Greater Lowell Community Foundation President and CEO Jay Linnehan (left) talks with Turahn “Rahn” Dorsey, President & CEO of the Eastern Bank Foundation.

LOWELL – 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.”

The 2026 Honorees Were:

• 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.

The evening concluded with a conversation between Linnehan and Dorsey, who has spent nearly three decades leading civic change at the intersections of education, health, housing, and economic development in Boston and across the country.

Dorsey previously served as Boston’s Chief of Education under Mayor Martin J. Walsh and now leads the Eastern Bank Foundation’s work to accelerate economic mobility and expand economic inclusion across Eastern Massachusetts, Southern New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.

The conversation traced Dorsey’s path from public service into philanthropy and explored what it takes to build belonging intentionally rather than hoping it happens on its own. A central thread was the connection between economic mobility and belonging—whether people can truly feel they belong to a community if they can’t get ahead in it.

Dorsey also spoke about the role of cultural spaces in community life, drawing on his work as co-developer of the Jazz Urbane Café, a new arts and restaurant venue in Boston’s Nubian Square, and reflected on what philanthropy and government can each do, the role community foundations like GLCF play in strengthening belonging across a region, and his advice for the next generation of civic and community leaders in Greater Lowell.

Celebrate Giving 2026 was made possible by GLCF’s Partners in Philanthropy, led by Premier Partner Rockland Trust and Platinum Partners Eastern Bank, Eastern Salt Company, Inc., Nancy L. Donahue, and Tanner Street Development, along with many generous Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Copper sponsors.

To learn more about the Greater Lowell Community Foundation, visit glcfoundation.org.

Celebrate Giving 2026 honorees hold official citations from the Massachusetts State Senate. From left: Neyder Fernandez and Principal Jaime Moody of B.F. Butler Middle School, recipient of the GLCF Newell Flather Legacy Fund Grant; Mercy Anampiu Cheboryot, Steven Joncas Community Connector Award; Richard “Dick” Howe, Bankers’ Volunteer Award for Lifetime Achievement; Ryan Dunn, Senior Vice President/Commercial Regional Executive at Rockland Trust, Business Philanthropy Partner Award; GLCF President and CEO Jay Linnehan; and Massachusetts State Senator Vanna Howard.