Worcester Man Indicted After Decades Living as Dead Citizen

WORCESTER — A federal grand jury has indicted a Worcester man known only as “John Doe” on charges he spent more than two decades living under a dead U.S. citizen’s identity, using it to obtain food assistance, state health benefits and a Massachusetts ID card, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.

The man’s true identity remains unknown. He is charged with unlawfully obtaining Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, false representation of a Social Security number, making false statements related to health care matters, and aggravated identity theft. He was previously arrested in April 2026 after being charged by criminal complaint and remains in federal custody.

According to charging documents, the man has lived in Massachusetts since at least 2001 under the identity of a U.S. citizen from Puerto Rico who died in 2006. Prosecutors allege he used that identity to fraudulently obtain a Massachusetts identification card and MassHealth benefits.

Charging documents also allege the man has criminal convictions in Massachusetts under the deceased citizen’s identity, including for assault and drug trafficking. In September 2012, he was convicted in Worcester Superior Court of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, a gun, and of trafficking cocaine, for which he was sentenced to 8 to 10 years and 11 to 15 years in state prison, respectively.

After his release from prison in January 2022, the man allegedly used the stolen identity to apply for SNAP benefits. According to charging documents, he spoke with an employee of the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance in April 2022 as part of his application, claiming he was the individual named on the application, that he was a U.S. citizen, and verifying the Social Security number tied to that identity.

The DTA employee noted in the file: “Death match ??? – reviewing with supervisor,” apparently flagging that the Social Security number corresponded to a deceased person. The application was nonetheless approved, and the man went on to collect SNAP benefits, prosecutors allege.

In total, from April 2022 through February 2026, the man allegedly applied for and obtained approximately $12,623 in SNAP benefits under the stolen identity.

Mass. AG Releases Report of Abuse in Worcester Diocese

WORCESTER — A state investigation found that at least 90 clergy members abused 216 children within the Worcester Diocese over more than six decades and identified the diocese as the only one in Massachusetts that still refuses to publicly release a list of clergy credibly accused of child sexual abuse, according to a report Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office released Tuesday, Sept. 30.

The report is the product of a criminal investigation into the Dioceses of Fall River, Springfield and Worcester that then-Attorney General Maura Healey opened in 2019. Investigators documented 944 survivors of clergy sexual abuse across the three dioceses combined, tied to 275 accused clergy. The report says the true number is likely higher given chronic under-reporting.

“For decades, survivors of clergy sexual abuse, including those who are no longer alive, have carried the devastating consequences of abuse, while the institutions entrusted with their care too often failed to protect them,” Campbell said in a statement. “While important reforms have been made, the report documents decades of failures by diocesan leaders to adequately respond to allegations of child sexual abuse and protect children from further harm.”

Campbell’s office said it cannot bring criminal charges over the misconduct it documented. Most of it occurred before Massachusetts extended the relevant statutes of limitations and made clergy mandated reporters of abuse in 2002, and many of the accused are now dead.

Scope of the Misconduct

Investigators cautioned that the full scale of clergy abuse in the three dioceses cannot be precisely determined, given decades of underreporting by victims and poor diocesan recordkeeping. The numbers below reflect all allegations reviewed by investigators — including those against bishops, priests, religious brothers, deacons and nuns — regardless of whether the dioceses themselves deemed the underlying allegations credible.

Worcester. The Worcester Diocese had 90 accused clergy tied to 216 survivors. The diocese was home to the House of Affirmation, a Whitinsville treatment center for accused priests that one victim said also served as the site of a child sex ring involving clergy connected to the center.

Fall River. The Fall River Diocese had the highest survivor count of the three, with 92 accused clergy tied to 469 survivors. The diocese was home to one of the state’s most notorious cases: former priest James Porter, who was ultimately accused of molesting hundreds of children and criminally convicted of abusing more than two dozen.

