Community comes in all shapes and sizes and that's what we love best about it.
It comes in the form of a long standing pillar of the coffee community turning his company over to his employees. Dean Cycon of Dean's Beans Organic Coffee announced his retirement a while ago, but his official last day was June 26th. And with that last day, the company became a worker-owned co-operative. We speak with Dean and the company's new CEO Beth Spong about making that shift happen and the legacy of societal change they've been able to enact in the coffee industry stateside and with their international partners. And pirates. Arrr.
And it comes in the form of a long loved cultural celebration returning to the streets. The Springfield Puerto Rican Paradehas been a fixture for over 33 years. Back in person and out on the streets, the event will have a kickoff party June 29th at White Lion. To get a better handle on all of the fun things you can do in it's 2+ mile stretch downtown, we invited parade administrator Shirley Rodríguez and NEPM's own Elizabeth Román into the studio to share their experiences and talk about the future of the parade.
