W. WARWICK, R.I. — Centreville Bank is offering three college scholarships to help high school seniors further their education. This year, the bank is awarding $50,000 to students in Rhode Island and eastern Connecticut.
The Future Business Leaders scholarship is for high school recipients that demonstrate an entrepreneurial spirit and aspire to be an impactful business leader. Applicants must submit a business plan to bring their ideas to life. Each year, three recipients will each be awarded a $5,000 Future Business Leaders scholarship.  
The Emerging Community Leader scholarship will recognize students that uplift and support the community through acts of leadership, advocacy, and volunteerism. Students may be nominated by peers, teachers, guidance counselors, mentors or any other individual that is a non-familial relationship. Each year, three recipients will each be awarded a $5,000 Emerging Community Leader scholarship.  
These new scholarships are in addition to the Robert O. Pare scholarship that Centreville Bank has been offering since 2018. This scholarship recognizes students who are dedicated to making a difference through community service. Starting in 2024, three recipients will each be awarded a $5,000 Robert O. Pare scholarship.  
In total, $50,000 will be awarded to promising students that have exemplified behaviors that align with Centreville Bank’s commitment to bettering the communities it serves.  
Applications and nominations for all scholarships are due April 1, 2025, and can be submitted electronically on Centreville Bank’s website.  
Recipients must be: Graduating high school seniors; Graduating from a high school located in Rhode Island, or towns located in Windham County or New London County; accepted to a college, university, or trade school for the Fall 2025 semester.

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Five Mile River Winter
The oak leaf got stuck in the ice that hugged the edges of the Five Mile River in East Putnam. More photos on page 4. Expanded photo array on Wed. night on our FB page. Linda Lemmon photo.

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Hometown Heroes of WWII
Wodarski: Bronze Star for heroic achievement
By Michael Rocchetti
Rev John P Wodarski (1905-2002) was a Priest, Army Chaplain, and WWII veteran. He served the spiritual needs of his fellow front-line soldiers who were often beset with self-doubt, fear, loneliness and despair. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for heroic achievement in action.
His award citation reads in part: “When task Force 20 met stubborn resistance and the fighting was severe, Chaplain Wodarski mingled with the men, encouraging them, and aided in evacuating the wounded. During the action, while under direct small arms fire, Chaplain Wodarski left the security of a ditch and removed a wounded man to safety. His presence and actions contributed greatly to the morale of the men and were an inspiration to all”.
A former curate at Putnam’s St Mary’s Parish and the chaplain of the Cargill Council Knights of Columbus, the Reverend John P Wodarski, entered the service in June of 1944, and served in Germany with the 20th Armored Division until the end of the war in 1945. Captain Wodarski was among the first American soldiers to enter the Dachau concentration camp where they found Nazi troops in the systematic process of murdering helpless prisoners. He was an eyewitness to the horrors that we now refer to as the holocaust. He helped gather evidence to voluntarily serve as an expert witness before the United Nations War Crimes Commission.
Captain Wodarski said that he found a Polish friend still alive at Dachau. This friend had names and dates to prove that 2,400 Roman Catholic priests were seized in Poland by the Germans and sent to Dachau, of which only 764 survived the war. Captain Wodarski also gathered accounts from a Polish medical doctor about the Nazi’s use of poison gases on Polish and Jewish concentration camp prisoners.
After serving in the U.S. Army, Father Wodarski returned to Connecticut. Appointed a Domestic Prelate with the title of Monsignor in 1957, he was named pastor of Holy Cross Church in New Britain in 1961 serving until his retirement in 1992. He received many awards among them the Doctorate Honoris Causa in 1995 from the Catholic University in Lublin, Poland and from the CCSU in 1999. In 1995 the Republic of Poland bestowed upon him the Officers’ Cross of the Order of Merit. 
He was born Sept. 20, 1905, in Salem, Mass., the son of Polish immigrants Stanislau Wodarski (1883-1929) and Anna Kobierska (1876-1982).  He had a brother and two sisters. He died on Oct. 12, 2002, in New Britain and is buried there at the Sacred Heart Cemetery.
Hometown Heroes is a series published in the Putnam Town Crier & Northeast Ledger with this mission: We owe it to our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines to make sure that they are never forgotten, and that the memory of their service and sacrifice will forever live on in the hearts and minds of the grateful people of Putnam.

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