Year: 2016

SPRINGFIELD — On Thursday, July 14, Nick Tokman of the Discovery Channel’s popular Deadliest Catch will deliver a talk and video presentation at the Student Prince. The demonstration will be followed by a question-and-answer session and opportunities for fans to meet and take pictures with Tokman.

A West Springfield native, Tokman will talk about how he went from being a kid in Western Mass. to landing his dream job fishing for king crab in Alaska with the Deadliest Catch crew. He’ll share wild stories, personal anecdotes, videos, and photos. The Student Prince has also prepared a special menu featuring Alaskan king crab for the night’s festivities.

“I’m honored to be back in Western Massachusetts and to be able to tell my story in my hometown,” Tokman said. “My roots are here, and my family is all here, so this really means a lot to me.”

Doors open at 6 p.m., and Tokman’s presentation begins at 7:15 p.m. Tickets to the event cost $25, not including dinner, and can be purchased in advance at the Student Prince. A $50 VIP package is also being offered, featuring a personal meet-and-greet event prior to the presentation and prime seating for the event.

SPRINGFIELD — HZ Electric Supply (formerly Hampden Zimmerman Electric), a New England electrical distributor, announced the promotion of Chris Jablonski and Mark Melikian to branch managers. Jablonski (in the Northampton branch), and Melikian (Pittsfield) will manage the selling and warehousing of company products, as well as planning, administering, and controlling day-to-day operations.

“HZ Electric Supply is committed to providing its clients with the best customer service. Part of that commitment is employing talented individuals who have demonstrated their value through hard work and dedication,” said Regional President Mark Lauria. “Both Chris and Mark have been instrumental in the growth of business, and we are proud to recognize their contributions with these promotions.”

Jablonski graduated from UMass Dartmouth and John Cabot University in Rome, Italy. He earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing with a minor in international business. He is also a member of Enactus and the National Assoc. of Electrical Distributors. Upon completion of his degree, Jablonski worked for two years as marketing manager of Hampden Zimmerman before entering the USESI 18-month management-trainee program.

Melikian is a graduate of Salve Regina University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in English communications. After being employed in the real-estate and retail industries, he interned at HZ in the marketing department the summer after his junior year at Salve Regina. After graduation the following year, he completed the USESI 18-month management-trainee program.

SPRINGFIELD — The Springfield Regional Chamber will hold its biannual Washington Symposium on September 21-23 hosted by U.S. Rep. Richard Neal.

This popular event brings the region’s business leaders to Washington, D.C. to listen to and question some of the country’s most influential leaders, including members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, top federal policy makers, and members of the Obama Administration in its last months in office.

Past speakers have included political strategist Stan Greenberg, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, U.S. Rep. John Lewis, U.S. Sen. Edward Markey, House Ways and Means Chair David Camp, U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisors Jason Furman, and Ireland’s Ambassador to the U.S. Anne Anderson.

Registrations are limited and include air transportation, airport parking, hotel transfers, hotel accommodations at the Phoenix Park Hotel within walking distance to the Capitol, breakfast and lunch each day, and welcome and closing evening receptions.

The reservation deadline is Friday, Aug. 5, and no refunds will be granted after that date. The all-inclusive cost is $1,395 (single) or $1,270 (per person, double occupancy) if made by Friday, July 15. Reservations made after July 15 will increase to $1,495 (single) or $1,370 (per person, double occupancy).

Sponsorship opportunities are also available and include complimentary attendance. For reservations or more information, visit www.springfieldregionalchamber.com or e-mail Nancy Creed at [email protected].

SPRINGFIELD — bankESB recently donated $75,000 to Transforming Cancer Care – the Capital Campaign for the Sister Caritas Cancer Center. The gift will support the recently completed $15 million dollar expansion of the Cancer Center that added 26,000 square feet of clinical space on two floors.

“The Sister Caritas Cancer Center has a strong reputation for providing high-quality cancer care with a compassionate touch. We are pleased to support this important project for the local community,” said Matthew Sosik, president and CEO of bankESB.

The Sister Caritas Cancer Center is accredited by the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer and the American College of Radiology. The recent expansion of the center brings radiation-oncology and medical-oncology services together under one roof, creates the ability to conduct 30,000 treatments per year, increases patient privacy, and provides added convenience for patients undergoing treatment.

