‘Harvest' at farmers market pavilion for those in need
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM — Harvest season is starting, but for some in need the “harvest” is the Danielson Veterans Coffeehouse’s Food Share.
This Thursday, and every first Thursday of every month, the coffeehouse Food Share opens at 9:30 a.m. at the farmers’ market pavilion off Kennedy Drive (cars start lining up on Kennedy Drive much earlier).
Bruce Hay, longtime Food Share organizer, said anyone is welcome to the drive-through event.
This week the food share has frozen chicken. There are also frozen vegetarian turkey rolls that are large enough to feed a family, he said.
He expected calls from various organizations on Tuesday (too late for press time) on what other foods would be available, in addition foods from Midwest of Manchester and the Connecticut Food Share and others.
Last month, he said, the organization received 8,000 pounds of food from CT Food Share and 10,000 pounds from Midwest.
He said usually produce that can’t be around much longer is part of the delivery. Last month a pallet of strawberries and a pallet of blackberries were on the delivery truck. “We get a lot of produce this time of year,” he said.
Hay never knows precisely what is coming until the delivery trucks arrive at the pavilion. After the food is delivered, Hay organizes the volunteers a la “assembly line” to fill banana boxes donated by local grocery stores and bags.
They generally give out between 250 and 300 bags.
Hay has already received one pallet of food for Thursday. While he doesn’t know what will become available for this week’s Food Share, he said as of right now Food Share has some “regulars,” available: chips, popcorn, canned food, iced tea and sports drinks. Windham Pepsi in Dayville is a monthly donator.
Lately, he said, the Food Share has served between 255 and 280 vehicles. If there’s leftover food, it goes to other organizations such as the Putnam Elks which has its Food Share on Saturday. Hay estimated that some 315 families, total are helped.
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Fair Gazing
There were sooooo many cute bunnies to see. Expanded photo array Wed. night on our FB page. More photos on page 4. Linda Lemmon photo.
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It’s not magic
What the PTO did on its 'summer vacation'
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM — The Putnam Elementary School PTO did NOT take the summer off.
And all their hard work paid off — in the nick of time — as they “welcomed” Inchy’s Book Vending Machine Aug. 26.
“The program is designed to spark a love of reading in every student at PES,” said PTO Vice President Nicole Paradise.
Students can receive tokens for their birthdays, behaving well, plus. They can then use those tokens to pick a book from Inchy and grow their love of reading.
Paradise said PTO members “Saw the idea in PTO Facebook group and thought it would be an amazing thing to have at our school since they are always doing reading-based initiatives.”
The group started fund-raising in June with a celebrity bartending event (including teachers) and a sponsorship campaign. Sponsors included: Centreville Bank, Rational Acoustics and Hometown Bank, Baker’s Dozen, Cargill Chevrolet, Dr. Simpson of Northeast Dental, Mayor Seney, the Archambault family, Bear Hands Brewery, Dave Vitale of Henry’s Diner, Putnam Business Association, the Goyette family, the Reynolds family and the Morrison family, Gerardi Hilbe Group, Linda and Mike Bogdanski and others.
Paradise said “We thank them for investing in our students’ literacy and future.”
The goal was $8,000 and they’ve raised almost $7,000 so far.
They are still looking for donations. If you’d like to help, email the PTO at:
The PTO officers also include: Heidi Fischkelta, president; Brianna Walsh, secretary; Caitlin Hughes, the treasurer; and Jess Gingras, event coordinator.
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Inchy Arrives
Inchy Book Vending Machine was welcomed last week to the Putnam Elementary School. Courtesy photo.
Aspinock Memories
1938 marked a new era for the Putnam PD
By Bill Pearsall,
Putnam Municipal Historian
As I was looking through the 1938 Putnam Patriot Newspaper for an interesting topic for an historic article, an article written on September 3rd caught my eye: “Common Council Empowers Police Committee to Purchase car to Increase Efficiency of Department.”
Up to this point in time, the Putnam Police Department was using only foot patrols for their officers. It is important to remember that this was during the Great Depression. Despite the current economic conditions, the Board of Aldermen agreed to allocate a total of $800 to purchase a car to be used exclusively for police activity. They agreed that motorizing the Police Department would contribute to modernizing the Department. More people were using personal automobiles and the Aldermen thought that it had become essential for the department to keep up with the times.
Although foot patrol would still be used, a whole new era was beginning. And it all began with $800. The Putnam Police Department has grown considerably over the years and now has a fleet of police cars. If they only cost $800 each today, we would rejoice.
Aspinock Memories graces the pages of the Putnam Town Crier to keep Putnam’s history alive.
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