The fund, which honors Patrick’s memory and spirit, has provided Lowell area schools with scholarships; it has supplied aid to several Lowell homeless shelters and has also performed a number of one-time random acts of kindness to individuals and families who often fall through the cracks of traditional aid and support programs.

Patrick’s family is excited to host this event, which falls on St. Patrick’s Day this year, and allows the entire community to be a part of the fun while providing generous support for a cause that benefits many people. The race begins and ends at the Mt. Pleasant Golf Course, with a breezy, relatively flat run through Patrick’s Highlands Neighborhood in Lowell, MA. Following the race, runners and spectators can enjoy some terrific food and refreshments in a festive atmosphere. A number of items have been donated to the cause and will be raffled off to raise additional money for the fund’s continuous good works.  If you can’t make the race, feel free to send in a monetary donation.

Check out their website for all the details: http://fritty5k.weebly.com/.  Registration for the event is available online: or through the mail.  The entry fee is only $20 in advance and $30 if you decide to register on the day of the race. T-shirts will be given to the first 100 registered runners and a Cash Prize will be awarded to the top male and female overall.  So Act fast!!!

The post Patrick A. Frye Memorial Fund’s 2nd “Fritty 5k” Road Race appeared first on Choose Community.

Back by popular demand is our Financial Checkup Day

Take advantage of the opportunity to meet with Patricia Stevens in our Derry NH branch  from 10 am through 3 pm.

Financial Checkup Day

Presenter: Patricia Stevens, Financial Advisor

When: Wednesday,  January 30th 10:00am–3:00pm

Where: Enterprise Bank

47 Crystal Avenue
Derry, NH 03038
To Make an Appointment:

Please call or email Tara Verette, Branch Relationship Manager, AVP

Phone: 603.216.6260

email: tara.verette@ebtc.com

Patricia Stevens is a financial advisor practicing at 222 Merrimack Street, Lowell, MA 01852 and can be reached at 978-656-5691. Securities and Advisory Services offered through Commonwealth Financial Network Member FINRA, SIPC, a Registered Investment Adviser. Investment products are not a Deposit, not FDIC insured, not guaranteed by Enterprise Bank, not insured by any government agency, and may lose value. Commonwealth Financial Network is separate and unrelated to Enterprise Bank and Enterprise Investment Services.

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We would love to hear your feedback here or on Twitter @EnterpriseBank or by email at NPC@ebtc.com.

So here it is:

Three Simple Ways to Improve Your Online Fundraising

The post Great Tips on How to Improve your Online Fundraising appeared first on Choose Community.

Sherri’s lifelong dream to offer a holistic fitness center came to fruition when SLS opened its doors in Lowell. SLS offers a much different approach to fitness than the generalized gyms and fitness programs offered. Sherri’s team is comprised of certified trainers that are always there. Their goal is to help guide you and motivate you. Workouts are focused, short (30 minutes) and intense.

SLS Fitness Studio: 978.459.5959

Address: 345 Chelmsford Street, Lowell Ma 01852

SLS Hours:

Mon – Fri

5:45 am – 11:00 am

3:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Saturdays: 7:00 am – 11:00 am

Sundays:  8:00 am – 11:00 am

Contact: Sherri Sarrou, owner

Email: Sherri@slsfitness.com
More About SLS Fitness

Train…don’t drain the body!

5,000 square foot turf area with TRX, Heavy Bags, and Chin Up Bars.

3,500 square foot fitness room with suspended bamboo floor and state of the art stereo.

Organic Juice bar – serving organic protein shakes and JOOS raw organic juicing.

SLS Fitness Store- Organic Supplements, SLS Fitness Clothing, Organic Vitamins, Workout DVD’S and more

Child Care with Certified Providers

Over 50 classes

Personal Training

Naturopathic Doctor on staff – Dr. Jaclyn Greenwood Chasse, N.D. is a Licensed Naturopathic Doctor and is the medical director at the Northeast Center for Holistic Medicine.

SLS teamed up with Dr. Chasse from Northeast Holistic center to offer Holistic Counseling, Food Allergy Testing, Medical Counseling, Adrenal Fatigue Testing, Detox Programs, BMI Testing and more.

