Month: December 2017

Salem ‘Bring Your Own Bag’ ordinance rings in the New Year

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Shelley A. Sackett

On Jan. 1, Salem residents will have more to remember than just writing the correct year on the checks they write that week. They will also have to remember to bring their own bags with them to the grocery store, or be prepared to buy one.

That is because single-use plastic checkout bags — those provided at the point of sale by retail and food establishments — will no longer be legal in any Salem business after Jan. 1, when a “Bring Your Own Bag” ordinance goes into effect. The new initiative promotes the use of reusable bags in all forms, such as paper, heavy plastic, canvas, and net mesh.

Plastic bags of four millimeters thickness or less create problems for the city and for the environment, clogging storm drains, getting caught in trees, and finding their way into waterways, according to a Dec. 20 press release form Mayor Kimberley Driscoll’s office.

A group of Salem High School students working with Salem Sound Coastwatch spearheaded the initiative, and the Salem City Council passed the plastic bag ordinance in the Fall 2016 with a Jan. 1, 2018 start date. Salem will join 60 other towns and cities in Massachusetts in restricting use of these bags. Boston recently announced approval of a similar ordinance to go into effect in 2019, the press release reads.

The city has collaborated with many local organizations to educate the public and reach out to the business community. Salem Main Street, the Salem Farmers Market and the Salem Chamber of Commerce distributed free recycle bags to shoppers. SalemRecycles started educational outreach in early 2017 to provide resources to Salem businesses and to help residents make the transition. They too distributed free reusable bags at their events around the community.

Impact on stores

Grocery stores expect to bear the biggest impact of the new rules. “People have gotten used to taking a plastic bag even if they really don’t need it,” Salem Sound Coastwatch outreach coordinator Susan Yochelson stated in the press release.

Dawn Stanley has been a clerk at Steve’s Quality Market on Margin Street for only two weeks, but she has heard plenty of comments about the new bag rules. “The elderly are mad because they’re going to have to remember to bring bags or buy them,” she said.

Patty Harkness, who has worked at Steve’s for 10 years, is more optimistic. “It’s good for the environment, and if they’re really smart, they can use the recyclables inside the big cloth bags so they don’t have to use a lot of water to wash out the big bags. So it’s a win-win situation,” said Harkness, who describes her position as “multi-tasker, everywhere and when needed.”

Less than one mile away, at Crosby’s Marketplace on Canal Street, Judy LeDuc agrees that the plastic bag ban will be an adjustment. “A lot of people walk here and are used to carrying their groceries home, two bags in each hand,” she said. The 30-year veteran Crosby’s cashier noted that some people use the bags to pick up after their dogs.

One Crosby’s customer is all in favor of the ordinance. “I think it’s a good thing and I think it will save time for the stores and help reduce the trash in the area from all the plastic bags,” said Salem resident Steve Hodge.

Rinus Oosthoek, executive director of the Salem Chamber of Commerce, believes the ordinance will help Salem businesses stay at the forefront of a larger consumer awareness initiative.

“It will also give the smaller downtown business a way to generate goodwill with consumers, using the conversation as an opportunity to show Salem as unique and customer friendly,” he said.

Oosthoek recently conducted an outreach initiative to the big box stores on Highland Avenue.

“Almost all of them will start using paper bags, and they already have recyclable/reusable bags for sale near the registers,” he said.

While most agree the new ordinance will take some getting used to for both employees and customers, he added: “It seems as if everyone agrees the time is right for this initiative.”

Penalties and enforcement

The ordinance specifically addresses what happens if a business violates the new rules. Sec. 14-503 Penalties and enforcement provides for a series of warnings, notices and fines for violations.

It states, “The warning notice issued for the first offense shall provide at least 14 days to correct the violation. No fine for the second offense shall be issued until at least 14 days after the warning is issued. This article may be enforced by any police officer, enforcement officer or agent of the board of health or licensing department.”

