The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
PERSON OF THE YEAR
Ron Krom nurtures the community, helps those less fortunate
MIDDLETOWN >> You may have seen him riding his bike around town — something he’s done his whole life. He logs on average 4,000 miles a year.
Ron Krom, executive director of St. Vincent de Paul, says he finds solace in his rides — something that’s mirrored in the work he has done to nurture the community for his entire career.
“That’s what keeps me sane. I love to get out on my bike. If I didn’t have it, I’d go nuts,” Krom laughs.
It’s his immersion in the community — and the selfless work
“I wouldn’t be able to do anything without the support of the community.” — Ron Krom, executive director of St. Vincent de Paul
he does to help the homeless and less fortunate that made The Middletown Press choose him as our Person of the Year for 2016. He received many nominations from our readers.
One of the distinguishing features of this designation is the one chosen is selected because they have made a mark on the community that goes beyond the individual.
So it’s not surprising that Krom wants to redirect the spotlight to shine on the people who make his life fulfilling — those he and his staff help every day through St. Vincent de Paul.
For nearly 10 years, Krom has led the nonprofit organization at 617 Main St., which offers meals, a food pantry, housing and shelter referrals, access to energy assistance, a warming center during the colder months and a host of other services.
The St. Vincent de Paul building is housed in an unmistakable yellow and purple structure with a colorful mural of adults and children enjoying a community meal on its northfacing side.
“The work that we do — the work that I do — would be impossible without the support of the community at large,” Krom says. He points to a six-foot-high shelf in one of the offices that’s stacked with bins of hygiene products: soaps, shampoos, toothpaste and conditioners. Across the way is another full of knitted and crocheted scarves, hats, gloves and mittens.
“That’s just what came in today,” Krom says of the hygiene items, a day before the Christmas party for those who visit the soup kitchen. His office is full of 120 boxes of chocolates nestled in larger boxes for easy transport downstairs: enough to make a child’s eyes grow as big as saucers.
“That’s a ton of gifts that people give us so we can turn around and give it to others. It’s really those people who make our work possible,” says Krom, who has lived in the North End for nearly 19 years, with his wife. “I can maybe get some credit for making sure that it gets into the right hands, but I wouldn’t be able to do anything without the support of the community.”
It’s precisely that humility that prompted readers to nominate Krom for the Press’ annual honor.
“He spoke at our church meeting last month and we were all amazed at the good he does for our community,” Rosemarie Vecchitto wrote in her nomination.
“He is totally committed to helping those he calls ‘guests,’” wrote Connie Gillie in her selection of Krom. “He has a great deal of compassion and respect for the people he serves.”
Kathy Burns wrote that Krom always goes above and beyond every day.
“He is hard-working, dedicated, caring, knowledgable, patient, sincere and compassionate — and the list goes on,” Burns said. “He does so much behind the scenes that never gets noticed, and not because he has to but because he wants to.”
He never asks or looks for any recognition either, Burns said in her nomination.
“I like the people that we serve,” Krom explains. “I do things that no one has any clue that I’m doing because I just like it. If I didn’t have the warming center and the people who go there and my connection with them, that would take something away from what feeds me.
“It helps to make the rest of the agency and administrative and the rest of the work — it makes it more meaningful when I have the connection directly with the people we’re serving and I like that,” Krom said.
Prior to coming to St. Vincent de Paul, Krom, who holds a master’s degree in public health from UConn and a master of arts in religion from Yale Divinity School, was associate director of supportive housing at the Immaculate Conception Shelter & Housing Corp. in Hartford.
Krom’s religious education is one of the foundations of his career.
“It’s the basis by which I do what I do,” he says. “My whole life, I’ve been connected in church structures — usually with social justice bent to it.”
Krom says the mission of the Amazing Grace Food Pantry on Stack Street brings together people who want to give and those who are in need.
“We are always looking for ways to share food better and make it available to the soup kitchen and pantry,” he says. “We use our soup kitchen as a way to link people to resources so we’re constantly looking to make connections if someone we meet them through the soup kitchen setting and if they want to go to detox program or get into treatment or receive mental health services, we can help to make some of that happen.”
Upstairs in the St. Vincent de Paul administrative area, Krom says it’s admittedly cramped.
“We struggle,” he says. “We’ve outgrown this building with things like supportive housing and our community assistance program.”
He hopes some day to be able to have more room for the soup kitchen and offices.
“We could dream ... we’d like to double the size of this building at some point,” he says. “We don’t want to go far because we’re serving the people that are living right around us.”
St. Vincent de Paul also serves as a mini post office of sorts for 200 people, Krom says, pointing out a corner of a room that has neatly filed, alphabetically arranged bills and correspondence.
“If anyone sends a letter to anyone in Middletown and puts ‘homeless’ on it, it comes to us,” he explains.
Just one of the myriad of helpful services Krom’s staff provides to clients is that of “rep payee.”
“We are the representative payee for a lot of people, which enables us to receive people’s Social Security checks or Social Security Disability Insurance and the money comes directly to us and we help to pay their rent and their utilities.
“Those who have a history of getting evicted because of nonpayment of rent or because of their substance abuse or mental illness and are just living in poverty — not knowing how to make ends meet. So they need help and support there. We help to make that happen,” Krom says.
Years ago, it used to be that you had to “earn” your way into housing, he explains.
“People had to get clean and sober and get on their medications and they had to get their act together and get into counseling and do all these things to almost be ready for housing. We don’t think that way anymore,” Krom says. “What that’s done is pretty much eliminated ‘chronic homeless’ — a specific term used by (the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) for people who’ve been literally homeless for year or more or homeless for four episodes or more over the past three years.”
That’s not to say homelessness has been eradicated in Middletown.
“We’ve been getting closer and closer to where there’s enough resources to match those people to housing,” Krom says. “We had probably in the vicinity of 70 to 100 on our chronic homelessness list in the community seven or eight years ago. There really is no one that fits that definition anymore.”
Looking to the future, Krom hopes to retire soon and move to Peru with his wife. But for now, he says he’s got work to do.
“Even if we were to just continue to serve the people that we serve without thinking of growth or making these changes,” Krom said, “we have an impact in this community because we do have the ability to care for people. Our tagline is ‘meeting needs and offering hope’ — and we meet a lot of needs.”
The Middletown Press started to profile a Person of the Year in 2011. Our sister publication, the New Haven Register, has featured a Person of the Year since 2004.
Last year’s Middletown Press Person of the Year was Willard McRae. McRae, who died in February, was known as a champion of children and minorities, a community beacon and a humble philanthropist. He devoted his life to connecting people to the services and care they needed the most.
Our 2014 Person of the Year was Woodrow Wilson Middle School teacher John Geary.
Our 2013 Person of the Year was Ann McLaughlin, founder of the Yellow Ribbon welcome home campaign for soldiers in East Hampton.
Our 2012 Person of the Year was Marco Gaylord, director of fine arts and district operations for the Middletown Public Schools.
Our 2011 Person of the Year was Izzi Greenberg, then-executive director of the North End Action Team and a strong advocate for the North End of Middletown.