Magazine Archive
Magazine Archive
Harriet Rogers Blazed a Trail for Women
“Did you ever think you’d come into a mess like this?” Harriet Rogers asks. Though I’ve only known her for about an hour, I’ve learned quickly that she is wryly funny.
Truthfully, this interview is a little messy. In the day room at Rockridge, the assisted living facility where Harriet has lived for the past 17 years, she holds court on the couch. Around the room, 3 generations of her family listen attentively, pass around old photos, share anecdotes or shout questions. The shouting is necessary because sometimes everyone speaks at once. They are thrilled to memorialize her, and they don’t want me to miss a thing. Her nieces Susan and Jackie Ahlemeyer sit to her right; Jackie’s husband Bill and brother-in-law Bill Klaes are in the back; and Jackie’s son Brian his kids Jackson, Charlie, Joey and Grace, who have flown in from California, sprawl on the opposite couch. There are countless others here in spirit.
Veteran, Author & Resident: Meet the Fortsch Family
School assemblies can run the gamut, from fun to flops and everything in between. So when one man with one story book can keep the attention of 300+ elementary students, you know the subject matter is good. And this subject matter, and our subject this month, is the Fortsch family, who have made their way from Longmeadow to Afghanistan and back again.
1,000,000 Books Strong: Meet the Volunteers Behind Link To Libraries
Excitement filled the air on a Wednesday morning at Liberty Elementary School in Springfield. The 4th grade students had three special visitors, Jaimie Cambi of Longmeadow and her two daughters Elle (age 10) and Summer (age 5), who were there to be welcomed as the school’s new Link to Libraries Community Book Link Sponsor. As a result of their family’s generous sponsorship, Liberty Elementary School’s library receives between 200-250 new high-quality books each year.
Laurel Boyd Lives to Dance
For Laurel Boyd, dancing was an awakening. While growing up outside of Boston, the studio was a refuge from the chaos that lived in her house. It was where she escaped, not just to a space but to a place inside of her that yearned to move. When she was 9, she found joy in jazz. Her teacher, a trained ballerina, was both elegant and boundless. “Part of me thought, ‘Maybe I can be strong and powerful and beautiful,’” she remembers. “‘Maybe I can be really excellent at something.’”
Family and Fine Jewelry: Meet the Furnari Family
The Furnari family is basically the only logical choice for a Valentine’s Day edition of Longmeadow Neighbors. Between their romance that began by chance a decade ago this month, and their business, who have helped people symbolize their love for nearly a half century - the parallel rings true.
Monte Belmonte Gives Voice to the Community
Monte Belmonte has a great fake laugh. Ha-ha! “It sounds like a record skipping,” observes his 10-year-old, Pax. We’re at the Shea Theater in Turners Falls, where the longtime, bigtime radio personality and his family have been instructed to ham it up for the camera. On cue, Pax giggles infectiously. Monte’s wife Melissa, his 16-year-old Enzo and his 19-year-old Atticus are much quieter laughers, though all the kids are naturals on-stage. But while Monte made a name for himself on-air at Northampton’s WRSI “The River,” he never had to contend with the camera. He actually hates having his picture taken. But he loves being a voice for the community.
Laurie & Bill: Meet the Hatch Family
In the same way that the board game Monopoly features famous streets, Longmeadow’s Hatch family has direct descendant of the Bliss, Longfellow, Colton, Chandler, Williams families who settled in Longmeadow and have streets named after them. For Laurie Hatch, the Longmeadow is a massive part of her past and her family's future.
Candace and Raye Birk are Here for Family and the Theatre
Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention
Be astonished
Tell about it
- Mary Oliver
The scene played out so naturally, I felt like I was at the theatre. As I stood with the lifelong actors on their deck in late November, they were on a stage of sorts, responding to cues from our photographer so she could capture our next cover. Candace and Raye Birk leaned against the rail of their patio with their hands in their pockets; it was chilly, and the sun was on its way down.
Mischa Roy Believes in Magic
“Everyone has a connection to folk magic: It’s in your bones.”
Mischa Roy felt at home in the darkroom. Her parents’ photography studio had a built-in playroom, but she and her brother wanted to work. They need me, her brother would plead – anything to get his hands on prints. She watched her father manifest magic. She began to channel her own.
40+ Years, 3 Generations: Meet the Ryczek Family
Since 1978, the Ryczek family has called Longmeadow home, and while much has changed in the last nearly half-century, for the Ryczek family, it’s always been about family.
Grow Food Northampton Offers Community, Agency and Hope
At 10 a.m. on a cloudless fall day, Ruth von Goeler and Juju Carpenter open the market. A card table – long enough for 4 people to shop comfortably – showcases today’s bounty, which includes peppers, carrots, lettuce, raspberries, eggs, sausage and tofu, all grown and produced on local farms. Ears of corn gleam in their husks, available with or without a recipe card in English or Spanish, for a corn and cherry tomato salad.
Within the next half hour, about 50 patrons will line up behind the Walter Salvo House, a low-income housing development for elderly and disabled Northampton residents. Many are on a first-name basis with the food access assistants from Grow Food Northampton (GFN), who replenish the stock, again and again, from cardboard boxes stacked underneath the table. The nonprofit’s goal is to build a just and sustainable local food system, and this is their mission in action.
All Smiles: Meet the Reiff Family
As COVID-19 was upending life as we know it, the Reiff family decided to add to the chaos by moving to Longmeadow - and now that they are moved in and comfortable - they know they made the right choice.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Heroes in a Half-Shell Come Full Circle
“We’re bigger than the Beatles, dudes!” Leonardo yelled over the crowd outside the Academy of Music. The leader of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles emerged from a van to join franchise co-creators Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman at the totally tubular premiere of their second feature film in Northampton.
