Franklin Downtown Partnership Requests Your Support Of Franklin Businesses

During these challenging times for small businesses, the Franklin Downtown Partnership (FDP) reminds you to visit its website and social media to find out what’s going on with local businesses and find ways to support them. Please like, follow and share our social media posts! If you’re looking for contact info for a specific local business, visit our website’s member directory, located on the home page, with links to all our members.

• Website: www.franklindowntownpartnership.org
• Facebook: franklindowntownpartnership.org
• Instagram: franklindowntownpartnership
• Twitter: @FranklinDowntwn

As always, we encourage you to support our small businesses which are the lifeblood of our community. Not only do they provide essential goods and services, small businesses also support our community organizations and projects through donations of goods and sponsorships. Please remember Keep It Local - Support Franklin Businesses!

The Franklin Downtown Partnership is a nonprofit, 501©3 organization made up of more than 300 business owners, community leaders and residents working to stimulate economic development downtown and create a positive impact throughout the area.

 

Franklin Downtown Partnership Requests Your Support Of Franklin Businesses

350 Mass Greater Franklin Node Meeting, Thursday, February 18, 7:00 PM

Hello to our members and supporters. The Greater Franklin Node of 350 Massachusetts will meet this week, Thursday, February 18 , at 7:00 PM.  Here are the the Zoom details, and a preview of the meeting.

 

Join Zoom Meeting. 

https://zoom.us/j/544734092?pwd=N3hwYzZBazRYZG9ycHRsbmliVkMxZz09

Meeting ID: 544 734 092

Password: 350ma

Audio by phone: +1 646 876 9923  

 

There's no need to RSVP, and we'll send a reminder on Thursday.

 

Meeting Agenda

The principal topics at this meeting will be: 

• State legislative action on climate: In January the state Senate and House of Representatives passed the Next Generation Roadmap Climate Bill, only to see it vetoed by Governor Baker. The legislature proceeded to vote again and pass the same bill. The Governor sent it back with amendments. Read about it and take action here. 
   
  • In a related development, the coalition Mass Power Forward has scheduled a Lobby Day (via Zoom) for March 4th. For the new legislative session, Mass Power Forward will be advocating for 3 main groups of bills: the Environmental Justice Table's priorities; the MA Renews Alliance work to rapidly retrofit homes to be affordable, efficient, electric and climate healing; and continuing our work from last session to get Massachusetts to 100% renewable energy. Information and registration here.

• 350 Mass 2021-22 Campaign: Our priorities will include promoting energy-efficient housing and transportation. We will discuss these projects and roles for our Node within this region of the state.

As always, we'll touch on other developments in climate and energy news, and we'll identify ways that we can contribute as a Node and individually. 

 

Thanks for your participation and support.

 

Node Co-coordinators,

Carolyn Barthel

Ralph Halpern

 

Ralph Halpern

ralph.halpern@comcast.net

781-784-3839 (h)

339-203-5017 (c)

FHS girls hockey come back to win in 3rd period over Mansfield/OA

Via Hockomock Sports we can share the results of the FHS girls hockey game on Tuesday  

Girls Hockey = Mansfield/Oliver Ames, 2 @ Franklin, 3 – Final 
– Trailing 1-0 after two periods, Franklin rallied with three goals in the third to pick up the victory and finish the season with a five-game win streak. Lindsay Atkinson, Amanda Lewandowski, and Libby Carter had the goals for the Panthers.

For the other results around the Hockomock League

https://hockomocksports.com/tuesdays-schedule-scoreboard-02-16-21/

FHS girls hockey come back to win in 3rd period over Mansfield/OA

Massachusetts HS Football Coverage: MIAA 2021 Preseason Top 50 Teams

Massachusetts HS Football Coverage (@massfball) tweeted on Tue, Feb 16, 2021:

MIAA 2021 Preseason Top 50 Teams

Teams 50-26

Rankings will be updated throughout the Fall II season. https://t.co/cTMnR9C7A6

https://twitter.com/massfball/status/1361823069661237248

Massachusetts HS Football Coverage: MIAA 2021 Preseason Top 50 Teams

   

ArtWalk in Planning Stages, if businesses are interested please respond by Feb 19

Dear Franklin Cultural District Partners,

The mission of the Franklin Cultural District is to foster and encourage culture and the arts in our community.

