LEOMINSTER — It is the honor of the Leominster community to celebrate John Churcher and Kathy DiRusso – recipients of this year’s “Citizens of the Year” award – at Saturday’s annual Starburst celebration. Festivities will begin at 4:30 p.m.
at Doyle Field, located at 206 Priest St. A rain date is planned for Sunday, July 28. The event will feature DJ music from 4:30 until 5:30 p.
m., a performance by Scott Babineau from 5:30 until 6:30 p.m.
; the presentation of this year’s “Citizens of the Year” award at 6:30 p.m.; a performance by Neurotic Gumbo from 7 until 9 p.
m., and a beautiful display of fireworks at 9 p.m.
to cap off the evening. Food will be available from local vendors. The Citizens of the Year award is given to a deserving man and woman selected by the Starburst Committee and previous winners.
“We are extremely fortunate here in our city to have many unsung heroes whose unselfish actions exemplify generosity, compassion and a genuine love for their hometown,” said Nancy Koski, a member of the Starburst Committee. “There are many more gems out there to be discovered.” John Churcher is a New York native, oldest of four children, who lived in the Bronx and Suffern, N.
Y. His father, born and raised in the Bronx, was a USMC veteran and a retired NYPD police officer. His mother was born and raised in Manhattan and had a career as a registered nurse.
Growing up with parents like this, empathy, service and giving back became an inherent part of who he is. After graduating high school in 1981, Churcher went into the U.S.
Army, served two years on active duty and four years in the National Guard, and then was honorably discharged. In 1983 he began college at Fitchburg State University, graduating with honors and a degree in Business Management. It was there that he met his wife Carolyn Kelley Churcher.
Like many Americans, life changed significantly for Churcher on 9/11. “Growing up in New York, many of my family members, friends and neighbors worked in New York City, many joining the FDNY or NYPD,” he said. “Unfortunately, a childhood friend and neighbor, FDNY Lt.
John Ginley, was among the 343 firefighters killed in the World Trade Center.” Like most people, Churcher wanted to find a way to help and a week or so into watching the news and seeing all the death and destruction he came up with a way. “Watching firefighters and police officers working tirelessly, day after day, to retrieve the bodies of their fallen brothers, I could see the physical and mental toil they were suffering,” Churcher said.
“I thought, ‘These guys need a break. They need to get away for a day or two to clear their heads’.” Providing a brief respite from the devastation in NYC was the answer.
Churcher started by bringing a couple of the first responders up to Boston for a weekend, with their hotel, meals and tickets to a Boston Celtics or Boston Bruins game all donated. “Along with having a great network of contacts, most businesses and organizations were very generous following 9/11, all happy to donate and help in some small way,” said Churcher. His efforts continued and grew, and continue to this day, helping members of the FDNY, NYPD and 9/11 families.
About five years ago, Churcher began to transition his efforts towards helping military veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, many of whom enlisted as a direct result of 9/11. “That transition also included local firefighters and police officers, many of them veterans who helped to make me aware of other veterans and first responders in our community in need,” he said. One of the best things that resulted from doing this volunteer work comes from the “VetTogethers” that Churcher and his volunteers arrange, bringing veterans together for dinners, comedy shows, concerts, sporting events, and more.
“Coming together helps these men and women restore common bonds of service, camaraderie and trust, opening avenues of conversation and allowing me to keep tabs on how each of them are doing,” Churcher said. Since these programs began, and the fact that Churcher is not a non-profit, many of his efforts were self-funded. He eventually created an annual GoFundMe campaign to raise money to continue his work.
“I consider myself fortunate enough to receive continued and generous support from friends, family, local businesses, business owners and fraternal organizations,” he said. He proudly acknowledges that with over 20 years of support, 100 percent of funds raised go directly back to veterans and first responders. Along with his parents, Churcher’s faith taught him that “Give and it will be given to you.
For the measure you give will be the measure returned to you.” (Luke 6:38). “My efforts have yielded many great friendships and some of the most heartfelt handshakes and hugs imaginable; for those alone I’m truly blessed,” he said.
