Worcester Magazine November 26 - December 2, 2020

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IN THIS ISSUE

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Featured ......................................................................................4 City Voices...................................................................................6 Cover Story .................................................................................9 Connell Sanders......................................................................16 Listen Up....................................................................................16 Table Hoppin’...........................................................................17 SCreen Time..............................................................................18 New on DVD..............................................................................18 The Next Draft..........................................................................19 Adoption Option ....................................................................20 Games .........................................................................................21 Classifieds .................................................................................22 Last Call .....................................................................................23

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the cover Worcester Magazine’s 2020 Hometown Heroes Story on page 9

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Trans-Siberian Orchestra will put on livestream show starting Dec. 18 RICHARD DUCKET T

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t has become a tradition in recent years that the TransSiberian Orchestra comes to the DCU Center in Worcester every holiday season to put on one of its “prog-rock” spectacles as part of a 60-plus city November/December itinerary. Last year there were two shows at the DCU Center the same day.

For TSO drummer Jeff Plate, the visits here might elicit a “full- circle” type of feeling back from when he was trying to get himself established.

Speaking about Worcester during a recent telephone interview, Plate said, “I actually used to live there in the early ‘80s.” Remembering when the DCU Center was the Worcester Centrum, “I went to quite a few shows there,” he said. Locally, he played in a cover band.

This year, however, he won’t be going to the DCU Center with TSO, as COVID-19 has shut down the group’s traditionally massive holiday tour.

But there will be another case of full-circle as TSO puts on a livestreamed show Dec. 18 with a revisit of “Christmas Eve and Other Stories,” the band’s 1996 rock-opera debut album which got the whole TSO phenomenon started almost 25 years ago.

Plate’s been there from the start. “I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve had the pleasure of sitting in front of this show from the beginning,” he said.

The Dec. 18 show will be a spectacle in the tradition of TSO live concerts, Plate said, while at the same time adhering to social distancing and other health measures.

It will be performed and livestreamed live at 8 p.m. Dec. 18 from a sound stage in Nashville and offered as a “family-friendly” $30 allin ticket. Special pre-show content will include behind-the-scenes footage and interview segments.

For those unable to view the livestream’s debut on Dec. 18, TSO will make the performance available for streaming on demand through midnight on Dec. 20. In addition to purchasing the stream, there will be the option to purchase gift packages, including T-shirts, or-

Jeff Plate of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

SUBMIT TED PHOTO

naments, and masks, plus livestream tickets can be sent digitally to friends and family as presents. For more details and to purchase tickets and packages, visit www.trans-siberian. com.

The 1996 album “Christmas Eve and Other Stories” with Plate on drums, went triple platinum with tracks such as the song “Ornament,” and compelling instrumentals of “Christmas Eve/Sarajevo” and the traditional “O Come All Ye Faithful.”

The album would become part of a Christmas trilogy.

In 1999, TSO embarked on its first live tour with a stage adaptation of “Christmas Eve and Other Stories.”

Plate can recall opening night at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia.

“It (‘Christmas Eve’) had already been a hit. I remember being very nervous. ‘Wow, what did we get ourselves into?’ “ The audience may not have known what to expect. One man was dressed as if he was going to see an orchestra, while another looked ready for heavy metal, Plate said.

“I knew we had something. How it translated live was the key.”

At the end of the concert there was a huge standing ovation.

“Honestly, Paul O’Neill just struck magic when he wrote that story. It really laid the groundwork for TSO,” Plate said.

Since that touring debut, TSO has played approximately 2,100 concert dates for more than 17 million fans and has sold in excess of 12 million albums and DVDs. O’Neill was the TSO founder, composer and lyricist whose presence remains large even three years after his sudden death at the age of 61 in 2017. His family is active with management behind the scenes, and band members such as Plate speak of him with awe in their voices and sentiments.

“Christmas Eve and Other Stories” centers on a young angel sent to Earth on Christmas Eve to bring back what is best representative of humanity. When O’Neill founded TSO he had Christmas in mind from the very beginning, as he had

recalled in prior interviews ahead of TSO holiday tours. He was obsessed with Christmas. Meanwhile, “Christmas Eve and Other Stories” gave birth to the unique format O’Neill called “Rock Theater.”

The band toured with “Christmas Eve and Other Stories” for 12 years through 2011. Then in 2012 and 2013, TSO staged its 2004 album, “The Lost Christmas Eve,” and in 2014 hit the road with 1998’s “The Christmas Attic.” From 2015 to 2018, TSO featured an adaptation of its 1999 TV special “The Ghosts of Christmas Eve.” But last year “Christmas Eve and Other Stories” made its return to stages and arenas.

“It went great,” Plate said of last year’s tour. “It was really quite refreshing for all of us. It was also something Paul had been thinking about (bringing the show back on tour). It’s a great show. I think it went off great last year. We were definitely going to do this show live (again) when we were going to tour. I was not in the room when the decision was made (about the live stream) but

I’m sure that had something to do with it.”

Noting that next year is the 25th anniversary of “Christmas Eve and Other Stories,” Plate added, “I think it’s very appropriate we’re doing the stream.”

According to Billboard, TSO grossed $46.8 million and sold 706,000 tickets between Dec. 1 and Dec. 30 last year, with $20 million in November, making 2019 a record year.

Forbes reported that “In 2019, armed with 250 organization members and $1 million in pyrotechnics, the East/West TSO teams crisscrossed the country on the Christmas Eve and Other Stories tour with 40 trucks and 20 buses and 18 musicians per team. With a large team roster and local hires, TSO hit 66 cities within a seven-week window where it was never unusual to clock two performances a day for three straight days.”

As the pandemic hit in the spring, Plate could see that this year’s tour was in trouble.

“The final decision (to cancel) I think was a couple of months ago.

When this occurred in the spring it kind of put us on notice that we would not be touring. The streaming show was obviously on the back burner,” Plate said.

TSO members have watched other live-streamed shows from bands, but “we are such a different animal.

We are around every year. We have become for a lot of people — this is their Christmas get-together. People say Christmas just doesn’t start until we see TSO,” Plate said.

The Dec. 18 live-streamed show will be “on the grand scale” of TSO, Plate said.

Since 2000, TSO holiday shows had been divided up to be performed by West and East touring groups. Dec. 18 will bring them together. Bryan Hicks will narrate and Al Pitrelli (guitar) and Derek Wieland (keyboards) will serve as musical directors. The band will feature Chris Caffery (guitar), Mee Eun Kim (keyboards), Johnny Lee Middleton (bass), Asha Mevlana (violin) and Plate (drums).

Vocalists will be Russell Allen, Nate Amor, John Brink, Erika Jerry, Chloe

FEATURED

Lowery, Georgia Napolitano and Jeff Scott Soto.

The touring shows have also featured ever-expanding production values with lavishly presented visuals and special light and sound effects. “I do not know what the show is going to look like but it’s going to be spectacular,� Plate said.  “What we do live is second to none. It is quite a spectacle. Paul O’Neill put a lot of work (making it) something people have never seen before.�   With that, “This COVID thing is something we don’t want to mess with. We have to be tested before we go. We have to mask up. We don’t want to jeopardize anybody in any manner. The main thing is to keep people healthy,� Plate said. “Let’s hope it’s a one-off thing, but this will be a great opportunity for someone who’s never seen the show to see what it’s all about.�

And while the tours have had a

great geographic reach, there are some parts of the country where people haven’t been able to get to the shows and now can watch it at home, he said.

Plate is from upstate New York but as an aspiring drummer “needed  to get out of the area ‌ I moved to Worcester I believe in 1983.â€? After two and a half years here, he moved to the South Shore of Boston and was playing and writing music when he met vocalist Zak Stevens.

Plate later joined Stevens as a member of the heavy metal group group Savatage. Savatage had been around a bit but was making waves with a producer who had some new ideas. That producer was Paul O’Neill. “Savatage morphed into TransSiberian Orchestra, and here I am,�

Plate said.  “I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve had the pleasure of sitting in front of this show from the beginning.�

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CITY VOICES

HARVEY

FIRST PERSON

This Thanksgiving, setting a table for one

JANICE HARVEY

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remembered all the ingredients to make my Nana’s turkey stuffing, a recipe she picked up as a waitress at Messier’s on Millbury St. and never made the same way twice. My mashed potatoes are the smoothest; sugary whole cranberries sprinkled with orange zest will bubble on the stove, while my famed asparagus soup waits for a final whisk. Arlo Guthrie will tell his story at noon as I baste the bird.

It’s Thanksgiving, and I’m setting a table for one.

Two family members have been exposed to the coronavirus, and out of an abundance of caution, they’re in quarantine for 14 days that include Thanksgiving. Rather than take any chances, Harveys are not gathering. 2020 is the year we’ll never forget because of everything we didn’t experience. The only upside to this surreal holiday season is that the absence of the brother we lost this summer won’t be so painfully evident if none of us are together. That’s a half-full glass of wine, if ever I sipped one.

It’s so tempting to abandon what we know to be true in favor of letting our hearts rule our smarts. Who doesn’t want to see Gramps fall asleep in a recliner, watch lovable Aunt Mae get tipsy, and coo over the new baby wearing a bib embroidered with a turkey? This is the year when we’ve been denied much more than access to movie theaters and indoor dining. We’re untethered

by COVID-19, kept from enjoying family and friends, drifting without oars. Wouldn’t I prefer listening to my sister and her husband squabble in their kitchen over who forgot to thaw the gravy? You know it. Wouldn’t I love to fight my brother Chris for the crispiest parts of the turkey skin, the stuff everybody knows is no damn good for you? Of course. We’ve been arm-wrestling and monkey bitepinching each other over that flap that holds the stuffing for 50 years.

(I usually win because I fight dirty, hence the monkey bites.) This

year I can greedily jeopardize my health by scarfing every scrap of that terrible delight without interference. However, the satisfaction I usually enjoy while cramming my maw will be missing, that much I know.

I’ve noticed that Christmas decorations are going up much earlier than usual. Facebook friends are posting photos of their living rooms fully festooned, with front porches wrapped in garland a week before Thanksgiving. As a mild-to-moderate sufferer of OCD, I have for more years than I can count decorated for Christmas on Black Friday, and every New Year’s Day I pack up the ribbons, the wrappings, the tags, the tinsel, the trimmings and the trappings Grinch-like. I never deviate from this schedule. Something bad could happen.

Well, something bad already did happen, so I busted out the baubles, the beads and the lights.

It occurred to me that I, along with most of America, need some comfort. We’re dragging out the holiday swag to feel good about something. If we could wrap ourselves in garland and tinsel, we would. Are we wishing away November only or all of 2020? I think the latter. We’ve created our own Operation Warp Speed, looking for a flux capacitor to shove us back to the future. We want yesterday back, tomorrow.

