Everett’s City Hall has been closed all week, but the rest of the city has not stopped. A new head football coach opens his season Friday night against the school he spent 29 years at. The casino-funded community foundation is taking applications for another round of grants. Older residents are being invited to learn to ride a Bluebike. And the city marked Overdose Awareness Day with numbers that would have seemed impossible eight years ago. A notebook from Chelsea’s neighbor.
Overdoses: from 130 to 34
On August 31, city officials, first responders and people in recovery gathered at Glendale Park for International Overdose Awareness Day. The statistics the city read out were the point of the event. Everett recorded 130 overdoses in 2018. In 2025 it recorded 34. Fatal overdoses fell from 12 in 2021 to 4 last year.
Mayor Robert Van Campen spoke about his own family. “Last year, I lost my own brother to a drug overdose,” he said. “I can’t say enough how proud I am of him, his fight and everything he did.” Eric Mazzeo, the city’s assistant director of youth substance use prevention, said of his work, “I don’t even look at this as a job. This is my life.” Kenny Pina, who owns Patty’s Sanctuary Sober Living, told the crowd, “To be here as someone that is giving back to the community and not taking from the community means something to me today.” Fire Chief Joseph Hickey also spoke. The decline tracks a statewide drop in opioid deaths over the same period, and local officials credit naloxone distribution, outreach after non-fatal overdoses, and the sober housing and treatment network that has grown up in the city.
Citizens Foundation: $114,425 out, more available
The Everett Citizens Foundation exists because of the casino. It was created under the host community agreement with Encore Boston Harbor that voters approved in 2013, and it hands out grants to local nonprofits, school groups and youth programs. On June 10 it distributed $114,425 to twenty organizations, among them Everett Little League, the Crimson Tide youth football and cheer program, the Eliot Family Resource Center, Housing Families Inc., the Adams and Keverian school parent groups, Arts for Everett, Clean Up Everett, the police department’s Junior Police Academy, and Zion Human Services.
“The strength of Everett comes from people who step up to serve their neighbors,” Van Campen said at the distribution. The foundation’s Year 8, Round 1 application window is open now, with a deadline of September 30. Applications go through cityofeverett.com/ecf. Grants in recent rounds have run up to $10,000.
Golden Gears: bikeshare for the over-50 crowd
On Saturday, September 27, the state Department of Transportation and AARP are running a free bikeshare confidence clinic for Everett residents 50 and older at the gazebo in Rivergreen Park. The session runs 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., with an optional early “ride refresh” at 8 a.m. for people who have not been on a bike in a while. It is capped at 20 people and includes hands-on instruction, guided rides on the Bluebikes system, and peer support. Everett, Worcester and Springfield are the first three communities in the program, which is funded by an AARP Community Challenge grant.
“This initiative gives older adults the support and encouragement they need to try bikeshare, stay active and remain connected,” Van Campen said. Kristopher Carter, MassDOT’s chief innovation officer, described it as “meeting people where they are, answering questions, providing hands-on support.” Registration is at mass.gov/info-details/golden-gears. Chelsea has Bluebikes stations too, and no comparable program yet.
Friday night: DiLoreto against his old school
Rob DiLoreto spent 29 years at Arlington High School, from 1996 to 2025, as a teacher, athletic director, dean of students, and football and lacrosse coach. Last fall he became Everett High’s vice principal. This fall he is the head football coach, and his first game, Friday at 6 p.m. at Everett Memorial Stadium, is against Arlington. “I don’t want to say bittersweet, but it will definitely be an emotional game for me,” he told the Everett Independent.
Arlington went 7-4 last year and made the MIAA playoffs. Everett will start a freshman at quarterback, Michael Walsh. “He’s earned the job and we’re very proud of the work he’s put in,” DiLoreto said. The captains are tailback and linebacker Tyler Freni, H-back and linebacker Steven Thomas, center Omarian Ayala and tight end Armani Negron. The receiving corps is Jamauri Dulin, Jeremiah Joseph, Roshon Belony and Jerol Zamor; the line, left to right, is Kellyson Linhares, Guerlins Christalin, Ayala, Moises Interiano and James DeSouza. Kamari Washum anchors the defensive line with Jakari Jules and Godson Delisme at corner.
Everett’s boys soccer team also opened its season this week against Waltham of the Dual County League.
Also this month
The Parlin Library’s third annual Great Everett Jewelry Exchange runs through September; bring a piece you no longer wear and leave with someone else’s. The libraries’ East to West Book Club meets online September 19. And the 101st Feast of Saints Cosmas and Damian, which draws Everett’s Italian-American families every year, runs September 11 through 13 on Warren and Porter Streets in East Cambridge.