YEAR IN REVIEW – A WANDERER’S DISCOVERIES IN HAVERHILL

Plug Pond

The Heartbeat of Haverhill started this blog pretty slowly. A year ago November my husband and I participated in a juried photography show at Winnekenni Castle and despite the cold and less than hospitable weather Mayor Fiorentini not only showed up but he outbid me on a silent auction item, photographic notecards that I really liked. I didn’t really know who he was, but I investigated to find out who was after “my” cards. When I learned he was the mayor I went over and thanked him for his attendance and we started to talk. As a relative newcomer, I didn’t know much about our City other than the bad news I regularly heard in the press. So in the course of our conversation I announced that as a marketing professional, I recognized Haverhill’s need for a good news blog. It seemed to me that good things that happen here seldom made the press, in part because sometimes good news is little news. Surely he could find a staffer or intern to write it for him. His reply “Why don’t you write it?”

Park by the Firestation

Well there were a thousand reasons I shouldn’t write it – I was too busy. After decades of ad agency work I was starting my own marketing business and the blog for Alisons Brain4Rent had to take priority. I’d just become a newly custodial step mom with no clue how to tackle that intimidating role, and I had a special needs rabbit and an older dad and dad-in-law who might need me, and well there were groceries to buy and hair appointments to keep, too….Seriously who had time. And I didn’t know the city.

A leisurely six months later, I attended the Re-Dedication of Haverhill High School mainly because my stepdaughter was part of the color guard. And I put down my camera just long enough to listen to some really good news about the effort that went into revitalizing a school on the brink of disaster. I’d never seen the disaster, but my stepdaughter enjoys the revitalization. I learned how assorted groups and individuals came together to make it happen while still respecting that the citizens of Haverhill voted against tax increases time and again. I was impressed not only by everything I heard, but also by what I saw, adults and students endeavoring to make a better place for themselves. The ROTC maneuvers, the chorus performance, the people in attendance gladly sharing credit, even the color guard headed up by alums who wanted to see if there was enough interest to revitalize their club, showed me that this was a city with hope and promise. The school looked good, the flowers were blooming, and I was inspired enough to call my mother to say how impressed I was with the city. I’d taken several hundred photos (gotta love digital cameras) and took the leap into commitment and community service. I would write the Good News Blog because there was in fact plenty to write about and these were stories that deserved to be told.

Since that time, The Heartbeat of Haverhill has been on a journey of discovery that we share in hope it inspires pride in our city, exploration of all it has to offer, and a commitment to help the city on its path to world domination, okay not world domination, but we’d like to think we could be positioned as the most highly regarded city in the Merrimack Valley, and maybe Massachusetts. Along the way I’ve learned as Dorothy once did that “If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with.” L. Frank Baum. I also learned that if you carry a camera with a big enough lens you can get in almost anywhere!

And so as a New Year’s bonus we present this retrospective of some of THOH’s favorite images from the past year to encourage all to savor our community! With the access of the internet, the World is listening when any of us speaks about Haverhill. How do we want our city to be viewed? THOH knows how we see it….

Haverhill Has Heart! It’s People.