Assistant Town Administrator Judith Mooney, Facilities Director Shaun Cormier and the Marion Energy Management Committee are pleased to share that the Town of Marion has been awarded a $102,000 Green Communities Competitive Grant from the state’s Department of Energy Resources (DOER.)

            The grant funding is part of a statewide initiative to help Massachusetts cities and towns find clean energy solutions that reduce long-term energy costs and strengthen local economies. The Town of Marion is one of 64 communities to receive a portion of the latest grant funds totaling over $8 million, which were announced last week.

            Approximately $80,000 of the town’s awarded grant will go toward replacing antiquated equipment that provides heating and cooling for the Elizabeth Taber Library’s first floor. This project is expected to save $3,389, 2,110 kWh of electricity and 2,508 therms of natural gas annually. The payback time for the project is approximately 24 years.

            Approximately $16,000 of the grant funding will go toward ductwork sealing and insulation in the Elizabeth Taber Library basement. This project is expected to save $904 and 753 therms of natural gas annually. The payback time for the project is approximately 18 years.

            The remaining funds will be used to support administrative activities in relation to the projects.

            “Since being named a Green Community, we have worked to identify and complete projects that will improve our energy efficiency town-wide, and this work continues with these projects at Elizabeth Taber Library,” Director Cormier said. “We are grateful to the Baker-Polito Administration and Department of Energy Resources for this funding and their continued support of our efforts.”

            Competitive grants are awarded to existing Green Communities that have successfully invested their initial designation grants and previous competitive grant awards. Communities must meet five criteria [3] to be designated as a Green Community and be eligible for funding. Two-hundred eighty Massachusetts cities and towns [4] have currently earned the Green Communities designation, which accounts for 87% of the Commonwealth’s population.

            “Ongoing collaboration with public sector leaders at the state and local level significantly contributes to our Administration’s goal of a cleaner, more reliable, and equitable energy future,” Governor Charlie Baker said. “The innovative and cost-effective projects receiving grants will increase energy efficiency and clean energy use in municipal buildings and vehicles across the Commonwealth, significantly helping our state achieve its long-term emissions reduction requirements.”

            Old Rochester Regional High School students Brendan Burke, Colin Carroll and chapter cofounder Edward Gonet IV will proudly compete April 23-27 at the DECA International Career Development Conference at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta.

            Other ORR students are making the trip and that may be the bigger story.

            “Kira, Kinsley, Aidan … the rest of us … will talk with students from around the country so we can better our chapter and our schools,” said David Ditata, referencing “Aspire” workshops and meetings.

            The senior copresident of ORR DECA, who serves alongside junior copresident Kira Sarkarati, said that they, along with members Aiden Harrington and Kinsley Trout, will focus on their rare opportunity to share with and learn from students from faraway places.

            As a senior, Ditata is looking forward to acquiring skills to carry his DECA experience onto a college chapter at the University of New Hampshire where he plans to attend in 2022-23.

            “If they don’t have it there, they’ll teach me how to bring it there. If they do have it, I’ll learn kind of how to better the college’s DECA,” said the Rochester resident, calling his plight of not qualifying for the international competition “a blessing in disguise.”

            Sarkarati, 17, joined ORR’s DECA chapter in her freshman year after friends in the club encouraged her to try it out.

            “That hooked me in,” said the former Mattapoisett resident now living in Marion. “At the time when I joined, I didn’t know much about business or have any interest in it …” But, as a result of that invitation and the participation that followed, a new world opened to Sarkarati, who realized she had made a choice that will impact her future.

            As a freshman, she learned about general marketing and has since become interested in apparel and accessories marketing. As a retail worker at Old Navy, she is familiar with national-brand marketing but has also maintained an interest in smaller, independent operations.

            “A lot of the questions I usually get are focused on bigger stores,” said Sarkarati, 17.

            Originally known as Distributive Education Clubs of America, DECA is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit corporation that pulls together high school or college chapters in local, regional and even international competitions.

            When Ditata was a high school freshman, he thought DECA was just a student group to talk about money and random topics involving business. But by his second year of involvement, ORR had established its membership in the international organization.

            In the two years since ORR’s chapter was officially founded, the Tri-Town public high school’s business group has seen sustained growth. Ditata estimates that the Tri-Town’s chapter has doubled in size.

            “A lot (of students) signed up at the beginning of the year,” he said. “It’s a big commitment, a lot of traveling.”

            The Atlanta trip is costing each student $800 including the round-trip flight and hotel, but Ditata was able to use fundraisers to abate the entire cost.

            “DECA is such a great club in our community,” he said, noting that word of mouth resulted in some donations. The school chapter held a “Go Fund Me” campaign in which donations were divided among the students. There was also a raffle for an Apple watch, and Ditata sold Valentine’s Day chocolates in addition to other activities.

