NEWBURYPORT — Over 50 area organizations filled the Newburyport Senior/Community Center’s first floor on Thursday, showcasing the best the region has to offer as part of Yankee Homecoming’s Know Your Community event.
“It’s been great. My saying every year is, ‘You don’t know what you don’t know.’ And so this provides information for government programs, social service programs, city programs, so it’s great,” event co-Chair Paul Bushey said.
Bushey said he started the event in 2022 while general chair of Yankee Homecoming.
“So this is like my signature event,” Bushey said.
In its third year, he said the event continues to draw a large number of local groups.
“We have 54 today,” Bushey said.
Groups in attendance included Link House, the Newburyport Choral Society, the Veterans Northeast Outreach Center, the Greater Newburyport Chamber of Commerce and the Port Parks Alliance.
As hundreds of people mingled between tables, and noshed on free Abraham’s bagels, Bushey noted that it is not just residents who are making connections.
“Not only is it important for people to walk through and get the information, but it’s important for all the providers here to network with each other and know what other groups are doing,” Bushey said.
Newburyport Council on Aging Director Sara Landry shared why the Community Center was the perfect venue for the event.
“I think it’s super important that we have all the community agencies and groups and organizations to come together for seniors so that they can kind of do that one stop shop so to speak, they can come in, they can check out things maybe that they’re interested in,” Landry said.
Being new to the community herself, Landry herself took fully advantage of the opportunity.
“I started in November and so for me this is important to be able to go out and see all this,” Landry said.
Unlike last year when organizations were split between the two floors of the center, every organization was given space on the first floor.
“We tried to avoid upstairs this year because a lot of people weren’t going up to visit those tables. So I told all the providers that I would, you know, I’ll do my best to get everyone on the ground floor and it did work out,” Bushey said.
Among those set up inside with a table was climate activist Kim Goulette representing the city’s Resilience Committee. She said she was very happy with the amount of traffic she was seeing.
“People have been coming by asking a lot of questions, and that’s really what this is all about, just trying to inform people, to help educate around everything that we’re doing to keep Newburyport resilient and sustainable,” Goulette said.
One of the few tables not set up on the first floor was a table belonging to Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, which was situated just outside the front door.
“We’re greeting people as they come in, telling them a little bit about the national wildlife refuge, some of the events that we offer, as well as some of the things that they can do with the refuge to be engaged as a volunteer or as a visitor,” Parker River National Wildlife Refuge manager Matt Hillman said.
He mentioned that he had been given some words of support from folks in regards to the Pink House.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service purchased the nearly 100-year-old structure, along with the 9.2 acres it sits on, for $375,000 in 2011.
Hillman, who oversees the Pink House property on behalf of U.S. Fish and Wildlife, offered a brief update on where they are at with the process of setting up an auction to save the house from being torn down.
“We’re looking at the auction probably another couple weeks or so. It’ll be open. We’ll have one more walkthrough event for anyone that wants to check out the house. It’s probably going to be the first week of August,” Hillman said.
He said he hopes that a couple weeks after the final walkthrough they will be able to find someone to buy the Pink House.