Police Capt. Conrad Prosniewski said the ordinance would be treated like any other ordinance the Salem Police Department has the responsibility for enforcing.

Driscoll said she feels Salem is in a great position as the new restriction goes into effect, after a year’s worth of public education and outreach to the business community.

“We’ve all seen stray plastic bags caught in tree branches or blowing down the street,” she said. “I’m hopeful this new change will bring about a noticeable improvement in Salem, while also taking another step forward in keeping Salem a sustainable and attractive community in which to live and do business.”

Swampscott native takes the helm at Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters

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DECEMBER 28, 2017 – When Harvey Lowell steps down after 21 years as president and CEO of Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Boston, he will pass the baton to Kimberlee Schumacher, who brings strong vision and 20 years of executive experience, including as vice president of strategy and development of the organization.

“The fact that Kimberlee has been leading our strategic planning process for the last 18 months, and helping us create a vision for our future, will ensure a smooth transition into her new role,” David Franklin, chairman of the board of trustees, said in a Dec. 12 statement announcing Schumacher’s appointment.

Schumacher, a Swampscott native who now lives in Arlington, will bring a blend of innovation and respect for past practices to her new position. “I am incredibly honored and humbled to be in the position of implementing the new strategic plan,” she said.

One aspect of Lowell’s legacy Schumacher plans to maintain is a deep commitment to the mission of JBBBS: reaching out to the most vulnerable children and adults in the community.
She was selected following a national search conducted by Commongood Careers, a leading executive search firm specializing in nonprofits.

Founded in 1919 as the Jewish Big Brother Association, the JBBBS is New England’s oldest youth mentoring organization. Today, with financial support from Combined Jewish Philanthropies, The United Way, and other foundations and grants, the Newton-based organization matches over 250 Jewish and non-Jewish children from over 90 towns in eastern Massachusetts with adult mentors.

In 1992, JBBBS inaugurated Friend 2 Friend, the first program of its kind to pair adults with mild to moderate disabilities with a mentor. The program currently serves 175 adults who benefit from the social interactions it provides.

One of the biggest challenges the organization faces is finding and keeping volunteers. “We are always looking for new volunteers,” Schumacher said, noting the current waiting list of around 80 kids and adults with disabilities. “I’d like to encourage anyone who is interested to consider volunteering. It’s truly an incredible experience and our community needs you.”

Schumacher credits her parents for instilling such a strong love of Judaism. “They taught me the value of committing to and being part of the Jewish community,” she said. Growing up, she belonged to Temple Emanu-El in Marblehead and Congregation Shirat Hayam in Swampscott.

As a teenager, her involvement in the Temple Emanu-El SMARTY youth group provided a platform to develop leadership skills at a young age. She became its president while a Swampscott High School junior and worked as a SMARTY adviser while an undergraduate at Brandeis University.

Schumacher believes her experiences as a teen leader fueled her passion to continue working in the community at CJP, the Jewish Federation of the North Shore, and now at JBBBS. “I am extremely grateful for the mentoring relationships I formed in high school. The wonderful people I worked with then remain my mentors today,” she said.

She is also grateful to be at the helm of JBBBS. “I believe strongly in giving back to the community, and working in the nonprofit world allows me to live my life according to the values I was raised with,” she said.

Georgia O’Keeffe as artist, model, and designer at Peabody Essex Museum

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Shelley A. Sackett

DECEMBER 28, 2017 – SALEM – Few people outside academia realize that Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986), the iconic artist famous for paintings of enlarged flowers and New Mexico landscapes, was an accomplished seamstress who lavished as much creative juice on her self-presentation as on her work. With the opening of its multi-disciplinary exhibition, “Georgia O’Keeffe: Art, Image, Style,” the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem opens the door to her closet.

O’Keeffe’s paintings are presented alongside her never before exhibited handmade garments and dozens of images of the artist taken by photographers, including her Jewish husband, Alfred Stieglitz. The show, first curated at the Brooklyn Museum by art historian Wanda M. Corn, is the first to explore how the renowned artist deliberately and adeptly shaped her public image and myth, creating her own celebrity fame.

