May News from the Spirit of Springfield

Celebrating Springfield's Biggest, Best and Brightest!

April was a busy month for announcements for the City of Bright Nights Ball to the World’s Largest Pancake Breakfast. We are grateful to have the support of Western New England University for the November 11th gala, and pleased to be honoring Springfield Police Superintendent Cheryl Clapprood at the World’s Largest Pancake Breakfast.

I encourage everyone to join us on Saturday, May 13th to show our appreciation to Superintendent Clapprood, and to celebrate Springfield’s 387th birthday. It is going to be a great day in Downtown Springfield thanks to MGM Springfield, our donors, volunteers, and entertainers.

Happy Birthday, Springfield!

-- Judy Matt

President

Superintendent Clapprood Named Honorary Chair

In a room filled with sponsors, supporters, and volunteers at MGM Springfield, the Spirit of Springfield named Springfield Police Superintendent Cheryl Clapprood as the 2023 World’s Largest Pancake Breakfast Honorary Chair. The honor was bestowed upon her by last year’s Honorary Chair, Chris Kelley, MGM Springfield President.

She will preside over the pancake breakfast on Saturday, May 13th, greet visitors, pose for lots of photos with sponsors, donors, volunteers, exhibitors, and many that will attend Springfield’s 387th birthday breakfast.

Chris Kelley joked during his comments that since he did such a wonderful job as the 2022 Honorary Chair, that the consensus was, at least with both of his parents, that he should serve again in 2023. He then announced that the only one he believed could do a better job than him was Superintendent Clapprood.

She received a standing ovation as did longtime World’s Largest Pancake Breakfast Chair and former State Representative Peter Lappin. Springfield Thunderbirds President Nathan Costa and Boomer, who were honored in 2019, were there to help welcome Superintendent Clapprood to the elite team of honorees.

As her first official act as the 2023 World’s Largest Pancake Breakfast Honorary Chair, Superintendent Clapprood presented MGM Springfield’s Culinary Bacon Team, with a Golden Spatula for warming 1,000 pounds of bacon. It was presented to MGM Springfield Executive Chef Omar Echeverria.

Birthday Breakfast Preparations

When Springfield has a birthday, everyone is invited! This includes the 75,000 area school students who will be receiving complimentary tickets. These were printed by Mercy Medical Center, and they will be delivered by American Medical Response.

This week, Gleason Johndrow Landscaping will load 1,000 pounds of bacon from Smithfield Foods into their truck to deliver to the Hampden County Sheriff’s Department which will cook the bacon and pans donated by Mansfield Paper Company.

Next week, the process to gather more supplies will continue. The Springfield Business Improvement District will pick up 100 5-gallon buckets, and batter mix and syrup from Performance Foodservice, and deliver it to Mercy Medical Center. They will pick up trash boxes from Republic Services too. Springfield Department of Public Works will fill a truck full with paper products donated by Baystate Health and Health New England. This will include cups, plates, napkins, and cutlery sets. They will also transport the cooked bacon to MGM Springfield who will warm it to the perfect temperature for Saturday, May 13th.

Quality Beverage will send a refrigerator to Mercy Medical Center on May 12th so that a team from Gleason Johndrow Landscaping can load the 100 5-gallon buckets of batter and 200 pounds of Cabot Creamery butter on to the truck.

In the early morning hours on May 13th, a tractor trailer from H. P. Hood will back into Main Street to unload milk, juice, and cream on to three additional trucks from Quality Beverage, Ryder Truck, and Home Grown Springfield (Sodexo).

It is a beautiful symphony of support . . . Cue the more than 300 volunteers!

Golf Classic Supports the Spirit

From pancakes to pyrotechnics, the Spirit of Springfield has been bringing the community together in celebration since its incorporation in December 2019. Proceeds from the Spirit of Springfield Golf Classic help to underwrite administrative costs that are not covered by event sponsorships.

The tournament is also an easy and relaxing day of golf on Franconia Golf Course. It includes lunch on the course sponsored by the Springfield Thunderbirds, a $25 gift card to one of Springfield’s fine dining destinations donated by the Springfield Business Improvement District, a Spirit of Springfield Golf umbrella, and fun and games on the course. This includes a $100,000 whole-in-one prize donated by Gleason Johndrow Landscaping.

