Hello everyone,
I hope you all had a great week
Despite the rainy weather and having to transition indoors, the Westfield community truly turned out in droves to attend Monday morning’s Memorial Day Ceremony to remember and pay tribute to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice while defending our nation. Each Memorial Day, I cannot help but think and share the stories of the brave young soldiers I had the honor of serving with in Afghanistan that tragically never returned home to their families. There is a powerful message I read while returning home from my very first deployment, “Live a life worthy of their sacrifice”, an important reminder to cherish each day and our shared duty to support our service members and their families.
On Wednesday afternoon, I joined Secretary Goralnick from the Executive Office of Veteran Services and Governor Healey at the Holyoke Veterans Home to celebrate its significant transformation. The facility has become one of the nation’s strongest long‑term care nursing facilities due to major improvements in care, staffing, safety, and resident satisfaction. It’s impressive to observe all the positive changes, driven by strong collaboration between the Legislature and the Administration to enact the veterans’ home bond bill and various oversight and governance reforms following the Home’s COVID-19 tragedy. In the months that followed that outbreak, I spent countless hours talking with families and dedicated staff where I made each of them a promise, never again, and I truly believe the new facility and the achievements celebrated this week will live up to that promise.
Later that evening I had the opportunity to join Westfield’s Dollar for Scholars’ annual award night to celebrate the achievements of many of our local high school students that will be graduating next week. Congratulations to all the recipients, I have no doubt you all have bright futures ahead of you!
Thursday morning, I was over in Holyoke with Mayor Garcia and Representative Duffy to discuss critical housing projects around the city with Secretary Matias of the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities. Western Massachusetts has so much potential to help our Commonwealth tackle the housing crisis, but to do so we need to seriously invest in all forms of new housing for our communities.
This week I joined Team Velis at Southampton Office Hours where I caught up with friends and attempted crocheting again, unsurprisingly my skills haven’t improved. I’m excited to get back to many of our local office hours whenever possible over the next month in between my legislative obligations.
This week Team Velis also hosted office hours in Russell. Next week Team Velis will be hosting office hours on Monday at the Agawam Council on Aging from 11:00am to 12:00pm. If you are unable to make office hours, I can always be reached by email, john.velis@masenate.gov, by phone, (413) 572-3920, and you can find me online at senatorjohnvelis.com.
Best,
John Velis