Springfield. The Springfield Diocese had 93 accused clergy tied to 259 survivors — the highest number of accused clergy among the three dioceses. Two of its own bishops, Christopher Weldon and Thomas Dupre, who together led the diocese for 36 years, appear on the diocese’s own list of clergy credibly accused of raping children. Dupre was indicted by a grand jury in 2004, though prosecutors later determined the statute of limitations had expired.

Pre-2002 Response

Investigators found that for decades — and especially before 2002, when the Boston Globe’s reporting on the Archdiocese of Boston triggered national reforms, church officials in all three dioceses knew about abuse but did not take effective action to stop it. The report describes a culture in which priests commanded such deep community trust and reverence that families often protected accused clergy rather than their own children, and in which reports of abuse that reached a supervising priest frequently went no further up the chain.

In one Worcester Diocese case described in the report, a mother learned in the late 1970s that her daughter had been abused by a parish priest, confronted him directly and reported him to his supervisor. The supervisor never informed the bishop and instead let the priest continue working at the parish, where he had a reputation as an effective fundraiser. The priest abused at least six other girls in the same parish. Investigators found he ultimately abused well over 50 girls, some as young as 4, over 16 years.

The AG’s report does not name the priest, but the pattern it describes Robert E. Kelley, a former priest at St. Cecilia’s Parish in Leominster. News reports said Kelley “twice convicted of raping young girls in the 1970s and 1980s,” and whom the survivor law firm Herman Law says “admitted to sexually abusing between 50 and 100 girls” during his time at that parish alone.

Much of the Worcester Diocese’s historical abuse traced back to the House of Affirmation, a treatment center in Whitinsville that operated from 1973 to 1989 and meant to evaluate and counsel priests, including those suspected of sexual abuse.

The report found that the center was co-founded by a Worcester priest later accused of abuse himself, and that priests sent there for treatment were often returned to ministry, where some continued to abuse children.

This reference appears to be to House of Affirmation’s founder and former Worcester priest Thomas A. Kane. Kane was removed from ministry in 1993 after being accused of sexually abusing a boy over several years starting when the boy was 9. The Telegram & Gazette reported that Bishop Timothy J. Harrington removed Kane in 1993 “for sexual misconduct that occurred in the 1970s,” and that Pope Benedict XVI later accepted his voluntary laicization.

According to one victim’s account, several priests connected to the center participated in a child sex ring. One West Virginia priest sent to the center in 1978 returned to a Northborough parish, where he abused more than a dozen more children over roughly two years before his conduct came to light.

This appears to be a reference to Victor Frobas, a priest from the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, sent to the House of Affirmation for treatment in 1977 and then assigned to St. Rose of Lima Parish in Northborough from 1978 to 1979. A Worcester County grand jury indicted Frobas on charges, but he died on July 11, 1993, before he could stand trial.

Investigators also found that some Massachusetts law enforcement and prosecutors deferred to the church during this period. In one instance, a Fall River Diocese priest found in a parked car with a teenage boy in 1963 was released from police custody without being booked after his pastor arrived.

Post-2002 Response

The Dallas Charter, adopted by U.S. bishops in June 2002 following the Globe’s reporting, required dioceses to establish lay-majority review boards, adopt zero-tolerance policies for substantiated abuse, and conduct background checks on clergy, employees and volunteers. Massachusetts also passed reforms that year criminalizing reckless endangerment of children and expanding the definition of mandated reporters to include clergy. All three dioceses adopted new policies in response, though investigators found their implementation and rigor have varied.

Worcester. The Worcester Diocese established its Office of Healing and Prevention and a Victim Assistance Coordinator in 2002. It created a Diocesan Review Committee, composed of seven diocesan clergy and employees and 11 laypeople, including a psychologist, a retired state police officer and a judge. The review committee is to assess allegations and advise the bishop. The diocese requires criminal background checks every five years and mandatory abuse-prevention training for clergy, employees, and volunteers.

