8:00 pm: Keynote by Mayor Alex Morse in the Chapel

Alex Morse was born and raised in Holyoke and is a proud product of the city’s public schools. Morse is an alumnus of Brown University with a degree in urban studies, and was the first in his family to graduate from college. He is the youngest mayor ever elected in Holyoke and the youngest gay mayor in the nation. His first year as mayor marked the first time in 25 years that the city had no violent homicide.