By Ethan Forman
Staff writer
May 12, 2008 05:45 am DANVERS — Cheryl Ward kept the Danvers Community Council's books straight after the Danversport blast triggered a deluge of $500,000 in donations into a relief fund to help the neighborhood. For her work, Ward has been named the council's 2007 Citizen of the Year. Also being honored for their community service work, at a dinner at the Danversport Yacht Club next week, will be Eric Nastuk, a senior at St. John's Prep, and Megan Hennessey, a senior at Danvers High School. Both students will receive the Youth Volunteer of the Year award. The Maple Street Congregational Church will also be honored for its support of Danversport residents following the 2006 explosion. The church held weekly dinners and arranged for speakers to counsel displaced residents. "I'm very pleased," Ward said of the nomination, "because the people who nominated me have been there right beside me." Ward was in charge of the bookkeeping and finances for the Community Council's Relief Fund, as the council became the clearinghouse for a half-million dollars in donations. For a time, the task became a full-time job for Ward, who computerized the community council's bookkeeping, and then took things one step further. The bookkeeper for her husband's business, Republic Building Contractors of Danvers, pared back her regular work hours from 35 to five for about four months to devote to the council. Ward not only made sure that even the smallest donations of $5 were recorded, but she also helped with the one-on-one interviews of those in need. Eighteen months later, this work is still not done, as the council sees about two families a week juggling mortgage and rent payments. "We still have six families who are not back in their homes," Ward said. "It's huge." Eric Nastuk won rave reviews from Conor Dowley, director of admissions at St. John's Prep, for taking on a heavy course load and for achieving National Honor Society status. "Community involvement is another indicator of how Eric has a difficult time reaching contentedness unless he is directing his energy toward achieving a goal with others," Dowley wrote. That involvement includes helping to serve the monthly bean supper at the Maple Street Church and traveling with his parish to work in soup kitchens in the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., areas. Nastuk said he found the experience working in a Washington homeless shelter humbling, "especially with the feeding of people, you could see it on their faces, they were happy we were there." His community work also extended to an Eagle Scout project, which involved painting the iron rails on the handicapped ramp at the People to People Food Pantry. "I did a lot for the community and I appreciate people are aware of what I've done," said Nastuk, who will attend the University of Connecticut in the fall to study biomedical engineering. On Tuesday, Megan Hennessey attended her last Key Club meeting, a volunteer service organization of the Kiwanis Club. She has been involved in the organization for four years, and has been president the past two. She joined as a freshman in part because her mother was the adviser. She was bit by the community service bug during a clean-up in the rain, "raking an old woman's yard, just how grateful she was." "I have never been so impressed with any student during my 35-year career in secondary education as I have been with Ms. Megan Hennessey," wrote Assistant Principal Mark Strout. Like Nastuk, Hennessey has also traveled to work at a homeless shelter in Washington through her work with a St. Richard Parish program called Young Neighbors in Action. Among her community service activities was a mission trip to New Orleans, according to Irene Valenti Kucinski, the Key Club Advisor who nominated Hennessey. "I just like to help people where I can," Hennessey said. Hennessey plans to study at High Point University in High Point, N.C., in the fall.
If you go ... What: Citizen of the Year celebration When: Wednesday, May 14 at 6 p.m. Where: Danversport Yacht Club, 161 Elliott St. (Route 62) Tickets: $30 for a choice of chicken or fish, with a children's option at $14 Reservations: Call Len Mercier at the Danvers Community YMCA, 978-774-2055.
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