Hundreds Walk Like MADD in state-wide event

As published in the Southington Citizen, April 27, 2012


Southington officials, MADD, CT and STEPS
supporters turn our in huge numbers,

On a beautiful Saturday morning, April 21, 2012, hundreds of concerned citizens, families and friends of victims of alcohol-related vehicular crashes, and volunteers, supporters and staff members of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) turned out for a first ever annual Walk Like MADD in Southington.Following a cheering pep rally of an opening ceremony at the Town Green, hundreds of walkers followed a police-escorted circuitous three-mile route through town.

The walk this year was dedicated to the memory of Maxine Riedinger, honoring the five-year anniversary of her death.  Maxine was killed by a drunk driver at the age of 63 on February 17, 2007

The STEPS group of Southington was out in strength along with town officials such as Town Councilors  John Robbins and Cheryl Lounsbury,as well as Town Manager, Garry Brumback along with friends and members of the family of Maxine Riedinger including her husband who survived the same head-on collision though he sustained serious bodily injuries and their daughter Corryne Hamilton of Cheshire.

This year’s Southington coordinator and chairman of the walk, Rick Gentile, conducted the ceremony which included family members who expressed some emotional memories of those they have lost. Their presence at the event served as a continued reminder for the need of the work of MADD which raised over $10,000 “and still counting” at this year’s walk, according to Gentile.

Funds raised are entirely used to support the many initiatives of MADD including the campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving which calls for Ignition Interlock Devices for every drunk driver, sobriety checkpoints and saturation patrols and community education.. MADD also provides services to victims of alcohol-related crashes throughout Connecticut at no cost.  More information available and opportunities for donations to MADD are available at www.walklikemadd.org

Knights Honor Rosemary Champagne in Relay for Life Fund Raiser

Starting her professional career as a hairdresser in 1978, Rosemary Champagne, owner of Hair Expo in Southington, could hardly have imagined the unexpected and often tortuous roads her life was to take. Neither would she have believed that, years later, she would author a book telling her story, “My Detour on Life’s Highway”, now in its second and updated edition.

Rosemary is a 28-year survivor of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and a person of courage and determination who for years has been a leader in the perennial fight against cancer in Southington’s Relay for Life.

Champagne has been sustained by a strong faith in God, leading-edge medical science, the hope and support of others, a steadfast positive outlook and a life partner, her husband, Jim, who has been her rock in the ups and downs of life.

Rosemary and Jim Champagne will be honored by the Southington Knights of Columbus at an dinner-dance and evening of entertainment on Friday, May 11 at the Elks Club starting at 6:45 pm. Proceeds will be donated to Relay for Life of Southington in its ongoing fight against cancer. Tickets are available by calling event chairperson, William Shatas, at 203-235-4155.

But there is much more to the Champagne story. During the first eleven years following Rosemary’s diagnosis she endured the distress-ridden and life-saving throes of chemotherapy and radiation.  Later, she was diagnosed with large cell lymphoma, a rapidly growing cancer. She opted in favor of being one of the early Stem Cell transplant patients at Yale New Haven Hospital. Her Stem Cell transplant required her to undergo heavy dose chemotherapy and radiation therapy. As a result, the large cell lymphoma was halted and destroyed. Her low grade lymphoma still acts up on occasion and with her body no longer responding well to chemo, Champagne is now listed for a transplant.

Rosemary has not been the sole beneficiary of the care and treatment she has received. She was proactively involved with Relay For Life from the first event with about 15 tents and hosted around 200 people. Later she took on the responsibility of Relay Chairperson for nine years. Jim Champagne was also involved from the beginning and has remained with this now town-wide annual event in a variety of capacities wherever help was needed. The Southington Relay For Life has raised over one million dollars since 1998. Jim is also in his fifth year of service to the town as Festival Coordinator of the Apple Harvest Festival. Having served her final year as chairperson in 2011, Rosemary remains involved as Chairperson Emeritus and gives her time as a mentor to the many involved in the Southington Relay For Life. Rosemary believes that everything in life has a purpose and meaning within a divine plan. Her own story exemplifies that,not only because of her personal survival, but in its having opened a journey to her that enabled her to meet and help others understand, work through and cope with a dreaded disease with positive courage and purpose. She points out that Relay for Life is not just about the money it raises for important research and to help those who need it, but for the very personal gift it provides in drawing us closer and to other members of the human family who suffer, needing loving hope, help and peace of mind.

Medication Return Programs Protect Water Supply, Public Safety and Our Children

What do you do with your presscription and over-the-counter drugs and vitamins when they've expired or are no longer needed or wanted?  The answers vary depending on customary habits and household rituals. 

