Please help support our Food Drive on June 28!

 

DRIVE UP and DROP OFF items on Saturday!

Food Drive for Neighbors Helping Neighbors Food Pantry
Saturday, June 28,2025
9:00am to 12:00pm (rain or shine)
South Hadley High School, 153 Newton Street
Hosted by South Hadley Democratic Town Committee

All food and monetary donations are accepted; please make checks payable to Neighbors Helping Neighbors. Items most in demand include any and all feminine hygiene products, shampoo and conditioner, toothpaste, deodorant, bar soap, pet food for cats and dogs (canned or dry), hot or cold cereal, soups, and canned meats such as Spam, corned beef hash, and beef stew. Please be sure to check expiration dates.

This weekend's Food Drive is organized by members of SHDTC in collaboration with Mary Lou Guarnera, executive director of South Hadley's Neighbors Helping Neighbors food Pantry. Please pass along the information to neighbors and friends, and read the latest edition of our Updates Newsletter for more information about food insecurity and similar drives in Belchertown, Granby, and Ludlow.

• SHDTC Updates-Issue 74-South Hadley Food Drive
• Please download and share the Food Drive Flyer (pdf) 

Convention Volunteer Recruitment

Opportunities are available for volunteers to support the Massachusetts state Democratic Party Convention in September, which will be held in Springfield. Online training will be provided. For more information see the Convention Volunteer Sign-Up Form.

Human Rights

 

The promise of our democracy is one of full and equal freedoms for all of us. Not just for the wealthy or well connected. Not just for those of us that have access to the inner circle of government or big business. Our freedoms are etched in the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence and rely upon the people’s rights to be safe, loved and trusted. That’s what we are fighting for. That’s why we resist the unfettered power of autocrats. Our latest newsletter encourages us to “stand up and stand out” against the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle DEI, racist rhetoric, attacks on academic freedom and immigrants, and unspeakable transphobic policies.

If you can, plan to participate in upcoming standouts on June 7 in South Hadley and June 14 in Granby that are detailed in our newsletter. And, if you are able, please plan to support our FOOD DRIVE on June 28, which is part of a regional effort with DTCs in Granby, Belchertown, and Ludlow to address needs in our communities. This is a great time to grab extras of good sale items start to gather items from our cupboards to fill bags for the end of June!

• SHDTC Updates-Issue 73-Human Rights-052825 
• June 28 South Hadley FOOD DRIVE Flyer

Upcoming Events

Our next business meeting is Thursday, July 17 at 6:30pm in the South Hadley Library Trustee's Conference Room. Meetings are typically on third Thursdays and hybrid-online; participants may attend in-person at the Library or online via Zoom. To obtain a meeting link, join our mailing list, or for other information about SHDTC, please email: southhadleydemocrats@gmail.com. 

First Friday Breakfast and Conversation
Plan to join us at for summer First Friday gatherings at 8:30am on Friday, June 6 and August 1 at Tailgate Picnic Deli (www.tailgatepicnicdeli.com) in the Village Commons, 7 College Street, South Hadley. There is no gathering in July. Conversation is casual with no set agenda, just a chance to talk about local, national and international affairs and join in community with others, Democrat or not, South Hadley resident or not. Buy your own coffee/pastries or snacks (cash preferred), all are welcome.

Mark your calendars these upcoming actions and join with Americans across the country to make your voice heard:

• Stand United for Human Rights
  Saturday, June 7, 2025
  10:00-10:30am: Center Church-First Saturday Standout
  10:30-11:30am: SHDTC-Stand Up and Stand Out
  Stand out along Rt 116 from Center Church and Town Common
• NO KINGS Granby
  Saturday, June 14, 2024
  10:30am to 12:30pm
  Stand out along Rt 202 from 77 W State St

Other local events of interest:

FOOD DRIVE-June 28 from 9am-12pm at SHHS
Hosted by SHDTC for Neighbors Helping Neighbors

Know Your Town End of the Year Meeting/Potluck
Thursday, June 5 at 5:00pm
Community Room at South Hadley Library, 2 Canal St
Speaker: Michael DeChiara, Future and Feasibility of Solar Energy
www.knowyourtown.org

MHC Geothermal Hub Community Info Session
Thursday, June 5 at 7:30pm
Gamble Auditorium at Mount Holyoke College
Parking: Lower Lake Rd and Prospect Hall lot (enter from Park St)
www.southhadley.org

Gaylord Library Wine, Cheese and Chocolate 2025
Friday, June 13 at 5:30pm
On the Lawn at Gaylord Library, 47 College St
gaylord library.org/friends

June 28th FOOD DRIVE

Get ready to help support Neighbors Helping Neighbors-South Hadley Food Pantry, and save the date to DRIVE UP and DROP OFF items at South Hadley High School!

