We celebrated the 51st anniversary of Green Up Day in Weston on Saturday, April 26, 2025. The Kiwanis Club of Weston played an early and continuing role in Weston Green Up Day observances, and Kiwanis is now the lead organization in Weston.
Saturday afternoon, Tom Failla delivered eight lawn bags full at the transfer station: one collected by Dan and Luke Lerner from Weston Road, two by Girl Scout Daisies at town hall, and five by the Weston Cub Scout pack at Bisceglie-Scribner Park. Tom Watson took care of his bags from Georgetown Road. Lisa Brodlie’s neighbors took care of Birch Hill and Alwyn. This is before checking Greenfield.
Immediate Past-president Amy Jenner, although not in Weston this weekend, extended Kiwanis participation in the spirit of Green Up Day to Wickford, Rhode Island, her current domicile. Amy and colleagues from Historic Wickford, a “USA Today” best historic small town, collected 2,000 pounds on a one-mile section of the Post Road.
Photographs contributed by Dan Lerner, Tom Failla, and Amy Jenner. View the Green Up Day 2025 album here.
Earlier, Tom Failla set up Eversource representative(s) outside our breakfast meeting venue at Norfield Congregational Church parish hall around 8:30 a.m. to distribute trees and shrubs to participants in the Green Up Day litter collection. The utility has provided a variety of trees and shrubs, including white and pink dogwood, sweet bay magnolia, Okemo and other cherries, viburnums, witch hazel, and spice bush. Lawn bags were available for the green-up clean-up after the meeting.
Weston Girl Scouts arrived around 9 a.m.
At breakfast, we honored Millie Best. Millie brought Green Up Day to Weston, and with Weston Kiwanis members, State Representative John Stripp, and State Senator Judi Freedman, worked to make the last Saturday in April a statewide event after the passage of Public Act 95-67 in 1995.
The act requires the Governor of the state of Connecticut to proclaim the last Saturday in April “Green Up Day,” to encourage people to clean up their communities, plant trees and flowers, and enhance the physical beauty of the state’s communities and countryside.
Weston’s first and many subsequent Green Up Days were led (until her death) by the late Millie Best and supported by her associate Mila Grieb. Millie was inspired by volunteer efforts to clean up trash along Vermont’s roads.
Weston Kiwanis has worked for decades to promote and organize Green Up Day, collaborating with Millie and Mila, as well as scores of volunteers from schools, neighborhood groups, the Scouts, the Weston Garden Club, and many other organizations.
Since 2005, the Kiwanis Club of Weston has presented the annual Millie Best Environmental Award, “Honoring Her Establishment and Continuance of Green Up Day,” to volunteers who have made outstanding contributions to the environment. Their names and years of service are added to the award plaques in Weston Town Hall. The 2025 awardee will be recognized at a future meeting.
Green Up Day efforts have helped maintain Weston’s pristine natural beauty for the enjoyment of its residents, visitors, and future generations.
Last Updated: April 30, 2025 by Robert Uzenoff
Green Up Day 2025
We celebrated the 51st anniversary of Green Up Day in Weston on Saturday, April 26, 2025. The Kiwanis Club of Weston played an early and continuing role in Weston Green Up Day observances, and Kiwanis is now the lead organization in Weston.
Saturday afternoon, Tom Failla delivered eight lawn bags full at the transfer station: one collected by Dan and Luke Lerner from Weston Road, two by Girl Scout Daisies at town hall, and five by the Weston Cub Scout pack at Bisceglie-Scribner Park. Tom Watson took care of his bags from Georgetown Road. Lisa Brodlie’s neighbors took care of Birch Hill and Alwyn. This is before checking Greenfield.
Immediate Past-president Amy Jenner, although not in Weston this weekend, extended Kiwanis participation in the spirit of Green Up Day to Wickford, Rhode Island, her current domicile. Amy and colleagues from Historic Wickford, a “USA Today” best historic small town, collected 2,000 pounds on a one-mile section of the Post Road.
Photographs contributed by Dan Lerner, Tom Failla, and Amy Jenner. View the Green Up Day 2025 album here.
Earlier, Tom Failla set up Eversource representative(s) outside our breakfast meeting venue at Norfield Congregational Church parish hall around 8:30 a.m. to distribute trees and shrubs to participants in the Green Up Day litter collection. The utility has provided a variety of trees and shrubs, including white and pink dogwood, sweet bay magnolia, Okemo and other cherries, viburnums, witch hazel, and spice bush. Lawn bags were available for the green-up clean-up after the meeting.
Weston Girl Scouts arrived around 9 a.m.
At breakfast, we honored Millie Best. Millie brought Green Up Day to Weston, and with Weston Kiwanis members, State Representative John Stripp, and State Senator Judi Freedman, worked to make the last Saturday in April a statewide event after the passage of Public Act 95-67 in 1995.
The act requires the Governor of the state of Connecticut to proclaim the last Saturday in April “Green Up Day,” to encourage people to clean up their communities, plant trees and flowers, and enhance the physical beauty of the state’s communities and countryside.
Weston’s first and many subsequent Green Up Days were led (until her death) by the late Millie Best and supported by her associate Mila Grieb. Millie was inspired by volunteer efforts to clean up trash along Vermont’s roads.
