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Honored

The Putnam Rotary Club honored four winners of the prestigious Rotary Paul Harris Award recently. Left to right: Richard Naumann, Donna Coderre, Sue Desrosiers and Susan Esons. Linda Lemmon photo.

 

The Putnam Rotary Club recently honored four residents with Rotary’s highest honor: The Paul Harris Fellow Award.

Rotarian Susan Desrosiers, executive director of the Arc Quinebaug Valley was presented with the Paul Harris Fellow recognizing the work that she has done in supporting children and adults with developmental and other life altering disabilities.  She was also cited for her community volunteer work with the Pomfret Library, the Woman’s Board of Day Kimball Hospital, and co-managing of the DKH gift shop, as well as her various volunteer efforts with the Putnam Rotary Club.

Rotarian Richard Naumann was also awarded a Paul Harris. Born in Germany  he worked with his family and his passion for cooking led him to Switzerland, Norway, New York City and Miami. In 1986 he and a partner transformed the 1816 William Bowen house into the Inn at Woodstock Hill. The inn is now a certified green lodging facility.  His community support includes, but is not limited to:  Irish Night, Grandchildren  with autism, Tastefully New England (helping support the Northeastern CT Chamber of Commerce), Summer-fest supports …United Services Autism Center, TEEG, Woodstock Academy, Northeast Opportunity for Wellness, local churches and many more.  He has a daughter Astrid and three grandchildren.   

Donna Coderre was also awarded a Paul Harris. She was the youngest of four children and was very close to her father who died when she was 6. This had an impact on her life as she left school at 16 to work to help family. She eventually received her GED and has taken courses at QVCC. She has been employed at Day Kimball Hospital for 39 years in the cardiology department, I Critical Care Coordinator and Facilitator for the Chief of Cardiology. She’s very caring, well organized. She has a son Charles who lives with his wife Melissa and their daughter Gabrielle in Dudley.

Susan Esons also received a Paul Harris award. She retired this Spring after serving as the only executive director for Day Kimball Homemakers for nearly 28 years. In that position she had a passion for serving thousands of our friends and neighbors in helping them stay in their homes whenever possible.  She was also much loved and respected by the agency’s employees.