Here are some brief thoughts on recent happenings in Franklin County and the North Quabbin region.
It wasn’t only the kids who learned from their winning baseball season, and not all the lessons were about baseball.
To recap Saturday’s sports story by Jeff LaJoie, the Greenfield Gilmore & Farrell Insurance Sandy Koufax baseball team, which consists of 13- to 14-year-olds, went a perfect 14-0 to win the regular season title in the Pioneer Valley Youth Baseball League. That’s quite the coup. But as Manager Aaron Campbell said, the fact that his team was able to get on the diamond at all this summer was the biggest victory. This, of course, was the season of the coronavirus and changing guidelines due to COVID-19 made for an interesting summer on the diamond, according to Campbell. “It was tough in the beginning,” he said. “The kids didn’t want to wear the masks, wanted to be next to each other. But we got it in their heads that if we don’t do this, you’re not gonna be able to play baseball.”
Over the course of two months, the kids learned two sets of rules: rules about baseball and rules about safe behaviors. That offers hope for the school year. Parents and educators may despair about the prospect of keeping kids apart and wearing masks. But this team shows it’s possible. “The winning was nice,” Campbell said, “but that’s not what this summer season was about.”
Reporter Anita Fritz didn’t have to look hard to find examples of chefs and volunteers rising to new heights to feed the hungry. All across Franklin County and the North Quabbin area, so-called “soup kitchens” are dispensing more meals of the to-go kind than ever before. “In the midst of the pandemic, the numbers at the cafe have risen from 150 or 200 to 350 or 400,” said Chef Kirsten Levitt, who runs the Stone Soup Cafe from the basement of All Souls Church in Greenfield. “People have lost their jobs because of the pandemic. They find themselves in new territory,” Levitt said.
In Turners Falls, the soup kitchen at Our Lady of Peace Church has seen its numbers jump from maybe 30 a week to about a hundred. Amy Connolly said volunteers continue to rise to the occasion to make sure everyone is fed. “It has been overwhelming at times, but we keep going,” she said. In June, for example, a chef from Montague donated their stimulus check and cooked with her for the five weeks that money helped support. “Those are the kind of people who help us out, help their fellow residents in need,” Connelly said.
In Athol, Salvation Army Maj. Nancy Townsend and one part-timer prepare about 100 meals to go, plus a twice-a-week food pantry that not only dispenses nonperishables, but produce, meat, milk and eggs most of the time. “It’s like a mini farmers market,” she said. Townsend commended all volunteers – hers and others – because they are the backbone of the local soup kitchens. “This is all about neighbors helping neighbors.”
We can’t wait to see the winning entries from the second round of the Corona Mask Contest put on by the Deerfield Valley Art Association’s Center for the Arts, which has a gallery in Northfield. This round will have multiple divisions, like, participants must only use materials found around their home to create a wearable mask. A second division is a painting or drawing contest depicting masks, and the third is a sculpture contest. According to DVAA Exhibit Coordinator Marge Anderson, awards will be given to the best works in each category. Deadline is Sept. 4.
When famous museums one day look back upon the year of the pandemic, we predict that masks like these will help tell the story of how people of 2020 met a great health crisis with humor and aplomb.