After almost 40 years of elected office in Marblehead, Helaine Hazlett has retired.
Hazlett has been a staple in the Marblehead community not only as an elected official but also as a catalyst for change through her work.
She was on the Board of Health for 28 years. Before that, she had been an elected member of the School Committee for nine years.
But that is not where her story starts.
It starts in Saugus after a professor at Harvard gave Hazlett’s father his Dental practice for free, for being the top student in the class. Hazlett’s mother and father moved into the apartment above the practice.
Hazlett said her mother had never even heard of Saugus. “Where is that?” she said.
“It’s in the country, you will love it,” her father said. And in 1938, it was the country, at least compared to Brookline.
Hazlett lived in Saugus for her “formative years,” from the time she was born to 11 years old. Her family then moved to Swampscott for her “teenage years” before meeting her college sweetheart, James (Jim) Hazlett, at the University of Pennsylvania.
Hazlett and her husband then moved to Brookline, where she raised her first child, Karen. Jim Hazlett, who had just graduated from dental school, had started working with her father at his practice.
“When our first child was born, I was making $80 a week at the Newton Board of Health. And Jim was making $80 a week at my father’s practice. So, we had $160 a week to live on,” she said.
She said when Jim graduated from dental school, “We had $8 in the checking account.”
The young couple then moved to Peabody for two years, where they welcomed their second child, Gregg, into the world. But by the Hazlett’s third child, she said she wanted to “live by the water for the kids.”
After moving to Marblehead, the Hazlett family welcomed David and Karla, who completed their family.
And after more than fifty years in Marblehead, she said she still “loves it.”
Because of Hazlett’s undergraduate degree from UPenn and furthering her studies in Public Health from Columbia, coupled with wanting to be involved in her young children’s lives, she got involved in her community, to say the least.
Hazlett started on the School Committee in 1984. She said that throughout her career, she has been part of a committee hiring a school superintendent, a high school principal, and directors of the Counseling Center and Board of Health.
“When I was on the School Committee, we were negotiating contracts. I was assigned things that would be in the public health realm. I negotiated the cafeteria workers and the athletic department’s contracts, because those were more in the realm of my expertise,” she said.
The first foundation Hazlett founded was Dollars for Scholars in 1987. The organization is a need-based scholarship for Marblehead residents and Marblehead High School students.
The first scholarships were awarded in 1988 to 10 students, totaling $28,000.
Now, the organization has given $4.6 million in scholarships to Marblehead students. The organization also has $3.5 million in endowments.
“I am very proud of this organization,” Hazlett said.
Hazlett was then elected as the first woman president of the Jewish Community Center (JCC) from 1988-1990.
“That really broke the glass ceiling. Those health club men were not easy,” she said.
During that time, in 1989, she founded the Marblehead Task Force Against Discrimination.
In the summer of ‘89, a series of hate crimes at the JCC and Temple Emanu-El resulted in community outrage and condemnation.
Hazlett said she asked the Board of Selectmen to appoint a task force in response. As a result, on August 2, 1989, the Marblehead Task Force Against Discrimination was established.
In 1990, after a trip to Nantucket, she noticed that Nantucket Public Schools had an interesting program.
Then came the idea of Friends of the Marblehead Public Schools.
“The reason I wanted to bring the friends the public schools here is the teachers were having problems with their contract, like they were doing this year, that they weren’t moving forward with negotiations, and I wanted to give them something to boost their morale, and I thought that this would do it,” she said.
Friends, as the organization is affectionately known, raises money to fund educational grants for Marblehead’s Public Schools.
The grants it fulfills are aimed at working concurrently within the public school’s curriculum to supplement and enhance the educational experience of every student, according to the organization’s website.
The more than 200 grants fulfilled by Friends have impacted more than 15,000 children across six schools, reaching students of all ages.
In 1992, Hazlett co-founded the non-profit organization Making Ends Meet alongside Pam Stavis and Paul Crosby. At this time she was also president of the Marblehead Counseling Center.
Making ends meet has now supported more than 1,000 families. Making Ends Meet has been able to offer grants to locals who have nowhere else to turn when faced with unexpected hardships. Overdue rent, utilities that are facing shut off, medical bills, and other unforeseen expenses have been provided by Making Ends Meet.
Assistance is considered based on confidential referrals, which are screened and vetted by the Marblehead Counseling Center, Marblehead Public School counselors, local mental health providers, and other sources.
Hazlett was then elected to the Board of Health in 1997.
She said that over her career at the Board of Health, the biggest challenge that she faced was the COVID-19 pandemic.
She said she implemented a rule that the board must meet once a week, when the pandemic started, whereas previously the board was meeting once a month.
Hazlett also met once a week with the school superintendent on the the superintendent’s subcommittee of school personnel and other community leaders.
The board stuck to this schedule for two and a half years.
She said one of her biggest accomplishments was implementing smoking regulations before the Commonwealth did, and implementing plastic bag regulations.
Hazlett said she was the president of Temple Beth El from 2002-2005, where she merged Temple Beth El and Temple Israel to form the Congregation Shirat Hayam (Song of the Sea) in 2005.
She said it was interesting because the two temples had tried to merge before she was the president, and “I said, we’re not going to do it that way. Each temple had a preschool, so I went to the other temple and spoke to their preschool director, and I said, if we can merge the preschools, we can do this.
“I think we can merge if the children then the adults will follow,” she said. And they did!
Hazlett was awarded the Essex Media Group Person of the Year for the Town of Marblehead in 2019.
At Hazlett’s retirement party, which garnered a crowd of more than 100 people, out of the many speakers, a few stood out as particularly impactful.
Her daughter, Karla said, “ I just wanted to take a moment to thank you, Mom, for not only your extraordinary dedication to your community and the many causes and initiatives that you have championed in your various roles, but also thank you for your inspiration to lead an impactful and committed life.”
Health director for the town of Marblehead, Andrew Petty, said, “Over the past two decades, you have demonstrated unwavering dedication to protecting and promoting public health. Whether navigating the complexities of emerging health crises, championing preventive care, supporting local health initiatives, or shaping thoughtful policy, your leadership has left a profound and lasting mark on our town.”
He added, “The legacy of your work will continue to be felt long after your tenure has ended.
We are profoundly grateful for the time, energy, and wisdom you have shared over the years.”
A mother to four children, a grandmother to 12 grandchildren, and a great-grandmother to two great-grandchildren. It’s hard to imagine where Hazlett found the time to rack up the many accolades, but through hard work and a love for her community, she made the time to work for Marblehead’s constituents.
“The bottom line is, I’m very proud of what I did. I felt that I made a difference.”
