Resilient NH 2021

GRANITE STATERS FACING AND CONQUERING CHALLENGES

A supplement to

The tenacious campaign to transform a city Perseverance and the creation of New England’s first whitewater park

Pg. 12

SPONSORED BY:

Russ Ouellette: We’ve been here before

Mary Jo Brown: Acknowledging the mess

YOU SURVIVED 2020

ARE YOU READY TO THRIVE IN 2021?

Enroll Now in Our Resiliency Academy for Small Businesses & Communities April 7 | April 21 | May 5 | May 19 | June 2 All sessions are held 9:00–11:00am Participants are encouraged to attend all five sessions.

Work toward recovery and plan for future disruptions…whenever they happen.

The NH Small Business Development Center and UNH Extension are partnering to offer the Resiliency Academy to help small businesses and communities toward economic recovery and future planning.

Find out more at NHSBDC.org/resiliency-academy Funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and through assistance provided by the State of New Hampshire.

The NH SBDC is an outreach program of the UNH Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics, in conjunction with SBA, the State of NH (BEA), the University of NH, and the private sector. This programming was made possible due to CARES Act funding.

FROM OUR editor

Welcome to Resilient NH In the year of Covid, we watched everything around us change, seemingly immediately. Our communities, state, nation and the world were forced to adapt and adjust, become familiar with new ways of working, learning, shopping and socializing. For so many of us, the year meant hardship, and often pain and heartache.

But, as human beings have shown throughout their history, we learn and bounce back. If anything, the past year has shown us the very meaning of the word “resilient.”

Even in the earliest stages of the pandemic – when no one knew how long or how deadly Covid-19 would be – individuals, businesses and organizations almost immediately began doing their best to move forward. They created new products, services and programs to meet the very specific needs of the times.

That ability to bounce back from adversity is at the heart

of “Resilient NH,” this special publication from NH Business Review. In it we feature reflections by and stories about some impressive, successful – and, yes, resilient – Granite Staters.

Their stories are insightful, compelling and inspirational. And they offer lessons in how to learn from adversity and becoming all the stronger and wiser because of it.

JEFF FEINGOLD Editor

NH Business Review

CONTENTS

Profiles

Essays

MARTY PARICHAND:

The First Step: Acknowledge the Mess...................... 4

Bringing to life the vision of a revived city................. 12

A Challenge That Defines Our Lives.......................... 5

JOY BARRETT:

Just Another Mountain to Climb............................... 6

Joining together to find greater strength................... 16

MIKE L’ECUYER: When tragedy leads to fortitude............................... 20

HOWARD BRODSKY: Taking risks to meet challenges............................... 24

WENDY TIROLLO: Empowering others to help meet challenges ............ 28

TERESA ROSENBERGER: Reaching out to others and accepting help............... 34

JOHN BRODERICK: Speaking openly and listening to others................... 38

MARTY SINK: ‘Not giving up’ to help the state’s at-risk children..... 42

150 Dow Street, Manchester, New Hampshire 03101 • (603) 624-1442 • www.nhbr.com Ernesto Burden Vice President/Publisher . . . eburden@mcleancommunications.com, ext. 5117 Jeff Feingold Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . jfeingold@nhbr.com, ext. 5118 Liisa Rajala Associate Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . lrajala@nhbr.com, ext. 5158 Mista McDonnell Business Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . mmcdonnell@nhbr.com, ext. 5114 Jodie Hall Creative Services Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . jhall@nhbr.com, ext. 5122 Jennifer Freeman Senior Production Artist . . . . . . . . . . . . . jennf@yankeepub.com, ext. 117 Kimberly Lencki Advertising Sales Director . . . klencki@mcleancommunications.com, ext. 5154 Karen Bachelder Sales Executive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . kbachelder@nhbr.com, ext. 5148 Cynthia Stone Sales Executive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . cstone@nhbr.com, ext. 5146 Connie McCullion Sales Executive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . cmccullion@nhbr.com, ext. 5121

The Strength to Make Healthier, Safer Decisions........ 7 Watching Our Gardens Come Back to Life................. 8 We Have Been Here Before, and We Survived........... 9

FROM OUR sponsor

A letter from Cigna New England Resilience is commonly defined as the ability to quickly recover from challenges. Even in the best of times, our resilience is always put to the test. But over the past year, we have all been challenged in multiple ways, and to a degree that, for most of us, is unprecedented in our lifetime. From the COVID-19 pandemic to economic malaise, to political turbulence and social unrest, we have all been tested individually and collectively. These extreme tests have the potential to negatively impact our emotional and physical well-being unless we are exceptionally resilient. How resilient are you? I invite you to find out by completing a brief questionnaire at cignaresilience.com/ questionnaire.

Cigna’s 2020 study on resilience shows that 60% of the population is at risk of not being able to quickly recover from challenges and cope with adversity. However, the study also found that resilience exists in every one of us from young childhood, and it is up to each one of us to hone this lifelong skill. While we undoubtedly will continue to face a challenging environment in 2021, I have hope that we can continue to come together and draw upon personal and professional support to improve our resiliency levels and make our communities stronger. During the NH Business Review’s Resilient NH event, presented by Cigna, we heard from local business leaders who shared their strategies for creating positive momentum, creating focus and persevering during challenging times.

There is a strong link between resilience, staying connected socially, and being surrounded by a diverse community. As you read the articles and stories within this publication, consider how you can help improve your own resilience and the resilience of those around you. Begin a conversation at your workplace, or at home, to foster connections that can propel you, your family or your business forward.

At Cigna, our mission is to improve the health, well-being and peace of mind of those we serve by making health care simple, affordable, and predictable. Our relationships with employers, health systems, and community partners throughout the state enable us to advance this mission for the betterment of our clients, customers and communities. Together, with collective determination, we will continue to meet the challenges in front of us as we pursue a healthier future.

Cigna is proud to support the health of New Hampshire businesses, community organizations and the residents we are privileged to serve. We wish the entire Granite State a safe, healthy and resilient 2021!

JENN MOTTA

Chief Operations Officer Cigna New England

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RACHEL LOMBARD, LEED AP ASSISTANT PROJECT MANAGER “The best part of this profession is the relationships and partnerships you build. People and companies coming together, working together, to bring someone’s idea to reality.“

www.connection.com | 1.800.800.0014 ©2021 PC Connection, Inc. All rights reserved. Connection®, and we solve IT® are registered trademarks of PC Connection, Inc. C1243054 0221

2 RESILIENT NH 2021

DEWconstruction.com

Williston, VT

Keene, NH

Manchester, NH

FROM OUR sponsor

A letter from Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health Resilience is a word that has been used often in health care this past year. Health care providers and organizations have been asked to overcome major obstacles and have proven that they are up for the challenges no matter what it takes. At Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health (D-HH), our focus has been on creating and adhering to policies and guidelines to keep our employees and patients safe, and implementing and expanding our telehealth services at an unprecedented pace to continue to provide needed patient care.

D-HH was proud to play a role in highlighting the need to follow recommended guidelines – for wearing masks, physical distancing and washing hands – through ongoing campaigns and outreach.

We have been communicating that “hope is on the horizon” with the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, and we are committed to being part of this effort. We know it will be a long process, and part of our focus will be on reminding people to be patient and follow protective measures even after receiving the vaccine.

This past year, the communities we serve also demonstrated a tremendous level of resilience. Communities have helped to keep their families, friends and neighbors safe despite the impact that the pandemic has had on everyone, especially fam-

ilies. In this publication, we share an article about parental selfcare focused on the need for families to find a balance in dealing with stress brought on by the pandemic, including practicing healthy behaviors together. This is good advice for all of us as we face the months ahead and the continued rollout of the vaccine.

Our resilience will continue to be tested, but we have proven that we are up to the challenge.

As people and organizations work through a major challenge like the COVID-19 pandemic, it is often an opportunity to reveal our strengths and weaknesses. In health care, we have demonstrated that resiliency in the face of incredible obstacles is an extremely valuable asset. The positive lessons we have learned about ourselves during this time will have a profound effect on our communities for many years to come.

JOANNE M. CONROY, MD

CEO and President

Dartmouth-Hitchcock and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health

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The First Step: Acknowledge The Mess And then cherish the small wins

By Mary Jo Brown

I

said “yes” quickly to writing about resilience, but the truth is I feel I lack it entirely.

I looked up the definition of resilience, and it uses phrases like “letting go” and “flexibility,” which truly seem to defy my approach to not only life, but in particular my response to our current health and economic crisis.

The truth is I feel like a mess.

Whether sobbing in the parking lot of a local bank the day before the first round of PPP funding ran out, having a full-on panic attack at the recycling center and refusing to get out of my loaded-with-trash car because no one was wearing masks, or yelling irrationally at a Market Basket shopper who was fingering too many boxes and walking the wrong way down the cereal aisle, I feel like a discombobulated and anxious mess.

The good news for me is that I can compartmentalize, and I like to plan. I can tuck bad thoughts away for a while and avoid them, and I can also make lists. These skills have provided useful and allowed me to keep calm and cherish some small wins along the way.

Here are a few of those small wins: • I planted an avocado seed.

It was early in quarantine. It was an act of hope. I wasn’t really sure it would work.

4 RESILIENT NH 2021

It is now a foot tall and has four leaves.

• I started an online art club with my daughter.

My daughter Haley and I immediately started making art daily as a way of coping. In April, we started Brown’s Art Club, a free weekly Zoom call for artists of all ages and abilities. Friday nights are spent with 10 to 40 people, making art together and learning from guest artists around the country. It is an intimate and vulnerable way to connect with friends and strangers from New England, Yonkers, N.Y., and even Australia. I have come to cherish this community and the gift it offers all of us at this time.

• I bike every day.

My Grandpa Haley biked more than five miles a day until he was 91. I have vivid memories of biking behind him; his flash of white hair, plaid shirt and steady pace. He did not appear to be going very fast, and I never understood why I was so winded trying to keep up. Today, my bike is one-speed, bright yellow and has a bungee cord wrapped around it to hold my water bottle. Biking makes me happy. I can still imagine Pappy right ahead of me.

• I explore in my own home.

I need escape and adventure to thrive.

My daughter and I deeply miss traveling.

For me, exploring our own home and

backyard has been a deliberate attempt to fill this need. I dig into old boxes, empty the bottom drawer, and search seldom-visited corners to find treasures I can revel in.

Just today, I found a small glass jar filled with my baby teeth, labeled by my father who passed away in 1992. Hey, doesn’t that sound like an adventure?

• I photograph everything.

I may have formally studied etching at UNH, but my whole life I have loved making art and specifically photography.

I document everything around me, all the time – little vignettes of life that grab me in the moment. I think seeing is a way of understanding, and I think that making art has the power to heal. It allows me to find a moment of beauty, whether color or light or shape, and honor it – breathe it in – and capture it. It’s like loving something deeply and quickly, and then moving on.

The day lockdown started, I began “The Coronachrome Series,” posting one image daily from our life with Covid. I never imagined I would arrive at number 137, with no real end in sight. But I will keep taking photos.

So am I resilient? I don’t know. Am I coping? Yes. I say acknowledge the mess. The mess of this tragedy, the mess of the world. The mess in ourselves.

And then go for the small wins.

You never know where you will find them.

Maybe even in an avocado seed. ¥

Mary Jo Brown is founder and president of Brown & Company Design in Portsmouth.

A Challenge That Defines Our Lives It is human nature to group together to fight a shared threat

By Susan C. Ryan

O

ften, the challenges we each face are what define our lives.

Some are positive, exciting or fun, and others are demanding, stressful and even dire. If this spectrum of challenges didn’t exist, what would be the composition of our life?

Our response to these tests varies based on a hundred different factors, things like our age, supports we have, anticipated outcomes, and, of course, the challenge itself.

Once a challenge has been encountered, we may experience that same thing in a completely different way later in life based on all the variables of the time.

Looking back on these situations and what gave us the strength and resilience to move through and past them is sometimes never done until a person encounters something similar again or knows someone who is facing a similar challenge. It may only be then that we openly reflect on the past. That’s a shame since it’s the totality of our experience, including reflecting on how we handled it, which enriches our life and often supports a better future for ourselves and others.

Right now, the world is collectively experiencing the same challenge related to Covid-19. This is a very uncommon occurrence in our human history. Working on how we adjust our response as we move through this crisis should be a collective imperative. Every imaginable variable is at play, yet we all want the same outcome. We want Covid to be eradicated or that we be given the means to at least avoid its impact, including illness or death. There can be no more important collective goal. We want our world back, along with all the things we

enjoyed about life.

It’s also clearly a marathon and not a sprint to get to any type of defined finish line, what some call the new normal.

THE WORLD AS WE KNEW IT HAS CHANGED, and we still don’t know what the future will bring. We are relying on smart people around the globe to help us understand how to move through and past this. We need each other. We need to each be strong and resilient in the face of dangerous and shifting unknowns.

We need to dig down deep and access the resilience we each have so we can fight through this while staying calm and positive.

We must also acknowledge everyone will individually experience this differently, in order to help us all get through it together. We need to accept this is going to take time.

Resilience has perhaps never mattered more. By definition it’s comprised of flexibility, strength, toughness and ability to recover and return to our original form after having been stressed by change. How we respond to life’s challenges varies, but the tools we amass, the inner strength we grow and then constantly access so we can thrive, are vital to our survival right now.

It is human nature to quickly group together to immediately fight a shared threat and we’ve done that. It’s also human nature to want a threat to go away and become more stressed or irritated when it doesn’t. We can’t allow ourselves to become impatient since that will help no one. We need to recognize this is hard

and try to support each other, knowing no matter how hard we try to be strong and brave, people will struggle.

Now is not the time to give up, nor allow ourselves to become divided or pretend the threat is gone. We must remain vigilant and resilient, and we must do this together for the entire marathon if we are to succeed in eliminating or at least quelling this global Covid challenge.

Whenever you can, share your resilience and hope others will do the same when you need it most. We need each other more than ever, so we can finish this marathon safely and together. ¥

Susan C. Ryan most recently was president and CEO of Spaulding Youth Center, now Spaulding Academy & Family Services, in Northfield.

