Generosity Begets Generosity For The ETH Seats Project

During the month of April, this past spring, audience members of Newtown Friends of Music contributed varying amounts of money for the refurbishment of Edmond Town Hall’s seats in the auditorium, spurred on by the promise that Newtown Friends of Music would match the donations dollar for dollar.

At the occasion of its annual meeting, Newtown Friends of Music presented two checks: one representing the monies collected from the audience members, and another matching the donations, from their own coffers, $2,000 altogether.

The story and photo appeared in the May 27 Newtown Bee, and caught the eye of Gene and Carolyn Goodmaster, who offered to match the total of these donations with a contribution of their own.

Sure enough, not long afterward, there appeared in the mailbox of Newtown Friends of Music a check in the amount of $2,000, with the following message: “As longtime residents of Newtown and to leave a memory of our enjoyment of the Edmond Town Hall Theatre, this gift is made by the Goodmaster family.”

Gene Goodmaster recently retired from his longtime position as vice president of information technology with Unilever, where he was director of various business entities, such as Chesebrough-Pond’s, Best Foods, Good Humor-Breyer’s, and Slim-Fast. He and his wife, Carolyn, made their home until recently on Taunton Lake Road and now reside in Florida, where he continues in a number of consulting positions.

The photograph accompanying this story was taken this summer at Battell Chapel in New Haven at the occasion of their daughter’s wedding.

Public Radio and Public Television long ago learned that the promise of matching and double matching encourages members to donate and they have been very successful in applying this technique.

“I’m tickled pink that this has happened,” said Ellen Parrella, president of Newtown Friends of Music. “One does not need an advanced degree in mathematics to realize how these donations have grown exponentially. I always knew that generosity begets generosity.”

The Newtown Lions Club is spearheading the yearlong fundraising effort to refurbish the seats in the Edmond Town Hall auditorium as its contribution to Newtown’s tercentennial. Anyone who has questions about how to help the project can contact Mr Gordon Williams at 426-6443.

Checks should be made out to the Edmond Town Hall Board of Managers with a notation “Seats Project” in the memo line and mailed to the Newtown Lions Club, Attention Gordon Williams, PO Box 218, Newtown CT 06470-0218.