SNHU announces 2023 Dean’s List

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) congratulates the following students on being named to the Winter 2023 Dean’s List. The winter terms run from January to May.

Full-time undergraduate students who have earned a minimum grade-point average of 3.500 to 3.699 for the reporting term are named to the Dean’s List. Full-time status is achieved by earning 12 credits over each 16-week term or paired 8-week terms grouped in fall, winter/spring, and summer.

■Rhiannon Squire of Orange

■Danielle Gosson of Orange

Comerford Receives Caring Bear Award from the Providers’ Council

BOSTON — Senator Jo Comerford (D-Northampton) was honored at the State House by the Providers’ Council, the state’s largest association of community-based health and human services organizations, with its Caring Bear Award for her proven dedication and commitment to the human services sector.

Comerford spoke at the rally about the important work of human services workers and how the legislature can and must do better to support this vital sector.

“I am truly humbled to receive this honor,” said Comerford. “We must eliminate pay human service worker pay disparities. And we must bolster the recruitment and retention of human services workers by eliminating the burden of student debt for higher education. We can and must do more for you – who do so much for so many.”

The Caring Force serves as the grassroots advocacy branch of the Provider’s Council with more than 31,000 members statewide. It works to secure better and equitable pay, tuition burden relief, and respect for the human services workers it represents. The Caring Bear award is one of the highest honors presented to a legislator annually. Find out more about The Caring Force and their work here: https://providers.org/the-caring-force/.

Community Conversation: Best Use for Bidwell Barn and Property

ATHOL — On Tuesday, May 23, at 6 p.m. Free and open to the public at the Athol Public Library

568 Main Street, Athol. The town owns a 100-acre site on South Athol Road, near the Millers River and Route 2. Join us for a guided discussion on the future of this property. How would you like to see this property developed? What is most important to our community now and in the future?

The evening will feature a panel discussion including representatives from the EDIC, Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust, the Conservation Commission, local realtors, and the Planning Board. The panel will be moderated by the BSC Group and there will be ample time for community input.

Please register by calling 978-249-9515 or by visiting the library’s web calendar: https://tinyurl.com/4h6b8kfu.

This event is part of Crossroads: Museum on Main Street. Crossroads is part of Museum on Main Street, a collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution and state humanities councils nationwide. Support for Museum on Main Street has been provided by the United States Congress.

Mount Wachusett Community College celebrates dental hygiene graduates in pinning ceremony

GARDNER — Mount Wachusett Community College held a pinning ceremony for the seven members of the Dental Hygiene Class of 2023 on May 12, 2023. The pinning ceremony represents the passage from student to registered dental hygienist.

“Congratulations to each and every one of you, it takes enormous work to get to this point in such a rigorous program,” MWCC President James Vander Hooven told graduates. “You have chosen a caring profession and you are going to be working with people who are in great need of your care, your help, and your empathy, and for that we all thank you.”

Guest speaker was Matthew Mara, DDM, who currently serves as an Assistant Professor of General Dentistry in the Office of Global and Population Health at the Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine. He is deeply committed to education, having served two years as a Teach for America Corps Member before earning his Master’s in Curriculum and Teaching from Boston University’s Wheelock School of Education in Health Professions. He works in private practice in Worcester and Boston’s South End. He believes strongly in community college, his mother served as faculty and Director of Early Childhood Education at Quinsigamond Community College.

Among the Dental Hygiene Class of 2023 graduates are:

■Kathryn Bessette, Erving

■Ann Vaillancourt, Winchendon

Royalston to elect delegates to Democratic State Convention

ROYALSTON — Registered Democrats in Royalston will hold a caucus on Thursday, June 15, at the Royalston Town Hall to elect delegates and alternates to the 2023 Massachusetts Democratic State Convention.

This year’s state convention will be held on Sept. 23 at the Tsongas Arena in Lowell, where thousands of Democrats from across the state will come together to organize to win up and down the ballot. This year, the delegates will be voting to adopt a Party Agenda and/or Platform by a majority vote of Convention delegates present.

The caucus is open to all registered and pre-registered Democrats in Royalston. Pre-registered Democrats who will be 16 years old by May 23, 2023 will be allowed to participate and run as a delegate or alternate. Royalston can elect one delegate and one alternate to the Convention.

Youth, minorities, people with disabilities and LGBTQ individuals who are not elected as a delegate or alternate may apply to be an add-on delegate at the caucus or at www.massdems.org.

Those interested in getting involved with the Royalston Democratic Town Committee should email blueheron63@gmail.com.

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