My Community Work and Volunteer Projects
Much of my volunteer work centers on Holyoke, Massachusetts, the community in which I live.
This page lists recent projects and links to relevant websites.
Sandy Ward
Holyoke organizations to which I devote time:
- Citizens for the Revitalization and Urban Success of Holyoke (C.R.U.S.H.)
- Holyoke Consumer Health Library, Inc., a nonprofit organization I founded (2000-)
- Holyoke CHNA (Community Health Network Area), which hosts an annual “Connecting the Dots” forum
- Holyoke Family Literacy Coalition (Pathways to Family Success)
- Friends of the Holyoke Public Library. I am a Board member.
- Holyoke Unites / Holyoke Se Une. I am on the Web Team.
- Holyoke Food and Fitness Policy Council. I have served on the Agency Alliance, also on the Family Health and Fitness Subcommittee, and now the Walkability team. I also document HFFPC events and meetings with my camera; see HFFPC albums.
- Holyoke Friends of the River; Source to the Sea cleanup (Connecticut River Watershed Council)
- Friends of the Holyoke Canalwalk
Other volunteer roles:
- Reunion Webmaster for my college class (via MHC Alumnae Association), preparing for 2010 reunion.
- Trustee and Officer for the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Western Massachusetts (FCAWM), a non-profit, volunteer-run organization providing consumer education about end-of-life planning and choices for deathcare, including green burial. November 2009-
Other organizations and causes I support:
- Art for the Heart
- The Care Center (educating young moms)
- Enchanted Circle Theater (arts and education)
- Fortune Society (prison reform)
- International Rescue Committee (IRC) (helping refugees)
- League of Women Voters (making democracy work)
- Nature Conservancy (preserving environmentally significant land)
- Nuestras Raíces (community gardening and farming in Holyoke)
- UUA (religious freedom)
- UUSC (human rights and social justice)