However, investigators found the diocese will not take formal action against an accused priest, or report an allegation to prosecutors, until a victim provides a full written disclosure. The diocese said it changed the policy in 2013 but that investigators found it being followed as recently as 2019. The Worcester Diocese’s current child protection policies span 14 pages, and its Code of Ministerial Conduct was last revised in 2021.

Fall River. The Fall River Diocese underwent a significant overhaul of its policies beginning in 2020, reconstituting its review board as the Ministerial Review Board and engaging a third-party investigation firm. The diocese now conducts background checks every three years and requires safe-environment training every three years, recently shortened from six.

Investigators found the diocese’s code of conduct is difficult for the public to locate on its website, and that until the 2020 changes, the diocese’s Review Board did not hear allegations against retired priests or, until as recently as 2022, resigned priests — allowing some cases to bypass formal review entirely.

Springfield. The Springfield Diocese first adopted a child protection policy in 2003 but did not revise it between 2013 and 2025 — a 12-year gap. Reforms accelerated after 2019, when the diocese commissioned an outside investigation by a retired judge into its handling of abuse allegations against former Bishop Weldon.

That investigation found the allegations “unequivocally credible” and found the diocese’s complaint process “lacking.” A subsequent task force and oversight committee developed a three-year reform plan. The diocese’s review board has nine seats, and investigators found no violations of Massachusetts’ mandatory reporting law, though the diocese has declined to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Attorney General’s Office that it entered into with three district attorneys’ offices in 2020.

Criticisms of Post-2002 Response

Despite the reforms, investigators identified ongoing failures across all three dioceses in supervising accused priests, investigating complaints promptly, and maintaining transparency with the public.

The report found that the Worcester and Fall River dioceses repeatedly allowed accused priests to retire or resign rather than face formal review, letting them keep the appearance — and many times the pay and benefits — of priests in good standing for years or decades.

In one Worcester case, a priest accused of abuse in the early 1980s was reassigned to three more parishes despite the bishop’s promise to the victim’s mother that he would never again have contact with children. He was not removed from ministry until 2002 and was permitted to retire in 2003, continuing to draw diocesan compensation until his death in 2018.

By the end of 2002, the Worcester Diocese was aware of priests with pending abuse allegations against them; several were eventually permitted to retire. Only 11 were permanently removed from the priesthood.

In a separate case, the Worcester Diocese’s Judicial Vicar publicly announced in 2003 that the diocese was moving forward with canonical trials for six accused priests, saying justice had been “delayed” too long. Two of those priests retired that same year, and a third resigned, with no evidence of a formal determination ever made. Only two were eventually permanently removed, in 2018 and 2020.

The diocese continued receiving new allegations against five of the six priests in the years that followed but never made those allegations public, according to the report.

The Fall River Diocese’s Credibly Accused List includes 50 diocesan priests, with 33 of them now deceased. Investigators found the diocese was aware by the end of 2002 of 18 living priests with pending abuse allegations; one was permitted to retire in 2015, and five were later removed.

In some cases, the diocese failed to respond to the Vatican’s own requests for additional information for years, and the Vatican eventually closed the case without action.

Survivors’ Experiences

Investigators said many survivors did not come forward until decades after their abuse, a pattern well documented in research on child sexual abuse disclosure — one study cited in the report found survivors disclosed at an average age of 52. Reasons cited by survivors interviewed for the report included fear of not being believed, shame, a desire to protect their parents, and the relief that came only after an abuser died.

Delayed and partial disclosures sometimes limited the support survivors received. Members of the Worcester Diocese’s Diocesan Review Committee told investigators that survivors often make an initial oral report but do not follow up with a full written disclosure, sometimes for years The diocese will not take formal action or notify prosecutors without one.

Even survivors who disclosed abuse immediately did not always see it stopped.

