GLCF Celebrates Community Building & Belonging at Celebrate Giving 2026

The Greater Lowell Community Foundation (GLCF) brought together community, business, and nonprofit leaders on Wednesday, October 7, for Celebrate Giving 2026 at UTEC in Lowell. Centered on the theme Community Building & Belonging, the evening recognized four honorees whose work helps residents across Greater Lowell feel seen, valued, and invested in where they live, and featured an on-stage conversation between GLCF President and CEO Jay Linnehan and Turahn “Rahn” Dorsey, President & CEO of the Eastern Bank Foundation.

GLCF Board Chair Chet Szablak opened the program by describing belonging as a value at the heart of GLCF’s mission and strategic plan—one that is about more than proximity. It happens, he noted, when communities intentionally build the spaces, systems, and relationships that welcome people in rather than leave them out.

“Belonging doesn’t happen by accident—it’s built,” said Jay Linnehan, President and CEO of the Greater Lowell Community Foundation. “It’s built by a bank that stays rooted in the neighborhoods it serves, by a health leader who makes sure our newest neighbors are welcomed and not just served, by a historian who invites the whole city to walk its story together, and by a middle school giving its students the skills to protect one another and step into their first jobs. This year’s honorees remind us that the strongest communities aren’t built by any single institution. They’re built when individuals and organizations work together with a shared sense of purpose—and that is what philanthropy in Greater Lowell is all about.”

2026 Honorees

• Business Philanthropy Partner Award: Rockland Trust 
  A relationship-driven commercial bank with more than 115 years of history serving Massachusetts and Rhode Island, Rockland Trust has distributed more than $7 million in grants to nonprofits through the Rockland Trust Charitable Foundation. Just recently, Rockland finalized a creative financing plan with GLCF and Community Teamwork to fund CTI’s 60 bed women’s homeless shelter in Lowell. When first approached with this new idea, Rockland’s response was: “absolutely, count us in.” Following its merger with Lowell-based Enterprise Bank, Rockland Trust pledged to maintain all 27 Enterprise branches, including two in Lowell that have served residents for three decades. Ryan Dunn, Senior Vice President/Commercial Regional Executive, accepted the award.
• Steven Joncas Community Connector Award: Mercy Anampiu Cheboryot 
  As Senior Director of Community Engagement at Lowell Community Health Center, Cheboryot has spent two decades building bridges between the health center and the diverse populations it serves. Under her leadership, the Outreach & Health Promotion Department has grown from 3 to nearly 20 staff members. She founded Lowell CHC’s first African Advisory Board, established the Community Health Education Center, served as a community organizer for Lowell’s Comprehensive Plan, and chairs the Health Equity Task Force for the Greater Lowell Health Alliance. Cheboryot directed her $1,000 award grant to the African Community Center of Lowell.
• Bankers’ Volunteer Award for Lifetime Achievement: Richard (Dick) Howe
  GLCF’s most prestigious volunteer recognition honored Howe, Register of Deeds for the Northern Middlesex District and founder of Lowell Walks. Since 2015, Lowell Walks has brought together residents from different neighborhoods, backgrounds, and generations through free, 90-minute guided tours that average 100 participants per walk. Howe is also the author of several books on Lowell’s history, a regular cemetery guide since 2012, and the creator of RichardHowe.com, a hyperlocal platform documenting the city’s stories. He directed his $1,000 award grant to DIY Lowell.
• GLCF Newell Flather Legacy Fund Grant: B.F. Butler Middle School
  The school received $12,500 for its Vital Skills: Youth Safety Training & Career Readiness initiative, which will provide 100 low-income, immigrant, and refugee students with CPR, first aid, and allergen awareness certifications—industry-recognized credentials that remove financial barriers to entry-level employment while building civic responsibility. The Newell Flather Legacy Fund was established at GLCF in 2022 by the Theodore Edson Parker Foundation to support projects focused on the arts, immigrant and refugee communities, and advancing equity and inclusion in Lowell. Principal Jaime Moody accepted the award.

