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Junior Achievement Golf Tournament
June 4: Junior Achievement of Western Massachu- setts (JAWM) announced it will hold its 23rd annual golf tournament at the Crumpin-Fox Club in Ber- nardston. In addition to the golf tournament, par- ticipants can enjoy online bidding for the auction through June 3 and live bidding at the event on June 4. Social-distancing regulations will include requir- ing players to wear masks in common areas, provid- ing each player with their own cart, and a scramble format with all putts inside three feet conceded, with flags remaining in the holes. Businesses can spon- sor the tournament and will receive a prize package valued at over $200. The package includes a $100
gift card to the pro shop, buy-two/get-two passes for Crumpin-Fox or Fox Hopyard Golf Club in Connecti- cut good through the 2022 season, and other gifts, such as Yankee Candle items. If they prefer, spon- sors can opt to receive a voucher for their foursome valid through the 2022 season. In addition to a round of golf, an auction, and a raffle, golfers will enjoy a gourmet boxed breakfast at 10 a.m. and lunch served on the course around noon. To learn more about registration and sponsorship opportunities, visit jawm.org/annual-golf-tournament.
Fresh Paint Springfield
June 5-13: Fresh Paint Springfield, the mural fes- tival that began in 2019 in downtown Springfield and transformed large, exterior walls into art, will
be returning to Springfield on June 5-13. This year’s festival will feature new murals in downtown Spring- field and in Mason Square. Among the murals that will be part of Fresh Paint 2021 are “Pioneers Past and Present,” which will be painted by local portrait painters in Mason Square, and the repainting of a historic mural on the Mosque 13 building on State Street. For news and updates about this year’s festi- val, visit www.freshpaintspringfield.com.
Asnuntuck Foundation Golf Tournament
June 15: Asnuntuck Community College’s founda- tion and Aerospace Components Manufacturers will host a golf tournament fundraiser — the program’s 13th annual tournament and the first year the fun- draiser will be held at Tunxis Country Club in Farm- ington, Conn. Proceeds from the event will benefit to the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Center at Asnuntuck, which features leading-edge technology and has educated more than 9,000 students since 1998. Additional sponsors committed to the tourna- ment include Air Industries Group/Sterling Engi- neering, Aerospace Alloys Inc., Aeroswiss, Advance Welding, Pilot Precision Products, Kaman Precision Products, Willington Nameplate, Accu-Rite Tool and Manufacturing Co. Inc., and Jarvis Surgical Inc. Golf- ers will pay $150 for 18 holes of golf. The entry fee also includes a cart, goody bags, and two drink tick- ets. The day will also include a barbecue lunch and fountain drink, along with dinner and an ice cream sundae bar. Golfers will have a chance at door prizes, and awards will be presented to top golfers dur-
ing the dinner portion of the evening. Registration begins at 11:30 a.m. with tee-off at 1 p.m. Golfers will play with a ‘shamble,’ which is a modified scramble. This format has each golfer hit their tee shot, and the group picks the best one and plays their own ball from there. The best score on the hole is recorded, allowing everyone to feel like they contributed and not putting pressure on any one golfer. Visit birdease. com/amtgolf to register and learn about sponsorship opportunities. For more information, contact event coordinator Joshua Ware at josh@ctgolfeventplanner. com or (203) 228-2768.
Healthcare Heroes Nominations
Through June 24: In the spring of 2017, the Health- care News and its sister publication, BusinessWest, created a new and exciting recognition program called Healthcare Heroes. It was launched with the
senger automobiles,” Peter Pan’s Picknelly said. “His- torically, when fuel starts going over $3.50, we see a significant increase in passengers because it’s just too expensive for people to travel, so they look for alter- natives in the bus.”
If anything, rising fuel prices — married to a desire
“
competing with the government for labor — the government is paying people to stay home, and we’re trying to get them to come back to work.”
among people to get away this summer — has bene- fited Peter Pan’s business, Picknelly explained, noting that Cape Cod trips are almost 100% booked, while he sees similar interest in destinations like New York and Washington, D.C. The reason is that people are looking to travel a little closer to home — in range of a drive, not a flight — and see bus travel as an afford- able, low-stress option.
