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Delivery

While delivering food at Project Northeast’s food pantry, members of Boy Scout Troop 21 and Knights of Columbus Cargill Council 64 show off some of the food they collected at the two groups’ March 14 combined food drive held in Putnam for the local, nonprofit social service agency for the needy.  They collected 340 pounds of food and $140 in cash. Photo: John D. Ryan

 

PUTNAM — “For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat  Those familiar words from the Gospel of Matthew sum up the results of the recent food drive in Putnam, a food drive that filled the nearly empty shelves at Project Northeast2, which runs one of the region’s non-profit, nondenominational, private food pantries for the needy.

“We’re able to help people now,” said Project Northeast’s Director, Fr. Richard L. Archambault of Putnam.  “Our shelves are full.  We’re very grateful.” 

Archambault said the March 14 effort raised $140 in cash and collected 340 pounds of nonperishable food.

A ministry of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Norwich Project Northeast’s office and pantry is in two small basement rooms at St. Mary Church of the Visitation. They provide non-perishable food and financial help for utilities, but only when they have food and money available from donations.

Members of Putnam’s Boy Scout Troop 215 and Knights of Columbus Cargill Council 646 spent March 14, at the Cargill Council Hall on Providence Street collecting food, personal care items and money for Project Northeast.  Meanwhile, another work crew collected food donated to the pantry by generous customers just down the street at Putnam Supermarket

The two organizations came together on March 14 in the person of Peter A. Lombardo of Putnam, who is both Troop 21’s Scoutmaster and one of Council 64’s Past Grand Knights.

Founded in 1995, Troop 21 is chartered to St. Mary Church of the Visitation in Putnam. Founded in 1892, Cargill Council 64 is made up of over 200 local Catholic men and their families. The council covers Putnam, Pomfret, Woodstock and parts of surrounding communities, in the areas served by St. Mary Church and Most Holy Trinity Church in Pomfret.

This food drive is just the most recent event in Archambault’s long life of serving the poor.

“I was part of a family of nine kids, growing up in North Grosvenordale,” he said.  “We had great parents; they taught us to share and to care for people who were less fortunate than we were.”

That call to help the less fortunate eventually led the 85-year-old lifelong Roman Catholic priest to start Project Northeast in 1978. “I was a pastor of a parish in Mystic at the time,” he said. “They were great people there, but I had always been inspired to work for the poor.”

A three-month sabbatical, followed by discussions with then-Bishop of Norwich Daniel P. Reilly, led Archambault to start the non-profit, nondenominational ministry in August of that year. Today, he said Project Northeast serves about 150 local families a month, providing temporary help with food, utilities and other basic necessities for any needy people throughout the towns from Plainfield to the Massachusetts border. Although it’s part of the Norwich Diocese, it’s supported almost entirely by donations.

“I’m happy as a priest,” Archambault said. “I meet real people every day and do what God put me here to do.”

However, he said running the social service agency has many challenges, particularly during the continuing recession. He said the harsh winter had left the pantry nearly empty, while they’ve had to cut back, for the moment anyway, on the some of the financial help they can give.

 “The more we get in donations, the more we can do for people,” Archambault said.

“In this economy we know there’s a real need right here,” said Cargill Council Grand Knight Matthew R. Frederick a Brooklyn resident.  “Just from talking to people around here anybody can tell that money is tight and local people are really suffering. We’re Knights; we can’t just sit back and wait for somebody else to do something.  We saw a need and tried to fill it.”

Although the drive is over, Project Northeast still needs help.  Checks may be mailed to: Project Northeast, 81 Church St., Putnam, CT 06260.  Donations of non-perishable food and money may also be left at: Joseph’s Jewelers, 153 School St., Putnam; and 158 Main St., in Danielson.

 

 

 

O'Putnam

Runners who took part in the Courthouse's annual O'Putnam Road Race enjoyed a post-race jig. More photos on page 6. Linda Lemmon photo.

