Hometown Heroes
	OUR 2024 COMMUNITY PARTNER While the challenges continue, so do the good works done by our neighbors, our teachers, our health care providers, our volunteers and so many others. This is their story. Savings Bank of Walpole is proud to support the 2024 Hometown Heroes, who were nominated by members of the community and selected by editors of the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript. Nominate your Hometown Hero today.

By BILL FONDA

Justin Dole’s SWNH Alerts & Info Facebook page is a go-to site to learn about fires, car accidents or similar events in the Monadnock region, as he is frequently on the scene of incidents taking pictures or publishing scanner alerts.“He just spends...

By BILL FONDA

Linda Draper’s younger daughter Katie had just started first grade, and she “was a mom who needed a job.”A Lyndeborough resident, she got one as a classroom aide at Florence Rideout Elementary School, where Katie and two-years-older sister Sara were...

By ASHLEY SAARI

Shortly before his passing, James “Captain Jim” Feldhusen told New Ipswich Fire Chief Ben Hatcher that he had no regrets – that if he had to live his life over, he wouldn’t change a thing.Feldhusen died on Aug. 23 from esophageal cancer, which his...

By BILL FONDA

This year’s Memorial Day was a rainy one, but the Rindge Veterans Association still hosted the annual parade and services to remember fallen veterans at the town’s cemeteries and war memorials.The final salute was at Veterans Memorial Park on the...

By BILL FONDA

“I don't know how many lives he changed through his coaching, but I can tell you his coaching changed mine.”Those were the words of Elizabeth McGurk nominating her former coach at Mascenic High School,  Mike Smith of New Ipswich, as the Monadnock...

By BILL FONDA

Since she was a child, Cathy Lanigan has always loved to sing.She was a voice major in college, and thought she would be a music teacher. Instead, she wound up working in IT as a computer programmer and didn’t sing, even though she still loved it.But...

By BILL FONDA

Chance Derosier of Jaffrey skipped playing basketball for Conant High School last winter in order to train for the baseball season, and it paid off, as he has helped anchor the pitching staff behind Franklin Pierce University-bound Lane LeClair and...

By BILL FONDA

Dottie Bauer remembers when she first met Rose Novotny.After moving to the area in 2018, Bauer had gone to observe an event at The Grapevine Family & Community Resource Center in Antrim. Not long after, she went to the Bank of New Hampshire’s Antrim...

By BILL FONDA

Jessie Salisbury’s family was living in Alaska when her father had to retire for health reasons.According to her, he always said he would someday move to Virginia, where he was stationed in World War I. Instead, the family, including 12-year-old...

By BILL FONDA

How does someone from Switzerland end up co-founding a lifesharing community in the Monadnock region where people of various abilities – including those with special needs – live and work side by side?“I guess it’s destiny,” said Donat Bay, founder of...

By BILL FONDA

Stop sign in hand, Jessica Hamlin brings traffic to a stop Thursday near where Elm, Union, Main, High and Vine streets come together, down the hill from Peterborough Elementary School.As the youngsters cross the street at the end of the school day,...

By BILL FONDA

After a career in sales and marketing for various companies, Richard Miller “supposedly” retired in 2006.However, since moving to Greenville in 2004, Miller has served on the town’s recreation and economic development committees, been a substitute...

By BILL FONDA

A passion for Little League runs in Nick Hill’s family.“My dad (Dick) started the Little League in Jaffrey when he was a junior in high school,” said Hill. “I look up to him. He’s my role model.”Hill, a 46-year-old Jaffrey resident, started coaching...

By BILL FONDA

When someone needed to step up, Robyn Manley of Bennington was there.Manley made blankets for several years for the southwest New Hampshire chapter of Project Linus, which provides handmade blankets to children who are seriously ill, traumatized or in...

By BILL FONDA

Michael Rathbun of Greenville wishes he had gotten involved in the community sooner.“I find it interesting,” he said. “It’s volunteer work, and volunteer work is good. People should volunteer whenever they can.”However, running his own business...

By BILL FONDA

Of the nine years Jared Mezzocchi has been the producing artistic director of Andy’s Summer Playhouse in Wilton, he said the recently completed season at the summer youth theater – which included five main-stage shows, three workshops and a new...

By BILL FONDA

One of John Stone’s first memories of Jaffrey is an act of kindness.It was 1978, and he and his wife Helen were moving from Massachusetts to Jaffrey so he could begin teaching at Jaffrey-Rindge Middle School.As they were looking for a place to live,...

By BILL FONDA

Jacqueline Roland thought it would just be a summer internship as a 19-year-old college student at Southern New Hampshire University in 2016, working in marketing and social media at The Grapevine Family & Community Resource Center in Antrim.But that...

By BILL FONDA

When Linda Quintanilha’s daughter Mary was diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum at age 2 after not hitting her milestones, she attended training from the University of New Hampshire’s New Hampshire Leadership Series, which provides information...

By ASHLEY SAARI

Every so often, Kathleen LaRou, director of the Jaffrey Food Pantry, receives a note.“To the wonderful people at the Jaffrey Food Pantry, thanks again for your assistance during my time in college,” wrote a Franklin Pierce University graduate.Another...