HOLYOKE — The Holyoke St. Patrick’s Parade has a new grand marshal.
In an announcement last week, the Saint Patrick’s Committee of Holyoke named Jane Coughlin Chevalier as the parade’s next grand marshal — the committee’s highest honor for somebody of Irish ancestry who “has distinguished themselves as a loyal person to the Parade Committee, their career, their family and to their Irish ancestry.”
Chevalier is the director of the Victim Witness Advocate Unit at the Hampden County district attorney’s office. She has been involved with the parade committee since 1998, having watched her father, Edward “Pop” Coughlin, work on the committee over the years. Her father was the grand marshal in 1992.
In addition to her work with the DA’s office, Chevalier, who lives in South Hadley, serves on the board of directors for the Holyoke Children’s Museum and chairs the board of directors for the Massachusetts Children’s Alliance.
In a statement, 2023 parade President Karen Casey called Chevalier the “perfect choice.”
“Jane will represent the city well and I am looking forward to spending the upcoming year with Jane and her family and following her down the streets of Holyoke on March 19th,” Casey said. “I know her family is proud of her and that her dad “Pop” is looking down on her with great pride.”
For the second time, Holyoke Community College is hosting a celebration event for current, new and prospective Latinx students.
The second annual “Bienvenidos” celebration will be held on Aug. 27 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
The word “bienvenidos” means “welcome” in Spanish, though Julissa Colón — the director of HCC’s El Centro and a member of the college’s Hispanic Leadership Committee, which organized the event — said that culturally, the word is more like “a welcome where you grab someone by the hand and lead them into a house.”
“Our Bienvenidos is about seeing our new students and returning students and prospective students and saying, ‘You are so welcome here,’” Colón said in a statement. “‘We are so happy to have you here, and we want to show you that there already exists a community here that wants to help you and support you.’”
The event is free, open to everyone and begins with coffee and home-baked Puerto Rican treats. El Centro, which is a place for Latinx students to receive wraparound services on campus, will have staff at the event, and there will be a panel of Latinx alumni sharing their experiences from HCC.
Those in need of more information can send an email to elcentro@hcc.edu or call 413-552-2052. Those looking to register for the event can visit hcc.edu/bienvenidos22.
Applications are now available to rent the first 12 affordable housing units of the ambitious “South Holyoke Homes” project, which will eventually bring 66 affordable rental units and eight row house-style, owner-occupied properties to vacant lots surrounding Carlos Vega Park.
In an announcement Monday, the Holyoke Housing Authority said that applications will be open through Oct. 21 at 4 p.m. for the phase one affordable rental units. Those units include four one-bedroom apartments, four two-bedroom apartments, four three-bedroom apartments, and two Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant apartments.
Applicants must meet income requirements to be eligible for the apartments. Three of the units are intended for those making below 50% of the area median income and the remaining nine units are for those making below 30% of the area median income.
All applications submitted before the deadline will be entered into a lottery to fill the 12 units.
An information session for those interested in applying will take place at El Mercado at 413 Main St. on Sept. 27 at 6 p.m.
Those looking to download applications can do so at www.southholyokehomes.org. Hard copies are available at the Holyoke Housing Authority’s 475 Maple St. office.
Dusty Christensen can be reached at dchristensen@gazettenet.com.