Chamber of Commerce breakfast highlights attributes of small-town life

By DOMENIC POLI

Staff Writer

Published: 01-27-2023 7:35 PM

GREENFIELD — The Franklin County Chamber of Commerce used its first monthly breakfast of 2023 to tout the attributes of living in small towns and offer a prelude to “Crossroads: Change in Rural America,” the Smithsonian’s traveling exhibit slated to visit Turners Falls.

The morning meal at Greenfield Community College featured panelists who have chosen to live and work in Franklin County explaining why they made their home in the state’s most sparsely populated county. One such panelist was Janel Nockleby, the visitor services supervisor at the Great Falls Discovery Center, which will host the Smithsonian’s exhibit from Feb. 5 to March 18.

“The exhibit highlights how rural America has changed since 1900,” Nockleby said. “The changes have been massive — economically and demographically.”

Nockleby mentioned the exhibit’s ribbon-cutting event, with refreshments, is set for 11 a.m. on Feb. 5. She said the Shea Theater Arts Center will host three events, including the Crossroads Kickoff scheduled for Feb. 11. This event, she explained, will feature a “Crossroads” introduction by Leo Hwang, of the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s College of Natural Sciences, and Steve Alves’ short film on maple sugaring. More information is available at greatfallsdiscoverycenter.org.

“Most people don’t live in a rural place anymore. Yet, here we are,” Nockleby said. “What are we to make of it?”

Erin MacLean, who co-owns LOOT found + made on Avenue A in Turners Falls with partner John McNamara, took to the podium at her first chamber breakfast. She explained she and McNamara worked in other fields when they visited western Massachusetts in 2007 “just to check it out.”

“What I like to tell people is, when we first drove through Turners Falls, it was like love at first sight,” MacLean told the audience. “It just completely struck us as a beautiful place to live.”

MacLean said the initial vision was not to own a store but the draw of the particular Avenue A building coupled with McNamara’s childhood spent in the antiques business made it meant to be.

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“The spot inspired the store,” MacLean said. “To me, our business wouldn’t make sense anywhere else.”

Molly Cantor, who owns Molly Cantor Pottery and The Handle Factory Studio in Shelburne Falls, said she grew up in the suburbs of Hartford, Connecticut, and operates out of the former Lamson & Goodnow knife factory, established in 1837. She said Shelburne Falls serves as “a poster child of what’s best in rural America.”

“Three of my commercial landlords have asked me if it would be affordable if they raised my rent, rather than just raising it,” she said, mentioning the community feel.

Another panelist was Jeremy Goldsher, who co-owns Hawks & Reed Performing Arts Center in Greenfield as well as Greenspace CoWork, “a community-based work space serving the productivity needs of our downtown, one unique office at a time.” The facility consists of membership tiers built to be accessible to professionals of all types, he explained.

Goldsher spoke about being a quirky, creative child who never quite fit in. He said he never envisioned settling down in his hometown, especially when he attended Deerfield Academy and often tried to straddle “two very distinct worlds — one a literal colonial experience, complete with muskets and wigs and cotillions, and the other an unparalleled access to cutting-edge resources and world-traveling peers.” He said he spent many nights in his father’s periodontist office on High Street, “wishing I had a place in town that I could call my own.”

Goldsher said he graduated high school and traveled the globe to have new experiences and join new communities, and when the opportunity arose to return home, he “selfishly wanted to bring my acquired wisdom with me. I wanted to build a space younger Jeremy had dreamed of, where he could have the best of both worlds.”

The Franklin County Chamber of Commerce has scheduled its next breakfast for 7:30 a.m. at Terrazza Ristorante on Feb. 17. The theme is about loving one’s job.

Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or
413-930-4120.

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