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Date: 11/2/2023
HUNTINGTON — The 25th anniversary of the Southern Hilltowns Domestic Violence Task Force, observed on Oct. 26 in Stanton Hall, began with a moment of silence for victims Karen May Hart, Jessica Dana and recently, Breanne Pennington, and ended with survivors sharing their stories.
In 2002, Blandford resident Karen May Hart was murdered by her ex-husband, who then killed himself.
In 2012, Huntington’s Jessica Dana was strangled to death by her partner and the father of her children.
On Oct. 22, Breanne Pennington of Gardner was found dead in her home. The suspect, her husband Aaron Pennington, has not been located.
Also speaking were Hampshire County District Attorney David Sullivan; Kim Savery, director of Hilltown Safety at Home and community outreach programs for the Hilltown Community Health Centers; Phil Barry, Erin Hart’s brother-in-law, a 20-year member and chair of Hilltown Safety at Home; Dan Kennedy, who retired from the State Police’s Russell Barracks and helped to launch Hilltown Safety at Home; and survivors Melissa Reid and Liz Massa.
Donna Larocque, co-director of the task force, read some of the milestones over the last 25 years for co-director Monica Moran, who was there from the beginning but was ill on Thursday.
“It has been a real honor,” said Moran in her message.
Larocque said in contrast to 25 years ago, nowadays victims in the Hilltowns are more likely to get help from a local advocate and go to court with an advocate; they are more likely to request a hearing, and more likely to have a faith leader who knows where to get help.
In 2006, Hilltown Safety at Home was launched by the task force to provide domestic violence advocacy including transportation, court accompaniment and home visits. A police protocol was developed that allows the advocate to follow up on domestic violence police calls. The number of local domestic violence survivors who got help increased tenfold from about five a year to over 50.
Also in 2006, Gateway Regional High School and the task force launched their first-in-the-nation social norms dating violence prevention campaign, which was used as a model in several states.
In 2012, the Karen May Hart Memorial Scholarship was established, awarding up to $1,500 annually to a Gateway Regional High School senior. The scholarship remains active today.
In 2015, Hilltown Safety at Home moved to Hilltown Community Health Centers, having become too big for the task force to run. HCHC increased the number of rural towns served.
“All of this has happened because of a joint and sustained effort by this community,” Larocque said, adding that over the last 25 years, over 150 people have been involved. “When you ask people in the Hilltowns to help, they show up.”
She said there’s not a lot of talk about philosophy or who gets credit, but how to get resources into the community.
Sullivan said he has been a strong ally of the task force for many years, and attended every interfaith vigil. He said the DA’s task force offers advocacy services for victims of domestic violence.
“Love shouldn’t hurt,” he said. “I just want you to all know that our office will always be there for you.”
Barry remarked that it was incredible how fast 25 years can go. He thanked “each and every person in the Hilltowns who have embraced our efforts,” adding that there is a lot of work left to do.
Dan Kennedy, retired from the State Police’s Russell Barracks, said the State Police are there to help, working with the local police. He said he knew of two people whose lives were saved because the state and local police worked together and made an arrest.
Then survivor Melissa Reid of Chester, a past Board of Health member who helped to launch the Interfaith Vigil, read a moving poem, “Hey There Beautiful,” that she had written about her own experiences. One line of her poem reads: “The abuse you have endured should never be accepted as the norm.”
Reid now teaches at Littleville Elementary School, and is active in community organizations.
“I don’t consider myself brave, I feel I’m more a woman determined to make change happen so that my children and grandchildren never have to experience domestic violence,” she said after the reading.
Savery, the director of Hilltown Safety at Home, said she is also a survivor and the mother of a victim.
“We all know more than one” victim, she said. “I know that, because I’m the data person.”
She said domestic violence in rural areas is a critical problem, exacerbated by isolation, lack of resources, and poverty. She sees the role of the task force as ensuring that every survivor elevates their shame to proclamation.
“I’m honored to have been a member of this task force,” Savery said, adding that she has seen the needle move on awareness efforts, education, and interfaith and police cooperation.
She pointed to the people in Stanton Hall wearing purple armbands: “Seek one of us out. This room is full of allies.”
The last speaker was survivor Liz Massa, who said she had never told her story to a roomful of people before. She said for almost 20 years she had been in an abusive marriage, in which she disappeared and had no identity.
One night after dinner, soon after they had moved to their “dream house” in Russell, “it was really bad, worse than before.” Massa felt the need to run, barefoot, to the State Police barracks, and pound on the door to be let in. Three minutes later, her husband came there after her.
Massa said troopers used a taser on him in the lobby and arrested him, because they couldn’t control him.
They gave her a card for Hilltown Safety at Home.
“Then I met Gail Bobbin. I had no one, my mom was too frail, and my father passed away a long time ago. Gail talked to me like she was my best friend,” Massa said. Bobbin was the outreach coordinator for the task force.
Massa said when she got home that night after running to the Russell Barracks, everything in her home was trashed and her furniture was burning in the backyard. Yet she was the happiest she had been in a long time, because she was free, she said.
Massa said in many ways, Bobbin was the mother she never had, who cared for her like she was her own.
“She made the abuse something I could admit to myself and others,” she said. Bobbin also stood by her during her divorce, which took over four and a half years in several courts.
Since that time, Massa, who lives in Chester, now serves on the town’s Board of Health, the Planning Board, and is the director of parks and trails. She serves on Jacob’s Ladder Scenic Byway, the Jacob’s Ladder Business Association, the Southern Hilltown Adult Education Center, and is the co-founder and director of Western Massachusetts Hilltown Hikers, among other activities.
“I do so many things because I can,” Massa said, adding, “This organization is key to so many people. I firmly believe that’s why I’m here today. All of these people who work within the task force are essential in helping all in need and have saved many lives, and will continue to save more for years to come.”