WHATELY — From artists to a nonprofit leader and scholarship recipient, community members took to the podium at Quonquont Farm last week to speak to the scope of the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts’ impact as it marks its 35th anniversary.
Karin George, chair of the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts’ board, broke down the organization’s work. According to George, since the foundation’s start in 1991, the group has raised $355 million and channeled $292 million into grants and scholarships for individuals and organizations across Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin counties.
Sean O’Dea, who grew up in Heath, said his higher education would not have been possible without the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts.
“After facing the gauntlet of college application season and the challenges of being a first-generation college student, Decision Day finally arrived,” O’Dea reflected. “Dreams became a reality that day, but so did the math.”
With his parents not able to cover the tuition for the colleges he was considering, O’Dea said he was “forced to decide between hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt or compromising on his dreams” until scholarships like those offered by the foundation came along. In May, he graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a dual degree in computer science and mathematics.
As use of artificial intelligence and rates of unemployment among college graduates under 29 years old rise, O’Dea told the more than 50 attendees that, “It is now more than ever that we need to invest in our youth.”
“A scholarship is more than just a check,” he said. “It is a boon that tells a young student, ‘We believe in you, we trust in you and we support you.'”
According to the foundation’s latest Strategic Plan, the team plans to continue focusing on boosting higher education completion and advancing workforce development while also turning its attention to new “focus areas” — increasing food security, housing access and resources in times of crisis, according to President and CEO Megan Burke.
The foundation also aims to continue strengthening the arts and creativity through ValleyCreates, the branch of the entity that awards grants to art organizations and individual artists like Wylder Ayres.
Ayres, an artist, educator and songwriter, greeted the attendees as “dream-into-being-ers.”
“I like to say dream-into-being-ers, because I believe that each and every one of us holds the capacity to both individually and collectively build the world we believe is possible,” Ayres said, “and as artists, many of us do that through our art.”
Ayres then led the audience through a piece of Fado, or Portuguese folk music. Together, the group sang several rounds of, “I have so much to learn, you have so much to learn, we have so much to learn” in Portuguese.
Plainfield artist Adrian Almquist, another ValleyCreates grant recipient, described his series of sculptures titled “Shelter in Place.” With stone from local quarries, wood and wool from nearby farms, “I created a body of work that embodies the essence of the land here and the spirit of ecology that surrounds and sustains us,” Almquist said.
“In choosing to support me and my artistic vision,” he continued, “ValleyCreates has also supported local farms, quarries, sawyers, beekeepers, photographers, art stores, fiber mills and, let’s be honest, coffee shops.”
Like O’Dea’s case for supporting scholarships, Almquist stressed the importance of meeting the moment by investing in the arts.
“We are living in times that are difficult — politically, socially, ecologically and culturally. It is essential in these times to remind one another of our shared humanity, our need for community and connection, our need to imagine a better and more just future for all,” Almquist said. “I believe art has a power to help us keep dreaming of a brighter and better future and to keep us rooted in community. … I believe that choosing to support the arts is a vital part of keeping our democracy alive, our community thriving and passing on to future generations what it is to dream, to imagine, to create.”
Along with scholarships and the arts, the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts has also given money to nonprofits like the Resilience Center of Franklin County. According to Executive Director Amanda Sanderson, the grants have helped fund transportation and emergency support for survivors of sexual and domestic violence at the center and gave the nonprofit the financial flexibility to invest in prevention education.
“The Resilience Center cannot operate in a silo, and a huge part of our work is building community connections so we can offer holistic support to our clients,” Sanderson said.
She added that the center reaches out to other local organizations every day to secure the right resources for clients.
“This connective tissue is the heart and soul of how Franklin County operates. We recognize that despite the distance, despite limited resources, that our superpower is working together to find solutions to the issues that we see every single day,” Sanderson said. “Time and time again I’ve heard that Franklin County is special, and I believe that. We are doing more with less, and we are consistently willing to try to do things to better support each other.”