RESILIENT NH 2021 5

Just Another Mountain to Climb Aging gracefully amid life’s transitions

By Doug Teschner

I

n my leadership workshops, I show a cartoon of a speaker asking a crowd how many of them want change, and everyone raises their hand. But when asked who wants to change, all gaze down at the floor. It is human nature to avoid change but necessary to become a better person. These days, I am getting a good dose of my own medicine!

There is, of course, the kind of change we actively embrace as opposed to change we don’t control (but need to adapt to). As an example of the former, I scored the best job of my life in 2008: Peace Corps country director. I loved the challenge and working with the international staff and American Volunteers. My mantra was, “to inspire myself and others to achieve a higher level of personal and professional performance,” and I embraced it every day!

But in 2014, unexpected changes required adaptation. A revolution in Ukraine and Ebola in Guinea had me evacuating Peace Corps volunteers back to the U.S. I stayed behind with the staff, and we made lemonade out of lemons, including developing a community education initiative that helped end the Ebola epidemic.

In 2016, I was back home in New Hampshire at age 66. Not wanting to retire, I started a consulting business.

Research shows that the quality of leadership is the No. 1 factor in employee engagement, yet barely a third of Americans say they are engaged in their work.

I try to embrace the words of author Jim Kouzes: “What can I do in this moment to make this other person feel more capable and powerful?”

AN EARLY LIFE CHOICE WAS TAKING up mountaineering with adventures in Eu6 RESILIENT NH 2021

“What Is It You Plan to Do with Your One Wild and Precious Life?”

– poet Mary Oliver rope, Africa and North America (including many in our White Mountains). But, starting around age 50, favorite rock climbs were increasingly a struggle (or even out of reach). This past year, I also had knee replacements and, after mountains of physical therapy, I am just now able to climb some little ones.

I also experienced unexpected anxiety, accentuated by post-surgery medication.

So I started both counseling and daily meditation which have opened up new ways of thinking. Sometimes life changes create new opportunities!

My therapist suggested talking with male friends about aging and life transitions. On Zoom, climbing buddies from a 1976 trip to Alaska’s Denali share about health and evolving lives. One topic is shifting perspective from sadness about limitations to gratefulness for the past. Another theme is focusing on the future and finding new ways to feel useful and alive.

I am inspired listening to podcasts by Brené Brown, whose research focuses on the link between courage and vulnerability. “I don’t have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness,” she observes. “It’s right in front of me if I’m paying attention and practicing gratitude.”

Blessed by many friends and family (including my wife, two sons and three grandchildren), I am reminded that the bottom line in life is the quality of relationships and connections with others: how we touch and influence people, and how they touch and influence us.

CHANGES IN OUR COUNTRY have me wondering if this nation can survive if we don’t find better ways to communicate. As a New Hampshire state legislator, I gave a speech in 1998 lamenting declining civility, but the situation is much worse today.

So I volunteered to be state coordinator for Braver Angels, a national nonprofit embracing respect for fellow citizens and teaching ways to better listen and understand those with whom we disagree.

Hopefully, I can make a difference.

With all these life changes, I wonder where the future will lead and if I can find ways to age gracefully. Can I stay productive and continue contributing through my 70s and beyond? I ponder the haunting lyrics of John Prine (who recently passed away from Covid-19): “You know that old trees just grow stronger, And old rivers grow wilder every day, Old people just grow lonesome, Waiting for someone to say, ‘Hello in there, hello.’”

Brené Brown suggests leaning in when facing uncertainty. My therapist Kristen says I am taking a new trail, forging a new identity, and can manage sadness about future decline by being more playful, curious and self-compassionate. Take care of each moment, she says, and it will lead into the next one. ¥

Douglass P. Teschner is founder of Growing Leadership LLC, based in Pike.

The Strength to Make Healthier, Safer Decisions Lessons learned from victims of abuse

By Rashida Eltag Mohamed orking with survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault has illustrated to me the human resiliency to move on with life even after years of abuse.

Physical abuse is the type known to most, but victims of emotional and verbal abuse also show similar resiliency. Abuse victims care for their children, focus on jobs and run their homes. Currently, in New Hampshire, the justice system doesn’t acknowledge emotional and verbal abuse as a crime against humanity, yet no type of abuse begins with just one threat.

On the website, “The Power of Positivity,” psychologists say there are seven reasons we stay in a relationship that is toxic and no longer works: 1. Low self-esteem 2. Fear of being alone 3. Desire to change partners 4. Fear of financial instability 5. Children 6. The abuse has been normalized 7. Believing that the relationship is good enough We see this clearly in women’s lives.

Again, while there are male victims of abuse, the percentage with whom I work with is lower than women victims.

Abuse has many layers and ways to maneuver. It requires knowledge of the resources that are available to the victims and most importantly language.

To immigrants and refugees who may not understand what is being said to them, this an extra layer between them and survival.

Without resilience, many of the victims would still be abused and, worse, manipulated and – if she is a refugee or immigrant – possibly sent back to her native country.

Survivors who have undergone trauma can be, and often are, highly resilient.

In some cases, however, traumatized individuals may develop maladaptive coping skills, such as substance use, that negatively impact them and may reduce their ability to cope with future challenges.

Emotional abuse may be harder to iden-

tify than physical abuse, but that doesn’t make it any less harmful.

An example: Any couple. Any situation.

Any language.

He was her first love and she hoped to have her dream family with him. He promised to be by her side always. They agreed to keep their personal issues between them. She kept her promise. He did not.

He lied to her sisters, other family members and her friends. Made up terrible stories so much so that her family members and friends turned on her. The husband became the trusted confidant for “her” family members. He then lied to his wife and told her that her trusted family was talking about her. He isolated her. She did not return phone calls or invitations.

In time, the family and friends stopped reaching out.

She was alone with just him and their children.

The name-calling began. The silent treatment when he said nothing to her for days. He decided when she could speak and when they would have sex. This treatment was exacerbated until the two children became aware of their father’s mistreatment of their mother.

The couple were well educated and well known in the community. But he drank.

Got angry. Called her names. Threatened.

Threw things at her. A day. A week. A month. A year. At one point, their daughter

was afraid because she saw blood and she called 911. Nothing happened. It was explained away. Only a small cut.

Then a neighbor called the police after he heard a loud fight.

Later, she read a domestic violence leaflet left by the officers. And there she saw herself. She called the crisis service phone number for domestic violence victims. She began attending the support group. She learned about verbal and emotional abuse and how her daughter might be the fourth generation of abuse, simply from observing the mother’s life and choices.

Working with the domestic violence liaison and in support groups, she began healing mentally and began practicing the behaviors taught in the groups, embraced and practiced promoting and using her own personal strengths and acknowledging her own personal assets. This resilience had always been there.

She had only to accept and embrace it to protect herself from future negativity.

While many see resilience as a strong asset, it can also have a negative connotation of accepting a bad situation, particularly if the victim experienced verbal and emotional abuse in her childhood. The abuse becomes the norm. She knows it.

She stays.

But, in some cases, the victim is strong enough to see herself in other victims.

That resilience leads to healthier decisions. And life. ¥

Rashida Eltag Mohamed is a domestic and sexual violence victim advocate at the Manchester Police Department.

RESILIENT NH 2021 7

Watching Our Gardens Come Back to Life Even when prevailing conditions would suggest that no growth should be able to take place, it does.

By Amanda Grappone Osmer

F

or weeks, we waited for rain.

There were several days when it looked a lot like it might rain, and even a few days where the occasional drop fell, only to give way to sunny skies again before the laundry even knew what had hit it on the line.

We were all hearing about the dangers and irritations of drought conditions: dry wells, fires, dead lawns, failing gardens.

Not having enough water is indeed a real problem. Water sustains life.

I was in our yard looking out over the green grass and burgeoning garden. No kidding, even in a tremendously long dry spell we’ve had, and with very little watering on our behalf, our yard and garden was brimming with life. They looked – and were – inviting.

How was this happening?

We are blessed to live in an area with a high water table. So even when the prevailing conditions would suggest that no growth should be able to take place, it does. Below the surface, where we cannot see, life-giving water is feeding the plants we painstakingly put out in rows, ensuring that even when the elements are harsh, the cabbage, kale, onions, beans, peas, tomatoes, basil, sunflowers and snapdragons can bring us delicious dinners and glorious cut arrangements.

AND SO IT WAS WITH GRAPPONE during Covid-19, when everything was 8 RESILIENT NH 2021

canceled, the political unrest, no sports for our children, racial tensions, massive unemployment, American cities burning, a presidential election turning a nation against itself. It could feel like a drought of hope, and it was exhausting.

How on earth could we survive through this, much less grow and thrive? How can a business that’s responsible for so many people, and that needs to generate so much profit just to break even, thrive in the face of such unceasing and depressing bad news and uncertainty?

I have the answer, and it’s shaped like a lobster.

One night during Covid, a handful of Grappone employees representing all of them said “thank you” to the directors by making and serving us a delicious dinner.

We had appetizers, lobster and steak, and mouth-watering homemade desserts (which I wasn’t going to eat, but totally failed in delivering them to my family in favor of sucking them down on the way home—man, was it good!). We watched a video of many of you expressing your appreciation for how the company has helped you and your families through the Covid crisis. We received thoughtful local gifts and had a wonderful time catching up with one another.

TO SAY THAT THE NIGHT was special can’t possibly capture how it made us all feel. We were humbled. Grappone has its

own high water table, a pool of resilience just below our surface that feeds and waters our mission, and it is refilled every time we smile, take care of our guests, respectfully listen to teammates who have a different view of the world and volunteer in the community. There are a thousand ways to fill the well, and when you do it ensures that our team will thrive in the tough times.

When I see the green garden that should be brown, I think of all the work that is happening out of sight to ensure the health of the precious vegetables and flowers. ¥

Amanda Grappone Osmer is fourth generation owner of Grappone Automotive Group in Bow.

We Have Been Here Before, and We Survived Change and difficulty has always been a part of life

By Russ Ouellette

L

ife is a series of situations and experiences that causes pain, makes us happy, provides fulfillment and allows for a life full of wisdom and appreciation. But first comes the pain and hardship, difficulties and burdens. There is no gain without pain, no success without failure and no good without evil. We would not appreciate summer as much if there was never a winter. Resilience is what guides our path through the trouble towards change, being better and happier. As a side benefit, the more we survive, the more resilient we can become.

We all have a story to tell about what we have been through, our own hero’s journey, and when we think about it and share it with others, we feel wiser and worthy. Right now, we are all developing our own story of resilience; we are conceiving it in real time. We look around and see pain, feel it, empathize with our friends and family, and try to figure out what to do.

I feel I have been coping my entire life.

This is not a bad thing to me. Rather, it is a fuel that keeps me pushing, trying a little harder, learning new things, falling down a lot, to get up and try again. It creates a sense that I can overcome, this too will pass, and allows me to think and look forward. Of course, I still feel the anxiety, discomfort and confusion, and have to go directly into it to understand and put it in perspective. The key is to finally put things in perspective.

IT’S FAIR TO SAY THAT OUR SOCIETAL STRUGGLES and difficulties are having an effect on our personal economics, health and even safety. These are the baseline needs we all require to just func-

tion, and for many of us, this is the first time external realities have affected us so directly and created such uncertainty.

Now think about the trials you would have gone through if you were born a century ago. Many wars, pandemics, depressions, recessions, and we still persist.

When we listen to our elders share their experiences and how these shaped their values and lives, we are appreciative and hold some of those learned values and grit within us.

I attended the funeral service of a dear relative who died from Covid-19 at the age of 84. As I sat there listening to my brother-in-law talk about his mother and father, and looked around the Catholic Church to see beautiful monuments, murals of saints and candles burning, it dawned on me we have been here before.

We have survived. We are resilient people.

This, too, will pass.

TO BE RESILIENT, WE NEED TO FEEL SOMETHING first and accept it as it is, be with it, and eventually create a vision of how we will be going forward. Consider these perspectives and behaviors for overcoming even the worst of a situation: • Make connections with others. We are never in it alone and will never be our best by ourselves. The ability to express and share our pain can have immediate positive results. Rely on your support system. If you are feeling it, they are too.

• Accept that change and difficulty is part of life, and that it will keep coming. Embracing change and using it to grow will not only make you feel better, it will give you an advantage for success and happiness.

• It’s not enough to think positive, you

have to be positive. This is not pretending to smile, it’s having a mindset of the long term, not just what is in front of you. You will accomplish small goals on your long journey, and what is directly in your way right now will not be there forever.

• You can think about things for a while, but at some point you need to be decisive and take action. In difficult times we don’t have all the facts and never will. Do the next best thing and move forward. Do something.

• Love and accept yourself for who you are right now. You’ll never be perfect, and the wonder is in the imperfections. Do what you are good at, try what you’re not, go to school.

Take care of yourself physically and emotionally.

• Keep it all in perspective, find the hope. You can be real and lay out the problem, but then turn it into hope because it is there. ¥

Russ Ouellette is president and CEO of Sojourn Partners in Bedford.

RESILIENT NH 2021 9

RESILIENCE IS FORGED IN ADVERSITY IMPORTANT LESSONS FROM OUR GROUNDBREAKING RESILIENCE RESEARCH*

60% OF AMERICANS

DO NOT HAVE HIGH RESILIENCE

EMPLOYEES ARE FEELING THE IMPACT OF RECENT CHALLENGES. Percent of full-time workers that experienced anxiety about the recent deaths of Black Americans like George Floyd

34%

of full-time workers feel pessimistic about their company’s ability to endure COVID-19

84% 64%

66%

White

Hispanic

54% Asian

Black

THE STRUGGLE IS REAL AND CAN HAVE A REAL IMPACT ON YOUR BUSINESS UNLESS YOU TAKE ACTION.

*Based on our 2020 multi-arm survey of 16,500 school-aged children, their parents, young adults and working adults from across the United States.

