The City of Gardner and the Mayor of Gardner have received substantial recognition. Gardner Magazine spoke with Gardner Mayor Michael Nicholson on July 17, 2025 about awards and recognitions received by the City of Gardner and/or by Gardner Mayor Michael Nicholson.
Michael J. Nicholson Recognitions:
Just a sample: Many more are listed in the Question and Answer session with Gardner Mayor Michael Nicholson.
Power 100 – The Worcester Business Journal – Mayor Nicholson was named one of the most influential professionals in Central Massachusetts
Chairman of the Montachusett Area Regional Transit (MART)
Appointed to Transportation Task Force by Governor Healey – Here is an article on the website of the Massachusetts Municipal Association.
Elected President of the Massachusetts Mayors Association
40 under 40 – Worcester Business Journal
Outstanding Young Alumni Award – UMass Amherst
Question: Today we have the honor of talking to Gardner Mayor Nicholson about awards and recognitions. Can you go through one by one all the awards and recognitions you’ve received in the last five years and the City of Gardner’s received?
Answer: Sure, I’d be happy to Werner, thank you.
2021: Back in 2021 the City received an award from the Greater Gardner Chamber of Commerce called the Sybil Arjuho Award for Community Service and that was for the work that was done for our regional vaccination clinic that was done at the Polish American Citizens Club and the effectiveness on that in helping to get people in the city that wanted to be vaccinated and how we were able to utilize that to help bring together various different groups from our nursing students at Mount Wachusett Community College who weren’t able to have their practicum hours because the hospitals were still under severe regulations at the time so they were able to utilize that by being volunteers at our vaccination clinic, bringing other services together through our testing kit outreach that we did so that was one of the awards that we got in 2021.
Later in 2021: Later in 2021 the City received the Kenneth Pickard Municipal Innovation Award from the Massachusetts Municipal Association. That’s an award given out annually by the Mass Municipal Association for municipalities who come up with innovative ideas to increase transparency and local government. For us that was through the ways that we were getting our project information on what the city’s done and what we plan to do out to the public better so we were the proud recipients of that.
2022: In 2022 I was honored with the 40 into 40 awards by the Worcester Business Journal as well as the Community Health Partner Award by Heywood Hospital for the ways in that the city worked very closely with Heywood Hospital and Heywood Healthcare and then that was also the year that Mayor Dina Talley and I received the Leaders to be Proud of by the Northern Worcester County Pride Association too for creating communities that were welcoming and inclusive of all populations and demographics within our cities.
2023: In 2023 I received the Music Advocacy Award from the Massachusetts Music Educators Association. This is an association made up of every music teacher at the elementary, middle, and high school and collegiate level in Massachusetts and I received that for the work that we did in restarting the elementary school band program here in Gardner and helping to bolster a more connected curriculum in our music programs across our grade levels and across our schools in our district by looking at common planning time and how you can build from one step to another rather than having to jump and guess where the students’ music levels were at before so I was very proud to receive that. And then be named as one of the Power 50 from the Worcester Business Journal
2024: And then in 2024 I was named one of the People to Watch for 2024 by Pulse Magazine. They recognize 12 individuals across Worcester County every year in their People to Watch Awards so I was honored to receive that that year as well as being named as one of the Power 100 by the Worcester Business Journal when they changed their award model from a Power 50 to a Power 100 to be more inclusive of people across Worcester County. I was also the recipient of the University of Massachusetts Amherst Outstanding Young Alumni Award in 2024 and named as one of the ALX 100 by the Amplified Latino Organization that recognizes 100 Latin American descent Latino people in Massachusetts who are making a difference in their communities so I was very proud of all of those awards that I’ve received over the time.
2025: You know I’m lucky enough this year to be the president of the Massachusetts Mayors Association that works with our mayors across the state. All 48 of us are dealing with issues of how different policy proposals impact us on the state that are coming from the state and federal government impact us on the local level and really talk as a united voice of all of the mayors across the commonwealth. The governor has appointed me to the Transportation Funding Task Force that is looking at all of the different ways that the state looks at funding formulas for transportation that’s everything from bridge repair, culvert replacement, road paving funds, bike and pedestrian infrastructure and everything in between. The governor has also appointed me as a member of the Local Government Advisory Commission. This is a group of local officials that meet monthly with the lieutenant governor and the various different cabinet secretaries of the governor’s administration and talks about how the proposals that the state has pending before the legislature and before the governor impact the state, the municipalities across Massachusetts, the city and town level and really work to advocate for the needs of cities and towns directly with the administration. I serve as the chair of the MART Advisory Board that’s the governing board for our local bus system with MART and the 22 member communities that are there. I’ve served as a chair for the last three years and I’m the only one who’s been nominated to serve as the chair again for the upcoming year for our election that’s going to be taking place at our next meeting. I also have the privilege of serving on the advisory boards for both the University of Massachusetts Amherst Commonwealth Honors College and the Mount Wachusett Community College Veterinary Technician Program. Both of those have really been fun to see how we can set our students up for future success and make an impact in the community that way. And then just a couple of other times in 2022 and 2023 I was invited to the White House to talk about how the city’s been utilizing various different federal funding projects to bolster our infrastructure improvements mainly with the infrastructure projects that we did in the downtown area where we installed all new water lines and then use that as a means to pave the roads and add new ADA compliant sidewalks and signalizations and the grids that go at the bottom of the crossing ramps that are there. And then in 2024 I was invited to speak in front of a panel of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus at the Capitol Building in Washington DC to speak to members of Congress across various different states led by Congresswoman Trahan, Congressman Steny Hoyer, and various other members of Congress from around the United States about how Gardner was successful in utilizing funds from the federal government to bolster infrastructure as a means to bolster our economic development goals in the long term as well. So it’s been fun for sure aside from that I’ve been you know endorsed by the Environmental League of Massachusetts, by the Laborers Union in Massachusetts, by the Bus Drivers Union and several other organizations as well in the past and in my previous campaign as well so it’s really you know I’ve been proud of the work that we’ve been able to do in Gardner. I’m proud of the relationships that I’ve been able to build and the recognitions along the way are I’m very honored to receive all of them and very humbled to do but you really just you got a job to do and you do the job and if that means you do the job well enough that you get those recognitions in the long term then I’m proud to be able to get Gardner known that way.
Question: I think there’s one you missed. Oh. Governor Healey came to Gardner to announce her tax cuts and she chose Gardner.
Answer: Yeah she did. She came to Gardner Elementary School to announce her tax cut package to be able to talk about how it was there to help our families who are looking for child care services in Gardner. That was a really fun event for sure.