SLS Fitness also teamed up with Metabolic Effect owners Dr’s. Jade and Keoni Teta to offer Metabolic Effect classes and Metabolic Effect Fat Loss programs!

After an intense workout, stop at our Organic Juice Bar and enjoy a protein shake with all organic fruit and protein!

Come in and feel our energy and try a free workout!

 About Sherri Laffey Sarrouf, Owner

A Certified Fitness Trainer, Strength and Conditioning Coach, President/Owner of Elite Fitness Professionals, Inc and SLS Fitness, Sherri is also the founder of the Fitness For a Cure fundraiser to benefit ALSAC/St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis TN, and the New England Volunteer Spokesperson for ALSAC/St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.  Fitness For a Cure has raised 2 million dollars for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Sherri is certified through ACE,  Strength and Conditioning, Metabolic Effect, Metabolic Effect Fat loss nutrition, Thomas The Promise Kick Boxing, Maddog Spinning, Pre and Post Natal fitness, Yogafit and Les Mills Body Pump.

The breadth of Sherri’s experience in the group fitness industry spans 27 years in both Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Officially incorporated 12 years ago under the corporate banner of Elite Fitness Professionals, Inc. providing group fitness management for NH Gold’s Gyms in Nashua, Merrimack, Manchester and in Tewksbury, MA. Elite Fitness Professionals has continually provided a variety of first rate group fitness programs and quality fitness trainers.

Sherri’s motivational, inspiring and high energy style have brought 100’s to her weekly classes. She has trained thousands including classes specifically designed for the New England Patriots Cheerleaders and has been widely interviewed in area magazines and newspapers. Chosen in 2009 from Applaud magazine as one of New Hampshire’s  most inspiring women.  Recently, Sherri is facilitating new strength and conditioning programs for high school  students and the North Andover Crusaders Special Olympics program, Girls Inc high school program in Lowell, MA and an Elite Tennis camp Andover, MA .

Directions: SLS is minutes from Lowell Connector!  We are set back off the street in big mill.  Our main door is around back.

From the North( Route 3 )
Take Route 3 South to take Exit 31 Route 110 Chelmsford/Lowell.  Take a left off the exit towards Lowell onto Chelmsford Street.   Follow Chelmsford Street for 1.4 miles SLS Fitness is on the left set in back in a large mill.  Across the street is Lincoln School 345 Chelmsford Street!

From 495
Go to Lowell Connector Exit 35 C merge onto Connector.  Take Exit 4 Plain Street.  Take a left off exit onto Plain Street towards Lowell Highlands.  Take your next right at the lights onto Chelmsford Street Rt 110.  SLS Fitness will be on your left.. set in the back in a big mill.  When you see Domino’sPpizza on your right we are the next left directly across the street from Lincoln School

–

The post Happy 3rd Anniversary to our Friends and Neighbors at SLS Fitness in Lowell MA! appeared first on Choose Community.

Christopher Scott of the Lowell Sun wrote that Norm “Is at the top of his game” and we couldn’t agree more.

Check out Scott’s article below if you haven’t seen it:

LOWELL — It was April Fool’s Day 1984, and a young, impressionable Normand Deschene had just finished his first day of work at Lowell General Hospital. Back at the Pawtucketville apartment he shared with his wife, Joy, Deschene wasn’t laughing.

The Fall River native was bewildered, wondering why he left behind in Illinois a higher-paying hospital position with more responsibility for a job as vice president of professional services at a hospital that was a distant third in a three-hospital town.

“What did I get myself into?” Deschene, 58, recently recalled wondering. “The newest piece of medical equipment was 16 years old. The hospital didn’t even have a CAT-scan. I just shook my head.”

But Deschene’s career uncertainty didn’t keep him from envisioning the potential of the hilltop hospital on Varnum Avenue.

For nearly three decades, Deschene has been a signature change agent in improving Greater Lowell’s health-care delivery system, with Lowell General Hospital becoming a regional leader. In 2012, Deschene helped engineer LGH’s successful union with Saints Medical Center, ending years of competitive rivalry and board-room divisiveness that directly or indirectly spilled into the community at large.

