The Gloucester Rotary Club has named Joseph Ciolino and Mara Destino as Paul Harris Fellows, the prestigious award named after the Chicago lawyer who founded the Rotary movement in 1905. Ciolino was selected by a club committee of previous recipients of the award, while Destino was chosen by members of the Interact Club, the very active group of Gloucester High School Junior Rotarians. Ciolino and Destino will be honored at a special dinner on Wednesday, June 14, at Cruiseport Gloucester, located at 6 Rowe Square in downtown Gloucester. The social hour will begin at 5:30 p.m., followed by dinner at 6:30 p.m.

Joseph Ciolino was born in Gloucester and graduated from Gloucester High School before attending Wentworth Institute in Boston and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. After college, Joe began his career in 1970 at the Building Center in Gloucester, where he spent 21 years, rising in the company to become Store Manager and Vice President. He later managed Three Lanterns Ship Supply for three years, but the highlight of his work’s life came in 1991 when he opened The Weathervane Gift Shop on Main Street in downtown Gloucester.

Joe is heavily involved in the political life of the community, serving as Ward One City Councilor (2002-2006), City Councilor at Large (2008-present), and as City Council President since January 2016. Ciolino has been a member of the Gloucester Rotary Club since 1992 and was its President in 2004/2005. He was a founding member and is currently a Director of the Gloucester Downtown Association. Ciolino is Vice President of the Board of Directors of the North Shore Health Project and a Corporator of the Sawyer Free Library. Former affiliations include Addison Gilbert Hospital and North Shore Red Cross. Joe and his wife Joan have been married for almost 30 years and reside in Gloucester.

Mara Destino was born in Seekonk and moved to Gloucester in the mid-1990s. Mara has an undergraduate degree in Elementary Education from the University of Rhode Island and a graduate degree in Early Childhood Special Needs from Wheelock College, and has put her training to great use in her professional life over the past 25 years. She has taught a variety of preschool classrooms in Brookline school system, at Sandy Bay Preschool, at St. Ann’s School, and currently at Cape Ann Preschool.

Mara’s resume includes the quote “working with children is my passion.” She has exhibited that passion not just in her career, but also as a volunteer for several community groups, including Our Lady of Good Voyage and the Cape Ann YMCA. Mara is especially proud of her role as Founder and Co-chair of the Adaptive Lacrosse Program, designed to provide girls and boys with physical, learning, and/or cognitive disabilities the chance to learn the game of lacrosse in an appropriate environment. Established in 2012, the Program now numbers 30 adaptive players and over 75 mentors who assist in skills development.

Mara and husband Alex have been married for almost 22 years and reside in Gloucester. They are the proud parents of Tess (20), Maggie (18), and Tucker (14).

Tickets to the Paul Harris Distinguished Service Award Dinner are $47 per person and may be reserved by contacting event Chair Steve Kaity at 978-879-1051. The Dinner is open to the general public, and friends and colleagues of Ciolino and Destino are encouraged to attend.

The mission of Rotary International is to provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through its fellowship of business, professional, and community leaders.

The Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce is pleased to announce the 2017 Cape Ann small business persons of the year, all of whom will be recognized during Cape Ann Small Business Week, June 5- 9. This year’s honorees are Jay Sibulkin of Allen’s Pharmacy in Manchester, Greg Bover of C.B. Fisk, Inc., in Gloucester, Matt and Missy Anzivino of Rockport Inn & Suites in Rockport and Georgeanne Richards of Sea Meadow Gifts in Essex. All will be saluted at the Chamber’s 37th Annual Small Business Week Luncheon on Friday, June 9, beginning at 11:30 AM at The Essex Room at Woodman’s, 125 Main Street, Essex. State Senator Bruce Tarr will be the keynote speaker at Friday’s awards and recognition luncheon, where five area high school graduating seniors will also be recognized as 2017 Cape Ann scholars.

Every year since 1981 the Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce has set aside the first week of June as Cape Ann Small Business Week, to honor the achievements of Cape Ann’s small business entrepreneurs and their employees, and their contributions to the economic vitality and community life of Cape Ann. This year’s Cape Ann small business persons of the year will also be honored individually at complimentary evening receptions in their respective communities during Small Business Week. The Manchester reception for Jay Sibulkin will be held on Monday, June 5 at 7 Central; the Rockport reception for Matt and Missy Anzivino will take place on Tuesday, June 6 at My Place by the Sea; the Gloucester reception will be held on Wednesday, June 7 at The Studio Restaurant; and the Essex reception will be at Shea’s Riverside on Thursday, June 8. All four community receptions will go from 5 to 7 PM. Please visit capeannchamber.com for the complete Cape Ann Small Business Week schedule.