Dr. Scott Wolf, president of Mercy Medical Center and the Sisters of Providence Health System, called bankESB “a longtime supporter of Mercy Medical Center and our efforts to meet the healthcare needs of the local community. We are grateful for this generous contribution that underscores the vital role of the cancer center as one element of our mission to serve as a transforming, healing presence.”

To make a gift to the campaign, call (413) 748-9920 or visit www.mercycares.com.

EAST LONGMEADOW — Link to Libraries Inc., which has donated a half-million new books to children in New England, just booked a donation of its own — a $15,000 grant from Newman’s Own Foundation. The grant was initiated through Big Y World Class Markets.

“For all of us at Big Y, we are proud to continue to link the Newman’s Own Foundation with Link to Libraries in order to further the language and literacy skills of students within our marketing area,” said Claire D’Amour-Daley, Big Y’s vice president of Corporate Communications. “Our customers have also enjoyed being part of this yearly initiative.”

An all-volunteer nonprofit with no paid staff, Link to Libraries serves 25,000 children in 400 sites in Connecticut and Massachusetts. The Newman’s Own Foundation grant will fund the purchase and distribution of thousands of books in the coming months.

“Over 92 cents per dollar is used to buy books,” said Susan Jaye-Kaplan, president and co-founder of Link to Libraries, which is based in East Longmeadow. “Thanks to this generous grant from Newman’s Own Foundation and our network of 209 volunteers, ranging in age from 5 to 81 years old, we’re well-positioned to deliver on our mission to to enhance the language and literacy skills of children of all cultural backgrounds.”

Newman’s Own Foundation turns all net profits and royalties from the sale of Newman’s Own food and beverage products into charitable donations. To date, Paul Newman and Newman’s Own Foundation have given more than $470 million to thousands of charities around the world.

Since its inception in 2008, Link to Libraries has donated nearly 500,000 new books, including more than 75,000 this fiscal year, said Jaye-Kaplan.

GREENFIELD — Big Brothers Big Sisters of Franklin County (BBBS-FC) invites the public to come out on Sunday, July 24 for a morning of cycling through the scenic hills of Franklin County. There are three rides to choose from: a family-friendly, 10-mile ride and scenic 25- and 50-mile routes. The ride will begin and end on the campus of Northfield Mount Hermon School in Gill.

The registration fee is $40, and there are discounts for youth and children who ride. Lunchtime refreshments will be provided for all riders, featuring food from Hillside Pizza of Bernardston and Red Fire Farm of Granby. Children and non-cyclists are welcome to join for the food at noon for a small donation. Raffle tickets will be available to win a Giant Escape 3 around-town bicycle courtesy of Bicycles and Skis Unlimited of Greenfield. The first 75 riders to register will get a T-shirt and goodie bag. To register or learn about the routes, visit www.bikereg.com/biking-for-buddies.

Proceeds from Biking for Buddies fund BBBS-FC programs, which serve local children facing adversity in Franklin County and the North Quabbin region. For almost 50 years, BBBS-FC has been helping local children reach their highest potential through professionally supported, one-to-one mentoring relationships with volunteers.

Currently serving about 150 children, BBBS-FC is continually seeking to serve more children who could benefit from mentors. Mentoring is truly a prevention program, as children with mentors are less likely than their peers to engage in risky behaviors and have been shown to have better relationships with parents and peers and to do better in school.

Program staff will be at the event, ready to take inquiries for new volunteer ‘bigs’ or to answer questions. To learn more about the event or becoming a mentor, call (413) 772-0915 or visit www.bbbs-fc.org.

This year’s event sponsors include Baystate Franklin Medical Center, Greenfield Savings Bank, FirstLight Power Resources, Yankee Candle, Sandri Energy, Northfield Mount Hermon School, LaPierre’s Media Marketing, WHAI/Bear Country, Stobierski & Connor, and Ramon Financial Services, LLC.

SPRINGFIELD — The Rotary Club of Springfield recently elected a new president, Laurie Rosner, for the 2016-17 Rotary year.

Rosner is the chair of Undergraduate Business Programs and assistant professor of Management at Bay Path University. She is a double Bay Path alumna, with undergraduate and graduate degrees in business. An experienced executive, professor, entrepreneur, and community leader, she led the overall marketing and branding of a community bank at the level of senior vice president for over 20 years. She was part of the executive team who brought the bank from $285 million to $2 billion with public trading on NASDAQ Global Select Market. She has received numerous marketing awards on branding and innovation and has been a guest speaker locally and nationally. She is the owner of a local marketing, business, and leadership-strategy company called A Story Making Co., located in Enfield, Conn.