            “Hearing that cost makes you want to work harder,” he said.

            The daunting expenses leveraged by the necessary travel involved was temporarily abated by the coronavirus pandemic that, like curriculum, became a remote-access format. The District 8 competition scheduled in Hyannis was canceled in favor of a remote-access competition held January 11-18.

            “Now we’re back in person sitting right in front of a judge,” said Ditata.

            An important challenge looms on the horizon for ORR’s chapter, according to Ditata, who said the parent organization requires its member schools to have at least one business class on their curriculum. In ORR’s case, that must happen by the end of the 2022-23 academic year in order to avoid being under the threat of a chapter shutdown.

            While modern-day high school students tend to fill up their calendars with clubs and activities, DECA is a particularly demanding club.

            Sarkarati is also a member of the ORR Drama Club, the Community Service Club and a few other smaller clubs, but DECA is the most time-consuming of her extra-curricular activities. If she is not preparing her own work, she is helping get members of the team prepared and assisting in the registration process.

            “Definitely, it’s made me more interested in business colleges,” she said.

By Mick Colageo

            Mattapoisett resident Sara Garde had always wanted a Great Dane, but she never expected to have one given to her, nor could she have imagined the circumstances that would bring her and Redd the Great Dane together.

            Garde is an Army veteran. Two years after graduating from high school in June 1996, she enlisted in the Army. She told us her service didn’t end there.

            “After September 11, 2001, I was recalled to serve and joined the Army Reserve Unit, 3d COSCOM (Corps Support Command.) Our unit deployed to Kuwait in November 2002 and after the ground offensive in Baghdad (May 2003), convoyed to LSA Anaconda (Balad, Iraq.) As a truck driver (88M), I would drive my superior officers to Baghdad through the Sunni Triangle every Sunday to brief the general on the status of the base and redeployment activities. Our unit returned to the states in June of 2004.”

            Garde said that during one trip, her convoy hit an improvised explosive device (IED.) Miraculously – no one was injured. Garde’s deployment was a long one that found her in some of the most dangerous places in the Middle East. And yet after eight years of service and duty, this soldier wasn’t ready to completely quit. Garde returned to the Army.

            “After 2004 when I got out of the Army, I enlisted in the Air Force Reserves from 2009 to 2016. I was a member of the 439th Aeromedical Support Squadron (ASTS) as a technical sergeant (TSgt/E-6.) In June 2012, I was deployed to Ramstein(-Miesenbach), Germany for six months in support of combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. I was attached to the 86^th CASF (Contingency Aeromedical Staging Facility) Medical Group, which received the wounded from the combat zones, transported them to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center for stabilization, then would return them to the flight line for transport to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.”

            But coming home for Garde also meant adjusting to civilian life, a challenge for nearly all veterans of combat. In other times, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was called “battle fatigue” or “shell shock.” Thankfully, today there is a much better understanding of what can be a permanent state of discomfort, anger, depression and an inability to transition into a normal homelife.

            Garde shared, “I found coming home, reintegrating, a challenge.” She said she finds public spaces disconcerting and that she had become an aggressive driver. Getting behind the wheel, she has found in and of itself to bring on anxiety.

            Enter a dog.

            James and Vicky Randall’s Great Dane had given birth to 12 healthy pups. One of the first things the family decided to do was donate a pup to a veteran. As James Randall said with quiet recognition of the important step they were taking, “We wanted to give back.”

            Enter Tri-Town Veterans Agent Chris Gerrior who, together with Randall, discussed how to go about announcing to the local communities that a puppy, a rather large puppy, was available to a veteran for adoption. Gerrior reached out to us to place a press release encouraging interested veterans to write in.

            After reading the press release that detailed the opportunity and how to go about advancing one’s name into the adoption pool, Garde sent in her letter to Gerrior and was ultimately selected to take Redd home.

            Redd stands for “Remember Every Dog Deployed.” His presence in Garde’s life has been as immense as the breed itself is known. “Gentle giants,” Randall said.

            “It was love at first sight,” Garde stated with a chuckle, and it also turned out that Redd was a belated Christmas present. “I got him three days after Christmas 2021,” she said.

            Since that time, Garde and Redd have been learning the ins and outs of dog training, a service donated by a nearby company.

            “With Redd, I feel responsible for his well-being while driving so he helps me with that. He provides comfort, including with the nightmares. He helps me to focus less on personal dangers. He gives me patience,” said Garde, who had opened her home and her heart to this Great Dane. “He is big and goofy and makes me laugh every day. … I am so grateful for what James and Vicky have done.”

            As for Redd, well, he couldn’t agree more.