But the merger is one thing. Few hospital executives can also boast of LGH’s other major achievements over the past year, all accomplished under Deschene’s leadership.

Deschene’s formidable record had earned him recognition as The Sun’s inaugural 2012 “Man of the Year.”

Over a three-month span last summer, from June 28 to Aug. 13, Lowell General:

-Opened a new, 31,000-square-foot, $10 million medical-offices building at 14 Research Place in Chelmsford.

-Officially acquired its longtime cross-town rival, Saints Medical Center, after months of negotiations.

-Opened the $95-million, 200,000 square-foot Dahoud Building on its Varnum Avenue campus. The eye-popping expansion includes a new emergency room, heli-pad, maternity unit, surgical units and state-of-the-art private rooms.

“There is no question Norm is on the top of his game,” said George Duncan, chairman of Lowell General’s board of trustees. “What has transpired at Lowell General Hospital over the last year — all of it on Norm’s watch — has profoundly changed the way health care is delivered in Greater Lowell.

“I can’t think of a more deserving recipient for such recognition,” added Duncan, the Enterprise Bank founder and board chairman.

Key strategic mission

Calling the acquisition of Saints an accomplishment is an understatement. Deschene was successful in doing something numerous other hospital executives had attempted through the years but were ultimately beaten back by a variety of factors.

Deschene believes strongly that if Saints had affiliated with Steward Health Care LLC, which it planned to do until Steward walked away from the deal in October 2011, the competitive “arms race” between the hospitals would have intensified, eventually forcing Lowell General to find its own wealthy affiliate.

Local ownership of the health-care delivery system and all that goes with it — access, accountability and affordability — would have been lost, he said.

Today, with Lowell General having left in the rear-view mirror the two hospitals that gave Deschene pause that day in 1984 — St. John’s and St. Joseph’s — LGH is solely focused on patient satisfaction through its “Complete Connected Care” philosophy. It’s an initiative designed to persuade patients to receive medical care at Lowell General rather than travel to a Boston tertiary hospital.

A pilot study by the state’s attorney general, authored more than a year ago, showed that Lowell General provided the same or better-quality care at a lower cost than did several of Boston’s leading, higher-cost hospitals with no significant difference in the medical outcomes.

When told about the “Man of Year” recognition last week, Deschene was grateful — and a bit uncomfortable.

“It’s not my accomplishment but the team’s,” said Deschene, as he sipped coffee from a foam cup in his office at the LGH/ Saints campus. “You’re only as good as your weakest link.”

‘The real Norm’

He heaped praise on his administrative team and all of Lowell General’s 3,500 employees, whom Deschene insists call him “Norm.”

His unpretentious side doesn’t surprise Joy, his wife of 38 years, whom Deschene met while buying 25 cents worth of gasoline from a Fall River station where Joy was the attendant.

“I’ve walked the corridors with him, and he knows everyone’s name, their family and what their kids are doing,” Joy Deschene said. “He’s a dedicated, devoted, passionate person who is always looking out for the other person. That’s the real Norm.”

The “real Norm” credits his father, also named Normand, for where he is today.

The elder Deschene died on Christmas 1983, following a life spent mostly working at a Fall River textile mill during the day and as a corrections officer at Walpole State Prison (now MCI Cedar Junction) at night.

Deschene, influenced by his father’s work ethic, pushed himself to get a college degree and a career. After graduating from Fall River High, he went to Providence College and earned a degree in health administration in 1976.

As the oldest of five boys, Deschene’s mother, Rolande, needed her son closer to home to serve as the family patriarch following her husband’s death. He obliged by returning to his hometown for work.

Despite his early trepidation, Deschene has fallen into a “love affair” with the region and the hospital he has helped shape.

“Everything certainly has seemed to fall into place nicely over the last year,” said Deschene, who lives in Groton.

He paused briefly before speaking again about the Saints acquisition, seemingly implying it was the greatest achievement.