LESS RESILIENT WORKERS HAVE: • Lower job satisfaction and higher likelihood for turnover • Lower performance and professional ambition • Weaker relationships and lack of community at work • Lower feelings of self-worth and self-esteem • Less ability to cope with the impact of COVID-19

HOW EMPLOYERS CAN HELP BUILD RESILIENCE

Approach health holistically

Encourage transparent, two-way communication

Foster quality connections

Provide support and resources

Increase diversity

Prioritize inclusivity

Follow a Goldilocks “just right” approach to technology

Want to know more? Check out CignaResilience.com.

Methodology Approximately 16,500 Americans ages five and over from the continental U.S., Alaska and Hawaii were surveyed online in August 2020 by Dynata in English.

The evaluation of resilience is based on the Child and Youth Resilience Measure (CYRM) and Adult Resilience Measure (ARM), two 17-item questionnaires developed by the Resilience Research Centre at Dalhousie University. The CYRM and ARM are self-report measures of resilience, and all findings are based on this self-reported data.

For the purposes of this study and report, “resilient” refers to high resilience. High (H), Moderate (M) and Low (L) resilience scores were measured as follows (based on a total possible score of 85 for Adults and Children ages 11-17 and 51 for Children ages 5-10): Adults (H: 85-75; M: 74-50; L: 49-17), Children 11-17 (H: 85-78; M: 77-55; L: 54-17), Children 8-10 (H: 51-49; M: 48-40; L: 39-17), Children 5-7 (H: 51-49; M: 48-40; L: 39-17).

All products and services are provided exclusively by or through operating subsidiaries of Cigna Corporation, including Cigna Health and Life Insurance Company, Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, Cigna Behavioral Health, Inc., Evernorth affiliates, Express Scripts companies or their affiliates, and Life Insurance Company of North America.

951868 02/21

© 2021 Cigna. Some content provided under license.

RESILIENT NH

profiles

Bringing to Life the Vision of a Revived City Marty Parichand and Todd Workman’s tenacity is creating a new Franklin

BY L I I SA R AJ A L A

COLLECTIVE ENERGY and unrelenting determination can transform an idea into reality, as demonstrated by the seven-year, ongoing effort to develop Mill City Park in the city of Franklin.

In 2014, Marty Parichand was scouting a nine-acre site along the Winnipesaukee River in the city that would be home to Mill River Park, New England’s first whitewater park. He teamed up with Todd Workman, a local investor who shared the same vision, and they hit the ground running “from day one,” Parichand said.

They agreed that Franklin is a natural location for whitewater rafting, whitewater kayaking and other river sports. The city sits at the junction of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers where they form the Merrimack River.

The city also was the former home to mills that dotted the shores of those very rivers, but it has seen economic hardship over the recent decades. So developing a whitewater park was seen as having a lasting economic ripple effect for the city of

8,600, with its potential to attract 161,000 visitors and $6.8 million of direct spending to the region, according to a 2015 report.

PERSONAL INVESTMENT Parichand and Workman first attempted to build Mill City Park by themselves.

Parichand, who had left a lucrative job working as an avionics engineer and program manager for a Department of Defense contractor, tried to obtain a conventional loan to start the park’s development, but quickly learned he could not pull it off alone.

Building the park would require raising private and corporate funds, exploring economic development and federal grants, and a lengthy process to design the construction of Mill City Park’s land and riverbed structures and receive the necessary permits.

“We were lucky to find Marty,” says Workman. “When you have a creative concept that seems like a pie-in-the-sky project, most places would form a committee and peck away for a cou-

Since 2014, Marty Parichand has driven efforts to develop a whitewater park that could attract $6.8 million of direct spending to the region. Franklin sits at the junction of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers where they form the Merrimack River—a natural location for whitewater rafting, whitewater kayaking (see Parichand at right) and other river sports. (Photo

by Allegra Boverman) 12 RESILIENT NH 2021

BRINGING FRANKLIN BACK TO LIFE The groundwork for Mill City Park generated outside interest to develop other ventures.

• Concord-based CATCH Neighborhood Housing purchased and renovated the 1895 Franklin Light & Power Mill into 45 affordable apartment units in 2017, utilizing multiple funding sources.

• A couple who moved from Texas to New Hampshire to pursue a teaching opportunity opened Vulgar Brewing Company in 2018, after Workman received a grant to spruce up the old building’s façade.

• Vitex Extrusion announced it would be adding a 50,000-square-foot facility adjacent to its existing 115,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in a Franklin industrial park.

• The Peabody Home, a nursing home in Franklin, has received a $26 million package through the USDA Rural Development Direct Loan and Grant Program to construct a modern senior living facility with assisted and independent living.

• After securing financing through lenders, equity investors and the city’s tax incremental financing program, Chinburg Properties is moving forward with the renovation of the Stevens Mill into 140 market-rate apartments and commercial space, having owned the building since 2017. (The business center is reasonably well occupied and will stay through the project.)

ple of years. Our nonprofit had the foresight – we had to fast track it.”

Parichand did file Mill City Park as a nonprofit, but it was Workman’s economic development nonprofit, PermaCityLife, that financed his paycheck for two years.

Workman refinanced several condemned downtown buildings he had purchased in 2012 and 2013, and has subsequently gutted and renovated to provide updated commercial space and condominiums.

He used the funds as a match to receive grant and loan funding from the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority. The money supported three full-time jobs focused on economic development projects. One of them was Parichand’s role to develop Mill City Park.

“We didn’t want to peck away at it for a few years on a part-time basis,” Workman clarifies. “If Marty wasn’t there as an individual pushing the project down the pipeline for several years, it wouldn’t happen. You need a driving force.”

RALLYING AROUND AN IDEA The impetus behind Mill City Park may have been Parichand, but he quickly learned he needed the community to endorse and support this enormous endeavor. Construction was going to be costly, so the best route to move the project forward was to explore economic development grants and raise private and corporate donations.

So Parichand did something he’s done numerous times since – he held meetings with town leadership and the public. Not everyone was on board at first.

“The whitewater park was a major factor in considering the Stevens Mill project,” says Eric Chinburg, president of Chinburg Properties.

“Often it is hard to invest in underutilized mill buildings, without community support and a dedication to community improvement, both of which we found in Franklin.”

“We’re seeing business like that wanting to take advantage of what’s coming and certainly our economic development team that’s looking to relocate business here or get new business off the ground, they’re using the whitewater park as a sales tool,” says Todd Workman of PermaCityLife.

Workman himself has gotten financing through Franklin Savings Bank and its subsidiary, Independence Financial Advisors, to complete the lion’s share of renovation work, on what Workman describes as “a beautiful corner building.” It now is home to a lawyer’s office and is the headquarters of Independence Financial Advisors.

The renovations of buildings downtown are not just designed to attract businesses but residents, with upscale condos planned for the upper floors of those buildings.

The idea is to bring “the upper levels back to life as more people are looking to live in the heart of downtown,” says Workman. “We have worked hard to design housing options for all ages and income levels in downtown Franklin Falls.”

RESILIENT NH 2021 13

RESILIENT NH

profiles

Buell Block, which houses Parichand’s shop Outdoor New England (ONE) and the Franklin Studio coffee shop, is still being restored on the top floor to create a penthouse. (Photo by Allegra Boverman) “One of the pieces was the mindset of the city,” says Parichand. “Community members, city councilors, people in the crowd – they didn’t know or understand, or couldn’t fathom, why this should be important.”

“The concept is new for New England, but there are 30 of them in Colorado, 280 across the country,” says Parichand.

Parichand explained how a whitewater park was a community centerpiece that could attract people to the area. Onlookers watch whitewater kayaks and river surfers navigate the river and paddle the built-in waves in the waterbed.

To help promote the vision, Parichand went out on a limb

“It’s no longer about me. It’s about the city.

It’s about giving people something to believe in and moving forward on a path that’s sustainable for our city.”

in 2015 and opened Outdoor New England (ONE), a canoe, kayak and rafting store, on Central Street, located in one of the refurbished buildings owned by PermaCityLife.

Like many of the buildings, it had been condemned.

Parichand says he removed 12,000 pounds of trash and demolition debris, and paid out of pocket for the mechanical and electrical systems.

But the result was a shop with a charming look from the reclaimed wood and old cabinetry, with active social media accounts and reviews from visitors who stopped by.

“I didn’t know much about retail when it started,” says Parichand. “I thought if there was an all-encompassing business that could work toward a whitewater park but also connect people to the outdoors, that’s a business (where) you are meeting your customers and getting a chance of talking to them about the benefits of a whitewater park.”

Parichand started working closely with Judie Milner, Franklin’s current city manager and former city finance director, to apply for grants only available to municipalities.

“We strategized the idea of undeveloped city land, which is where the actual 13-acre Mill City Park is now planned.

Fast-forward a few years, and we are now in the process of placing an adjacent 21 acres into conservation with Lakes Region Conservation Commission,” says Parichand. “The city has embraced and worked tirelessly on it with us. They are a true partner.”

14 RESILIENT NH 2021

012-015_ResilientNH_PROFILE_MartyParichand.indd 14

2/19/21 5:20 PM

Todd Workman oversees renovations and restoration of the Odd Fellows Building, where upscale condos are being developed above commercial space on the ground floor. (Photo by Allegra Boverman)

A whitewater enthusiast, Parcihand has dedicated the past several years to create the first whitewater park in New England.

In 2021, construction will begin on two sets of standing waves in the riverbed. (Photo by Allegra Boverman)

A TURNING POINT In late 2017, Mill City Park received its first substantial financial boost.

Parichand walked into Franklin Savings Bank with a gap in a grant application that required $25,000 in matching funds.

He sat down with the bank’s president, Ron Magoon, and told him his problem.

Parichand recalls that Magoon said, “I understand you need $25,000, but we’ve been working on this problem on our end too, and we’ve figured out how to free up a $250,000 donation.”

It was a key turning point in the project.

“Franklin Savings Bank enabled a lot of success because they were able to provide upfront dollars that enabled us to apply to grants with matching funds,” he says.

Since then, Mill City Park has received five federal grants totaling over $2.7 million and significant contributions from the CRDC, Franklin Business & Industrial Development Corp., the Tim Horne Foundation and manufacturer Gilbert Block Company.

The support has been not only a major financial shot in the arm, but a barometer of the project’s future success.

“That was our first realization that people who might have never been exposed to whitewater sports are starting to believe this and backing it with their time and effort and money,” says Parichand.

“As you show more success, you get more support,” concludes Workman.

COVID SETBACK

By June 2020, Franklin received a wetlands permit from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, the final regulatory piece needed before construction of Mill City Park could begin. The permit allows it to divert the Winnipesaukee River and build features that will let kayakers and surfers do tricks in front of riverbank crowds.

But by then the Covid-19 pandemic had hit and delayed construction and in-person fundraisers.

“We lost $70,000 in event revenue, and probably even more important, Covid negatively impacted many of our grants programs, pushing our construction timeline by a year,” says Parichand.

This year, construction will begin on a timber-frame pavilion, parking lots and two sets of standing waves in the riverbed. In 2022, construction will begin on refurbishment of Trestle Bridge – an old railroad bridge – into a footbridge to connect the Winnipesaukee River Trail to Mill City Park and the downtown area.

Eventually, the park will feature sites for camping, climbing walls, trails for walking and bicycling, an amphitheater and historic features around remnants of three mills that once stood there.

“It’s been a super-long process for me, and I definitely get a little impatient. It’s been a long haul,” says Parichand. “Personally, I feel my life for the last six years has been this project.

For the first time, the project is at a point of no return and truly is becoming a reality. This is a testament to our whole team – nobody’s going to give up until it’s done.” ¥ RESILIENT NH 2021 15

RESILIENT NH

profiles

Joining Together to Find Greater Strength How an organizational merger led Joy Barrett to ‘think bigger’

BY L I I SA R AJ A L A

HELPING NEW HAMPSHIRE’S KIDS realize their full potential has been the mission of Joy Barrett, CEO of the Granite State Children’s Alliance, since she made a conscious decision to switch careers in the early 2000s.

After roughly 15 years operating a computer software training business, Barrett had an eye-opening experience when she performed pro bono work, training adults served by nonprofit agencies providing workforce development skills.

“The adults I trained didn’t fully understand the opportunity (the computer software training) was going to give them in their life, for their potential to become more self sufficient. I remember at that very moment thinking I wanted to focus energy on prevention – I wanted to help kids be on the trajectory to reaching their full potential,” says Barrett.

Wanting to be more involved in helping others, Barrett moved into social services as the coordinator of the Economic Opportunity Center, a program of Southern New Hampshire Services, in 2004. And in 2007 she was named executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Nashua and Salem, where she remained for nearly eight years.

“It was incredibly satisfying. We had countless success stories of kids who were in challenging situations (but) because there was a caring adult in their life who believed in them, they succeeded,” says Barrett.

Big Brothers Big Sisters relies heavily on public support and donations. Over time, it became clear for Big Brothers Big Sisters services and programs to thrive, the four BBBS agencies needed to explore merging into a statewide organization.

“Even though we worked closely together as a BBBS Alliance, there was little consistency in our service delivery,” says Barrett.

“We thought collectively we could serve more kids, particularly in the North Country, and invest more resources into recruitment and monitoring of matches to make sure kids were safe and benefitting from long and strong relationships.”

As expected, merging the BBBS agencies met some natural resistance.

“Rightfully so, people are very proud of their local organizations, and have such commitment to a certain region that sometimes it’s hard to let that go in order to take the next step,” says Barrett, who credits the merger into a statewide BBBS organization to the leadership in each of the four agencies and boards. ”The stars aligned,” a phrase Barrett often says. “It’s never just about a great idea, it also has to be the right time and with the right people involved,” she says. “It was important to bring us together so we would be a more resilient and stronger statewide organization, and in the end Big Brothers Big Sisters of NH 16 RESILIENT NH 2021

is serving kids well; making communities stronger.”

With the elimination of her Nashua agency’s position, Barrett was encouraged to explore a leadership role at the Granite State Children’s Alliance (GSCA), a nonprofit organization representing the network of Child Advocacy Centers (CACs) in New Hampshire.