The 125 works expand our understanding of O’Keeffe while underscoring her fierce determination to be in charge of how the world understood her identity and artistic values. The powerful public persona she created through her clothes and the way she posed for the camera unequivocally proclaimed her independence and modern, progressive lifestyle.

“O’Keeffe drew no line between the art she made and the life she lived,” Corn said. “She strove to make her life a complete work of art, each piece contributing to an aesthetic whole.”

Corn discovered O’Keeffe’s cache during a 1980 cross-country stopover in New Mexico on her way to Stanford University, where she taught art history. She visited O’Keeffe’s homes in the Southwest state at Ghost Ranch and Abiquiú, finding closets full of the artist’s clothing preserved in beautiful condition. Because most were without labels, she had to guess which ones the artist created and which she bought. Corn said if she could sit down with O’Keeffe, “My first question would be, ‘Was I right in my attributions?’”

Most of the clothes and desert artifacts now belong to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, founded the year of her death in 1986.

The provocative photographs by Stieglitz (1864-1946) dominate the exhibition’s walls at the Peabody Essex. It’s hard to imagine the different path O’Keeffe’s life might have taken had she not caught his eye in 1916, when he was 52, married, and a world-famous photographer based in New York and she was 28 and still unknown.

Instantly infatuated with O’Keeffe and her art, the son of German-Jewish immigrants wooed and won her. She moved to New York and soon, he began taking nude photographs of her, one of which hangs beside an O’Keeffe painting at the Peabody Essex exhibit. The two married in 1924. For years, Stieglitz photographed O’Keeffe obsessively, teaching her how to pose and helping make her the most photographed artist of the 20th century.

In 1927, O’Keeffe visited New Mexico and fell in love with the desert landscape. Her art and clothing would change in response to it. She lived there part of the year from 1929 on, moving there permanently after Stieglitz’s death in 1946. The younger generation of photographers who visited her in New Mexico cemented her status as a pioneer of modernism and a contemporary style icon.

Sprinkled throughout the rooms of paintings, paired clothing, and photographs at the Peabody Essex exhibit are small screen films, including fascinating home movies of O’Keeffe and Stieglitz in New York and a one-minute 1977 video portrait, the only such interview the artist granted.

One standout in the exhibition’s predominantly black and ivory palette is an orange Andy Warhol diamond-dusted print that introduces the idea of “Saint Georgia,” showing a meditative, mystical, Mother Theresa-like O’Keeffe. Another is a video of the House of Dior’s 2018 O’Keeffe-inspired cruise collection that features her signature gaucho hat.

“O’Keeffe’s aesthetic legacy of organic silhouettes, minimal ornamentation, and restrained color palettes continues to capture the popular imagination and inspire leading designers and tastemakers of today,” said Austen Barron Bailly, organizing PEM curator.

“Georgia O’Keeffe: Art, Image, Style” runs through April 1 at the Peabody Essex Museum, East India Square, 161 Essex St., Salem. For more information, call 978-745-9500 visit pem.org.

Marblehead, Swampscott congregations unite to study Israel’s history

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DECEMBER 14, 2017 – Round tables in the Temple Emanu-El social hall were draped with white paper cloths. The coffee pot and cookies beckoned from the corner. Around five minutes before 7, a steady flow of adults greeted each other, staking out a seat within just the right view (and hearing range). They clutched textbooks and pens, and bore the excited, eager look that marks adult learners.

For four Tuesday nights this fall, 30 people attended a class co-taught by Rabbis David Meyer of Temple Emanu-El in Marblehead and Michael Ragozin of Congregation Shirat Hayam in Swampscott. Titled “Israel’s Milestones and Their Meanings: The Legacy of the Past and the Challenge of the Future,” the curriculum was developed by the Shalom Hartman Institute iEngage in New York and addressed three pivotal moments in Israel’s history: 1917, 1947, and 1967.

