Hanson’s 2020 bicentennial plans underwent a deal of improvisation over the last two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the time capsule had to go in the ground eventually. Above, Marcus Linn vice chairman of the 200th Year anniversary committee, seals the capsule, with an assist from Lee Gamache, holding her grandson Jack (left). In a nod to bipartisanship, after the time capsule was lowered into the ground,  incumbent state representatives Dave DeCoste, R-Norwell, (who now represents part of Hanson) and Josh Cutler, D-Pembroke, were joined by Republican candidate Kenneth Sweezey ceremoniously bury it.  See more  photos, page 6.

Photos by Carol Livingstone

HANOVER — So, how did you spend your summer vacation?

For 140 middle school students who said summer school, it wasn’t all remedial work. In fact, for students in the eight member towns of the South Shore Tech district, it was quite the opposite.

For the second year, students in grades six to eight attending SST’s Vocational Summer Discovery program, the focus was squarely on the future.

Vocational Director Keith Boyle said the program was started as a way to recruit and reach out to younger students in an effort to make them aware of what the school offers — and for the second year in a row it also sold out.

A lot of the repeat students used it as an opportunity to explore a different program this year, he said, adding that, while it is not designed to give a student a “leg up” in the freshman exploratory weeks it gives them a better idea what some different programs at the school offers.

“We start with our member towns, but we have expanded to out-of-district based off available seats,” he said. “This year, we had quite a successful program — we offered eight vocational trades.”

The only four of the 12 trades taught at the school that were not included in the summer program were allied health, manufacturing, cosmetology and electrical. Students did explore automotive, computer information technology, culinary arts, design/visual communications, horticulture/landscape construction, HVAC/refrigeration and metal fabrication/welding.

“I don’t think they knew what they wanted to do [as a high school course of study], but I think there was interest,” Boyle said. “I think it was an exploration to match up with their hobby or maybe their dad is an electrician and it was a way to get the student kind of involved in the trade to see, ‘Is this what I want to do?’”

Each day involved a project they could take home, according to Boyle.

For students who love to cook, for example, they had a week where could work in a commercial kitchen with chefs. They cook and they bring food home with them every day.

While it doesn’t drive the schools curriculum, it does incorporate the exploratory portion of the school’s traditional freshman year program, tailored for younger students.

“But they all did small projects that they could take home,” Boyle said. The carpentry program had campers making small birdhouses for their backyards, automotive program made small racecars.

“The goal of the program was, the students are building something,” he said. “The students are using their hands. They might be using some minor tools with supervision, but they’re taking home a project at the end to show their parents and to show folks that, ‘This is what I built, his is what I made.’”

In a small way, it can also inform the school about what incoming students may want to study.

Automotive, for example is a field that is changing rapidly as car makers begin moving to EVs — especially in light of a California’s recent decision to ban the sale of gasoline-powered cars by 2035.

“That will come to fruition in a lot of vocational schools that have gone through renovations and have built their automotive program to house EV shops,” said Boyle. “A lot of that is because the power needs just means that this building might not have the capacity for it. If we renovated the building or added the capacity, now’s the time to put in the EV, electrical — all those components.”

SST is one of the schools now working with the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) on a renovation and expansion plan, in which the MSBA has asked the school to outline possible future program changes or offerings.

Between the electronic and battery components of EVs, that could also mean cross-instruction between automotive, electronics, IT and science programs.

Grants are also helping drive what’s coming ahead at the school Boyle said. A $500,000 Mass. Skills Capital Grant will be used to purchase industry-standard equipment for the HVAC and advanced manufacturing programs.

“Those dollars will specifically go toward new stat-of-the-art equipment, where we will replace or purchase new equipment based off the frameworks so our students are training and gaining experience on the high-tech equipment to make them successful in the industry once they leave here,” he said.

That equipment includes lathes, milling machines, boilers, tankless water heaters, home energy trainers and more.

Another grant involves the Commonwealth Corporation, in the form of a $640,000 Career Technical Initiative Grant to launch adult evening after school programs.

“We’re kind of changing our building from being a 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and sports to a 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. school and then 3:30 to 8:30 p.m. adult education facility,” Boyle said. “They will go through a 250-hour automotive course with the goal being [for example] to be employed in the industry.”