“They make everything worthwhile.” Kathy Callahan moved to Leominster in 1987, to be closer to her career in Worcester, something she remains grateful for to this day. Two years later, during Leominster’s Feast of St.
Rocco, she met Mike DiRusso and that sealed her fate in becoming a long-time Leominster citizen. They married in 1995, and the following year had their daughter, Nina. DiRusso played in the Leominster Women’s Lassie League, later cheering on her daughter, and served as an Assistant Girl Scout Leader, as her daughter made her way through the Girl Scout ranks.
“As a strong person of faith, and married to an Italian, I joined and continue to be a dedicated parishioner at St. Anna’s Church,” DiRusso said. After 9/11, DiRusso sought out a weekend job, waitressing for the Monteverde family at Cornerstone’s Restaurant.
“It was this second family and the regular patrons of Cornerstone’s where I truly found ‘my place’,” she said. “I became further immersed in the community.” In 2002, DiRusso participated in the Avon 3-Day, a 60-mile walk to find a cure for breast cancer, walking to honor her cousin Trish Guthrie Calato.
Determined to continue her quest to find a cure, she recruited Julie Ristuben in 2005, a regular patron at Cornerstone’s, now one of DiRusso’s dearest friends. “Together Julie and I formed The Cup Crusaders, one of the largest teams participating each year in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for a Cure,” said DiRusso.
“We started with seven members and grew to over 50 walkers each year, both women and men.” DiRusso proudly led The Cup Crusaders in the Boston 3-Day from 2005 until 2013, when the team closed out the Boston series as the largest team with the largest fundraising total, breaking the $1 million mark that year. Ristuben convinced DiRusso and other team members to walk in San Diego in 2007 and then Tampa in 2008, “we were able to drown out the sadness of what a breast cancer diagnosis brings, with the laughter we generated wearing ‘Borat from Boston’ outfits,” she said.
It was in 2006, when DiRusso first suggested the idea of dying her hair pink to raise awareness and desperately needed funds to fuel research toward a cure. Every year since then, except the year of the pandemic, DiRusso goes through the transition to her bright pink hair. “I do not mind that I am known as the ‘pink-haired lady’,” she said.
“I am grateful for the team’s fundraising total and attribute that to my amazingly generous community.” The team’s crusade, her unusual coiffure, and 400-plus teammates through the years, have raised over $1.6 million toward a cure, and they are not stopping anytime soon.
DiRusso and The Cups will walk another 60 miles this August in Boston and then head to San Diego in November, bringing her total walks to 37 and miles walked to 2,220. DiRusso says she is more than PINK and believes that the world is a better place when everyone gets to participate as their authentic selves. In 2004, she served as a volunteer guide for the Best Buddies Hyannisport Challenge, and each year spent weeks of her vacation time traveling to Challenges in both Washington, DC and California.
DiRusso has participated in the Beacon of Hope’s “Celebrity” Harvest Dinner Dance where local celebrities dress up in costume to benefit this local nonprofit for adults in the community who experience life with intellectual and developmental disabilities. “I fell instantly in love with the members at the Beacon of Hope and joined the board in 2017 where I continue to serve and support this local respite,” she said. DiRusso later accepted a role with Best Buddies International, the world’s largest nonprofit organization dedicated to ending the social, physical, and economic isolation of the 200-plus million people who experience life with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
“My ability to accept others without judgment has allowed me a wealth of friendships and supporters, and has fostered tolerance and open-mindedness, a rare commodity in today’s world,” said DiRusso. Although not a Leominster native, most are surprised to learn the depth of her familial ties on her mom’s French-Canadian side, to the city of Leominster. When she hears the name, Boisvert, Maxfield, LaPointe, or DiRusso, she says she knows they are somehow related and she experiences that wonderful feeling of belonging, something DiRusso says she values.
“I believe that belonging provides emotional and social support, boosts self-esteem, gives one a sense of purpose, and helps preserve cultural traditions,” she said. “I love belonging to this wonderful community full of culture and traditions and I am deeply honored and humbled for this award.”.
