Page 8 THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FriDAy, MAy 5, 2023 Saugus woman to “Walk For Hunger” Sunday A ngela Vozzella plans to hit the pavement” for Project Bread’s 55th Annual Walk for Hunger on Sunday (May 7). The 54-yearold Saugus woman will be among more than 3,000 participants – both in-person and virtual – walking the new three-mile loop around Boston Common or in their own neighborhoods. Back on the Common for the first time since 2019, the one-day fundraising event will raise more than one million dollars to support food assistance resources and sustainable policy solutions to end hunger across the Commonwealth. Beginning in 1969, as the first pledge walk in the nation, Project Bread’s Walk for Hunger brings together a diverse community dedicated to creating change. On Sunday, the annual fundraiser returns to Boston Common after three years of being virtual due to COVID-19 safety preHALL OF FAME | FROM PAGE 5 than a dozen years working as a reporter at two different papers in Saugus. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he worked at North Shore Sunday. He said he would continue covering the town as long as health allowed him. “It’s a great honor and you’re fair and it’s really the only full Saugus paper in town,” Selectman Corinne Riley told Vogler. “And I appreciate you covering everything that happens here. Thanks Mark,” she said. Selectman Jeffrey Cicolini told Vogler that his honor was “well deserved.” “It’s not an easy job at times. You’re always going to make one side upset, whoever is getting the opposite side of the story,” Cicolini said. “So, I know what that position feels like. So, great job as always,” he said. “Fifty years. How did you do this for so long?” Selectman Michael Serino wanted to know. “It’s a great accomplishment. You’ve always been a fair reporter. And I want to thank you for that and for your service to our community,” he said. Board of Selectmen Vice Chair Debra Panetta told Vogler that board members are “all thrilled for you.” “This is a huge accomplishment and I just couldn’t be happier for you. Thank you for becautions. This rite of passage for people in Massachusetts returns with a shorter route and a fresh look. The mission of the time-honored tradition will never change. The fundraising goal this year is over one million dollars. “As we continue to recover from the pandemic and see federal emergency benefits such as expanded SNAP benefits coming to an end, 1 in 5 Massachusetts households with children are still struggling without enough to eat,” Project Bread CEO Erin McAleer said. She continued, “That number jumps dramatically for Black, brown, and immigrant households. Participating in Project Bread’s Walk for Hunger is one way we can all do something real to make sure our neighbors in need can get the food to meet their most basic of needs.” Vozzella plans to lace up virtually for Project Bread’s 55th annual Walk for Huning at all our different events,” Panetta said. “You never miss anything Saugus. You should probably be honorary ‘Mr. Saugus’ for us. And I appreciate your Town Meeting coffees. It's a great opportunity for people to come and listen to what people have to say. So, again, thank you very much. Congratulations.” Board of Selectmen Chair Anthony Cogliano thanked Vogler and said he found the reporter to be “very fair in your stories and I consider you a friend.” “So, thank you very much and congratulations,” Cogliano said. Vogler has won or shared more than 75 journalism awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, five Sigma Delta Chi Awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, an American Bar Association Silver Gavel Award and an Investigative Reporters & Editors Award for Distinguished Investigative Reporting. Vogler is a native of Swansea, Mass., and decided early in his life that he wanted to be a newspaper reporter. As an Eagle Scout in Swansea Boy Scout Troop 26, Vogler earned a journalism merit badge. During the final two years of his days at Joseph Case High School, he wrote sports articles for the Spectator Press of Somerset. He is a 1974 graduate of UMass Amherst with a B.A. in journalistic studies. He broke into the daily newspaAngela Vozzella plans to walk around Wakefield’s Lake Quannapowitt to raise funds and awareness for food insecurity. (Courtesy photo to The Saugus Advocate) ger. This will be her 25th year participating in the event. She will walk around Wakefield’s Lake Quannapowitt to raise funds and awareness for food insecurity. Working as a teacher in the public school system, Vozzella sees firsthand the importance of children getting enough to eat. “The more people that get involved, the greater impact we can make,” Vozzella said. per business in 1972, working part-time and weekends out of the Northampton bureau of The Springfield Union while a student at the university. Prior to becoming editor of The Saugus Advocate in March of 2016, Vogler worked for 18 years at The Eagle-Tribune of North Andover, where he was a suburban editor, covered Lawrence City Hall and Lawrence Public Schools, wrote human interest columns, worked a stint as the late-night police reporter