High gas prices should also benefit the com- pany’s commuter buses by making public transit more attractive, he said, noting that the average city bus gets about 280 passenger miles to the gallon, as opposed to about one-tenth of that for cars.
theory that there are heroes working all across this region’s wide, deep, and all-important healthcare sector, and that there was no shortage of fascinating stories to tell and individuals and groups to honor. That theory has certainly been validated. But there are hundreds, perhaps thousands of heroes whose stories we still need to tell, especially in these times, when the COVID-19 pandemic has brought many types of heroes to the forefront. Nominations will be accepted in seven different categories: Patient/Resi- dent/Client Care Provider, Health/Wellness Adminis- trator/Administration, Emerging Leader, Community Health, Innovation in Health/Wellness, Collabora-
Agenda
tion in Health/Wellness, and Lifetime Achievement. The Healthcare Heroes event is presented by Elms College. Nominations can be submitted at business- west.com/healthcare-heroes/nominations. For more information, contact Jennifer Godaire, Marketing and Events Director, at (413) 781-8600, ext. 100, or [email protected].
40 Under Forty Gala
Sept. 23: In light of Gov. Charlie Baker’s recent announcement that most, if not all, restrictions on events will be lifted effective Aug. 1, BusinessWest has made the decision to move its annual 40 Under Forty gala, originally scheduled for late June, to Thursday, Sept. 23 at the Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House in Holyoke. The class of 2021 was introduced to the region in the magazine’s May 12 issue, and the pro- files may read online at businesswest.com. Additional details on the Sept. 23 gala will be forthcoming. Tick- ets, which will go on sale in June, will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.
The Struggle Continues
That makes for an environmentally friendly byproduct of a challenging economic season. And Nagurney doesn’t separate the economy from the environment — in fact, she believes business and industry leaders need to adopt techniques from disaster management because climate change remains a factor in the global economy.
“Things aren’t going to get better — we’ll see more storms, more floods, more hurricanes, sea levels ris- ing, even more things like the fires we had on the West Coast. Climate change will lead to a greater fre- quency of natural disasters, and that will affect global supply chains, and it’ll take longer to get products.”
For now, though, most businesses are just focused on when the short-term stress will end. And no one really knows the answer to that.
“In January, we thought this will probably last until March,” MacDonald said of the shipping delays. “In March, we heard it might fizzle out by the summer. We’re almost to summertime, and I’m releasing things from Spain that can’t get a booking until the begin- ning of July.
“And we’re seeing a huge increase in sales, too,” she added. “There’s a huge need in the United States, and we’re trying to pump as much material as we can into the States, but it’s a struggle.” u
Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]
   Prices
Continued from page 54
govern-
ment for 15 months now, and we’re not getting through to
them,” he said. “The real story is how much the gov- ernment is paying, and how that’s driving prices up unrealistically.
“We’re all paying the same people, for the same labor, two to five dollars an hour more than we nor- mally do, and the definition of inflation is when you pay a lot more but don’t get anything more for it,” he went on. “The biggest factor is that we’re competing with the government for labor — the government is paying people to stay home, and we’re trying to get them to come back to work.”
The frustration is palpable, Bolduc said. “People say they can’t get a job, but we offer them jobs, and they don’t show up. They just want to come in and apply to say they applied. And nobody checks; they’re just giving it away. It’s been that way for 15 months now, and it’s worse than you realize. People have no idea.”
State officials have heard such complaints from business owners, however, and announced last week that, starting in mid-June, Massachusetts will more diligently require proof of genuine job-search activity as a condition of accessing unemployment benefits.
At the same time, Bolduc said, “other prices are going crazy — on everything. Convenience items and food are up at least 10%, maybe pushing 15%, and I don’t see an end in sight.”
For some industries, rising prices can be a benefit. “We always view our largest competitor as pas-
The biggest factor is that we’re
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