To support this mission the Franklin Cultural District Committee (FCDC)  and the Franklin Art Association (FAA)  are working collaboratively to plan an ArtWalk event through the Franklin Cultural District. These groups are excited to feature several local Franklin artists and to support our local businesses.

The hope is that by offering this visual art display we will encourage more foot traffic through the Franklin Cultural District and the downtown area.

At this point in time the project is in the planning stages. We will have more details to share when we hear about the plan of our Cultural District Partners.

Currently the FCDC and the FAA are looking for:

• Merchants/business owners who would be willing to have artwork displayed in their storefronts. The FCDC and the FAA will connect merchants with the artists
• Although most of the artwork will be hung in the storefront windows, individual businesses could also have artwork inside their establishments if agreed upon with an artist
• The artwork would be displayed by June 11th and would remain in store windows for the remainder of June and if possible during July as well
• Any materials needed to have the artwork displayed will be taken care of by the FCDC

If you would be interested in participating in this event, please contact Nancy Schoen at nschoenfranklinculture@gmail.com  by Friday, February 19, 2021.

We hope that many of you will be willing to participate!

Regards,

The Franklin Cultural District Committee and The Franklin Art Association

ArtWalk in Planning Stages, if businesses are interested please respond by Feb 19

Changes at the Franklin Food Pantry

Greetings!

We hope this email finds you well and you and your loved ones are safe and healthy. Life at The Pantry remains as busy as ever as we continue to provide our neighbors with fresh fruit and vegetables, proteins, and shelf-stable items. We are so grateful for your continued support over the past year, we could not continue to do the good work we do without you. While things may look a little different at The Pantry right now, our community is still such an important part of our organization and we wanted to share some internal changes with you.

We are pleased to announce that the Chair of the Board of Directors, Tina Powderly, will become our Executive Director and that Lynn Calling will move to the newly created position of Director of Development and Community Engagement. 

Tina Powderly

In her new role, Lynn will be spending her time on the new building Capital Campaign as well as work more closely with the individuals, groups and corporations who contribute to our mission. Tina will be responsible for the day-to-day Pantry operations and long-term strategic goals. Besides Tina’s move, our Board will remain the same with our current Treasurer, Jim Roche serving as the Interim Chair. These changes will take effect on March 1, 2021.

While this past year has been a challenge, we are proud of how we have continued to serve our neighbors. We surprised our neighbors with restaurant and supermarket gift cards, fresh flowers, special treats, and a choice table. We instituted weekly kids bags for families during the pandemic and still were able to do our annual Thanksgiving and winter holiday distribution. We continued a twice weekly drive-up distribution service so that even during the darkest days of the pandemic, our neighbors did not go hungry.

If you have any questions about The Pantry or just want to say hello, please do not hesitate to reach out to us at either: Tina Powderly or Lynn Calling. We look forward to a bright future and a reimagined Pantry!

Regards,

Tina Powderly and Lynn Calling 
Franklin Food Pantry

• Tina's email => tpowderly@franklinfoodpantry.org
• Lynn's email => lcalling@franklinfoodpantry.org

Changes at the Franklin Food Pantry

“The pandemic really laid bare just how critical a role childcare plays"

 

"A COALITION OF early education advocates will introduce an ambitious proposal Tuesday to completely overhaul the state’s early education system. The legislation would provide universal, affordable early education in Massachusetts, turning childcare from a system that is now largely private pay to one that is primarily publicly funded. 

The plan would cost hundreds of millions of dollars and the coalition has not yet proposed how to pay for it. At a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has shed a spotlight on the importance of childcare to the economy –– and the fragility of the existing childcare system – the plan, while unlikely to pass, could provide a foundation for broader discussions about how to make childcare more accessible. It is being introduced at the same time as new powerful coalitions – a business organization and a philanthropic group –– are beginning to focus intensely on how to improve early education."

Continue reading the article online

https://commonwealthmagazine.org/education/advocates-push-universal-publicly-funded-early-education