‘A tremendous honor’
Bea and Peter Crumbine honored for community service at Columbus Day flag-raising
GREENWICH — When a hearty band of supporters gathered in the rain for a flag-raising Monday morning at Town Hall, they were celebrating more than just Columbus Day.
They were also honoring local residents Peter and Bea Crumbine for their contributions to the Greenwich community.
The tradition of the flag-raising and salute goes back more than 30 years in town, but the St. Lawrence Society decided to mix it up for 2020, society President Tod Laudonia said. Usually, the honoree is an Italian-American citizen.
While neither shares that heritage, Peter and Bea Crumbine have made enormous contributions to the town through politics and culture, Laudonia said.
“Who could be more ready and a better group than the Crumbines?” Laudonia said, calling the couple “shining examples of the love of community.”
Peter Crumbine is a former fiveterm member of the Board of Selectmen as well as a past member of the Board of Estimate and Taxation and the Representative Town Meeting. Bea Crumbine, the town’s ambassador at large, spent years creating and cultivating sister-city relationships between Greenwich and the cities of Rose and Morra De Sanctis in Italy.
While Peter Crumbine was unable to attend due to the weather, Bea Crumbine accepted on behalf of both of them. She and Laudonia each sported a face mask adorned with the colors of the Italian flag.
“This is a tremendous honor,” she said.
The couple previously lived in Italy for a year-and-a-half, and Bea Crumbine speaks fluent Italian, which she demonstrated at the ceremony, and is also a trained opera singer who once performed at the Vatican before Pope Benedict. Crumbine also traveled to Rose in 2016 to receive an honorary citizenship.
As part of establishing the sister-city relationships, Crumbine worked closely with the Greenwich Historical Society on an exhibit about the town’s Italian roots, including the immigration of stone masons who came to Greenwich and built the famous stone walls, the great estates in town and the bridges on the Merritt Parkway.
Many of Greenwich’s Italian families are from Rose, and the origins of the St. Lawrence Society are from there as well. Establishing the sister-city relationships was a passion project for Crumbine and during brief remarks, she expressed her “happy feelings” about the town’s connection to Italy.
“We were changed enormously as a town by the influx of Italians in the 1880s,” Crumbine said. “These Italian immigrants came with literally nothing and did what they could to make a life here and better our community. It’s really quite astonishing.”
While doing her research for the Historical Society, Crumbine said she spoke to a woman from Rose who had a different view on the importance of the sistercity relationship. The men in Rose were focused on Greenwich’s wealth and prominence as reasons to link up, she said.
“This woman said that wasn’t why we should do it,” Crumbine said. “She said it should be because our ancestors went to the United States and went to Greenwich with cardboard suitcases filled with old clothes and immense hope. I think that says it all.”
Crumbine said she would make sure that pictures of Monday’s event were sent to Calabria, where Rose is located.
At the ceremony, First Selectman Fred Camillo read a proclamation declaring Monday to be Bea and Peter Crumbine Day and called the Crumbines “two of Greenwich’s finest citizens and two of Greenwich’s nicest.”
“The Italian-American community in Greenwich has no better friend than Bea and Peter Crumbine,” Camillo said.
Oct. 12 is a federal and state holiday, but honoring Christopher Columbus has become controversial. The local ceremony focused entirely on the contributions of Italian Americans in town, and Laudonia urged a full look at history.
“Let’s stop judging history by today’s norms,” he said. “Let’s study history so we can move forward and change what we now perceive as inequities. We don’t have to go back far to see examples of bad behavior we have changed as a society.”
One a lighter note, Laudonia noted the rain and called it “definitely one of the worst mornings we ever had” for the ceremony. But he also pointed out that one year they did the flagraising in the snow.
The flag-raising was followed by a brief breakfast gathering back at the St. Lawrence Club in Cos Cob.
The usual full dinner was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, but a smaller event was held and Laudonia pledged they would either do an event for the Crumbines soon or hold a “double-header” next year.
“There will be a next year, believe it or not,” Laudonia said.