'Rising stars' honored for boosting city
Feb. 26—LAWRENCE — When members of the Lawrence Partnership gathered Thursday morning to virtually honor several of the city's "rising stars" — former Mayor Daniel Rivera, insurance agent Julia Silverio and others — perhaps it was Silverio who generated a motto for the event.
"Si, se puede," she said, which, translated from Spanish, means "Yes, you can."
The partnership's annual meeting examined the unexpected turmoil caused by the pandemic — illustrated by keynote speaker Rawi Abdelal, professor at Harvard Business School who spoke of Lawrence being touched by racial and social inequity. The overall theme, however, was resilience, a quality personified by Silverio, who received the organization's David Tibbetts Economic Impact Award.
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Praised for her fierce loyalty to the city, Silverio, a member of the Lawrence Alliance for Education, was lauded by new Lawrence Partnership chairwoman Wendy Estrella as a trailblazer for others in the community.
"She's taught people what it means to do well and do good," Estrella said.
While accepting the award, the founder of the Silverio Insurance Agency issued a challenge to the city's young people.
"Persistence, determination and dedication pays off," she said. "It might take time and be slow, but it pays off. I want to make sure that if that recognition is for me, (that) the younger generation of Latinos take advantage and say, 'Si, se puede.' "
Also honored Thursday were "rising stars" such as Joanna de Pena, founder of non-profit Top Notch Scholars, which helps young people network and gain confidence through career-related workshops.
Groundwork Lawrence's Community Engagement Director Eddie Rosa was honored for his efforts to redesign city parks, while small business owner Jorge Velez received an award for his work as the founder of Pentagon Studios and Locay.
Rosa, Velez and de Pena received Congressional citations from U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan, said Lawrence Partnership Executive Director Derek Mitchell.
With Mayor Kendrys Vasquez, Northern Essex Community College President Lane Glenn and representatives of groups including E for All, the Lawrence History Center, the Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence, and Beyond Soccer looking on, the Lawrence Partnership also honored former Mayor Daniel Rivera.
"If you leave it up to Danny, he will never tell you what he did. He'll always give the credit to someone else, which is an amazing sign of who he is," Socrates de la Cruz, the partnership's new vice chairman said of his childhood friend Rivera before a video showed highlights of Rivera's achievements as mayor.
Mitchell closed the session by saying people like those honored Thursday are at the heart of Lawrence Partnership's mission.
"The people we honored are great representation of our community and what makes it so special," he said. "We continue to believe that people are our community's greatest asset.
"There's a lot of work ahead of us," he said of the effort needed to build back from the pandemic," but we're starting from a strong foundation."
Author: Allison Corneau, The Eagle-Tribune, North Andover, Mass.
Source: https://news.yahoo.com/rising-stars-honored-boosting-city-121800379.html