storied 25 years in banking.

In 1998, the bank was a mere $202 million in total assets, $30 million in capital and about 60 employees. Upon Cote’s retirement, it will boast $925 million in total assets, over $105 million in total capital and close to 140 employees. In addition, the bank grew by three new branch locations under his tenure.

Cote follows closely in the footsteps of his father, the late Edmund Cote, Jr. — who was the former Pentucket Bank president/CEO and chairman of the board — as a community leader in his own volunteer capacity with the Haverhill Rotary Club, the Greater Haverhill Foundation, the Wadleigh Foundation, NECC Foundation and the Greater Haverhill and Greater Salem Chambers of Commerce. He was also a past director of the Salem Boys & Girls Club and a recipient of the Man/Youth Award for Community Service in 2003.

New Interactive Tool Shows Breakdown of $3.4 Billion in Federal Aid Awarded to Municipalities

The Baker-Polito administration has published a new, interactive online tool that displays a breakdown by municipality of the $3.4 billion in direct federal aid awarded to local governments across Massachusetts. This direct aid is part of a total of $8.7 billion awarded to Massachusetts through the new Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund.

These discretionary federal dollars are available to every local city, town, and county to support urgent municipal COVID-19 response efforts, replace lost revenue, stabilize households and businesses, and address the existing disparities that the pandemic exacerbated.

The new online resource consists of an interactive map that shows the breakdown of the $3.4 billion that is available to local cities, towns, and counties through the Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund. The website also contains detailed information on funding allocations and the distribution process, as well as general information on the usage of these funds. To view the interactive map and this municipal funding information, click here.

PRNWR Announces Berry Picking and Fall Archery Deer and Turkey Hunt Lotteries

For anyone interested in picking cranberries and beach plums on the Plum Island refuge this year, the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge will soon conduct a lottery to determine who receives the limited number of free berry picking permits that have been allocated for this year. To apply to the permit lottery, send an email to parkerriver@fws.gov and write “Berry Picking Permit Lottery” on the subject line. The body of the email should include your name, phone number, and, if applicable, an email address.

For those lacking access to email, please type or neatly print the same personal contact information on a card and mail or drop it off at refuge headquarters (write “Berry Picking Permit Lottery” on the card or envelope). The mailing address is Parker River NWR, 6 Plum Island Turnpike, Newburyport Mass., 01950. Permit lottery applications will be accepted from July 1 thru July 30. Permit selectees will be notified by August 10 and will be provided with additional details at that time.

PRNWR officials have also announced that the application window for the fall archery deer and turkey hunt at Great Bay National Wildlife Refuge is Thursday, July 1 through Friday, July 30. The hunt will be by permit only, with permittees selected by lottery. A total of 25 permits will be issued for this hunt. The hunt lottery application will be available on the Great Bay NWR homepage, found here, on Monday, June 28. Alternatively, interested hunters can pick up the lottery application at the Parker River NWR headquarters in Newburyport or at the kiosk that is located at the Great Bay NWR visitor parking area in Newington N.H. Lottery entries can be mailed-in, dropped off, emailed, or faxed and all entries must be received by Friday, July 30.

Lowell Community Health Center Introduces the New Smiles4Families Fund

One of the main goals of the Lowell Community Health Center is to ensure that all members of the greater Lowell community have access to both quality and culturally responsive health care, regardless of ability to pay. This year, they are hosting the Smiles4Families fund in order to help more patients cover the cost of essential, often expensive dental care that isn’t covered by insurance.

Many patients at the Lowell Community Health Center have already gone without dental care for years because of factors such as high costs, and the global pandemic has only added to that need. If you are interested in helping them reach their $20,000 goal to help assure that each patient has access to all necessary dental health care, visit here.

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Haverhill Bank Welcomes Two New Officers

Angelita Martinoli of Haverhill was named vice president of human resources and has 20 years of experience in the field. Martinoli has a bachelor’s degree from Southern New Hampshire University.

Elizabeth Cronin of Haverhill was named assistant vice president of compliance. Cronin has more than 30 years of management experience and holds a bachelor’s degree from Gordon College.

JDCU Executive Graduates LEADS

Brian Sousa, senior vice president and chief lending officer, recently graduated from Leaders Engaged and Activated to Drive System-wide change (LEADS) as part of the class of 2020-2021. Sousa has 29 years of experience in the lending and real estate industries. A graduate of UMass Lowell, Sousa has long-standing roots in the Lowell, serving on several boards for organizations including the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Lowell, the Senior Advisory Board for the Lowell Community Health Center, and the Advisory Board of Catie’s Closet, Inc.

