NEIGHBORHOODS
What’s going on in your part of Greenwich
Downtown
As part of the celebration of its 125th anniversary, the Greenwich Police Department will step off in a parade down Greenwich Avenue this month.
The GPD is organizing the parade in cooperation with the Greenwich Police Emerald Society and The Combined Organizations of Police. It has been in the works for seven months.
The parade will begin at 1 p.m. Sept. 19 from Town Hall and move down Greenwich Avenue, following a similar route to the town’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade. It will be held rain or shine.
According to police Capt. James Bonney, a total of 10 bagpipe bands from Connecticut and New York will take part, along with police motorcycles, honor guards and a team of horses. Police helicopters will fly overhead and lead the parade from Town Hall, up Field Point Road, onto West Putnam and then down Greenwich Avenue.
In addition to Greenwich residents, the parade will feature other police departments from Connecticut and New York.
The parade will also celebrate essential workers and their service throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. There will be a salute to police officers and other first responders as well as to doctors, nurses and hospital workers, representatives from Neighbor to Neighbor as well as others who worked during the pandemic, including supermarket employees.
“During the early days of the pandemic, I was amazed when I saw grocery store employees coming to work every day despite all the potential threats to their health,” Bonney said. “And I saw the GEMS ambulance staff risking their lives and picking up infected patients and transporting them to the hospital in the back of ambulances.
“There you had doctors, nurses and other staff at Greenwich Hospital experiencing heart-wrenching scenes while caring for our residents and trying to save their lives. This parade is a celebration of those people and all of the essential workers.”
And since the event also marks the anniversary of the GPD, Bonney said, “What better way to celebrate, than to have the citizens of Greenwich enjoy a huge parade with bagpipes, cool cars and music?”
After the parade, the pipe bands will perform at Havemeyer Field, capping off the event with a large band performance. Other Celticthemed performances will be part of the show.
Greenwich
There are several vacancies on the Representative Town Meeting, and eligible residents are invited to step forward and serve on the body.
There is one opening each in District 1, which covers the south center of the town; District 7, which is the town’s north center; District 8, which covers Cos Cob; and District 10, which is the Northwest section of town.
To qualify for a seat, you must be a resident of the districts and a registered voter. But because the RTM is a nonpartisan body, the political party affiliation does not matter.
If more than one person steps forward for a seat, the district’s membership in its RTM caucus will hold an election to decide between the candidates.
Each person will finish the rest of the RTM’s term, which runs through December. They can also choose to run for reelection in the November municipal election.
The RTM next meets on Sept. 21 in its first meeting since June. The districts will all hold meeting before Sept. 21 in an attempt to fill the vacancies.
For more information, including how to contact the district chairs, visit www. greenwichct.gov/721/ Representative-TownMeeting-RTM.
Old Greenwich
An international coastal cleanup and environmental fair will be held at Greenwich Point from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 18.
Attendees will collect nonbiodegradable trash in the entire beach area. The amount gathered will be tallied and reported to Save the Sound and the Ocean Conservancy, which is working with organizations worldwide to analyze pollution in the Earth’s waters.
Greenwich Green & Clean, Skip the Straw Greenwich and other local groups are organizing the event.
“This is a very important thing for people to get involved in,” said Mary Hull, Greenwich Green & Clean’s executive director. “This is vital for our town and for our environment. We’ve been doing this for many years, and we always get such a good turnout of volunteers.”
To register for the event, visit www.greenwichgreenand clean.org. Walk-ins will be welcome. Beach cards are not required; tell the gate you are participating in the cleanup.
A check-in table will be set up at the parking lot across from the first concession stand.
Volunteers are encouraged to bring gloves and buckets, but some will be available. The event will follow all town and state health and safety protocols to protect against COVID-19.
The volunteers will receive community service certificates and daffodil bulbs to plant at home.
Downtown
The community is invited to visit the Boys & Girls Club of Greenwich and get a closer look at its programs.
The club, located at 4 Horseneck Lane, will host an open house from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Sept. 17. Attendees can meet the staff, tour the facility and learn more about its afterschool, evening, enrichment and school vacation programs.
This event is free and open to all. A light dinner and refreshments will be served. The club will have a supervisor on hand to watch young children.
Don Palmer, the club’s vice president of programs and youth development, said that previous open houses have been successful in signing up new members.
“We want people to come in and meet our staff and see the facility and see our learning center and our pool,” Palmer said. “We want them to learn about all our programming and see for themselves that this is the kind of place they can bring their kids.”
Programs at the Boys & Girls Club of Greenwich serve children ages 6 to 18.
To make a reservation to attend the event, visit www. bgcg.org/what-we-do/parentzone.html.