Organizing The Spirit Of

Volunteerism

To The Editor:

I never intended to become a politician, I’m still not sure I am. I always tried to remember what my parents told me to do, give back to the community. I’ve also tried to pass that on, and to instill in my daughters, Sarah and Maggie, that you can make a difference. What I am is a volunteer. I started out in this game by volunteering to save the PTA some money by getting a better price on playground equipment at Sandy Hook School, and then put together a group of volunteer parents and teachers to install it. Along the way, I asked questions, such as why isn’t the town or the Board of Ed paying to replace this old splinter-ridden playground? I learned it was due to budget cuts and got involved in the budget process to see what I could learn.

From there, I became PTA Council president and educated parents about the budget process. I later became co-chair of a group called Support Our Schools to unite parents further and get them involved earlier in the budget process. During that time, we streamlined a project and organized a large group of volunteers to paint all of the corridors at the middle school that was due to a cut of that work from the budget.

The Fetzer/Hemingway team, “Team Newtown,” wants to get more out of the spirit of volunteerism that already exists in this town by organizing it, with the assistance of the various department heads, not to replace town workers, but to help them. Volunteers can help by performing tasks that take up some of the workers’ precious time, such as washing vehicles, shoveling snow, painting, landscaping etc, so their time can be more productive performing their skilled labor. In the process, maybe we can eliminate some contracted services or overtime and save the town money. There also are people experienced in planning or finance that might not have enough time to fill an appointed position or run for office but want to help the town in a smaller capacity. This could also help the town save money.

We want to make a difference, we want to help our neighbors, we want to help our town, we want to get Newtown working together. Please join us, join “Team Newtown.” We are kicking off our campaign on Saturday September 12, at our new headquarters at 111 Church Hill Road. We are going to walk some of Newtown’s streets and pick up trash as a team, as a service, as volunteers. Please join us for breakfast, for some fun community service, and for lunch. We will meet at 8:30 am.

If you have any questions go to our website www.teamnewtown.org, or call me at 270-7060, Gary at 426-5688. You can also e-mail us at jhshct@aol.com or gafetzer@aol.com

Joe Hemingway

10 Overlook Knoll, Sandy Hook                             September 9, 2009