Interesting Week

Inez D'Allessio celebrated her 99th birthday with us last year - see more below

This has been an interesting week full of good news tempered with some sad news, and we have many new stories on our website about 2-1-1 usage, John DeGray's acceptance of the Cornerstone Division of Campaign, a new series of videos about our Youth Leaders and the ongoing work of our three interns.

At the same time, I had the opportunity to attend two events this week that couldn't help but make you feel good about the Valley. The first was the move of a business to Shelton and the second was a play by some young children in Ansonia.

On Tuesday, Freedom Disability, hosted a tour of their new location on Forest Parkway along with a luncheon. Freedom Disability is involved with some very important work. They assist people in getting through the process of acquiring Social Security Disability. The company recently moved their headquarters to Shelton and changed their name from SSC Disability to Freedom Disability. They currently have 75 employees in Shelton and have plans to expand to over 200 in the next couple of years.

They moved into a building that was formerly occupied by Hasler, Inc. which moved to Milford about two years ago. Hasler was a great corporate citizen, and we have really missed them since they moved. However, we are thrilled that the building is now occupied by a terrific new business that is doing good work for people in need, and we wish them the best in their new headquarters.

On a side note, I was also thrilled to see the owner of the company, Alan Flaumenhaft. In my earlier life as a teacher and the boys basketball coach at Shelton High School I had run across Alan as a member of the basketball team at Amity - a fierce rival for us at the time. Alan was a very good player and quite a competitor, and it's no surprise to see that he has been successful in business as well.

Thursday night I was invited to attend a cute production of Alice in Wonderland at the Tinney Center in Ansonia. Naomi Wallace does a fantastic job with the summer camp held at the Center, and the children had worked for weeks in putting together their version of the Lewis Carroll classic. This was a very upbeat version that featured all of the main characters, but also included a four year old scene stealer who goes by the "stage name" of Little Ron-Ron. This little ball of fire did an impersonation of Michael Jackson's dancing that had to be seen to be believed - including the glove.

All of the characters were great. I don't think any of them were more than 10 or 11 years old (except for John Reynolds as one of the deck of cards!), but you could see that they were really enjoying themselves and the audience left with smiles on their faces - including me.

This program received grant support from the Community Foundations (Valley and New Haven) Neighborhood Grants program. I have served on the committee since the program started, and it was great to be able to see the value in person. I want to congratulate Naomi and everyone who works so diligently with her at the Tinney Center for all they do with the children at the Center and the Foundations for making their funding available for such a great program.

On a sad note, Inez D'Allessio passed away this week just short of her 100th birthday. Inez was a graduate (valedictorian) of Derby High School Class of 1927. In the last couple of years, our paths crossed several times. the first time came at a Thanksgiving dinner for senior citizens when I happened to be speaking and mentioned another member of the Class of 1927, Myron Horbal, who had attended the Rotary meeting that day. Inez's sister, Estelle, immediately introduced me to Inez, and she was amazingly spry and sharp. At the time she was investing in Microsoft because she knew that they were coming out with the XBox!

Last year Derby was holding a ground breaking for their new Middle School, and someone called me and asked about the school system's history and possible connections for the ground breaking. They invited Myron and Inez to the groundbreaking, and they both made remarks - it was quite moving.


At our campaign kickoff last year at BIC, Inez and Estelle were in attendance. When Dave Grant heard that Inez had just turned 99, he quickly came up with a birthday cake and candles and our audience serenaded Inez with their own rendition of Happy Birthday. It was a very special moment, and I'm glad that Dave was so quick with the improvisation.

As always, there's a little side note. When I was a freshman at Derby High School, I had my first encounter with one of the D'Alessio sisters. Theresa D'Alessio was my Latin teacher. It turns out that she was also a graduate of Derby High School and valedictorian of her class - and Estelle was valedictorian of her Derby High class as well.