The rabbis alternated locations, with two classes at Shirat Hayam and two classes at Temple Emanu-El. While the class appreciated the readings and history, it was the interaction of the rabbis that most resonated.

“I love the idea of co-teaching between the two rabbis,” said Temple Emanu-El member Judy Mishkin. “They are wonderful together, they are wonderful separately.”

For Brenda and Shelley Cohen of Marblehead, these evenings were a way to share. “My husband is a history buff and he fills in everything I don’t know,” Brenda said with a laugh.

Asked what “Tuesday night date night” meant to him, Shelley, a Shirat Hayam member and retired dentist, deadpanned, “A quick supper.”

The rabbis stressed the importance of uniting a community challenged by divergent views toward Israel and American politics. “We thought we could do something that would bring a measure of healing and acceptability into the conversation around Israel,” Rabbi Ragozin said.

“There’s something inherently beautiful about bringing the two congregations together. The participants don’t necessarily know each other, so they might feel they’re in a safe setting to openly discuss and critique Israel.”

Rabbi Meyer agreed. “We really sought to create a fresh dialogue and a new conversation about Israel, about the role Israel plays in the world and in our lives,” Rabbi Meyer said.

The two also relished the idea of working together. “I’m always learning something from David. He’s a mentor and a mensch,” said Rabbi Ragozin, referring to himself as “the new young rabbi in town.”

“Our congregations are separated by only a mile and a half, but our programming tends to be separated, so it’s certainly allowed Michael and me to work together and get to know each other,” Rabbi Meyer said. “And that’s all positive.”

“It’s a luxury to have two rabbis teaching us,” said Margaret Somer, a Swampscott resident and Shirat Hayam member. Even more important to her, however, was thinking about the 1967 Six-Day War, especially as the celebration of another historical miracle – Hanukkah – approaches.

“It was a major, major moment in history, a transformation of how the Jewish people feel about themselves, the confidence and assertiveness,” she said, pausing as she searched for the exact words that summed up how she felt. She smiled broadly. “It’s OK to be Jewish,” she said triumphantly.

Anti-Defamation League honors Swampscott native

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Diana Headshot

Diana Leader-Cramer

The Anti-Defamation League New England Region will present its 2017 Krupp Leadership Awards to Diana Leader-Cramer Moskowitz and Monica Snyder at its 15th Annual Young Leadership Celebration on Saturday, Dec. 16 at The Colonnade Hotel in Boston.

The award is given to community members who demonstrate outstanding dedication and leadership on behalf of the ADL.

Diana Leader-Cramer Moskowitz, a credit research analyst at Loomis Sayles, is one of the longest-serving members of the ADL Associate Board and has held various leadership positions, including co-chair of the programming and governance committees.

The Swampscott native credits Epstein Hillel School (then Cohen Hillel Academy) and her parents, “who lead and continue to lead by example,” for instilling in her a deep sense of wanting to give back to the Jewish community.

“Philanthropy has always been an important part of my Jewish identity and an important outlet for me. Despite working full-time and going to school part-time when I was pursuing my MBA, it was essential to me to stay involved with and support the causes that were important to me, such as the ADL,” the Wellesley resident and Washington University and Boston University alumna said.

After attending Cohen Hillel Academy, she volunteered as a teachers aid at the school and later continued her involvement with Temple Israel as a Torah reader until leaving for college. While in college, she continued to be an active member of the Jewish community, minoring in Jewish studies and becoming a member of the local Hillel and Jewish Student Union.

Monica Headshot

Monica Snyder

As an employment lawyer at Fisher & Phillips, LLP, a national labor employment firm in Boston, Monica Snyder’s chosen field greatly influences her involvement at ADL.

“My law firm represents employers in dealing with a wide array of employment matters, including issues involving discrimination,” she said. “I became a lawyer, in part, to cure the injustices in this world,” the Boston resident and Amherst College and Boston University School of Law alumna added.

