Mae Schmidle Named Grand Marshal For 2008 Labor Day Parade

By Nancy K. Crevier

“Let’s paint the town red!” could be her battle cry, and if she is bustling about town and wearing one of her trademark red outfits, it is probably Mae Schmidle.

Her endless energy has served the town well over the four decades she has lived here. The society editor of the Trumbull Times at the time she moved to Newtown, she quickly immersed herself in the community.

Mrs Schmidle has served as the Hawley School PTA president and PTA council president; she has been the State PTA president and vice -president of the National PTA; with Larry Newquist, she started SCAN, the Society of Creative Arts of Newtown, a spin-off of an adult education class; she has served on the Republican Town Committee, held the office of town clerk for ten years and served as a state representative in Hartford for a decade. Mrs Schmidle has been active with the St Rose parish community; organized and published the town’s first Community Development Action Program report; chaired the Arts and Tourism Commission and the National Arts and Tourism Commission; was the impetus behind the Children’s Adventure Center; chaired the Board of Trustees of Fairfield Hills and the Northeast Dairy Compact; and is a certified municipal clerk.

But it is her boundless enthusiasm, vast knowledge of the group’s history, and devotion to the 90-year-old Visiting Nurse Association of Newtown, Inc (VNA) that has this year landed Mrs Schmidle the enviable position of Grand Marshal of the 2008 Annual Newtown Labor Day Parade.

Over the course of 40 years, she has served on the board, volunteered countless hours at countless events, has been elected president for two terms, and is presently the treasurer and parliamentarian for the VNA.

“[Mae Schmidle] was one of the first names that popped into my head when we picked the theme, ‘VNA — Keeping Newtown Healthy,’” said Labor Day Parade President Kym Stendahl earlier this month when she announced the theme and grand marshal for 2008.

“I was thoroughly, thoroughly surprised,” said Mrs Schmidle upon finding out that she would hold the highly regarded position this fall. “It’s an honor for the VNA to be the theme and it’s an honor to be named the grand marshal,” said Mrs Schmidle. She pointed out that more often than not, the VNA has been a part of the parade over the years. “I love the parade. It’s so symbolic, and it’s the only parade in Connecticut on Labor Day,” she said.

VNA Vice President Mary Tietjen said that the organization is thrilled to carry the Labor Day Parade theme. “This is a very exciting year for the VNA,” said Ms Tietjen. “It is our 90th Anniversary and we are doing an event every month this year. Mae is in charge of the 90th Anniversary events and she is doing a fabulous job. She has so much enthusiasm and has really carried us along. We are very happy that the VNA has been selected and honored to have Mae Schmidle as the grand marshal,” Ms Tietjen said.

 Shortly after Mrs Schmidle moved to Newtown in the 1960s, she became involved with the VNA, almost through happenstance. “I guess it was because of my business background, but I was called to town hall to write a grant around that time, and actually became the town’s first grant writer. About the same time, I was asked to be on the VNA board,” recalled Mrs Schmidle. The VNA board meetings were conveniently held in Edmond Town Hall where she was working on grants, so she decided to accept the offer. She also had great admiration for the organization that began in 1918 during the flu pandemic, when local women banded together to provide aide to the sick. “The VNA is a part of Newtown, and it shows the commitment of the community as a whole, so I was happy to belong,” said Mrs Schmidle.

As a board member and officer, Mrs Schmidle has elected to devote a good deal of her time to the Thrift Shop operated by the VNA, promoting it, organizing it, and advertising the used home goods and clothing store. “The Thrift Shop was our biggest source of income, even then, and it still is,” said Mrs Schmidle. She remembers that it was originally located beneath the A&P Store in the Chase (Gold) Building on Main Street, and was simply table after table jumbled with clothing and other items for sale. Most memorable of those days, she said, was the fact that directly above the Thrift Shop was the meat cutting room for the grocery store. Because it was a very old building, on certain days of the week blood would drip through the floor boards and into the shop. “We really had to watch where we put stuff,” she said.

It was while staffing the Thrift Shop that Mrs Schmidle learned what she called “an eye-opening lesson.” A friend rummaging through the piles of items came across a rather grimy looking bedspread that she wanted to purchase. “Most items were 15 or 20 cents back then, so getting a dollar was a big deal,” remembered Mrs Schmidle. “But my friend insisted on giving me $20 for the rag, so I wasn’t going to turn it down.” The friend later called to say that she had cleaned the bed covering and realized it was not only beautiful, but a handmade, antique quilt of museum quality. “And I nearly gave it away,” she exclaimed.

As the Thrift Shop was thriving on Main Street, meanwhile underneath Edmond Town Hall in what is the Thrift Shop’s present location, the visiting nurses provided care to local residents that stopped by. “We had two wonderful nurses,” said Mrs Schmidle. But around 1970, the state notified the VNA of Newtown that in order to continue providing medical care there, they had to have someone on the staff who had a master’s degree. “So we did away with the on-site visiting nurses and moved the Thrift Shop there,” Mrs Schmidle said.

The VNA of Newtown continued to visit and advise home patients, however, as well as provide home health aides and helpers when needed by residents. Mrs Schmidle is not a nurse, so she does not get involved in that end of the organization, but whenever the VNA sponsors blood pressure screenings, flu shot clinics, cholesterol screenings, or eye and ear screenings, she is there to support the effort. She has adopted the 90th Anniversary Celebration of the VNA of Newtown this past year as her own event, spearheading efforts to publicize the group and attending every event she organizes, such as health prevention clinics and fundraisers. She is ever grateful for the other officers and members of the organization who quietly go about making sure the wheels turn in the right direction for the VNA. “I like to keep the board revved up and reenergized,” admitted Mrs Schmidle, who seemingly is never out of ideas or energy herself.

Mrs Schmidle has also served from time to time on the VNA scholarship committee, assisting in the selection of recipients for the Mary Holian Scholarship, the Dr Van Syckle Scholarship, or the Anna E. Clow Scholarship that the group has been able to offer to local scholars seeking to go into nursing, through the generosity of former VNA patients and endowments.

“[The VNA] provides a service no one else provides,” said Mrs Schmidle, “both in nursing services and through the Thrift Shop. The impetus for the VNA of Newtown was at a time when people didn’t have a way to get to medical help quickly. To me, it’s part of living in Newtown, and it is incumbent upon those of us who are here now to continue the VNA services provided to Newtown,” she said.

“It’s great and it’s exciting to be the grand marshal.” And she added with a smile, “It’s also an opportunity to buy a new red dress.”

So if not the town, perhaps at least the parade will be painted red in September.