Counseling Center To Honor

Key Volunteers

The Family Counseling Center, Inc., will hold its annual meeting on Monday, June 25, at 7:30 pm, followed by a panel discussion on “Children and Divorce” beginning at 8 pm. The meeting will be held in the meeting room of the Cyrenius H. Booth Library on Main Street. The public is invited.

Members of the panel are Sharon Wicks Dornfield, a family law attorney who restricts her practice to representing children in probate, Juvenile and Superior Courts; Leslie L. Raider, MA, a counselor from the Family Support Services Unit in the Court Support Services Division of the Danbury Superior Court, and Vickie Santore, LCSW, clinical director of the Family Counseling Center.

Holiday Festival co-chairs, Mary Harrington Tomasiecwicz and Connie Huntington, will be recognized for their contributions over the past year. The 15th Annual Festival had another wonderful year despite some cold weather. It raises the most money for the center and its programs. Outgoing board members Jim Gaston, Tom Murtha, and Elaine McClure and long time board member and current chair, Nancy Haas, will be recognized for their contributions.

The “HD” Award was established in 1990 by former chairperson, Gary Fetzer, to recognize outstanding volunteer contributions to the organizations. The award was named after H.D. Bassett, treasurer and board member as well as its first recipient. The board supported the establishment of this annual award because they wanted to emphasize the importance of volunteers and the very critical role that volunteer contributions can make to the success of the center. It will be presented to a volunteer who has played a significant role over the past few years in assuming the success of the center and its fundraising activities.

The annual meeting will also include the election of officers and directors.

The center is a state-licensed, nationally accredited outpatient mental health clinic for adults and a psychiatric clinic for children, providing substance abuse, counseling, psychiatric assessments and follow-up, play-therapy, support groups and parent education courses for parents who are going through divorce and separation. The center serves people who live and work in the greater Danbury and Southbury area and see people regardless of their ability to pay.