CACs serve as a child/family-friendly, victim-centered, neutral setting for joint investigations and forensic interviews of child victims of crimes involving sexual abuse and felony level physical abuse, and child witnesses to violence such as a homicide or a serious domestic assault. CACs in New Hampshire provide forensic interviews, family support and follow-up services to approximately 2,100 child victims and their families each year.

“I wanted to do something that would have a great impact on the wellness and resilience of children, and I found myself motivated by the transformation that was taking place in New Hampshire with child protection,” says Barrett, who has served as CEO since 2014. “It is a privilege to work on behalf of children and I am very proud that CACs remain dedicated to the tireless fight of assuring children and their families have a victim-centered CAC experience in a safe, responsive place to heal, survive and thrive.”

“There are days that are very difficult for all our staff, especially now, but ... there’s a built-in resiliency and calling in wanting to be a part of this work.”

FILLING A SERVICES GAP The Granite State Children’s Alliance operates four Child Advocacy Centers in NH while providing technical assistance and support to the other six CACs in the network.

When Barrett joined the organization, the CACs were limited in staff capacity and although CACs provided an essential service by conducting forensic interviews for child abuse investigations, many CACs were challenged to provide a higher level of

behavioral health needs of child victims, there is an opportunity to mitigate the negative effects of their trauma and help children build resilience and assets for the future. I just keep my focus on strengthening our services with our team and partners so that we can help children heal, survive and thrive, while also embarking on prevention/intervention efforts to best protect children,” says Barrett.

post-interview case management.

“We provided our forensic interview service but often then moved on to the next case,” says Barrett. “We started to look at child advocacy centers across the country – thinking about how we can move to a more expanded CAC model to better support children and their families.”

Since 2014, the CAC network has together made improvements and expanded services to provide the best supports for children and families.

CACs have improved their coordination of referrals to ensure that children in these cases receive timely access to specialized medical attention and appropriate wrap-around services such as evidence-based mental health treatment.

In 2018, GSCA developed the first expanded service model in New Hampshire at the Greater Lakes CAC, where all healing services are available under one highly confidential roof.

“A child who visits the GLCAC for an interview will have a specialized medical evaluation and access to a mental health clinician for assessment and treatment,” says Barrett.

GLCAC also works with the local community mental health center and other clinicians to plan for the transition of children who need longer term mental/behavioral treatment for their trauma.

But service gaps outside of the organization were brought to light.

“With the high demand for service at the community mental health centers, it often creates waitlists for children,” says Barrett. “There simply is not enough professional capacity in the state for the demands for mental/ behavioral health support for children.”

Barrett and her colleagues remain committed to filling these gaps in services through its expanded service CAC model.

“As we realize the positive impacts of an expanded-service CAC, we are extremely motivated to replicate this model statewide,” Barrett says of the GLCAC model. “I believe if we increase investments at CACs for the mental/

NAVIGATING CHALLENGES TOGETHER Child Advocacy Centers (CACs) respond to and address the needs of children and families who require services through referrals from local law enforcement, the Division for Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) and the Attorney General’s Office.

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, they had to act quickly with their agency partners.

The benefit of serving a small state is that professionals are familiar with working with each other and enjoy trusted professional relationships; helping to solve problems together.

“Very quickly, during this crisis, professionals from the Department of Health and Human Services, Division for Children Youth and Families (DCYF), CASA, Granite State Children’s Alliance, Waypoint, NH Children’s Trust, Department of Education, Office of the Child Advocate and others joined weekly calls where we would discuss some of the things we were seeing develop due to the pandemic and problem-solve to best protect children,” says Barrett.

With children at home due to stay-at-home orders, it quickly became evident that teachers/youth serving organizations were not able to have eyes on children.

This created a drastic decrease in child abuse reports to DCYF, by more than 50%.

“That was alarming to all of us and to help GSCA moved into action and created some tips and resources for child-facing professionals to better assess the well-being of children during remote virtual learning,” says Barrett. On the Covid-19 tab of the KNOW & TELL website (knowandtell.org/covid-19/), adults can find helpful information about New Hampshire adults’ mandated reporting responsibilities – to KNOW the signs of abuse and neglect and how to TELL responsible authorities when a child needs help.”

Barrett also shared helpful resources to groups such as Big Brothers Big Sisters, as they moved their program to virtual matches for children and their mentors. “I wanted everyone to have these resources.” says Barrett.

Child Advocacy Centers have remained open through the pandemic as an essential service.

“We have the responsibility and duty to be available for children who need us.”

“There are days that are very difficult for all our staff, especially now,” says Barrett, “but if you asked anybody who works at a CAC, they feel working on behalf of children is a privilege, and they wouldn’t do anything else. There’s a built-in resiliency and calling in wanting to be a part of this work.”

Barrett’s license plate says, “think big.” She will tell you, “We need to think bigger! Kids are counting on all of us and if any state can do it, New Hampshire can.” ¥ RESILIENT NH 2021 17

GREAT NH RESTAURANTS: Rethinking, reinventing and innovating on the fly

W

hen nearly every New Hampshire business closed its doors during the stay-at-home order one year ago, the restaurant sector was hit particularly hard.

Those that were able to keep the lights on were forced to rethink how they’d stay afloat. It was a challenge Great NH Restaurants – T-BONES, CJ’s and the Copper Door – met head-on. Operations turned to a takeout model overnight as the group’s leaders formulated new meal packages, online ordering systems and gift card specials. Still, almost immediately, 750 of the restaurant group’s 850 employees were laid off. The challenge, then: to remain relevant, at the forefront of guests’ minds, survive the first few months and get workers back on the job.

Spoiler alert: Thanks to quick thinking, a company-wide resilience and determination to meet unexpected challenges, Great NH Restaurants did just that.

When restrictions were loosened and outdoor dining was allowed, the group hired back its full-time staff and worked to expand its outdoor footprint. This included erecting party tents at each location, purchasing chairs, tables, speakers and flowers – anything that would make the alfresco experience comfortable and uniquely memorable.

Internally, the team got to work, crafting a Commitment to Health and Safety Pledge for employees to follow, expanded participation in ServSafe Certification 18 RESILIENT NH 2021

programs and kept cleanliness top-ofmind when serving guests.

Then, the group’s leaders showed resilience by reinventing its core business.

In July, CEO Tom Boucher announced the launch of DingDongDeliver.com – a first-of-its-kind plan designed to deliver quality food to area homes and businesses from a ghost kitchen dedicated solely to the innovative pivot. Using the online tool, customers in Manchester and Bedford order ready-to-cook and readyto-heat meals that can be delivered. Fans of the group’s menus who live outside the delivery area can also pick orders up at the restaurant.

As the summer wore on and new practices took hold throughout Great NH Restaurants, all of its workers were rehired, and against conventional thought, the newest restaurant – T-BONES, in Concord – opened its doors. The 404 South Main Street spot, the group’s sixth T-BONES Great American Eatery, featured barriers, sanitizer sections and spaced-out tables to align with state requirements, but also to continue a culture of safety present throughout all of its restaurants.

To further bolster its safety measures, Great NH Restaurants reached out to St. Anselm College to conduct a survey that would help provide insight into what it would take for guests to feel safe dining in restaurants. As a result of the learning, listening and adjusting effort, state-of-the-art air purification systems

by Tyngsborough, Mass.-based Aqualite US were installed – a system proven to safely remove 99.97% of airborne viruses, including COVID-19, as small as 0.1 micron.

During the holiday season, a plan to secure gift card sales was put into place.

This approach would help ensure the restaurants would remain busy throughout the winter months. Holiday sheds were created, where guests could purchase gift cards while maintaining social distancing. Additionally, a flash sale of eGift cards was offered online from Black Friday to Cyber Monday, where guests were gifted an additional $50 for every $100 purchased.

The pandemic isn’t over, and Great NH Restaurants continues to work to provide a sense of comfort and safety for its guests. And as outdoor dining remains limited during the colder months, the group continues to evolve, change and innovate.

The message, then: With multiple safety efforts implemented, air purification systems in place, social distancing observed and a staff committed to keeping customers comfortable, indoor dining is secure and can provide a much-needed return to normalcy.

“We want guests to know that responsible restaurants are safe and now, more than ever, is the time to support local and community businesses,” says Tom Boucher, CEO of Great NH Restaurants. ¥ ADVERTORIAL

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When Tragedy Leads to Fortitude How Mike L’Ecuyer’s compassionate leadership led his credit union to bigger and better things

BY L I I SA R AJ A L A

DISRUPTIONS ARE LEARNING EXPERIENCES that set the groundwork for foresight, as Michael L’Ecuyer, former president and CEO of Bellwether Community Credit Union, and his team found in his 20-plus-year tenure there.

The early 2000s were a time of great challenges and change for the credit union.

L’Ecuyer had 20 years of commercial banking experience, but just three years at the credit union when Dick Mahoney, president of what was then known as Telephone Credit Union of NH, announced in August 2001 he would be retiring after leading the company for a quarter century.

Before the volunteer board had a chance to set succession plans in motion, the next month Mahoney was involved in a serious car accident on Route 101 in Bedford. Sadly, he passed away two weeks later.

“We certainly were shocked. The shock doesn’t wear away for a while. We, as an organization, were in mourning for quite a

long time,” L’Ecuyer reflects.

A team approach and embracing adaptability helped Bellwether achieve success in the face of uncertainty.

CHANGING TIMES The timing of Mahoney’s death was especially raw.

“The country was in turmoil. 9/11 took place four days after his car accident, so a lot of telephone employees, executives, my vice chair, were called to Ground Zero to do work for Verizon there,” says L’Ecuyer.

In happier times, a 25-minute walk around the building was a casual way to check in with the small group of 30 employees and assess the credit union’s performance.

“Walking around after Dick passed away, it was a very different conversation. It was more talking about how people felt and what was going on. It was a way to bond,” says L’Ecuyer.

“We all had something in common. We all missed the guy we

Sitting at the far left of the table in a brown suit is Dick Mahoney, former president of Telephone Credit Union of NH, at a board meeting 40 years ago. Mahoney headed the credit union for 25 years and was its first employee.

(Courtesy photo) 20 RESILIENT NH 2021

respected, but we knew he would want us to move on, to take care of the members’ business – we rallied around that.”

That was also the year Telephone Credit Union of NH received approval to widen membership to anyone living or working in New Hampshire, outside of telephone employees and their families, providing the opportunity to expand at a time when the telephone industry was shrinking.

Mahoney, L’Ecuyer and the rest of the team had been working on how they would reshape the business plan with the good graces of a close-knit group of telephone employees.

“I had done commercial banking for 20 years, so I was quite comfortable with what was going to happen – where our challenges would be and where our opportunities would be.”

As the credit union navigated an expanded charter, it became clear they were late to the game, recalls L’Ecuyer.

Bank of America, TD Bank and Citizens were then and remain the giants of New Hampshire banking, taking three-fourths of the share of the market, while community banks and credit unions share the other quarter of banking deposits statewide. Within that grouping, St. Mary’s Bank and Service Credit Union already had longstanding history and market share among the state’s credit unions.

In such a tight marketplace, “we had to figure out how to differentiate ourselves,” says L’Ecuyer. “We evolved over time to make sure we were different.”

The original plan was to compete on price and product value. With one branch in Manchester, and by exploring online banking early on, Bellwether had fewer costs than many competitors.

“We were great. We could do loans online,” said L’Ecuyer. “But we had a hard time growing the deposit base – people were a little more reluctant then to deposit.”

So in 2004 and 2006, the credit union merged with Greater Nashua Federal Credit Union and Compass Credit Union, expanding from one location to three.

“We acquired their balance sheets and their member base,” said L’Ecuyer. “We built a new location in Nashua and a new branch in Bedford, so our model went from one branch to ‘Can we keep limited branches and keep our costs down to compete on price?’”

With the expansion and a 2005 name change to Bellwether Community Credit Union, the member base has grown by 25,000, to 35,000 members today, and the number of employees has more than tripled.

EVOLVING CULTURE Bellwether’s ability to adapt and pivot coincided with an internal cultural change taking

Mike L’Ecuyer, then president and CEO of Bellwether Credit Union, accepts the honor of Citizen of the Year from the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce at its annual dinner in 2019. (Photo by Kendal J. Bush) place.

One of L’Ecuyer’s lasting marks on the organization was encouraging employee involvement in the community and showing the board the importance of relationship-building.

A mentor from his commercial banking career taught him, “You give back to the community you work in.” “I believed it, I embraced it,” he says.

A Massachusetts native, L’Ecuyer familiarized himself with the New Hampshire community by getting involved with the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce and Palace Theatre, serving as chair of the board of both organizations. (In 2019, he was named Citizen of the Year by the chamber.)

The company formally adopted a policy to allocate eight hours of time to volunteer at a nonprofit of the employee’s choice.

It was not mandatory, but L’Ecuyer found it was a boost to employee morale, and provided opportunities for teamwork outside of the office.

Serving on organizational boards opened up a variety of topics, personalities and backgrounds that one might not otherwise find within their own circle.

And those experiences spurred a more inclusive management process at Bellwether.

Consider that L’Ecuyer’s predecessor was the first paid employee in 1965 at a volunteer-formed credit union that started in 1921. It was an era for a top-down management style.

Mahoney would chat with L’Ecuyer and others about the opportunities and challenges of the day, but for the longest time it was Mahoney making all of the decisions by himself, says L’Ecuyer.

At some point, he instructed L’Ecuyer to make some hires, helping him create RESILIENT NH 2021 21

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Mike L’Ecuyer at a March of Dimes event. One of L’Ecuyer’s lasting marks on Bellwether Credit Union was encouraging employee involvement in the community and showing the board the importance of relationship-building.

(Courtesy photo)

“We had the right group of people to deal with this huge catastrophic event, and we were successful with it. I think we came out of it stronger and the culture of the company solidified.” a position that led to the hire of an employee who eventually graduated to the role of chief operating officer for 12 years.

“In his own way, he was helping me build a team,” he says.

“We had the right group of people to deal with this huge catastrophic event, and we were successful with it. I think we came out of it stronger and the culture of the company solidified.”