Weston Kiwanis has worked for decades to promote and organize Green Up Day, collaborating with Millie and Mila, as well as scores of volunteers from schools, neighborhood groups, the Scouts, the Weston Garden Club, and many other organizations.
Since 2005, the Kiwanis Club of Weston has presented the annual Millie Best Environmental Award, “Honoring Her Establishment and Continuance of Green Up Day,” to volunteers who have made outstanding contributions to the environment. Their names and years of service are added to the award plaques in Weston Town Hall. The 2025 awardee will be recognized at a future meeting.
Green Up Day efforts have helped maintain Weston’s pristine natural beauty for the enjoyment of its residents, visitors, and future generations.
Category: Blog Post
Upcoming events
Valentine's breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Board Meetings with Committee Chairs
Breakfast meeting. Program: Faces of Freedom, Walter Schuppe
Before launching this project, Schuppe had a 30-year career in banking and finance, most recently serving as a Senior Vice President/Managing Director at Pacific Western Bank until his retirement in early 2024. In addition to his work with Faces of Freedom, he serves as the treasurer for SEALKIDS, a charity that supports the children of U.S. Navy SEALs.
Weston Kiwanis meets most Saturdays from September through June at Norfield Congregational Church parish hall. Doors open at 8 a.m. for coffee and conversation, with the breakfast meeting beginning at 8:30 a.m. and ending no later than 10 a.m. After breakfast, we have a speaker or community service activity.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Breakfast meeting with speaker Toni Boucher, entrepreneur, philanthropist, politician
In the private sector, Boucher has been a trailblazing business leader, managing billion-dollar budgets for major corporations and recently retiring as director of a $30 billion asset management company. A serial entrepreneur, she has founded multiple start-ups and held Series 7, 63, and 31 investment licenses.
As a philanthropist and education advocate, Boucher is transforming entrepreneurship programs at the University of Connecticut School of Business and serves on numerous nonprofit boards funding groundbreaking research and initiatives. She is the author of The Husky Effect: How UConn Is Creating the Entrepreneurs of the Future and has been inducted into Marquis Who’s Who.
Boucher holds an MBA from the University of Connecticut and has called Wilton home for forty years, where she raised three children and now enjoys six grandchildren. Her life’s work continues to focus on creating opportunities for others to achieve their own American Dream.
Weston Kiwanis meets most Saturdays from September through June at Norfield Congregational Church parish hall. Doors open at 8 a.m. for coffee and conversation, with the breakfast meeting beginning at 8:30 a.m. and ending no later than 10 a.m. After breakfast, we have a speaker or a community service activity.
Stone Doll
An Immigrant’s Memoir from War-Torn Italy to the American Dream
From a dirt floor in Italy to the halls of American power, this is one woman’s incredible journey.
In 1955, five-year-old Toni Boucher and her family left their primitive stone farmhouse in war-torn Italy and boarded a ship for America with nothing in their pockets and no understanding of the English language. But they had hope.
Stone Doll is the stirring memoir of an immigrant girl who turned away hardships, determined not to let challenges place limits on what she could achieve. She arrived in a country that promised everything but guaranteed nothing, and Toni grew up seeing her illiterate parents battle to create a new life when tragedies seemed destined to rip the family apart. Instead, through heartbreak and obstacles, she found her indomitable spirit—first nurtured by her father and brother, and later elevated through her loving partnership with her husband.
From those meager beginnings, Toni found herself to be a leader who exceled in all she took on: entrepreneur, politician, philanthropist. Boucher has run seventeen political campaigns and won fifteen. She reached the highest levels of Connecticut state government. With her husband, she rode the entrepreneur’s roller coaster—complete with devastating failures and formidable achievements, never losing faith in the power of an idea worth fighting for.
Today, Toni is a benefactor of the University of Connecticut and voice for society’s most vulnerable, She shows that the American Dream isn’t just about where you end up—it’s about lifting others as you climb.
This is her American story.
More info:
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Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
St. Patricks's breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Board Meetings with Committee Chairs
Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Passover breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Board Meetings with Committee Chairs
Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Green Up Day breakfast meeting. Program: Millie Best Environmental Award
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Community Service - Green Up Day
Annual Club Meeting for Elections Breakfast Meeting
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Mother's Day breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Board Meetings with Committee Chairs
Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Memorial Day Weekend Fair
Memorial Day Weekend Fair
Memorial Day Weekend Fair
Memorial Day Weekend Fair
NO MEETING
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Youth Service and Leadership Award and breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Board Meetings with Committee Chairs
High School Awards and Father's Day breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
NO MEETING
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Weston Celebrates America 250 Field Day
NO MEETING
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Board Meetings with Committee Chairs
NO MEETING
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
NO MEETING
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
NO MEETING
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
NO MEETING
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Board Meetings with Committee Chairs
NO MEETING
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
NO MEETING
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
NO MEETING
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Board Meetings with Committee Chairs
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Installation breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Board Meetings with Committee Chairs
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Board Meetings with Committee Chairs
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Board Meetings with Committee Chairs
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Board Meetings with Committee Chairs
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.