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Sitting in the Putnam Fire Department fire truck is always popular. More photos Wed. night on our FB page: Putnam Town Crier & Northeast Ledger. Linda Lemmon photos.

Victoria Huynh, 7, of Danielson, concentrates on coloring.


By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM — Healthy Kids Day — it’s a longstanding tradition and a tradition full of volunteers.
Amanda Kelly, executive director of the Hale YMCA Youth and Family Center, said: “Healthy Kids Day is a national YMCA event that typically happens in April at YMCAs throughout the country. The focus is on inspiring youth and families with physical activity, outdoor fun and creative ways to learn and grow and to feel like they belong to something greater. Due to the pandemic, our YMCA hasn’t had a full Healthy Kids Day with community partners since April of 2019.”
But Healthy Kids Day was here even before the Hale YMCA opened in 2016, she said. “And was run entirely by volunteers! In fact, this was fifth year running Healthy Kids Day since the Y opened and it ran for three or four years in our area by volunteers prior to that.”
This year’s edition saw 100 children and their families.
Activities/vendors included:
Two inflatables, slide and obstacle course from Henry’s Inflatables, Music by DJ Drew Daley, Archery, Gaga, a fire truck from Putnam Fire Department, Face painting provided by Simone G., an Obstacle Course provided by Northeast Opportunities for Wellness (NOW), Yard Games provided by Jump Zone.
Kelly said the event had many community partners including: Northeast Early Childhood Council, Day Kimball Hospital, TEEG, Drug Free CT, Senior Resources, Boy Scouts, Generations and The Last Green Valley
The highlights were definitely the dancing, the inflatables and archery which will be happening at this fall at the Y and at YMCA Camp Cutler next summer. DJ Drew Daley and Simone face painting and dancing all added to the party, she said.
Kelly said the feedback from children and families was overwhelmingly positive. “The kids said over and over that the YMCA had a great party! One YMCA member had her grandchildren visit from an hour and a half away and she thought it was a great event for children,” she added.

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Circle of Fun
The kiddie rides were a huge attraction at the 50th Circle of Fun at St. Mary's of the Visitation in Putnam last week.  More photos on page 4. Linda Lemmon photos.

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Celebrating
a job well
done,
Mr. Perron
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM — In the firefighter world, where the tie that binds is life and death, the handshakes turned into hugs at the retirement celebration for fire marshal Normand Perron.
More than 130 people came to celebrate Perron at a retirement event Sept. 16. Celebration organizer Deputy Fire Marshal Scott Belleville said police, fire, friends, family, and politicians from all around the northeastern corner came to say “job well done” to Perron. He received well wishes and plaques and a state citation. Belleville said “He earned it after more than 37 years.”
The program for the event noted that he investigated more than 300 structure fires, did more than 5,000 National Fire Incident Reporting System incident reports, countless inspections and more than 60,000 hours worked.
Perron said he was always interested in the cause and origin of fires as a Putnam Fire Department firefighter. He was officially recommended by the mayor and Board of Selectmen in September, 1984, and graduated from the program in December, 1984. He said he served as deputy fire marshal for the first few years and then was named fire marshal in 1987.
While cause and origin of fires is intriguing Perron found that the biggest part of the job “my sole purpose, my primary job” he said was inspecting multi-family dwellings. He said there are 3,000 multifamily units in Putnam. Most challenging are the code compliance and inspections of buildings owned by out-of-town landlords. The law requires making sure smoke detectors are OK. This is monthly. “It’s not unusual that the smoke detectors are not there or don’t have a battery,” he said.
With the code and inspection requirements, Perron asked to add two more part-time fire marshals and Bob Beaudry and Rick Hayes were appointed. They knocked down a good number of inspections and Perron credits that push with knocking down the number of structure fires.
Perron said with pride that the biggest change he has seen in his 37-plus years as fire marshal is the decrease in the number of structure fires. He attributes this to an increase in the number of inspections.
Despite that, Perron called the number of required inspections, especially multi-family inspections, the most frustrating part of the job.
Perron is especially proud of this: “An attorney general (at a recertification program) said “when, not if, you go to court …” Perron, in 38 years, never had to go to court.
The saddest event was the death of two small children in a fire at a multi-family on Prospect Street years ago. He said fire chief Bob Campbell got there first and found the mother on her knees on the lawn, crying “you gotta get my babies.” Campbell ran in to try to get to the children on the third floor. Perron said he got there shortly after Campbell ran in, and kept calling and calling Campbell. Finally Campbell came out, unable to get to the children. That cause of the fire was undetermined, probably electrical. “That was a tragedy.”

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