It was March 1991, the height of Turtlemania. After the release of their first movie, which grossed nearly $202 million worldwide in 1990, the 4 talking, walking, pizza-eating and crime-fighting Turtles were household names. Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo and Donatello were no longer just revered Renaissance artists; instead, Leo, Raph, Mikey and Donny were down-to-earth dudes who inhabited the sewers of New York City.
Like Leo said, they were also mononymous superstars like Paul, John, George and Ringo. And they were even in a band, however short-lived. During the 1990 “Oprah Winfrey Show” dedicated to the international “Coming Out of Their Shells” tour – otherwise known as the most “Radical, radical, radical!” episode of “Oprah” in existence – the Turtles sing and dance like a boy band while Winfrey touts their “triple platinum” album. As Raphael puts it, “Singing in the sewer is a wonderful sound!”
The Rinaldis - Food, Fun, Family & (Un)Forgettable
The Rinaldi Family has deep roots in the Pioneer Valley and an interest in its future. For nearly 45 years, Rinaldi's Italian Specialties served customers on Longmeadow Street, and currently, the Rinaldi Capital Group, a real estate investment firm, helps to provide quality housing and keep businesses thriving in the Longmeadow area and beyond. Robert keeps busy managing various properties owned by the family in the area, and Kathleen assists with bookkeeping.
Woman in Power: Meet Lynnette Watkins, President of Cooley Dickinson
For Lynnette Watkins, the hospital has always been home. As a young girl in St. Louis, Missouri, it was where her dad spent most weekends, visiting his patients and building his ophthalmology practice. When he had to perform cataract surgery, his little girl was entrusted to the nurses, who’d fill her with candy and lollipops to her heart’s content.
As a teenager, she worked as a candy striper in the same hospital, where she gathered bouquets at the flower shop and carted them to grateful patients’ rooms.
Now the president and chief executive officer of Cooley Dickinson Health Care, Watkins beams when she recalls her early days. “I still have a picture of me with my little hat and my candy striper outfit,” she says. “I just thought I was the bee’s knees.”
Tech & Town: Just Two Passions of Nate Munic
It’s been a journey from Ely Road, to the Carolinas and back again, but for Nate Munic, he’s enjoyed every step of the journey - and it’s all helped to inform who he is and what he does today.
“I love the neighborhood that I live in and am fond of the neighbors and how walkable the various parts of town are. My fondness for the community is also apparent in the work that I do for the town forum on Facebook, Longmeadow Pride and in the work that I do to help people with their technology in and around town.”
Garrick Perry: A Force for Good
In Northampton’s heyday, the city pulsed with music. Main Street was a treasure map for aspiring performers and loyal fans, a trail of gold coins from the Iron Horse to the Pearl Street Nightclub to the Calvin Theatre. And with a built-in support system for bands, there was bounty aplenty for everyone.
Garrick Perry, better known as “Force,” arrived on the scene in the early 2000s. He joined the local hip hop/reggae band the Alchemystics in 2004 and formed a group of MCs called the Problemaddicts two years later. Soon he began managing Bishop’s Lounge – the only late-night venue that remains open in Northampton – a bar he envisioned as the city’s “Cheers.”
“I spent a lot of time community building,” he explains. “A number of friends joked that I was sort of like the Night Mayor.”
Your Newest Selectman: Meet Vineeth and the Hemavathi Family
“Longmeadow is full of amazing, smart, and fun individuals. We also love Longmeadow’s green spaces, its walkability, and overall friendliness,” said Longmeadow resident Vineeth Hemavathi. “We often joke that we feel that Longmeadow is like Stars Hollow from Gilmore Girls – the ideal town!”
Whether you liken Longmeadow to Stars Hollow, Mayfield, Mayberry, or Agrestic, it is certainly some version of paradise for the Hemavathi-Stevens family.
Alex Cook Has a Message for You
Paintbrush in hand, Alex Cook surveyed the brick wall on Bridge Street. He’d never painted publicly before. For years he’d swapped sketchbooks with his two best friends in Wellesley. Sometimes they rode bikes to Bertucci’s just after the dinner rush, because in the restaurant was a giant chalkboard known to moonlight as a canvas. The manager gave them free dinner rolls and all-access to the chalk stash, and though their murals were ephemeral – they would be erased for tomorrow’s specials – they were always meaningful.
Meet the Verriden Family!
It seemed to be a morning like any other. The minivan containing the Verriden family had just parked at Springfield’s Academy Hill School. Zach Verriden looked at his children grinning and giggling in the back three rows like they always did. But on this day, Zach (also Academy Hill’s principal) saw another adorable face - the children had smuggled their puppy, Gus, into the van!
It’s hard to fluster Zach, the even-kneeled midwesterner who dedicates his life to working with children - but the dog abduction by his well-intentioned children almost broke Verriden. Luckily, he was able to turn the dilemma into delight as the students of Academy Hill had a new mascot for the day - although Zach’s gray hairs are forever.
Such hijinks are the norm in the Verriden household. Zach and Anya, and their four children Henry (9), Tommy (8), Katy (7) and Sam (4), and their three dogs, Rosy (12), Maggie (2), and Gus (4 months), are always up to something. Sports and dance, Cub Scouts and Daisy’s, art, swimming, music, enrichment activities, and more, the Verriden’s are on the move.