And so I’m setting my table for one, using my best dishes, and making all my favorites. I’ll put fresh flowers in a vase and pour a glass of Massetts Cranberry from the Hardwick Vineyard and Winery. I’ll Facetime my grandkids and have pajamas on by 7 p.m.

The tree will light my living room with a lovely glow.

I hope “The Wizard of Oz” is on TV because honestly, Aunty Em, there really is no place like home.

‘Nature always wins’ — A cautionary tale for our time MICHAEL HAUCK

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just recently finished reading a compelling narrative history of the Dust Bowl and the “Dirty Decade” of the 1930s — “The Worst Hard Times,” by Timothy Egan. I was aware of the Dust Bowl, at least vaguely, but Egan’s detailed account brought the hardships, the tragedies, the loss of life and livelihoods into vivid relief, blending personal accounts of individuals and specific families with the stark and sometimes sterile statistics of this immense disaster.

People of all ages — babies, children and adults — died by the thousands of “Dust Pneumonia” and silicosis from so much dust in their lungs; families having to literally shovel out dirt from inside their home twice each day; static electricity in the air so strong that you didn’t dare shake hands with a friend for fear of a jolt that would send you to the ground; dust storms of thick clouds that would blot out the sun so midday seemed like midnight. Dust circulating in the air 24-7 so that you feel it on your skin, in you eyes, in your teeth constantly.

And the most tragic part of this disaster was that it was completely caused by the people — by greed, shortsightedness, and ignorance.

The drought and winds that created the Dust Bowl effect had been the climate of the region for a thousand years or more — an arid land of little rainfall, constant wind, and temperature extremes — but, surviving as a healthy ecosystem of grasslands perfectly suited for these harsh conditions.

It was the greed of unbridled capitalism to get rich quick in the wheat boom of the 1920s; the shortsightedness of government and business to promote large scale development; and the ignorance to willfully ignore the complex interactions of the various elements of the ecosystem that created this horrific tragedy. Despite Herculean efforts and hundreds of millions of dollars in the 1930s to restore the region, still today most of it remains an isolated, sparsely populated wasteland — never to return to a productive, healthy ecosystem.

While reading the accounts and descriptions of these hardships, I could not help but see parallels to our own time and the impending

climate crisis we face. This time it is not tearing up the sod that holds the precious moisture and retains the soil. Now it is expelling thousands of tons of hydrocarbons daily into our atmosphere. This time, it is not 100 million acres in a six state area (Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska).

Now it is our entire planet. And we are subject to the same greed (profits for oil, for fracking gas); the shortsightedness of government and business leadership to not realize that the sooner we begin to make the transition to non-carbonbased energy the easier, smoother, less disruptive the transition will be; and the sheer ignorance to believe that if we ignore it, if we deny it, if we ridicule and doubt the climate science, it will go away.

There were many who survived it, but the Dust Bowl saga is not an uplifting story of courage and resilience in the face of adversity. It is simply survival by sheer numbers.

It is a cautionary tale of the clash of our hubris with the greater forces of the natural world. And Nature always wins.

Michael Hauck lives in Millbury.

CITY VOICES

WORCESTERIA

Literally and metaphorically talking turkey!

VICTOR D. INFANTE AND VEER MUDAMBI

METAPHORICALLY: In her education-centric blog Whos of Who-cester,

LITERALLY: There’s a popular myth that founding father Ben Franklin ad-

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vocated for the turkey to be our national bird instead of the bald eagle, stating the former was a “much more respectable … bird of courage who would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British Guards who presumed to invade his farm yard.” While the quote is accurate, Franklin never suggested it replace the eagle. So how did the subject of avian character judgments come up? Most reports, including Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute, say he was criticizing the design of the U.S. Seal, saying it looked more like a turkey than an eagle. He went off on a tangent that turkeys were much cooler anyway and went on to denounce the eagle’s “bad moral character” often stealing food from the fishing hawk and being “too lazy to fish for himself.” Turkeys are certainly a force to be reckoned with. They’ve essentially conquered New England after all, within a span of just 50 years. When settlers arrived, there were an estimated 10 million wild turkeys in New England but by the mid-1850s they were almost extirpated. The wild turkey population was almost nonexistent until intensive conservation efforts brought them back — in the same way they did for eagles, as it happens. Today, most of the Massachusetts wild turkey population, which numbers over 25,000, is in fact descended from the 37 birds brought in from New York state. Whatever else, they’re prolific and can fly up to 60 miles per hour with excellent vision, seeing three times more clearly than 20/20. For birds who have made such a strong comeback, it’s clear they are not to be crossed. I still have nightmares about being chased down the halls of the local wildlife rehab center by an enormous white turkey. Dang, now I’m hungry. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! (Veer Mudambi)

MARBLE, GRANITE & QUARTZ

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Worcester School Committee member Tracy Novick took exception to some assertions in a letter Bishop McManus published Nov. 17 in the Telegram & Gazette. Novick is a bit of a rarity in the world of social media political commentary, in that she’s straightforward and inevitably armed with statistics, and that’s as true here as ever. In the letter, McManus asserts that one of the ways in which the nontaxed Catholic Church helps save the city money is through the enrollment of local students in Catholic schools, claiming, “Catholic schools located in the Diocese of Worcester have 5,033 students enrolled this year which saves the taxpayers and the communities in Worcester County over $65,000,000 dollars. In Worcester this year we have 687 students in our parish and diocesan schools who are residents of the city, excluding those who attend private Catholic schools.

Using the latest reported average cost per student in Worcester, St. Paul Diocesan Jr/Sr High School, St. Peter Central Catholic Elementary School and Our Lady of the Angels Elementary School saved the city $10,380,735 this school year.” Novick respectfully points out the flaws in that logic. Among her observations are that, “Far from costing taxpayers – Worcester or otherwise – nothing, the private and parochial schools in the city of Worcester are, by state law, provided with bus transportation at no cost to the diocese, the schools, or the families of students. Thus some of those WPS taxpayer dollars are indeed supporting the diocesan schools,” and that “The ‘average cost per student in Worcester,’ as supported by the state’s progressive – that is, meeting greater need with greater dollars – funding system funds a student body that is 60% low income, 31.7% English learner, and 20.9% students with disabilities. I am quite sure that is not reflective of the student body of Worcester’s diocesan schools. The $10M figure thus is simply incorrect; the student body of the diocesan schools, were they to join the Worcester Public Schools would not cost the district anywhere near that kind of money to educate. Those dollars thus are not being saved.” Of course, this is just one exchange in what is an enormously complex issue, but for those looking for tangible facts as the city weighs hard discussions of taxation and education spending, it’s hard to do better than Novick’s blog. (Victor D. Infante)

LARGEST SELECTION OF

Public streets fall under two ban categories: PERMANENT: December 1 - April 30 A permanent ban will remain in effect on emergency arteries, WRTA bus routes, and streets that are designated as critical to the flow of traffic. The permanent ban means that from December 1 to April 30 (April 1 on residential streets), there is no parking on one or both sides of the street between 2 am and 6 am and also when a snow emergency is declared, anytime, day or night.

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DECLARED: When it snows When a ban is declared, it affects all remaining City streets. The declared ban means that parking is allowed on both sides of the street until a winter parking ban is put into effect. You can expect a winter parking ban to go into effect whenever inclement weather is forecasted.

To quickly find out whether your street has a Permanent or Declared parking ban, go to http://www.worcesterma.gov/streets/winter-weather/winter-parking.

The official source of up-to-date information on the ban is through the DPW&P Customer Service Center.

Call: 508-929-1300 Connect: dpw@worcesterma.gov Click: http:/ /www.worcesterma.gov/streets/winter-weather/winter-parking

COVER STORY

Heroes 2020

HOME TOW N

PRESENTED BY WORCESTER MAGAZINE

T

he world turns on small kindnesses, more so now when times feel unbearably bleak.

By any standard, 2020 has been a terrible year, one where a disease tainted nearly every aspect of our lives. The way we live has been altered, and the fault lines beneath

our society have begun to rumble.

As people died around the world, we learned the hard way that there were structural weaknesses throughout our healthcare and educational systems, and indeed, throughout our entire economy.

Racial injustice took the spotlight as a string of deaths of unarmed

people of color brought protesters into the street. Lastly, a heated election showed fissures in our very democracy, as unfounded claims of voter fraud erode some people’s trust in our electoral process. The headlines are enough to make you want to curl up and hide.

There are people, though, who did not hide, but instead stepped into the gap, doing what they could to make Worcester a better place. They helped their neighbors, they found ways to help children’s education while schools were closed. They fed the hungry

and fought for justice at every turn.

To paraphrase one person in the stories that follow, Worcester became its own heroes. From city leaders working around the clock to deliver a pandemic response, to workers ranging from firefighters to grocery store clerks who faced danger just to keep the city’s wheels turning. There is no way we could possibly recognize everyone who deserves it in such a trying year, but what follows are profiles of eight people or organizations that, we feel, made an enormous impact with small acts

of kindness, who changed lives simply by extending a hand when it was needed. (Metaphorically.

We’re still not allowed to touch hands.)

These aren’t the people in the spotlight all year round. They’re not seeking fame or political influence. Indeed, several of them were reluctant to let us shine a light on them at all, preferring the light be on the people who need it most, but their efforts have not not gone unnoticed. When everything seemed darkest, they were among the ones that shined brightest.

MUTUAL AID WORCESTER

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Ute Gray, left, and Deb Powers represent Mutual Aid Worcester RICK CINCLAIR

and potential solutions.

When a crisis on the scale of a pandemic hits, it serves as a stress test to highlight the cracks in the system, unfortunately when society’s vulnerable fall through them. Many initiatives that started as crisis responses are making the shift to sustained social justice movements.

“This needs to continue even after the crisis is over,” said Powers, “because we were seeing gaps that needed to be filled.” While MAW isn’t going anywhere, there are currently

no plans to make the leap to an official nonprofit group. The benefits associated with nonprofit status would be outweighed by how “that ties your hands,” Powers explained.

Instead, when needed, other organizations can be fiscal sponsors — when a nonprofit shares its legal and tax-exempt status with a project that shares its mission.

“MAW is the face of Worcester,” she said, “and Worcester residents are their own heroes.”

– Veer Mudambi

9

to request or receive help.

MAW’s mission is not only limited to short-term assistance — members of the group are advocating for widespread change in the city’s pandemic response as well, especially relating to people of color. “Being involved in Mutual Aid Worcester Education Group has highlighted one point,” said member Bill Gardiner, “that the remote learning going on in the city isn’t very robust and a lot of Black and Latin students have been left out of it.”

The public schools’ remote learning system consists primarily of Google classroom, with teacherstudent communication restricted to email. In addition to issues with work engagement and response time, work is rendered impossible if the student doesn’t have access to a computer.

