The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
UConn’s Edsall to guest at next member meeting
August is officially upon us in Middlesex County, and the chamber continues to be on the move.
Before previewing some of the key events and activities of the week, I want to take a look back to last week, which featured some very productive discussions on a number of fronts.
Thursday morning featured another great meeting of the chamber’s Central Business Bureau at our Main Street offices. Mayor Dan Drew and a number of city department directors provided reports on upcoming events, activities and projects.
On Friday, I joined my fellow chamber of commerce executives from around the state for a meeting with Aer Lingus executives at Bradley International Airport.
Planning also continued for the upcoming fall season, which will feature the return of the chamber’s divisions, councils and committees after a brief summer hiatus.
Switching gears to this week, I look forward to a meeting of the Middlesex County Substance Abuse Action Council’s Executive Committee at the chamber office Tuesday morning. MCSAAC, a council of the Business Industry Foundation of Middlesex County, works to reduce the incidence of alcohol and other drug abuse in our region.
This meeting will focus on the chamber’s recently launched recovery employment program, designed to support individuals working through recovery. A job coach is provided to help guide them through the process of job training and eventual employment.
Charles Mitchell, a new chamber employee and REP job coach, is off to a great start with this important new program. I thank him for his efforts and am thrilled to have him as part of the chamber team. MCSAAC, under the leadership of Board President Tony Salvatore, will continue to focus on these critical substance abuserelated issues affecting our region.
On Wednesday afternoon, I look forward to stopping by the Connecticut Association of Street & Highway Officials’ 48th Annual Golf Tournament and Outing at Tunxis Plantation in Farmington. CASHO is a notforprofit educational association whose mission is to provide education on public works functions throughout the state. I appreciate the invitation from state Rep. Joe Serra, and look forward to seeing many friends and colleagues.
Looking ahead to Aug. 11, the chamber’s Killingworth Division Summer Concert Series will continue with a performance by The Bouchard Brothers. Performances by Hip Joint back in June, and the Meadows Brothers in July, were both terrific.
This fourpart concert series, sponsored by MAWC, is held on the second Sunday of each month from June through September at Parmelee Farm. I again want to thank MAWC, LLC, Parmelee Farm, and the town of Killingworth for its support of this important concert series. We look forward to seeing you at the farm.
Aug. 12 will mark the start of the final full week of the 2019 Middletown Summer Youth Employment Program. In all, 70 Middletown youngsters have been placed into this sixweek program, which provides valuable work experience in a wide variety of professional fields.
During these six important weeks, our young people not only learn the fundamentals of employment, such as getting to work on time and being ready to contribute, but also the pride that comes with putting in a solid work week and receiving a paycheck earned through hard and honest work.
Every time I mention this program, I make sure to thank the over 30 businesses and organizations in Middletown serving as host work sites this summer. It is critical that we have host work sites from a wide variety of industry sectors that are willing to step up and provide the work and supervision necessary to truly make this an effective workforce development initiative.
I would also like to take a moment to once again thank our 2019 team of funding partners for their great contributions to this program. Without them, this program would simply not be possible: Workforce Alliance, the City of Middletown, Peach Pit Foundation, Jarvis Products Corporation, MiddleOak, Stone Investment Properties, Guilmartin, DiPiro & Sokolowski, Pegasus Manufacturing, Rocky Kempenaar, Larry McHugh and Middlesex United Way.
I will provide a comprehensive wrapup of this year’s program later in August.
Looking ahead to later in the month, the two major chamber events of August are a Business After Work networking reception Aug. 20 at Water’s Edge Resort and Spa in Westbrook, and a Member Breakfast Meeting with UConn Head Football Coach Randy Edsall Aug. 22.
The Water’s Edge team puts out a delicious spread of food and drink at this annual event, which always includes a little extra Shoreline flavor, and the views of the beach and water are remarkable.
The Member Breakfast Meeting, sponsored by People’s United Bank, will feature an update from the coach on the upcoming season of Husky football, which begins Aug. 29 against Wagner College. Coach Edsall recently returned to the position as head coach at UConn, and we are thrilled that he is back leading the Huskies.
I’m afraid I must close this week’s chamber column on a sad note after the recent passing of Charles T. “Charlie” McInerney at the age of 91. Charlie was a fixture in the city of Middletown and was widely respected in this community. He was a member of the Westfield Volunteer Fire Department since 14, and served as Westfield fire chief for a number of years.
He established McInerney’s Flower Shop with his wife Margaret in 1969, and supported not only the chamber, but a number of community organizations along the way.
Charlie’s daughter, Judy Cecchini, now owns and operates McInerney’s Flower Shop. She is a terrific person and we appreciate her strong and longtime support of our chamber.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Judy, her husband Charlie Cecchini and her daughter Erin Cecchini, and all of Charlie McInerney’s vast network and friends at this difficult time. He was a great man, and he will be missed by many.