After Mahoney passed away, Bellwether, which was too small to have a distant upper management team, engaged its employees to communicate their ideas.

“We found ourselves being inclusive in the management process and in the executing process,” said L’Ecuyer. “I would say, ‘How would you like to do it? What’s your thought process? Who else would be involved?’ And everybody, over time, had to do a project with somebody, and we all had ownership.”

Transparency was stressed to employees, members and the board when it came to good or bad news, but not a lot of conversation about right or wrong decisions.

22 RESILIENT NH 2021

“Everyone knows what’s wrong, but how do you get it to right? There are different levels of corrections. There are different ways and tradeoffs. The conversations you have is what’s the best way for us to move forward,” he says. “You can engage people and have disagreements without being disagreeable with each other, and challenge each other professionally and grow from mistakes and, over time, become better without necessarily having a blueprint plan on an evolving culture.”

When L’Ecuyer’s retirement date – set well in advance – was announced, he asked Bellwether’s employees who would be interested in being groomed as a potential candidate for the executive position.

Nathan Saller, who had experience as director of marketing and chief operating officer, expressed interest and L’Ecuyer guided him through different elements of the industry, how the credit union was run and its value proposition. In early 2019, the board of directors approved Saller to succeed L’Ecuyer later that year.

“He’s a hard-working guy, but what struck me were how happy his co-workers were. His peers who had known him, for years, were thrilled he was the person given Nathan Saller succeeded the opportunity to do it,” L’Ecuyer as Bellwether’s pressays L’Ecuyer, adding that ident and CEO in 2019. By plan“looking back through ning far in advance, Bellwether my tenure,” he thinks his ensured Saller experienced a predecessor Dick Mahoney smoother transition into the role. “would have been proud of (Courtesy photo) what we did.” ¥

PARENTAL SELF-CARE: Finding balance in the pandemic

“W

e’re asking a lot of parents these days,” says Caroline Shackett, PhD, NCSP, Hanover Psychiatry (part of the Department of Psychiatry at Dartmouth-Hitchcock), talking about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on families. On top of the usual amount of child care, household chores and work demands, parents have taken on full- or part-time homeschooling and the responsibility of managing abundant family time all while keeping a lid on COVID19-induced anxiety. It’s, well, a lot.

Parenting and work responsibilities are just one source of pandemic stress. Two-parent teams might have conflicting approaches to screen time, school success expectations or ideas for family-time activity. Single parents may feel the absence of a teammate even more. All parents are worried about their own or children’s chances of infection and uncertainty about how long pandemic restrictions will be in place.

“At the same time COVID-19 has significantly increased the burden of stress, it has decreased opportunities to de-stress,” says Christina Moore, MA, Hanover Psychiatry. “While outside exercise classes, date nights and social events are canceled, it’s still important for parents to take care of themselves.”

Essential to the well-being of stressed moms and dads, parental self-care is just as critical for their children.

“Airlines instruct parents to put on their oxygen masks before helping others through an emergency,” says Shackett. “If the parent isn’t okay, they won’t be much help to their child. The same is true now. When parents are less stressed, they are more patient and able to help their child with their own anxiety.”

ADVERTORIAL

“Self-care is not an indulgence,” says Moore. “It is the practice of healthy behaviors like resting, sleeping, eating well, exercising and social connection that improve mood and lead to greater happiness, creativity and productivity.”

The trick to practicing self-care is finding time for it. “Each family is different, so parents have to find what works for them,” says Shackett. “Two parents can trade off work, child care and self-care time. Single parents might join quarantine pods to gain time for themselves.”

Actual self-care activity is also up to each person.

“Date nights might mean the children are watching a movie while the parents are having dinner together,” says Shackett.

“Going for a walk, having a healthy snack, playing virtual board games, taking a nap, or reconnecting with an old hobby or taking up a new one are all good forms of self-care.”

“The most important rules of self-care are to be realistic and practice forgiveness,” says Moore. “The pandemic and perfection don’t mix. Parents have to be easy on themselves.” Shackett adds that help is often needed and is available. “Friends, family, primary care providers and therapists are all good sounding boards and can offer ideas and support.” ¥ Hanover Psychiatry is a psychiatry and psychology practice within the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Department of Psychiatry. Offering high levels of expertise across a broad range of treatment disciplines, Hanover Psychiatry clinicians serve children, teens and adults in private, convenient offices in Hanover, NH.

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Taking Risks to Meet Challenges How Howard Brodsky learned the value of working, and succeeding, collectively

BY L I I SA R AJ A L A

HOWARD BRODSKY wouldn’t be a business owner and co-founder of the largest global co-operative in the world if he hadn’t taken risks. After all, being an entrepreneur is in his blood.

He was about 5 years old when his father, a Russian immigrant who formerly worked in the flooring department at the Sears in Lawrence, Mass., opened his own flooring store in Manchester, Dean’s Carpets.

Sadly, his father passed away from cancer when Brodsky was 13, leaving his mother, a trained pharmacist, unexpectedly in charge of the store and navigating the challenges of being a business owner.

“He opened up the store, and it was his pride. It was his dream,” Brodsky reflects. “I saw how much passion he had and love for the business. At the age of 13, I told my mother that was what I wanted to do.”

Brodsky ended up running his father’s business, but his pathway to ownership and experience as an entrepreneur was one of a series of trials and persistence.

LEARNING FROM MISTAKES Brodsky’s plan was to take over the business right out of high school. His academically minded older sister did not endorse his plan.

She told his mother, “If Howard doesn’t go to college – sell the business.” So I ended up applying to college and went to Wesleyan University,” Brodsky says. “But my focus was 100%, I wanted to run the family business.”

His persistence paid off. As a college graduate, Brodsky returned to the store and grew it to a chain of four stores in the Manchester area. He became a part of the close-knit Man24 RESILIENT NH 2021

chester business community.

At 27, after talking to another person in the home furnishing industry, he became fascinated with the idea of meeting with an organizational psychologist, someone who could help him find the best people and form a valuable team-approach with employees.

“I proceeded to meet with the psychologist once a week, every week for 15 months. He told me, ‘If you learn how to find great people, it’s a skill set you’ll never lose,’” said Brodsky.

“We had a whole plan, I was going to go from four stores to 20 stores. We had a team we were going to do it with, the banks were willing to back us. All during this time, my mother said, ‘I don’t know what they’re doing.’ I kept saying, ‘They’re very smart.’”

But amid all the hope and optimism, things took a turn for the worse.

“I started getting calls,” said Brodsky. “‘You’re not paying your bills.’ And I said to my controller, ‘What’s the story?’ and he showed me the cash flow reports.”

Everything looked fine, but Brodsky continued to get “more and more calls.”

One day, Brodsky, now 28, went into the office, and opened a drawer to find

Howard Brodsky with his mother, Selma, a trained pharmacist who managed the family’s flooring business when her husband passed away.

Despite her suspicion of Brodsky’s business partners in the early days, when her notions were confirmed, she reacted with comfort and support. He attributes that moment to his continued resilience as an entrepreneur. (Courtesy photo)

millions of dollars of unpaid bills.

His controller fessed up. “‘I didn’t know how to tell you – we’re broke. I just couldn’t tell you. I thought our growth would be enough.’”

Brodsky proceeded to call his accountant and lawyer and look through the books. They all confirmed his business had to file for Chapter 11 reorganization.

The timing could not have been worse.

“I was shocked. I was married, had a 2-year-old and my wife was pregnant,” Brodsky says. “My next toughest thing was one of the toughest in my life – I had to go tell my mother we were going to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy. For a year she had been telling me, ‘They don’t know what they’re doing,’” says Brodsky.

“It was one of the most important points of my life, and when I went to tell her, she never once said, ‘I told you so,’” Brodsky recalls. “She gave me a hug. She said, ‘That’s the way we learn.

We move on.’”

“If she had said, ‘What did you do? I told you so,’ I would have become risk-adverse,” Brodsky says. “My greatest lesson is, in these times, when you make the greatest mistakes and the greatest trouble, you need the greatest love.”

Brodsky ended up paying off all of his bills and coming out of bankruptcy in a very short time.

“It was obviously enormous pressure – enormous pressure – but I learned (from it),” says Brodsky. “I think you learn only during your difficult, dark days. Everyone wants wonderful times every day, but I think you learn the most only in our darkest days.”

He took lessons from the experience as well as inspiration.

One of the lessons was learning how to hire and keep good people. He also learned the power of a family business. “I understood it one way, when I almost lost it: The family business is the fabric of the community. And I think that’s why I built CCA Global, to save family businesses in America,” says Brodsky.

SUCCEEDING COLLECTIVELY In the mid-1980s, Brodsky and Alan Greenberg, a fellow business owner with flooring stores in the St. Louis, Mo., area,

noticed encroaching competition from big chains and resulting consolidation not only in their industry but also in others.

“My mother was a pharmacist. Slowly all of her friends went out of business because of CVS, Walgreens and Rite-Aid – they couldn’t compete,” Brodsky says. “I said, we’re going to be in the same boat as all of these other industries,” as the Home Depots and Lowe’s gained a growing foothold.

He and Greenberg realized they needed find way to get to the same scale of buying and marketing sophistication a company like Home Depot or Lowe’s has.

Brodsky and Greenberg were introduced to the CEO of True Value Hardware, at the time a national cooperative of independent hardware stores.

“Our mission as a company was to give the scale to family businesses to make them succeed,” says Brodsky. “The more consolidation happens, the more cooperatives have to be part of the fundamental structure of how family businesses respond to it.”

Thus, in 1984, Carpet One, later renamed CCA Global Partners, was born with 13 members.

“It was the first cooperative in the floor covering industry. Our original plan was to have 300 stores, and we ended up having 1,000 stores.”

But they soon realized that the concept wouldn’t just work for floor covering stores but any kind.

Since then, the cooperative has expanded to include home furnishing stores, business services, sports retailers and child care centers, serving 2,800 retail locations, 20,000 child care centers and 1 million small businesses in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

“We do all of the buying for them at massive scale so they get the same prices as a national company. Digital marketing is very complex – we have teams of marketing people that are superb.

We have our insurance company that provides them insurance.

We have our own training company that provides a lot of the training for them. We have a HR group that helps them hire people. These are very complex things to do on your own,” says Brodsky.

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Howard Brodsky and his wife, Joan, are pictured here with their “little brother,” Luis, in 2018. Giving back is an organization-wide affair, as all CCA Global employees are allotted time to mentor a young person during the work day. (Photo by Cheryl Senter) He adds that “the marvelous part” about a cooperative is that the members “own their company,” says Brodsky, and most of the shares are owned by the partner businesses, so the profits get redistributed back to them. Brodsky doesn’t own any shares.

“Some people say to me, ‘Why would you do that?’ and I would say, there’s a lot more to life than having the biggest checkbook when you can create value for other people and have people rise up and create a better life for 100,000 people. How do you measure the impact on 650,000 children of what you do? I help change the lives of other people.”

“They’re facing a time you never could imagine.

Who would imagine the government would shut down your business?

‘A TURNING POINT’ When the Covid-19 pandemic struck, CCA Global’s team reached out to every one of the businesses to help them with the process of applying for Paycheck Protection Program funds.

The CCA team also helped members negotiate with landlords, submit business interruption insurance claims, and assisted with marketing and distributed shared profits ahead of time to push cash into members’ hands.

26 RESILIENT NH 2021

“They need us more than they’ve ever had needed us in their entire life and our life as a cooperative,” says Brodsky. “They’re facing a time you never could imagine. Who would imagine the government would shut down your business? We had the resources to be their partner in making it happen.”

In fact, he thinks this economic moment will be “a turning point for cooperatives.”

“In many parts of the world, cooperatives are much stronger than ours,” says Brodsky. “People don’t realize the scale. There are a billion members of cooperatives around the world. There’s the farmers’ cooperatives, credit unions. It’s across all sectors.”

Brodsky’s faith in cooperatives led to another inspiration. He started Cooperatives for a Better World, a campaign that spreads the message of the value of cooperatives to assist communities with economic development and equal opportunity.

“The cooperative structure by nature puts people first not profit. But second, it’s your values,” says Brodsky. “You can lose money. You should never lose your values.”

In 2019, he became the first American to receive the International Rochdale Pioneers Award – essentially the Nobel prize of cooperative business – at the International Cooperative Alliance Global Cooperative Conference in Rwanda. The award is given to one person in the world every two years.

Brodsky has also inspired his son to enter the family business – cooperatives, that is. Greg Brodsky is founder of Start.coop, the first incubator that helps entrepreneurs start cooperatives in new sectors.

“Cooperatives are the best in both worlds—you own part of the company and you still make your own decisions, except you have scale,” says Brodsky. “You’re not giving up any authority.

You have all the tools to level the playing field to make you succeed.” ¥

COVID-19 VACCINATIONS PRESENT

NEW CHALLENGES FOR EMPLOYERS

Employers must outline a clear implementation framework regardless of the type of vaccine policy

By Robert L. Best and Allyson L. Moore

A

s COVID-19 vaccine availability ramps up, employers may see the vaccine as a path back to “normal” operations. If only all my employees were vaccinated (and all my customers too!) we could get back to work! Nevertheless, employers may wonder whether it’s the company’s role to be involved in encouraging – or even requiring – vaccinations.

With no apologies for the pun, employers are confronted with what may appear to be double-N95-masked guidance from official sources, as there are currently no laws (state or federal) indicating whether employers can or should mandate that employees receive COVID-19 vaccinations.

Although clear and precise “do’s and don’ts” would be helpful, the best we have is guidance from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that focuses on what federal laws an employer should consider when developing a vaccination policy. Nevertheless, the guidance implies that, subject to certain limitations, employers can implement a mandatory vaccination policy for employees.

However, before adopting a mandatory policy, employers should consider whether their business puts its employees or the community at an elevated risk of contracting COVID-19. For employees exposed to an elevated risk of COVID-19, a mandatory employee vaccination policy might make sense. For others, a vaccination policy that encourages – but does not require – vaccination might be a better fit.

