A look back at those recognized in 2025
In 2025, the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript’s monthly Hometown Heroes program honored the good works done by our neighbors, teachers, volunteers and so many others with the support of Savings Bank of Walpole.
Hometown Heroes were nominated by members of the community and selected by the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript news staff. To see the stories of Hometown Heroes and to nominate a Hometown Hero, go to ledgertranscript.com/hometown-heroes/
The following are excerpts from the stories.
Erika Alusic-Bingham – January
Erika Alusic-Bingham, the family services coordinator for Community Action Partnership Hillsborough and Rockingham Counties, works with local youths and families, providing after-school and summer programs, as well as coordinating a holiday gift program.
Alusic-Bingham’s efforts include working with families in crisis, including food insecurity, homelessness and housing insecurity. She can help provide fuel assistance, Head Start or WIC nutrition program services, along with access to health and mental health services.
Her youth program offers homework help, computers, crafts and science, along with providing older youths a place to hang out.
“You get a lot of different personalities,” she said. “I love offering programming to kids who might be home alone or in an apartment.”
When dealing families, she always emphasizes the importance of staying in school. “There is no upside to leaving school early,” she said.
Nicholas Roberts – February
A family member’s heart had stopped beating, and he had no pulse.
In that moment, Nicholas Roberts of Jaffrey knew he didn’t have a lot of time to start administering CPR.
Roberts, a 16-year-old sophomore at Conant Middle High School, was honored by the Jaffrey Fire Department for his quick thinking and calm demeanor when a family member’s heart had stopped beating.
Understanding the life-or-death situation presented to him, he immediately administered CPR until the EMTs arrived. Nicholas learned CPR as a Boy Scout and plans to use his knowledge in the military after high school.
He was nominated as the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript’s Hometown Hero for February by his mother, Katherine Newton, who called him the “most caring, generous human on this planet.”
“He is just a super good kid,” Newton said. “He’s the first to help anybody out.”
Fern Niemi – March
Fern Niemi from Greenville was nominated as the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript’s Hometown Hero for March for her selfless work at the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry at Sacred Heart Church by pantry president Kevin Little.
Niemi, who had retired reluctantly, found a new purpose in life after being encouraged to join the food pantry by her church pastor. She now spends her time organizing charity events, securing donations, and helping those in need, with the pantry’s president describing her as his “right hand” and praising her dedication to helping others.
Niemi volunteers at the food pantry on Wednesdays, but according to Little, she is there every day working on something, and will help get people blankets, food or anything else they need.
“She epitomizes what we’re supposed to do to help others,” he said. “I’ve never met anyone like her.”
Sherry Miller – April
Sherry Miller, a deputy chief of Antrim’s emergency management services and an Advanced EMT, has been serving the community for 30 years. She is committed to the ambulance crew, responding to more than half of the 475 calls the service receives per year.
When Miller and her husband Matt were looking to move from Peterborough – along with then-8-year-old daughter Tosha and while being pregnant with her son Harley – her list of criteria was small, “the school district, and it had to have an ambulance.”
The family ended up in Antrim, she has been with the ambulance service since 1997. It is that dedication to the service that led her now-grown daughter, Tosha Desmarais, to nominate Miller as the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript’s Hometown Hero for April.
Miller, 56, said she can’t imagine not working on the ambulance.
“I love it,” she said. “I love the people I work with. I love helping the community.”
Martha Duffy – May
Martha Duffy, a photographer and mother of three, started a Girl Scout troop for young girls in Peterborough, a group that has grown to 20 members. Duffy, along with co-leader Stephanie Ruoff, has completed extensive training and has helped the girls go on adventures and earn badges.
“She is an outstanding Girl Scout troop leader who not only leads a troop of 20 girls … she completed training for CPR and first aid, basic outdoor living skills, new leader cookie training and Positive Behavior Interactions and Supports – a mental heath course,” wrote Ginger Kozlowski, who nominated Duffy on behalf of the Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains. “She helps at service unit meetings where she provides innovative ideas and offers of help. Her troop has gone on many adventures and the girls are excited and engaged. She’s helped with cookie sales, field day and World Thinking Day. Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains recently honored her with its New Found Treasure award.”
All activities throughout the year are funded through the troop’s cookie sales. This year, two of the troop’s scouts sold more than 1,000 packages each, as well as completing the 50 State Cookie Challenge, where they sell to someone in each of the 50 states.
Denise Barlow – June
Denise Barlow, the office and bar manager of the American Legion post in Jaffrey, was nominated as a Hometown Hero for June by Lisa Hall, a member of the post.
Barlow has been with the Legion post for 19 years and has a spirit of giving, running events for veterans, children, and others. An example of her work includes donating an entire night of tips to the “Go Gold” campaign for Isaac Phillips, a New Ipswich teenager who had a rare form of childhood cancer called synovial sarcoma.
“Anybody who needs help, or anything, she’s always right there,” Hall said.
Barlow said her father, a police officer and Legion member in Burlington, Mass., taught her the importance of giving back and spreading love and kindness.
In his memory, she challenged herself to commit 30 acts of kindness in January – the 30th anniversary of her father’s death – and 92 acts in June, as he would have turned 92.
Lori Hardwick-Way – July
Lifetime Francestown resident Lori Hardwick-Way has balanced her time as a mother of three and grandmother of four with carrying on the Community Church’s efforts after its closing in 2021.
Hardwick-Way manages a “food resource” from her home, with the shelf in the entryway, and a freezer and refrigerator in the garage, serving 15 to 18 families. She has kept the Giving Tree going, providing food baskets for Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, as well as welcome baskets for newcomers.
