Hometown Heroes
	OUR 2024 COMMUNITY PARTNER While the challenges continue, so do the good works done by our neighbors, our teachers, our health care providers, our volunteers and so many others. This is their story. Ledyard National Bank is proud to support the 2024 Hometown Heroes, who were nominated by members of the community and selected by editors of the Concord Monitor. Nominate your Hometown Hero today.

By RAY DUCKLER

Tim Blagden is heading in the right direction.For several years, he’s been dreaming of a hiking, biking and walking trail 34-miles long that, with a landowner’s permission, would allow snowmobiling in certain spots. As Blagden saw it, a trail...

By MICHAELA TOWFIGHI

Sometimes when Kaleigh Greene tries to list her volunteer roles, it’s hard to know where to start. There’s her stepson’s Boy Scout Troop, his school parent-teacher organization in Northfield, the Concord Young Professionals Network and the Greater...

By MICHAELA TOWFIGHI

For Maria Manus Painchaud, the Capital Region Food Program is a family affair. She served as vice chair under her late father Mark, who helped spearhead the organization. Now, she’s watched her own children join the board.And in the four decades...

By RAY DUCKLER

Finding an impartial voice these days, especially when it comes to certain topics, seems difficult. But when it comes to the world’s religions, Art Rosen plays it right down the middle.He lectures in schools, makes speaking engagements, writes books...

By RAY DUCKLER

Connie Fellows appreciates the offers to help.Her nonprofit – giving homemade Easter baskets to children – has grown over the past nine years, to the point where an ordinary individual might welcome help packing all those baskets, containing...

By RAY DUCKLER

Sarah Stanley’s family name, Griffin, is forever part of the Frankin landscape.Her married name, meanwhile, has had its own impact on the town, this one centered at the Veterans Home in Tilton. That’s where Stanley has worked the past three years,...

By RAY DUCKLER

Debbie Miller would have made a nice complement to Dr. Dolittle.While Dolittle carried on conversations with the animals, Miller would have done practically everything else: fundraisers to help homeless cats and dogs, opening the farms she’s lived on...

By RAY DUCKLER

Mary Aranosian of Concord says she doesn’t always follow the rules.Once, while volunteering at the local winter homeless shelter, Aranosian saw a mother drop off her 18-year-old daughter on a cold night, later discovering that the young woman hadn’t...

By RAY DUCKLER

Apparently, it’s going to take more than legal blindness to force John Golembiowski of Hooksett to pull over and stop reaching out.Even with macular degeneration limiting his field of view to the outer edges of what he’s looking at, Golembiowski sees...

By RAY DUCKLER

In another life, Dan Gagnon, a truck driver from Center Barnstead, smoked a pack of cigarettes a day.Just like his dad, Leon Gagnon, once did. Leon died from lung cancer when Dan was 9. Dan later had a 20-year struggle, forever trying to quit smoking...

By EILEEN O’GRADY

Judy Tibbetts recalls that when she was interviewed for her first teaching job at Franklin High School back in 1970, the superintendent at the time told her he was interested in hiring her only if she planned to stay in the district.“I said, ‘Yes,...

By RAY DUCKLER

Nina Gardner’s fingerprints are all over Sanbornton.Few residents in town have spread themselves this thin. Gardner contributed to Sanbornton’s school system, its historical society and its overall look. She’s 76, and her arms still extend in various...

By EILEEN O’GRADY

Melissa Goyait of Weare helps local students access college and career opportunities through a program that supports them long after high school.Goyait is the associate director at Educational Talent Search, a federal program housed at the University...

By RAY DUCKLER

On Oct. 9, 2019, a stranger from North Carolina named Carson McLean noticed a photo of Kraig Emery on a website.Emery was raising a glass of beer, as though toasting someone. Shown alone, he wasn’t smiling, but he didn’t look mean, sad or angry,...

By JOSH MORRILL

Dennis Pavlicek took over as Newbury’s town administrator nearly three decades ago on the heels of a high-profile tragedy. His first task was a big one – rebuilding trust in his beloved town.On a quiet Monday morning in the fall of 1993, while working...

By TIM O’SULLIVAN

Growing up in Andover, Mass., Iain Hamilton dreamed of flying. That’s what happens when you hear tales about the wonders of aviation from a grandfather who flew Corsairs for the U.S. Navy in World War II, an uncle who flew Huey helicopters in the...