Former Northampton cheerleader celebrates century mark

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KATHLEEN DUNCAN

Helen Blanchard celebrated her 100th birthday Tuesday at the Calvin Coolidge Nursing Home on Elm Street.

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KATHLEEN DUNCAN

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KATHLEEN DUNCAN

Northampton High cheerleaders present Helen Blanchard, who turned 100 Tuesday, with a teddy bear in a cheerleader outfit and other gifts.

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The picture below shows the first four female cheerleaders at Northampton High, including Helen Blanchard, second from the left.

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Northampton High School cheerleaders perform a cheer for Helen Blanchard, left, on the occasion of her 100th birthday.

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KATHLEEN DUNCAN

Blanchard takes a breath to blow out the candles on her cake at a surprise party Tuesday.

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PHOTOS by KATHLEEN DUNCAN

Above, Helen Blanchard prepares to blow out the candles on her cake at a surprise party Tuesday. Left, Joseph Blanchard shows his mother a birthday card from President Obama and Michelle Obama, congratulating her on her 100th birthday.

NORTHAMPTON - Even in the annals of 100-year-old birthday parties, it would be hard to top this one.

The guys in maintenance at Calvin Coolidge Nursing Home, who think highly of Helen Blanchard, a resident there since age 98, rigged up a huge, handmade sign out of heavy cardboard, with the number 100 outlined in lights for a surprise party thrown for her Tuesday, the day she marked a century.

She received a card wishing her happy birthday from President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle.

And 15 uniformed Northampton High School cheerleaders performed a few cheers. Blanchard, you see, was on the first Northampton High School cheerleading squad to include girls back in the 1920s.

"We started it, you know," she said proudly Wednesday. "I had fun in high school."

Birthday festivities began Tuesday with a family lunch in the nursing home's private dining room, with about 10 relatives from as far away as Tennessee. Blanchard herself is a "Bay State girl," in the words of her daughter Kathleen O'Neil, (who means Bay State neighborhood, not the state).

With all the partying, Blanchard was tickled pink.

"I loved every bitty second of it," she said the next day, laughing heartily when O'Neil, also a Bay State girl, reminded her that it was champagne she sipped at lunch, not ginger ale.

"I was being polite," she shot back at O'Neil, during her daily visit to the nursing home, where mother and daughter discussed the party, which had, in fact, surprised Blanchard.

"I knew I was going to have lunch with her," she said, glancing at O'Neil. "But I didn't know there were going to be so many people. Did we have fun!"

She said one of the many surprises, in addition to all the people who showed up ("The place was mobbed," said O'Neil), was the card from the Obamas. The note congratulated her on reaching 100 - she was born Sept. 8, 1909 - and read, in part: "You have witnessed great milestones in our nation's history, and your life represents an important piece of the American story."

Her son Joseph Blanchard, who drove in from Sandwich, read it to her during the party, and her daughter read it again the next day. It didn't lose its luster.

"You know, I see him on the TV and I know he's a wonderful guy, but was I surprised!" she said. "I said, 'My God, what a small world!' "

She got a big kick out of the visit from Northampton High School's current crop of cheerleaders, a visit arranged by Activites Director Deborah Dawson, who thought it might be a treat.

Indeed it was.

"It brought back a lot of memories," said Blanchard, relating a few of them, and laughing as she did so. (Blanchard, by the way, laughs a lot.) She loved getting to ride in the bus with the football team on the way to games.

"They were not fresh at all, they were very nice," she said. "They said, 'Thank you for coming to the game and cheering.' "

O'Neil liked that the young cheerleaders did not seem the least bit in a hurry to leave the party.

"They stayed for a long time. I was really touched, they seemed to have a good time," she said. She noticed her mother teared up, "and a couple of them had tears in their eyes."

Cheerleader Jamilee Bontempi, 16, said the squad was happy to oblige.

"It was fun," she said. "I don't think many of us have had many encounters with 100-year-olds."

After the squad did their cheers, Blanchard recited one right back to them from the comfort of her wheelchair, and she cheerfully repeated it again for a reporter the next day. It sounded like this: A-rigga-jigga boom. A-rigga-jigga boom. A-rigga jigga jigga jigga boom boom boom. N.H.S."

At the end of all the fun, Blanchard was tired, and no wonder.

"It was a long party and there were so many people who came up to me and gave me the hugging," she said. "So it was a long party, wasn't it, Kathy?"

Her daughter just smiled and nodded.