(L-R) Chamber of Commerce Director Kate Phelon, Dunkin’ manager Mariely Serrano, Councilor Cindy C. Harris,, Franchisee Manny Sardinha, Mayor Brian P. Sullivan, Franchisee Paul Sardinha, Sen. Don Humason, Chiara McNally, and “Cuppy.” (Photo by Amy Porter)
Hello Westfield!
Happy Labor Day weekend folks. Another week goes by and we are suddenly upon the start of the school year, time sure does fly! It’s been an exciting week for our area as we start to go into the fall time where we have more holidays, events, and meetings to go to. We have been very busy with constituent work, so make sure to keep coming up to us wherever we are. It is very important to us to make sure we are working with you to hopefully figure out anything that is going on in your lives. It is a very busy time of year for these types of things and is such a great way to get to see more of the people of Westfield!
I would like to take this time to introduce myself. My name is Chiara McNally and I am the new Legislative Aide in the office. The Representative thought it was important for all of you to know who may be answering your calls or helping with your constituent requests. I am very excited to be working in Westfield and meeting all of you, it has been such a great time so far learning about all the important topics to you all! A little bit of background about me, I am from the Greater Boston Aaea and moved out to Westfield to go to college at Westfield State University. I graduated with a major in Criminal Justice and minor in Political Science. After college I worked at the YWCA as an advocate and now I am here! I am very grateful to the people I have met and experiences that brought me to being in this position to help you with any issues that you may have.
It has taken some getting used to this current position, as we help more specifically with requests dealing with state agencies. This is where we are able to thrive and help you best. It is such important work to us and we hope to do the best we can to make your lives a little bit easier if there is some issue you are running into. I have had a very busy month getting used to the office, events that pop up, and meeting new people, it has been a bit of a whirlwind. We wanted to give all of you a chance to get to know me and what I have been up to in this period of time.
In my time here so far, I have had the opportunity present a few citations to various people or organizations for their great work and accomplishments. This is something that was new to me and very exciting! One of the amazing parts of what I get to do every now and then is go to events and actually meet many of you there rather than just our office, which you can often find me at if I am not at the Senior Center for office hours. I was able to go to the grand opening of the Next Generation Dunkin’ that occurred a few weeks ago and it was amazing to see and experience.
I grew up loving theatre whether that was performing or watching it. I had the chance to see the performance of the Enchanted Circle Theater in Holyoke and I thought it was fantastic. The work they are doing seemed great for the kids involved and it was nice to see how Shakespeare is being introduced to them as well. Events like this are such a treat because it gives me an opportunity to learn more about the surrounding communities in addition to Westfield itself. I also enjoyed meeting all the great people at The Westfield Center when they celebrated an employee’s 40 years of service there. Getting to see all the work people put in to support the community is truly special and I appreciate every second of it.
Now that you know the person who is potentially answering your calls, hopefully you all reach out and tell me about what is going on that we can help with. I look forward to seeing many of you at our office hours or even our main office at 52 Court Street on the second floor above Flowers by Webster. I encourage all of you to stop by or call us to let us know about anything going on that we can help with. Our office can be reached at [email protected] or (413) 572-3920. Have a great week everyone!
