Hello everyone,
I hope everyone is doing well this week. We’ve had a pretty busy week here in the Hampden and Hampshire Senate district.
This week I had the honor of meeting with veteran families to discuss how we as a Commonwealth can best advocate for our veterans and active-duty service members to receive the mental heath services they deserve. While the HERO Act, which was recently signed into law, greatly expands behavioral health services for our veterans here in the Commonwealth, there is always ways we can improve. As the Senate Chair of both the Joint Committee on Veterans and Federal Affairs and the Joint Committee on Mental Health, Substance Use, and Recovery, making sure our veterans have the mental health services they need is paramount to my work as an elected official and I look forward to continuing this work in the upcoming legislative session.
Wednesday marked the passage of the twenty third anniversary of the attacks on September 11th, 2001. In remembrance of those we lost, I attended the annual reflection ceremony in the morning at the Westfield fire station, a wreathe laying in the afternoon at the 9/11 memorial on Elm Street and joined the annual memorial ceremony later that evening at the Sons of Erin. We can never forget those we lost, especially Westfield’s own Tara Shea Creamer, Brian Murphy, and Daniel Trant.
Thursday, I had the pleasure of going down to the West Springfield Council on Aging to pass out lunches to local residents as well celebrated their purchase of a new transportation vehicle. Last year I was proud to have helped secure state funds for this new vehicle. The West Side COA provides critical services to our seniors and this vehicle will go a long way towards making sure our seniors are able to get to doctor appointments, to COA events, and just out and about in our community.
Later that day I was able to tour the construction site for the new middle school in Holyoke. I and many of my fellow elected officials were thrilled with the way the work is coming along. The teachers and students of Holyoke are well deserving of this, and I cannot wait to see the finished product.
Thursday evening was also the annual West of the River Chamber of Commerce Cornhole tournament. Rep. Finn, Rep Boldyga and I all faced off against one another again to bring the Agawam and West Springfield business community together. I absolutely love this event and am already looking forwards to next year.
This week my team hosted office hours in Chicopee on Tuesday and West Springfield on Wednesday. Next week we will be at the Easthampton COA on Tuesday from 10:30am to 11:30am and in Holyoke on Wednesday from 10:00am to11:00am. If you can’t 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.
Sincerely,
John Velis