BOSTON – Massachusetts neighbors, longtime volunteers with the Salvation Army, are among the many helpers already in position to respond to the aftermath of Hurricane Milton.

“They come up and they say ‘when we saw your trucks pulling in, we knew the Salvation Army was here!’” Pam Houghton said.

Pam Houghton from Newburyport and Cindy Kennedy from Athol have been with the organization for more than 30 years. First to Florida for Hurricane Helene, they’re now on standby in Georgia, so they can quickly go to where they’re needed most.

“You saw the increase in the devastation heading this way. There’s a lot of areas still without any electricity,” said Kennedy. “There’s trees down on their houses. They’ve lost pretty much everything. Major damage.”

Every Salvation Army team that goes out to serve includes an emotional and spiritual care provider. They support the survivors, but also their own helpers as this back-to-back relief work over hours, days and weeks can take a toll. 

“It’s an ongoing process”

“We’re still dealing with survivors from Ian, let alone Helene, let alone Milton. So it’s an ongoing process,” said Captain Jeremy Mockabee with The Salvation Army.

During times of disaster, 100% of designated donations to The Salvation Army are used for immediate response and long-term efforts. These teams are out straight before they even return to Florida.

“Every Salvation Army truck that goes out has about 1,000 meals for lunch and 1,000 meals for dinner. And we’re coming back with empty trucks,” said Houghton.

More volunteers will leave New England this weekend, answering the call to deliver help and hope.

“If there is any silver lining in this devastation, it’s seeing people come together regardless of how much money they have in their account, regardless of race, regardless of gender, regardless of anything,” Mockabee said.

The ceremony to graduate the 185 members of the 90th Massachusetts State Police Recruit Training Troop was bittersweet, replete with reminders to the loss of Enrique Delgado-Garcia, a member of the class who died in a horrific way at the academy.

“Today we celebrate the accomplishments of the 185 troopers of the 90th recruit troop,” the new MSP leader, Col. Geoffrey Noble, said at the conclusion of the nearly three-hour graduation ceremony Wednesday. “I also want to acknowledge that this special day comes in the wake of tragedy, immense tragedy. Ninetieth RTT, I offer you my deepest condolences for the loss of your brother, Trooper Enrique Delgado-Garcia.

“In reading about this extraordinary young man, it is clear to me that Trooper Delgado-Garcia had a vocation, a vocation to serve. To serve others as a member of law enforcement,” Noble continued in his first major outing as the new leader. “We know he was encouraged to stay at the DA’s office and continue to support victims of crime, but like so many of you, he could not ignore the call to service, the call in his heart. The call to join the Massachusetts State Police.”

He spoke as the assembled graduates stood at parade rest in Worcester’s DCU Center. Each one had within the previous hour been pinned with the MSP badge, whose design dates back to 1921 but was on this day bound with a ceremonial black band to honor Delgado-Garcia. What would have been his badge number adorns the crest of the class.

Gov. Maura Healey said that the day was indeed a celebration of the “hard work and perseverance” the graduates had to get to be troopers, but a celebration that carried “a great weight.”

“Trooper Enrique Delgado-Garcia answered the call. He took the assignment,” she said. “Trooper Delgado-Garcia was and is a special person, determined to not only uphold the law, but uplift his community. To members of Enrique’s family, friends, and the Worcester community who are here today and watching, we continue to grieve with you and to pray with you.”

Delgado-Garcia, 25, of Worcester, was killed last month after suffering a “medical crisis,” the MSP said, in a boxing “training exercise” at the academy. The ACLU in a statement described his injuries as “incredibly severe” and included “damage to his brain, a broken neck, and missing teeth.”

The ceremony featured a video of Delgado-Garcia himself speaking of his great excitement at becoming a trooper.

“Prior to the Academy I worked at the Worcester DA’s office as a victim/witness advocate. The reason I stayed is because I wanted to help people; I wanted to be there for them on their worst days and make that bad day a little bit better,” he said in the video where he was seated in front of a blow-up of the MSP logo and sporting his recruit uniform. “The reason I stay is that I want to help people and all my fellow hispanics can do the same — be officers and help make the world a better place.”

Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell thanked Delgado-Garcia’s family and friends for their patience as the investigation, which was notably delayed after the Worcester DA’s office recused itself, into his death continues. She further called on the new troopers to hold their heads high and to “honor Enrique’s memory in the best way possible by being the very best troopers you can be.”

“As I waited to go into the funeral home to extend my condolences to Enrique’s family and friends and former colleagues in Worcester, I saw all of you, graduates, walking in formation, holding your heads high and tears rolling down many of your faces,” she said.

“While this may not be the media narrative, I know you, too, share in the grief and mourning that Enrique’s family is sharing. I know that you also feel the very same pain that his mother, his sisters, his father and stepfather and relatives are experiencing. And it’s ok to not be ok, to cry and share that grief. In vulnerability there is absolutely healing and, I would add, tremendous strength,” she continued.

MASSACHUSETTS — Ethel Kennedy, the 96-year-old widow of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy and a human rights activist, has been hospitalized after suffering a stroke in her sleep Thursday morning, her grandson Joe Kennedy III said in a statement on X Wednesday.

“I wanted to let you know about my incredible grandmother, Ethel Kennedy,” the statement began. “She has had a great summer and transition into fall. Every day she enjoyed time with her children, nieces, nephews, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. She was able to get out on the water, visit the pier, and enjoy many lunches and dinners with family.”

Joe Kennedy III added she is now comfortable and “getting the best care possible” while surrounded by family.

“She is, as you may know, a strong woman who has led a remarkably fulfilling life,” he continued. “We are here looking after her. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.”

Ethel Kennedy was born on April 11, 1928, in Chicago, Illinois, according to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. She met Robert F. Kennedy when she was 17 years old.

“At the time, Bobby was dating Ethel’s sister, Patricia Skakel,” the museum said. “Eventually that relationship ended and Robert and Ethel started seeing each other.”

Hyannisport is known for being a second home to John F. Kennedy during his presidency, when then-attorney general Robert F. Kennedy, Ethel, and the rest of the family gathered to spend their summers, according to The Cape Cod Times.

Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles during his 1968 presidential campaign. He was 42 years old.

Sirhan Sirhan — the assassin who was 24 years old when he was convicted and had spent more than 50 years behind bars — was found suitable for release by a state board in 2021, after 15 prior denials of parole, according to The New York Times.

In a brief statement released on Twitter by her daughter, lawyer and activist Kerry Kennedy, Ethel Kennedy said at the time that Sirhan, “should not be paroled.”

In 2022, Governor Gavin Newsom decided that Sirham should not be released, and in March 2023, a California panel denied him parole again, The New York Times reported.

As an activist, Ethel Kennedy focused much of her time and energy in the 1970s on the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Project, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum said.

She later founded the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights and also co-chairs the Coalition of Gun Control.

Together, Robert and Ethel Kennedy had eleven children.