In one case described in the report, a boy in Worcester in the mid-1980s disclosed abuse by a religious education teacher in confession. Instead of reporting it, the priest hearing the confession began abusing the boy himself and continued for three to four years.

In another, a survivor reported his abuse by a Worcester priest to the bishop in 1994. The priest received a transfer to another parish and remained in active ministry until 2002.

Some disclosures led to swift consequences. In one case, a teenage survivor’s disclosure to a state prisoner during a school trip led to a Worcester priest’s first criminal conviction in 1990.

Credibly Accused List

Investigators’ central recommendation for the Worcester Diocese is that it publish a public list of credibly accused clergy — something every other diocese in Massachusetts has already done. The report found Worcester is one of just 12 Catholic dioceses nationwide, out of hundreds, that has not published such a list, even though more than 90% of dioceses nationally have done so.

The Worcester Diocese has instead shared the names of credibly accused priests privately with the Worcester County District Attorney’s Office since 2002 and disclosed individual cases on a case-by-case basis through its website and diocesan newspaper, the Catholic Free Press. Investigators found that practice leaves victims and the public with no way to systematically search for a particular abuser’s name, and said publishing a full list would validate survivors, encourage others to come forward, and help ensure offending priests do not quietly remain connected to their communities.

The Fall River and Springfield dioceses published their own lists in 2021, though investigators found both could be improved. In Fall River, at least one survivor’s abuser was left off the diocese’s list because the diocese said it could not find a document in which its review board specifically used the word “credible” to describe her case. In Springfield, which first published a partial list in 2011 and expanded it in 2021, Bishop William Byrne said at the time that “public acknowledgement of those credible allegations is a critically important action that the diocese owes to those survivors who have so courageously stepped forward.”

Fitchburg Man Pleads Guilty to Distributing Child Pornography

ORCESTER — A local man pleaded guilty Tuesday, Sept. 30, in federal court to distributing and possessing child sexual abuse material he sent through the messaging app Kik, federal prosecutors said.

Sean Pettigrew, 50, of Fitchburg, pleaded guilty to one count of distribution and one count of possession of child pornography. U.S. District Court Judge Margaret R. Guzman set sentencing for Jan. 21, 2027.

Pettigrew was identified in April 2025 as a member of a Kik Messenger group devoted to child sexual abuse, according to prosecutors. He sent images depicting the abuse in private messages to an undercover agent posing as a group member, and a subsequent search of his account found he had sent additional files to other users on the app, prosecutors said. He was arrested in July 2025 and had been held pending trial.

The charge of distribution of child pornography provides for a sentence of no less than five years up to 20 years in prison, at least five years and up to a lifetime of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000.

The charge of possession of child pornography provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, at least five years and up to a lifetime of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000.

Poll Shows Voters on Track to Retain legal Cannabis and 2024 Gun Law

by Jennifer Smith, CommonWealth Beacon
September 29, 2026

Massachusetts voters look like they’ve largely made up their minds on two of the highest-profile questions on the November ballot. They seem on track to retain legalized recreational marijuana and a sweeping new gun law passed in 2024, according to a new poll.

In a MassINC Polling Group survey (Toplines | Crosstabs) for CommonWealth Beacon, attitudes toward the other seven ballot questions were more mixed, with percentages of likely voters saying they expect to vote yes hovering in the high 40s and low 50s.

But the two final questions on the ballot are bucking that trend. Sixty-one percent of likely voters said they would vote no on Question 8, which if approved would end legal sales of recreational marijuana and create civil penalties for possessing more than a small amount of recreational cannabis. Twenty-seven percent of respondents said they would vote yes.

Question 9, a referendum on whether to keep the state’s sweeping 2024 firearms law, looks set for a resounding affirmation of the law, with 70 percent of respondents saying they would vote to keep it and 18 percent saying they would repeal it.

These two are also the questions voters seem most sure about, with just 11 percent of voters undecided on each. That is the lowest undecided share of any of the nine questions on the ballot.

