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Sunshine Initiative Celebrates 5 Years

Eagle Times Staff
The Sunshine Initiative will host its fifth anniversary celebration from today through Thursday with events in Newport, Claremont and Manchester.

The Sunshine Initiative, founded by Jay Lucas, is an organization that seeks to revitalize small towns and communities throughout New Hampshire and do so with an optimistic, positive spirit.

Lucas, along with his wife, Karen, founded the Initiative in his hometown of Newport, with a desire to bring renewed energy and vitality back to the town where he grew up. Since its founding, the Initiative has grown significantly, branching into new communities across the state of New Hampshire.

The Director of Operations for the Sunshine Initiative, Virginia Drye, said she serves as the overall contact for the Initiative and for its relationships with the communities that it serves. She joined the group in October 2021. She is also a key liaison between the Initiative and Sunshine Communications LLC, which owns the Eagle Times.

The Initiative now has projects ongoing in Laconia, Meredith, Rochester and the West Side of Manchester. Through its collaborative network, the Initiative has helped create jobs, attract new businesses, and increase local investment while also sharing a “can do,” positive spirit with the many volunteers now involved. In 2019, the Initiative organized and received a Guinness World Record for most people making bouquets simultaneously. Each bouquet had a sunflower that was grown in Newport.

The success of the Initiative has led to plans to expand into other communities across the country.

“The Initiative helps bring positive and exciting new opportunities to small towns,” Drye said. “We are very active in Newport and Claremont, currently. We are a catalyst for revitalization.”

“The Sunshine Report,” a weekly email newsletter and article in the Eagle Times, is one of the Initiative’s ongoing outreach efforts, Drye said. “It is a newsletter filled with positive themes and stories,” she added.

Sunshine Week will start on Tuesday with lunch at the Old Courthouse Restaurant, Newport, followed by a walking tour of Newport’s revitalized downtown. The tour will highlight the achievements the Sunshine Initiative has accomplished thus far and several exciting new efforts on the immediate horizon for the Newport area.

The tour will end at the Eagle Times office, 27 Pleasant St., Claremont, for an Open House and a book signing with Lucas. He is the author of the best-selling book “American Sunshine: Rays of Hope and Opportunity”. The event is from 3 to 6 p.m.

On Thursday, the Sunshine Initiative will host a conference in Manchester to share “best practices” on community revitalization and economic development benefits, including a panel of experts explaining how to access funding for community programs.

Drye said the annual Sunshine Week is a time “when we celebrate optimism and developments of the past year.”

“It is a time where everyone is welcome to our events and to meet our team,” Drye said.

That team includes Sunshine Initiative Executive Director Brian Hettrick of Manchester and Drye; Richard Girard, executive vice president of Sunshine Communications LLC and publisher of the Eagle Times; and Jon Morton, Weare, and Ben Doskocil, Merrimack, both leaders with a sister program called Small Town Turnaround.

“This is an open invitation to meet with Jay and the other team members at the Eagle Times during its open house,” Drye said. “It is also an opportunity to learn about what the Initiative has done in the past five years.”

During the conference, organizers will highlight the communities where the Sunshine Initiative has made progress, including Manchester, Rochester, Laconia and the greater Newport area.

The celebration will end with a free reception at the Hilton Garden Inn, Manchester, where attendees will also have an opportunity to watch the Fisher Cats game from the deck overlooking Delta Dental Stadium.

To attend any of these events, please visit https://www.eventbrite. com/o/jay-lucas-the-sunshine-initiative-48306584523

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