As Newtown Health District Director Donna Culbert pointed out in a recent call to The Newtown Bee, April is a very busy month.

Depending on when you start your day, April is National Brunch Month and National Afternoon Tea Month. For those who love their fur babies, it is National Canine Fitness Month, and for music lovers, it is National Guitar Month and Jazz Appreciation Month.

Do-gooders can take note, as April is National Volunteer Month, Keep America Beautiful Month, and National Donate Life Awareness Month. Those of us espousing to be richer can count on the fact that April is National Financial Literacy Month, and for those already rich in wit, laugh it up because it is also National Humor Month.

While there are at least a dozen other monthly designations, we are also seeing a number of weekly celebrations, of which two are significant when considering the celebrants’ primary beneficiaries are basically everyone in Newtown.

Circling back to our Newtown Health District (NHD), the first full week of April is National Public Health Week. Our NHD staffers have certainly been in the public eye during the COVID-19 pandemic, but many other district functions happen behind the scenes.

Just a few of the many things they accomplish are inspecting restaurants, housing units, salons, and other facilities for safety and sanitation; testing the water at Eichler's Cove during the summer ensuring it’s safe to swim; investigating disease outbreaks to stop them from spreading; working with police, fire, town officials, and volunteers to prepare for emergencies; and counseling children and adults about eating healthy, staying active, and making healthy life choices.

That department's work literally touches every community member, business, and even potentially those just passing through or on a short visit, so we owe each of the Newtown Health District staffers a healthy dose of gratitude.

Looking forward, April 10-16 marks National Public Safety Telecommunicator Week. In Newtown, these proud yet humble “first of the first responders” try to keep a low profile; their Director, Maureen Will, helped highlight in today’s “Letter Hive” the critical, life-saving work her team of just nine full-timers and three per diem Public Safety Telecommunicators (a/k/a "dispatchers") does 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

In part, she reminds us, Will's staff answered over 7,000 emergency 911 calls last year. That equates to about one 911 call for every four Newtown residents (or transient pass-throughs) during 2021.

And lest we forget, your relatively tiny Newtown Emergency Communications operation has been blessed with the exemplary Robert Nute who, along with colleagues Jennifer Barocsi, Elizabeth Cain, Jason Chickos, Sheri Citrone, Daniel McDermott, Jamie Nisbet, Thomas Ramsdell, and Wesley Yllanes, deservingly earned honors from regional public safety communications officials for their brave and tireless work during the 12/14 tragedy nearly a decade ago.

Nute was also nationally recognized with the Second Annual Smart Telecommunicator Award ever conveyed back in 2013, while in 2017, Will was named Director of the Year by her peers in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, and New Jersey.

So residents should rest assured. When you are pressed to call 911 during what may be one of your worst moments, you will find yourself connected to the best of the best when it comes to public safety communications responders.