HPE Employees Vote to Fight Senior Food Insecurity in Greater Lowell

For the eighth year, the Greater Lowell Community Foundation has partnered with HPE (formerly Juniper Networks) on a grant program chosen by HPE employees. This year, $12,500 in grants, funded by HPE with a GLCF sponsorship, will go to three nonprofits working to end food insecurity among older adults.

HPE first reviewed the top ten unfunded applications from GLCF’s 2026 Elder Services discretionary grant cycle. 

The program invited three finalists to pitch their projects at HPE on October 1, and HPE employees then voted for a week to decide the awards:

• AgeSpan – $7,000 for Greater Lowell Meals on Wheels. Every weekday, AgeSpan brings meals to more than 2,600 homebound older adults. Its drivers cover the same routes each day, so each stop is also a friendly visit and a wellness check.
  
• Community Servings – $2,500 for its Food is Medicine program. The grant supports more than 35,000 medically tailored meals for over 210 Greater Lowell residents living with critical or chronic illness. Many of them are seniors working to stay healthy and independent at home.
  
• PACH – $2,500 for its Senior Access, Safety, and Infrastructure Improvement Project. PACH runs the only food pantry serving Pepperell and Dunstable. It will level its entryways, add ramps and cover its entrance so clients can come and go safely in any weather.
  

Congratulations to all three organizations, and thank you to HPE and its employees for another year of partnership in feeding our neighbors.

As nonprofit funding tightens, low-income families and youth face service cuts

Low-income families, children and youth are among the hardest-hit populations losing nonprofit services as organizations across the region respond to shrinking federal funding, state budget cuts and intensified competition for private grants, according to a new survey by the Greater Lowell Community Foundation.

Of the 75 nonprofits responding to the foundation’s September 2026 survey, 52% report reduced services to low-income families. Forty-nine percent cite cuts affecting children and youth, and 27% report reduced services to immigrants and undocumented individuals.

GLCF Trains 20 Artists to Lead Community Programs Through Arts Elevate

Redesigned Community Artist Training cohort spans nine communities and builds a regional pipeline of artists ready to partner with local nonprofits

Twenty artists from across Greater Lowell completed the Arts Elevate Community Artist Training Program on September 26, 2026, a fully redesigned, full-day immersive training from the Greater Lowell Community Foundation (GLCF) that prepares artists to lead programs with nonprofit organizations serving youth, veterans, and seniors.

Selected through a highly competitive application process, the cohort brings together emerging and mid-career artists working in visual arts, craft and ceramics, music, literary arts and spoken word, theater and dance, and multimedia. The artists now join the Arts Elevate Embedded Artist Directory, which is shared directly with area nonprofits seeking creative partners.

“These twenty artists walked in as individual creatives and walked out as a network,” said Jennifer Aradhya, founder of Arts Elevate and GLCF's VP of Marketing, Programs and Strategy. “Our pilot showed what happens when an artist is embedded in a nonprofit that young people already trust. Now we have a cohort ready to carry that work into communities across our region, and nonprofits have a place to find them.”

By the Numbers

• • 20 artists trained
• • 9 of GLCF's 21 communities represented: Lowell, Dracut, Acton, Bedford, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Concord, Tyngsboro, and Westford
• • 62% of participants from underrepresented backgrounds, including BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and artists with disabilities
• • 6 artistic disciplines represented
• • 8 hours of immersive training across five sessions
• • 6 facilitators and 3 pilot artist panelists

$1,000 Grant Keeps Greater Lowell Kids Warm This Winter

As temperatures drop, the Greater Lowell Community Foundation is proud to support Coats from Ann Above with a $1,000 grant for its Coats for Kids program. The Lowell-based nonprofit provides winter coats and warm clothing to children and hardworking families across Greater Lowell, making sure no child has to face a New England winter without the basics.

Something as simple as a warm coat can mean a child gets to school, plays outside, and feels like they belong. We’re grateful to Coats from Ann Above for meeting that need with such care, one family at a time.

To learn more or support their work, visit Coats from Ann Above (Facebook.)