SAUGUS — The town is inviting residents new and old to get the 411 on Saugus’s nonprofits, houses of worship, schools, and municipal boards on Saturday.
The event kicks off at 9 a.m. on Oct. 15 at the Saugus Middle/High School complex on Pearce Memorial Drive and is primarily aimed at welcoming new residents to town and providing them with information on all that Saugus has to offer. The Saugus School Department will offer information on pre-kindergarten, all-day kindergarten, and the fledgling early college program at the High School. Saugus 411 will also feature a number of nonprofits including the Garden Club and the Library Foundation.
Board of Selectmen member Corrine Riley served as the primary driver behind the event, which she confessed was a “borrowed idea” stemming from her experience attending a “Wakefield 101” event with state Rep. Donald Wong (R-Saugus) while serving as his campaign manager. Riley said that event was “unbelievable” and made her wonder why Saugus didn’t have something similar.
Riley said the event will have 30 different tables featuring representatives from all across Saugus and will function as a sort of one-stop shop for new residents to hopefully get all their questions answered.
“Usually other than your neighborhood you don’t meet anyone unless you have children and they go to the schools, that’s when you meet most of the people in town,” Riley said in a telephone interview Monday. “I just felt that a welcoming like this would get people to see what clubs and committees and sports and all things that you look for when you go to a new community.”
Saturday’s event marks the culmination of years of work for Riley, who first sought to have Saugus 411 put together by the town’s chamber of commerce. But, when that didn’t pan out, she took matters into her own hands, shifting the focus away from businesses and towards municipal services, houses of worship, and nonprofit organizations.
By the time Riley was ready to get the event off the ground, the COVID-19 pandemic had struck. A second attempt was also dashed by COVID, she said, making Saturday a lucky number three for Riley and the town.
Riley said the event could recur annually if all goes well Saturday, and she said she hoped it could serve as a way to inject some life into dying organizations around town.
“There are certain things in town that are dying, we had rotary club, [but] rotary club has left,” she said. “Knights of Columbus struggles … it’s just a way to make people more aware of these organizations and want to join.”
The event’s name is a reference to the fact that a simple dial of 411 used to connect callers to an operator at an information desk who could provide a phone number for an intended caller or connect residents to town services. (When this reporter tried it Monday, the number was inaccessible from a mobile phone according to an automated greeting).
“A lot of people aren’t going to know that, especially the younger generation,” Riley said. “We didn’t have the internet, we had to dial 411.”
Charlie McKenna can be reached at [email protected].