By Harry Spencer

At Tom Glass’s celebration of life last Saturday, I had the great fortune to share time with two friends who are renewing their Kiwanis membership: George Moraitis and Diana (Didi) Heisinger. We are thrilled and looking forward to playing and working with you more often!

George Moraitis (center) with Tom Glass and Paul Schultz at the 2023 Kiwanis family picnic at President Amy’s home.

Didi Heisinger (left) and Denise Murillo at the 2018 Weston Kiwanis Dog Jamboree.

By Dan Gilbert

Members of our Reservoir Run Flyer Distribution Team were on the road again on Labor Day.  On a beautiful Monday morning Dave Burns, Ed Hutchins, Tom Johnson, Steve Thomas, and Dan Gilbert distributed flyers at the Faxon Law Road Race (New Haven).  According to World’s Marathons, “The half marathon and the 5K field over 6,000 runners.”

Hutch, Steve and Tom covered cars parked at the 1 Temple Street Garage.  Dan and Dave covered cars parked along the streets in the area of the New Haven Green, as well as, handing flyers to runners who had completed the 5K.  One of the cars covered was from Channel 3 Eyewitness News. 

Two of the team’s members had also volunteered at the Lachat Town Farm Pancake Breakfast the previous Sunday.  Tom Johnson and Steve Thomas along with Kiwanians Karen Chrisley, Frank Ferrara, Dan Lerner, and David McConnaughey helped flip and serve around 1,000 pancakes to just under 300 customers.  A number of Westonites may still be enjoying summer vacation, but Weston Kiwanis club members never take a break from serving our community.

Above: Dave Burns, Steve Thomas, Ed Hutchins, and Thom Johnson distributing Reservoir Run flyers at the Faxon Law Road Race (New Haven) on Labor Day. Kiwanis photograph by Dan Gilbert.

By Harry Falber

Kiwanians served our community by cheffing at the the Labor Day Pancake Family Breakfast at Lachat Town Farm’s Daniel E. Offutt III Education Center for the second year in a row. This year celebrated the first anniversary of the education center.

Building bonds within the Weston community is an important goal of Weston Kiwanis, and if it takes flipping pancakes to bring us together, that’s where we’ll be. Once again, that’s where we were—serving up well over 200 breakfasts for four sittings out of Brian’s Kitchen.

While prep started early in the week, the main Kiwanis work began before Sunday at 7 a.m., when Dan Lerner, with help from Harry Falber, prepped and cooked over 580 sausage links, not to mention some vegan sausage patties. By 8 a.m., the rest of the Kiwanis crew, Steve and Vicki Thomas, Frank Ferrara, and David McConnaughey, were hands-on in the kitchen serving up what seemed like nearly a thousand pancakes, with Karen Chrisley working from the front to the back of the house, ensuring all the guests were happily fed.

WHS students that Kiwanian Dawn Egan brought to the farm fielded table service and bussed tables, as well as kept up with all the dishwashing throughout the meal service.

Pictured above: Geoffrey Hollander, Dan Lerner, Harry Falber, Tom Johnson, Frank Ferrara, Steve Thomas, David McConnaughey and Taylor Holtz preparing pancakes in the kitchen of the Daniel E. Offutt III Education Center at Lachat Town Farm. Kiwanis photograph by Vicki Thomas.

Nobody bothered to tell Steve Thomas that a barista spells with microfoam in espresso, not pancake with batter on plate. Kiwanis photograph by Vicki Thomas.

Steve Thomas and Frank Ferrara were out on Thursday, August 29, 2024 placing signs promoting the 2024 Weston Kiwanis Reservoir Run half marathon and 5K foot races and kids fun run.

Steve Thomas contributed pictures of signs placed at two locations on Weston Road. One is across from the Weston Shopping Center and the other is near the Merritt Parkway.

Watch this space for a future report by Karen Chrisley.

Above: Membership Committee Co-chair Juan Negroni welcomed members and guests at the Kiwanis tent.

President-designate Tom Watson, Membership Committee Co-chair Juan Negroni, and Secretary Bob Uzenoff attended the 106th annual convention of the Kiwanis New England and Bermuda District in Springfield, Massachusetts on Saturday, August 17, 2024 as the Kiwanis Club of Weston’s delegates.

At the 2023/2024 District Board Retirement Dinner on Friday, the day before our delegation arrived, Patrick Tokarz was inducted as our Division 17 lieutenant governor, and club was named recipient of the Governor’s Exemplary Club Secretary award for consistent completion of monthly club reports. President Amy nominated our club for this award. Congratulations to Assistant Secretary Dan Gilbert for this well-deserved recognition. Dan prepares our club’s monthly reports and submits them to Kiwanis International.

Weston was selected awarded the District Publication Award. The award honors Kiwanis clubs in the New England & Bermuda District that produce high-quality communication materials. These materials help share Kiwanis news and grow our outreach. President Amy nominated our club, submitting supporting documentation demonstrating our worthiness.

On Saturday, a Memorial Breakfast paid tribute to Rick Amil, Tom Glass Tom, and other district members who died since the last convention. Juan, and Bob divided up the schedule and the three participated in varied leadership training workshops in the morning. The Kiwanis Foundation of New England (KFNE) and Meet the Candidates Luncheon prepared delegates for the House of Delegates business meeting where the main business was the election of Kristin Holden as 2024/2025 Governor.

District Members filled 100 backpacks for local children and 100 Jared Boxes for children in hospitals all over New England. Saturday concluded with a cocktail hour, 2024/2025 Board installation dinner, and a magic show presented by a member, the District Parliamentarian.

On Sunday, the Key Club Governor and Circle K Governor reported at the Kiwanis Family Breakfast on the amazing work our Service Leadership Programs (SLPs) are doing. The annual meeting concluded at noon with concurrent Kiwanis and Key Club board meetings.

The annual meeting is a valuable experience when members meet, learn, share, and are inspired realizing how together we do so much more for children.

Pictured above: District 20 attendees at the Saturday luncheon were Foster Crawford (Danbury), Paula Conte (Norwalk), Tom Watson (Weston), Kathy Crawford (Danbury) Bob Uzenoff (Weston), Fil Magrino (Danbury), Juan Negroni (Weston), Joe Magrino (Danbury), and Cindy Perham (Fairfield, not pictured because she is taking the picture.

by Carol Baldwin

What a fantastic year at Lachat!

We are so grateful to have a space – the new Offutt Center at Lachat – that we’ve been able to bring the community together for wonderful gardening and nature education for young & old, fabulous live music and theater, cozy Sunday Suppers, and terrific cooking classes in Brian’s Kitchen!

To mark our first year anniversary, we will host our 2nd Annual Pancake Breakfast on Sunday September 1st – sponsored by Brian Gordon’s family – to showcase the kitchen named in memory of their son.

Besides delicious home-made pancakes (Thank you, Weston Kiwanis!), we’ll have hay rides, live music, and some fun surprises!

It has been a magical year at the Farm and it has been such a pleasure to work side-by-side with so many of Lachat’s amazing volunteers that help make it all happen! We want to thank again the Offutt Charitable Trust and the many donors from our community that helped make this terrific new asset to our Town a reality.

Thank you – and see you down at the Farm! Tickets will go on sale for the breakfast this Friday!

Carol Baldwin is president of Friends of Lachat, Inc.
This article is from FOL’s Summer Happenings, Monday August 12, 2024 Newsletter