The career changing programs in automotive, carpentry, manufacturing and HVAC, among others will be aimed a career-changing for under- and unemployed adults and veterans.

“Not every program we offer here could be offered in that specific program at night,” he said. “But that specific program is a no-cost program.”

A typical adult night school course for other people looking to upgrade skills or change careers while employed carries a tuition cost.

WHITMAN —  A small vanilla jar candle with a label advising the observer to be kind sits next to a bright and cheerful arrangement of silk flowers and a framed photo of his family on the Rev. W. Scott Wasdin’s desk. 

A standing fan quietly agitated the cooler, albeit still humid air as he spoke of his journey to Whitman and hopes for his tenure as pastor to the First Congregational Church of Whitman.

COVID and its effects on communities — and his own family — are a frequent reference point as he spoke to the Express this month about his new post.

“For my entire life, even going back to my teen years, growing up in a small-town church — it’s a community,” he says. “That just drives me and serves me and I think that’s what illuminates a light for all of us, in the best of times and the worst of times.”

Like the jar candle, which he lights when he prays with parishioners seeking spiritual guidance, his family lights his life, and is the reason this son of the South is embracing life in a small New England town.

“We moved here in December 2020,” Wasdin said of his family, whom he refers to as his “home team” of his wife of 12 years, Crystal and four children — Josh, Zander, Matthew and Emma — the oldest of which is in “early middle school.”

Born in Bremen, Ga., he majored in religion at Shorter University, a Baptist college in Rome, Ga., and his earned masters from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., where he studied educational administration. Most of his career has been in private education or church work.

This is the first opportunity of his adult years to just focus on the congregational part of his vocation, Wasdin says.

“We need to think of ways that literally has us look at our neighbors and say, ‘How can we feed your souls?” he said of his bridge-building mission. “What can we do program-wise and just being a listening ear and a shoulder to cry on to help our community be healed and breathe and live?”

The ultimate goal is for the church to serve as a lighthouse for whatever one’s needs are.

The family, who have lived in communities all through their native South, most recently lived in Virginia for the last seven years, where Wasdin was headmaster of  the private school, Southampton Academy, Courtland, Va., and a part-time minister. He and Crystal have lived in Chattanooga, Tenn., as well as communities in Georgia, Virginia and out in Elk Grove, Calif.

“Really part of the draw that drew us up here, aside from the spiritual dynamic and this great community and our love for New England … the harmony and synergy between education and medical just seems to work better for us here,” he said. “Our daughter seems to be far healthier [through] her occupational therapy, and her day-to-day just seems much better.”

They started their nationwide search for a church located in a school district where the children could thrive, narrowing it down to California, Massachusetts, Michigan and Wisconsin before the dialog with First Congregational “built the bridge to lead us here,” he said.

Emma is non-verbal autistic and suffered the effects of remote learning during COVID, he said. While Virginia public schools do a fine job, but when the schools were closed the services they had for their daughter, while fine, were insufficient for her needs. 

“Our daughter was in a dangerous, self-injuring free-fall,” Wasdin said. “Everything that we tried to do just wasn’t working.”

That’s when he started communicating with the search committee at First Congregational and let his school know it was time for him to move on.

“All the dots connected together and in the course of about six months of Zooms and dialog as COVID was roaring on, we accepted the call and moved up here just before Christmas in 2020,” he said.

Since moving to Whitman, he stops in for a cup of java and conversation with folks at Restoration Coffee regularly and he and his wife have lunch or dinner at McGuiggan’s or another eatery on a given Monday or Tuesday.

“It’s just getting to know people where they are and what a church should be post-COVID,” Wasdin said, noting that some churches are seeing attendance declines following the pandemic. “We’ve got to be highly strategic in how we care for people, that we connect the dots to their homes, their families, their lives and not be judgmental or sarcastic in terms of where they are.”

Family is what brought him to this church and community, and family is the atmosphere he wants to cultivate for the church.

While he works to introduce himself to his new church and community, Wasdin said he has tremendous respect for the church’s history, adding it was a “little bit of a blank slate” because his predecessor had been away for nearly three years.

“The church had been in interim for many years,” he said. “I had enjoyed the dialog with the interim minister that they had, but in terms of programming, what was intriguing to me was the possibility to do music in a way that would refresh people coming out of COVID and re-engaging with the church.”

