Page 25 - BusinessWest September 14 2020

Rick’s Place
This Nonprofit Is Finding New Ways to Provide a ‘Safe Place’
Diane Murray says that, like most nonprofits, Rick’s Place is responding to the pandemic in a proactive fashion.
In other words, this agency, founded to provide peer support to grieving families, and especially children, has, out of necessity, changed, pivoted, and in some ways reinvented itself, said Murray, its
“Deaths during the COVID era are so much more complicated for kids. Losing a grandparent or parent — and not being able to have the usual services you would have and seeing a large number of family and friends — has impacted the grief and made it more complicated. Also, in many cases, they didn’t get a chance to say goodbye, and that mak”es the process so much more difficult.
executive director, noting that much of this involves carrying out its mission in a virtual manner.
“As soon as we became aware that it wasn’t safe to have in-person meetings, we moved to a virtual format for all our peer-support groups,” she told BusinessWest. And that was very successful. We were surprised at how well children made that transition; it’s hard enough to be grieving and talk about it in person with your peers, but looking at a screen can be tricky. But we sent them activities, and they would complete them and bring them to the meeting. It’s worked quite well.”
As she noted, grieving and talking about loss among a group of peers is hard, but it has become a proven method for helping children and families cope with the loss of a loved one. And Rick’s Place has been bringing people together in this way and providing what many call a ‘safe place’ since 2007.
Its mission, and its success in carrying it out
Kelsey Andrews (third from left, with Therese Ross, program director; Bill Scatolini, board president; and Diane Murray, executive director) calls Rick’s Place “a wonderful support system” — and much more.
<< REINTRODUCING THE 2020
— which made the agency the latest of several nonprofits to be named Difference Makers by BusinessWest — was summed up succinctly and effectively by Program Director Therese Ross when we spoke with her back in February.
“It’s a unique grief journey, but it’s also a universal experience,” she noted. “To hear from other people how they manage when their child says this or does
that, it’s real boots on the ground, people living it, and it’s really helpful.”
Providing such help was the overarching goal
for the many friends of Rick Thorpe, the former football star and 1984 graduate at Minnechaug High School who was among the more than 1,100 people
Rick’s Place
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importantly, he usually didn’t wait to be asked.
He noted that, as he was arriving
in this region in the late spring of 2011, the region — and Main Street in Monson — were hit, and hit hard, by
a tornado. And as he’s retiring — at least from his role as president and CEO — the world, and Main Street in Monson, are being hit, and hit hard, by a pandemic.
“People might be happy to see me go,” he joked.
That’s certainly not the case. Even more to the point, he won’t be going anywhere soon, except for that commute he knows all too well. n
—George O’Brien
Lowell
Continued from page 24
continues to fill the many roles of a community bank — and continues to search for new growth opportunities in a heavily banked region.
“In spite of COVID, we’ve moving forward, and we’re looking to the future,” he told BusinessWest, noting that the institution recently opened
a new branch in East Longmeadow. “We’re trying to build an organization that is resilient enough to withstand not only this but anything else that might happen.”
While working to build this organization, Lowell is transitioning
into his new role as chairman, one
that will translate into a good deal of mentoring and also helping to guide the
bank through a period that will likely be much more difficult than the one it just went through.
“I think 2021 is going to be an extremely challenging year, so I’m happy to stay involved and lend whatever expertise I can to them to make sure we keep things going in
a really positive way,” he said. “I’m excited about that; I’m honored that they thought that this would be helpful, and I’m looking forward to it; I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Meanwhile, as noted earlier, he will continue a career-long pattern of being heavily involved in the community, work that has involved nonprofits
and institutions ranging from the United Way of Pioneer Valley to Link
to Libraries; Baystate Health’s Eastern Region (Wing Memorial and Mary Lane hospitals) to the Western Mass. Economic Development Council (EDC).
“They’ve asked me to stay on for another year as chairman of the board of the Baystate Health Eastern Region,” he said. “And I just got asked by Rick Sullivan [president and CEO of the EDC] to continue on as treasurer — he said, ‘even though you’re going to be down on the Cape, can you stay on as treasurer?’ And I said, ‘as long as you’ll have me.’”
That request, and his answer in the affirmative, both speak to why Lowell is a member of this Difference Makers class of 2020. He’s almost always said ‘yes’ when asked to serve, and, more
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Photo by Leah Martin Photography