“People don’t want to go backwards on these two things,” said Steve Koczela, president of the MassINC Polling Group.

“They might not love the Legislature,” Koczela said of voters, pointing to their strong support two years ago for a ballot question to audit lawmakers. “But they approve of what the Legislature did on firearms, at least.”

The survey of 800 likely voters was conducted online September 14 through 22. It has a credibility interval of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Question 1, which would apply the public records law to the Legislature and governor’s office, has the support of 63 percent of respondents with 14 percent opposed. That’s lower than the support seen in a UMass Amherst/WCVB poll in August, which found 84 percent support for the measure with just 7 percent opposed.

The public records question is considered a natural heir to state Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s successful ballot push last cycle to allow her office to audit the Legislature. That audit attempt, which the Legislature has vocally resisted, is stuck in a political and legal morass at the moment.

The CommonWealth Beacon survey asked voters to name their top issues at the ballot box in their own words. When the polling group reviewed those answers, guns and marijuana were the only ballot questions people cited as reasons to get out and vote.

“Those are your two marquee ones that were actually drawing people out,” said MPG vice president Rich Parr.

In 2016, nearly 54 percent of voters approved legalizing recreational marijuana. A decade later, they are being asked to become the first state to dismantle the market. The repeal campaign is led by the Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts and is backed by the national anti-legalization group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, which is funding a similar effort in Maine.

The ballot question would still allow adults 21 and older to possess up to one ounce of pot without criminal penalty, and it would leave the state’s medical marijuana law in place.

Question 9 is a veto referendum, a mechanism that lets voters decide whether to keep a law the Legislature has already passed. The 2024 law cracked down on ghost guns and 3-D printed guns, strengthened the state’s red flag law, and expanded the definition of assault weapons, among other changes. Gun rights groups gathered enough signatures to force a referendum but missed the window for the 2024 ballot.

Most of the other seven questions still lean toward a win, but by less, and with 20 to 25 percent of voters still undecided. That puts them in “kind of a gray area where it really could move,” said Parr.

Question 6, which would create a conservation fund that would still depend on legislative appropriation, has 56 percent support to 24 percent opposition.

Four questions failed to crack 50 percent support in the poll, or just made it over that line, which public opinion experts and ballot question veterans agree leaves the campaigns on shaky ground.

“It’s different than a candidate poll where the margin is the best predictor,” Koczela said. In ballot questions, “the yes percent tends to be the best predictor. And if you have a yes percent that’s right around 50, then you’re watching nervously.” What’s more, pollsters generally expect undecided voters on ballot questions to break toward the status quo.

Most of the ballot campaign money tends to be spent between Labor Day and Election Day, Koczela noted, and “you do kind of see support move the most just in the last eight to 10 weeks.”

On Question 4, allowing Election Day voter registration, yes holds the lead, 53 percent to 33 percent. Question 7, which lowers the lot size requirements to build single-family homes, has support at 51 percent and opposition at 24 percent.

Question 2, letting Committee for Public Counsel Services employees unionize, fell below half support, with yes in the lead, 48 percent to 25 percent. Question 5, rewriting the state’s revenue cap, is also narrowly below majority support, with 47 percent in favor and 26 percent opposed.

Apart from the two repeal efforts, Question 3 to create all-party primaries looks most endangered, even as the margin stays close. It had the support of 43 percent of likely voters, with 36 percent opposed and 20 percent undecided.

Despite the record-tying number of questions, and the irritation from Beacon Hill with advocates doing an end-run around the usual legislative process, voters aren’t eager to hand over their direct democracy leverage.

More than three-quarters of respondents said “it is a good thing for the voters to decide these issues” and just 15 percent said lawmakers should be deciding more of them.

With nine questions on the ballot, the pollsters said the usual rules may not apply. Campaigns will compete with one another for attention, which could blunt opposition spending.

