Here are brief thoughts on recent happenings in Franklin County and the North Quabbin region.
We thought we’d seen everything since we started covering drive-by celebrations, drive-by suppers and drive-by parades for everything from birthdays to weddings to graduations, but we keep discovering more and different drive-by events. Like the Mother’s Day drive-by quilt show in Shelburne organized by quilter Jody Stetson, the Selectboard candidates’ drive-by motorcade through downtown Orange and Robbins Memorial Church’s drive-by pie sale. This whole drive-by thing is one coronavirus work-around that may have legs when we get to the “new normal.”
Graduates and their families may be forgiven for feeling like they’re getting shortchanged in this time of coronavirus restrictions: School’s out, and with it went prom, sports, graduation ceremonies and parties. Students who have worked hard to make the honor roll or struggled to write their valedictorian or salutatorian address, may feel robbed of their onstage accolades as traditional graduation ceremonies have fallen by the wayside.
But that doesn’t mean those graduates have been forgotten. Across the county, educators and parents are coming up with innovative ways to recognize their graduates. For example, residents of Pioneer Valley Regional School District towns stood out in the rain to wave at the Friday Night Lights parade honoring 2020 PVRS grads and thanking front-line workers. Greenfield High School seniors will receive a first-ever tote bag filled with roughly $50 worth of gift cards and merchandise, thanks to an “adopt-a-senior” project spearheaded by GHS teacher and Student Council Advisor Angela Mass. And some graduation ceremonies will take on a new look, convening at car-friendly venues like the Franklin County Fairgrounds and the Northfield Drive-in.
Graduation ceremonies are traditionally showcased in the pages of the Greenfield Recorder and we’ll still be covering our grads in both print and online at recorder.com.
Rarely has nonviolent crime gotten people so riled up as the report of the theft of new plants and tools stolen in the wee hours of the morning from the Bridge of Flowers in Shelburne Falls. This time, as opposed to previous incidents over the past two years, the culprits were caught on camera. That’s because the Bridge of Flowers Committee had installed, at a cost of $2,000 to $3,000, security cameras on the bridge, which record 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Their investment paid off in the form of recognizable footage of two suspects seen arriving and leaving with plants in hand at about 5 a.m. on May 5. Police posted the image stills online, where one of the suspects was reportedly recognized by at least one local resident, who notified police. Since then, the stolen flowers have been returned and two women have been charged with larceny under $1,200, a misdemeanor crime, according to Shelburne Police Chief Gregory Bardwell. Still to be determined is whether this latest crime is connected to the previous thefts.
In addition to restitution, how about a sentence of lifetime community service on the Bridge of Flowers?