Saturday, March 19, 2011
Citizenship Award
2010 Citizenship Award Recipient
BARBARA C. BERNARD
The Citizenship Award is presented to a person or organization that may be of non-Irish descent, that has made substantial contributions to the Parade and/or this Association.
Barbara Bernard will long be remembered by the people of Holyoke for her unique idea of founding the first independent Golden Age Club in the United States. In 1950 she won $100 on the New York radio show Strike It Rich and used the funds to found the club which became the model for similar clubs throughout the country. It met for years at the Holyoke YWCA, eventually moving to the basement of the War Memorial Building in the early 1970s. Her organizational skill is indicative of a real leader who is vitally interested in the daily lives of the citizens of Holyoke. Hundreds of people have taken advantage of a membership in that organization and other programs of the Council on Aging. It is certainly a popular place.
A native of North Adams, Massachusetts, Barbara graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1948. It was during her undergraduate years her career started as a college reporter for the Holyoke Transcript-Telegram. She was also a commercial copy writer for WHYN radio.
Barbara married George J. Bernard Jr. in 1948. The couple lived in Pittsfield where Barbara’s career in media began. In 1950 they moved to Holyoke and during the 60 years she has lived here, she has had an active civic, social, and volunteer life. She served on several boards including the YWCA, Junior League, Holyoke Public Library, Board of Trustees of the Peoples Saving Bank, Holyoke Hospital, and several national boards including American Women in Radio & Television.
For years, she hosted the Barbara Bernard Show, a daily liveTV program on WHYN, during which she interviewed famous people from Hollywood stars, Grammy winners, to world-renowned chefs, and politicians. Barbara has received many honors for her work in broadcasting but also from the Association for the Blind for recording over 1,000 books for the blind, organizer and participant of One To One, a program of caring for a family in need, not receiving any public subsistence. Barbara was awarded two previous Citizenship honors: in 1984 from the Italian Progressive Society and 1985 from the United Veterans of Holyoke. Recently, she was awarded the Valley Press Club Life-Time Achievement Award, the first woman to receive that honor.
Through the years, Barbara has written for several newspapers and magazines, and has authored children’s stories. In the early days of the parade she interviewed parade personnel on her show, wrote fashion commentary on the St. Patrick’s functions and newspaper columns about parade history. She continues as a columnist for the Springfield Republican.
Barbara is the mother of two daughters, Nancy Walford and Betsy Bernard, and grandmother of Geoffrey Walford M.D. and Elizabeth Walford Price. When asked to share her feelings regarding the award, she sums up her life by saying “I am one of the luckiest persons in the world because it appears what little I have done is like casting bread on water and having it come back to me as roast beef sandwiches.” Barbara is thrilled to be the 2010 Citizenship Awardee and is looking forward to making her way down the parade route March 21, 2010.