Rosner taught for several years at Bay Path University in the MBA program with a focus in management, marketing, leadership, and strategy, and was honored with a Distinguished Teaching Award there in 2013. Most recently, she is working to launch a Springfield Rotaract Club for undergraduate women at Bay Path. She is also a past president of the North Central Connecticut Chamber of Commerce. She says her mission is “to inspire others to believe in themselves so they transform into the leader they are meant to be.”

The Springfield Rotary Club, a member of Rotary International, meets every Friday at 12:15 p.m. in the MassMutual Room at the Basketball Hall of Fame. For more information on the club or becoming a member, visit www.springfieldmarotary.org or call membership chairperson Pam Malumphy at (413) 441-2708.

HOLYOKE — Torrid, America’s fastest-growing plus-size fashion brand, recently opened its 400th retail store at Holyoke Mall at Ingleside.

“Our customers love our fashion collections and exceptional fit, and have been very vocal about wanting us to expand our store base,” said Lisa Harper, Torrid CEO. “Sixty-eight percent of women in the U.S. wear our sizes, but this market represents only 17% of the women’s fashion retail industry.”

Torrid’s collections of fashion apparel, accessories, swimwear, lingerie, and shoes are designed exclusively for women sizes 10 to 30; each piece is made and constructed specifically to fit and flatter curvy figures, rather than being a ‘sized-up’ version of a fashion piece.

The 2,572 square-foot Torrid store is located on the mall’s upper level, near Macy’s.

CHICOPEE — The College of Our Lady of the Elms has received a grant of $263,817 from the Davis Educational Foundation for the college’s new ASPIRE (Academic Success Program Impacting Retention and Engagement) program.

Central to Elms College’s mission is a commitment to ensure educational success for all students, including those who are traditionally underserved. The main goal of ASPIRE is to help all students successfully finish their degrees by offering dedicated resources and support throughout their studies at Elms College.

“ASPIRE is designed to provide the most critical resources for a comprehensive approach to student success,” said Joyce Hampton, Ed.D., director of student success at Elms and project director for the grant. “We are pleased that the Davis Educational Foundation is partnering with us to provide additional resources for those we serve at Elms College.”

Using the grant funding, the program will create a comprehensive space for a Student Success Center on campus with dedicated academic resources and services, install software programs that facilitate advising and tutoring, and provide professional development in diversity for faculty and staff.

Establishing the Student Success Center will involve renovating the second floor of the Alumnae Library to house the Academic Resource Center/Peer Tutoring, the Student Accommodation and Support Services (SASS) office, student success coaches, and the director of advising. A new conference room will allow for private meetings with students or groups. The Student Success Center also will include expanded technological resources, new computers, collaborative-learning tech-enabled furniture, and access to wireless Internet. Peer tutors and success coaches will work with students either in collaborative learning spaces with loaner laptops or at the drop-in learning lab, equipped with high-tech workstations.

Elms College will use CampusLabs’ Beacon advising software and Baseline outcomes-assessment software programs to track student needs and progress; TutorTrac will integrate student and tutor information to ensure better student tutoring experiences. Data from Student Success Center programs and curricular/co-curricular assessments will allow the college to understand better which student outcomes are being met, and to use that feedback adjust accordingly.

“Today’s Elms students are more diverse, and we want to be better prepared to serve them well,” Hampton said. To foster cultural competency, faculty and staff will participate in process-oriented, multi-session professional development.

This spring, Elms College was ranked in the top five of the list of 314 private colleges in Eduventures’ annual retention ratings, which pay tribute to the institutions that best help their students navigate to graduation. Programs like ASPIRE will help Elms guide even more students from the first day of school to commencement. “The ASPIRE program fits with our mission, and we are very excited to see it take shape for our students,” Hampton said.

The Davis Educational Foundation of Yarmouth, Me., was established by Stanton and Elisabeth Davis after Mr. Davis’s retirement as chairman of Shaw’s Supermarkets Inc. This new grant builds on funding the foundation previously provided Elms for the college’s Office of Institutional Assessment and Research, which enabled the college to understand its student success needs, Hampton added. “The grant letter cites our productive use of institutional research and clear student-success focus as two primary reasons they decided to fund ASPIRE,” she said.