“Right to my soul, I believed it was the right thing to do,” Deschene said. “The prospect of more competition, more spending, just wasn’t good for the community. I believed it right down to the core.”

In March 2011, when Saints announced it rejected a Lowell General offer to merge, Deschene went public with his “bewilderment” and “disappointment,” vowing to fight any effort by Saints to be acquired by an out-of-town, for-profit health-care company.

His honesty left him bloodied and bruised, an OK outcome for a man whose favorite quote comes from President Theodore Roosevelt. Deschene keeps copies in the top right-hand drawer of his desk. It reads, in part: ” … The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming …”

Follow Scott on Twitter @cscottlowellsun.

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Our VP, Branch Relationship Manager of the Billerica branch, Margarita Kaliviotis is on the board of the Billerica Lions Club. She and team have been working on planning a Musical Variety Show that will be held the night of February 2nd.

Russ Peterson singing songs of Elvis, Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Willie Nelson, Patsy Kline, Tom Jones, Englebert, Ray Charles.

Event: Musical Variety Show
Date: February 02, 2013
Time: 7 p.m. Show is from 8 pm – 11 pm.
Price: $20 per ticket. Tables of 10 are available. Cash bar.
Location: Tewksbury – Wilmington Elks Hall , 777 South St., Tewksbury, MA.

For more information: Contact Tony at .978.618-7462 or email him at acucchi@verzion.net

Enterprise Bank Billerica

Drive-up ATM – SUM
Click here for Branch Hours
674 Boston Road
Billerica, MA 01821
978.262.0123
Margarita A. Kaliviotis
Branch Relationship Manager,Vice President
email: Margarita.Kaliviotis@ebtc.com

Phone: 978.656.5764
Carol Bertolucci
Branch Service Manager

The post Who Doesn’t Love a Variety Show? appeared first on Choose Community.

There will be several esteemed speakers that include:

Dr. Ivan Misner

Founder and CEO of Business Networking International (BNI), called the “Father of Modern Networking” by CNN and the “Networking Guru” by Entrepreneur magazine.  Dr. Ivan Misner is a world-class speaker with expertise in networking and business development.  He started BNI when he was only 27 years old!  BNI has grown to include 145,000 members worldwide and created over 3 billion dollars in business referrals just last year!

Joe Faro 

He turned his passion for food into a business plan during his entrepreneurship class in college.  His success and later sale of Joseph’s Gourmet Pasta and Sauces, to Nestle, has given him the opportunity to develop his dream of the Tuscan Villa in Salem, NH, which now includes the Tuscan Kitchen and Tuscan Market.

Al Getler 

Back again as our host for the evening!  Al is the Publisher of the Eagle Tribune, Leadership Speaker, Blogger, and a ventriloquist in his free time.  Al has a passion for learning and developing leadership skills from the best leaders in the world!  In October Al launched the Merrimack Valley Leadership Series, which recently included his very own mentor, John C. Maxwell.

Get Your Tickets Now!  Early Bird Discount! 

Buy Now & Save $5! 

Offer Ends January 11th! Seats are limited!

HYPE | Depot Train Station | 81 Main Street | Salem | NH | 03079

The post Come on and get HYPEd–in Southern NH on Feb 11th appeared first on Choose Community.

MVCC “A New Year’s Celebration”  @ The Tap Restaurant & Brew Pub Business Networking Mixer Merrimack Valley Chamber of Commerce Lawrence, MA

Business Networking Mixer

Date: 01.08.2013
Time: 5:00 PM TO 7:00 PM
Location:
The Tap
100 Washington Street
Haverhill, MA 01832

Phone:
(978) 686-0900

Event Description: Join us for a great night of Networking, prizes and wonderful hors d’oeuvres and Beverages at the Tap!

Directions:

Rte 93 take Rte 495 N approx 5 miles to exit 49 Rte 495 North Exit 49, take right off ramp, rte 110, approx. 3/3 miles east on right.

Rte 495 South exit 49 take left off ramp, Rte 110, approx, 3/4 miles east on right. Free parking in rear of Building.

The post Merrimack Valley Chamber Networking Mixer on Jan 8th appeared first on Choose Community.

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