Midwest Transplant Brought A Seasonal Look To Sandy Hook

By Shannon Hicks

When Maureen Compagnoni was growing up in the Midwest, her family had a grocery store that was always decorated for the different seasons. When she moved to Newtown a few years ago she enjoyed the way residents decorated their homes, but missed seeing a coordinated effort by business owners.

So a few months ago Mrs Compagnoni took it upon herself to approach the owners of several businesses in Sandy Hook Center to see if they would hire her to take care of their holiday decorations. She took this initiative, she said, “because I felt like it hadn’t been done since they had been so focused on doing the revitalization of Sandy Hook. I started thinking that this is such a great New England town, it would be pretty to be decorated for the holidays.”

With positive results from nine businesses and plenty of encouragement from the other members of the Compagnoni family — husband Chuck, daughter Courtney, and even son Michael, who cheered his mom on long-distance from college — Mrs Compagnoni got to work.

Now anyone driving or walking into Sandy Hook Center is welcomed by red bows and pine roping on lampposts, wreaths on doors, roping around many windows, along with swags hanging above window boxes or on the lower ledges of windows. Many of the large plantings boxes, such as a pair situated outside the front entrance of Sandy Hook Wine & Liquor, have been filled with pine and ornamentals and surrounded with red ribbon.

It is a beautiful sight, whether one goes looking for it or is caught by surprise the first time it is noticed.

Mrs Compagnoni’s work was finished in time for Sandy Hook’s tree lighting on December 3.

“I had a vision and an idea,” Mrs Compagnoni said last week, standing outside Coach’s Deli and looking around at her accomplishments. “I knew this would work and would be really neat, but I needed the support from the businesses.

“The business owners were all very nice to work with. They were really receptive,” she said. “The merchants in Sandy Hook are all such nice people. Anything that brings business to town is important. It’s tough for individual owners these days.”

Among those who agreed to support Mrs Compagnoni’s project were the owners of Porco Construction & Karate, Coach’s Deli, Sandy Hook Hair Company, Sandy Hook Wine & Liquor, R Place Diamond, The Toy Tree, Fun Kuts, and Subway.

100 Church Hill also allowed Mrs Compagnoni to add some roping to its business, but the restaurant’s owner, Ray Costanzo, already takes care of decorating the window boxes at that location.

Mary Fellows, owner of The Little Green Barn, pitched in for all the roping for the decorations. With financial donations in hand, Mrs Compagnoni purchased wreaths and ribbon, made all the bows that are on display, and then spent time working with her daughter to hang everything.

Mrs Compagnoni’s one regret is that she didn’t start working on this project sooner.

“It looks like this is off to a good start, but I do wish I had time to do more,” she said. “I can always do more in future years, though. Hopefully I can build off this year’s momentum.

“People here are so used to the architecture of New England, but it’s still new and beautiful to me,” Mrs Compagnoni said. “I saw this vision, and am so happy that others were willing to take a chance on that.”

The bottom line is, Sandy Hook is now a little prettier and at least one resident is happier this holiday season.

“Honestly I had a blast,” Mrs Compagnoni said. “It’s so nice now to drive through there and see all the red and green ribbons.”