Two women who received community service awards delivered a message of hope at last week’s ceremony honoring them: Volunteers make a difference in improving the lives of many people and they are an inspiration for others to get involved.
Elena Frogameni, 18, of Florence, a senior at Northampton High School, and Erin Couture, 39, of Southampton, received their awards as Young Community Leader and Person of the Year, respectively, during a dinner Wednesday at the Hadley Farms Meeting House. The awards are sponsored by the Daily Hampshire Gazette and the United Way of Hampshire County.
Frogameni is co-founder and senior news producer for “The Transcript,” a weekly news broadcast at Northampton High School, where she also was the architect of a 16-member Student Union.
She is the student representative to the Northampton School Committee, founded the Young Democrats at Northampton High, interned for Congressman James McGovern of Worcester, and was among the student organizers of the local March for Our Lives on March 24.
“I can really think of no other student that has so embodied the behaviors and values of community and leadership,” Northampton High Principal Bryan Lombardi said of Frogameni. “In her four years at Northampton High School … she has displayed skills in leading, organizing, empowering and role-modeling for our students.”
Frogameni, who plans to study journalism and communication at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, said attending a Montessori school at an early age taught her “to take ownership over my education, to declare the type of learning environment I wanted to be in … I learned to own the institutions I was a part of. ”
Couture, the vice president of commercial loans at Florence Bank, is the mother of two sons, chairwoman of the Southampton School Committee, president of the advisory board for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampshire County, and a member of the finance committee for the Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce.
She also raises money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the American Cancer Society.
Renee Moss, retired executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters, said of Couture, “Talk about a person who is passionate, committed, hardworking, selfless and definitely under the radar. An unsung hero in our community, and truly a Hampshire County treasure.”
Couture said, “My hope with winning this award is that I might inspire others to get involved within their communities … I want to show people that you can find time for volunteering. Find something you’re passionate (about) and get involved. I promise that it will be rewarding for you and the organization that you choose.”
Inspirational words by both women.
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Juniors at Northampton High School got an education of a different sort Wednesday when they participated in its first Teen Reality Fair organized by Junior Achievement of Western Massachusets and math teacher Randy Gordon.
The students assumed the roles of 25-year-olds and all that comes with living independently — choosing a career, deciding on housing arrangements, juggling income with student loan payments and other expenses while trying to maintain a decent credit score.
The goal was to teach students about the intricacies of managing finances and to get them thinking about the realities of certain careers.
Among the practical lessons learned: “Put as much money into your 401(k) as possible,” said 16-year-old Ella Strzegowski.
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We salute the nonprofit Honor Flight organization whose 105 chapters nationwide organize trips to Washington, D.C., for veterans of World War II and the Korean War to visit war memorials.
Six area veterans — Corado “Nino” Bracci and Robert Weidhaas of Easthampton, Leonard FourHawks of Florence, Norman Gray of Southampton, Rudolph Marek of South Hadley and Ernest Ouimette of Holyoke — were guests of the program April 21 and 22.
“To be able to go down to Washington and for the first time see the magnitude of our nation’s respect through the memorials that our nation has built in their honor, it is extremely emotional,” said John Paradis, of Florence, an Honor Flight volunteer and veterans’ outreach coordinator for the VA New England Health Care System. “This provides tremendous closure” for veterans.