Snyder co-chairs the Glass Leadership Committee and the Young Lawyers Committee, which provides opportunities for Boston area attorneys to network and to generate discussions through round tables and speakers.

A group made up of members of several ADL boards, directors and the prior year’s winners selects honorees.

“Monica and Diana embody ADL’s values and believe deeply in ADL’s mission. They are both widely respected leaders,” said Daniel Hart, director of Development New England Region Anti-Defamation League and a member of the selection committee.

The Young Leadership Celebration was created 15 years ago to recognize young leaders with a once-a-year signature event and to broaden ADL’s reach in the young leadership community in the Greater Boston area.

Both Snyder’s and Leader-Cramer Moskowitz’s involvement with ADL started with their acceptance into the Glass Leadership Institute, a year-long program that meets on a monthly basis, giving young adults the opportunity to learn what the ADL does first hand about issues facing communities. Shortly after, each decided to take on leadership responsibilities.

“This program gave us the opportunity to meet with experts from across the organization and learn about the different ways they make an impact on a daily basis. Gaining a full understanding of all the important work the ADL does motivated me to stay involved,” Leader-Cramer Moskowitz said.

Actively engaged in ADL since 2010, she spent two weeks in Germany in 2012 representing ADL in its partnership with the German government’s Close-Up program.

“I learned about Germany’s history and modern Jewish life. I am passionate about the ADL’s mission of promoting equality and fair treatment for all,” Leader-Cramer Moskowitz said.

She is proudest of her role in helping to create the Breaking Barrier speaker series that brings interesting and engaging speakers that are important to the ADL and to the community at large. Last year, Khizr Khan, the Pakistani American parent of United States Army Captain Humayun Khan, who was killed in 2004 during the Iraq War, joined the group for a conversation on religious freedom, civil rights, and security issues.

The 2017 series welcomed Christian Picciolini, a former neo-Nazi who now helps others counter all types of racism and violent extremism.

“These speakers bring important topics to the forefront and engage the community in discussions about what is happening and also what can be done to combat hate and promote equality for all,” Leader-Cramer Moskowitz said. “ADL’s expanded efforts to combat all kinds of hate is something that is critically and increasingly important today.”

For more information or to buy tickets, visit: http://bit.ly/2B5ugUF

In 2017, Salem Council on Aging saw much change

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Terry ARnold

Teresa Arnold, new executive director of Salem’s Council on Aging.

 

Salem seniors have much to look forward to in 2018.

In September, Salem not only broke ground on the Mayor Jean A. Levesque Community Life Center, but also appointed Teresa Arnold as Salem Council on Aging’s executive director.

“Terry is very highly qualified and has a wonderful reputation,” said Lynda Coffill, chairman of the Council on Aging Board of Directors. “She’s already established relationships with some of the seniors and has done a terrific job of communicating with the board.”

Mayor Kim Driscoll picked Arnold based on the Gloucester resident’s reputation, qualifications and management style amassed over a 25-year career, she said.

“Terry brings the kind of positive and supportive attitude that is so important for a COA director who interacts daily with our senior population,” said Driscoll. “I’m especially excited that she will be at the helm of the COA when we move into the new building this coming year.”

The city anticipates a 2018 completion for the 20,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art building on Bridge Street. The facility will house the COA, Veterans Services and Park and Recreation departments.

Arnold is delighted with her new job.

“I am very pleased to be part of a solid city with excellent leadership,” she said. “While I live in Gloucester, I’ve always been fond of Salem and its incredible history, not unlike my own hometown. However, I can help serve seniors and people living with disabilities, I certainly will.”

The same night the Salem City Council confirmed Arnold, councilors also voted to move the executive-director position under the mayor’s supervision.

Revolving turnover

Salem City Councilor President Elaine Milo said she has seen a trio of COA executive directors come and go over a three-years time span.

“High turnover in any organization is not healthy,” she said.