NECC Human Services Major is New Student Trustee

Chrissy Grace of Haverhill will join the Northern Essex Community College (NECC) Board of Trustees as the newly student-elected representative. Grace graduated from high school in 2004 and quickly found success working in the tech field as a product representative. Inspired to take on a new challenge by seeing her young daughter adapt and thrive during the pandemic, Grace decided to enroll at NECC for the Spring ’21 semester as a Human Services major. She hopes that she can use her role as student trustee to encourage others to get involved. Grace finished her first semester with a 4.0 grade point average. After earning her associate degree, she plans to transfer to a four-year school to get her bachelor’s and then go onto work with senior citizens.

Whitten Promoted to Director of Merrimack Valley Planning Commission

Jerrard Whitten, of Newbury, is a veteran of the Haverhill-based Merrimack Valley Planning Commission and has been named the organization’s executive director. Whitten is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire with a master of science in resource administration and management and a bachelor of science in resource economics.

Photo courtesy of the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission.

An Open Letter to Elected Officials and Policymakers

April 21, 2020 by Lane Glenn

Thank you for your public service. The work you do is both important and complicated. I recognize that the vast majority of you want to do what’s right for the greatest number of people, but “what’s right” isn’t always clear, and there are a lot of demands on your time and attention.

So, I have only one straightforward request: The next time you have to make a decision — any decision — about “higher education,” please stop for just a moment and ask yourself this question: “How are community college students different?”

If you do, you will make better decisions, benefit more lives, make better use of resources, and improve your state or our nation’s economy more than you may have ever thought possible.

You’ll also go a long way toward creating a more fair and equitable America while you’re at it.

Decisions about higher education funding and public policies are being made all the time, and they are always important; but the COVID-19 pandemic has created a new sense of urgency around better understanding the differences among colleges and their students before some critical decisions that are about to be made in the weeks and months ahead.

Please know that all “higher education” is not the same.

There are enormous differences between highly selective, very expensive, private universities (for example, MIT, Stanford, or Yale); pretty selective and expensive, public “flagship” universities (like UMass, UCLA, or the University of Michigan); somewhat selective and more affordable public state colleges and universities (Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts or Fitchburg State University); and “open door”, inexpensive community colleges — like Northern Essex Community College up here in northeast Massachusetts, or any of the more than 1,100 community colleges across America.

Still, when most people think about traditional “college students” they tend to picture someone who just graduated from high school, maybe 18-19 years old, financially dependent on their parents, living in a dormitory, taking classes full-time, and enjoying campus athletics, clubs, and social life.

Those students still exist, but they’re less than 30% of America’s undergraduates. They are also largely concentrated on the country’s selective, expensive private college and public university flagship campuses, which have daunting application processes, low acceptance rates, and admit only students near the top of their class (which usually means students who come from wealthier families with college-going experience).

Most of today’s “traditional” college students — especially at community colleges — are “non-traditional.” They are older, poorer, represent much greater diversity, and are likelier to be raising families themselves.

A group of NECC students (and one very young future freshman) study outside the David Hartleb Technology Center on the Haverhill campus. Photo courtesy NECC.

Out of all those different sectors of higher education, community colleges serve larger proportions of:

First generation students
Low income students
Minority students
English language learners
Students with learning disabilities
And many other “at-risk” students

They are also the lynchpin for the nation’s local economies. After graduation, 85% of community college degree earners stay close to their alma maters, contributing to the workforce, buying homes, raising families, and becoming the next generation of community leaders.

But for all the value community colleges and their students provide, all too often they are overlooked or, even worse, disadvantaged by decisions about funding or public policy.

For example:

Even though community colleges educate nearly half of the undergraduates in America each year, they typically receive 25% or less of a state’s higher education funding, and have the fewest resources to spend on their students of any level of education in America, as this table illustrates:

According to the most recent Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Voluntary Support of Education report, charitable donations to colleges and universities in America rose last year by over 7% to nearly $47 billion. But almost 70% of those contributions went to already wealthy research universities, while community colleges collected less than one-half of one percent (.004).
Critical federal educational policies routinely ignore community college students. The U.S. Department of Education’s approach to Pell grants for low income students, data gathering for institutional accountability, student loan regulations, Title IX enforcement about athletics and sexual assault, and many other important policies are usually aimed at those young, “traditional” four-year, residential college students, who are less than a third of U.S. undergraduates today. The needs of the nearly six million community college students, who tend to be a little older, live off campus, take classes part-time, and work thirty or more hours a week to pay for their own education and often to support families of their own, are overlooked.

