There is much that could be said about the immense compassion Sturbridge residents have exhibited in support of its seniors. Great stories could be written about the amazing fellowship we’ve all been witness to here in town. No doubt, one could easily exhaust a thesaurus, detailing the unparalleled generosity demonstrated these past months.

Yet nothing is as poignant, nor as telling, as the sentiments and words expressed by those you’ve helped. Nothing better conveys the overwhelming sense of desperation replaced now with hope, due solely to the compassion of Sturbridge residents helping their own. At the very moment you settle to read this, there is the quickened beat of grateful hearts that rumbles throughout Sturbridge. It is a sound that grows louder each day, as those seniors whose burden you’ve lightened, breathe a sigh of relief. (more…)

Boy Scout Troop 161
Sturbridge Mass.,
Sponsor: Sturbridge Firefighters Benefit Association
2008: Our 54th year of Scouting in Sturbridge

Press Release: Immediate

Boy Scout can drive to support REAS

Sturbridge: Boy Scout Troop 161, sponsored by the Sturbridge Firefighters Association will be holding a can drive during the month of November in support of the REAS Foundation. REAS is the Residential Energy Assistance for Seniors Foundation a nonprofit group established to assist Sturbridge Elderly with heating assistance this winter. All returnable bottles and cans collected by the Scouts during the month of November will be donated to the REAS foundation.

The Can drive will run the full month of November and residents can drop off their donations at the collection box at the Sturbridge Recycling Center or at the community wide can drive to be held on Saturday, November 22, 9 am to 1 pm at the Sturbridge Public Safety Complex on 346 Main Street.  Scouts as well as members of the Sturbridge Fire Department will be on hand to collect returnable bottles and cans.

Tom Chamberland firefighter and Chartering Organizational Representative to Boy Scout troop 161 said “I am proud the troop decided to participate in supporting REAS and the senior citizens of Sturbridge. The troop routinely collects cans to fund their trips and the boy scouting program in Sturbridge. Helping others is a key premise of the Boy Scouts of America, and this is a great lesson and community project for the scouts.”

Thomas Creamer, Executive Director of REAS, said of the Boy Scout involvement “The fact that the Boy Scouts wanted to pitch in and be part of this important community fund raising opportunity was no surprise to us. The selflessness with which they are approaching the project is what we all hope to see in all of our young people. We are gratified and encouraged by their participation.”

Tom Chamberland
25 Bennetts Rd
Sturbridge MA 01566

The following is taken directly from the National Grid website: https://www.nationalgridus.com/non_html/brochure_heatcool.pdf

Ways to manage your heating costs

Tune up for efficiency

• Maintaining an efficient heating system is an important step to conserving energy. Have your heating system serviced annually, and never try to repair it yourself.
• If your heating system has a filter, clean or replace it every monthduring the heating season.
• Your furnace or boiler needs air to work properly (and efficiently). Don’t close it off with walls, debris or other obstructions.

Turn down for savings

• For every 1° F you set your thermostat back, you can save one to three percent on your annual heating costs.
• Turn down the thermostat every time you leave the house for two or more hours, and every night before you go to bed. It takes less energy to warm up a cool house than to maintain a warm temperature all day and night.
• Installing a programmable thermostat is an inexpensive, easy way to maintain comfort and cut heating costs. You can program it to turn the heating system up and down at preset times

(more…)

                                                             Media Advisory

For immediate release                                                         Contact: Officer Carol Benoit

October 6, 2008                                                                        508-347-2525  

The Sturbridge Police Department will be holding a senior police academy, to be held and conducted at the Sturbridge Senior Center, 480 Main Street in Sturbridge. This class, free for all participants, will cover various topics in law enforcement, specifically, the Sturbridge Police Department, such as motor vehicle and criminal laws, Departmental policies and responsibilities and other assorted materials.  Participants will also be eligible to ride along in a police cruiser during a patrol shift.

Classes will be held on the following dates, and are open to anyone 55 years of age or older:

Tuesday         October 21 and 28       9:30-11:30 AM

Tuesday         November 4, 18, 25     9:30-11:30 AM

Wednesday     November 12              1:00-3:00   PM

Tuesday         December 2                 9:30-11:30 AM

Wednesday     December 10               1:00-3:00   PM

Graduation will be held on December 16^th, from 9:30 until 11:30 AM

To sign up, or to obtain additional information, please contact either Officer Carol Benoit at the Sturbridge Police Department   508-347-2525  , or Barbara Search-Miller, Senior Center Director,   508-347-7575  

Applicants from outside the town of Sturbridge are welcome

                                                            ####

Over the past year and in particular the last few months, many of us have become much more aware of the national economy, indeed the world economy, than perhaps we’d care to. Escalating costs, affecting even the most basic of necessities has prompted many to make increasing adjustments or sacrifices.

Perhaps we go to the movies less often, eat at home more regularly, travel less, vacation closer to home, or perhaps not at all. With winter soon upon us, many have already made significant modifications in terms of alternate or supplemental methods for heating our homes.

Wood, pellet, or charcoal stoves, high tech infrared portable heaters, radiant floor heating, or simple oil filled radiators and electric space heaters have become increasingly popular expenditures, for those seeking to reduce their oil, gas, or electric energy costs. Insulation, weather-stripping, and energy audits are becoming increasing more popular, and indeed necessary, in maximizing the efficiency of our heating or cooling systems. (more…)

Woburn Local

By Bruce Coulter

Wed Jul 23, 2008, 06:38 PM EDT

Agencies serving Bay State elders are predicting a “no heat, no eat” winter for many senior citizens, a problem that could expand for the thousands of caregivers who, in many cases, are supporting their own families on minimum-wage paychecks.

