MWCC's weekly e-newsletter

Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2005

FITCHBURG’S ANNIE DEMARTINO ENCOURAGES
ALPHA BETA GAMMA MEMBERS TO REACH FOR THE STARS

By Kimberly B. Caisse

After telling members of Alpha Beta Gamma how she overcame discrimination, illiteracy and homelessness during a lifetime that has spanned Ireland, England and the United States, returning Fitchburg City Councilor Annie DeMartino told them to always reach for the stars.

Fitchburg City Councilor Annie DeMartino

DeMartino, owner of Brownies Tea and Talk on Harvard Street in Fitchburg, spoke at the business honor society’s annual fall dinner. “I tell you tonight, don’t let anyone tell you, no matter who it is, to stop reaching for the stars. Everybody in this room can do what you want to do because you have the tools you need.”

DeMartino grew up in an orphanage in Ireland, where the girls weren’t educated, but taught to cook and clean. At 14, she left and settled in Dublin. There she learned to play poker and read comic books and worked in a factory. She moved to London at 16, where she became a welder and lived with 26 other girls in a house. In England, she learned to be a governess. She first worked for a family in Germany and in 1965 for the Asher family in Leominster. In those positions, she was encouraged to become more educated.

While in the U.S., she met a Marine and became pregnant. She ended up back in Ireland as a single mother, but returned to the U.S. seeking a better life for her and her unborn child.

She struggled here to make ends meet, but actively sought ways to go to school. “I wanted to get a U.S. high school diploma. I wanted to go to college,” she said.

She ultimately graduated from Hampshire College’s “college without walls” program with a degree in human services.

She went to work for the state Department of Social Services as a social worker housing specialist. Locally, she led a grassroots movement to find apartments for homeless people living in hotels in Fitchburg. That work earned her recognition as ABC’s Person of the Week in February 1987, and she was interviewed by the late Peter Jennings. She earned this distinction again in 1989.

Her other awards include DSS’ 1987 Manuel Carballo Governor’s Award in Public Service and the Massachusetts Business and Professional Women’s Organization’s Massachusetts Woman of the Year Award in 1987.

DeMartino was elected a Fitchburg City Councilor in 1990, a position she kept until 2002. That year she ran for mayor, but lost. She was just returned to the City Council in this month’s city elections and will take office in January.

She donated her $100 speaker’s fee to the Spanish Center of Fitchburg.

Alpha Beta Gamma is an international business honor society established in 1970 to recognize and encourage scholarship among two-year college students in business and related curricula at degree granting academic institutions. For more information, contact club advisor Linda Bolduc at (978) 630-9375 or lbolduc@mwcc.mass.edu or club president Joanna Dos Santos at jdos5551@mwcc.edu.

MWCC PROFESSOR ATTENDS ACADEMY OF TELEVISION ARTS
& SCIENCES FOUNDATION’S FACULTY SEMINAR

MWCC Broadcasting and Telecommunications Professor Marilyn Pennell attended the 18th annual Faculty Seminar of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation in Los Angeles earlier this month.

	MWCC Professor Marilyn Pennell

Each year the Faculty Seminar offers university professors, who teach television at campuses throughout the country, a five-day seminar featuring panel discussions, visits to working production facilities, and exclusive access to the heads of major networks and television producers for a state-of-the-industry overview.

Pennell was awarded a faculty fellowship to attend this seminar. She will be among 20 faculty from across the country who will gain invaluable insights into the television industry from notable seminar participants, including ABC, CBS, NBC, HBO, Fox and The WB and will hear from the creative talents behind popular television shows, including “Law & Order: SVU,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “The Young and the Restless.”

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to utilizing the resources of the Television Academy and the artistry of television to preserve and celebrate the history of the medium and to educate and guide those who will shape its future.

The Television Academy Foundation’s Educational Programs & Services department administers the Faculty Seminar, the College Television Awards and the Student Internship Program. For more information about any of these programs visit www.emmys.tv/foundation.

