GREENFIELD — While Community Action Pioneer Valley’s annual breakfast always serves as a way to highlight its programs and honor awardees each year, Friday morning’s event was also just as much about a call to action, as federal funding cuts threaten the wide swath of programs the agency offers.

With federally funded low-income home energy assistance programs serving as a recent target of President Donald Trump’s administration, as well as the uncertainty brought on by federal funding freezes, Community Action Pioneer Valley Executive Director Clare Higgins kicked off the meeting at Greenfield Community College’s Cohn Family Dining Commons with a message of resilience: “We are still here.”

“Our mission is to keep people warm, fed, cared for, build community and we can do that, even through all of this chaos,” Higgins said. “We’re going to take care of the community members that rely on us and those who don’t even know we exist yet.”

Following Higgins’ introduction, which highlighted how the agency’s funding is allocated and how the community has continued to rally around the agency, Community Action began handing out its awards for 2024.

Leading things off was the Volunteer of the Year Award given to Greenfield Cooperative Bank Executive Vice President of Compliance and Risk Management Mary Rawls, who has served as a champion of the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program since 2020. In her remarks, Rawls said VITA has a 60-to-1 return on investment for clients and she shares this honor with the folks who set aside their time to help people out with their taxes.

“May all of us as volunteers aspire to continue and make a difference in whatever we choose,” Rawls said, “because as the VITA program showcases, the results that come from working together can be amazing.”

The Jane Sanders Award, named for the executive director prior to Higgins, was given to Debra McLaughlin, coordinator of the Opioid Task Force of Franklin County and the North Quabbin Region, for her work in creating the HUB project, a region-wide initiative addressing the winter emergency needs of homeless individuals in 30 communities.

She said she was grateful for the award and highlighted how a community banding together can create results.

“The twin forces of gratitude and resistance have been much on my mind. I’m deeply grateful to work in such a caring community whose culture and collaboration helps us realize efforts like the HUB project, but also helps make resistance possible,” McLaughlin said. “When showing up, like we have today, helps us resist fear, confusion and isolation. Even in difficult times, we can work together and explore what is feasible.”

Finally, state Rep. Mindy Domb, D-Amherst, was honored with the Sargent Shriver Award, which honors an elected or appointed official who demonstrates outstanding service. Shriver was the architect of the so-called “War on Poverty” launched by President Lyndon B. Johnson and served as a director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, which administered the Community Action Program.

Higgins highlighted Domb’s commitment to “supporting the most vulnerable members of our community,” as she has introduced acts to create a diaper-benefit program and expanded access to hygiene products. Domb, tying into the day’s theme of resilience, urged attendees to stick together and care for one another during these tumultuous times.

“I so love the idea that we’re on a new frontier because I think that’s the kind of courage and companionship we all kind of need. Every day we’re seeing programs disappear, funding disappear and people disappearing,” Domb said. “Remember, the resistance relies on our connection to each other. Isolation is the weapon of the authoritarian. Anything we can do every day to break the isolation for ourselves and the people we serve is a win.”

Moments of “Clare-ity”

Finally, Charity Day, chair of Community Action’s board of directors, closed out the event by honoring Higgins, who will be retiring from the agency this summer after 14 years of work. In doing so, she invited Domb, Rep. Natalie Blais, Sen. Jo Comerford and Franklin County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jessye Deane (a former longtime employee of Community Action) to share some moments of “Clare-ity,” or lessons they’ve taken from the longtime executive director and former mayor of Northampton.

Lessons included being a student of history and using those lessons to move forward, knowing that you don’t have to be the smartest person in the room and being practical.

Deane said Higgins has used her position to advocate for “the most vulnerable among us, for those who didn’t have a seat at the table, but whose livelihoods really hung in the balance of the decisions that were being made.” That advocacy, she added, was not always “loud,” because the work is about making more room at the table.

“I think all of us here are better because we’ve had Clare as an example,” Deane said. “We’re all going to take those lessons and we’re going to continue them forward and we’re going to continue to do the work. We’re going to make progress and we’re going to continue to make room.”

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com.