NORTHAMPTON — The Academy of Music Theatre in Northampton recently acquired a new state-of-the-art audio system, designed and installed by Jason Raboin.

The hall had become increasingly busy with a variety of programming, from rock concerts to theatrical productions, literary arts to dance, youth programs to indie music, which would all benefit from an enhanced system, said a spokesperson for the Academy.

Two challenges were identified for the project: First, the speakers needed to provide consistent coverage throughout the entire theater without interfering with sightlines to the stage opening, or distracting from the architectural beauty of the 125-year old opera house; and secondly, the limited rigging options within the historic performing arts center demanded compact, lightweight loudspeakers as part of a visually unobtrusive sound system.

The installation centered around four Fulcrum Acoustic CX1595 speakers powered by Ashly nXp amplifiers. The speaker’s lightweight, compact, visually unobtrusive design provides consistent coverage throughout the entire theater without interfering with sightlines to the stage opening, or distracting from the architectural beauty of the 125-year old opera house.

Two compact, portable Fulcrum Acoustic Sub215 subwoofers provided concert-level low frequency for the historic theater while minimizing visual intrusion.

As a touring sound engineer (Joan Baez, Modest Mouse, Lake Street Dive), Raboin who had worked on a variety of audio systems in the field, said “I have not heard anything that sounds better than Fulcrum Acoustics speakers. When you combine their fidelity with their lightweight and compact size, they really were the only choice for this installation. It was hard to believe that such a compact system would be able to cover the venue at the desired SPL, but the system exceeded our expectations and the theater’s design goals.”

At mix position, a Yamaha Ql1 mixing console was chosen for its compact footprint as well as its ability to handle the wide variety of programming in the theater.

PITTSFIELD — Berkshire Hills Bancorp Inc. and First Choice Bank announced Wednesday that they have signed a definitive merger agreement under which First Choice Bank will merge into Berkshire Bank and its subsidiary, First Choice Loan Services Inc., will become a subsidiary of Berkshire Bank in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $111.7 million.

Berkshire’s total assets will increase to $8.9 billion including the $1.1 billion in acquired First Choice assets.  This market-expanding merger provides entry into attractive markets with strong demographics, and includes six branches near Princeton, N.J., and two in the greater Philadelphia, Pa. area. First Choice reported $436 million in net loans (excluding loans held for sale) and $906 million in deposits as of March 31, 2016.

First Choice Bank is the second largest community bank by deposit market share in Mercer County, New Jersey, an area with per capita income well above national and regional averages. First Choice Loan Services is a leading residential retail and consumer direct mortgage originator serving borrowers across the United States. Total mortgage production in 2015 was $2.5 billion.

Berkshire will have a pro forma market cap of approximately $905 million and 101 branches, serving customers and communities across the Northeast.

“We’re pleased to welcome First Choice customers and employees to America’s Most Exciting Bank^®,” said Michael P. Daly, Chief Executive Officer of Berkshire. “This partnership builds on Berkshire’s commitment to create a strong regional platform for serving our customers, while diversifying our revenue streams, improving profitability and increasing shareholder value.  The First Choice franchise builds on markets where we presently manage commercial relationships, and adds a well-positioned deposit base, a best in class home lending operation and enthusiastic new teams that complement our current culture. After integration, the transaction is expected to be accretive to Berkshire’s earnings per share, return on equity and return on assets, liquidity and capital. We have a strong track record of execution and our collective teams are positioned to complete this integration flawlessly.”

Martin Tuchman, First Choice’s Chairman of the Board, commented, “We’re pleased to announce this combination with Berkshire and believe our customers, community and employees will benefit greatly from this transaction. We believe Berkshire fits both the culture of our bank and our expanding mortgage operation. Their product suite and commitment to service will enable the combined company to better compete in this growing marketplace. With Berkshire’s attractive stock, I’m pleased to be a shareholder going forward, and our bank employees and mortgage lending group look forward to joining the Berkshire team.”

SPRINGFIELD — The REALTOR Association of Pioneer Valley reported Tuesday that single-family home sales in May were up 19.4% compared to the same time last year. The median price was up 2.0% to $205,000.

County reports vary. In Franklin County, sales were up 90.3% and prices up 5.6%; in Hampden County, sales were up 16.8% and prices up 1.5%; in Hampshire County, sales were up 10.6% and prices down 3.7%.