Food Drive for Neighbors Helping Neighbors Food Pantry
Saturday, June 28,2025
9:00am to 12:00pm (rain or shine)
South Hadley High School, 153 Newton Street
Hosted by South Hadley Democratic Town Committee

All food and monetary donations are accepted; please make checks payable to Neighbors Helping Neighbors. Items most in demand include any and all feminine hygiene products, shampoo and conditioner, toothpaste, deodorant, bar soap, pet food for cats and dogs (canned or dry), hot or cold cereal, soups, and canned meats such as Spam, corned beef hash, and beef stew. Please be sure to check expiration dates. 

Monetary donations also accepted (please make checks payable to Neighbors Helping Neighbors).

This is a regional effort to help local families. Democratic Town Committees in Granby, Belchertown, and Ludlow are also planning local food drives on the same date. 

Please download and share our Food Drive Flyer (pdf)!

Upcoming Events

Our next business meeting is Thursday, May 15 at 6:30pm in the South Hadley Library Trustee's Conference Room. Meetings are hybrid-online; participants may attend in-person at the Library or online via Zoom. In months when we meet, we typically do so on the third Thursday of the month. To obtain a meeting link, join our mailing list, or for other information about SHDTC, please email: southhadleydemocrats@gmail.com. 

First Friday Breakfast and Conversation
Plan to join us at our next First Friday gathering at 8:30am on Friday, June 6 at the Tailgate Picnic Deli (www.tailgatepicnicdeli.com) in the Village Commons, 7 College Street, South Hadley. There will be no gathering in July and First Fridays will resume on Friday, August 1. Conversation is casual, there is no set agenda, just a chance to talk about local, national and international affairs and join in community with others, Democrat or not, South Hadley resident or not. Participants buy their own coffee/pastries or snacks (cash preferred), and all are welcome.

Mark your calendars for Saturday, June 14, 2025 and plan to join with Americans across the country for a NO KINGS national day of action.

Democracy in Distress

To continue our resistance to the chaos of the current administration and its attempts to undermine our democracy, we're organizing another non-violent, non-partisan standout. This action is part of a national Day of Action designed to recognize May Day (aka International Workers Day), but also plays on the internationally-recognized radio distress call, "May Day! May Day!" In New England, with its strong sailing tradition, the phrase can often mean that "the ship is going down," and fears about that very thing currently happening to our democracy are not hyperbole. See our latest newsletter for more information, and plan to join us if you can.

SHDTC Updates-Issue 72-May Day! May Day!-042425

One if by land, two if by D.C.

Old North Church Projections
northend.page/old-north-projections

The Old North Church in Boston offered a traditional Lantern Service on April 18, 2025 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the famous signal from the church's steeple on the eve of the American Revolution began. Noted historian and author Heather Cox Richardson was the keynote speaker.

Outside, images projected on the building beneath the steeple cycled through a series of messages in period lettering, such as "One if by land, two if by D.C.," an effort attributed to a group called Silence Dogood. Adopting a pen name used by Benjamin Franklin to write about tyranny, the grassroots group has recently projected messaging on historic buildings as a form of public art to "remind people of Boston's long history of protest and resistance."

No Kings in America

Battle of Lexington, 19 April, 1775
National Army Museum, London

The thirteen American colonies had long resisted British efforts to impose taxes to recoup costs of The French and Indian War (1754-1763), leading to growing unrest. Taxes on printed material proposed under the Stamp Act of 1765 led to the formation of the Sons of Liberty. A new duty on tea and other goods in 1767 and seizure of John Hancock's sloop, the Liberty, increased tensions and led to the Occupation of Boston by British troops in 1768. In 1770, an unruly protest ended with shots fired by soldiers in the Boston Massacre. 

The Tea Act of 1773 was followed by the Boston Tea Party, a legendary planned act of defiance that rallied the other colonies to the cause. In 1774, as more colonists rejected imperial rule and supported the cause of freedom, British monarch King George declared Massachusetts to be in a state of rebellion, closed Boston Harbor, and ordered the patriots be disarmed. 

On the night of April 18, 1775, Paul Revere and William Dawes were sent out to Lexington and Concord to alert rebel leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock of British plans to arrest them and to capture or destroy stockpiled munitions in Concord.

On April 19, 1775, the first shots of the Revolution were fired, on Lexington Green. No one knows who fired first. Some 25,000-70,000 Patriots died during the Revolutionary War, which ended eight years later with the Treaty of Paris, on September 3, 1783.  

On July 4, 1776, America's Declaration of Independence from British rule was signed by 56 delegates to the Second Continental Congress. The United States Constitution was written in 1787 and ratified in 1788, with all 13 states signing on by 1790.

Our nation's founders fought long and hard to rid themselves of King George, "A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people." 

The vision of freedom that grew out of decades of struggle "to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity" is enshrined in our Constitution and its Bill of Rights. 

The Patriots Day observance on Monday offers a time to reflect on the enormous debt we have to those who came before us. No Kings events on April 19, and through the weekend in many nearby communities and nationwide, offer each of us an opportunity to stand up again in defense of our constitution and our democracy.   

SHDTC Updates-Issue 71-No Kings in America-041825