Merrimack Valley Magazine

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.

UML Sustainability Mission Reaches Beyond the University

When one thinks of a college campus in the middle of a congested city, a rooftop farm, community gardens and a CSA program aren’t necessarily the first things that come to mind. Unless, that is, you’re thinking about the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where sustainability is one of the administration’s top priorities.

UMass Lowell Director of Sustainability Ruairi (pronounced “Rory”) O’Mahony and his office spearhead a multitude of initiatives designed to bring sustainable practices to all areas of the campus, from buildings and grounds to dining services and energy use.

O’Mahony and his staff are also committed to taking those practices outside of the university walls by forging partnerships throughout the city.

This approach to looking outward was a clear goal of Chancellor Jacqueline Moloney when she took office in 2015.

With about 18,000 students and a 142-acre campus, the university is invested in the community, O’Mahony says. His office coordinates and oversees more than a dozen partnerships with organizations around Lowell and the Merrimack Valley. Its largest collaboration is with Mill City Grows, the Lowell nonprofit that seeks to make healthy, fresh food more accessible to area residents. Together, the university and Mill City Grows operate community gardens and a greenhouse urban farm to raise seedlings for distribution throughout Lowell. Last year, UMass Lowell also hosted a farmers market with local vendors and offered its own CSA program. The 1,800-square-foot greenhouse is rich in learning opportunities for students and a site for academic research as well. Students and faculty work there to develop new methods to grow produce.

“It’s something we’re incredibly proud of,” O’Mahony says. “A vast majority of the [plants and herbs] on tables across the city come from here.”

A university-operated S.E.E.D. (Sustainability Engagement and Enrichment Development) Fund provides money for environmentally friendly green projects, which have included making campus facilities energy efficient, reducing the amount of waste on campus, and integrating more sustainable practices into teaching. A student fee, paid each semester, goes into the fund.

The greenhouse is named for Brian and Kim Rist, benefactors who last year donated $5 million, the largest single donation in its history, to UML. Much of that money will be used for the Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy, which will bring together all of UMass Lowell’s sustainable efforts while creating more classroom and real-world learning opportunities.

Above: L-r: Chancellor Jacquie Moloney; Lydia Sisson, UML graduate and co-founder of Mill City Grows; DCAMM Commissioner Carol Gladstone; Joanne Yestramski, senior vice chancellor for finance, operations and strategic planning; Francey Slater, Mill City Grows co-founder; and UML Director of Sustainability Ruairi O’Mahony. Photo by Tory Wesnofske for UMass Lowell. Below: Some of the crops harvested for UMass Lowell’s Community Supported Agriculture Program in partnership with Mill City Grows start as seedlings in the university’s Rist Urban Agriculture Greenhouse. Photo by Ed Brennen for UMass Lowell.

UMass students are invested in sustainable practices and look for ways to make an impact, O’Mahony says. They constantly share innovative ideas on how to improve the campus, and also spearhead tasks such as finding ways to reuse furniture or stem the growth of Japanese knotweed, an invasive species that threatens native plants.

In February, UML commitment to Lowell reached yet another level when the university and city formed a new Green Community Partnership, described as an “alliance to provide leadership, resources and expertise for sustainability initiatives throughout Greater Lowell.”

Moloney and City Manager Eileen Donoghue came up with the idea for the program and will head the Green Community Commission, which includes a mix of community and environmental leaders as well as businesspeople. With the partnership, Moloney and Donoghue launched a new sustainability grant program. This program is being funded by a donation from philanthropist Nancy Donahue, matched by community partners, that will be used for joint university/community sustainability projects.

Those programs and initiatives highlight the difference between UMass Lowell and other colleges, O’Mahony says. While other universities have sustainability departments, they tend to focus on recycling and other on-campus programs.

“We’re not just following others,” he says. “We have a real opportunity to do work within the city.”

At UMass Lowell, administrators, faculty, staff and students aren’t just pontificating about problems and issues facing the environment but are trying to solve them.

“We are out there front and center,” O’Mahony says. “Ultimately we want to find real solutions to make lives better in Lowell and the Merrimack Valley.”

O’Mahony says his department is fortunate to have the full support of the chancellor and executive cabinet, for whom sustainability practices are a top priority, and to have forged strong partnerships with community members.

The university’s deep commitment to sustainability drew senior Emily Wood to transfer to UMass Lowell from the University of Hartford.

Now she works in the Office of Sustainability, where she helped to coordinate last year’s farmers market and the CSA farm share. Both programs are thriving, and she hopes to expand them this spring. She’s also working on bringing beehives to campus.

Wood, 21, says she is constantly approached by peers who want to learn more about how the campus practices sustainability and new projects that are in the works.

“It’s a true priority,” she tells them. “You see it everywhere on campus.”

UMass Lowell – A Sustainability University

Top STARS rating among all colleges and universities in Massachusetts by AASHE, the association for the advancement of sustainability in higher education
$1.2 million in annual energy savings
1.7 million fewer gallons of water used each year
Eliminating 9 million fewer pounds of carbon dioxide emissions each year
Addressing over $10 million in deferred maintenance across the campus
In the last five years alone, faculty has brought in $30 million in energy, environment and sustainability related research
40,000 seedlings from the Urban Agriculture Program provide high-quality organic produce to the most food-insecure city residents through the Mill City Grows partnership.
Compost program uses dining hall food waste to keep campus lawns green
Dozens of sheep and goats to sustainably “mow” several large, steep inclines around campus and cost half the price of a mowing contractor.

— Information provided by UMass Lowell

NoteWorthy – 4/19/20