Even when state and federal policy makers try to help higher education, they often end up widening the gap between the haves and the have-nots.

Here are two recent examples:

In Massachusetts, the state legislature created the “Endowment Match Incentive Program” back in 1997. The program provides $1 in matching state funds for every $2 raised through private fundraising, up to whatever amount is available in a given year.

For more than a decade, no matching funds were available. But the past couple of years (until the COVID-19 Pandemic struck) have been very good ones for the state budget, so the legislature agreed to put $10 million into the program this year — a wonderful opportunity for the foundations and fundraisers at the Commonwealth’s public colleges and universities to go to work with donors eager to make their contributions go even farther.

One catch: The Endowment Match Incentive Program funding follows the same formula as the state’s overall approach to funding higher education: 50% goes to the flagship University of Massachusetts, 25% goes to the state universities, and 25% goes to the community colleges.

That $5 million for the University of Massachusetts means:

$1.25M for each of four undergraduate campuses
$68 per student (for 74,000 students)

The $2.5 million for the state universities means:

$278K for each of nine campuses
$37 per student (for 67,000 students)

And the $2.5 million for the community colleges means:

$167K for each of fifteen campuses
$23 per student for (111,000 students)

My campus and students can certainly use $167K for scholarships and assistance, and we’re grateful for it. But the end result from a public policy perspective is that universities with much larger endowments, already generous donors, and students who are, on average, better off financially get more.

Meanwhile, community colleges have to work harder to raise less money to earn a smaller match that has to get spread across a lot more students who have fewer resources themselves in the first place.

Somewhere along the way, it would have been tremendously helpful to ask that question: “How are community college students different?”

Similarly, community college students really found themselves at the short end of the stick for this week’s distribution of the federal CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act funding.

The CARES Act is expected to provide nearly $14 billion in emergency aid to higher education students and institutions, based on a formula that considers the full-time equivalent enrollment of students, as well as their eligibility for Pell grants.

Sounds reasonable, but when you ask, “How are community college students different?” here is what you discover:

Because they tend to be poorer, raising families, and working more hours while in school, most community college students attend part-time.

At Northern Essex Community College, 5,233 students enrolled last Fall, but only 32% were full-time, so our “full-time equivalent” enrollment was actually 3,080. The median family income for our students is $52,900. Most come from the lowest family income rungs on the economic ladder, and over half are eligible for Pell grants.

The NECC Foundation has an endowment fund worth just over $4 million.

We are expecting to receive just under $3.3 million in CARES Act emergency aid (which will help, but will not come close to covering the expenses and losses we and our students are experiencing right now).

Meanwhile, 115 miles away in Hanover, New Hampshire, 4,418 undergraduates are enrolled at Dartmouth College, one of the eight prestigious “Ivy League” schools. Not surprisingly, 99% of Dartmouth’s students are full-time, so their “full-time equivalent” is the same as their headcount enrollment. The median family income for students at Dartmouth is $200,400 and 70% come from the top 20% of income earners in America. Only 14% of Dartmouth’s students are eligible for Pell grants.

Dartmouth has an endowment fund worth nearly $6 billion (yes, that’s “billion” with “B”).

Dartmouth is receiving just over $3.4 million in CARES Act emergency aid.

Two colleges, not far apart, but incredibly far apart.

When it comes to the CARES Act, helpful though the additional funding will be, here at NECC, like at community colleges across the nation, we will have fewer dollars to spread across more students who need much greater assistance.

If you’ve read this far, dear elected officials and policymakers, please accept my sincere gratitude again for your public service, and for hearing this plea; and in the weeks and months ahead, as some critical decisions about higher education are made, please, please pause for just a moment before each one, and ask yourself that important question: “How are community college students different?”

Lane Glenn is president of Northern Essex Community College.

Perspectives is a curated opinion forum published by Merrimack Valley Magazine.

NoteWorthy – 4/19/20

April 19, 2020 by Doug Sparks

Around the Valley

Student Advocate Named Civic Fellow

Courtney Morin of Lawrence has been named Northern Essex Community College’s Newman Civic Fellow for her outstanding leadership roles and devotion to advocating for community college students.