“We were looking for someone who could donate their time to refurbishing laptops that people were willing to donate to the cause,” Gardiner explained. The laptops would then be delivered by volunteers. The initiative stalled due to lack of financial resources, something Gardiner attributes to its specialized nature, as opposed to more basic resources such as food, which received large donations from area stores and restaurants.

Despite initial setbacks, the MAW Education Group still plans to enable parents, students and teachers to make themselves heard. The group hopes to organize a town hall-style Zoom conference where community members can discuss their needs

WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM

resources for parents looking for enrichment activities for children — a mix of online and offline ideas — during the initial remote learning period, which stretched to the rest of the school year. On March 16, they posted the Mobile Meal schedule of the school district announcing free breakfast and lunch or supper meals for all children 18 or younger. In the days following, they posted about free coronavirus testing resources, help with pharmacy pick-ups for medicines, emergency handwashing stations for unsheltered neighbors, emergency food alternatives for pet food, and availability of home made cloth face masks.

Despite Powers’ indication that she “hates talking about the Facebook group itself, when there are people who work very hard behind the scenes to deliver food and masks,” it is the social media presence of MAW that makes the difference. It allows the organization to spread the word and assist with coordination for the actual work to have an impact. For instance, Powers talked of a few food pantries that started because of the need and were able to use MAW to pull people together.

As the group expands, to better organize requests and offers of aid, Powers has created sub-groups based on neighborhoods, allowing members to further localize their efforts. There are currently five: North, South, East side, West side and Central Worcester MAW. By utilizing the groups feature, residents can connect directly with their closest neighbors

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n March 13, even before the statewide shutdown of schools, Worcester Public Schools proactively closed for three weeks to protect students and staff during the pandemic and prevent community spread of COVID-19. In addition to the lack of inclass academic instruction and social interaction, children would be facing the lack of school lunches — an even more basic need for the thousands of children for whom it may be their only hot, nutritious meal of the day.

That was when an idea began to germinate, one that would grow into a thriving grassroots effort called Mutual Aid Worcester. The aim is to help Worcester communities identify individual needs and develop community solutions in response.

It began as a Facebook page for residents to reach out to one another and provide support. Deb Powers, who helped start and now manages the Facebook page, warns, “Don’t make me sound like a hero because I’m not — the people who are actually out there devoting their miles, their hands, their lives, are the real heroes.” However, it is something of a full-time job.

MAW clearly distinguishes between mutual aid and charity on the Facebook page. Mutual aid is about meeting each other’s needs in a practical manner while solving immediate problems in a grassroots, bottom-up way, and charity is usually donated funds where they get to determine who is deserving.

On March 14, the very first post on the Facebook page suggests

COVER STORY

SHA-ASIA MEDINA of Our Story Edutainment

S

ha-Asia Medina’s mother raised her to be a “village baby” — open and connected to everything and everyone that Worcester had to offer.

“There are a lot of people in this city who invested in me and shared their wisdom,” Medina said, “I feel moved to bring something back to the community.”

Medina is a graduate of Worcester Technical High School where she studied finance, marketing and business management. She went on to attend Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, where she earned degrees in Black studies and urban education, in addition to a minor in geography. As a Posse Scholar, Medina was awarded full tuition and welcomed into a tight-knit cohort along with nine other Black students who made up her “posse.”

“The Posse Foundation was founded three years ago when schools began acknowledging the fact that

RICK CINCLAIR

a lot of really bright high school students of color from inner cities would go off to exceptional four-year institutions, and drop out within a year,” she explained. “When they asked the kids, ‘Why aren’t you staying?’ The response was basically, ‘Because I don’t have my posse.’” Medina met with the group regularly throughout her senior year of high school before arriving at Bucknell in the fall of 2015.

“I went to college one way and came out another way,” she said, “If you don’t do that, then there’s something wrong; we should all be transforming.”

After graduating, Medina returned to Worcester and began working for an organization her mother had started 15 years prior, Our Story Edutainment. “At Our Story Edutainment, we try to teach Black history and the history of the African diaspora in a way that is educational, but also entertaining,” she explained.

Medina and her brother were

born in New York City, and upon moving to Worcester, the family felt disappointed by the lack of Black culture reflected in their new home.

“At the time, there wasn’t a lot going on for Black folks in Worcester,” said Medina. “My mom decided to create the programming she wanted for her own children and take the whole city along for the ride.”

Our Story Edutainment is known for annual events like the Bob Marley Birthday Bash and the Kwanzaa Celebration. As the current director, Medina is dedicated to finding ways to employ music, documentaries, spoken word and life experiences as vehicles for multi-cultural learning.

During the spring of 2020, Medina formed a connection with local organizer Magdelene Barjolo, in response to the “Amplify Black Voices” rally held in Worcester. “We decided we needed to do something different because a lot of times, Black women and Black trans-people get lost in the

narrative,” she recalled. “We place so much focus on Black men that we often erase some of the other victims of police violence.”

Barjolo and Medina formed a team of eight local young people to plan a peaceful demonstration. “We wanted to share how Black women were feeling about what was going on in the community and the fact that we experience hyper invisibility every day,” she recalled. “Everyone is duplicating us. Everyone wants a piece of us. But, at the same time, we’re also invisible.” Together, the group organized the Say Her Name Solidarity March on June 13, 2020, at East Park with great success.

It’s hard to imagine anyone perceiving Medina as invisible. She is a natural leader, a captivating speaker and a profound force in the community. Our “village baby” has grown into a hometown hero.

– Sarah Connell Sanders

LINDA S. LLOYD executive director of Angels Answer

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inda S. Lloyd, president and executive director of Angels Answer, Inc., was born to help others.

“I was without when I was really little because I couldn’t control it, because my dad was a World War II veteran and he spent my formative years in the VA Hospital. So we knew what it was like to be without food,” Lloyd said.

“The town helped us out sometimes.

They gave our family a table and two chairs at Christmas time and gave me a doll and gave my brother a toy, and you don’t forget that.”

Lloyd knows about being a child going to bed hungry firsthand, because she was one. She also made a pledge to herself to give back to children, as other have given back to her when she was a child.

“For kids to become academic successes, they need to have a full belly,” Lloyd said. “Kids are our future leaders. They’re the future. We have to help them to become the best that they can be.”

Lloyd has always been a person who’s fighting for the underdog. And despite her share of heartaches, she has always been a giver and never a whiner.

On June 1, 2011, Lloyd officially earned her wings as a “Food Angel.”

Lloyd was one of the first responders when the tornadoes roared

Linda S. Lloyd, founder of Angels Answer Inc., a nonprofit emergency food agency.

CHRISTINE PETERSON

through Brimfield and Monson. Over the next year, Lloyd helped distribute thousands of dollars of food donations to those who desperately needed it.

She also became a member of the board of directors for the “Pathway to Renewal,” a not-for-profit agency that allocated funds to those families who lost their homes in the tornado, to help them rebuild.

Furthermore, Lloyd set up food pantries and provided hot meats at two prominent churches in the center of Brimfield and Monson.

In 2012, Lloyd founded the

not-for-profit relief agency Angels Answer Inc., dedicated to helping feed and support those in need. As part of its “Angels & Backpacks Program,” Angels Answer sends home each Friday more than 100 bags of food distributed between the Warren Community Elementary, Quaboag Regional Middle/High and Hardwick Elementary schools.

“I’m on call with the school’s counselors and police departments and they let me know when there’s a family in dire need,” Lloyd said. “We get calls from schools saying we have this family that is really struggling. Can you

help them out? And we say, of course.

We pack up all this food and deliver it.”

Angels Answer Inc. also provides nutritional snacks for kids in school.

“The teachers are so excited to have fresh fruit come in, like apples and yogurt cups and things like that for snack time, and any child that needs it can enjoy it,” Lloyd said.

Lloyd said things were pretty bad before the pandemic but, the situation is out of control now.

“So many families are in need because of lack of work for their husbands and wives. There’s a lack of income coming in. There are foreclosures on houses, through no fault of their own. We get calls all the time asking people to ‘adopt’ people during the holidays, families for Thanksgiving and Christmas,” Lloyd said. “COVID doesn’t know class at all. Anybody could be in good standing and get sick and all of a sudden everything goes down. They’ve lost their income and they could be high-income providers.

When you get COVID, the whole family’s involved.”

Angels Answer also helps out several food pantries including Angels Answer for Renaissance Medical Group in Southbridge, and Friendly House and Project New Hope ( for veterans), both in Worcester.

Angels Answer, Inc. also adopted an orphanage in Venezuela and is

helping out with the “Feeding Kids in Venezuela Food Program.”

Angels Answers Mobile Food Pantry helps out Warren low-income families and seniors with food assistance, and Angels Answer 2 Pets supplies low-income senior citizens with dog and cat supplies at the Ware Senior Center Angels Answer Inc. supplies food donations to Veterans Inc., and organizes and assembles holiday boxes of toiletries, treats and nonperishable food that are sent to soldiers stationed overseas.

Angels Answer Inc. is also in the midst of a winter fuel oil and utility drive. To donate, volunteer, or for corporate sponsorship, contact Angels Answer, Inc., PO Box 221 Ware, MA 01082; or call Lloyd at (413) 320 1981 or email her at angel_aide@ yahoo.com Lloyd said she couldn’t do this without the help of her family, her husband Dana, who serves as vice president of Angels Answer, and her two sons, Zach and Sky, who help pick up the food, as well as all her volunteers.

“It makes you feel like you’re making a difference in the world and people are really grateful,” Lloyd said.

“Angels Answer throws a little lifeline out there to life someone up in their darkest hour.”

– Craig S. Semon

COVER STORY

IMRANA SOOFI Ujima Food Pantry founder assumption really impacted the work negatively,” Soofi said. She went so far as to say she had never seen such unwillingness to support a particular group of people, and ultimately had to get the food herself from wholesalers.

Ironically, Ujima ended up receiving more produce than it could feasibly use and ended up donating to the food pantries that had initially declined to work with them.

Despite the success, the inability of so many, even in the social work field, to look beyond these biases and show empathy was shocking.

“I literally had other social workers saying ‘but their parents will take care of them,’” Soofi said disbelievingly. “The preconception is if you’re going to college, you’re automatically privileged,” she continued, and that applies to all students, not just international.

The next argument is that, if not their families, then the schools themselves could take responsibility for international students

since they receive federal aid. Soofi followed this up as well. “Colleges told me ‘we are struggling,’” she said. While they did receive money from the government, those funds came with no guidelines on how to distribute them. Some prioritized students who received financial aid or students who asked for it, but in all of the approaches there were students who fell through the cracks. “Some students said ‘what help? We didn’t even know we were eligible,’” said Soofi.

