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Date: 12/30/2021
WILBRAHAM – Aurora Pierangelo Frias described herself as a life-long resident of Wilbraham who had moved away, but recently returned to raise her family. When she moved back to town, she said she read the Facebook community forum, but found it lacked information about what was going on in the community.
A friend from Connecticut acts as a “welcome wagon” in the town in which she lives, bringing welcome baskets to people who move to town. “I thought, ‘This is such a good idea,’” Pierangelo Frias said.
Pierangelo Frias, who has a background in marketing and business, began drumming up support for a welcome project by setting up a table at the Main Street Farmers Market in the spring. She soon enlisted friends to help.
Pierangelo Frias described the Wilbraham Welcome Project as, “A new initiative to be really welcoming and a source of information.”
The organization’s slogan, “Celebrate. Cultivate. Champion,” was described by Pierangelo Frias, who said, “We want to celebrate our town and cultivate links in our community. We really want to partner with local businesses to support them. That’s the champion part.”
Currently, the group is funded by the organizers, but they are hoping to build enough resources to allow it to fund itself perpetually.
Instead of being solely a social media product, The Wilbraham Welcome Project has real-world aspects. “We know things are changing. Social media is a really good tool, but you can miss things,” Pierangelo Frias.
The group is developing a resident guide, which is expected to be ready in January. They are also creating an aggregate event calendar – a one-stop-shop to find events from the school district, town, non-profits and more.
“We have a lot of big plans for 2022. We are always looking for new partners to join the project – realtors interested in our new resident guide for their clients and businesses interested in participating in our new resident gift bag. For current residents, we’d love to connect with more community and civic organizations to see how we can mutually support each other’s missions.”
Another project the organization came up with is a physical 2022 calendar featuring photos have been both submitted by Hampden and Wilbraham residents and/or were taken in Hampden and Wilbraham. The theme is “Past and Present.”
Aside from the calendars, the project is offering other merchandise to raise money for local organizations, such as peach-shaped ornaments created by Alessandra Corbett of The Homegrown Studio. They feature the town’s zip code and slogans like “Proud Townie” and “Love Local.” There are also hats with the zip code on them.
The Wilbraham Welcome Project sold ornaments and calendar pre-orders at the Wilbraham Children’s Museum Holiday Light Trail of Wilbraham on Dec. 17. A portion of the proceeds from the calendars went to the museum and other community organizations. They also donated a raffle basket to the Holly Fair at Wilbraham United Church earlier in the month.
“The whole idea comes down to a local love of this area,” Pierangelo Frias said. “I grew up here and I couldn’t imagine raising my kids anywhere else. I want everyone to feel that sense of small town that we grew up with.”
The 2022 calendars are $12 and a portion of each sale goes toward various community organizations in Wilbraham and Hampden. Calendars can be ordered by messaging on Facebook and Instagram @wilbrahamwelcomeproject, emailing wilbrahamwelcomeproject@gmail.com, or calling 252-9776.