HOLYOKE — The first hearing before a legislative oversight committee tasked with probing the deadly COVID-19 outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home will shine a spotlight on families on Oct. 20.
The 17-member committee will hold the hearing at Holyoke Community College, with a second hearing tentatively scheduled Oct. 27 to highlight stories from staff.
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State Sen. John Velis, D-Westfield, said he expects the first legislative forum to be an expanded version of smaller “listening sessions” he has held singly with loved ones of veterans who succumbed to the spread at the Soldiers’ Home.
Velis said he looks forward to having those family members share their powerful experiences and valuable insights with the full committee.
“It was the family members who were on the front line of this … but at the same time they had to go through the horrors of having their loved one inside the facility,” Velis said. “They can offer so much about what they went through during that initial time period, but they’ve got a lot of really good thoughts and a lot of opinions about how to make this thing better.”