The church has also been open to new programs and initiatives, and being a bit entrepreneurial by nature, Wasdin saw it as a good ecclesiastical opportunity.

One such program, on probably the first and fourth Thursday evening each month, a midweek worship service has been added to the church calendar.

The evenings in the fellowship hall feature a very contemporary style of music.

“It’s very casual,” he said. “It’s come as you are.”

The Wasdins prepare a meal and decaffeinated coffee for the service. But if parishioners want to make him feel at home by bringing a baked good or covered dish, there’s no need to brush up on recipes for fried okra or peach cobbler. Anything that someone puts their heart and soul into is appreciated.

“It makes us feel like we’re going back to the roots of the New Testament Church, where everything centered around a meal in terms of the worship,” he said. “But it’s also a way that, we feel, like we’re serving beyond pastoral counseling.”

He hopes to find more ways to connect back to people.

“Coming out of COVID … all of us were battered by the isolation and the inability to have meetings and visit with people and to break bread and have cups of coffee,” Wasdin said. “We’re really trying to visualize as a church [how to do that].”

A regular breakfast with the men’s group is being considered and the women’s group has begun meeting again, having lunches and teas. This fall, he hopes a program for mothers of infants and preschoolers will be ready to start. 

“My roots being a Southerner and a cooperative Baptist most of my career, fellowship for me is a time to come together for dialog, for light bites — coffee, lemonade — more of a networking, friendship making and community moment,” he said.

Sunday mornings remain a very traditional service, however, with the church organ taking a primary musical role, but as autumn nears he wants to change up the musical seasoning a bit with the addition of a little praise and worship music.

“I’ve gotten through that first six months of getting to know the church, their likes and dislikes – their tastes and all – so that my vision is being articulated to our church board, our deacon, our leadership, and everyone seems incredibly supportive, but also realistic,” he said.

He also, keeping in mind that Massachusetts is a very Catholic state, looks forward to building some interfaith bridges.

“I also want our vision to be distinctive,” he said. “To say, ‘It doesn’t matter if you were raised Catholic, or Methodist, or Baptist, or any of those … we want our church to be a place where you walk in, that you feel welcome, that you feel relaxed, where you can be yourself.”

He also wants the congregation to have a voice in church. Literally. From singing, to responsive readings, he wants people to feel they are welcome to take part.

With his four children attending Whitman public schools, Wasdin also wants to introduce himself to the schools as a parent interested in school programs as much as someone who welcomes residents into this church.

“Just to let them know that the lights are on, that we’re here and to let them know about programs that we have,” he said, noting he is also interested in volunteering at the schools. “As a private school administrator for most of the last 25 years, most of the time I’ve had a whistle and a basketball in my hand, coaching to some degree.”

His aim is not to proselytize, but to let people know he’s more than a person “locked in an office, writing a sermon.”

“I may speak with a Southern drawl, but we feel very much like we want to be in this community for many years to come,” he said. “Volunteering and finding ways to serve beyond the church just seems very logical.”

HANSON — The Old Hitching Post restaurant, once featured on celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay’s “Kitchen Nightmares” reality TV show in 2012 — and a popular gathering and dining destination in town since opening in the 1950s — is changing hands.

Owners Andrea and Sprio Garnavos officially bought the restaurant from her father Tom Kessaris in 2014. Kessaris bought the business in 2005. Now they are selling it to Lori and Jason Cook of Pembroke, who also have a strong business legacy in Hanson and the area. The Cooks plan to keep the Hitching Post name.

“It’s been a really good 17 strong years,” Garnavos said. “It’s been home to us. We’ve made so many friends. I thank the community — Hanson, all the surrounding towns — we’ve had a really good run, and these two are going to have a great run.”

The Select Board, on Tuesday, Aug. 9 approved an application to transfer the on-premises restaurant and alcoholic beverages license from the Old Hitching Post, 48 Spring St., to Jason Cook said the situation in which Garnavos is parting with the restaurant — all employees are staying — made the smooth transition possible.

Garnavos said the restaurant is in the process of being sold to the Cooks, which Garnavos expected to be complete within 10 days. The Cooks are the joint owners of Somewhere Else Tavern in Pembroke. Lori Cook owns the Fork in the Road Deli in Bryantville.