Lastly, many international students, undergraduate and graduate students alike, have families of their own to support. Soofi herself fell into this category at one time — as a single mother of two, working multiple jobs while pursuing her degree. Even if they don’t have children, many are sending stipends back to families at home.

More than simply ensuring that international students stay fed, Soofi hopes to give them the tools to stand up to bias and prejudice.

“We ended up creating a wonderful network” of international students at different schools, she explained.

“It’s important to organize international students as a group” because together, they can be a force and advocate for themselves.

Students served by Ujima Food Pantry often go on to volunteer themselves, meeting other international students they would otherwise not have connected with and creating something that will remain long after the pandemic — a community.

Ujima Food Pantry is currently located at 817 Main Street. However, the location will be undergoing significant renovations to serve as the new base for Blackseed Farmers Market. Soofi hopes to partner with either a church, a mosque or a college that can provide a space to continue running Ujima Food Pantry. Anyone with a potential lead can email operationsintern@ujimafoodpantry.org.

– Veer Mudambi

Founder and executive director of Ujima Food Pantry Imrana Soofi.

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students from Connecticut and New York.”

Initially, she hoped that the food pantry she was working with at the time that served undocumented immigrants would include these students. However, her colleagues were against the idea, arguing the international students didn’t need the help. “They said if you want a food pantry for them, you’ll have to start your own,” said Soofi.

“So I did.”

Ujima Food Pantry, which takes its name from the third principle of Kwanzaa, meaning “collective work and responsibility,” was far from her first rodeo. Soofi had tackled the issue of food insecurity before, and even helped start the Regional Environmental Council, which helps get fresh produce to Worcester’s vulnerable neighborhoods. However, in reaching out to her contacts, she learned that her former colleagues’ attitude was not unusual.

“I found that a lot of people just assumed international students were extremely privileged and that

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I

mrana Soofi is a born problem solver. Whether it’s organizing a community effort to delead a local family’s apartment or helping Afghan refugees in the wake of 9/11 — if someone needs help, Soofi will make sure they get it.

When the pandemic hit and college campuses shut down, leaving international students essentially stranded, Soofi would not let it stand. “We saw that there was huge need, especially amongst international students — they depend on their on-campus jobs for income since their visas bring a number of restrictions.”

Soofi, who is executive director of the Muslim Community Link, a nonprofit that supports Muslims in the Worcester area, pointed out that “(international students) were doing the best that they could just to survive.” Early on, she was able to help students who were doubling up in rooms and apartments with rent and utilities, and for a short while, “we were serving

ASHLEY GREEN

COVER STORY

DARCY SCHWARTZ founder of ArtReach

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hen Darcy Schwartz opened ArtReach in 2015 in a storefront building at 322 West Boylston St. on a small strip of businesses in the Greendale section of Worcester, she envisioned it as “going into a community and have the community come and create art.”

The world has since turned upside down, but Schwartz, through ArtReach, has become “a pillar of the community,” and indeed way beyond.

Schwartz and a dedicated team are overseeing her longtime dream of having an artist-owned studio with art enrichment and other programs while also continuing to address unexpected and ever-changing needs across multiple communities.

“The need is great for so many things. We have a bunch of good things happening,” Schwartz said recently.

This month students in the studio (with the studio following gathering and social distancing requirements) and online have been participating in ArtReach’s Create-A-Turkey-Plate For Food Event where they have made special dinner plates for their families in exchange for donating food items to District 1 Worcester City Councilor Sean M. Rose’s annual Holiday Dinner Donation Drive.

ArtReach is in Rose’s district.

Students received a plate for painting, two brushes, and ceramic paint colors in red, blue, yellow,

Darcy Schwartz is the founder of ArtReach.

CHRISTINE PETERSON

green, brown, black and white. Participants online were also given a Facebook Live time to log in and join in the activity.

Create-A-Turkey-Plate is an annual ArtReach happening that predates the pandemic — although it has a special poignance this year — but the studio was quick to respond when

it was announced March 13 that schools in Worcester would be temporarily closed because of COVID-19.

On March 16, ArtReach launched Art-in-the-Heart, which offered free virtual art classes for children while home from school. Art submissions were put up on a “virtual art gallery,” and students also created work that

said “thank you” to everyone doing their part during COVID-19.

Art-in-the-Heart ran for 65 days as a full-time live program online that also included storytellers, Schwartz said. “It reached two million people from all over the country and all over the world from my dining room. We couldn’t use the studio.”

Later, a summer program at the reopened studio and online was also successful.

In the city at large, ArtReach participated last month in World Smile Day and the Harvey Ball with the Worcester Historical Museum. Virtual paintings by ArtReach students could be bought at the Harvey Ball auction for $100.

Currently, the ArtReach studio has a maximum of 10 students — due to COVID — coming in during the morning to do remote learning with their respective schools. Some students “may need help transitioning to the platform,” Schwartz said.

Then in the afternoon, ArtReach offers art programs, as well as music and theater, both at the studio and online. “We’ve brought back many of our artists,” Schwartz said.

Meanwhile art supplies can be picked up from the studio “touch free.”

“Darcy is a pillar of the community,” said Rose. “She’s the conduit to a vast network of folks in the arts community and the community as a whole.

She’s been a tremendous support and

advocate for families in need.”

Schwartz said, “With the arts there’s just so many wonderful things we can do if we continue to adapt to what the new normal might be.”

She has worked as a children’s illustrator and printmaker and also created an in-school/after-school outreach program that she’s taken to public and private schools.

With ArtReach at 322 West Boylston St., she had her first art studio and one that students could come to. Now she’s adapted on that.

“We have become an arts center that’s also doing remote learning,” she said of hosting remote students.

“Some do remote learning and stay for the art and some come (in the afternoon) for the enrichment,” she said.

“We’re doing pretty well so far. No cases of COVID. No students sick.

No staff sick. So I feel like we’re doing OK.” Schwartz is eyeing a larger building down farther a little on West Boylston Street as a future home for ArtReach with more space.

But should the pandemic dramatically re-intensify in the meantime, creating further needs, “Thanks to the many adults who work here I feel like we’re able to set ourselves up to move quickly,” Schwartz said.

For more information about ArtReach, call (774) 262-3953 or visit www.artreachstudioafs.com.

– Richard Duckett

ANIKA ROMNEY Yes We Care program coordinator

A

s the homework center program coordinator at Yes We Care, Anika Romney certainly does care.

“In life, as I started getting older, I wanted to be helping kids and have kids be my focus,” Romney said.

“The idea of being a great parent one day was always on my mind. And it just kind of blossomed into this.”

For roughly five years, Romney has been running the Yes We Care afterschool homework program with 20 to 25 students from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday at Belmont A.M.E. Zion Church, 55 Illinois St., Worcester.

“We basically take kids, K through 6,” she said. “The kids are awesome. Some of them are really rambunctious. Others are really focused and determined to do well.

So we have a variety.”

Romney has some help. Her 16-year-old daughter, Anesha Melendez, of Claremont Academy and 16-year-old foster daughter, Anayah Perez, of South High, help her out. Also, in the past, National Honors Society and students needing internships have helped out.

“I think in today’s day and age, kids are very expectant and I’m trying to teach them that it could be the little thing that you do for somebody that they will remember for a lifetime,” Romney said. “Not everybody has what you guys have and this is a good way to give back. So do things

Anika Romney works with Yes We Care at Belmont AME Zion Church.

CHRISTINE PETERSON

with a compassionate heart.”

Romney wants to give back to the future leaders of tomorrow.

“I would say I was in and out of trouble in school. I used to get suspended a lot. I was actually in foster care,” Romney said. “I’m trying to teach kids the importance of school and why they want to get good grades.”

A member of Belmont AME Zion Church, which runs Yes We Care, Romney was only volunteering one day a week in the beginning when she was asked by Elizabeth White, the retired school teacher who started the homework program, to take on more responsibility.

“She said, ‘The kids love you.

Would you consider doing this, take my place because I need to retire.’

C O N T I N U E D O N N E XT PA G E

COVER STORY

FATHER JONATHAN SLAVINKAS of St. Bernard’s Church

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s pastor of St. Bernard’s Catholic Church Our Lady of Providence Parish at 236 Lincoln St., Rev. Jonathan J. Slavinkas has made a conscious decision to be present to the community spiritually, especially for the neighborhood youths, while having the doors of the church unlocked and open, so no matter what faith they are, they can walk in and feel welcome in the house of God, even if they don’t believe in God. “I preach the gospel message, and St. Bernard preaches the gospel message through living out his love in the simplest way, by being present to the community,” Rev. Slavinkas said.

“So it’s not going down the street and asking, ‘Hey, have you found Jesus yet?’ Rather the question of evangelization becomes, ‘Hey, how are you doing today? What’s your name? What’s going on in your life?’ … And then, being there for them.

So they know, if, perhaps, there are physical needs that they have, in terms of shelter, clothing, food, they feel welcome.”

Rev. Slavinkas said he’s absolutely blessed to be at St. Bernard’s and he credits the great role models in his life at his home parish of St. John’s on Temple Street.

“I was baptized by Monsignor (Francis) Scollen, who married my parents. Father (Charles F.) Monroe gave me first communion and Father (John) Madden vested me when I became a priest at ordination,” Rev. Slavinkas said. “So I laugh at it to think I’m with this motley crew now.”

Everything that he does is because of the love that his parents gave him and because they instilled in him the importance of community, the 36-year-old social media-savvy pastor said.

“I’m born and raised Worcester.

I’m a Worcester boy. I grew up off of Hamilton Street on Harold Street.

I went to Lake View Elementary. I went to East Middle. I went to North High, very diverse schools there,” Rev. Slavinkas said. “Both my parents always taught me the door was always open in the house. Everyone is always welcome at the table, no matter what. And they always showed me the importance for caring for one another.”

Rev. Slavinkas said he envisions St. Bernard’s serving three communities — the neighborhood community, the “old-school parishioners” who have been attending church for many years; and a very big Hispanic community.

“Being present to all and bringing all together and making them feel welcome in this one beautiful space, it’s a beautiful task,” Rev. Slavinkas said. “It’s not always easy. But, by the grace of God, things get done.

Rev. Slavinkas said the most important thing about the church is having a beautiful gym that can be opened to the youths of the neighborhood.

“We have teens that face great struggles. We have teens that could be easily swayed to enter into this way of life or that way of life,” Rev. Slavinkas said. “So, instead of worrying so much about money to make ends meet at the gym, why don’t we open the gym more for the teens?

Why don’t we show people what’s actually going on? Make an impact in their lives and then trust in God that we’ll get the donations that are needed to keep it going … The gym becomes my first church because it’s where I am engaged in the life of a teen.”

Rev. Slavinkas said the goal is to make the teens know that they

have a safe place where they can continuously come, and where they are going to be loved and not judged, regardless of their hardships and bad choices in their lives.