Milo added she believes Arnold will bring a professional, positive atmosphere to the Council on Aging.

“My sense is that she will work hard to cultivate outside relationships with community organizations that have much to offer seniors and vice versa,” said Milo. “I look forward to working with her.”

Arnold is aware of worries over the revolving-door of leadership and expressed a confidence in current COA staff.

“I can understand the concern of the community not wanting to see a lot of turnover. I hope that my tenure here is lengthy and that we can move forward toward the new Community Life Center,” said Arnold. “We have some good opportunities ahead to make the center a vibrant hub.”

Arnold possesses experience across program and business development, operations, advocacy, government and board relations and clinical and quality management. She holds a master’s degree in management from Lesley University.

Before arriving in Salem, Arnold headed up the Greater North Shore Link in Danvers, an aging and disability consortium. She also worked in several senior-serving outfits from Caregiver Homes to SeniorCare.

In her appointment letter, Driscoll wrote: “Throughout her career, Teresa has been dedicated to leading programs that preserve the dignity and independence of seniors.”

Over the years, Arnold said she amassed a bag of successful programs to pull from. One in particular that she mentioned: Providing an enhanced evening-and-weekend schedule of medical rides for seniors.

“Transportation needs never go away,” she said.

Ensuring seniors, including those with disabilities, maintain a high quality of life and independence are top priorities, said Arnold.

“I’ve been able to provide seniors — as well as individuals living with a disability and their families and caregivers — the resources they need to access long-term supports and services in order to stay as independent as possible and to hopefully age in place,” Arnold said.

Nothing could make Andrew J. LaPointe, president of the Friends of the Salem Council on Aging, and Shubert, his seeing-eye dog, happier.

“Our seniors are Salem’s most valuable assets,” said LaPointe. “Terry will also work with me to include the many seniors with disabilities, so they can be a part of all the great programs that are offered.”

At-large Councilor Thomas Furey was the sole vote against Arnold. He argued for hiring someone who possessed institutional memory and a familiar face among local seniors, especially in light of turnover.

“There has been a revolving door of outside COA directors who come in and out. They leave it in a vacuum of leadership,” said Furey, “so I voted against the outsider from Gloucester. We need continuity and stability. There are several people inside the COA who could take over very easily.”

Filling the post came after a six-member search committee executed a lengthy vetting process: Advertising the open position, ranking qualified applicants, conducting initial interviews and sending the mayor an appointment recommendation.

Arnold ultimately rose to the top, and the committee supplied Driscoll with her name. The mayor performed the final interview and sent the Arnold appointment for the City Council’s confirmation consideration.

Arnold now leads a city agency annually serving more than 2,000 seniors, to whom the COA an array of services and support “to ensure all seniors can maximize of their lives,” according to council’s website.

During just one week in December, the COA will offer 34 activities: Meditation, quilting, creative writing, water aerobics, drum class, line dancing and trips to North Shore Mall and, for an evening concert, Salem State University.

Community Life Center

The new facility will be called Salem’s Community Life Center, a name that better reflects the diversity in age the COA serves. Currently, the COA seeks programs that broaden its appeal to a cross-generational age range of seniors.

“We go from 60 to 100 years old,” said Coffill. “We have to make sure we have activities geared to all age groups.”

Reaching out to younger seniors to pull them in the COA constitutes another priority on Arnold’s docket.

“Terry wants to introduce new opportunities for 50 and 60-years-old to join older adults at the new Community Life Center, to make it a central gathering place for all,” said Salem for All Ages Task Force Co-Chairman Pat Zaido.

The 14-member task force was formed the AARP and the World Health Organization certified Salem as an “Age Friendly City.” Members are currently executing a five-year action plan to ensure Salem remains age-friendly across transportation, social participation and social inclusion.

Arnold, in her role, sits on the task force, and she and Zaido have already had four or five meetings. She has been impressed by Arnold’s maturity, experience and passion.