“The numbers may be more sticky than they usually are,” Koczela said. “Or some of these undecideds might just not have heard about the ballot question and might be very persuadable.”

Many of those undecided voters face unfamiliar subjects, he noted.

“Some of these are esoteric issues,” Koczela said. ”They’re not all things like marijuana legalization.”

This article first appeared on CommonWealth Beacon and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Two Worcester County Firms Part of $40M Life Sciences Awards

WORCESTER — Two Worcester County companies were among 38 life sciences firms statewide sharing nearly $40 million in tax incentives Gov. Maura Healey announced Tuesday, Sept. 22, a round expected to create 1,644 jobs across Massachusetts.

• Eyepoint Inc., which is expanding in Northbridge, received $1,000,000 tied to a commitment of 40 new jobs.
• Rentschler Biopharma Inc., expanding in Milford, received $517,500 for 23 jobs.

Healey announced the full round of awards at SMC Ltd.’s facility in Devens, alongside Economic Development Secretary Eric Paley and Massachusetts Life Sciences Center Interim CEO Liz Graham. The awards were made through the center’s Tax Incentive Program, which supports companies expanding research, development and manufacturing operations in the state. Of the 38 companies receiving awards, 31 are expanding outside Boston and Cambridge and account for 71% of the new jobs expected from this round, according to the state.

“Massachusetts leads the world in life sciences because we invest in the people and companies that are creating the jobs, treatments and technologies of the future,” Healey said in a statement.

Since the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center was established, companies participating in the tax incentive program have committed to creating more than 22,300 jobs, according to the state. In November 2024, Healey signed the Mass Leads Act, which raised the statutory cap on the program from $30 million to $40 million and made other changes intended to strengthen it.

Recipients are required to maintain their job commitments over a three-year period and must file regular reports documenting jobs created. The program is jointly administered by the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center and the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, which handles its technical administration.

The remaining 36 companies receiving awards in this round, all outside Worcester County, are listed below.

Pulse Magazine Founder and Political Advisor Paul Giorgio Dies at 75

WORCESTER, Mass. — Paul Giorgio, a Worcester publisher who once advanced overseas trips for Vice President Al Gore and later built a pair of magazines devoted to the city’s arts and LGBTQ+ communities, died Saturday, Sept. 26. He was 75.

Giorgio died surrounded by loved ones, according to his obituary from Mercadante Funeral Home & Chapel.

His partner of 48 years, Bernard Whitmore, described their lives as closely bound. “Like most spousal relationships, everything we did was intertwined,” Whitmore told MassLive. “He was my gateway to Worcester.”

Born in Worcester to the late Joseph F. and Rose (Arena) Giorgio, he graduated from North High School. He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from what was then Assumption College and a master’s degree in criminal justice from Clark University.

Giorgio’s political work took him to Washington, where he served on the White House staff organizing international travel for Gore and helped plan events for the 52nd presidential inauguration, according to the obituary. He was also a member of the Democratic State Committee.

After returning to Worcester, he became president of Pagio Inc. and held business and real estate interests in the city. He chaired the board of the Worcester County Food Bank and sat on the board of the Worcester Business Development Corp. He also served with the Worcester Housing Authority and helped found the Shrewsbury Street Merchants Association.

Giorgio created Pulse Magazine, which spent more than two decades covering Worcester’s arts, entertainment and dining scene. He later launched Central Mass Pride magazine to serve the region’s LGBTQ+ readers. He recently sold both titles to Merit House Media, a Worcester company backed by Rucker Investments, according to the Worcester Business Journal. The Beverly-based investment firm is run by Worcester Railers owner Cliff Rucker and his wife, Susan.

Mayor Joseph Petty paid tribute in a social media post, calling Giorgio a dedicated public servant. “His commitment to our city, his generosity toward others, and his love for this community will not be forgotten,” Petty wrote.

