Volunteers Honor And Are Honored In 2008

By Nancy K. Crevier

RSVP Newtown volunteers were honored at a special tea in April attended by Maureen Farrell, director of Northern Fairfield County RSVP. Local RSVP volunteers donated 12,000 volunteer hours, the equivalent of $22,512 worth of community service.

Also in April, quilters from the Newtown Senior Center formed a group to support Quilts of Valor, a nationwide program with the goal of providing a quilt to every soldier wounded since September 11, 2001. This fall, at the request of the chaplain, 13 quilts made by the local quilters were shipped to service people working in the Dover Air Force Base Port Mortuary, a reminder that not all wounds are visible.

Quilts of Valor also benefited locally from the efforts of a newly formed quilting group, Quilts of the Heart, as did children at the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in Ashford. Jane Conroy of Trumbull, Peegee Brenton of Oxford, and Lana Patane and Debbie Delollis, both of Sandy Hook, completed the front and back of one 58-by-72-inch quilt for the Quilts of Valor and several smaller quilts for the children.

Nearly 50 Newtown Meals on Wheels (MOW) volunteers were honored at the annual Thank You Breakfast held in the undercroft of Trinity Episcopal Church this May. MOW co-presidents Pat Barrett and Marg Studley congratulated the volunteers for their service to those residents unable to prepare meals, and who rely on the lunches delivered to their homes by MOW volunteers.

The Annual Regional Hospice Breakfast was held at The Waterview in Monroe June 12, where more than 400 breakfast diners celebrated the volunteers and caregivers of Regional Hospice of Western Connecticut This year, the breakfast also honored Regional Hospice’s 25 years of community relationships. Co-chairpersons Marie Sturdevant and Marg Studley had worked for several months to coordinate the 19th annual event that raises thousands of dollars for the Regional Hospice of Western Connecticut each spring.

In 2008, appreciation was shown in several ways to those who have served in the armed services.

Members of the men’s and women’s auxiliaries and members of the Charles Howard Peck Sr and Jr Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 308 and those of the George A Powell Sr American Legion, gathered beneath sunny skies Memorial Day, May 26, just outside of the VFW Club on Tinkerfield Road, to pay special honor to all of those who have served the United States in conflicts and wars on foreign soil.

Nearly 120 veterans from Newtown and Sandy Hook who served in wars or conflicts from World War II through the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were honored at a special ceremony held Wednesday, June 25, at Newtown High School. State Representative DebraLee Hovey, in conjunction with the Connecticut Department of Veterans’ Affairs, distributed Connecticut Veterans Wartime Service Medals to any living veteran identified as having served in time of war and who was a resident of the state at the time he or she was called to active duty or who presently lives in Connecticut.

More than 40 veterans representing all branches of the United States armed forces were honored at a special flag-raising ceremony and breakfast sponsored by the Sandy Hook School PTA and administration at the school in November. The flag, raised early Monday morning by school custodian and veteran Dennis Best as students and their guests stood by, was a gift of Commander Charles Kirol, US Navy Reserves, who returned home this past spring from a deployment in Kuwait.