Gov. Maura Healey and other elected officials cut the ribbon during a ceremony on Oct. 29 to welcome the new Veterans Home at 110 Cherry St.
Reminder Publishing photos by Tyler Garnet
HOLYOKE — Elected officials at every level, along with staff members, veterans, and other stakeholders from different towns and cities, flooded the new Veterans Home at Holyoke at 110 Cherry St. for a ribbon-cutting on Oct. 29 to welcome a new chapter of care for the region’s veterans.
Many speakers emphasized that the new Veterans Home at Holyoke is more than just a building.
“This project is more than improvements to our facility,” Veterans Home Executive Director Michael Lazo said. “It represents an investment in a state-of-the-art environment designed to meet the evolving needs of our veterans and reflects our ongoing commitment to providing exceptional care and the safe, welcoming, and supportive environment where veterans receive the dignity and respect they deserve.”
Construction is scheduled to be fully completed in summer 2028, but some residents will soon be welcomed to the new building as early as this fall. The new Veterans Home features 234 long-term care beds, a specialized memory care unit and a 40-person adult day health program designed to support both residents and veterans living in the surrounding community.
State Rep. Pat Duffy said that although this building is in Holyoke, it will have a regional and statewide impact.
“There’s a large delegation here because this home, this is a regional asset. It’s a statewide asset,” Duffy stated. “I have watched this building rise literally from my backyard, and it’s just an incredible testament to what we owe the veterans and the staff here.”
Multiple speakers also discussed the tragedy that took place in spring 2020, when at least 76 military veterans who lived at the Veterans Home at Holyoke died of COVID-19. These deaths prompted multiple investigations, terminations and resignations, regulatory reforms and lawsuits.
A permanent memorial garden to honor those lost is scheduled to open at the entrance in the summer of 2028, but speakers offered their condolences and explained how that incident led to the new building and exceptional care today.
Gov. Maura Healey said one of her administration’s early missions was to make sure they were doing everything they could to turn around veterans’ homes and provide a facility they deserved. The new building represents a $482 million investment in veterans care infrastructure in Massachusetts, she said.
She talked to the loved ones who were at the ribbon-cutting who lost someone in the Veterans Home at Holyoke during the pandemic.
“I know this is a very bittersweet occasion, and I just want you to know that the commonwealth holds your loved ones dear and always will,” Healey said. “They are forever part of this reimagined home, both through the beautiful memorial garden and through so much more. This is an undertaking that was done and born out of a terrible tragedy, but I hope you can take some comfort in knowing what their being did to inspire this work.”
Healey highlighted that Holyoke has one of the top-rated veterans’ homes in the entire country and received a perfect rating from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Although challenges permeated during the pandemic, U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, whose uncle was a resident, said that throughout the years, he has not seen any complaints about the staff. “They all said they all’ve been treated very well even amidst that awful tragedy.”
Veterans Services Secretary Eric Goralnick said going from the soldiers’ home to the veterans’ home represents a transition to recognize the inclusive nature of the facility that will take care of “soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, guardians, coast guardsmen. All are welcome … your family members and it’s a new chapter for us.”
Goralnick also highlighted the team of nurse practitioners, certified nursing assistants, physical therapists, occupational therapists, dietary professionals, maintenance, social workers, administrators and mental health professionals.
“As an emergency medicine physician, I recognize that there’s the building, but there’s the people, and it’s the people that make this engine run,” Goralnick said.
Holyoke Mayor Joshua Garcia talked about the importance of showing love to the veterans who sacrificed so much to serve the country.
“After the heartbreaking failures of the past, our community needed a facility worthy of that sacrifice,” Garcia stated. “Our veterans deserve better, and government had a responsibility to deliver, and I can say with confidence that today, they delivered, and this project shows what is possible when government works the way that it should.”
State Sen. John Velis, a veteran and advocate for the project, explained the importance of saying “thank you” to a veteran.
“This nation, I am absolutely convinced as I stand here today, is only as strong or as weak as the men and women who raised their hand and they will say, ‘I’ll go,” Velis stated. “When a service member signs up, a contract is formed: ‘I will have your back as a nation.’ This building, what this says to me is part of that is saying, ‘ Now we got your back.’”
U.S. Sen. Ed Markey highlighted the $263 million in federal veterans affairs funding that he, Neal and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren helped secure for this project. In 2021, the state also passed a $600 million bond bill with $400 million going to the construction of a new home in Holyoke.
