By Kim J. Harmon

Rich Barillari conceived of the idea and Mike Kelley believed in it.

And together – with the help, of course, of more than 300 businesses, organizations, families and individuals – these two men brought new stadium lights, a new state-of-the-art concession stand, and a new era of sports to Newtown High School.

It is for their almost tireless effort (the preparations, determining the specifications, the planning, getting the bids, raising the funds, and the hours upon endless hours of physical labor) in spearheading, nursemaiding, and ultimately completing the $480,000 project that Mr Barillari and Mr Kelley have been named The Newtown Bee 1999 Sportsmen of the Year.

“For the vision, work and effort that they have produced during the past four years,” said Newtown High School principal Bill Manfredonia, “I can think of no finer choice than to honor two outstanding men who have given the town a gift for all of its current and future athletes, families and community members.”

The men were honored at a dinner at Ondine’s Restaurant in_New Fairfield. Present were the two winners, their wives, and the selection committee.

A Personal Challenge

The cynics said it wouldn’t happen.

Not in Newtown.

But Rich Barillari – who first conceived of the idea after seeing how well the lights lit up the ballfield in Shelton – took that as a personal challenge. He brought the matter up to the Newtown Blue & Gold Booster Club for investigation, but it wasn’t until Mike Kelley took over as president that the idea gained any momentum at all.

“I remember the night it came up,” said Mr Kelley. “(The B&G) had been talking about a concession stand and had problems figuring that out, so we decided not to proceed. At the end of that, Rich was talking about all the other towns that had lights (on their fields).”

The seed was planted – but, initially, nothing happened.

The following year, when it was discovered that the renovation plan for the high school did not include lights (the town felt the taxpayers would not approve), the booster club voted on the project and went to Mr Manfredonia with the plan.

“There are a lot of high school events scheduled in the afternoon,” said Mr Kelley, “and lots of parents can’t make the games. By expanding the field, if you don’t have light you restrict your use of the field. Lights would give an opportunity for more families to go.”

The idea took off.

Even though Mr Barillari had 18 years of experience as an electrical systems manager at Bridgeport Hospital and, as he said, “I had an idea of how to make the zoning board comfortable (with the project),” there was still the many different specifications that had to be figured out (how to wire the lights, how to seat the poles on a site that was mostly sand), the zoning requirements (and the requirements of several other boards), as well the potential problems that had to be addressed and solved before they became problems.

“Mike was a big help in setting up meetings,” said Mr Barillari. “His support was the most important thing of all.”

The word hectic almost doesn’t do this phase of the project justice. Mr Barillari remembers having to drive down to Bridgeport Airport to meet an engineer just to give him samples of the soil for a detailed analysis.

And once the zoning board gave its approval and the obligations of the building department were fulfilled, then came the matter of raising the $95,000 needed to put up the lights.

That led to a massive fundraising effort that stretched from Newtown all the way to Hartford and points beyond. State Representative Julia Wasserman finagled a $50,000 grant out of the legislature, The Newtown Bee spearheaded an effort to match donations send in by local families, and hundreds more business, organizations, families and individuals donated anywhere from a couple of dollars to a several thousand dollars.

Yes, the lights got paid for, but the concession stand proved to be a bit more troublesome in that regard.

The concession stand itself is a testament to community spirit and generosity. With the thousands of hours of physical labor, the materials, the equipment, and the expertise – all of it willingly donated from dozens of architectural, construction, electrical, and plumbing firms – Newtown is now home to, perhaps, the finest high school concession stand in Connecticut.

It is probably the only concession stand that grinds its own coffee – thanks to Dunkin Donuts, which donated the coffee grinder and continued to contribute the coffee, cream, donuts, and paper products for all the games. The stand also has a brand new soda fountain system and cooler donated by Pepsi.

“Without all their contributions, the gifts in kind,” said Mr Kelley, “we would never have been able to get it done.”

Mr Barillari added, “It really is amazing how everyone came together for this.”

And that goes for the 10 or 11 people who always manned the stand for the football games, dishing out the hot dogs and hamburgers and french fries, and pouring the coffee and the hot chocolate and soda.

As of this writing, though, there is still $20,000 left to pay on the concession stand mortgage and Mr Kelley – who will resign as president of the booster club as soon as the mortgage is cleared – said he hopes that note could be paid off by June . . . in time for the annual Blue & Gold Football Game.

“That Blue and Gold game will be very special,” said Mr Barillari, especially – Mr Kelley added – if fire marshal George Lockwood grants the Booster Club a permit to burn the mortgage at the 50-yard line.

Then, the concession stand would be dedicated and turned over to the town of Newtown. It could become an opportunity for the culinary arts program at the high school to work its magic and for the individual classes to take turns managing it (and, thus, earning some money).

A lot of people came together to make this project a reality but if it hadn’t been for Rich Barillari standing up for his idea in face of a few naysayers and Mike Kelley getting the Blue & Gold Booster Club and the community behind that idea, then there would be no lights and no concession stand and the Newtown High School football field would be just another football field.

But instead, it’s now something special.