and spent several years covering the courts. He also became involved in several major newspaper investigations. He was the lead reporter on The Eagle Tribune’s auto insurance fraud investigation that culminated in an award-winning series, “At Fault: Inside the Culture of Auto Insurance Fraud,” which won a Sigma Delta Chi Award and Bronze Medallion for Public Service from the Society of Professional Journalists. Vogler was part of The Eagle-Tribune news team that won a Pulitzer Prize for breaking-news reporting in 2003 for coverage of the tragic drowning of four children on the Merrimack River in Lawrence. As a veteran reporter who specialized in Lawrence coverage, Vogler also contributed to three other Eagle-Tribune projects that won Sigma Delta Chi Awards. Keith Gentili, an Award-winning New Hampshire journalist and newspaper colum“I walk to help feed children and families in need. Where I work, some children come to school hungry. My school provides breakfast and lunch for those children, with no questions asked,” she said. Money raised through the Walk for Hunger is critical to Project Bread’s statewide work to ensure kids reliably have enough to eat, provide oneon-one support for individuals and families who need food assistance, and work to prevent hunger in the first place by eliminating barriers to resources and implementing policies that make food more accessible. In keeping with the community spirit of the event, the Walk also provides a platform for organizations to fund the vital work they do fighting hunger locally. The Commonwealth is a joint fundraising program Project Bread launched in 2019. In 2022, 36 nonprofits raised more than $123,000 to support their own programs. nist, nominated Vogler for the award. Gentili is the Editor & Publisher of The New Boston Beacon in New Boston, N.H. He worked as Vogler’s assistant editor and sports editor nearly three decades ago. “Please see the attached look at the remarkable 50-year journalism career of Mark Vogler. His reporter's story began and continues to this day in Massachusetts as he is the current editor of the Saugus Advocate,” Gentili said. “I worked for Mark fresh out of college at The Nantucket Beacon and his impact on my career and life is immeasurable. I named my paper The New Boston Beacon to honor this. The Nantucket Beacon had a group of young upstart reporters and designers and we all referred to ourselves as students at ‘the University of Voge,’” Gentili said. “Mark is the epitome of an investigative journalist. He mastered the use of public documents and combined it with a tireless work ethic at a very young age. Then, he spent his entire adult life chasing stories to serve the public. I hope you find his credentials worthy of a place in the New England Newspaper & Press Association Hall of Fame.” While editor at The Nantucket Beacon, one of two island weeklies back in the mid1990s, Vogler directed a 32part series called “Island at Risk,” which explored the impact of the growth and develTo register as a participant for Project Bread’s The Walk for Hunger, or to support a walker or team with a donation, visit projectbread.org/walk or call 617-723-5000. There is no registration fee or fundraising minimum to participate, although a $250 minimum goal is suggested. Participants who raise $500 or more are recognized as Heart & Sole walkers and receive access to personalized fundraising support, exclusive event gear, and invitations to events. People experiencing food insecurity should call Project Bread’s FoodSource Hotline (1-800-645-8333), which provides confidential, free assistance to get connected to a variety of food resources in 180 languages and for the hearing impaired. Counselors can prescreen families and help them to apply for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Learn more at www.projectbread. org/get-help. opment issues on the island and challenges that threatened its future. The eightmonth project won a firstplace award for community service from the New England Press Association and helped to elevate the discussion of growth challenges facing Nantucket. During Vogler’s three years as editor of The Nantucket Beacon, the paper won more journalism commendations and awards from the New England Press Association than any weekly newspaper in New England. Vogler considered his greatest honors to be two ceremonial pens used by governors in two different states to sign legislation into law. In 1984, Vogler’s investigative report, “Bad Apples of Education, focused on flaws in Florida’s education that enabled convicted felons to become school teachers. Former Florida Governor Bob Graham credited Vogler’s stories with passage of a 1984 Florida Law that requires fingerprinting and background checks of schoolteacher applicants. In 2004, Vogler received a pen from former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who credited the reporter’s stories with passing a state law making case-running a felony. Vogler broke the original story – about a great-grandmother from Lawrence who died in a staged car accident she helped plan as part of an insurance fraud scam.
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