Worcester girl, 8, on trek to visit all 351 Mass. town and city halls

GARDNER — With a slam of the gavel, 8-year-old Ciara Barber, who appointed herself temporary mayor of Gardner on Thursday, enacted her first and only law.

“Every time you jump you get a cookie,” Barber, who is from Worcester, said. “So if you jump a lot, you get a lot of cookies.”

Barber, who was with her mom, Blue, and her uncle Adam, was checking off the 179th city hall she’s visited this summer, bringing her one step closer to accomplishing her goal of visiting all 351 town or city halls found throughout Massachusetts.

The journey, which began on July 1, has been documented by Blue on an Instagram account named @town.hall.project, where photos of Ciara in front of one of the governmental buildings is usually accompanied with a caption sharing something she learned about the building or the town itself.

Blue said the family doesn’t necessarily have a singular approach to their visits. Sometimes, because of their Instagram accounts, they’re invited for a visit, while other times they surprise town leaders with a random visit.

Upon their arrival to Gardner’s City Hall, Barber and her family stopped by Mayor Michael J. Nicholson’s office to introduce themselves. And while Nicholson wasn’t there, because Blue had reached out previously, his staff was aware of her visit and welcomed the family to take a tour through some of the building.

Nicholson provided a written statement about Ciara’s visit:

“It’s great to see someone so young taking an interest in how local government works across Massachusetts. I hope Ciara enjoyed her time in Gardner and anyone who is interested in following her example is welcome to Chair City anytime.”

The tour included stops at Nicholson’s office, where she sat in his office chair, his conference room and the City Council’s chamber — where she later enacted her cookie law.

Perhaps a mayor or singer someday

Barber, who dreams of being a mayor and singer someday, learned the city is celebrating its 100th year during the tour.

She stopped to check out the different objects decorating the halls and rooms of the building, including photos of previous mayors, or historical documents hanging in frames.

Though a short visit, the family said they were possibly going to also visit Westminster and Templeton before the end of the day Thursday. And the hope is to visit even more on Friday, although they try not to plan ahead.

The goal, Blue said, is to have fun and spend time together as a family road tripping around the commonwealth.

“The best part is getting to hang out with her (Ciara),” Blue said. “We get to be a bunch of weirdos together in the car. It's fantastic.”

Driving that car is Blue’s brother, Adam, who helped kick off the entire adventure. One day when having lunch this summer, he noticed a lottery advertisement that said there were 351 municipalities in Massachusetts.

He said he found it hard to believe and began compiling a list of all of them in a spreadsheet. Blue, looking to avoid having Ciara sit around inside all summer playing on an iPad, decided it would be fun to visit them all.

And in less than a month, the three had already seen more than half of what the state has to offer.

Adam said it could be difficult to keep his eyes on the road when driving around because, even only a few minutes outside of Worcester, the landscape changes and it can appear to be a different state.

From lawn ornaments to a peacock

Ciara said they’ve seen surprising things during their journey, from weird lawn ornaments and unique houses, to animals like turkeys and a peacock walking along the roads they were riding on.

A wardrobe manager at the Boston Conservatory, Blue said her work schedule and the daily commute has made it difficult for her and Ciara to get some quality time together. But this journey has helped fix that.

The three have zigzagged their way across Massachusetts, adding a color-coded pin to a map on Blue’s phone to keep track of their visits thus far.

Typically, she said, they try to spend their time knocking out several towns in an area before returning to Central Massachusetts, where travel isn’t as time-consuming.

They’ve completed Plymouth and Berkshire counties, she said, and hoped to finish the rest before the end of the summer. But she has to return to work soon, which will delay the journey to traveling mostly during the weekends.

There is also an issue of accessibility for some places, like Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, or Gosnold, a town on a remote island between Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound that requires a ferry ride.

But because ferry travel is time-consuming, and the majority of their visits are fairly short, they are hoping someone might be able to offer alternative travel options with something like a helicopter.

Journey garners fans, media coverage

And the wait may not take long, as Ciara’s journey has garnered the attraction of towns and their officials, the media and random citizens rooting for her to cross the finish line.

Recently, Ciara made an appearance on WBZ in Boston, where she got to share her story, and get a tour of the studio, sitting in the anchor chair and checking out the area where the weatherman gives his updates.

She said it was fun because her family was able to watch from home on their TVs. She also said her friends will be excited for her, if not a little jealous that she got to be on TV.

But as newspapers and TV news stations began picking up her story, town officials began courting the family with the promises of an exciting visit.

In Danvers, Ciara not only got a tour of the town hall but also the opportunity to explore a police vehicle and firetruck as the town brought them around as a surprise.

In Pittsfield, she met an emotional support dog named Winston and later received a plush replica of the dog.

One thing that has stood out to her throughout her journey, she said, was the unique architecture each town hall has, with Swansea and Erving being standouts.

Other towns have used the opportunity to compete with each other, Blue said, and have tried to make Ciara’s visit as memorable as possible as well.

When Blue reached out to Newton about visiting soon, the town was very receptive and said they would be interested in showing Ciara a secret staircase to the mayor’s office.

For towns that may not know Ciara’s story, or find themselves one of their unplanned random visits, such as Mount Washington, it ends up being a pleasant surprise.

The town’s leadership usually expects someone looking to complain about something or getting help with something, Blue said. But when Ciara walked in looking to get a tour and learn more about the town, their mood shifted and they immediately jumped on the opportunity to make her experience special.

“They’re very nice,” Ciara said about the people she’s met so far.

The final city hall on their list is in Boston, where they hope they might have the opportunity to meet Mayor Michelle Wu and Gov. Maura Healey.

And although their trip may be slowing down for the time being, Ciara said she’s been happy with what she’s seen so far, and is excited that there is still more to see.

“It’s been fun,” Ciara said. “I really like traveling.”

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Worcester girl Ciara Barber to visit all Massachusetts city town halls