DEERFIELD — The name of the Greenfield Recorder’s 2021 Citizen of the Year was announced with a front-page article in Friday’s edition, but Pioneer Valley Editor-in-Chief Joan Livingston built suspense at the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce breakfast that morning.
“Here is a fun fact about our Citizen of the Year: she was in labor with her fourth child when she was signing the tax-exemption forms to help create the Deerfield Land Trust. Now that’s dedication,” Livingston said to applause at Deerfield Academy. “And here’s another: she’s the second in her family to be recognized as Citizen of the Year. Finally, this is one fact that will give our honoree away: she’s been a member of the Deerfield Selectboard for 18 years.
“And, so, it is with great pleasure that I announce that the Greenfield Recorder’s 2021 Citizen of the Year is Carolyn Shores Ness,” Livingston continued, to applause and a standing ovation for Shores Ness, who took the podium.
Shores Ness, daughter of 1997 Citizen of the Year award recipient William Shores, thanked the hundreds of attendees in the dining room and said she was shocked to learn she was this year’s winner.
“This really was a surprise because I don’t really do anything by myself. I always have the best people with me and … it’s a great opportunity to hang out with the best people to get things done,” she said.
Friday’s event was the first of its kind for the Chamber of Commerce since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shores Ness joked that she tormented her children, dragging them to events and activities when she had an obligation.
“But, fortunately, Sunday morning in front of the Historic Deerfield Visitors Center is not really a place where they have most of their friends hang out, so their trauma was pretty limited. But they still talk about having to be forced to dress up as vegetables and how they were fighting over who was going to be the strawberry and who was going to be the eggplant because it looked like poop and not an eggplant,” she said to laughter. “So that was quite a big thing, I think.”
Shores Ness has logged decades of community service after, in her words, “one thing led to another.” She started by helping with the United Way of Franklin County, the Franklin County Community Development Corporation and the Girls Club of Greenfield. That’s when she noticed a huge need in her community.
The list of committees and boards Shores Ness has served on includes, but is not limited to, Deerfield’s Selectboard/Board of Health and Planning Board, and the Massachusetts State Commission for Conservation of Soil, Water and Related Resources. She also founded the Pioneer Valley Mosquito Control District, the county Regional Emergency Planning Committee and Western Region Homeland Security Council. She was also involved in forming South County EMS and is still its fiscal agent today. In fact, she brought the South County Emergency Dispensing Group’s COVID-19 vaccine clinics to Tree House Brewing in South Deerfield this year.
Legislative guests on Friday consisted of U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern, state Sen. Jo Comerford and state Rep. Natalie Blais, who commended Shores Ness and presented her with proclamations. Comerford, D-Northampton, called Shores Ness a “force of nature” and Blais, D-Sunderland, thanked the recipient for her service to the community.
“Thank you for being a role model for so many people,” Blais said, “in terms of getting involved in public service and showing how important it is and how rewarding it can be.”
Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or
413-772-0261, ext. 262.