Picture This

April 5, 2014 HCN Staff

Making a Difference

The Melha Shriners who actively support and promote Shriners children’s hospitals across the country, vwere among five honorees at the 2014 Difference Makers gala. The program, launched in 2009 by BusinessWest magazine, recognizes individuals and groups that are, as the name suggests, making a difference in this region. Top: Linda Feldman, Shriners Saul Michaelson and Jim Spear, and Pamela Spear gather before dinner. At right: Melha Shriners Potentate William Faust addresses the audience at the Log Cabin Banquet and Meeting House. Above: this year’s Difference Makers included, from left, Paula Moore, teacher at Roger L. Putnam Vocational Technical Academy and founder of Youth Social Educational Training Academy; the Melha Shriners, represented by Faust; the Gray House, represented by Executive Director Dena Calvanese; Colleen Loveless, executive director of the Springfield chapter of Rebuilding Together; and Michael Moriarty, attorney and director of Olde Holyoke Development Corp.

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Visiting Hour

Holyoke and Chicopee Colleens and their courts visited Holyoke Medical Center on March 12. Back row, from left: Elizabeth Hurley, Hanna Homan, Meghan Kennedy, and Sarah LaRochelle of Holyoke, and Stephanie Ewing, Emily Doiron, Julia Lavigne, and Erika Veins of Chicopee. Front row, from left: Abigail Scanlon and Sheila Fallon (grand Colleen) of Holyoke, hospital patient Helen Parker of South Hadley, and Kristen Hubert (grand Colleen) and Colleen Humel of Chicopee.

Be Prepared

The American Red Cross Pioneer Valley Chapter debuted the Pillowcase Project last month, bringing together about 20 third- through fifth-graders to learn how to prepare for emergencies and enhance coping skills. The project teaches children how to create their own emergency-supplies kit by packing essential items in a pillowcase for easy transport during an emergency. Above, Juliana Shepherd decorates her emergency pillowcase. At right, students practice the preparedness skills they learned with confidence-building, hands-on activities.