The morning begins with a friendly putting competition with Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno, Agawam Mayor William Sapelli, Westfield Mayor Michael McCabe, and West Springfield Mayor Will Reichelt, sponsored by Charlie Arment Trucking.

To get on the roster or sponsor list, visit spiritofspringfield.org or contact nicole@spiritofspringfield.org or 413-733-3800.

Western New England University Sponsoring Gilded Gala

The 2023 City of Bright Nights Ball will be dripping with gold and full of glamour with Western New England University as its sponsor and Dr. Robert Johnson as its Chair.

To make the announcement on April 6th, Spirit of Springfield President Judy Matt was joined by Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno, Chris Kelley, MGM Springfield President, Patrick Pickering, Vice President of Operations for American Medical Response and last year’s City of Bright Nights Ball Honorary Chair, event sponsors, committee members, Western New England College Trustees, and Spirit of Springfield Board of Directors.

“I am honored to serve as Honorary Chair of the 2023 Spirit of Springfield City of Bright Nights Ball,” said WNE President Dr. Robert E. Johnson. “Western New England University is a proud member of the Springfield community, and I am pleased to represent our terrific

students, faculty, and staff. The relationship between WNE and the Bright Night’s Ball goes back many years. I am grateful to Judy Matt and the Spirit of Springfield Board for this great honor.”

If you are interested in reserving tickets or a table for 10 guests, or being a sponsors for the November 11th gala at MGM Springfield, contact amy@spiritofspringfield.org.

Thank You Representative Gonzalez

Massachusetts State Representative Carlos Gonzalez delivered good news to the Spirit of Springfield in April. With the help of his colleagues in the state legislator, they were able to secure a total of $100,000 in state funding for the Spirit of Springfield through the Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism and the Office of Housing and Economic Development.

These funds will help to underwrite expenses associated with events that include the World’s Largest Pancake Breakfast and Star Spangled Springfield.

Thank you for all who made this possible!

Vote for Bill from Bright Nights!

The Greater Springfield Convention Bureau has announced the Howdy Award finalist. Bright Nights at Forest Park’s Manager, Bill Vezina, is amongst them. He makes sure all of the lights sparkle and shine, and is often the first to assist a visitor in needed.

Bill is also being considered for the People’s Choice Award. Use this link to give him your vote.

We have until May 10th to get him at the top of the list. Vote today, tomorrow, and every day! Winners will be announced May 15th.

Cheers to Deputy Cochrane!

In the Spirit of Springfield’s early years, we were introduced to Captain Bill Cochrane. He was looking for assistance with a graduation ceremony for the Springfield Police Academy. We were pleased to provide our expertise.

We want on to work with him as he was promoted to Deputy. Amongst his other duties, he oversaw the Star Spangled Springfield festivities on July 4th. We would often seek his advice, and it was always right.

We thank him for his 40 years of service to our community and wish him well in his retirement!

In this Issue

Superintendent Clapprood Named Honorary Chair

Birthday Breakfast Preparations

Golf Classic Supports

the Spirit

Western New England University Sponsoring Gilded Gala

Thank you Representative Gonzalez

Vote for Bill from

Bright Nights

Cheers to Deputy Cochrane!

Guest Column

Superintendent

Cheryl Clapprood

Springfield Police Department

Bright Nights Season Pass

Guest Column

Superintendent Cheryl C. Clapprood, Springfield Police Department

I’m truly honored to be selected by the Spirit of Springfield as the Honorary Chair of the World’s Largest Pancake Breakfast. The pancake breakfast brings thousands of members of our community together, especially the students from our Springfield Public Schools. I am looking forward to interacting with our community when I’ll be wearing a different type of uniform.

This is my 44th year at the Springfield Police Department. I’ll be retiring next May. A lot of people ask why I stick around and it is to make a difference. Our police department has made enormous positive strides in the past few years. All our officers have body-worn-cameras, they save more than 100 lives a year by administering Narcan, they continue to excel in dangerous situations by taking record-amounts of illegal firearms off the street. All of this and our complaints are few and far between, most of which are cleared up by the body camera footage. I could not be more proud of our officers.

I hope you come say hello to the women and men in blue who will be there with me on May 13th to help make this year’s pancake breakfast the best ever.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

2023

World's Largest Pancake Breakfast

Saturday, May 13th

8am - 11am

Main Street