VOLUNTARY VACCINE POLICIES

For businesses that are not at an elevated risk, employers may prefer to layout a voluntary program. Employers are permitted to encourage certain behaviors from their employees, especially when linked to a related business need. With COVID-19, the business need is readily evident.

The focus of a voluntary policy should be on encouraging employee and customer safety. To help increase participation, employers may consider health or wellness programs that include additional small incentives for getting vaccinated. Moreover, when executives and managers show a personal commitment to the policy by participating themselves, there is usually a positive correlation with employee participation. Employers should consult their legal counsel on arranging such programs while protecting employees’ confidential health information.

EMPLOYERS SHOULD BE PROACTIVE

Employers should be developing plans for vaccine impacts on their businesses. Regardless of the type of vaccination policy selected, employers must outline a clear implementation framework, including how employees can request accommodations.

Finally, employers must continue to keep track of and respond to evolving guidance and employee concerns that may require modifications or updates to their policies. ¥

MANDATORY VACCINE POLICIES

Employers who have employees exposed to an elevated risk of contracting COVID-19 can mandate vaccination as a condition of returning to work. However, such policies must make accommodations for employees with medical disabilities or sincerely-held religious beliefs. Employers should consult their legal counsel to understand how to approach these accommodations. An employer looking to mandate vaccinations must also carefully balance the need for a uniform and consistent policy with evolving state and local laws, vaccination availability and fluid guidance from the CDC, EEOC and state counterparts.

Other considerations: • Employers with locations in multiple states must tailor policies to individual state requirements; • Unionized employers should ensure that requirements they wish to impose are in keeping with applicable collective bargaining agreements; and • Employers should review their workers’ compensation plans for coverage for adverse reactions to the vaccine.

ADVERTORIAL

Robert Best is a member at Sulloway & Hollis. His practice focuses on health care, nonprofit, real estate and business clients. As chair of Sulloway’s health care practice group, Bob assists clients with a wide variety of administrative and regulatory matters important to health care and business organizations. Allyson Moore is an associate at Sulloway & Hollis. She represents litigation clients, insurance carriers, health care providers and business clients in a diverse array of matters.

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Empowering Others to Help Meet Challenges After Wendy Tirollo unexpectedly became a CEO, she turned to a trusted team to help her

BY L I I SA R AJ A L A

TONY TIROLLO was the founder and CEO of TRM Microwave for 40 years.

“I had no initial aspirations to take over the company because Tony’s attitude was he loved the job – designing RF microwave components,” recalls his wife, Wendy Tirollo. “He said, ‘Wendy, we’ll be here till we’re 80 or 90.’”

But in 2006, Tony unexpectedly had a heart attack, “and it rocked our world and got us thinking about the company’s future,” says Tirollo. “Tony was a methodical person. He always planned things out and he said, ‘If this doesn’t go our way, we have several choices: We could either position the company to be sold, or if you would like, I could poise you to take over and have you run the business someday.”

“My response was, ‘Tony, I need some time to consider this huge responsibility, to be accountable for all our employees’ lives and their families is a huge undertaking,’” she says.

But it was the rapport and close relationships Wendy had

developed over the years with TRM’s employees that led her to take on the role and the subsequent challenges they faced.

And it was her leadership and the team’s collaborative approach to problem-solving that lined the company up for the next step in its growth plan, to deliver mission-critical electronics components as part of the new company, Quantic.

GUIDING PRINCIPLES Tony mentored Wendy for five years before she was officially appointed CEO in 2010.

Wendy had joined the company in the mid-1990s and served as director of HR for a decade.

“Tony was referred to in our industry as the ‘Microwave King’ and my biggest concern was that I didn’t have a degree in electrical engineering,” recalls Tirollo. “I recognized the fact that I had to be savvy enough to understand the approaches and direction my engineers would ultimately want to take the company.”

TRM Microwave’s now former CEO Wendy Tirollo (right) and Chief Operating Officer Mark Schappler stand in front of the surface mount line at their headquarters in Bedford. (Courtesy photo) 28 RESILIENT NH 2021

Wendy Tirollo, former CEO of TRM Microwave, signs the last steel beam erected as part of a facility expansion doubling TRM Microwave’s footprint in Bedford.

(Courtesy photo)

“However, I knew Tony had been coaching and mentoring our engineering staff for years and I knew their level of commitment and loyalty to TRM, so I followed through on what Tony had instructed me to do and that was to trust them, stay involved and trust my gut instincts. Tony always told me I had incredible common sense and a good level head for business, and coupled with the fact that he knew I would follow his lead and take only carefully calculated risks. He knew the company would be in good hands.”

Tony reassured her that as CEO, her role was to “hire the best of the best that I could afford, pay attention to the details and engage at all levels of the business,” she reflects.

Tirollo sat in on department meetings ranging from sales to finance to engineering, learning the fine points. By 2014, she had spent four years managing the day-to-day operations, working closely with managers and supervisors, when Tony suffered a double heart attack.

“That was one of the hardest things I had to go through because my main priority, concern, was Tony, keeping him alive and well, being his advocate while going through a plethora of medical procedures,” she says. “While he was enduring all of his health challenges, he kept true to form by consistently keeping a positive attitude the entire time, which was incredibly inspiring and encouraging to me.”

When Tony was doing well, Tirollo could pay more attention to the business, and when he was not, her focus was on him.

“But I knew I had a great team in place that did not want to disappoint me or Tony, and they were holding their own feet to the fire. I might come in a couple times a week for team meetings, but I knew they had it,” she says. “‘Trust and empower people to do their job,’” Tony had told her. “‘A lot of people like to hire great people and micromanage them,’ he said. ‘Once you make the decision to hire people, you

need to empower them to do their jobs, but the flip side of that is to hold them accountable.’”

Tirollo incorporated measures to hold employees responsible for their own actions. When Tirollo conducted annual performance reviews, she asked peers to weigh in on each employee so she can get a full comprehensive viewpoint on each individual. Collaborating with her team in this way allowed her to make educated decisions when it comes to compensation and internal advancement.

“No matter what position you hold in any company, it is important to know people are watching you and looking at the results,” she summarizes.

Likewise, employees look to executives, and Tirollo had to develop her own leadership style.

At times, Tirollo had to remind colleagues not to make the mistake of underestimating her and her soft-spoken tone and good nature. As the leader of the company, Tirollo knew it was important that people understood she was not just a figurehead but an active leader in the company.

As she developed her leadership style, she always kept in mind Tony’s treasure trove of executive advice and guiding principles.

“Be professional at all times, work harder than anyone else, have a strong backbone when having a difficult conversation or needing to make a tough decision, be consistent and reliable, and find my passion,” lists Tirollo.

“The other thing he taught me is never let them see you sweat,” Wendy recalls. “It is when times are taxing and difficult that you need to stay laser-focused on your goals and not get distracted. Keeping a level head and a tough mental mindset and attitude will allow your critical thinking skills to kick in and help you make prudent business decisions during turbulent times.’”

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Wendy (right) pictured with TRM Microwave founder and former CEO Tony Tirollo (left), her husband. Tony ran the company for 40 years. He founded TRM after winning a lawsuit filed by his former employer, confirming he owned the intellectual property of his latest invention. (Courtesy photo)

Wendy Tirollo encouraged all 75 employees of TRM Microwave to sign the last steel beam erected in the company’s facility expansion in 2020. The beam serves as a reminder of the significant milestone they all participated in. (Courtesy photo)

TEAM APPROACH Tirollo adhered to Tony’s advice when less than a year after his passing in 2016, the company suffered a significant blow – its biggest product line went down for several weeks.

“It was all hands on deck, and we set up our conference room to accommodate our customer so we could work with them hand in hand every day,” says Tirollo. “We had to reverse engineer the product. We had the brightest minds from MIT and people with Ph.D.s looking at this closely, because it was a particularly important product line for our military.”

let on I was struggling emotionally and mentally with this tremendous challenge,” recalls Tirollo.

At one point, her chief operating officer encouraged her to rally the troops, so to speak, “because people were getting downtrodden, due to the fact the company wasn’t quickly finding the solution to this problem.

During one of the company’s monthly employee meetings the COO confided Wendy’s full commitment to the company and admitted she was personally investing in each and every one of them by the mere fact she had been and would continue to personally fund everyone’s paychecks until a solution was discovered.’”

After the company meeting, one employee told Tirollo she had been going through her own personal problems and it was negatively affecting her life at work and home. She confided that Wendy’s open communication about her own struggles and resilience to carry on influenced her to get motivated and take on a more positive attitude herself.

“That was very gratifying for me to hear that I had inspired someone to take a more optimistic approach to their work,” says Tirollo.

As Tirollo’s team worked overtime, Tirollo did too.

“At TRM, we practice servant leadership. There were times I asked people to put in quite a bit of overtime, and I was coming in early, too, right alongside them. One of my employees who came in early said, ‘It shows your level of integrity…because you’ve asked us to step up and you’re doing the same.’ That was just automatic for me,” says Tirollo. “That’s the responsibility you take on as a business leader; you have to personally commit to the business without limits. After all, your name is on the dotted line.”

After an enormous effort, the engineering team identified and implemented a solution to get the line running once again.

TRM’s customer “now refers to us as their partner instead of just their supplier,” says Tirollo. “I thought that was the greatest compliment. We never abandoned, deserted or gave up. We gave everything we had, working around the clock, on the problem until it got resolved.”

“It’s imperative during challenging and unprecedented times to keep a positive approach to life and keep an upbeat attitude.”

Tirollo faced the reality that to avoid furloughs or layoffs, she would have to personally fund the company.

“I was pretty alarmed and concerned. I was being asked to personally sign these large checks. (But) I was committed to not let anybody go during this time,” says Tirollo. “Tony always told me, ‘There are going to be ups and downs in business. You’re going to have to take personal accountability for the company and the employees – these people are like our family.’ I put on a brave face and took the challenge seriously.”

Even though the company’s financials kept her awake at night, “I would go into work dressed for success, smiling with my shoulders down and back and my head held high. I never 30 RESILIENT NH 2021

TRM has now grown from 35 to 75 employees and has undertaken a facility expansion and full renovation to nearly double its footprint and improve capacity to accommodate increased manufacturing demands and its growing workforce.

“The construction company asked if I wanted to sign the last steel beam being erected. I said, ‘Can we have the whole company participate?’ because I wanted everyone to be a part of the process and the strategic plan to boldly move forward and feel connected to our collective success,” says Tirollo.

The ceiling was designed to allow this one structural beam to be seen, reminding employees of the significant milestone they all had a chance to participate in.

“I also signed Tony’s name next to mine to make sure he is always remembered and included in everything we do. I want people to always remember that none of us would have this amazing opportunity to be working here at TRM if it were not for him and the incredible sacrifices he made along the way throughout his career. He would be so incredibly proud of all of us and the achievements we have accomplished to date.”

In January 2021, it was announced Arcline Investment Management, a private equity firm focused on aerospace and defense, had purchased TRM to form the new company Quantic, which includes two other electronics components firms: Evans Capacitor Company in Rhode Island and Ohmega Technologies in California. Tirollo stepped down from her position after the sale.

“TRM’s focus, first and foremost, is on cultivating long-lasting relationships by helping our customers solve their difficult design challenges,” said Mark Schappler, chief operating officer of TRM. “As part of the Quantic family, we will leverage technology from across the portfolio to deliver an even broader set of RF and microwave solutions for new and existing customers.” ¥

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CURRIER MUSEUM OF ART

EXEMPLIFIES RESILIENCE Resilience depends as much on flexibility as on strength

By Alan Chong, director, Currier Museum of Art

M

useums and other nonprofit organizations face specific challenges in times of crisis. We often try to be like a normal business – with profit and loss, cash flow, income projections, and so forth – but in an economic crisis, we simply can’t make the same cuts, or just throw in the towel and start over. An art museum belongs to the public and serves the community, and together, a special kind of resilience is required to weather the storm.

At the Currier, careful planning over the past century has ensured that we have a strong art collection and an endowment to keep the museum running. That being said, resilience depends as much on flexibility as on strength.

NIMBLENESS IS A CORE VALUE

As a medium-sized museum, the Currier makes an impact by responding quickly to the needs of our local community, as well as to national trends in the art world. We tailor programs to audiences with special interests, move quickly on the art market, and have shortened the preparation time for special exhibitions by using more of our own collection in creative ways.

HAVE A MISSION, NOT A PLAN

By sheer coincidence, we were in the process of redesigning our website in late 2019. When the pandemic hit, we fasttracked the project so that we could launch a new website that would integrate our digital programs in a simple and clear platform. In the course of 2020, we received a grant to develop a web-based sub-site for the museum’s Frank Lloyd Wright houses to reach new audiences. The lockdown taught us that too much planning, vetting and control destroy flexibility.

Five-year plans and strategic plans are problematic in the best of times, but they are almost useless in a crisis. An organization, especially a nonprofit, needs to focus on its mission. We exist to bring art to the community. When the museum is closed to visitors, that mission does not vanish but simply takes new forms.

The digital world provided a means of delivering content during the pandemic, and we quickly pivoted to virtual events, curatorial tours, art classes, online art therapy sessions, storytelling for families – even our annual Noon Year’s Eve celebration went virtual.

RESILIENCE IS NOT ISOLATION

PLAN AHEAD, BUT NOT TOO MUCH

RESPOND TO OPPORTUNITY

The pandemic created social problems across the nation, and the museum tried to respond, for example by creating art sessions to address teen isolation and anxiety. While we were closed, our art therapy programs continued and even expanded digitally.

For some of our online programs, though, like those for families affected by opioid abuse, issues of privacy at home have been daunting, and made it difficult to convert to an online platform.

PLAN TO THROW OUT YOUR PLANS

Our new digital initiatives had been imagined in advance, but when the pandemic hit, we decided to push ahead more quickly.

There seemed to be no point in having long discussions to vet and approve new ideas when we were closed, and our audience was eager for engaging content. Our philosophy was to try something, and if it didn’t work, we would try something else.

In-person events cannot simply be duplicated online. The digital world demands more visuals and shorter segments – and fewer talking heads.

It’s best to keep it fun and dynamic.