“The gym is the greatest asset of the parish. So the teens can be in there. They can simply just allow themselves to be kids, teens,” Rev. Slavinkas said. “They don’t have to worry about what is going on at home. They don’t have to worry about bills being paid and not paid.

They just go in and shoot a basketball and escape from it all, but then, at the same time, I’m able to engage in their lives and talk to them, see how they’re doing.”

And this carries over to all people in the neighborhood, the church

doors are unlocked and wide open and all are welcome.

“So people, I think, want to be in touch with Christ more, in touch with that spiritual side, and, so, I’m able to leave the church doors open because people need it and there is a trust with it,” Rev. Slavinkas said. “And, yeah, something might happen, something might get stolen.

So be it; at the end of the day, we’ll deal with that.”

St. Bernard’s also offers a computer lab where youth can come in and do their homework, as well as teen work opportunities with some of the local restaurants and pasta sauce fundraisers that goes back to the gym programs and youth ministries.

In addition, the St. Bernard’s food

pantry gives out $30,000 worth of food a year, despite a lot of people being afraid of catching the coronavirus, Rev. Slavinkas said.

When he talks about the success of the food pantry, Rev. Slavinkas rattles off the names of Christine Consolmagno (one of the 16 Riley children who grew up on Paine Street behind the church) and Shelia Ponte, who both run the pantry.

“It’s a whole team that moves this community forward,” Rev. Slavinkas said. “It was a whole team that got me where I’m at. It was a whole community that mentored and loved me within Worcester, and I’m simply giving back and in the way that God is calling me to give back.”

– Craig S. Semon

ANIKA ROMNEY

just one day a week and then I was asked to lead that program and it just took off from there.”

Despite COVID, which has put the homework program on hold this year, the afterschool program has an open-door policy for any youngster who can use it. And, in the wake of COVID, Romney does have a couple of kids Monday through Thursday at home that she helps during the school days.

“Any kids who could be struggling, we try to help them out,” Romney said. “I even have people call me, ‘Hey, I have a seventh-grader, eighthgrader, ninth-grader, 10-grader, that’s

having issues. Can you help me out?’

We don’t say no to anybody. We take everybody.”

In addition to the homework program, Romney also does the distribution of food, clothing and houseware for the church, which usually takes place on Wednesdays.

Since COVID started, Romney estimates well over 1,000 people have been helped out.

“We started with private appointments for clothes and housewares and food and things of that nature.

We had diapers at one time, formula,” Romney said. “We work with different agencies (including Veterans

Inc., Jeremiah’s Inn, YMCA of Central Massachusetts, and the Boys and Girls Club of Worcester) as well.

Agencies will come in and pick up in bulk and distribute to their people that they work with. We try to help out any organization that needs it.”

And one thing that Romney and company (including Romney’s mother, Thelma Richardson, who helps with the deliveries) provide for worthwhile agencies is a bunch of nutritious snacks for children.

Romney, who does confess she gets a little bit overwhelmed on delivery day when they received two trucks and have to unload and orga-

nize, said she feels personally blessed in helping out the community.

“I always say that I’m blessed to be a blessing,” Romney said. “People will say, ‘Thank you’ and I say, ‘No, no, no, I’m blessed to be a blessing … That’s just how I feel. It’s kind of satisfying to know that I’m able to help somebody else that’s maybe less fortunate.”

If you want to volunteer, donate goods or services, partner with Yes We Care, host a private fundraiser or send a financial gift, call Anika Romney at (774) 303-0717.

– Craig S. Semon

WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM

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And I said to her, ‘What? I don’t think so. I don’t think I can run this,’” Romney recalled.

In the beginning, Romney was very hesitant but then, the kids convinced her.

“I would just come in to stop by and drop something off, and the kids would be like ‘Miss A!’ Some of the other facilitators would get upset because I would be coming in on their time and the kids were distracted because I was there,” Romney said.

“So that’s how it all started. It started

CHRISTINE PETERSON

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Father Jonathan Slavinkas at St. Bernard Catholic Church of Our Lady of Providence Parish.

COVER STORY

NELLY MEDINA parent organizer for education justice

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elly Medina is on a mission — “save the beach, feed the people and equal education,” she says. She’s doing that and more, as an advocate for children and numerous other groups, through her work with Citizens for Juvenile Justice, the Worcester Education Justice Alliance and the Parents Union of Massachusetts.

“If you’re an activist and you have this goal in your heart, you get led,” Medina said. “You let yourself get led.”

While a student at Quinsigamond Community College — from where she earned an associate’s degree in law enforcement and general studies liberal arts — Medina and fellow student Vaughn Lee recruited more than 150 students over summer break in 2018 for the launch of the QCC Mentoring Program. A year later, 90 of those students met with their mentors once a month. As a student mentor outreach specialist, she also worked as the student lead for the EveryVoice Coalition Campaign — and it was then, she said, “I realized I had influence.”

Medina continues to work with the college by serving on the Hispanics Achieving and Celebrating Excellence Committee and the QCC Mentoring Advisory Council. But the list of her public service affiliations goes far beyond that — “every population I talk to, I figure out if there’s a way I can get in and make a difference,” she said.

Medina also works with Neighbor to Neighbor, the Jim McGovern Campaign Organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Massachusetts Women of Color Coalition and the Worcester Together Undocumented Task Force. She also previously was involved with Interfaith and its Worcester Coalition for Education and Equity.

Interfaith, she said, was her first exposure to citywide organization work and her first grassroots involvement. Through this coalition, she met the team at Jobs with Justice, which put her through leadership training that prepared her for the work she does today.

Parents Union of Massachusetts,

Nelly Medina is fighting for community access to Coe’s Pond.

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which falls under the umbrella of Massachusetts Jobs with Justice, works to establish education equity

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and public school reform, and as lead parent organizer, Medina helps other parents navigate school systems and works with them to get access to services such as IEPs and bilingual ed. The organization also provides information on housing and helps parents understand their rights.

As part of her work with PUMA, Massachusetts Jobs with Justice and the Worcester Education Alliance, Medina was involved in a survey of parents in the city and a subsequent report that was recently released, detailing families’ struggles with remote learning.

And, during the COVID pandemic, PUMA has been even more of a necessity because it has helped provide, in cooperation with the Rock of Salvation Church, free food boxes through a USDA program and hot meals to families and to hundreds of families in the city. Medina has had a large role in the distribution of the boxes and meals. The need has been so great that the church is opening a food pantry within a month at its Main Street location.

Since the pandemic began, PUMA has grown to about 220 mothers from marginalized communities, said Medina, who herself is a mom. “It’s a support system; it’s a sisterhood,” she said. “It’s unpolitical. It’s basically moms sharing information.”

She’s also proud to note that some of these moms are now volunteering with PUMA. “These are moms who were afraid to leave their houses.

They were afraid of deportation,” she said.

Medina is also on the Board of Directors for the Citizens for Juvenile Justice, the only independent, nonprofit statewide organization working to improve the state’s juvenile justice system. A former foster student herself, Medina uses her experience to advocate for youth in the Massachusetts child welfare system.

“I hit so many demographics.

That’s not stopping me. I’m using it to my advantage. I think that’s so important,” she said.

As part of her work with CfJJ, she has collaborated with lawyers from the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute and is currently working to amend the Foster Children’s Bill of Rights, as well as on legislation that would prohibit siblings being separated while in the foster care system.

“I found my Dharma purpose of life, which is to help heal wounds caused by unequal education and advocacy for equity for foster children, who are often tossed down the trauma-to-prison pipeline. That work led me to CfJJ. Every room had its purpose and led me to where I am today,” Medina said.

It’s why, she said, that “everything I do will always go back education.”

She added, “A foster child sitting in a chair at Worcester Public Schools could be the mayor someday — but someone needs to tell him that.”

Her newest project is working to save Hillside Beach, which is near the Worcester Housing Authority’s Lakeside Apartments. The beach has been closed for years and is gated off, allowing zero access for the Lakeside residents, Medina said. The city has recently proposed turning the area into wetlands as part of a proposal to renovate the East-West train network in the Columbus Park area along Coes Reservoir.

“It’s not fair. This natural park space — they are taking this from us,” she said, adding, “It’s insane the disparity that exists … by ZIP code.

Even the quality of air they want to take from us.”

At the end of the day, whether she is working to help children or save the beach, “it’s not about me,” Medina said. “My advocacy is all tied into my heart. I know what I’m supposed to be doing. It’s changing lives.”

–Stephanie Jarvis Campbell

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a sophomore at Blackstone Valley Tech in Upton in the Multi-Media Communications shop. Check out more of her work on Instagram at jen_theabominable

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Jenna Dolber, 16, is

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Worcester’s ‘Top Chef’ alumna, Katzie Guy-Hamilton, has a gift for you SARAH CONNELL SANDERS

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atzie Guy-Hamilton’s “obsession” with feeding people began long before she appeared on “Top Chef,” traveled the world for Max Brenner chocolate, and landed the role of Global Food and Beverage Director for Equinox Fitness. It started in high school, while she stocked the shelves at Ed Hyder’s Mediterranean Market and bagged produce at George’s Fruit on Chandler Street.

Today, Guy-Hamilton is a successful cookbook author and pastry chef living in New York City. Her writing debut, “Clean Enough,” encourages balance and forgiveness for dessert enthusiasts like her. “I really focused on the importance of joy, and not removing joy from the pursuit of health in the times when we come together and eat,” she explained.

After the promotional whirlwind for “Clean Enough,” Guy-Hamilton escaped to Italy where she found solace in bright lemon cookies and

fresh pasta.

Upon returning to New York, the seasoned pastry chef began dreaming of a bakery to call her own — a notion soon quelled by the global health crisis. “The pandemic really caused me to have writer’s block,” she recalled, “And, it also eliminated my vision of opening a brick and mortar.”

One of her former Max Brenner colleagues, Rachel Graper, discouraged her from giving up. Guy-Hamilton spent the summer shipping sweets to family and friends and taking great satisfaction in the simple act of gift-giving. “That’s how Cassata was born,” she said.

Together, Graper and Guy-Hamilton launched Cassata, taking holiday orders for their initial shipment, scheduled to take place on Dec. 14, 2020. “Our gift case is this incredibly beautiful red drawer box with five products that are all individually wrapped and packaged inside to create an experience; I believe it’s a showstopper,” she told me.

We chatted on Sunday while Guy-Hamilton was out for a brisk

Worcester native Katzie Guy-Hamilton recently launched her own artisan confections brand, Cassata Bakery.

PROMOTIONAL IMAGE

walk. “Sorry if you hear kids in the background; I’m passing the zoo,” she apologized. “I try to take all of my calls on walks these days.”

This does not surprise me.