Former Worcester Mayor Konstantina Lukes, writing on the funeral home’s tribute page, said she met Giorgio 40 years ago and called his political advice invaluable. “It will be a long time, if ever, that a political force like Paul’s will emerge on the political landscape,” she wrote.

In addition to Whitmore, Giorgio is survived by his brother Ronald Giorgio and Ronald’s wife, Dolores, of Shrewsbury; a nephew, Michael Giorgio; and a niece, Alexandra Kelly, her husband, Tim, and their children, Jack, Evelyn and Luke.

Calling hours will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2, at Mercadante Funeral Home & Chapel, 370 Plantation St. A celebration of life will follow at 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 3, at the funeral home. Burial beside his parents in St. John Cemetery will be private.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the Central Mass Housing Alliance, 18 Chestnut St., Worcester, MA 01608, or online at cmhaonline.org/donate.

It is with great sadness that I share the passing of my longtime friend, Paul Giorgio.

Paul was a proud lifelong Worcester resident who dedicated so much of his life to our city and to the Democratic Party. He was a tireless campaign worker, a member of the Democratic City and… pic.twitter.com/tyLLnihX2k

— Joe Petty (@MayorJoePetty) September 27, 2026

Image courtesy of Mercadante Funeral Home & Chapel.

Worcester Community Foundation Awards $1.47M in New Scholarships

WORCESTER — Greater Worcester Community Foundation has awarded $1.47 million in new scholarships to Worcester County students pursuing college this year, the foundation announced Thursday, Sept. 24.

The foundation distributed an additional $494,000 through existing renewable scholarships to students already enrolled in college. In total, the awards include 247 new scholarships for high school seniors starting college this fall — 145 one-time awards and 102 renewable awards — along with renewable payments to 241 students already in school.

The scholarship program, founded in 1978, now includes 150 funds. Average awards have grown to $2,000 for one-time scholarships and $12,000 for renewable ones, according to the foundation.

The largest scholarship in the foundation’s history was awarded this year through the Becker Scholarship Fund: $104,000 to Michael Sobolewski to attend Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Another Becker recipient, Aedan Gonzalez, received a $68,000 award to attend Assumption University, which will match it with up to $5,000 per year under a partnership with the foundation, bringing his total to $88,000. Vanessa Biddy, a Hoosac Valley High School student, received a $32,550 Grace S. Hampel Becker Scholarship to attend college in Worcester County; the Assumption matching partnership will bring her total to $52,550.

“These scholarships represent the hopes and aspirations of generations of donors who believe deeply in the potential of local students,” foundation President and CEO Pete Dunn said in a statement.

The foundation’s Harold R. Jensen Memorial Scholarship, one of its largest funds, supported more than a dozen students this year, including Nathan Lopez of Worcester, who plans to study biology at Boston University. According to the foundation, Lopez was inspired to pursue cardiology after his younger sister underwent multiple surgeries for a heart condition.

Another of the foundation’s largest funds, the Mary T. Cocaine Scholarship Fund, was established after the foundation received a $4 million gift from the Mary T. Cocaine Trust in 2023, according to the nonprofit news outlet Massnonprofit.org.

This year’s new scholarship recipients come from 66 cities and towns in Worcester County and beyond. More than two-thirds will attend school in Massachusetts, including 44 enrolling at institutions in Worcester County; UMass Amherst, Worcester State University, UMass Lowell, Assumption University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute were among the most common destinations, the foundation said.

Earlier this year, the foundation announced a new Scholarship Emergency Fund to help recipients cover unexpected costs that could otherwise interrupt their education. The foundation is partnering with the national nonprofit Scholarship America to administer the fund, which it expects to launch by the end of the year.

Founded in 1975, Greater Worcester Community Foundation manages a $270 million endowment made up of more than 650 named charitable funds and has awarded more than $186 million in grants, according to the foundation.

Worcester Offers Free Parking Ahead of Weekend Wind Storm

WORCESTER — The city will offer free parking at two municipal lots during an approaching storm, giving residents in flood-prone areas a place to move their vehicles, Worcester officials said Friday, Sept. 25.

