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Posts published in “Profiles”

(Archive May 2017) Find Unique Items at Rietta Ranch This Summer!

By editorialteam on September 10, 2024

By Micah Clark | Observer Contributor

A row of vendors at Rietta Ranch Flea Market
Source: http://riettafleamarket.com/vendor-information/

On April 2nd, Rietta Ranch opened for the year after its winter break; this large and popular flea market has a large assortment of vendors attracting shoppers from all around. Located at 183 Gardner road along route 68 in Hubbardston, this flea market is one of the largest in the North East. 

As a flea market, it is like an organized mass garage sale, which accounts for variety and maybe rarity of the things you can find. You really don’t know what you might find because anybody can rent a table and sell old stuff like at a garage sale. Many tables sell things that are decades old, and seeing these vintage items can give you a little look into the past, and can be a nostalgia trip if it’s something from your own history. You may find tables that have an assortment of comic books from the 70s that you can purchase for fifty cents each.  read more

(Archive April 2017) Full-Time Student Juggles Full-Time Job and Social Life

By editorialteam on September 10, 2024

By Brianna Stevens | Observer Contributor

Just as many other college students, Tristen LaClair, 20, a graphic design major at MWCC, struggles with balancing a full-time job and being a full-time student.

 “I almost failed a class last semester because I was so over-worked,” LaClair recalled.        

He explained that he worked as a Food Service Aide at Heywood Hospital, and the kitchen has been so short staffed for so long, that he has had to work over 40 hours each week. He said he managed to pull his grades up in time to pass his classes, but by the skin of his teeth.  read more

(Archive April 2017) Adjunct Professor Gets Master’s Degree Working and Parenting Full-Time

By editorialteam on September 10, 2024

By Jennifer Ballou | Observer Contributor

Laura Rosmond

Going for a Master’s degree while teaching high school, and with three young children at home, is not something that many people would consider doing. But for Laura Rosmond, she did what she had to.

When Rosmond was young, she had big dreams of being able to go into the medical field and find the cure for AIDS. Medical technologist, nurse, aide, whatever it took, she was going to solve the world’s biggest problem.

But life happens, and Rosmond had her first child before attending college. She made the sensible decision to put the plan to cure AIDS on hold and make sure that her family was taken care of first. She decided to still go into biology but realized that if she couldn’t solve everything, maybe she could help teach others so that they might.  read more

(Archive April 2017) Maintaining a Busy and Healthy Lifestyle with Corey Boucher

By editorialteam on September 10, 2024

By Nick Cherico | Assistant Editor

Corey Boucher, age 23, is from Leominster, MA. He is currently balancing his work life as an upholsterer and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Boucher currently works for Marcoux Upholstery in Leominster. While working there, he has been a part of some big reupholstering projects, a major one being the upholstery of the seats at Fenway Park. After his company won the bid they put in for the job, they began to start working in January of 2015.

The company was contracted for 6,000 seats. 5,500 red vinyl seats and 500 blue vinyl seats were scheduled to be reupholstered over the course of 3 years. The main goal of the upholstery was to make the seats you can see on television look nicer/stick out more.  read more

(Archive March 2017) An Interview with Sylvie Abate, Musician from Fitchburg

By editorialteam on September 10, 2024

By Bryon Harris | Observer Contributor

Sylvie Abate is a local musician out of Fitchburg, MA. Along with being a multi-talented musician, Sylvie also shares a passion for helping others and creating a stronger community. Sylvie will be putting together a benefit music concert to celebrate and empower women.

From a very young age (12), Sylvie was immersed in music. She studied classical guitar at the HART School of Music then later on attended New England Conservatory. Sylvie later went on to form multiple bands that were all successful and played for many large groups. These experiences set the stage for Sylvie passion for music. read more

(Archive March 2017) Interview/Review of Local Musician Julie Cira

By editorialteam on September 10, 2024

By Bryon Harris | Observer Contributor

Julie Cira hails from the Happy Valley of Northampton, MA. She describes herself as alt-country/Americana, sometimes lo-fi indie rock, a femme-fatale, punk at heart.  Cira is relatively new to the Western Mass music scene and has made a notable entry with her self-titled three song EP.  All three songs on the EP display solid, engaging song-writing delivered by Cira’s warm and intimate vocals.  It is clear that Cira has passion and heart. Her music is soulful. read more

(Archive March 2017) MWCC Student is a Part-Time Princess

By editorialteam on September 10, 2024

By Nicholas Velillari | Observer Contributor

 Li Vaillette, 18, is a student here at the Mount who has a very interesting side job: she is a professional Disney Princess at birthday parties for children on the weekends.

She does all sorts of characters from Belle from Beauty and The Beast, to Ariel from The Little Mermaid and even Princess Leia from Star Wars. Vaillette originally got into this opportunity during high school. “I had a friend who was doing a charity event during school,” Vaillette states, “She asked me if I wanted to dress up as a princess for it. I said yes, and that’s how it all started.”   read more

(Archive March 2017) Fathom Farewell: An Interview with a Local Band

By editorialteam on September 10, 2024

By Mariah Boisvert | Observer Contributor

A Fathom Farewell – Fathom for short – is a band local to Worcester County and book shows all over Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Current members include vocalist Alex Cohen and guitarist Jesse Ljunggren

“A Fathom Farewell’s brand of post-hardcore brings a different angle to a well-tread genre, fusing modern metalcore with influences ranging from traditional Armenian music, to stoner metal, to pop-punk. Their high-energy performance seeks to bring positivity to every musical community they play in” – Direct quote from the band’s Facebook page. read more

(Archive March 2017) Professor Elmer Eubanks’ Background

By editorialteam on September 10, 2024

By Scott Mellecker | Observer Contributor

Professor Eubanks could possibly be the most interesting man in the world. 

He is a professor here at the Mount and teaches business courses. He had a long road before he came to MWCC. “I for sure had my own peaks and valleys,” said Eubanks.

Eubanks was born in Costa Rica, where he often goes on vacations to visit his family. At a young age, he bounced around from Costa Rica to Columbia. After spending a few years in Columbia, he moved to Guatemala in 4th grade. “When I thought my family was all finished moving we then ended up in Nicaragua when I began high school,” states Eubanks. read more

(Archive March 2017) MWCC YouTube Gaming: Joshua Needham and yeahdudegamers

By editorialteam on September 10, 2024

By Nicholas Velillari | Observer Contributor

Mount student, Joshua Needham, runs a youtube channel and gaming website, yeahdudegamers, that focuses on video game commentaries, “let’s play’s”, and video game reviews.

Yeahdudegamers, primarily focuses on story driven and survival horror games like  Tales of Graces, and Fatal Frame, but Needham states they cover “pretty much all games.”

Needham and a few of his friends started the YouTube channel around Halloween of 2014. He states how he and his friends had a passion for playing all sorts of games. “We were just having fun” stated Needham, so they decided, “we should make a YouTube channel and put random stuff on it,” and that’s how it all began. read more