Leverett Elementary School staff will hold an LES Wave Parade today, starting at Leverett Elementary School at 1:30 p.m., and hoping to bring smiles, waves, and hope to the entire Leverett community. The parade will also end at LES and is expected to be approximately 1.5 hours long.
Staff encourage LES students to make posters in advance and to wave hello as the parade passes by residences, and to wear masks. The Leverett Board of Health encourages kids to get involved in this townwide effort through making yard signs to promote mask wearing.
If your family does not live on the route, you may park your car at LES, across the street from town hall or at Leverett Crafts & Arts, to view the parade. Since you will need to stay in your car and honor social distancing, please allow enough space between parked cars. If you are viewing the parade from a parking lot, please stay in your car to ensure everyone’s health and physical safety.
If your family views the parade from a residence, students need to stand and wave from a safe distance from the road, and be accompanied by an adult.
A virtual wave parade will be created after the event, so please take photos of posters, cars, smiling faces and send to Deb Fritz at fritz@leverettschool.org. The rain date for the event is Wednesday, May 13.
Leverett Police Department, Leverett Fire Department, Leverett Board of Health, the Kuzmeskus bus company, and Village Neighbors are supporting this community event.
The parade will start at Leverett Elementary School, traveling north along Montague Road; right on Cave Hill Road; right on Hemenway Road; left on Old Coke Kiln Road; right onto North Leverett Road, traveling along North Leverett Road into the town of Shutesbury; right on Locks Pond Road (which turns into Wendell Road) to Shutesbury town center; right on Leverett Road in Shutesbury, then down the hill back into Leverett on Shutesbury road; right at the fork at the bottom of the hill to stay on Shutesbury Road; bear left and turn left on Depot Road in the center of Leverett (at the Field Family Museum); right on Juggler Meadow Road, right on Long Plain Road (Route 63); north on Long Plain Road; right on Montague Road back to LES.
Mont Marie Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center, 36 Lower Westfield Road, Holyoke, will host a spiritual drive-in outside in its parking lot today at 1:30 p.m.
The general public is welcome to join this special prayer service from their cars while following social distancing guidelines in place during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chaplain Greg Dawson from Beacon Hospice, a home health and hospice provider, will offer spiritual support to all and prayers of protection for Mont Marie staff, residents and families during this challenging time.
Freedom Credit Union, headquartered in Springfield and serving members in the four counties of western Massachusetts, and UMassFive College Federal Credit Union, headquartered in Hadley with branches in Amherst, Northampton, Springfield and Worcester, have partnered to donate money to a new program supporting local first responders during the coronavirus pandemic.
FCU and UMassFive will each be donating $2,500 to Hampshire Hospitality Group to support its program, Hampshire County Heroes, which provides food to the county’s first responders involved in the pandemic response, including police officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and dispatchers.
Hampshire County Heroes will provide food to the county’s first responders three times a week through the end of May, and is itself a joint effort of the Hampshire Hospitality Group and Roadhouse Café, a Belchertown restaurant.
The Antonacci Family Foundation announced a $125,000 donation to The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts that will provide 500,000 meals to food-insecure individuals and families across the region during the COVID-19 crisis.
The donation will kick off the Foundation’s Millions of Meals Initiative, a virtual food drive to highlight the issue of food insecurity and encourage other foundations, companies, and individuals to contribute to The Food Bank.
“Our family is deeply committed to supporting the communities in which we live and work. When we saw the toll this pandemic was taking on our neighbors, friends, and co-workers, we knew we had to act. With more and more people from all walks of life struggling with food insecurity due to COVID-19, it has never been more important to support The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts. We hope others will join with us in contributing to their mission to eradicate hunger throughout the region,” said Frank M. Antonacci, COO of USA Waste & Recycling and spokesman for the foundation.
The donation from the Antonacci Family Foundation will be used to support The Food Bank’s emergency food network partners in Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin Counties, including The Food Bank’s own Mobile Food Bank and Brown Bag Food for Elders sites in the Pioneer Valley.
“From the bottom of our hearts, we want to thank the Antonacci Family Foundation for this incredibly generous donation. With Mother’s Day right around the corner, we could not think of a better time to kick off this campaign to support the mothers, grandmothers, and others struggling to put food on the table during this unprecedented time,” said Andrew Morehouse, executive director of The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts.
As unemployment numbers have surged over the past few weeks, so too has demand for The Food Bank’s services. The Antonacci Family Foundation and The Food Bank hope to use the “Millions of Meals” campaign to help restock empty shelves and bring relief to those who need it most. The foundation will be launching a sister campaign in Connecticut in the coming days. Both food drives will continue for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Those interested in donating to the Millions of Meals Initiative can do so by visiting the Food Bank’ website: https://www.foodbankwma.org/donate/donate-now-2/.
The Antonacci family owns and operates a portfolio of companies in western Massachusetts and Connecticut, including USA Waste & Recycling, GreatHorse, Lindy Farms, and Sonny’s Place. The family’s guiding ethos is “locally owned, locally invested.” They established the Antonacci Family Foundation to further their mission of supporting the programs and organizations that have the greatest impact on the communities in which they and their employees and customers live and work.