Atkins replaces Inaugural Ball with a weekend of volunteering
Posted in: Articles, Community outreach, Updates on 12/23/2008
By Patrick Ball/Staff Writer
Tue Dec 23, 2008, 04:20 PM EST
Concord – The Concord Inaugural Ball has been cancelled.
It’s not that state Rep. Cory Atkins, D-Concord, is not going to celebrate the inauguration of Barack Obama as the nation’s 44th president. It’s just that she’s going to do it a little differently than how she first planned.
Instead of dressing to the nines and cutting up the floor, Atkins and members of the local branch of the Obama campaign will be donating time and weather stripping doors. They will be reaching across the aisle and volunteering in an apolitical effort to help Concord’s less fortunate residents weather a winter that promises to be stormy on multiple fronts.
“Right now, there are better ways to celebrate this occasion,” said Atkins, who will spend Saturday, Jan. 17, weatherizing homes with Concord Cares volunteers. “The goal is to keep people together and connected to their community and to make sure no one’s left behind.”
Atkins thought the time, money and resources going into the ball would be better spent encouraging people to do a service project, which she believes is more in line with President-elect Obama’s mission.
“In this economy, we just couldn’t do it,” Atkins said of the bi-partisan ball she planned to hold for all Concord residents. “The costs were piling up and it was just getting too expensive. If the economy were better, we’d just hike up the tickets.”
Supporting Concord Cares was always part of the plan, as Atkins originally intended to donate all the proceeds to this group of community leaders and town staff that has emerged over the past few months to coordinate efforts to assist the less fortunate in town.
“It’s a perfect example of what I think our new president wants us to do,” said Berni Jenkins, a volunteer coordinator for Concord Cares. “What I see happening that day — and maybe other Saturdays — is a large group of volunteers coming together in the morning and then going out in the community to offer this service. The blitz, as we see it now, is really the 17th and 18th to start this off and keep it going through the winter.”
Jenkins said weatherizing a home involves installing plastic storm windows, weather-stripping doors to prevent drafts and mounting foam insulation inserts on electrical outlets. The Concord Municipal Light Plant donates all the materials.
The outpouring of volunteers has been widespread, including students from Minuteman Regional High School, Concord Middle School, Concord-Carlisle High School and Concord Academy responding. Volunteering opportunities have also been publicized in the town’s laity bulletins.
“It’s been amazing,” Jenkins said, adding that volunteers thus far have outnumbered requests. “Everybody thinks it’s a wonderful idea and they want to participate. I think the fact that it’s something concrete, it’s something you can see, has helped.”
The pilot weatherization took place Dec. 5 as a group of Thoreau Club volunteers, which once a month does something to assist their elders, bundled up the homes of three Concord seniors.
“Most everything went just right,” Council on Aging Director Maryanne Mortenson said, adding that 14 seniors thus far have asked for help weatherizing their homes. “We’re hoping that as the word gets out and the winter hits harder people will say, ‘Gee, this is a good thing to take advantage of.’”
Mortenson does a brief phone interview with each to get a sense of their specific needs and has fielded requests for materials only from three residents who have done their own weatherization.
“Not everybody’s taking everything,” she said. “Some people have doors that are drafty and they want the stripping. Others just want the windows, and some people have good storm windows and doors stripped and they want the outlets covered. One lady, we delivered the stuff and her son is coming for a week for Christmas and he is going to do it.”
The Council on Aging fields weatherization requests from residents over 60 years of age, while Julia Crozier, the community services coordinator for Concord and Carlisle, takes calls from residents younger than 60.
Although she has not seen a huge response from residents under age 60 looking for weatherization, Crozier said she has received a significant number of calls seeking fuel assistance, which is another aspect of Concord Cares’ three-pronged approach.
“It’s hard to know exactly how many people need help and how many are calling,” Crozier said about the response to the Concord Cares initiatives. “But it’s up about 50 percent from last fall. And I’m sure it’s going to get stronger as we get more publicity and find more outlets.”
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