The free parking applies to the lot at 40 Highland St. and the McGrath library lot at 40 Salem St., starting at 8 p.m. Friday. Normal rates resume at 6 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 29, but vehicles already parked in the lots will have until noon Tuesday to leave without being charged.

The offer does not extend to any other municipal garages or lots, which will charge their usual rates, the city said.

The National Weather Service has issued a wind advisory for southern Worcester County, in effect until 8 a.m. Sunday, forecasting northeast winds of 15 to 30 mph with gusts of 40 to 50 mph. The weather service said the advisory’s long duration, combined with heavy rain and fully leafed trees, raises the risk of downed tree limbs and power outages, and warned that the winds could make driving difficult, especially for high-profile vehicles.

Rain is expected to move in overnight Friday and continue through the weekend, with the heaviest totals expected on Saturday.

Worcester Council to Hold Hearing on City Charter Review Sept. 28

WORCESTER — The City Council’s Municipal and Legislative Operations Committee will hold a public hearing Monday, Sept. 28, on a review of the city’s charter, the City Clerk’s Office announced.

The hearing is set for 5 p.m. in the Esther Howland Chamber on the third floor of City Hall, 455 Main St. The committee is inviting residents to share ideas and ask questions about a possible charter review, according to a flyer the clerk’s office is distributing in English and Spanish.

Worcester has operated under a modified Plan E charter since January 1987, which established the city’s council-manager government, an 11-member City Council with six at-large and five district seats, and a popularly elected mayor. The charter was last amended in 2022.

The committee has previously discussed two distinct paths for changing the charter: a voter-initiated charter commission, which would require signatures from 15% of registered voters and election of commission members, or narrower amendments pursued through the council or special legislation.

Substantial structural changes, such as altering the makeup of the council, would require the commission route rather than council action, the outlet reported.

Residents unable to attend Monday’s hearing can submit comments to the City Clerk’s Office at clerk@worcesterma.gov.

Four New Brands Coming to Blackstone Valley Shops in 2027

MILLBURY — The Shops at Blackstone Valley announced Thursday, Sept. 24, that four new brands — Caffè Nero, Topcoat Nail Bar & Spa, Lovesac and First Watch — will open at the Central Massachusetts shopping center in 2027.

The four new brands are:

• Caffè Nero, an international coffee house chain;
• Topcoat, a nail and beauty salon brand;
• Lovesac, a modular furniture retailer; will open in two newly built, centrally located buildings at the open-air center. First Watch, a breakfast, brunch and lunch chain, will open in a separate location across the property.

Topcoat and Lovesac will open in two newly built buildings.

The two buildings are part of a nearly 35,000-square-foot expansion first announced in late 2025 by WS Development, the Chestnut Hill-based real estate company that owns the shopping center, according to the Worcester Business Journal. The expansion added 10 retail, restaurant and wellness tenants along with new walkways, landscaping and electric vehicle charging stations.

Yard House, a Florida-based restaurant chain, opened in one of the two buildings this past summer.

The additions follow the previously announced arrivals of Shake Shack and Sweetgreen to the same expansion, along with the recent openings of Apple, Coach, the food hall concept Wonder and the clothing brand Aerie.

Avvio Ristorante, an Italian-American restaurant chain based in Rhode Island, is set to open its first Massachusetts location at the center this fall.

The Shops at Blackstone Valley, at 70 Worcester-Providence Turnpike, spans about 788,000 square feet of leasable space and is billed by its owner as the largest open-air shopping center in Central Massachusetts. Other tenants include Lululemon, Warby Parker, Sephora, Ulta, Barnes & Noble, Kohl’s, Nordstrom Rack, Target and a 14-screen Cinema de Lux theater, according to WS Development.

Image courtesy of the Shops at Blackstone Valley