Addressing a ‘recognition shortage’: Third annual breakfast celebrates local heroes

TURNERS FALLS — What makes someone a superhero?

According to the speakers at the annual Super Chamber Breakfast, it’s not superhuman strength or a blockbuster movie, but quiet, daily acts of compassion that make a Franklin County resident worth celebrating.

At Franklin County Technical School on Friday, Franklin County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jessye Deane told the approximately 180 attendees that they received 34 nominations for this year’s crew of superheroes — more than the total number of nominations from the sold-out breakfast’s first two years combined.

“[Franklin County’s] filled with some of the kindest, most dedicated people on the planet,” Deane said. “Franklin County does not have a superhero shortage; what we have is a recognition shortage. We need to find more opportunities to celebrate the people who make Franklin County special.”

Before speakers introduced the six “Franklin County Heroes,” Deane called up Tony Hanna, whom the chamber recognized in an “impromptu caping” in February, when Hanna’s family celebrated his involvement in the Shelburne Falls community meal at Trinity Church. In the past 25 years, Hanna has served more than 70,000 meals at the church, Deane noted.

“Tony has shown up every week to help plan and prepare and serve that meal,” Deane said, “creating a place where everyone feels welcome and everyone feels like they belong at the table.”

Phoebe Walker, director of community health at the Franklin Regional Council of Governments, then introduced the first official hero of the morning: Northfield resident Lisa White of the Cooperative Public Health Service. Along with healthcare screenings, vaccines and Narcan, “most of all, [White] brings compassion,” Walker said.

“Like many superheroes, the one I’m introducing today uses superhuman efforts to protect vulnerable people from a terrible problem,” Walker said, “but it’s not innocent kids on a runaway train on top of a mountain — it’s you, your neighbors and your friends, and the terrible problem is access to healthcare for rural people struggling to manage complicated lives with limited resources.”

Like some other unsuspecting heroes, White, who thought she was invited to the breakfast to give a presentation on vaccines, stood to receive her green cape. Steam from the fog machine rose around her as the audience applauded.

Next in line for a green cape was Paul Wanczyk of Sunderland, owner of Riverside Shine in South Deerfield. According to JD Ross of Whately, Wanczyk donates to food and toy drives, brings snacks and drinks to elementary schools, and shovels his elderly neighbors’ driveways for free.

“There’s people that talk about things happening, and there’s people that make things happen,” Ross said. “Paul makes things happen.”

John Cornman, who spoke on behalf of Greenfield Public Library Foundation President Jeanne Canteen, spoke of Laurie MacLeod, a retired Orange and Greenfield district court judge. She served as the presiding judge for 10 years at the Western Massachusetts Veterans Treatment Court, but “her passion for deep-rooted rehabilitation didn’t stop there,” Cornman noted. As a judge, she also sought justice for domestic violence survivors.

“She led by a simple, powerful philosophy. The most rewarding part of her job was facilitating real help for those who were struggling,” Cornman described. “What makes someone a Franklin County superhero is the rare ability to look at a system and see the human beings within it.”

Northfield resident Chelsea Depault, vice president of commercial and municipal lending at Greenfield Cooperative Bank, earned her green cape for being a “superhero to so many of us,” including hundreds of local business owners, in the words of Northfield Recreation Commission Director Stacy Bond.

Depault lends her financial expertise to several local groups like Community Action Pioneer Valley, the Franklin County Community Development Corporation and the Northfield Recreation Commission. According to Bond, Depault also coaches youth sports, volunteers as a “Lunch Buddy” and helps low-income residents prepare their taxes.

In her role at the bank, Depault worked nights and weekends at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic to secure loans for local businesses. Bond added that the bank faced an unexpected audit, and Depault joined an unplanned Zoom meeting while she was on vacation to answer “question after question about the organization’s finances.”

“That is her in a nutshell — she shows up,” Bond said.

Deane introduced the fifth official hero, Greenfield Recreation Director Christy Moore — the “big idea and boots on the ground” behind Greenfield traditions like the Winter Carnival, the Greenfield Triathlon and the Fourth of July fireworks. Deane described a freezing night in February when Moore “inspired [her] like a drill sergeant” to decorate a tree at the Greenfield Common so local kids could turn on the lights and synchronized music with the flip of a big switch.

“That’s the kind of magic Christy Moore makes in Franklin County, usually through an extraordinary amount of her own hard work and often under the cover of darkness, in frigid temperatures,” Deane said. “She puts in countless hours, puts out fires other people would walk away from, finds the funding and somehow always has confidence that ‘they’ll figure it out.'”

Beaming in her emerald cape, Moore shot her arm up in a superhero pose.

The last Franklin County hero did not receive his cape alone. A few Deerfield Elementary School students joined him — a fitting acceptance for Carlos Rivadeneira, the crossing guard at the school “who’s been a bright light for hundreds of children,” according to Deerfield Elementary School parent Ben Clark.

“For years, he’s stood outside in all weather conditions cheerfully greeting [students] and keeping them safe as they cross to school and as they leave at the end of the day,” Clark continued, “always with a smile, kind words and a fist bump.”

Despite the heroes’ unique marks on the county, Deane said they shared a common “theme.”

“There isn’t this one shining star moment,” she said. “All of us and all of these people are continuously giving back and staying committed and showing up for our community every day.”

Nominations for next year’s superheroes are now open. To nominate someone, fill out the Google Form at tinyurl.com/5n7phm57.