Patrick Pizzuto, Artist
Becky Mann, Burlington Day Director

Patrick has been attending Communitas since 2009 but says he has been creating art as long as he can remember. He has used many different mediums in the past, including colored pencils, watercolors, and modeling clay, but most recently Patrick has been painting on celluloid film. Patrick has an interest in cartooning, so he did some research into how some animation is made. He found that many historic animated movies and cartoons were painted on celluloid film.

“I am a cartoon artist and I love selling my artwork. Recently I had an art table at the Mass Advocates Standing Strong 21st Annual Self-Advocacy Conference. I sold 7 art pieces! I also met another artist there, he was selling his art too! Selling my artwork made me feel happy! I’m proud of my artwork and I am glad to share it with others.”

Drawing the characters out is normally step one. Then, he paints the subjects in these pieces on the backside of the celluloid film, so he is actually painting in reverse.

Therefore, he has to change his thinking on the order in which he paints the piece. The first thing he paints is what would normally be the finishing touches.  After completing the subject, he then paints the background on canvas and attaches the film to the canvas.

Anyone interested in purchasing one of Patrick’s pieces can contact Becky Mann, the Director in our Burlington Day Program.

Alyssa Fisher, Assistant Director, Beverly Day Services
September 2019

It all began in 2017, when the Beverly Day Services program started their annual Color Wars in each week in August. During Color Wars Week, Director Cara Duggan assigns the 9 Life Choices groups into 4 teams and plans four days of activities. The teams are Blue, Red, Orange and Green and the activities have included basketball, inflatable bowling, sponge relay, door decorating, team spirit, penny wars and bean bag toss. Each day of Color Wars the groups have an opportunity to gain points by wearing their team’s color, decorating their door with their color as a theme, adding pennies to their teams’ bins, and participating in the chosen recreational activity for the afternoon.

Color Wars has been a huge hit with the individuals and staff the past three summers. The door decorating and team spirit gets everyone working as a team and the recreational activities are just fun and a great way to get everyone excited and moving! On the last day of Color Wars, we have a big party and announce the overall winner and the winners of each event, and everyone gets a medal in an Olympic-style Ceremony. One of our favorite parts of Color Wars is that the team that wins gets to choose a charity to donate all of the money raised by the penny wars activity (which has been as much as $250 in years past).

This year the red and green teams won (in a historic tie for 1st!) and donated the money to the Jimmy Fund!

A new name, a bold mission

I’m writing to each of you today to share some important news. As I’ve discussed with many of you over the four-plus years that I’ve worked for this great agency, I have felt a nagging sense of discomfort with our corporate name. At least once a week – whether I’m meeting new or prospective employees, area businesses leaders or professional acquaintances – I enthusiastically describe the wonderful work we do. But I’m almost always asked what our name means, or where it comes from. When I explain the history of the “R” word and its presence in our name, I have to say: “But that’s not who we are today.”

Two years ago, as our senior leadership was working to develop our strategic plan, we assessed our strengths and weaknesses. As we looked back over our 60-year history, we could see the name conflict I just described play out in the numerous name changes we have undergone. Not surprisingly, we concluded that we needed to explore a decisive change to our organization’s name to better reflect our community and culture.

To further that goal, we launched a re-branding effort in July 2017. A team of representatives from our Board of Directors, staff and major stakeholders began a process to reflect on the organization’s current perception and future goals. What we heard above all was that our community – both internal and external – is the key to our success and to the core values of our organization. This recognition guided us in the selection of our new name.

I am proud to say that as of October 1, 2018, our new name will be Communitas, Inc., which is a Latin word referring to a community in which all people are equal.

I believe that “Communitas” goes to the very spirit of who we are, what we do and where we want to go.

Over the weeks to come, we will initiate a communications campaign targeting participants, family members and supporters across the many communities we serve to introduce our new name – reassuring everyone that no matter what may change on the surface, our core beliefs and commitments remain the same. In the words of our new Mission Statement: Communitas welcomes, values, respects and supports people of all abilities. Our mission is to meet individual needs – whatever they are and however they change – while inspiring dreams. We advocate passionately while compassionately delivering services and programs that expand opportunities, empower people, support independence and enrich lives.

A new name, a bold mission. To learn more about our planning process, read our “EMARC Name Change 9.31.18 Presentation”

Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any question you may have. Thank you so much for your continued support and belief in what we all hope to accomplish!

Sincerely,

Paul Cote