Commonwealth Heroine Miranda Jennings: a difference maker in Winchendon - what she does

Emilia Cardona, The Gardner News
·4 min read

Community service has been a part of Miranda Jennings's entire life. She remembers her childhood filled with volunteer days with her parents at local homeless shelters and soup kitchens.

Decades later, Jennings, the Winchendon Community Action Committee executive director, has been awarded a spot in the Class of 2024 Commonwealth Heroines. Every year, state officials choose over 125 women who are leaders in the advocacy and nonprofit field to be named Commonwealth Heroines. Jennings was nominated by state Rep. Jon Zlotnik.

The Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women will host a celebration event at the State House in Boston on Friday, June 14. Jennings said she plans to take her daughter and mother to the event.

Miranda Jennings, the executive director of the Winchendon Community Action Committee, was announced a Commonwealth Heroines Class of 2024. She said she plans to attend the celebration event at the Massachusetts Statehouse with her daughter and mother on Friday, June 14.
Miranda Jennings, the executive director of the Winchendon Community Action Committee, was announced a Commonwealth Heroines Class of 2024. She said she plans to attend the celebration event at the Massachusetts Statehouse with her daughter and mother on Friday, June 14.

Parents fostered her urge to help others

Both her mother and father instilled community service into her life at a young age, not only by normalizing volunteer work but through their careers. Jennings said her mother was a career educator and advocate for women's rights, while her father was a psychologist and social worker at a rehabilitation program.

Jennings's mother was a teacher for several years, and then became a school principal. Eventually, she became the superintendent of schools in the Groton-Dunstable Regional School district.

Jennings said she grew up in Cambridge for most of her childhood and then moved to Connecticut for a couple of years before her family settled in the Groton area. She said her mom was her role model, and she always tried to be a fearless leader like she was.

Miranda Jennings, the executive director at Winchendon CAC, said she sometimes feels guilty for not being able to spend a lot of time with her daughter, but she does hope she is a role model for her as her mother was for Jennings.
Miranda Jennings, the executive director at Winchendon CAC, said she sometimes feels guilty for not being able to spend a lot of time with her daughter, but she does hope she is a role model for her as her mother was for Jennings.

"My mom is a powerhouse. She fought a lot for women's rights and she has been a great role model," she said. "Being able to watch her make a change and be a role model for leadership made me realize that anything is possible."

Jennings said her parents supported her early interest in service work. During high school, she said her parents helped her develop a service learning program in her school, which molded her path into nonprofit work. Then, Jennings said, her mother saw her growing interest in service, so she decided to pay for Jennings's first service learning trip to Nicaragua.

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"The trip completely changed my life, and it propelled me to study community development and community change in college," she said. "If it weren't for my parents' support at such a young age, I wouldn't be inspired to do any of it."

After the service trip to Central America and graduating from high school, Jennings attended Clark University in Worcester, where she received a master's degree in International Development, Community, and Environmental Work. Post-college, she worked with Bridges to Community and lived in Central America for 10 years.

What brought her to Winchendon?

After a decade of living abroad, Jennings said she wanted to do community work at a more local level. Although global service work is important, she said that if you want to create change, it starts locally.

The Winchendon School hired Jennings as a Spanish teacher and wanted her to use her experience as a global community service worker to develop a service learning and student leader program for the school. Through the program she developed, Jennings said she started to build relationships with local organizations, and that's how she got involved with the Winchendon CAC.

Miranda Jennings, the executive director of the Winchendon CAC, said she has been mentored by some of the most amazing women in the community. She said she owes a special thanks to Mary Giani and Ayn Yeagle, the executive director of Growing Places, based in Leominster. "I have the opportunity, on a daily basis, to work with women who are heroines," she said. "The difference that I am able to make comes from being surrounded by a supportive and inspiring, hard-working community."

After five years at The Winchendon School, Jennings said when the town lost its only grocery store and food insecurity started to rise in the community, she decided to step away from her teacher position and participate in the establishment of the Heal, Empower, Access, and Love Winchendon Collaborative.

H.E.A.L Winchendon Collaborative is a nonprofit that focuses on improving the quality of life of Gardner and Winchendon residents through access to healthy foods, economic empowerment, and social inclusion.

For three years, Jennings was the Collaborative program manager until she was appointed as the interim executive director for Winchendon CAC in late 2021. In April 2022, Jennings became the official Winchendon CAC executive director.

Advice to girls and young women

For young women and girls who want to pursue a career in the nonprofit field, Jennings said to remember that you can always build something to improve the community through your passion, skills and talents. She said there are so many women in the field who will help support your vision, if you just ask.

"It's really nice the state is recognizing the real hard work of a lot of women who are just so passionate about making our communities better for everybody," she said. "The nonprofit world is very female-driven so I'm inspired every day by the hard work of women."

Jennings said she is happy that the work that women are doing for their communities is being recognized by the state. She said many women in the nonprofit world are not only there to improve the quality of life for families, but they have families of their own.

This article originally appeared on Gardner News: Winchendon CAC executive director named a Commonwealth Heroine in MA