Gift baskets include information on the town, UNH Cooperative Extension materials and a fire alarm from the Francestown Fire Department. They could also include a candle, a dishtowel, knitted potholders and soup cup holders, maple syrup, coffee mugs with teas and hot chocolate, bread from local businesses, gift certificates, jams, honey and business cards.
“Every basket can be very different, depending on what I have on hand,” she said.
She is the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript’s Hometown Hero for July, nominated by Bonnie Teryek who wrote, “ She is one of the most thoughtful people I have ever met.”
Patricia Martin – August
Patricia Martin of Rindge has been a dedicated contributor to various causes in the town.
Several of Martin’s volunteer efforts go toward conserving energy and the planet. She said it’s an important subject for her. She is a member of the town’s Energy Commission and Conservation Corps, and spends her time cleaning up trails and advocating for climate justice.
Martin also runs a weekly walking group. She is an active member of the Rindge Woman’s Club and the Jaffrey-Rindge Got Lunch program, which provides meals to students during school vacations.
Martin’s friend and fellow Got Lunch volunteer Maura Keegan of Rindge nominated Martin.
“She just does so much,” said Keegan. “She’s very diversified. She just doesn’t stop.”
Socialization, Martin said, has been one of the main benefits of being as busy as she is and involved with so many organizations.
“That’s the thing with volunteering — you get to be around the most wonderful people, who really want to make a difference. We need more of it. All the organizations seem to be struggling to keep members. People are busy, some working multiple jobs, juggling family, but the community suffers for not having these organizations. It really is a pleasure, and it doesn’t cost me a thing,” Martin said.
Dick Ames – September
Dick Ames, a Democratic state legislator from Jaffrey, is set to retire after years of service in state issues involving education, gaming, and ways and means.
Ames, 81, was a lawyer before joining the state legislature in 2012, and has worked in both the public and private sectors, often focusing on those facing disadvantages.
Ames worked in the Boston Model Cities Program, first as counsel and later as an administrator. When his supervisor, Paul Parks, became Massachusetts’ secretary of education under Gov. Michael Dukakis in 1975, Ames joined him. He became the general counsel and then a manager for Massachusetts public education and human service agencies, working there for 20 years. He then spent another 16 years as an attorney representing people with mental illness and developmental disabilities and their families.
In private practice, he continued his focus on issues related to disabilities until he retired in 2006.
He has been involved in proposals on gambling and casinos, and has advocated for extending the interest and dividend tax to capital gains.
“I’m proud of standing up on issues, and being an independent voice, working with people on both sides of the aisle,” Ames said.
Ames will not run for re-election and plans to spend his retirement gardening and spending time with his wife.
Pati Cloutier – October
Pati Cloutier, a dance teacher in the Monadnock region, has been teaching dance for 40 years, to students from ages 3 to 100.
“I teach chair tap at the memory units at Rivermead and at Scott Farrar, and I had a student who was 100 years old,” Cloutier said. “It is just incredible working with the memory care patients. I have special tap shoe covers; people just light up.”
After moving to the Monadnock region, Cloutier transitioned from independent teaching, which had her “running all over the state,” to instructing for the New Hampshire Dance Institute, which she did for 13 years at South Meadow Middle School. At NHDI, Cloutier met Christina Ahern, who became her longtime partner in the Monadnock Performing Arts Academy in Peterborough. Cloutier and Ahern ran MPAA together for 14 years, from 1999 to 2012. In 2013, Cloutier founded Peterborough Dance Theatre.
Cloutier’s non-competitive approach to dance has made her studio a popular choice for families who want to expose their children to the art of dance without the pressure of competition. She has taught thousands of students over the years, many of whom have gone on to dance professionally or teach dance to others. Cloutier’s philosophy of dance is centered around the joy of dancing, and she strives to give her students as many opportunities to perform as possible.
“I am just so grateful to the community for supporting me, for giving back, for creating this opportunity,” she said. “I have had such wonderful families who support me and have kept allowing me to do this. It’s been a wonderful life.”
Carol Lunan – November
For 25 years, Carol Lunan, a parent facilitator and educator at the Grapevine Family & Community Resource Center in Antrim, has helped parents figure out how to become the parents they want to be.
“It’s not about who is right and who is wrong with parenting,” Lunan said. “It is about, who do you want to be as a parent? What do you need? Where do you want to go?”
She has a degree in early childhood education and has always approached parent education with curiosity, wondering about what it is that drives parents’ decision making. Lunan has created a non-judgmental space where parents can explore who they want to be as parents and has helped countless families navigate hardship and crisis.
Melissa Gallagher, executive director of the Grapevine, said that in Lunan’s 25 years at the Grapevine, she has changed countless lives.
She has also founded the Learning Vine, a nature-based preschool serving low-income families. Lunan said her 17 years running the Grapevine’s cooperative preschool was “the best way I ever worked with parents and children.”
This year, Lunan, who lives in Francestown, has pulled back from the director role. She is now a parent facilitator and runs special projects and hosts parenting workshop for parents of children of special ages and with special interests.
Marilyn Griska – December
For the past 14 years, Marilyn Griska of Rindge has served as “Mrs. Santa” for the Rindge Woman’s Club’s annual Operation Santa, helping to organize Christmas gifts for children in need.
Griska has been organizing the operation for 14 years and this year helped over 80 children from 32 families. The program has been running for 40 years and covers children from birth to 18, as well as developmentally disabled adults for their entire lifetime.
“With her hard work and her positive ways, she has brought community together and helped to make many children’s Christmas’s brighter,” said fellow Woman’s Club member Lynda Hunt, who nominated Griska.
Griska will be stepping down as director due to failing vision, but will still help in any way she can in the coming year.
