By James Kinneen
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Pancakes, sausages, cantaloups, grapes, coffee and the opportunity to ask Norfolk County Sheriff Patrick W. McDermott any questions you may have, were on the menu last Thursday morning, as the Center held its first pancake breakfast since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. A staple of the COA, past breakfast speakers have included physicians, fall prevention specialists, and local politicians.
Arriving a bit late -- which, he joked, must mean the pandemic is coming to an end, since he got stuck in traffic -- Sheriff McDermott first told the crowd how he got the job. He explained that he had served under Mike Bellotti in the State House, and when Bellotti resigned, “in Governor Baker’s wisdom he knew there was a good man out there named McDermott… It just wasn’t me.”
No, Governor Baker appointed Jerry McDermott, which set up the eventual McDermott vs McDermott election face-off, which Patrick McDermott deemed “the battle of the Galway twins.” Running as a Democrat, Patrick McDermott won the election, which meant he would serve the remaining two years of Bellotti’s term.
Sheriff McDermott next talked about what a sheriff does. First, he explained that the sheriff is the oldest law enforcement figure in history, and comes from feudal Europe, where reaves, or guardians, were elected in every shire. Thus, “reave of the shire” became “sheriff.” While he acknowledged the sheriff’s office has taken more of a supplementary assistance role to law enforcement, Sheriff McDermott said his office focuses on his four pillars of “prevention, intervention, education and hope.”
To that end, McDermott noted his office has had the most success of any sheriff in the state when it comes to GED graduation rates, that he has a program that sends female prisoners to study how to care for animals at Weymouth’s New England Wildlife Center, and how they have leadership camps in both Braintree and Franklin.
As for what his office provides seniors, Sheriff McDermott noted his “are you okay” program, through which seniors get a nightly call checking up on them, has saved at least eight lives since he became sheriff. He also talked about his intergenerational program, which will use young people to help seniors learn about technology, and emphasized scam prevention, particularly those “reverse” scams that call you and pretend that your credit card has already been scammed -- but that they need your credit card number to verify and cancel it.
McDermott also told the seniors that since everything is opening up again, they could come and tour the facilities.
That would be just one of many interesting trips the senior center has lined up in the shorter term, including a trip to Castle Island sometime next month, as well as trips with the Romeo Club (men who go out to eat at a new restaurant) and the Juliet Club (the same thing, but all women).
Whether those restaurants serve tastier meals than the pancake breakfast, they likely won’t have any entertainment as interesting and useful as Sheriff McDermott provided on Thursday.