32 RESILIENT NH 2021

The support of the community has helped us survive. Without the museum’s board and government funding, things would have been disastrous. Federal wage support (PPP) and the block grants to the state have kept nonprofits going in a time of crisis. Moreover, the museum’s board made a commitment not to furlough staff, as they fully realized that we had many new digital initiatives to launch, and we would need staff to care for the collection and reopen well prepared.

The economic crisis provided the museum with surprising opportunities. The art market continued to operate online, and the Currier Museum has also just purchased the beautiful 19th-century Chandler House across the street from the museum, which enables us to expand our galleries, classrooms and offices. The museum was also awarded funds to create new classrooms for our Art for Vets program – a construction project that had not been planned but could be realized quickly in partnership with other organizations.

NO GOING BACK

We all look forward to returning to restaurants, sports events, gatherings of various types – including real visits to museums.

But we need to know that things cannot simply go back to normal. We have built a new audience in the pandemic – online digital experiences, quicker visits to the museum and at-home family art activities with pick-up art kits. These were all opportunities created by the pandemic and will become part of our new normal going forward. ¥ ADVERTORIAL

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profiles

Reaching Out to Others and Accepting Help Teresa Rosenberger recovered in large part to her wide support circle

BY L I I SA R AJ A L A

IT WAS 20 YEARS AGO that Teresa Rosenberger was in a dire situation. In preparation for a bicycle trip abroad, she and her husband were biking near construction at Concord Hospital’s campus when Teresa took a stumble that led her on a two-year journey toward recovery from a traumatic brain injury that continues to have residual effects.

Thankfully, Teresa was wearing a helmet, but “I was a mess,” says Rosenberger, now serving as a Senior Advisor to the Bernstein Shur law firm in Manchester. She doesn’t remember much of that time. She was in a coma for four days and apparently refused to go to a rehabilitation facility, her husband told her. He was confronted with the challenges of raising three kids and aiding her recovery – not something he could do alone.

“Men aren’t always good about saying ‘help,’ but he went out and said, ‘I need help,’ and I learned from him that I needed to be able to raise my hand and say, ‘I need help,’ as I went through the recovery. Before I was the type of person who thought I could do everything myself,” says Rosenberger.

Post-accident, Teresa was vulnerable. “I had to relearn how to walk, how to drive, how to eat with a fork and knife. I had to learn the whole kit and caboodle,” she says. When she would ride in the car to doctor’s appointments, she had to lay in the back seat with a mask on because the stimuli were too much for her brain to take in.

It took a team of professionals to help Teresa return to her new normal, and a community of Granite Staters who stepped in to ensure she got back on her feet.

A SUPPORT TEAM To get started, Teresa’s husband reached out to the Brain Injury Association of New Hampshire and spoke with Concord Regional VNA Hospital, which sent a team to Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston to do a quick training on how to help Teresa move beyond simply functioning to being able to return to her position at that time, as president of Devine Strategies, the strategic consulting and government relations arm of Devine Millimet.

“The Concord VNA was unbelievable. They put together this 34 RESILIENT NH 2021

whole team when I came home,” says Rosenberger. “I had occupational therapists, speech therapists, physical therapists, pastoral counselors – you name it – so I had quite a team.”

Teresa’s family was sent a cook as a get-well gift from Devine Millimet.

“Every week, this woman came in and figured out what I needed to eat for the week and made food and put it in Ziploc

bags and left instructions for my husband, because we had three children and all of a sudden he was everything,” says Rosenberger.

“They literally sent me a cook for six weeks which was the best thing they could have ever done.”

But she did more than simply keep everyone well fed.

“One day, my nurse was here and I said what’s that smell, and she said, ‘well that’s your cook making something downstairs.’”

Rosenberger recognized the smell of butternut curry soup.

“This woman had gone through my cookbooks and figured out where I spilled and her theory was what I had spilled, the most were the things I liked the best, and if she started cooking the things I was familiar with and liked, it would stimulate my sense and help me recover, which is very clever,” she says.

“When you were in the shape I was in, every sense you have that’s taking in something new is a drain on the brain. The brain’s processing smell, hearing, sight – everything. She gave me something I was familiar with the smell and familiar with the taste; it wasn’t going to make my brain work as hard.”

OVERCOMING UNIMAGINABLE HURDLES When asked how Teresa overcame a truly traumatic injury, she admits, by nature of the injury’s impact on her brain, she didn’t realize the challenges ahead.

When friends came to visit, they couldn’t help but express shock and concern at the visible injuries on her face, but Teresa never saw them.

“They (her care team) covered up mirrors in the house and put pictures of my children on all the mirrors. They literally had posters made.

I had no clue I wasn’t looking at myself,” says Rosenberger. “The good news about the injury I had was I wasn’t really as aware of how bad things were.”

To what extent Teresa would recover was unknown, which her husband and care team had to inform her kids.

“Even the doctors don’t know (how well a patient with brain injury) will recover,” says Rosenberger. “They don’t know what neurons are going to reconnect.”

To illustrate just how difficult and long the road to recovery was, Teresa talks about having to walk for some time with her head tilted sideways to balance her eyes.

“At one point I had neuropsychological testing and that was really pretty depressing,” she reflects. “I needed to know where my deficiencies were – and I knew I had them but I wasn’t sure what they were – and once we got through that, then I could strategize or the occupational therapist could strategize with them how I could get back to work.”

Teresa was not sure she could travel again, after a traumatic brain injury, as airports are a stimulus overload, but goal accomplished. Teresa is pictured here with her porter after a hike into the forest in Uganda to see the mountain gorillas.

A FRIENDLY, HELPING HAND Support from Teresa’s team of care professionals was crucial to her return to work, but Teresa found that network expanded to co-workers, neighbors and others she came in contact with.

“She (the occupational therapist) was unbelievable,” says Rosenberger. “She worked with my assistant and really analyzed what I needed. One day she went to the State House and she watched the whole situation – what I had to go through, and she really put a whole strategy plan of what I needed.”

Due to the extent of the injury, Teresa could not operate her job in the same manner as she had before, but she found workarounds for processes inside and outside of the office.

“My short-term memory is not great, so I have to take really good notes,” says Rosenberger. “Even now, if you say a word I don’t know, I’ve got to write it down.

It’s like almost being in the second grade where you write the word 12 or 15 times, and I may or may not remember the word the next time I see you.”

People will tell her “you seem like you always have,” says Rosenberger. But there are residual effects. To this day, she always has protein snacks on hand to keep her brain functioning optimally, and she will typically attend business and social events after the cocktail hour or mingle in the foyer where there are less people to avoid too much stimulation.

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profiles

“Whenever you have a personal tragedy, or a tragedy we’re going through with this pandemic, it’s really about community – people reaching out to others.”

“You just learn to expose yourself – you’ve got weaknesses here and I’m going to tell my clients what they are,” says Rosenberger, who was able to surround herself with a team at Devine Millimet that was understanding and patient. She didn’t encounter anyone trying to trip her up or take her client and get her billable hours. And she could easily ask for advice for a different perspective.

“It was people who understood what I needed. Everybody I was working with I could trust so I could say, ‘I don’t get that’ or I could be honest. I didn’t have to worry there were people 36 RESILIENT NH 2021

trying to knock me off or trying to take my job,” she says of the Devine Millimet team.

Even lobbyists and the like, who many would consider her competitors, went out of their way to help Teresa upon her return to the State House.

“If I missed something at a hearing and they were on the other side, they would tell me what I missed,” says Rosenberger.

“It was really people being thoughtful, understanding, tolerant and patient.”

It didn’t initially dawn on Teresa the small ways in which the community around her was taking care of her.

For instance, she wasn’t great about processing whether cars were in close proximity when crossing the street.

“I had a neighbor, George Roussos, a lawyer at another firm, who would walk to work. When I was allowed by myself to walk to work, he would miraculously be outside his house at the same time and would walk me to work.”

At the State House, the senate president at the time, Art Klemm, would offer to drive her home when she was preparing to walk out, using the line that it gave him an excuse to grab a coffee on the way so she would be more willing to accept the help.

“There were all sorts of people watching out. When I announced I was going to Bagel Works, it was amazing how many people were going to Bagel Works at the same time,” she laughs. “People were just paying attention in ways I didn’t understand or realize and just keeping their eye on me. I couldn’t have made it back without it.” ¥

THE STRENGTH OF

BUSINESS + COMMUNITY By working together, towns and small businesses can overcome adversity and emerge stronger than ever.

By Liz Gray

U

nexpected disruptions happen to businesses and communities. How quickly they recover from such events is based on how well they are prepared. That, at the core, is the definition of being resilient.

According to the Small Business Development Center’s (SBDC’s) June 2020 Business Resiliency Survey prepared by the University of New Hampshire’s Survey Center, the COVID-19 pandemic showed that four out of five businesses across New Hampshire were not properly prepared.

The good news for businesses and communities is that there were resources to get many of them through the worst of the pandemic.

The SBDC, which provides expert advising and education to small businesses free of charge, helped more than 7,000 small businesses access $44.3 million in new capital and increase their sales by $9.3 million in 2020.

Last year, SBDC business advisors helped their clients pivot to marketing in the new normal, focusing on cashflow and looking to e-commerce and partnerships. They also promoted recovery and resiliency webinars to encourage small businesses to develop a plan.

Owning a small business is challenging, which is only heightened during the stress of a pandemic. Consider clients such as Molly and Ben McCoy, owners of Wicked Flannel, a two-year-old business in Hampton selling quality, affordable comfort wear and accessories.

The McCoys, both 26, have a special relationship with the town after the community supported them both financially and emotionally following a horrific motorcycle accident five years ago. While their store was closed in the early stages of the pandemic in regulation with state mandates, the McCoys began working on building their online presence. They worked with their SBDC advisor to better manage their supply chain and refine their strategy to make sure they had the products they needed when they needed them.

“First and foremost, he was able to give us an expert’s view,” Molly says. “Where to go for help. How to access cashflow. He was so instrumental in that process.”

The success stories that have emerged from the pandemic’s economic challenges serve as an inspiration to businesses, new and old.

National Flight Simulator of Manchester has been operating since 2006, but owner Steve Cunningham said the aviation training center — the only one in New England approved by the insurance companies that require annual training for corporate pilots to maintain their licenses — was crippled when the industry experienced an unprecedented drop in air traffic worldwide.

“We had shut down. Everything came to a screeching halt,” Steve says.

With the help of the SBDC, Steve has been able to navigate the rough weather Covid-19 has brought and keep his business operating during a turbulent time for many small businesses, especially in the airline industry.

“It was lifesaving,” Steve says of the guidance provided by his business advisor. “We would have been out of business.”

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Now, Steve is ready to grow National Flight Simulator.

“We want to get this thing solid again post-COVID,” Steve says.

“We want to upgrade our simulator, upgrade our technology. There’s room for expansion.”

Coworking House (CoHo), a shared office space in Milford, turned to their SBDC advisor to navigate the challenges of keeping operations going when many people worked remotely.

“From coaching our members through this pandemic to assisting us in filing for EIDL grants, helping brainstorm ways that the community might need to use CoHo now that the world looks very different – we appreciate the SBDC’s programs always, but especially during this time,” says CoHo owner Kristin Hardwick.

Every business, regardless of size, industry, or stage of growth, needs a resiliency plan, because at some point, it will face an unexpected disruption. It could be a fire, a flood, or in the case of 2020, a pandemic.

To ensure more small business owners are better prepared for the unexpected, the SBDC and the UNH Cooperative Extension are teaming up to bring New Hampshire its first ever Small Business & Community Resiliency Academy. The program launches this spring with two-hour academy sessions on April 7 & 21, May 5 & 19, and June 2.

Academy attendees will gain the tools and advising support they need to develop or update individualized resiliency plans. The plans are intended to provide guidance to a business’s team on how to function during an unexpected disruption in operations. Resiliency plans look at risks and threats, communications, emergency response, supply chain management, cybersecurity, and more.

“There is a natural connection between businesses and communities working together and learning from each other. No one is in this alone. Everyone should feel connected and know where to go for help. We need to get resiliency planning integrated into the mindset and culture of all businesses and communities to strengthen everyone’s ability to deal with unexpected challenges and turn economic recovery into economic growth and prosperity,” says Liz Gray, state director for NH SBDC. For more information on putting together a susLiz Gray is state director at NH tainable plan to grow your SBDC and leads a team of dedbusiness, go to nhsbdc.org, icated professionals that serve get paired with an advisor, the Granite State in collaboration with federal, state and local and register for the Small government agencies, business Business & Community sector partners and clients.

Resiliency Academy. ¥ RESILIENT NH 2021 37

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Speaking Openly and Listening to Others By sharing his own experience with mental illness, John Broderick shows others the way

BY L I I SA R AJ A L A

JOHN BRODERICK once served as chief justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court, yet it is his work with Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health – spreading awareness of the signs of mental illness and encouraging community and systematic support for mental health – that he considers “the most important work I have done in my entire professional life.”

Prior to the pandemic, over the course of a few years, Broderick traveled around New Hampshire and Vermont, speaking to more than 100,000 high school and college students, business leaders and employees, senior citizens and veterans, to share his family’s experience with the devastating impacts of mental illness not properly addressed.

Since the pandemic, Broderick and Dartmouth-Hitchcock moved the conversation online.

“The purpose of my work is not to tell my family’s story,” clarified Broderick. “That’s just a way to open the door a crack so people will speak back to me.”

CHANGED PERSPECTIVE Broderick serves to initiate community conversations about mental health, but he admits it took him a long time to understand it and speak openly about it himself.

His family has a very personal story, though it is one that was broadcast publicly – news reports in 2002 of Broderick’s adult son, under the influence of alcohol, severely assaulted his father one night after stewing over an argument regarding his son’s alcoholism and its impact on their lives.

Broderick underwent six hours of facial surgery and was lucky to be alive. His son, Christian, was originally sentenced to seven to 15 years in state prison. He served three years, granted 38 RESILIENT NH 2021

parole in 2005, a sign of his recovery.

