As Chicopee search continues with dive teams, K-9s, helicopter for missing 11-year-old Aiden Blanchard, vigil held to support family
Updated Feb 17, 2021;
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CHICOPEE Nearly two weeks after 11-year-old Aiden Blanchard went for a walk and never returned to his home in Willimansett, friends and community members gathered to show their support for his family and to continue to hope and pray the sixth-grader comes home safely.
The vigil, which drew about 30 people, was held on Wednesday at the Medina Street Boat Launch, where Chicopee, State and Environmental police continue to focus search efforts to find Aiden, who was last seen at about 11:30 a.m. Feb. 5.
Lisa and Craig Robelen stand Jan. 21 inside the barn at the Equine Center on Tiger Road in Breckenridge. Craig Robelen is a board member of the Blue River Horse Center, a local nonprofit organization that is looking for a new home.
Photo by Liz Copan / Studio Copan
In a move that surprised the county’s elected officials, the Blue River Horse Center on Tuesday withdrew its proposal to use the county fairgrounds as a home for its nonprofit horse rehabilitation and educational programming.
Blue River Horse Center Executive Director and Founder John Longhill shared that change of heart with county commissioners and officials at Tuesday’s county work session. Longhill said the analysis of the proposal conducted by several county departments analysis that did not support the organization’s wishes to use a 5- to 6-acre parcel for programming influenced him to withdraw the request.
Just eight minutes after opening Tuesday, Feb. 9, all of Summit County’s vaccine appointments were full, county spokesperson Nicole Valentine wrote in an email. With such high demand and a whole new group of people.
Craig Robelen leads Edgar, a 16-year-old Shetland pony, into his barn on Thursday, Jan. 21, at the Breckenridge Equine Center on Tiger Road. Robelen is a board member for the Blue River Horse Center nonprofit, which is currently looking for a new home.
Photo by Liz Copan / Studio Copan
The Blue River Horse Center has raised the $30,000 executive director John Longhill said is necessary to improve the fairgrounds to house the nonprofit’s horses and equine rehabilitation operation and educational programming at the old county fairgrounds. Still, as the county is set to consider whether or not to permit the organization to use the grounds this month, concerns have come in from members of the local community.
Screenshot from meeting
As Summit County Commissioners Josh Blanchard and Tamara Pogue emerge from their first week on the job, they’ve made it clear they want as much community engagement as possible.
On Friday, Jan. 15, Blanchard, Pogue and Elisabeth Lawrence hosted their first town hall as a board. The town hall, which will be a weekly virtual event on Fridays, served as an opportunity for people to get to know the three commissioners better and ask questions on a wide variety of topics.
The commissioners used Friday’s event as an opportunity to outline three major priorities: community outreach, sustainability and equity.