Morin, a biology and philosophy major, was nominated by NECC President Lane Glenn, who wrote, “College faculty and staff describe Courtney with words such as motivated, collaborative, innovative, dedicated, change-maker, and advocate.”

During her first year at Northern Essex, Morin became the president of the Amnesty International Club. In spring 2017, she started as a general member of the Student Government Association. Morin has attended several advocacy days at the Massachusetts Statehouse to advocate for sexual assault prevention, college affordability, educational attainment disparities between white and Latinx students, housing and food insecurity, mental health and the interconnectedness of these issues. Morin currently serves as the vice president of the Haverhill Campus for SGA.

In fall 2018, she was elected as the NECC student trustee to the board of trustees.

“Beyond the NECC community, Courtney was elected in 2018 to serve as the Vice Chair of the Student Advisory Council to the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education, where she supported and promoted initiatives such as open educational resources (OER), changing student trustee eligibility requirements, and Every Voice Coalition’s bills, aimed at addressing sexual violence and misconduct on higher education campuses,” wrote Glenn.

The Newman Civic Fellowship distinguishes and supports students who have shown leadership and an investment in their communities across the country to help solve problems they may be facing.

ECCF Announces New Grant Program for Creative Nonprofits Affected by COVID-19

Essex County Community Foundation (ECCF) is announcing the creation of the Essex County Creative Nonprofit Resiliency Grant Program.

Seeded with $100,000 from ECCF’s Creative County Initiative, the program will provide one-time grants to the Essex County cultural nonprofits that anchor vulnerable and vitally important cultural communities. The program will target small and mid-sized arts and cultural organizations with deep roots in their communities, that serve the economically vulnerable and are taking a long view towards recovery and sustainability.

During this time, ECCF encourages donors to continue their direct support of the arts and cultural organizations they have supported in the past. For more information, and to help sustain creative nonprofits by making a donation, please visit eccf.org/creative-county.

Individual artists are not eligible for The Essex County Creative Nonprofit Resiliency Program, but may be eligible for a grant from The Essex County Artist Fund. For more information, visit eccf.org/creative-county.

Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union and Community Teamwork Launch Acre Catalyst Fund

The Acre Catalyst Fund is a new collaborative project as part of Working Cities Lowell that provides businesses and entrepreneurs in the Acre neighborhood with funds and other support to start or expand their business ventures.

Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union has partnered with Community Teamwork, Inc. (CTI) to launch the Acre Catalyst Fund, a new collaborative project that will enhance business and entrepreneurial opportunities within Lowell’s Acre neighborhood.

The credit union has committed $200,000 to the Entrepreneurship Center @CTI to capitalize an economic development initiative. The Entrepreneurship Center @CTI offers a broad range of business services. The Acre Catalyst Fund complements the center’s programs by making loans available to entrepreneurs, new and current Acre businesses, and businesses seeking to locate to the Acre, one of Lowell’s most impoverished neighborhoods.

“The Acre is more than a neighborhood to us,” said Mark Cochran, president and chief executive officer of Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union. “This is where our organization began, and it’s still our home today. We have a responsibility to provide resources that can help neighborhoods thrive and give residents a pathway to economic opportunity. As a Working Cities Challenge member, the Credit Union is pleased to collaborate on this effort.”

The Acre Catalyst Fund is part of the Working Cities Lowell Initiative, a partnership between 13 local organizations, including Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union and Community Teamwork, Inc. that work to improve the Acre.

In addition to loan capital, entrepreneurs and businesses that are part of the program will receive business and financial counseling and other supportive resources to help guide them in their business ventures. Applicants must meet specific criteria to be eligible.

For more information regarding The Acre Catalyst Fund visit www.GrowYourBusinessat CTI.org.

Greater Haverhill Chamber of Commerce Launches Financial Program for Small Businesses

A new program from the Greater Haverhill Chamber of Commerce is helping the area’s smallest businesses where they need it most right now: Their pocketbooks.

“The COVID-19 crisis is wreaking havoc on Main Street small businesses across the United States,” says Dougan Sherwood, president of the Haverhill Chamber. “The Greater Haverhill Chamber has set up a new fund to drive desperately needed cash into these local mom and pops.”

Thanks to the program, people who shop at the participating businesses will get 25% off their purchase up to $100. They can find more details and participating businesses on the Haverhill Chamber’s website.