While the Brodericks for years had tried to address their son’s social disengagement, drinking and sudden lack of motivation, it wasn’t until his evaluation, diagnosis and treatment in state prison for depression, anxiety and panic attacks that they realized the expert advice they had received earlier, and social norms of those times, had been ill-equipped to address the real issues at hand.

In hindsight, Broderick remembers a series of missteps during a time when there was no acknowledgement nor understanding of mental health issues.

The first mistake, he says, had been downplaying Christian’s withdrawal as a teenager. He and his wife would say Christian was creative, an artist who marched to the beat of a different drummer.

“That may be true, but it doesn’t mean he can’t have mental health problems,” says Broderick. “It was explained away by some commonsense explanation.”

When Christian developed a hard-core drinking habit that worsened by graduate school, Broderick and his wife admitted him to facilities in Keene, NH, Connecticut and Florida. But that only developed resentment rather than addressing the underlying issues causing his self-medication.

Experts then advised that Christian needed to hit “rock bottom” to force himself to stop drinking and that the Brodericks had to take a hardline approach – kicking Christian out of the house – to make him come to grips with his situation, or else he’d drink himself to death in their home.

“The advice was well intended, our actions were well-intended, but they were in fact inflammatory,” Broderick says, in hindsight.

After Christian’s forced sobriety in state prison and professional evaluation revealed he had mental illness, Broderick was dismayed.

“I was still in the mindset that mental illness was hopeless. I thought being an alcoholic was hopeless,” he says.

‘CRUELEST THING IN THE WORLD’ Similar to how cancer or AIDS was spoken about in hushed tones, mental illness had been stigmatized by society.

Broderick personally remembers being a child when his mother spoke in hushed tones about the “c-word,” even whispering when having private conversations in their kitchen.

“People did not say the word ‘breast.’ Look at the change in our society—now people say the words ‘breast cancer,’ and now women with breast cancer, most of them are living full lives,” thanks to open communication encouraging regular checkups and intervention, says Broderick.

Similarly, he recalls how Magic Johnson changed the conversation about AIDS, letting the world know it could happen to anyone.

And, over time, as Broderick’s family healed – through the initiative of his wife and son – and Christian benefited from appropriate treatment, Broderick’s perspective changed.

Broderick says he learned from his own experience and from what Christian taught him.

“My son says, anybody at any age who has a mental health problem, they have two things in common: They didn’t ask for it and they don’t deserve it. That’s true. What do the rest of us do?

We make sure they feel bad about it. That’s the cruelest thing in the world.”

“I waited a long time (to talk about mental illness). I was probably as ashamed as anyone.”

Gordon MacDonald, former state attorney general and newly named New Hampshire Supreme Court chief justice, once told Broderick that many men at the Concord state prison have diagnosable health problems.

“Sometimes we call it drug overdose, sometimes we call it abuse and neglect, sometimes we call it crime, generally, but often there’s a mental health component,” Broderick says MacDonald told him.

Broderick knew the statistics. According to a 2017 report on mental health from NAMI NH, the New Hampshire Department of Corrections estimates approximately 40% of the state’s incarnated population is living with a mental illness, that jumps to 71% of female inmates. Seventy-five percent of inmates have a history of substance abuse.

“I waited a long time (to talk about mental illness). I was probably as ashamed as anyone, and then over time, I realized the mistakes I made that unwittingly harmed my own son – my own ignorance,” he says.

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Former Chief Justice John Broderick, senior director of external affairs at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health, shares his story with students at Lebanon High School. Since the pandemic, to accommodate virtual learning formats, D-HH has played a 28-minute video of Broderick’s talk and Broderick participates in a live Q&A. (Photo courtesy of D-HH) By sharing his story, Broderick reasons, a student, teacher, counselor or parent might respond differently.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH It was not Broderick who came up with the idea to publicly speak about his family’s experience with mental illness, instead a psychologist friend asked him to be involved in spreading a national mental health campaign, called The Campaign to Change Direction.

After receiving the blessing of his son and wife, Broderick agreed to start publicly speaking. That work later developed into Broderick’s partnership with Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health to promote the supplemental R.E.A.C.T. Mental Health Awareness Campaign.

One in five students ages 13 to 18 in the U.S. have or will have a serious mental illness, according to the R.E.A.C.T. webpage. And there isn’t a “type” of student who may experience such a health crisis, as Broderick has found from the variety of students who approached him after his school presentations.

Once he was approached by a varsity football player who was firm with Broderick that he couldn’t talk to his parents about his suicidal thoughts. Broderick persuaded him to make an appointment with a counselor that day, and he did.

Another girl in 6th grade thanked Broderick for coming in to speak, then opened up after he asked her the simple question of how she was doing.

40 RESILIENT NH 2021

“‘I’m not doing well, I’m thinking of killing myself,’” she told him. “I just hugged her, and then asked her, ‘Do you know what a pinky promise is?’ She knew what it was, so we locked little fingers and I said, ‘I want you to promise to see a teacher or counselor.’ She was having real problems at home and school.”

Broderick stayed through lunch and saw the same girl walking toward him with a woman counselor to show she had kept her promise to ask for help.

“The counselor says, ‘We know about most of the kids who are having problems, but we didn’t know about her,’” recalls Broderick.

Spurred by Broderick’s conversations, Dartmouth-Hitchcock hosted a Youth Summit in 2019, giving teenagers a platform to speak to adults, teachers and government officials. Students asked for more trained counselors and teachers who could connect with them on a personal level and be sensitive to their needs.

“I’m a good person to start the discussion, but if others weren’t interested, there wouldn’t be a discussion,” says Broderick. “The culture is changing, I have no doubt about that.

These young people will change it.” ¥

Focused on Art. Centered in Community.

Committed to Inspire.

Virtual Art Classes, Summer Camps and Family Programs, all from your friends at the Currier Museum of Art The Currier Museum is committed to supporting our diverse community of learners with educators who encourage students to cultivate their artistic skills and broaden their imaginations in an intimate and supportive learning environment.

We are dedicated to connecting people to art by bringing art-making and art-looking to audiences of all ages and abilities.

Scholarships are available. For more information, visit Currier.org.

150 Ash Street, Manchester, NH . 603.669.6144 . visitor@currier.org

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profiles

‘Not giving up’ to help the state’s at-risk children Marty Sink and the tenacity and adaptability of CASA staff and volunteers

BY L I I SA R AJ A L A

FOR MORE THAN 30 YEARS, Marty Sink and the network of staffers and volunteers at CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) of New Hampshire have forged ahead to ensure children’s voices are heard in court.

Sink’s personal experience with the foster care system prompted her to start up a New Hampshire chapter of the national organization, which trains and assigns volunteers to become guardians ad litem for children placed in foster care or whose parents are being investigated by the Division for Children, Youth and Families.

From navigating CASA of NH’s initial introduction to the New Hampshire court system to adapting its existing procedures during the Covid-19 pandemic, Sink and her team have seen how systemic changes generate better outcomes.

RISING TO THE CHALLENGE Sink first was introduced to court-appointed guardians ad litem as a foster parent.

In the late 1980s and early ‘90s, guardians ad litem were typically attorneys who made recommendations to the court in a child’s best interest.

However, Sink saw they were not getting the full picture of the child’s well-being, as they didn’t have the time to speak to foster parents and other individuals who regularly interacted with the child.

“I knew the enormous caseloads both guardians and social workers were carrying, and the sheer volume didn’t allow them to do the personal touch work on these cases,” said Sink.

“This whole idea of bringing lay people into (the courts) was foreign, but clearly could meet a need,” said Sink, who called the National Court Appointed Special Advocate/Guardian ad Litem Association for Children to learn how to become a volunteer and was told, “‘New Hampshire doesn’t have a CASA program yet, but would you like to be involved in getting that started?’”

42 RESILIENT NH 2021

CASA Cares for the Community was CASA’s first virtual fundraiser, and it was a huge success. Raffles, the live and silent auctions, sponsorships and the appeal raised more than $200,000. The second annual CASA Cares virtual event will take place in September 2021. (Photo

by Laura Thomason, Events United)

Sink, a college-educated mother whose background was in retail management and waitressing part time, had no legal expertise, but the national organization provided all of the training materials for volunteers to get started.

“There was a proven track record in other parts of the country that it could work and it could be successful,” said Sink, and so she got started with a very small staff – herself and one part-timer.

Pretty immediately, she was met with significant resistance from local attorneys and social workers who opposed the idea of using volunteers in a highly protective, confidential area.

“The challenge for me was not giving up,” says Sink. “Because there were times it was really hard, where our state child protection agency thought the organization wasn’t very sophisticated.”

But, since the early days, Sink and her growing team have implemented a thorough screening process to ensure volunteers are appropriate and prepared for the courtroom.

There is a criminal background check, personal reference check, lengthy interview and 40 hours of pre-service training as well as continuing training.

“They (advocates) have standards they adhere to, both state and national, so their role is very clear and their guidelines keep them on this path,” explains Sink. “It’s not like a Big Brother-Big Sister role. They don’t become quasi-foster parents. They are appointed as an officer of the court, so they’re on a level playing field with our DCYF child protection worker. They have an equal role in court proceedings.”

CASA of NH was launched with two pilot programs in 1989, one in Manchester and one in Goffstown. The scrutiny was intense, but it was important to CASA of NH’s development in how it guided advocates to gather and deliver information.

“It forced us to keep looking – and we do to this day – how can we be doing it better or differently or more effectively to serve the courts better and ultimately serve the kids better?” recalls Sink, who admits, “in the early days, they weren’t sure we would survive.”

She says CASA advocates’ work was quickly identified by the judges as being a high value to the court, and so word spread,

and CASA expanded into more courts as it fundraised resources.

“It was really the advocates bringing information to the court they hadn’t had, and making their decision process easier because they were getting relevant, timely objective information about these children and their families,” says Sink.

Volunteering as a court-appointed special advocate is a part-time job, says Sink, but volunteers have the ability to focus more thoroughly than professionals with overwhelming caseloads.

“When a CASA volunteer steps into this role, they’re limited to one or two cases at a time, so they can really get to know these kids, attend team meetings, visit with parents, visit the child or children on their cases at least once a month. They are attending every court hearing that involves the child and their parents, and reporting out to the court in those hearings what is in the child’s best interest,” says Sink.

Sink says feedback and support from New Hampshire judges helped the organization grow to a staff of 34 and more than 600 advocates today.

“They repeatedly said, ‘Thank you, we need this. We need this information we otherwise would not have so we can make better informed and more timely decisions for these children,’” she says.

And CASA of NH’s relationship with DCYF and other stakeholders improved as it demonstrated its role in the court system.

“Although we are not always on the same page – we aren’t always in sync in terms of recommendations we’re making to the court – what has developed is a professional respect for the very different roles that we play. We’re solely focused on the best interests of the child that frequently will involve looking at the entire family.”

ADAPTING DURING THE PANDEMIC Designated an essential service, the courts and CASA never stopped or slowed down with proceedings around child abuse and neglect cases during Covid-19.

“I think the judges and the administration of the courts were really committed to ensuring we didn’t skip a beat for these kids who were awaiting permanency,” says Sink.

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profiles

In adapting to the pandemic, CASA very quickly provided additional support and guidance to advocates regarding social distancing and connecting virtually with the kids they were advocating for through video chat, texting and speaking over the phone, to maintain that relationship that sets the stage for effective advocacy work.

The personal connection is a little harder to establish in new cases and has required more help from foster parents who are already managing virtual schooling for their foster kids, but Sink has seen both advocates and foster families making an effort to maintain contact with all individuals involved in a case, as well as regular virtual contact with the child’s biological parents.

“I’m amazed at the commitment from our volunteers and our staff,” says Sink. “Hundreds and hundreds of CASA volunteers around the state are doing this work every day. I’m blown away by their tenacity and adaptability.”

Always in need of more volunteer advocates, CASA quickly adapted its 40-hour, classroom-style pre-service training to a virtual format. The switch actually resulted in larger classes of engaged advocates who may have been hesitant before.

“I’m amazed at the commitment from our volunteers and our staff— hundreds and hundreds of CASA volunteers around the state are doing this work every day. I’m blown away by their tenacity and adaptability.”

Unfortunately, Sink anticipates that when kids return to school, day care and other places with child-facing professionals, there will be an increase in reports of child abuse and neglect.

“Colleagues of mine throughout the country in various CASA programs and generally in the child protection system are afraid of what we will find. Hopefully, we’re all wrong, but we’re preparing for the worst and wishing for the best,” says Sink.

POSITIVE OUTCOMES Being a CASA is not for everyone, and Sink acknowledges even her staff members have trying, emotional days. There is a counselor on staff for employees, and volunteers have six regional support groups with other fellow volunteers who can be a listening ear, as cases are not to be discussed at home with their spouses due to their confidentiality.

“We hear from our advocates they’re being exposed to a system they otherwise would have no reason to be exposed to.

How this challenges their own lives is pretty profound,” says Sink.

44 RESILIENT NH 2021

CASA’s president and CEO, Marty Sink (right), presents “For the Child,” a painting by Richard Haynes, to Loon Mountain’s VP of Mountain Operations Andrew Noyes for 20 years of hosting Snowfest, an annual volunteer appreciation day for CASA advocates. (Photo by Kendal J. Bush) Often substance misuse, mental health issues, poverty and food insecurity are the driving factors for investigation into a child’s well-being, and the Covid-19 pandemic may only have exacerbated those underlying triggers.

But, even with so many serious cases of child abuse and neglect, Sink says there are positive outcomes with the right community supports.

“We can’t just assume these are all bad people,” notes Sink.

New Hampshire law requires child protection professionals to look to reunification as the first option.

The goal, says Sink, is to strengthen families and get them the services they need, and if parents demonstrate an active role in getting help and improving, children belong with their families.

Approximately 60% of CASA’s cases end in reunification.

“What has kept me going is a passion for these kids and making sure their voices are being heard and they don’t get lost in the cracks and don’t spend their entire childhood bouncing from foster care to foster care,” says Sink. “We’ve come a long, long way in ensuring the need for permanency for these kids who enter our system through no fault of their own.” ¥

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