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Uxbridge Times
“Your Hometown News” Vol. 23 • Issue 12
FREE Monthly Since 1991
uxbrIdge • North uxbrIdge • lINwood • douglas • NorthbrIdge • whItINsVIlle • suttoN • MaNchaug
deceMber 2014
Grant awarded to Fire Dept.
GRANT: Brandon Kibbe from TransCanada (on right) presents a check to Uxbridge Town; Manager David Genereux (Center) and Fire Chief; William Kessler.
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The Uxbridge Fire Department is pleased to announce the receipt of a $7,000 grant from TransCanada Corporation for a radio upgrade project that will assist the department in moving to a new frequency. Brandon Kibbe from TransCanada presented the check to Uxbridge Town Manager David Genereux and Fire Chief William Kessler. “The move to a new frequency will allow us to enhance our ability to communicate with our mutual aid departments, which will allow us to start replacing our aging portable radios and pagers. It is getting hard to find replacement equipment for our current low-band frequency” said Chief Kessler. This grant will allow the department to purchase and set up a base radio and repeaters for the new frequency at their radio site and allow for communication across both the current frequency and the new frequency while the older equipment is being replaced. TransCanada owns and operates the 560-megawatt Ocean State Power plant in neighboring Burrillville, Rhode Island. The company’s community investment program focuses on three key areas: safety, community and environment. In 2013, TransCanada invested more than $11M in funding and in-kind donations to 1,200 North American community organizations that promote these fundamental principles. “Investing in the communities where we live and work is fundamental to our corporate social responsibility objectives,” said Brandon Kibbe, Land Agent for the company. “Our commitment to building strong communities aligns with our corporate values of integrity, responsibility, collaboration and innovation.”
HOME AWAY FROM HOME: Whitinsville resident and Peace Corps volunteer Ryan Craig (above) with his host family in Mongolia.
Craig leads movement for rights of the disabled Area Resident & Peace Corps Volunteer helps the people of Mongolia Peace Corps volunteer Ryan Craig of Whitinsville, has devoted his service in Mongolia to speaking out for one of the nation’s most disenfranchised groups. Craig is striving to change local attitudes about people with disabilities by leading the Empowering Individuals with Disabilities task force, a group formed by four Peace Corps volunteers last year that promotes social integration and acceptance. Craig, who started serving as a Health Specialist volunteer in May 2013, previously worked as a counselor at Alternatives Unlimited Inc., a Massachusetts organization that offers services for adults with psychological or developmental disabilities. After counseling disabled adults for four years, the Worcester State University alum says that such experience drove him to help disabled people and their families in Mongolia build life skills and tolerance in their everyday lives. “It is very common here for parents
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and families of children with disabilities to be ashamed of their children and leave them in their homes most of their lives,” he notes. “Many children with disabilities do not attend school, while those that do often encounter terrible treatment. I think this task force can be an agent for change for one of Mongolia’s silent populations.” The task force which is managed by three other volunteers and consists of 70 members, creates and distributes training materials to other Peace Corps volunteers in Mongolia so they may educate their communities about the equal rights of disabled people. Additionally, Craig has spearheaded a Self-Advocacy workshop with the help of Mongolian government officials, local non-governmental organizations and 12 participants with disabilities that advocates for the inclusion and human rights of the disabled population. With less than a year left of service, Craig hopes to reduce the cultural ignorance that surrounds the disabled in Mongolia and reinforce that they are entitled to the same basic rights as non-disabled continued on page 18
~ INDEX ~ Town News ..............Page 4 Dining Out…………Page 17 Calendar...................Page 23 Society .....................Page 25 Senior Corner ..........Page 27 School News............Page 31 Business News........Page 35 Sports.......................Page 39 Classified .................Page 42