Guy-Hamilton is a certified health coach with a knack for indulging in

moderation. She speaks with grace and composure. There’s an evenness in her tone. I can tell why Bravo cast her at age 24, as the youngest contestant ever on “Top Chef: Just Desserts.” She strikes me as an old soul.

Guy-Hamilton delivers the description of her goods like a poetry recitation. “Our salted butter cookies are outrageous — dipped in a little bit of peppermint to mark the season. Our almonds are enrobed in hand-ground praline and dusted with gold. We have goat’s milk honey truffles made with honey from a farm in Billerica, Massachusetts,” she said, adding, “Every order comes with a handwritten note.”

Cassata is taking orders from now through Cyber Monday. Gifts will ship direct, delivered by Dec. 17, just in time for your holiday table. In addition, Guy-Hamilton would like to extend a special 15% discount to our readers with the code: LOVEWORCESTER. “I grew up on Drury Lane in an old Worcester neighborhood where I learned so much from the city’s melting pot of culture and cuisines,” she said. “There’s a huge subset of creatives who have come out of Worcester and I’m proud to find myself in that category.”

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LISTEN UP

Walter Sickert & the Army of Broken Toys stare down oblivion with ‘War Gospel’ VICTOR D. INFANTE

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ith “War Gospel,” the band’s second release of 2020, Walter Sickert & The Army of Broken Toys presents a musical soundscape that somehow manages to speak directly to the cultural wounds we’re all facing in this troubled year. It’s an album that germinates in fear and violence, seeks answers from magic, dances with extinction and, ultimately, questions what’s worth saving in the wake of disease and destruction.

But more than its themes, there’s something in the slow sear of the album’s tone that touches something ephemeral in the listener, something soft and human that beats behind the turmoil and psychedelia. It pulses behind everything, a will-o’-the-wisp, just off the edge of

perception. You can catch the feeling on the edge of Sickert’s vocals on the title track, which opens the album, and you can hear it refracted in the musical saw played by guest performer Adrian Stout of the Tiger Lillies. It’s a tinge of otherworldliness that casts the very real fear of a parent afraid to send their child to school in stark relief.

“War is sacred,” sings Sickert, “bullets are sainted/and I’m petrified to send you to school./Your backpack is Kevlar/your lunchbox is armor-plated lullaby.” When the song builds to a fever pitch and the perspective changes to a young man listening to headphones “That’s why he didn’t hear them say,” sings Sickert, who then changes tone to a rushed scream, “Stop or I’ll shoot!”

The line is punctuated by a single drum beat from percussionist Matt Zappa, and then interminably long

nine seconds of silence before Sickert returns with the refrain, “makes me lose my mind,” accompanied by that ephemeral something.

The silence is painful. The music touches something. Perhaps that should be a plainly evident observation, one rooted at music’s very core, but sometimes even self-evident truths need restating. The next song, “Witchcraft,” fades in with a funk undertone and gorgeous harmonies from Mary Widow. The song brings the listener further from the physical world of the title song, or as Sickert sings, “Deadlight/walking/ follow/paths in the woods and they/ come back/coma/witchcraft/kisses/ sickness...” We’re far gone now, our path lit by the occasional screech of Blake “Brother Bones” Girndt’s guitar, Mike Leggio’s bass and Rachel Jayson’s viola. The effect rattles the

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Walter Sickert & the Army of Broken Toys

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Longtime chef back in game with Yankee Diner in Charlton

ASHLEY GREEN

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tion, according to Niemszyk, who’s “grateful for all the support” he has received from Greene. “Steven is a great person to work with,” said Niemszyk, who personally helped with the renovations, including the diner’s interior and kitchen. “Everything is new,” he said.

The business opened last February, operating a few weeks before it had to close as a result of COVID-19, reopening late this summer. Niemszyk said people often ask him about operating amid a pandemic. “I had signed the lease before any of this happened, and I wasn’t turning back,”

Congratulations to Worcester native Katzie Guy-Hamilton, who has co-founded Cassata Bakery, a luxury gift box company, with friend and former colleague Rachel Graper.

Guy-Hamilton wrote in an email, “As the former Chef and Head of Marketing of the chocolate company Max Brenner, we have a love of sweets. We wanted to come up with a way to help people keep their gift-giving traditions alive — with top quality baked goods — shipped directly to the gift recipient with the click of a button.”

Guy-Hamilton is author of “Clean Enough: Get Back to Basics and Leave Room for Dessert” (The Experiment, 2019) and award-winning pastry chef. She was profiled in Worcester Living magazine in 2019.

(Sarah Connell Sanders talks to Guy-Hamilton about the new venture in this week’s column.)

If you have a tidbit for the column, call (508) 868-5282. Send email to bhoulefood@gmail.com.

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ichael Niemszyk doesn’t need a beginners’ checklist to opening a restaurant. He purchased his first business when he was 19 and kept opening more places until he decided to retire as a restaurateur.

The chef ’s fans will be happy to learn that he’s back in the game, celebrating this Thanksgiving holiday as the proud owner of the newly renovated Yankee Diner in Charlton.

Niemszyk, who’s in his late 60s,

retired for only a short time before deciding to lease the Yankee Diner in 2019 from property owner Steven Greene of Shrewsbury.

“I’ve owned more than 10 restaurants but never a diner,” said Niemzyk. “Owning one has always been in the back of my mind.” He came out of retirement after only three months.

He has been chef/owner of fullservice restaurants all his life, he said, and running a diner fits more into his current lifestyle. He gets out early, no more late nights.

The diner was gutted for renova-

Sweet news from Katzie GuyHamilton

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BARBARA M. HOULE

customers also love the owner’s clam chowder and soups, with chicken, Portuguese kale and veggie among the favorites. “The diner’s known for the best prime rib around,” added Robbins. “And, hearty homemade food,” added Niemszyk. New hires are experienced, according to the owner, especially John Pacheco, whom he has known for 30 years, and George Letendre, chefs who work the line with him.

How’s Niemszyk spending Thanksgiving?

He said he usually celebrates the holiday in Aruba, but this year it’s different.

“It looks like we’re going to be chilling out at home,” said Niemszyk.

“Next day it’s back to work.”

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Yankee Diner owner Michael Niemskyk, left, with server Holly Robbins and chef Josh Letendre.

he said. “Some say I’m an ‘eternal optimist.’ I don’t know about that.”

Former owner of a 500-seat restaurant in Hudson, Niemszyk also once owned and operated the Whistle Stop in Oxford and restaurants in Marlboro and Webster, the town where he resides.

The Yankee Diner located at 16 Worcester Road (Route 20) has been a Charlton landmark since the late 1950s. Manufactured by the Worcester Lunch Car Co., it reportedly operated in Southbridge before its relocation to Charlton.

The diner currently opens at 7 a.m. daily. Breakfast hours are 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Saturday; 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sundays. Lunch: 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday. Dinner is from 2 to 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday.

The diner’s specialties include “Fish Fry” (cup of homemade chowder included) from noon to 8 p.m.

Fridays; Prime Rib, noon to 8 p.m.

Thursdays. FYI: Petite or large cut prime rib includes baked potato and garlic green beans.

The business has a new outdoor patio, in addition to picnic tables on both sides of the diner. Customers use a side window for pick-up service. Indoor seating is in accordance with state COVID-19 regulations and guidance.

Cash only with ATM inside. Telephone (508) 434-0358; connect on Facebook; Google Yankee Diner 2020, or newly renovated Yankee Diner. Niemszyk explained how people sometimes think the diner is closed as a result of internet stories relating to closure by previous owners.

Daily specials are posted on Facebook. The full menu includes Yankee Breakfast Classics, eggs Benedict, pancakes Texas- style French toast, breakfast sandwiches. Lunch includes salads, soups, deli subs, burgers and hot dogs, sides and comfort meals (American chop suey, Shepherd’s Pie, Swedish meatballs, Yankee Pot Roast, Beef Stroganoff, etc.), all made in house. Corned beef hash and prime rib hash are among popular sides, according to waitress Holly Robbins, who said Yankee

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Embracing a Lifetime of holiday cheer JIM KEOGH

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ormally at this time of year, I compose a list of things I’m thankful for. I’ve been doing it forever — me and every other columnist looking for a Thanksgiving hook. This year, I’ve narrowed the list to consider all the ways that the Hallmark and Lifetime holiday movies fill me with gratitude for the season.

In short, I’m thankful …

That so many cold-hearted tycoons want to purchase and tear down family farms, vintage carousels, quaint shoppes and historic concert halls and replace them with condominiums, because every holiday movie worth its tinsel needs a Scrooge, a Mr. Potter, or a Burgermeister Meisterburger.

That the imminent destruction of any of the above can inspire a “Save the [INSERT ENDANGERED LANDMARK HERE]” campaign capable of raising a six-figure sum in a couple of days — in the midst of the holiday season. As an aside, I love

how characters in these movies seem to suddenly discover the internet, as though it’s a new and wondrous thing that hasn’t existed since before some of them were born. I watched part of a movie the other night in which a local dairy farm is being eyed for purchase by a conglomerate named, yes, Dairy World, and when the owner and her pals create a website and a video about the farm’s plight, one of them punches the air and gushes, “This is going to go VIRAL!!!”

That the world is populated with wealthy-but-super dull boyfriends and glamorous-yet-shrewish girlfriends who don’t “get” the meaning of Christmas, and who can be readily abandoned in favor of a hunky handyman or a perky preschool teacher.

That these movies have provided a soft landing for former Charlie’s Angel Cheryl Ladd. (Though her recent work in “Christmas Unwrapped,” “Grounded for Christmas” and “The Christmas Contract” will never equal her pathbreaking performance in 2012’s “Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups.”)

That Worcester gets a piece of this

Abigail Klein stars in “Christmas on Ice,” which was shot in Worcester.

SUBMIT TED PHOTO

sweet holiday action. Not only was “Christmas on Ice” shot in Worcester, but city native Alicia Witt appears in probably a third of all Hallmark Christmas movies.

That the holidays give Lifetime a chance to temporarily break from its Man Bad/Woman Good roster of movies about stalkers and slayers — unless they’ve got something in the

pipeline where Santa murders Mrs. Claus with a sharpened candy cane.

That single moms and dads get their due as leading characters.

Hallmark has killed off more parents than anyone except Disney.

That the children of all these single parents seem ready and willing to accept a new Mommy or Daddy in their household. I’ll say. Lacy Cha-

bert shows up at the front door with a tin of Christmas cookies and Junior is suddenly flipping Dead Mom’s photo face down on the counter and diving for the gingerbread.

That while the pandemic has taken its toll on the economy, the one sector still surging is for actors who can pretend that kissing Candace Cameron Bure under a mistletoe is the peak human experience.

