Our view: Imagine what's possible with Team Haverhill

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December 17, 2009

On Monday night, Jan. 25, the latest "Possible Dreams" gathering hosted by Team Haverhill begins at 7 at the Northern Essex Community College Technology Center.

The group's annual visioning exercise is much more than the creation of a wish list. It truly becomes the organization's call to action.

In the past two years, Possible Dreams has resulted in expansions of curbside recycling and the city's farmers market, both of which have the potential to greatly improve Haverhill's quality of life.

We doubt this summer's hugely successful Shoe-la-bration would have gotten off the ground without the efforts of Haverhill's hometown Team. Its members peopled the Soles of Haverhill Committee that helped organize and run the public art installation project. They managed to keep the public's enthusiasm from flagging during a long planning phase and introduced lovers of art and history and of Haverhill to an event they all could share.

The events of the summer — from the unveiling of the shoes at the city's Independence Day party to October's gala auction that raised more than $50,000 for local nonprofits and everything in between — are a collective feat of which the Team can be immensely proud.

Team Haverhill has come a long way since its inception in 2005.

Its beginnings, under the auspices of the Haverhill Foundation and at the start of a mayoral campaign by former Chamber President Sally Cerasuolo O'Rorke, rightly caused many to question the group's goals and intentions.

Since 2006, Team Haverhill has described itself as nonpartisan, though it could hardly be called nonpolitical.

Team member Colin LePage won a seat in the recent municipal election and will be sworn in at the start of the year with the other councilors-elect, Mike Young and Sven Amirian. Amirian's campaign was managed by one of Team Haverhill's most prominent leaders, Tim Jordan.

And while no one made an official Team Haverhill endorsement, it was clear that much of the leadership of the group supported the challenger in this year's mayoral campaign, John Michitson.

With no official status in the city's decision-making and governing structure, Team Haverhill's success is dependent upon sympathetic ears and votes in city government and among the electorate. There is no way to have those things without becoming politically involved.

In a very short time, the organization has proven the old adage, "Where there's a will, there's a way."

It has also proven that despite its lack of official standing, Team Haverhill has clout.