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Date: 8/30/2022
LUDLOW – During the Ludlow Board of Selectmen’s Aug. 23 meeting, the board met with representatives from the Ludlow CARES Coalition to discuss their upcoming programming.
Laura Rooney, the president of Ludlow CARES Coalition, said one of the upcoming events the coalition is hosting is bringing in Laura Stack, the author of “The Dangerous Truth about Marijuana,” to speak at the high school on Sept. 29.
“What she does is she really breaks down what marijuana does to the brain and its impact on the brain, and its use has been normalized and really not combatted to youth as a dangerous thing for them. It’s claiming a lot of benefits, but it can truly be dangerous for young people,” she said.
Rooney said there will be three separate presentations for different age groups. The first of which is grades 8 through 10, the second is grades 11 and 12 and the final group is parents in an evening seminar to back up what the students learn during the day.
Some of the other upcoming events for Ludlow CARES include sponsoring the bounce house during the Day for Kids at the Randall Community Center/Boys and Girls Club, hosting a raffle at the Community Market on Sept. 24 and 25 and helping with the ski team’s Hope Stroll in September. Rooney also announced that Red Ribbon week would return the week of Oct. 23 through Oct. 30, along with the walk to remember at the Boys and Girls’ club on Oct. 23 in partnership with the Michael J. Dias foundation.
“We always want to add more,” Rooney said.
Rooney added that Ludlow CARES is completely volunteer-run organization.
“Every year we raise our own money to operate, we try to raise between $20,000 and $25,000 a year. We are in the midst of our fundraising campaign, you can donate right on our website through PayPal, and there’s different donations levels that are listed out there,” she said.
Rooney said she is hoping the organization is able to reach its $25,000 to continue with its Valentine’s Day program for seniors, its Share the Care Campaign and its Ultimate Dance Party.
Rooney, along with Student Advisory Board representative Jack Favata also discussed the Preventing Accidental Poisoning Seminar with the Hampden County District Attorney’s Office, which was hosted at Ludlow High School on Aug. 16. This seminar was hosted specifically to discuss how high school students are using social media to buy drugs and the dangers of counterfeit pills and fentanyl. For more information about this event, readers can refer to Reminder Publishing’s coverage of the seminar here: http://archives.thereminder.com/localnews/ludlow/ludlow-hosts-preventing-accidental-poisoning-semin/.
Favata highlighted the importance of events like the seminar at the high school.
“I definitely think that events where speakers come in, which is one of the things that Ludlow CARES is going to help this year, where you really hear actually accounts and first-hand experiences from people who have dealt with drugs, what the consequences are like,” he said. “That is really going to send a message to the young people, especially of this town and this district, that drugs are harmful and can cause serious problems.”
Board Vice Chair James Gennette said he was happy with the work Ludlow CARES is doing in town.
“It’s pretty scary out there right now and I think we are really not breaking the cycle here with the opioids, fentanyl and all these other things. It’s nice to know that Ludlow CARES is out there and doing everything they can to be proactive with stuff like that and what an amazing thing to have in town,” he said.
High school track update
Following a discussion with the engineers for the town’s project to renovate the track and fields during the board’s Aug. 9 meeting, board Chair Tony Goncalves provided an update on the project, including projections for renovations to the baseball field, which was not included in the previous presentation.
“Mr. [board member Derek] DeBarge had some concerns over the baseball diamond – I think we all had concerns that it was overlooked,” Goncalves said. “As of right now the engineers or working on expanding and doing something with the dugouts, some netting and fencing down the first and third base lines, they’re looking at trying to move it a little bit to accommodate a bigger area, they are definitely going to be changing out the dirt in the infield and going to clay.”
Once the finalizations to the design for the project are complete, Goncalves said the board will give the design one final approval before it goes out to bid. He added that the money has already been appropriated for the baseball field changes.
Board member Manny Silva said he was happy the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds were going to the track project.
“This is a great thing for us to funnel these funds into. We need to give the young people something to do and somewhere to go and we keep cutting things. I remember as a kid there was so much to do and Whitney Park was out of this world, no it seems to me they just don’t have much to do,” he said.
The Ludlow Board of Selectmen next meets on Sept. 6.