“Andrea is excited to hand over the reins to us because she things we are a really good fit for it, and we feel the same way,” said Jason Cook, who will manage the Hitching Post. “We’re excited to take over and be more of a part of Hanson.

“What she has set up for us is just a fluid transition, because she’s already done the homework and we’re grateful,” Lori Cook said. “We probably wouldn’t have undertaken it if it wasn’t for her.”

“Amazing,” Jason Cook added.

“I’m so happy for you guys,” Garnavos said. “We’re all so happy we’re together.”

“Let’s go have a drink,” Lori Cook said as they exchanged compliments after the board had voted.

“You’ve gotten back what you’ve put out there, and these guys have, too,” Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett. “It’s a love-fest with you guys and it’s great.”

“It’s bittersweet,” said Select Board member Joe Weeks said to Garnavos. “You’re an amazing family legacy, so it’s really sad to see you go, but I’m really enthusiastic about a great transfer.”

Lori Cook said financing has been approved for the purchase, but there are a “few more pieces” to finalize in the transaction.

“We are happy to go back to the Hitching Post, I worked there many years ago,” Lori said. “This will be a new endeavor for Jason, but we’re Hanson residents and we’re excited about this new branch in our tree.”

FitzGerald-Kemmett said the Cooks and Garnavos have been great community partners through their businesses already both in Hanson and in Pembroke.

“I’m just thrilled that the business is going to continue, that we have [new] owners who are responsible and have had a long record in other communities and within our own community, of doing business,” she said. “We welcome you as business owners to Hanson. We’re thrilled about it.”

FitzGerald-Kemmett said she received an email from the Conservation Agent, seeking to ensure that the board lets the new owners know they have to maintain an occupied residential apartment on the Hitching Post site in accordance with the original ZBA approval of the restaurant. The Conservation Commission also has a perpetual condition that the catch basin at the end of the parking area has to be cleaned once a year, reporting the completion of that to the commission.

He also noted the commission has not yet received a certificate of compliance for the septic repair at the location “and it would behoove the owners to record it.”

“I’m just passing that on,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. Garnavos said that certificate of compliance has already been recorded, prompting FitzGerald-Kemmett to suggest they loop back to make sure the Board of Health and the Conservation agent now have that information.

Lori Cook has owned A Fork in the Road since 2005, surviving both the great recession that began in 2008 as well as the COVID pandemic.

“That was interesting, but we made lots of friends in the community that way,” she said of doing business amid the recession. “We all helped each other, that’s part of the business structure in our company.”

She also owns Somewhere Else Tavern on Route 27 with Jason, who has owned AB Tent Rental, in business for 35 years, and his mother has lived in Hanson for more than 40 years.

“We’re always happy to be involved in anything that’s going on in the town,” he said. “The fire department, the police department are always welcome at Lori’s place or our place for lunch.”

He has supported the DARE program with free tents for the last few years.

“We always like to help and be part of,” he said noting the new venture will be a little different as he takes on a management role at the Hitching Post.

Starting as a small coffee shop in the 1950’s, the Hitching Post has grown, after many renovations and expansions, to a full service restaurant and tavern. 

https://www.restaurantji.com/ma/pembroke/somewhere-else-tavern-/

BROCKTON — First year student-athlete Bryce Evans racked up some more hardware following the conclusion of the 2022 Massasoit baseball season, earning NJCAA All-American Third Team honors recently announced by the national office. 

The Hull native became the first Massasoit baseball student-athlete to earn NJCAA All-American accolades since pitch Jake Stearns was selected back in 2016. He also becomes just the 31st Massasoit baseball student-athlete to earn the accolade in program history. 

For the season, Evans, a catcher, also earned NJCAA Region 21 First Team honors. 

In his first year with the Warriors, Evans hit an impressive .463, ranking 11th nationally in batting average and posted percentage of .511 on-base and .752 slugging, also among the NJCAA national leaders.  

In conference play, Evans was even better, posting an eye popping .641 batting average, .681 on-base percentage and 1.231 slugging percentage for the year. He led Massasoit in hits (56), runs (38), doubles (15), homers (4), extra-base hits (23), batting average, on-base percentage and slugging for the season.