People can also help by donating to a GoFundMe campaign that the Chamber created to fund the initiative. It will use the fund to repay the businesses that provide a 25% discount to their customers.

Sherwood says the program will run for as long as it has funding.

“Please consider giving,” he says. “Then go shopping!”

Lupoli Delivers Pizza With a Purpose

On April 3, Sal Lupoli, the CEO and founder of Sal’s Pizza, delivered over 200 slices of pizza to Lawrence Memorial Hospital to thank the doctors, nurses, and hospital workers for their dedication and hard work. Then on April 8, Sal and wife Kati Lupoli, delivered pizzas to the Chelmsford Police and Fire Department. Through #pizzawithapourpose, Sal’s Pizza has discounted pizza at each of its locations and is providing pizza-making kits.

“Our mission is to help those that are helping our communities fight this virus. The courageous work that first responders are doing is hard and it does not go unnoticed. I hope that by delivering pizzas and saying thank you we can help our first responders in a small way” said Sal Lupoli, the CEO and Founder of the Lupoli Companies.

Student Entrepreneur Competition Tackles Health Care and Sustainability

Innovating even in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, UMass Lowell students learning entrepreneurship skills presented their ideas for new products and services in a pitch competition held remotely for the first time.

UMass Lowell’s DifferenceMaker program brings together students in all majors and teaches them to think like entrepreneurs and launch their own businesses and nonprofits. This year, as the UMass Lowell community teaches and works remotely, students participated in the eighth annual DifferenceMaker $50K Idea Challenge via Zoom on Wednesday, April 15. The event was open to the public.

The contest’s judges, many of them UMass Lowell alumni, heard from students pitching ideas for everything from biodegradable face masks to a service that trains people to escape burning buildings. Winning teams will receive shares of $50,000 in seed money from private donations.

Since the DifferenceMaker program’s launch, UMass Lowell students have formed 35 companies, filed for eight patents and raised $4 million in funding. Successful ventures include Nonspec, which builds prosthetics for people in developing countries; TopaCan, which makes and sells a portable device that turns beverage cans into environmentally friendly receptacles for cigarette butts; and invisaWear, inventor and seller of a personal safety alert device that looks like jewelry.

Pentucket Bank Continues with Increase in Community Contributions Amid COVID-19

Pentucket Bank announced the third round of “Phase One” donations as part of the bank’s strategy to increase charitable giving by 20% in 2020 over the $400,000 that the bank donated in 2019.

On Friday, April 10, the bank informed the following organizations that they will be receiving $2,500 in unrestricted funds: Elder Services of the Merrimack Valley, Salem Family Resources and Essex Country Community Foundation. The bank is committed to placing these meaningful funds in the hands of several agencies that are continuing to provide critical services throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. What the Bank is calling “Phase One” of their giving strategy includes ten local organizations and a total of $25,000; $2,500 for each of the ten. To date, the following organizations have also been recipients of these strategic bank contributions: Sarah’s Place Adult Day Health; Isaiah 58; Home Health Foundation; Emmaus Inc.; Boys & Girls Club of Haverhill, Boys & Girls Club of Salem and Family Services of Merrimack Valley.

For more information, please visit www.pentucketbank.com/covid19.

Haverhill Bank Provides $15 Million in SBA Funding to Local Businesses Impacted by COVID-19 Restrictions

As a longtime participating lender in U.S. Small Business Administration programs, Haverhill Bank was prepared to help when Congress approved the Paycheck Protection Program. The PPP is the centerpiece of a $2.2 trillion economic stimulus package and converts many loans into outright grants. Haverhill Bank President and CEO Thomas Mortimer said his institution has already funded $15 million to local businesses.

“This isn’t just about business. It’s personal. These are our families, neighbors, frontline workers at local businesses who need a helping hand as the nation faces the worst downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s,” he said.

On the day the program launched two weeks ago, he said, Haverhill Bank was already coaching businesses remotely. As a result, it received more than 160 applications and $34 million in requests.

The program allows businesses to keep paying employees and/or bring back laid-off workers. For the kinds of small businesses served by Haverhill Bank, most businesses won’t have to repay the loan if they keep people on the payroll.

Mortimer said bank staff have worked tirelessly to process the applications since time was of the essence. He explained that Congress allocated $349 billion and the bank processed loans all the way up until the time the current round of funding ran out on Thursday.

“This program will save many businesses from continued hardship and will benefit many who are unemployed,” Mortimer added.