That Danica McKellar, best known as Winnie Cooper in “The Wonder Years” but who also is a real-life mathematician, actually did some career math and concluded that she could cash in by playing 1. A harried art gallery owner who returns to her hometown and rediscovers the joy of Christmas, 2. A humble governess who turns a pampered prince into the kind of man who would fall in love with a humble governess while rediscovering the joy of Christmas, and 3. The manager of a private estate who reunites an estranged family by weaponizing the healing power of rediscovering the joy of Christmas.

NEW TO DVD

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Look who’s breaking bad in ‘Better Call Saul: Season Five’ KATIE FORAN - MCHALE TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

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n acclaimed AMC series raises its stakes to extreme heights in the top new DVD releases for the week of Nov. 24.

“Better Call Saul: Season Five”: Over the course of four seasons, we’ve seen Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) slowly devolve into his Saul Goodman persona, grappling with the death of his brother, Chuck (Michael McKean), his strange yet beautiful partnership with Kim (Rhea Seehorn), and deep down, his love of the game.

That slow burn explodes this season, with Jimmy inserting himself into the drug war between Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton, whose deranged performance continues to delight) and Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito). Whereas Walter White (Bryan Cranston) quickly dove right into criminal activity in “Breaking Bad,” it’s clear that Jimmy, who assumes picking up $7 million in cash for Lalo’s bail across the U.S.-Mexican border would be an easy peasy chore,

Bob Odenkirk, left and Lavell Crawford appear in “Better Call Saul.”

COLUMBIA TRISTAR

is simply in way over his head.

It’s thrilling to watch and it’s the series’ best season yet, with breathtaking cinematography by director of photography Marshall Adams. And as always, another star of the show is the writer’s room, which offers plenty of rich, shocking character development. While Mike’s

(Jonathan Banks) guilt over killing Werner (Rainer Bock) and subsequent spiral and ultimate acceptance isn’t much of a surprise given what we know of his past and future, it’s fun to watch Nacho (Michael Mando) perform some Herculean acrobatics to save cartel product from DEA confiscation and woo Lalo in the

process, as well as the story leading to several unexpected “Breaking Bad” cameos.

But the most powerful transformation here is that of Kim. After seemingly taking on more and more pro bono work to assuage guilt from the more capitalist-driven Mesa Verde case and ensuing problems, leading to such extreme conflict between her and Jimmy that she decides they either need to cut ties or get married, she also puts herself into the game, demanding an explanation from Lalo as Jimmy’s field trip to Mexico results in his disappearance.

At first it seems she’s also in over her head, but as she saves Jimmy from Lalo’s repeated questions and proposes her own unhinged scheme, Kim’s breaking bad packs the greatest punch.

ALSO NEW ON DVD NOV. 24 “The Irishman”: A truck driver (Robert De Niro) rises up in a Pennsylvania crime family and earns a spot working for Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino).

“After We Collided”: In this sequel to 2019’s “After,” Tessa (Josephine Langford) and Hardin (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) reel from their devastating breakup.

“Ava”: After doubting her superiors, an assassin (Jessica Chastain) becomes a target.

“Blinded”: Sundance Now series follows a financial reporter (Julia Ragnarsson) who hits it off with a bank director (Matias Varela) whose company is shady in more ways than one. In Swedish.

“Buddy Games”: A long-separated group of friends reunite to compete in extreme physical tasks. Stars Josh Duhamel, Olivia Munn, Jensen Ackles, Dax Shepard and Sheamus.

“The Gulf ”: New Zealand series follows a detective (Kate Elliott) who struggles on the job after suffering memory loss caused by a deadly car accident.

“Ice House”: Two men (Grant Reed and Greg Berman) head to a Minnesota lake house on a cold winter night, wherein debauchery turns deadly.

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With winter challenges ahead, now the best time to support breweries during Small Brewery Sunday this weekend MATTHEW TOTA

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comet impact. The Army of Broken Toys is a big band, with lots of moving parts, sometimes it gets hard to isolate particular instruments or players. For instance, jojo Lazar’s flute becomes a fleeting light rising from the song’s embers, before disappearing again, but ultimately, it’s the fusion that matters, how everything fits together to make something coherent and palpable from so many disparate pieces.

Perhaps that’s why the song “OPM” – read the letters out loud – is so remarkable. It adds even more players to the mix, and still nothing is lost. Here, we have Eric Ortiz of Devils Twins on trumpet, Andy Reiner on fiddle, Joy Adams on banjo and Erica Spyres on fiddle, and the result is something that resembles bluegrass on the edge of the apocalypse. It’s a mad fusion that feels both folksy at moments and

surreal and psychedelic on others.

Soon though, we’re at the penultimate song, “Doomsday Disco,” which is also the opening number of the band’s previous album, “Hexaphones.” It’s a grounded barroom brawler of a song, one that faces the impending apocalypse with curled fists and a boxer’s stance. Much of the album is spent in sort of otherworldy musical spaces, but here, as in the opening number, we’re back in the real world and staring the extinction in the eye. That ephemeral something is still there, though. That flash of light on the periphery of vision. It’s something that resembles hope, and that’s a rare commodity at the end of everything.

The album comes to a conclusion with “Battle Witches,” featuring a performance by Worcester rapper Ghost of the Machine. “Every single day I’m waking up in a bad dream,”

listener, shaking them out of their skin, until the song is subsumed by the subsequent track, the blistering blast of rock ‘n’ roll, “Lonely Children.”

It’s here a pattern becomes apparent. In the title song, the persona fears sending a child to school, a place where they should feel safe. In “Witchcraft,” the listener is instructed to “Sleep with devils/entreat with animals/tired little animals.” Here, Sickert sings, “Lonely children follow us into the sea/lonely children sing a sad song with me/lonely children dance along to the beat.” The music offers both comfort and warnings of danger in the same breaths, and lays bare the fact that we’re all the lonely children, all the tired little animals.

We are all scared and vulnerable,

sings Sickert, “I don’t even know when I fall asleep … they will love you/as long as they can control you.”

Ghost, in his verse, comes to that spirit of defiance from a different direction: “Traveled to the same block that I was auctioned off,” he raps, “drying tears on my face/holding a Molotov … I’d rather die free/after burning all the hate.” Ghost exhibits a sense of vocal control here, his flow measured, his tone emotionally evocative. It quivers with humanity against the onslaught of the band’s refrain, “isn’t it time we burned it down?” The answer to the question is implied in the question itself, but beneath the caterwaul, that light still burns, silently countering the question with one of its own, the one it’s been asking all along: Who do you want to be when the world ends? The listener has to answer that for their self.

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and Sickert, in his wisdom, seems to understand both the allure and dangers of a Pied Piper in such moments. Something sinister lurks behind the soothing notes and cathartic rock. It’s a feeling that sits with the listener throughout the following song, the slow burn “Animals Like Me.” Even love here is dangerous – maybe especially love – “It’s you I love,” sings Sickert, with Widow’s effervescent harmonies and a touch accordion from Edrie, “not the knives in your hands.” It’s a moment of Morticia and Gomez from one angle, something deeply disturbing from another. Again, we have a portrait of danger where one should be safe.

Everything then turns on the paean to extinction, “Dino Domina.”

The viola again becomes the touch of light in a crash of guitars and percussion, rising out of the song’s

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operations are going to be few and far between in January in Massachusetts. COVID is lingering, and there won’t be nearly as many tools to keep revenue flowing this winter.

We’re going to see a lot of challenges

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arly in the spring, Massachusetts brewers did not have much time for hope. They had to react fast, amid constant confusion, to losing their taprooms.

So when the Massachusetts Brewers Guild started unpacking the results of a survey it sent members then, in the early days of the state’s lockdown, it expected the data to paint a dire picture.

Roughly 23% of the more than 200 breweries in the state did not expect to survive beyond 2021, given how new restrictions brought on by the coronavirus pandemic had already crippled business. Most reported sharp declines in revenue, in many cases over 50%.

Then the weather got warmer.

The chaos gave way to focus and innovation. Brewers took advantage of Paycheck Protection Program loans. They increased the amount of beer brewed for distribution, bottled and canned more for to-go sales and expanded options for outdoor drinking. Some even started delivering.

Breweries more than survived.

Many did better than expected, according to guild president Sam Hendler. But winter is around the corner, and Hendler can’t help but

tions, like requiring they serve food in order to open.

On Sunday, let’s make a point to make a reservation at a nearby taproom; the weather may be chilly, but bundle up and order something warming like a stout or heavy Belgian ale. There’s also beer for pick-up or delivery – buy a glass or even a shirt while you’re at it. We don’t even need to buy directly from a brewery: at package stores, just scan the cooler for something local.

The Massachusetts Brewers Guild has no formal plans for Small Brewers Sunday other than making sure we know when to celebrate it.

Last year, Hendler admitted even he didn’t know such a holiday existed.

Breweries were enjoying relatively high times then, and it seemed frivolous to toast their own achievements. All that has changed over the last 11 months.

“It couldn’t be a more perfect thing to be talking about, because small brewers need consumer support right now,” he said. “If we can make sure we still have a path to getting beer in front of our supporters and them coming out en masse and voting with their wallet, we can survive this.”

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feel the same dread he did in March and April.

“We’re going into the teeth of it here,” he said. “We’re going into an environment where package store sales go down, outdoor hospitality

for breweries early in 2021.”

Ever since breweries reopened for draft beer, even I have found myself forgetting how hard things were for them in the spring. They were pleading with us for help. That desperation, though, seemed to fade in the summer sun.

Now beer gardens are closing, outdoor reservations are drying up, and many breweries won’t have enough space available in their taprooms to safely invite customers inside, or serve enough of them to justify opening at all. Looming over all of this is the threat of another state shutdown.

Small Brewery Sunday arrives this weekend at the perfect time for brewers. The national beer holiday, in its second year, will remind us that, despite the boost in business they got over the summer, brewers are facing perilous days ahead.

They’ll need our support now more than ever.

With Small Business Saturday coming the day before, breweries will get to double dip. And why not? They may only be second to restaurants in terms of how badly the state botched their reopening.

Breweries were forgotten, then mischaracterized as bars, then restricted with arbitrary stipula-

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Welcome to Adoption Option, a partnership with the Worcester Animal Rescue League highlighting their adoptable pets. Check this space often to meet all of the great pets at WARL in need of homes.

WARL is open seven days a week, noon-4 p.m., 139 Holden St. Check them out online at Worcesterarl.org, or call at (508) 853-0030.

This beautiful Bella was surrendered to the shelter along with another dog when their owners were unable to keep them. Bella is a big, bold and bouncy girl looking for a home with no other animals and no small children. She is friendly with new people and will happily greet you with a wagging tail. Bella isn’t much for treats, this girl is all about the toys!

