Page 12 - BusinessWest February 21, 2022
P. 12

 Editorial
Many Ways to Make a Difference
BusinessWest
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1441 Main Street Springfield, MA 01103 (413) 781-8600 Fax (413) 781-3930
 Thirteen years ago, BusinessWest launched a new recogni- tion program, Difference Makers, as a way to celebrate the many different ways individuals and organizations
can make a difference in their community, and Western Mass. as a whole.
And this year’s additions to that list (see stories starting on page 20) provide still more evidence that there are countless ways to make a difference, and they all need to be celebrated. They include:
• Tara Brewster, vice president of Business Development at Greenfield Savings Bank, who has made community service more than a mantra, immersing herself in the work of area nonprofits and causes — not in a slapdash fashion, but putting her heart and soul into whomever she happens to be helping each day;
• The Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, which for 30 years has convened and connected myriad resources in the region to benefit a host of groups, from students trying to pay for college to the arts community to organizations focused on helping people through the pandemic and economic disruption;
• Heriberto Flores, president of the New England Farm Workers’ Council, who has spent the last half-century operating programs — centered on energy, education, child welfare, workforce devel- opment, and more — that help people in need, while at the same time investing in the economic well-being of Springfield;
• John Greaney, retired State Supreme Court justice and senior counsel at Bulkley Richardson, a judicial trailblazer who, as one peer put it, “has demonstrated compassion and understanding as
Opinion
an advocate to so many in need of a voice, influenced our soci- etal values and ways of thinking, and continues to be a valuable mentor”;
• Ruth Griggs, president of the Northampton Jazz Festival and principal at RC Communications, whose business has helped nonprofits reach new levels of marketing and success, and who brought those skills to bear on reviving a beloved music festival that continues to raise the profile of Northampton’s downtown;
• Ted Hebert, owner of Teddy Bear Pools and Spas, who has used his decades of success in the pool business as a springboard to support dozens of causes and organizations throughout the region, through both philanthropy and giving of his time — often in ways few people see;
• I Found Light Against All Odds and Its Founder and CEO, Stefan Davis, who emerged from a very difficult youth to found an organization that brings many resources together to, as its name implies, help young people journey from some dark, difficult times to a promising future; and
• Roca Holyoke and Springfield, an innovative program that helps young people in the criminal-justice system find a better path than recidivism and more time behind bars, by using case management, education, and employment training to get them into jobs and a stable, crime-free life.
As we said, there are no limits on the ways an individual or group can make a difference here in Western Mass. That’s what we’ve been celebrating since 2009, and the celebration continues with the class of 2022. v
  Lessons from a Poignant Death
By Kimberley Lee
The death of Peter Robbins reso- nated with me. He was tapped to be the first voice of Charlie Brown
as a child actor in the early 1960s when Charles Schultz began to adapt his popu- lar “Peanuts” cartoon strip for TV and movies.
I grew up with these shows, and so did my children, but it was not just nostalgia that made me take notice of Robbins’s death. His family announced on Jan. 25 that the 65-year-old Robbins had died the week before by suicide. He had long struggled with both mental-health and substance-use disorders.
MHA, the Mental Health Assoc., is the organization I work for, whose behavioral- health outreach clinic and residential pro- grams have long offered support and treat- ment to individuals with such dual diagno- ses. It was especially disheartening to read how the life of Robbins, associated through the 1970s with a character that brought much entertainment to the screen, ended.
The cartoon strip itself was sometimes subtitled “Good ol’ Charlie Brown,” and the world Schultz created was a self-contained one about childhood. Its ups, downs, and misplaced crushes were depicted by char- acters who were very animated, even in print. No adults are featured, but the char- acters struggle with plenty of personal
issues that often follow into adulthood. Some, like Lucy, can be bossy; some are a bit vain, like curly-haired Freida; and some are self-absorbed, like Schroeder on his piano. Everyone is just trying to fit in or fit into who they are, including Snoopy, Char- lie Brown’s beagle, who often retreats into his own world on top of his doghouse or into his imagination, where he fights the Red Baron as the Flying Ace. There is also Pig-Pen, who tells Sally, Charlie Brown’s younger sister, he doesn’t appreciate that name he has been tagged with because of his appearance, but neither does he like the rain to wash away that appearance from a day of playing in the dirt.
They are a complicated bunch, defying stereotypes in their own ways of being and thinking and friendships across neighbor- hoods and interests.
Schultz, who died in 2000, wondered
if his characters would resonate through time, and they do, as Charlie Brown embodies a little bit of all of us emotion- ally as he navigates this world of personali- ties. And, of course, should he need advice, there is Lucy, who sets up a Psychiatric Help booth, where she gives her version of professional help for five cents. It is a world in which the timeless troubles and alien- ations of childhood are on display, but also one in which the characters cope and carry
on with their pursuits and come together.
I grew up with all the animated specials,
including A Charlie Brown Christmas, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, and, again,
so did my children. Each time these classic movies aired, those 30 minutes provided an opportunity for us to be together as a fam- ily, to make a connection, to embrace each other emotionally.
In our house, emotional connectedness happens in other ways as well. For exam- ple, once a week, my husband and I pull our girls together (now that they are in col- lege, this is done remotely), we all unplug, and we just simply and sincerely ask them, “how are you?” And not just physically, but emotionally. Their answers have been honest and transparent and emotional at times.
It gave them, at an early age, a green light to talk openly about how they feel from a mental-health perspective, and there was no stigma, no shame, no hesi- tancy in doing this.
We all know that challenges to men- tal health start young, and the sooner we address them, the better the outcome. v
Kimberley Lee is vice president of Resource Development & Branding for the Mental Health Assoc.
 12 FEBRUARY 21, 2022
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