Northern Essex Community College is celebrating its Fifth Annual Giving Day with a 24-hour push to replenish its NECC Fund. It is also getting ready for its Fourth Annual Impact Awards Event.

Shana Murrell, the college’s director of alumni relations and annual giving recently appeared on WHAV’s morning program to explain how the fundraiser works and how donations meet student needs.

The blitz, scheduled for today, April 9, aims to unite alumni, staff, students and friends in a common goal of supporting the college and its students, Murrell said. The first Giving Day in 2022 raised $34,000 from just over 200 donors. That was the largest single-day fundraising effort in the college’s history.

(CUT: murrell-as-they-come.wav) “Essentially, our NECC Fund allows us to have the flexibility to fund different needs for the college. So, we’re very excited to have the opportunity to have that fund available so that we can meet the needs of our students as they come,” Murrell said.

Among programs the college supports through its NECC Fund is the Internship Stipend Program. Murrell said because so many Northern Essex students work part time while they are also attending classes, it can be difficult to give up a paying job to take an unpaid internship.

(CUT: murrell-program-of-study.wav) “An internship stipend helps a student to be able to make up some of that income they may have had to give up while they are participating in a valuable internship that may be related to their major and program of study,” Murrell explained.

Contributions to the NECC Giving Day can be made on NECC.edu.

Lane A. Glenn, college president, also recently appeared on WHAV’s “Win for Breakfast” to talk about another college fundraiser. The college’s Fourth Annual Impact Awards is happening Wednesday, May 6.

As WHAV reported in February, five awards will be given. The Community Partner Award will go to the Merrimack Valley Transit Authority, while the Outstanding Alumnus Award goes to former state Rep. Michael Costello, a member of the class of 2012; Philanthropy and Volunteerism Award to Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation and Senior Program Officer Marjorie Ringrose; and Public Service and Advocacy Award to Essex County Sheriff Kevin F. Coppinger.

(CUT: glenn-have-seats-available.wav) “You’ll be happy to know, or some of the listeners might be happy to know, there’s still room for sponsors at the Impact Awards. We have sponsorships available. We have got some seats available,” Glenn said.

Impact Awards tickets are $150 each and available at NECC.edu.

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Kara Kosmes, who retires in August as business manager at Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High School, has witnessed a sea change in career training as well as in the tools she uses to keep a watchful eye on finances.

Born and raised in Haverhill, sixty-seven-year-old Kosmes shared her experiences during a recent appearance on WHAV’s “Win for Breakfast” morning program. She reflected on how her job has changed in 30 years.

“Everything was manual when I first started. You used paper and pencil and, in order to do bookkeeping, you had these very long, wide spreadsheets,” she recalled.

Kosmes was a freshman at Haverhill High School when Whittier Tech opened in 1973. Following college, she started her career in finance at a local certified public accounting firm, a position she held for 14 years. She then worked nearly 17 years in Haverhill Public Schools as assistant superintendent for finance and operations before joining Whitter Tech in July 2013.

The school was chartered in 1967 to provide a career training alternative for 11 communities including Haverhill. The other communities are Amesbury, Georgetown, Groveland, Ipswich, Merrimac, Newbury, Newburyport, Rowley, Salisbury and West Newbury. Kosmes remembers touring the new building and being blown away by its appearance.

“At the time, it was state of the art, brand new, beautiful. It didn’t look a lot like the schools that I had been to up until then. But it was a very different school than it is now. It was primarily for the trades.”

Kosmes noted the impetus to establish Whittier Tech grew out of the old Haverhill Trade School that operated in downtown Haverhill. She pointed out that 50 years later, Whittier students don’t just head to a job in the trades following graduation. With their Whittier education, students can continue their education by going to a technical school or pursuing a two- or four-year college degree.

“The bonus I think for students today is you also leave with a skill so you always will have something, hopefully, to fall back on,” Kosmes said.

In her position as business manager, Kosmes has been intimately involved with the effort to renovate or replace the aging Whittier building. She has been attending meetings of the committee to amend the 1967 Regional Agreement with governs how capital and operating costs are allotted to member communities. Several of which are pressing for changes in the agreement since more than half the student body is from Haverhill, but the city would pay just 44% of the share of the cost of any new construction. Rowley, on the other hand, would pay 3.5% of the cost and Newburyport 10.5%, but are only allocated 10 seats each or 2%.

“We hope within a year that we’ll have some sort of new amended regional agreement that people can agree upon, at least as much as they can agree upon it, and that we may be able to move forward with a building project for Whittier,” Kosmes said.

She said she plans to stay involved with the Whittier community in her retirement, though she is looking forward to spending more time at the beach. She is also a longtime member of the board of directors of the Greater Haverhill YMCA and assistant treasurer of the parish council at Holy Apostles Saints Peter and Paul Greek Orthodox Church in Haverhill.

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Haverhill’s new Acting Police Chief Wayne Tracy says his first few months at the helm have seen a focus on officer training and the introduction of three canines.

Tracy, who addressed listeners live as a recent guest on WHAV’s “Win for Breakfast” program, says one of his goals for the department is making sure 90% of officers complete crisis intervention training.

“We’re actually are ahead of the curve on that. The state wants departments to have 20% of their department trained on that. We’re at 70%,” he says.

But Tracy notes that when the department brings on new officers, that percentage falls so the training has to be a priority.

The acting chief also says he is pleased the department has added three canines to its force for the first time—two trackers and one comfort dog. Rex was the first to be sworn in last fall and his specialty is locating bombs, Tracy notes. The second tracking dog is still in training and doesn’t yet have a name. This canine’s expertise will be sniffing out drugs. The third dog will be a comfort dog. Calling comfort dogs a “good community policing” tool, Tracy adds, he expects the pup will be as helpful to his officers as to the public at large.

Tracy was named to the position in October and is a 21-year veteran of the force. He grew up in the Acre section of Haverhill, graduating from Haverhill High School where he played hockey and football. After college at Southern New Hampshire University, he recalls he was working in a local pizza shop while waiting to take the state’s firefighter civil service exam. A friend suggested he take the police officer civil service test because it was scheduled sooner and the content of the exam is similar. To his surprise, he says, he passed the test and was offered a job.

While he once thought he might switch departments at some point, Tracy says he’s found his place in policing. He points out it’s his regular interactions with the community that gets him to work every day.

“Obviously any day you can help somebody, whether it is saving a life to that extreme or just giving them a hand, maybe helping somebody cross the street or something small like that. Those types of things make you feel good,” Tracy says.

Tracy notes he also is continuing his education as he is close to earning his master’s degree through an online program at the University of Mississippi.

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