This year Connecticut Water employees once again demonstrated their passion for our communities goes beyond water service by supporting a wide range of causes to make our service communities stronger.
The company’s Charitable Giving Committee, along with countless employee volunteers not formally on the committee, regularly seek out opportunities to be a force for good in our communities, whether through volunteering, reviewing community requests or identifying causes to support. In 2024, Connecticut Water will have distributed nearly $120,000 toward helping our communities with some remaining funds earmarked for donations around the holidays including food pantry and soup kitchen donations, toy and food drives, and support for the Veterans Home.
Catastrophic flooding in the Western Region created some long work days, but the Committee responded with donations help out and employees took time to deliver donations to grateful volunteers at the Oxford Food Bank and Naugatuck Valley Soup Kitchen, which was able to re-open despite flooding.
Several team members met with our first responders in person while delivering donations our Firefighter Support Grant Program recipients and delivered bottle fill stations to serve the students and staff at local schools. Both programs are annual efforts.
A Somers family wanted to create a splash pad at a town recreation facility in memory of their infant daughter Macie, who passed at six days old due to a rare condition, after receiving an outpouring of community support. Justin, a Connecticut Water Project Engineer, suggested supporting the cause by becoming a sponsor. Macie’s Place opened in July, 2022.
Ron, Engineering Project Coordinator and an active member of the Watertown Knights of Columbus serving the Naugatuck valley area, works to aid families of 9/11 victims and raises funds for food banks and scholarships. He recently followed up on a donation made earlier this year to help a 19-year-old Watertown boy with a disability.
“His name is Jordan, and he has been using a push type wheelchair for years and lately has been having trouble getting around with it. With the help from Connecticut Water’s Charitable giving committee, we were able to order him a new motorized wheelchair. He will be back on the road with his new ride in a few weeks. Thank you so much for helping me help him.”
Shorney, a field service rep in Northern, secured a donation for the food pantry to serve his local community by participating in a Health Awareness Walk fundraiser.
Ada, Business Analyst for Service Delivery and Engineering, chairs Connecticut Section of the American Water Works Association’s Philanthropic Committee. She works tirelessly to make fundraising efforts, like their annual golf tournament, a success. She also organized teams to participate in this year’s Walk for Africa to raise money for water well installations. Ada also volunteers for our Water Drop Watchers classroom program and leads CT Trails Day hikes.
Our Water Wagon provides safe hydration at community events courtesy of our Service Delivery Facilities Team, who go over-and-above efforts to keep the wagon clean, maintained, and ready to go. This year it has been deployed once or more each month in support of community, sports, and fund-raising events, including this year’s Dream Ride.