Italian American Civic Order elects officers

MIDDLETOWN » The Italian American Civic Order recently held its new election of officers.

Lou DiMauro was elected president. Sal Ciccarello was elected vice president; and Fred Terrasi will continue as secretary, as will Jack Mayors as treasurer.

The house committee is headed by Frank Augeri and the new Sargent at Arms is Joe Formica.

The Board of Directors elected members are: Lou DiMauro, Sal Ciccarello, Frank Augeri, Fred Terrasi, Joe Formica, Bob Russo, John Turro, Butch Sylvestro, Lou Aresco, Jack Mayors and Joe Marino.

Foundation awards grant

OLD SAYBROOK »The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, Inc. (the Kate) is proud to announce a grant award from The Westbrook Foundation. The grant award enables to Kate to continue to develop unique and diverse programming in its Kate’s Camp for Kids, a joint effort with the Community Music School.

The Camp is a unique comprehensive summer arts day program that began in summer 2013. It is geared towards families in our shoreline region who seek to nurture their children’s creative potential through the arts. This state-licensed camp brings together professional teaching artists from Community Music School and throughout the region to the Kate. The funding from The Westbrook Foundation goes to support teaching artists’ fees, supplies, operating expenses, securing additional personnel, marketing and implementation of the Camp, scholarships for qualifying applicants ensuring a broad cross-section of youth are served, and upkeep of the space where the Camps function and the technology used to put on the camps including costs of ongoing repairs and upgrades.

“This funding will allow more children in our community to benefit from this incredible arts education partnership, thanks to the generosity of the Westbrook Foundation” said Abigail Nickell, the Executive Director of CMS.

Brett Elliott, the Executive Director of the Kate, said, “We thank our community partners that join us to make our children’s educational programming possible. We are grateful to the Westbrook Foundation for their second year of funding of Kate’s Camp for Kids.”

CFO of the Year chosen

MIDDLEFIELD » Four Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) in the Greater Hartford region were recently recognized tfor their commitment to excellence at the 2017 ‘CFO of the Year’ awards luncheon at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford. Among the recipients was Charles Daniels, Wepco Plastics, Inc., Middlefield, in the Private Company category.

“Strong financial leadership is the backbone of every successful organization,” Joe Zwiebel, president and publisher, Hartford Business Journal, said. “We congratulate this year’s winners on their achievements and wish them continued success.”

Other 2017 ‘CFO of the Year’ honorees are:

Public Company: Michael Angerthal, Virtus; Private Company (greater than 100 employees): Paul Falvey, Phy-sicianOne Urgent Care; NonProfit (full-time, paid): Michael Shea, Connecticut Airport Authority.

The CFO of the Year Awards were presented by the Hartford Business Journal and sponsored by UCONN School of Business (education leadership sponsor); AON, Cox Business, Grant Thornton, and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care (event sponsors).

Event partners include Connecticut Convention Center, J. Fiereck Photography, Merritt Graphics, Rider Productions, The Perfect Promotion, and Co-Communications, Marketing and Public Relations.

Bankers to Lend a Hand

MIDDLETOWN » This month, residents in the 48 towns served by Liberty Bank can expect to see bank employees turning out in force to lend a hand to local nonprofits.

The second annual Liberty Lends a Hand campaign encourages the bank’s nearly 700 employees to volunteer for community service projects or to collect items requested by nonprofits. It also invites community organizations to contact the bank if they are seeking volunteers for a specific project. Last year, bank employees volunteered for projects such as: landscaping for Habitat for Humanity; painting the Boys and Girls Club of Waterbury; cooking a barbecue for veterans in New Haven; and a makeover of the High Hopes Therapeutic Riding stables for a gala fundraiser in Old Lyme. In 2016, bank branches and departments also collected thousands of items to benefit local nonprofits; such things as toiletries and clothing for local shelters, nonperishable food items for food pantries, books for children, and diapers for diaper banks.

Liberty Bank offers every employee four full paid days off for community service each year. During 2016, about onehalf of Liberty’s employees volunteered a total of nearly 14,000 hours of their time to help 291 nonprofit organizations.

Organizations include soup kitchens, food pantries, Habitat for Humanity chapters, local schools, and Boys & Girls Clubs across Liberty’s footprint.