“With 25 years of experience working with seniors and the disabled,” said Zaido, “it is obvious she is committed to this population.”

‘Arc Tank’ competition is changing lives of disabled through innovation

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NOVEMBER 30, 2017 – In 2002, Jo Ann Simons and Steven P. Rosenthal happened to pick neighboring elliptical machines at the Jewish Community Center of the North Shore in Marblehead. During their workout, they chatted. Simons learned of Rosenthal’s interest in philanthropy; Rosenthal learned about Simons’ interest in intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Neither had a clue that 15 years later, they would partner to revolutionize the way their two fields could intersect.

It all started when Rosenthal was planning his 2017 donations. The Marblehead resident and former CEO of Northland Investment Corp. knew he wanted to do more than just write the traditional check to a nonprofit that supports his core values of “tikun olam” (repair the world). He wanted to inject innovation and creativity into the process, setting an example that might encourage other philanthropists to think outside the box.

He immediately thought of Simons, now CEO of Danvers-based Northeast Arc, which is at the forefront of providing innovative services, education, and training to 9,000 adults and children with disabilities each year.

“We are a thought leader. We want to establish ourselves as the most innovative, creative, strategic organization in our industry,” Simons said of Northeast Arc, which has 1,100 employees and a $250 million budget, and reaches 190 communities throughout eastern Massachusetts.

It was a good fit. Rosenthal, who now runs the Boston real estate investment firm called West Shore LLC, donated $1 million to Northeast Arc to launch The Changing Lives Fund. He, Simons, and the Arc board of directors then brainstormed to come up with a groundbreaking approach to spending that money.

“We thought, what a novel concept if — instead of keeping the money — we decided we were going to try to inspire the most creative ideas within our industry,” said Simons, who lives in Swampscott and is a Swampscott High School graduate. “Steve’s vision of philanthropy helps us identify a new, nuanced role.”

Borrowing from the name and competitive methodology of “Shark Tank,” the popular ABC television show, the team created “Arc Tank,” where anyone with a creative concept to aid people with disabilities can pitch an idea and compete for funding from The Changing Lives Fund.

“We realized we can develop initiatives that support our mission and leverage the money for a greater impact if we give it away,” Simons said.

Of the 100 proposals from all over the world that flooded in after the competition was advertised, 45 were selected for the “holding tank.” Outside reviewers recommended seven finalists.

The inaugural Arc Tank contest, collaboration between Northeast Arc and the JFK Library Foundation, took place on Nov. 15 at the JFK Presidential Library and Museum and awarded $200,000. Over 300 people attended.

A panel of judges awarded grants to three winners who “positively disrupted the conventional methods of providing services to persons with disabilities.”

• Pathways to Inclusive Healthcare,” submitted by Dr. Carolyn Langer, associate professor at UMass Medical Center in Worcester, received $80,000 to develop a pipeline of healthcare professionals to ease the transition from pediatrics to adult medicine care.

• The Center for Public Representation of Northampton, a public service law firm, received $85,000 for its proposal, “Disrupting the Guardianship Pipeline,” to create an effective alternative to guardianship, often the only option for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

• “Water Wise,” submitted by the YMCA of the North Shore in Beverly, addresses the fact that drowning is a leading cause of death for children with Autism spectrum disorder by developing a water safety program that targets specific needs. The $30,000 grant will fund the program in two locations next year, with plans to expand to eight sites by 2019.

In addition, two incubator proposals were awarded $2,500 each.  Andrew Holmes of Winchester, a junior at Olin College of Engineering in Needham, is developing “Shop, Drop and Roll,” a wheelchair attachment that simplifies the transport and accessibility of goods on the back of a wheelchair. Nathaniel Lorenz Galdamez, a freshman at Swampscott High School, is designing “The BIONIC hand,” a wrist device to assist computer usage.

Rosenthal couldn’t be more pleased with the first Arc Tank. “The event was a terrific success. I think we have started an important and much needed conversation about innovation and philanthropy,” he said.