Education & Empowerment: The Londraville Family
Written by Seth Stutman
Photos by Brittany Shields & Rob LeBlanc
Sponsored by East Village Place
Published in Longmeadow Neighbors (January 2023)
If you haven’t seen the Londraville family, you might need to have your eyes checked - because they are everywhere from the soccer fields, to the hockey rink, basketball courts to Batch, classrooms, author talks, and sidewalks. They’ve been in town for a decade - and they don’t plan on leaving a place they’ve come to love.
“I love the sidewalks, my neighbors are incredible, and very kind,” said Jeff Londraville. “Our neighbors are an extension of family and everyone is always looking out for one another. You don’t get that in most towns or cities anymore, and I greatly appreciate it.”
A Chicopee native, Jeff Londraville starred as a two-sport athlete and in 2019, was inducted into the Chicopee Athletic Hall of Fame for hockey and baseball. He met his wife Christy while working in education, and they decided to move their family to Longmeadow a decade ago.
The rest of the Londraville family can be seen all around town. Lola, 17, is a Senior at Longmeadow High School who loves her job at Batch and Tyler, 8, adores soccer, hockey and basketball. Their dog Stanley was named after the NHL's Lord Stanley Cup, and is a rescue who they picked up right before the world shut down from Covid-19.
“We really valued the schools, sidewalks and safety,” said Christy, “the educational opportunities and atmosphere is fantastic for the kids.” The Londravilles, who both work in education, find that their passion is helping children (including their own) navigate their world - which, in their words, can be very rewarding and very exhausting.
“I’m very proud of my families’ personalities and kindness,” he said. “Every night I say to [our kids], “I love you - sleep good, wake up better,” and I strongly believe in saying that every night. I hope for both of them that they sleep well from whatever they experienced that day and to wake up better, having learned from that previous day. I also believe that is one of our main goals, to become “better” than we were the day before. Too many people compare themselves to others instead of comparing themselves to who they were the day before.”
Jeff Londraville left Chicopee for college at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts where he earned a Bachelors in Sociology. Afterwards, he earned a Masters Degree in Education from Cambridge College. Equally impressive, Londraville also enjoyed time playing on Team USA Hockey, who he now helps as a coach developer.
“My hobbies and interests have turned into whatever my daughters are into, coaching Tyler in hockey (where she is the only girl on her Mite A Team), my other coaching work, and my passions are speaking to large and small groups on a variety of topics,” he says.
Londraville has held a laundry list of professions, all culminating with his debut as an author. In addition to more than 30 years as an educator, he has been a private investigator, USA Hockey Presenter, Educator and Facilitator, involved with Springfield PICS Junior Hockey, and an international speaker. It only made sense that, in 2010, Jeff wrote his first book The Filter, for teenagers and young adults about how to unclog your mind of negativity.
Londraville followed up The Filter in 2018, with Your Path to Clarity: How to Clear Your Mind's Filters and Claim Your Future. In both books, and in any media appearance on their behalf, Londraville draws on his decades of experience as a coach, teacher, parent, and mentor to offer advice on becoming a happier, healthier human, and can speak knowledgeably and eloquently. Luckily for his family, he has found many like minded, happy, healthy people in Longmeadow, the community he chose more than a decade ago.
“My neighbors seem to look at the world like we do, with a “we are all in this together” mentality,” he said, “and it is so refreshing to see play out every day in my neighborhood.” Londraville has traveled the world as a hockey player, speaker, and teacher, but appreciates the town he calls home.
“One of the first days we moved in we received a document with everyone’s numbers and emails along with small gifts welcoming us to the neighborhood. Then one of my neighbors offered us his swing set … and our whole neighborhood seemingly came out as we wheeled it down the street to my backyard. But it’s not just the big stuff, it’s also the little things that they do… wave, say hi, or stop and talk. I wish the entire world was like my neighborhood.”