 

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Presentation

Eversource Energy’s Community Relations Specialist, Shawn Johnston,  presents  a check to the nonprofit Chamberlin Mill, Inc., represented by board members Evelyn Cole Smith, Ayla Kardestuncer, and Jean McClellan in the office of Allan Walker, Woodstock First Selectman.  Left to right: Smith, McClellan, Kardestuncer, Johnston, and Walker. Courtesy photo.

 

Sawmill

gets grant

WOODSTOCK — Shawn Johnston, community relations specialist, representing Eversource Energy, recently awarded a grant to the nonprofit Chamberlin Mill, Inc., toward its effort to revitalize the historic sawmill as an educational and cultural resource for the region.  

According to Jean McClellan, president of Chamberlin Mill, Inc., the $1,000 grant will support phase two of the restoration — work on wood structural elements. The group has been building a pool of local funding, to be matched by grant funding. He said Phase One, foundation repair has already received full grant funding.

 “We’re proud to support the restoration of Chamberlin Mill, a key piece of Connecticut’s history,” said Bill Herdegen, President of Eversource’s Connecticut Electric Operations. “Revitalizing one of New England’s only historic sawmills ensures this important agricultural resource will be around for years to come as an educational tool for our communities and customers.”

 “We are very grateful to Eversource for this grant, the community support it represents, and the work it will enable us to do,” said McClellan. “To date, we have been lucky in the support we have received from individual donors and from funding agencies.  The grant from Eversource represents a significant addition to our current effort to engage area corporations and businesses in our work.  With support of this kind, we are confident we will succeed in restoring this rare sawmill as a resource for future generations to enjoy.”

Progress at the Mill continues at a good pace.  Just this past week, volunteers from Mystic Seaport, who have been reviving the Mill’s 1928 Studebaker engine, heard it turn over for the first time in almost half a century.  With continued good luck, the engine, which drove the Mill’s 19th century circular saw after The Great Flood of 1936 until the lumber operation ceased in the late 1960s, will return to Woodstock later this year. 

Chamberlin Mill, Inc. is poised this spring to engage contractors for necessary fieldstone foundation repair and hopes to begin work as early in the season as this winter’s melting snow will allow.  Funding for this first phase of the restoration has been provided by a grant from the Summer Hill Foundation. 

Community donations will be critical to the next, most involved phase of the restoration, stabilization of sills, posts and other structural timbers.  Community funds not only help in and of themselves, but are critical in matching other grants, and in demonstrating local support to funding agencies.  As Chamberlin Mill, Inc. engages the business community in its effort to revitalize this rare Woodstock mill, it is grateful to its earliest corporate supporters who, beyond Eversource, include the Byrnes Insurance Agency, Citizens National Bank, and CME Associates, and to well more than 100 individual donors and many volunteers.

Further information about the Mill is available at www.chamberlinmill.org.

Anyone interested in volunteering with the Chamberlin Mill effort, in making a tax-deductible donation, or who has replacement parts for a Lane # 1 saw is invited to contact Chamberlin Mill, Inc., P.O. Box 2, Woodstock, CT This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Woodstock First Selectman Allan Walker, said, “I was thrilled to be part of bringing Eversource and Chamberlin Mill, Inc. together to move this project forward,” First Selectman Walker stated.  The fine work being done to restore Chamberlin Mill is not only an important community endeavor, but a meaningful enhancement to the Last Green Valley.  Being able to support historic and cultural resources in the local area is one of the most enjoyable parts of my job as First Selectman.  Work that creates educational and recreational activities for all citizens to enjoy strengthens our community.”

Chamberlin Mill, an active sawmill site since the 18th century, produced lumber for local use through the 1960s.  The surviving structure dates from the latter part of the 19th century, when a Lane #1 circular saw and water turbine replaced an earlier up and down saw and undershot wheel.  Chamberlin Mill, Inc. intends to operate the mill on a demonstration basis, using its latest power source, the Studebaker engine.  Chamberlin is the last historic mill structure still standing in Woodstock, and one of only a handful of historic sawmills in New England. Its longevity makes it an important teaching tool about a vital agriculturally related industry and the value of technology.