Longtime lawyer, superior court docket decide and avid civic volunteer Bernie Hampsey has been named the Jaffrey Citizen of the 12 months by the Jaffrey Chamber of Commerce.
Every year, the Chamber chooses from a listing of community-submitted nominees for Citizen of the 12 months, Enterprise of the 12 months and Nonprofit of the 12 months. Along with Hampsey, this 12 months’s Enterprise of the 12 months is Nation Bridals and Formal Put on, and the Nonprofit of the 12 months is the John Humiston American Legion Publish 11.
All three nominees are scheduled to be honored in a pre-taped ceremony which will likely be aired on the Jaffrey Chamber of Commerce’s annual assembly, which is to be held nearly this 12 months on Feb. 17 at 6 p.m. The earlier 12 months’s winners for his or her classes will current this 12 months’s awardees with a plaque and an inscribed bowl.
Cyndy Burgess, chair of the Chamber’s Annual Awards Committee, stated Hampsey obtained a number of nominations this 12 months. Not solely does he have a protracted historical past of civic service, he’s nonetheless presently lively on a number of boards, together with the Jaffrey Civic Middle, the Newfoundland Pony Conservancy and the Cathedral of the Pines.
“This man has been fairly instrumental within the good issues which might be occurring and have occurred in Jaffrey. He has spent mainly his entire life making Jaffrey a greater place to stay,” Burgess stated.
“It shines a pleasing gentle on the tip of 2020,” Hampsey stated. “It’s good to have the 12 months finish on one thing that’s brilliant and inspiring. It’s a pleasant shock.”
Hampsey moved to Jaffrey in 1961, when he married his spouse and Jaffrey native Jean Letourneau. He labored for a few years on the town as a lawyer, and likewise as a district and superior court docket decide, till his retirement at 70 years of age. He’s all the time been lively in volunteerism.
“I consider within the thought – I acquired this from my brother – that all of us gained the lottery. By happenstance, I used to be born a citizen on this nation, and in a scenario the place I do know the place my subsequent meal is coming from,” Hampsey stated. “I consider that to who a lot has been given, a lot is anticipated, and that I ought to give again so long as I’ve the power and curiosity, and so long as that power and curiosity is needed. That’s what I’ve achieved.”
The Enterprise of the 12 months this 12 months is Nation Bridals, situated on Foremost Avenue in Jaffrey. Burgess stated the employees of the store and proprietor Cathy Furze not solely maintained the long-time enterprise’ skilled requirements in a few of the most making an attempt enterprise surroundings of our lifetime, but in addition contributed to the group, producing and donating a whole bunch of material face masks.
“What Cathy and her employees are recognized for is listening to their purchasers, listening to what their hopes and desires are after which going to work to ensure they arrive true,” Burgess stated. “All of us felt definitely Nation Bridals was deserving of this 12 months’s award.”
Furze stated the bridal business has been hit brutally by delayed weddings, and he or she anticipated 2021 being one other “12 months of problem” for {couples} in search of venues and bridal fittings that are filling up with individuals who delay 2020 weddings.
Furze stated through the preliminary enterprise shut down within the spring, her two granddaughters, who work on the store, had been taught some stitching expertise and set to work producing masks for the group. Collectively, store employees produced greater than 700, which had been donated across the group. She stated throughout that point, she tried to maintain fixed contact with the brides who had been abruptly going through arduous choices about their weddings.
“I forwarded all of the calls to my cellphone, and saved in fixed contact with my brides and bridal events. We met them for curbside pickup, or would ship clothes to them, or go on a digital Facetime name to point out them stock particulars they usually might place robe orders,” Furze stated.
Now, the store is open by appointment solely, and Furze stated she will solely see about half the appointments she would often have, as a result of she and her employees sanitize and clear each the clothes and the becoming rooms and reception after every appointment, which takes an additional half hour.
“We would like the following bride to really feel as protected as the primary bride of the day,” Furze stated. “We’re doing all the things we will to maintain our employees as protected as humanly doable, in addition to our clients.”
She stated these further challenges make this award all of the sweeter.
“We’re occurring 19 years in enterprise, to get this award now, to me, I’m over the moon,” Furze stated. “It’s one thing that basically provides you that further burst of adrenaline to say, ‘We will get via this.’ It’s a lift I feel that everybody wants proper now.”
For the Nonprofit of the 12 months, Burgess stated the Chamber needed to acknowledge Publish 11 for its lengthy historical past of service work in the neighborhood.
Denise Barlow, workplace and bar supervisor for the American Legion, stated many individuals are solely conscious of the bar portion of the enterprise, and aren’t conscious of the quantity of activism that the American Legion participates in, together with supporting many different space nonprofits and youngsters’s packages.
“For us, our primary precedence is the veterans, and second is our kids,” Barlow stated.
This 12 months, most of the American Legion’s fundraisers needed to shift gears, however they nonetheless made efforts to help the group, Barlow stated. The Legion hosted a drive via spaghetti dinner for the native Boy Scout Troop, and a drive via vacation luncheon for seniors.
“Like a number of different folks, we had to think about different avenues to assist. We tried to remain up to the mark and be a constructive affect,” Barlow stated. “We’re fortunate to have a number of volunteers that stepped as much as the plate. It’s been a making an attempt 12 months for lots of us, particularly nonprofits.”
Like Furze, Barlow stated to be acknowledged in 2020, when a number of companies and nonprofits had been struggling, means extra.
“It means extra this 12 months than some other 12 months for folks to see and acknowledge what we do. I do know there’s lots of people that do know that, however there are a number of stereotypes on the market, and lots of people that suppose we’re only a bar or a spot to drink. It’s an amazing feeling and we’ve got an amazing crew, so we’re very fortunate,” Barlow stated.
Ashley Saari might be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.