Other MWCC News :

• The MWCC Foundation, Inc. and Nashoba Valley Medical Center of Ayer will hold their annual Holiday Greens Sale in conjunction with the college’s sixth annual Basket Raffle and Winter Fest Fair at MWCC’s Gardner campus Wednesday, Nov. 30 and Thursday, Dec. 1 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Proceeds will support the professional development of the college's nursing faculty and to encourage highly trained nurses to share their knowledge with the college's nursing students. The Basket Raffle and Winter Fest Fair benefits student scholarships. Vendors and crafters will be selling items. College teams create the theme baskets that will be raffled off to raise money for student scholarships. For more information, contact Diane Hamilton at dhamilton@mwcc.mass.edu or (978) 630-9387 or Sandy Arsenault at (978) 630-9133 or sarsenault@mwcc.mass.edu.

• The Theatre at the Mount will present the stage version of Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” including all of the wonderful songs from the film ranging from waltzes to French cabaret to a Broadway-style show-tune featuring the dinner dishes and silverware, beginning Friday, Dec. 2. Alyssa Gentry plays Belle, Tim Murphy plays her father and Chris Cassello plays the beast. The cast also includes Jeffrey Fleming as Gaston, Craig Cormier as LeFou, Jennifer Williams as Madame de la Grande Bouche, Rebecca Ufema as Mrs. Potts, Marc Clermont as Cogsworth, Rob Houle as Lumiere, Nicole Couture as Babette, Nicholas Landry as Chip and a large ensemble of singers and dancers. Tickets are on sale now for performances on Friday, Dec. 2, Saturday, Dec. 3, Friday, Dec. 9 and Saturday, Dec. 10 at 8 p.m. and Sundays Dec. 4 and 11 at 2 p.m. Evening tickets are $18 and matinees are $15. Advance purchase is highly recommended. Call the Theatre at the Mount box office at (978) 632-2403 or purchase tickets online at http://theatre.mwcc.edu.

• The MWCC Library will be open for extended hours during the fall semester’s final exam period: Friday, Dec. 9, open until 7 p.m.; Saturday, Dec. 10, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Sunday, Dec. 11, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; and Saturday, Dec. 17, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. For more information, call the Library’s main desk at (978) 630-9125.

• MWCC’s Practical Nursing program will hold its third annual Pinning Ceremony for the Class of 2005 Tuesday, Dec. 20 at 6 p.m. in the Raymond M. LaFontaine Fine Arts Center auditorium. These graduates went through the program at the college’s Orange campus. For more information, contact Kathy Suchocki at ksuchocki@mwcc.mass.edu or call at (978) 630-9544.

• The MWCC automotive technology program recently was awarded a $2,000 Snap-on Tool gift certificate from the National Institute for Automotive Service. The award was presented to the automotive program to honor Professor Peter Kaufmann’s attendance at the North American Council of Automotive Teachers conference last summer in Spokane, Wash. For more information, contact Kaufmann at (978) 630-9336 or pkaufmann@mwcc.mass.edu.

• MWCC Professor Peter Kaufmann was named president of the North American Council of Automotive Teachers (NACAT) in September. NACAT is the only international organization devoted to teachers and trainers of automotive technology and its related fields. NACAT’s mission is to promote, update and improve automotive service education. The council’s goal is to develop and maintain a strong professional organization that will serve the needs of automotive educators in public and private enterprise throughout North America. For more information, contact Kaufmann at (978) 630-9336 or pkaufmann@mwcc.mass.edu.

• Mount Wachusett Community College Presents “The Ethan Stone Band,” Friday January 13th at 7pm (Snow date January 14th.)  All proceeds to benefit the Southeast Mississippi Rural Health Initiative.  The band's repertoire covers a wide range of music, from new material from Coldplay, Audioslave, Radiohead, Beck, Ben Folds, Lifehouse, Staind, and more to classic rock from Santana, The Allman Brothers, Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, and many more.  The event is being cosponsored by the Hurricane Relief Committee, the MWCC Alumni Association, C.A.R.S, and the Eagle 99.9.  Tickets, which can be purchased through the Theatre at the Mount Box Office, are $15 and $10 for students.  For more information, contact Melissa Sargent at (978) 630-9273.

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