Celebrating Thrive
Ribbon-cutting ceremony to follow remarks
Holyoke Community College will celebrate the relocation and expansion of its Thrive Center and Food Pantry with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday, Sept. 10.
The event will begin at 3 p.m. in the Thrive Center’s new space on the second floor of the Kittredge Center for Business and Workforce Development on the main HCC campus, 303 Homestead Ave.
The mission of the Thrive Center (formerly known as the Thrive Student Resource Center) is to help students address nonacademic issues that could interfere with their studies, such as food and housing insecurity. Thrive works with students struggling to find affordable health insurance, transportation, and childcare, and can help them manage their budgets and resolve credit and legal entanglements.
The center also manages the HCC Food Pantry, which is right next door to the Thrive Center’s new office, in a dedicated space more than four times larger than the size of the old food pantry.
“What I always tell folks is that our first impression is our first intervention, so the first impression we make with students is pretty critical,” said Ben Ostiguy, coordinator of the Thrive Center and Food Pantry. “I think having a fresh space with updated equipment and designs sends the right message to the students. It shows that the campus cares, that this is a priority and that we are prepared to help them in meaningful ways.”
In advance of the ribbon-cutting ceremony, there will be a brief speaking program with Ostiguy, President George Timmons, and Amanda Sbriscia, vice president of Institutional Advancement, and executive director of the HCC Foundation, which manages a donors fund for the benefit of Thrive.
“The Thrive Center and Food Pantry exist at HCC because of the generosity of our community, and for that we are incredibly grateful,” Sbriscia said. “This is a program that quite literally keeps students on a path to achieving their dreams of a college education, and now it's larger and more accessible – located just down the hallway from our Campus Center, the hub of student activity.”
Light refreshments will be served following the ribbon-cutting, which is expected to be attended by several members of the HCC Foundation’s board of directors, including Gary Rome, owner of Gary Rome Hyundai, who recently donated $5,000 to HCC for the benefit of Thrive.
“With recent increases in enrollment, it’s great to have our space increasing on par with that,” said Ostiguy. “Now we’re going to have a greater capacity to serve, and more space to store resources to share with students.”