Joan Butler, executive director of Minuteman Senior Services in Lexington, said the organization is providing support to more than 1,600 low-income homebound seniors who could find themselves without heat or food this winter, thanks largely to rising fuel and food costs. The agency serves some 292 people in Woburn. (more…)

(AP) Governor Patrick says there’s a real possibility that people in America could freeze to death this winter due to the soaring cost of home heating fuel.  Patrick met  with members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation on Capitol Hill and later testified before a House panel on the need for heating aid in cold-weather states.

Patrick said the cost of heating a home — whether by electricity, gas or oil — is expected to cost between 20 and 31 percent more than a year ago. He said that will have an impact on many families, and not just those who are defined as low-income.

The House has approved legislation to double the government’s Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program to 5.1 billion dollars for the coming winter.   According to the Associated Press, Massachusetts would receive 163 million dollars under the plan, an increase of 36 million dollars from the last fiscal year.  The Senate must still sign off on the measure.  Meantime, Maryann Covalanski, who runs the Springfield Fuel Assistance Program says that it will help…but even more is needed.

The REAS Foundation is pleased to announce, that it has awarded its first energy assistance grants to qualifying Sturbridge seniors. Clearly, those awards are distributed on behalf of those Sturbridge residents and businesses, who are members of the 10K Circle of Friends and 10K Circle of Businesses.

Those of you who have partnered with us thus far, as well as those of you who will soon be joining our 10K Circles, are the true conveyors of these gifts; we at the REAS Foundation are merely acting as your fiduciary agents. It is a role that we are most honored to fulfill, and one we take very seriously on your behalf.

Each of you, as members of our 10K Circles, are the reason that hope is easing some of the despair experienced by members of our community, during these uncertain economic times.

Your sense of compassion, commitment, and community, are the driving force behind the successful fundraising efforts thus far undertaken on your behalf, by the REAS Foundation. Without your support and generosity, our collective Foundation, of which you are surely members, is nothing but a name, and as such, would be of little consequence.

But, with the support of each of you who have thus far given, and certainly those who will soon give, the REAS Foundation has become a living, breathing extension of the great sense of kinship that exists here in Sturbridge. You have helped create something very special in terms of reestablishing community, as the central focus of our shared efforts, by means of true fellowship.  

While many across the nation are struggling to find solutions to the coming crisis faced by our seniors, you, the residents and businesses of Sturbridge, have demonstrated incredible community resolve in addressing this issue locally, one neighbor at a time.

Community is a term that has several meanings; 1) people with common interests living in a particular area; 2) an interacting population of various kinds of individuals; 3) a body of persons or nations having a common history or common social, economic, and political interests. Though each of these definitions are certainly applicable, they seem a tad too sterile to adequately describe what has happened here in Sturbridge.

Perhaps, the best definition of what is taking place within our community, is the manifestation of a “fellowship of interest, activity, feeling, and experience”. Truly, there is great interest and activity surrounding this endeavor, and it is no doubt that much of it comes from each of us experiencing the need to do something tangible, and the feeling that each of us can truly make a difference. 

It is great to live in a community, but it is so much more rewarding and fulfilling to live within this great community; filled with an abundance of fellowship.  

The following article appeared in the Boston Herald, September 21, 2008.

As cash-strapped Bay Staters scramble for cheap ways to heat their homes, the state fire marshal is warning that the national energy crisis could unleash a devastating wave of costly and potentially deadly fires this winter.

“I think it will be very dangerous,” said state Fire Marshal Stephen D. Coan. “Historically and statistically we know that it only takes really that first cold night when those furnaces kick on, the first log is put into the fire, when the first space heater is plugged into the wall. From a fire standpoint, those are bad nights for us.”

Heating-equipment blazes are the second leading cause of residential fires in Massachusetts, accounting for 14,075 fires, 15 civilian deaths, 59 civilian injuries, 117 firefighter injuries and $56 million in damages from 2003 to 2007, according to the Massachusetts Fire Incident Reporting System. (more…)

The following post is excerpted from the August 2008 issue of the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), newsletter. 

“Before the summer heat waves hit, states had begun planning for the winter of 2008-09 and the heavy energy burdens LIHEAP households will face.

Not only were many states still helping low-income households pay last winter’s bills and cope with disconnections, but they were also hearing that next winter’s heating bills will increase dramatically.

The Energy Information Administration said the average price of natural gas next winter will be 53 percent higher than it was last winter and the cost of home heating oil will increase more than 41 percent from the fourth quarter of 2007 to the fourth quarter of 2008. 

As of mid-July, Northeast states were seeing heating oil prices in the $4.50 per gallon range and were worrying how they could assist customers when expected LIHEAP funds won’t even cover a minimum oil delivery of 100 gallons. (According to most predictions, LIHEAP FY 2009 funding will be included in a Continuing Resolution that will likely extend into early 2009 at a preliminary level of $1.98 billion, upon which states will initially base their benefits.)

In prior years, consumers could better deal with winter heating costs by pre-buying their oil in the summer, but as one New Hampshire dealer said, the costs and risks have become prohibitive. With the current average price of heating oil at $4.53 a gallon, and the average use in New Hampshire about 800 gallons each winter, a pre-buy contract can cost as much as $4,000.

This year, newspaper articles from across the Northeast say heating oil dealers aren’t offering the capped plans because they can’t afford the financial outlays. In fact, the livelihood of some has been threatened. It was reported that three companies had failed in Connecticut.”