Friends, family members, and colleagues of all small business honorees are invited and encouraged to attend the receptions and the luncheon. There is no charge for the community receptions. Tickets for the luncheon are available to all for $30. To register online, please visit capeannchamber.com.

For more information, please contact Kerry McKenna at kerry@capeannchamber.com or call the Chamber at 978-283-1601.

Join us at Stage Fort Park from 3:00-6:30 this Thursday June 1 for our first market of the season!!!

Come enjoy the gorgeous view from Stage Fort Park and get your fresh, local strawberries, greens, basil, and pastured heritage chicken. Let your kids play on the playground while you enjoy live music, check out the beautiful work of local artisans and chat with friends!

See all of our vendors at capeannfarmersmarket.org

Backyard Growers is the proud recipient of a Cummings Foundation $100K for 100 grant!

Backyard Growers is one of 100 local nonprofits to receive grants of $100,000 each through Cummings Foundation’s “$100K for 100” program. The Gloucester-based organization was chosen from a total of 549 applicants during a competitive review process.

Backyard Growers is a grassroots organization helping to reshape Gloucester’s relationship with food and healthy eating. We provide resources and support to establish vegetable gardens at homes, housing communities, organizations, and schools, and provide learning opportunities in growing and preparing fresh produce in order to create life-long gardeners inspired by the power of growing and eating one’s own food.

Representing Backyard Growers, Lara Lepionka, Executive Director, and Anna Swanson, Community Programs Manager, will join approximately 300 other guests at a reception at TradeCenter 128 in Woburn to celebrate the $10 million infusion into Greater Boston’s nonprofit sector. With the conclusion of this grant cycle, Cummings Foundation has now awarded more than $170 million to local nonprofits alone.

“We are thrilled to be among the 100 organizations receiving this generous funding from the Cummings Foundation,” said Lara Lepionka. “This grant will make it possible for Backyard Growers to increase the number of children and families we serve, and expand gardening resources in Gloucester. We’re so excited to have the support we need to help more people learn how to grow their own fresh, healthy food.”

Backyard Growers will use the Cummings Foundation money to expand their signature Salad Days School Garden program into new school districts in Massachusetts, develop new garden education programs at O’Maley Innovation Middle School, and expand community gardening resources in Gloucester for low- to moderate-income families and older adults.

The $100K for 100 program supports nonprofits that are not only based in but also primarily serve Middlesex, Essex, and Suffolk counties. This year, the program is benefiting 35 different cities and towns within the Commonwealth.

Through this place-based initiative, Cummings Foundation aims to give back in the area where it owns commercial buildings, all of which are managed, at no cost to the Foundation, by its affiliate Cummings properties. Founded in 1970 by Bill Cummings of Winchester, the Woburn-based commercial real estate firm leases and manages more than 10 million square feet of space, the majority of which exclusively benefits the Foundation.

“Nonprofit organizations like Backyard Growers are vital to the local communities where our colleagues and clients live and work,” said Joel Swets, Cummings Foundation’s executive director. “ We are delighted to invest in their efforts.”

This year’s diverse group of grant recipients represents a wide variety of causes, including homelessness prevention and affordable housing, education, violence prevention, and food insecurity. Most of the grants will be paid over two to five years.

The complete list of 100 grant winners is available at www.CummingsFoundation.org.

About Backyard Growers

Founded in 2010 by urban farmer Lara Lepionka as a way to help her neighbors stretch their budgets by growing their own food, Backyard Growers has grown exponentially to include a suite of programs serving students in the Gloucester Schools and a broad segment of Gloucester’s low- to moderate-income residents with a focus on serving children and their families. Since 2010, Backyard Growers has built over 200 new garden beds in Gloucester, serving over 2,500 individuals.

About Cummings Foundation

Woburn-based Cummings Foundation, Inc, was established in 1986 by Joyce and Bill Cummings of Winchester. With assets exceeding $1.4 billion, it is one of the largest foundations in New England. The Foundation directly operates its own charitable subsidiaries, including two New Horizons retirement communities, in Marlborough and Woburn. Its largest single commitment to date was $50 million to Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. Additional information is available at www.cummingsfoundation.org