She will fetch toys until your arms are tired, but don’t expect her to bring them back. She can also be rough when playing so she needs an assertive, experienced owner. Bella only knows how to sit and is looking forward to her new family doing some training with her to broaden her horizon. She is very independent because the family she grew up in wasn’t very affectionate. Bella is quickly learning that getting love, rubs and cuddles is pretty awesome. She is a strong dog who needs to wear a harness when walking and can be reactive to other dogs. She would do best being a part of an active family who can provide a lot of exercise and a stable routine for her. If you think Bella is the one for you, contact the shelter today to make an appointment to visit with her.

WARL COVID-19 Procedures As of Novemeber 9, 2020

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve, we want to share with you some changes we have implemented so that we can continue to serve the pets and people of our community while keeping our team protected.

• ADOPTIONS: At this time, adoptions are being held BY APPOINTMENT ONLY. If you are interested in adoption, please visit our website worcesterarl.org/adopt/ to learn more about our available animals then call us at (508) 853-0030 ext.0 or email us at info@worcesterarl.org to schedule an appointment.

• Casual visits to the shelter are prohibited.

We will strictly enforce this in order to keep our animal care team protected while still maintaining the most essential function of our operation... finding homes for animals in need.

• ANIMAL SURRENDERS: Our business practice for surrendering a pet remains the same. All pet owners must contact WARL in advance of surrendering a pet. Please call (508) 853-0030.

• SPAY/NEUTER CLINICS: All scheduled appointments will be honored. If you have a scheduled appointment, we will be contacting you to discuss changes to our drop off/pick up procedures.

• DONATIONS ACCEPTED except for open bags of food.

• Pet food, cat litter, and other shelter supplies will be essential in continuing to provide for our animals and to assist community members in need. To avoid unnecessary travel and exposure, items can be purchased online from our Amazon Wishlist - https://www.amazon.com/gp/ registry/wishlist/3AX342JIL73M0

• Weekly training classes are going on for adopters.

• The WARL Volunteer Program is temporarily suspended. All regular volunteer shifts are on hold. We look forward to welcoming you back as soon as we can.

We have many animals in our care who depend on us to stay healthy and well. The above measures help to protect our staff and community from the spread of COVID - 19 by minimizing face-to-face interactions while continuing to operate only core essential services. Please continue to follow our Facebook page for additional updates. Should you have any questions or concerns, please contact the shelter at (508) 853-0030 or info@worcesterarl.org.

Thank you for your continued FURiendship and support.

GAMES

J O N E S I N’

“Hyphen It Up” — but a bit longer.

By Matt Jones

Across

Down

38 “25 Words ___” (game show) 39 Way of doing things 42 Prof’s helpers 44 Faithful about 45 Plenty 46 “1984” working class 49 1977 George Burns film 50 Shell source in the Mario Kart series 52 Clean-up clinic 54 “___ Well That Ends Well” 55 Two-___ sloth 56 ___ de deux (two-person dance) 59 Genetic info carrier

Last week's solution

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©2020 Matt Jones (jonesincrosswords@gmail.com) Reference puzzle #1016

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1 Send packing 2 “___ just the cutest?”

3 Made ___ (flirted, in a way) 4 Circle measurements 5 Cartoon baby’s cry 6 “Sad to say” 7 Swiss host city for the World Economic Forum 8 Any ABBA member 9 Aliases, for short 10 Basic file format that allows for bold and underlining 11 Ornate cupboards 13 “Geaux Tigers” sch.

15 Laws of planetary motion discoverer 17 Chest chamber 21 “That’s sooo cute!”

27 Checkbook record 28 Godiva’s title 29 Audibly in shock 31 Damage 32 “___ I’m told” 33 East, in Spain 34 Louboutin item 36 Islands off Spain 37 Movie that brought on “Army of Darkness”

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1 “Cinderella Man” antagonist Max 5 Stacks of cash 9 First name in Fighting Irish history 12 Sansa’s sister on “Game of Thrones” 13 ’80s-’90s TV legal drama with a license plate in the title screen 14 “Star Trek” captain 16 Show excessive stubble, perhaps 18 High point?

19 As originally located 20 Old-timey hangout with a counter 22 Step unit 23 Repair tears 24 ___ the cows come home 25 Huge success 26 ___ Nublar (“Jurassic Park” setting) 30 Party invitation blank 32 Dark times?

35 Firing figure 36 Tourists’ warm-weather wear 39 2011 NBA champs, for short 40 Exciting way to take the world 41 “Middlemarch” novelist 43 Tangerine cover 44 Leading 47 ___ Aviv, Israel 48 Peachy keen 51 “File not found,” for example 53 Was still in the running 56 Phony 57 “Moral ___” (Adult Swim show) 58 Lizzo song of 2016 60 Rotary phone part 61 Starts the betting 62 To ___ (precisely) 63 Music collection 64 Marcel Duchamp’s art style 65 Overseer

CLASSIFIEDS

LEGAL

NOVENA

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN PURSUANT TO PROVISIONS OF M.L.C. 225 sec 39A. THE FOLLOWING VEHICLES WILL BE SOLD ON 12/05/20 TO SATISFY OUR GARAGE LIEN THEREON FOR TOWING AND STORAGE CHARGES AND EXPENSES OF SALE AND NOTICE: VIN# 1FUJA6CV26LV77625 2006 FREIGHTLINER CONVENTIONAL COLUMBIA VIN# 1GRAA9627YB043044 2000 GREAT DANE TRAILER VIN# 1GRAA06241B047604 2001 GREAT DANE TRAILER VIN# 2T1BR32E35C422589 2005 TOYOTA COROLLA LE VIN#2HGES16523H572925 2003 HONDA CIVIC LX THE SALE WILL BE HELD AT ISLAND AUTO ON 344 HARDING ST, WORCESTER, MA 01610

Prayer to the Blessed Virgin (Never known to fail) O most beautiful flower of Mt. Carmel, fruitful vine, splendor of Heaven, Blessed Mother of the Son of God, Immaculate Virgin, assist me in this my necessity, O Star of the Sea, help me and show me where you are my mother. O Holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and Earth, I humbly beseech thee from the bottom of my heart to succor me in my necessity, (make request). There are none that can withstand your power, O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee (three times). Holy Mary, I place this cause in your hands (three times). Say this prayer for three consecutive days and you must publish it and your request will be granted to you.

DMH

SERVICE DIRECTORY

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Call Jo-Ann at 774-230-5044 or Diane at 774-239-2937

Where do I find such cool stuff and helpful services?

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LAST CALL

Mike MacInnis Kiva Centers program director M ike MacInnis has managed to keep spirits high at Kiva Center on Shrewsbury Street in Worcester, despite a year of unprecedented challenges due to coronavirus. Kiva Centers are peer-led and trauma-informed communities across Massachusetts. The term “Kiva” has indigenous roots, representing enlightenment through mutual support, self-reflection, reemergence and healing.

Tell me about the groups you run regularly for members of your community.

There’s a wide range of offerings because we have such a large demographic of people who take advantage. We serve people ages 18 and up. We also have Zia, a young adult access center, that focuses on individuals age 16 to 22.

than anybody who’s coming in to sit for a peer support group or “Living the Loss” group. In fact, when we’re running at capacity, I make sure I get in at least one group a day. And I think it’s important that I do that. People realize we’re all in this together.

We’re all equals.

How far is Kiva’s reach?

It’s global. We have worked with folks from Israel, the Netherlands and Singapore who are using our trauma-informed peer support model in their respective countries. We recently began a collaboration with CWWPP in Croatia. They are an agency that works with refugees and survivors of the war in the former Yugoslavia. Kiva is responsible for providing our peer support groups in every Central Mass.

town and city, as well as some select cities and towns in Middlesex and Norfolk counties — 106 in total.

Where does the majority of your funding come from?

We are always applying for grants and, like pretty much all 501(c) (3)’s, we rely on the donations and generosity of others. We have a “donate” button on our website. (https://kivacenters.org) How are you supporting your community this Thanksgiving?

By the time this article comes out, Kiva will have handed out over 100 turkey dinners for community members to come pick up on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

– Sarah Connell Sanders

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And, what draws you to this place?

One of the other things that makes us unique is our staff.

We’ve all gone through some type of traumatic life experience or a mental health diagnosis. Many years ago, my therapist recommended that I should check out the Central Mass Recovery Learning Community — Kiva.

They said, “A lot of people there

Do you mind defining the terms “trauma-informed” and “mutuality”?

Absolutely. Here’s a perfect example. You’ve probably seen a lot, in this day and age, about pronouns. Some people use male pronouns like “he” and “him,” while others prefer to use “they” and “them” because they’re gender fluid or they don’t identify.

Being trauma-informed means asking someone, “What are your preferred pronouns?” Whenever we have a community gathering, we form a comfort agreement. We invite participants to introduce themselves and please share their preferred pronouns as a traumainformed practice. An example of mutuality is the fact that I’m sitting here in this office doing administrative work, but that doesn’t make me any different

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How long have you worked here?

Seven years.

What sets you apart from other support centers?

We’re very nonclinical. We don’t pretend to be psychiatrists or social workers or anything like that. We are people who have had certain life experiences and we want to share those experiences with other people on their way to healing. You know what we found? A lot of the people that come here to take part in groups say the only validation they get every day is from coming here.

You don’t have the hierarchy of a clinical structure. You don’t have someone telling you, “Take your meds now,” or “We know what’s best for you.” We want to help you find what’s best for you. And you’re going to lead the way. We’re never going to work harder than anybody else does on their own wellness, but we’re going to get shoulder to shoulder with them and do whatever we have to do to help them find their way. We actually do a lot of trainings now for clinical organizations and insurance organizations, teaching them the benefits of having a trauma-informed environment and teaching them how important mutuality is to an organization.

DYLAN AZARI

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I see recreational classes like Zumba and yoga on your schedule, but there are also serious groups like “Alternatives to Suicide.” How do the people who need you find you?

Several different ways. We have our website. We update our Facebook page every day. We’re on Meetup. Hospitals and group living environments have our calendar available. I go to a provider’s meeting every month here in Worcester with Genesis Club, Community Health Link and Open Sky.

are going through some of the same things you did. I think you might like it.” So, I came and it didn’t really click at first, but then I kept returning to take a class. I’d meet more people. And eventually, I was like, “I think this might be my tribe.” One day, there was an event going on here and it was kind of chaotic and I said, “I think I might be able to help around here a little bit.” I talked my way into an interview with Brenda Vezina, the executive director and CEO of the organization. I started doing a few things here and there and that morphed into a little more responsibility and then a little more. Now, here I am. Seven years later, I run this center.

The City of

WORCESTER

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Worcester Department of Public Works and Parks is Hiring Snow Plow Equipment!

We are now hiring snow plowing equipment for the winter season. the application if you are interested: For more information visit: http://www.worcesterma.gov/streets/winter-weather/street-plowing WM-0000455124-02