This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of The Price Center. Originally, the organization was called the Norumbega Center, but in 1983 the name of the Center was changed to The Barry Price Center in honor of Barry Price, a friend of some of the founding families. During the first ten years, The Price Center was solely a provider of vocational services. In 1987 it started the day habilitation program in Dedham, and in 1997 it merged with Humanity House and started residential services. In the past ten years we have started four other residential programs, another day habilitation program, an after school program, and a family support program. The agency has adapted and found ways to fill the needs of the local community.

The anniversary will officially be celebrated at our Gala Fundraising event on October 27th. We will be trying to have as many people as possible who have been involved with The Price Center over the years attend, so please come.

Additional upcoming events during our thirtieth year are The Price Center’s first annual golf tournament on May 21st at Woodland Country Club and our second Red Sox Outing on June 29th. The Red Sox will be playing the Texas Rangers and dinner will be served at Fenway Park.

Another new development is the start of our Business Advisory Committee to help us with placing individuals in community jobs. The committee had its first meeting on January 30 and will be meeting quarterly. Representatives from Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Newton Magazine, the Newton Tab, and Verizon are members of the committee. We hope they will be able to help Erin Connolly our job developer place individuals in community jobs.

I also want to mention the recent formation of a Space Committee by the Board of Directors. The committee is helping The Price Center evaluate future facility needs for programming and helping us find and evaluate potential sites. It is important that The Price Center be thinking about what it will take to meet the long term needs of the community. We want to be ready for our next thirty years of service.

Thank you for the help you have given us in accomplishing our mission.

Justin Sallaway
President