Date: 9/15/2021
Previous letter writers have made good arguments for the need of a new senior center in Wilbraham. Everything from lack of services for elders to making more space to serve a growing population of seniors has been discussed.
As a local history writer, I have another view of why we need to provide a vital community resource for our seniors. Throughout our town’s history our citizens have risen to the challenge when the need was imminent.
Back in 1741 when the town was comprised of 24 settler families they felt an urgent need to hire a minister and build a church and rectory in the wilderness on Wigwam Hill (the current Tinkham Road). So, after years of arguments and meetings they rose to the occasion and hired newly ordained Rev. Noah Mirick for “commodities and salary of one hundred pounds a year” to minister to their spiritual needs. Rev. Noah Mirick spent the rest of his lifetime in Wilbraham and was the most influential man in those colonial days.
In the 1950s, the decision to build a new high school in town was not made suddenly. Early proposals had been made in the 1870s but the plans fell through. The town was paying as much as $475 per student in tuition for them to attend Springfield high schools. Wilbraham was growing and the need was severely felt that a new high school should be built on cornfields off Main Street. At a Special Town Meeting Oct. 22, 1956, community-minded citizens, joined with those in Hampden, voted to accept the proposal of a new regional high school district and built the first Minnechaug Regional High School. The class of 1961 was the first class to graduate.
In 1972, after one year of investigation and research, the results of the Recreation Study Committee, were reported to the selectmen at the Annual Town Meeting. Out of that need for recreation for our youngsters came the immediate establishment of a Parks and Recreation Commission, a full-time recreation director and a town-wide Master Plan.
In each of these historical needs the community-minded residents of our town came through. Its now time to apply those hard-earned endeavors we saw throughout our history and encourage a new senior center that has been long-studied and researched. Please support the New Senior Center Proposal at the Oct. 18 Special Town Meeting at Minnechaug and a debt exclusion ballot election Oct. 23, also at Minnechaug.
In the words of modern thinker and community advocate Margaret Wheatley, “There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.”
Charlie Bennett
Wilbraham
