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Gloria Matlock was named the 2023 recipient of the Greenfield Human Rights Commission’s Human Rights Award at the John Zon Community Center in Greenfield on Sunday. -
Mpress Bennu Nembhard welcomes community members to the Human Rights Award ceremony at the John Zon Community Center in Greenfield on Sunday. -
Mayor Roxann Wedegartner speaks at the Human Rights Commission’s Human Rights Award ceremony at the John Zon Community Center in Greenfield on Sunday.
GREENFIELD — Reviving an award last presented by the Human Rights Commission in 2016, Gloria Matlock — a teacher, volunteer and local activist — has been named the 2023 recipient of the Human Rights Award.
“These people … I’ve come in contact with in my life have been instrumental in making me who I am,” Matlock said at an award ceremony held at the John Zon Community Center on Sunday, the 75th anniversary of the international Human Rights Day. “Especially the kids, other educators — I feel they all educate me and make me a better person. That’s why it’s so important for us to look at our neighbors … because they become a part of you and help you to grow, and that’s what it’s all about: having our kids grow and be good humanitarians.”
The Human Rights Commission received three nominations for Matlock. Other residents who were nominated include Samantha Blanchard, Ang Buxton, Lucinda Brown, Stephanie Duclos and Loreen Flockerzie. Two others were nominated but declined to accept the nominations.
The Human Rights Award was presented in conjunction with Human Rights Day, which commemorates when the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, according to Human Rights Committee Chair Mpress Bennu Nembhard. Sunday’s ceremony was attended by community members, as well as Mayor Roxann Wedegartner and Mayor-elect Virginia “Ginny” Desorgher.
Matlock is the director of Twice As Smart, an after-school program she began in her home six years ago. She’s also a founding teaching artist with Musica Franklin, a member of Racial Justice Rising and a former board director with Stone Soup Cafe.
One nominator described Matlock as “an angel among us.” Another described her as having a “dogged determination to use her time to better the lives of those in her community.”
Bennu Nembhard said that after seven years without the Human Rights Award, it was an honor to recognize the other nominees and to present the award to Matlock.
“She works with a group of kids who wouldn’t have certain opportunities otherwise if it wasn’t for Gloria,” she said. “She provides opportunities for them to perform and put them to the next level.”
For those who are interested, the Human Rights Commission meets on the second Monday of each month at 6 p.m. via Zoom or in the City Hall meeting room.
“For something that has been stagnant for several years and to come back in the way it came back yesterday,” Bennu Nembhard said by phone on Monday, “gives us a lot of hope.”
Reporter Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-930-4429. Twitter (X): @MaryEByrne.