Some of the more common, though not safest, means of disposal of such meds include:

• Periodic clean out of the medicine cabinet to remove medicines that have outlived their purpose with disposal in your household trash. 
• Flushing unneeded drugs down the toilet or kitchen sink drain.
• Breaking up or mashing the meds, disposing as above.

Sorry, none of those meet safety standards that protect our water supply, environment and children who might inadvertently or intentionally use such drugs idling away space around the house.

The safest and best way to ensure the public safety is to participate in a Medication Return Program such as the one taking place on Saturday, April 28, 2012, at the Southington Water Department whose facility is located at 605 West Queen Street in Southington, CT.  From 10 AM to 2 PM, this public safety service is free to the public and includes expired or unwanted prescription and over-the-counter medicines, including vitamins and veterinary medications.

Southington Town Council member, John C. Dobbins, R. Ph., stated that last year, six 55-gallon drums of medications and over 26,000 doses of controlled substance were handed over to the the police for proper disposal.

Behind this community program are the coordinated and dedicated efforts of the Southington and Bristol Water Departments, the Southington Police Department, STEPS, Southington Board of Education and Schools, Parents for a Change and the YMCA.  With the help of our citizens, this will be a successful and worthwhile community endeavor.

For a more comprehensive report, read medications-not-cure-for-watershed by Margaret Waage.
Author's note:  There's an ever-growing cast of good citizens working  together for the common good.  The diverse causes they serve with caring sensibility and responsibility connect us in the Quest for Common Ground.  It does take a village!

STEPS To Walk Like MADD Saturday, April 21, 2012

"STEPS", an acronym for Southington's Townwide Efforts to Promote Success, has been a strongly followed, fast-growing movement in its three years of existence. 

STEPS is a community coalition with a mission aimed at growing great kids! We are students, parents, educators, media, clergy, law enforcement representatives, members of the business, professional and health sectors of our town working along with many other community stakeholders.

Parenthetically, I still wonder whether all of the readers of The Quest for Common Ground see the relationship and connections between the diverse stories, reports and commentaries posted here on an invisible cloud somewhere in cyberspace.

Hopefully, most readers see the connections between common ground, the common good and the unity of purpose of communities of people carrying out the respective missions of groups they proactively support and promote throughout the year. 

Today, we turn to the common goals of two separate not-for-profit local seervice organizations in a special undertaking seeking the common good on common ground:  STEPS and MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving).

This Saturday morning, April 21st, the supporters of STEPS and MADD are inviting you to join them at the Town Green in Southington, CT in a joint-effort called "Walk Like MADD". This event, also known as the 'Mother of All Walks', will take place at 8:30 am at the Town Green in Southington, CT and step-off at 9:00 am as STEPS and MADD launch their first-ever joint walk.

The Walk is estimated at almost three miles. A few who cannot go the full distance will surely find that whatever they can do will be most welcome.

Please register now to join Team STEPS at www.walklikemadd.org, or just be at the Town Green this Saturday at 8:30 a.m. Saturday. 

Let's all get out there and be part of it. 

If you have a STEPS T-Shirt, please wear it!

Questions? Contact Rachael Erwin rach1088@yahoo.com.

Historic Trivia: Fact, Legend or Pure Fiction?

Here are a couple of excerpts labeled "historic trivia" that came my way.  I won't try to corroborate it as factual or debunk it as legend or pure fiction.

Just posting it here on The Quest for Common Ground for the sake of humor.

Feel free to judge the material as having any truth to it or not.

The following text appears to be from Pete Thompson of Classic Designs.

• "Did you know that the saying "God willing and the Creek don't rise" was in reference to the Creek Indians and not a body of water? It was written by Benjamin Hawkins in the late 18th century. He was a politician and Indian diplomat. While in the south, Hawkins was requested by the President of the U.S. to return to Washington . In his response, he was said to write, "God willing and the Creek don't rise." Because he capitalized the word "Creek" it is deduced that he was referring to the Creek Indian tribe and not a body of water." 
• In George Washington's days, there were no cameras. One's image was either sculpted or painted. Some paintings of George Washington showed him standing behind a desk with one arm behind his back while others showed both legs and both arms. Prices charged by painters were not based on how many people were to be painted, but by how many limbs were to be painted. Arms and legs are 'limbs,' therefore painting them would cost the buyer more. Hence the expression, “Okay, but it'll cost you an arm and a leg.”  As all artists know, hands and arms are more difficult to paint!

Laughter: Its Nature and Value

Laughter is healthy.  It's good for you.  When you consider it, a sense of humor (the human funny bone), is a  gift of God. 

Humor is therapeutic. Enjoy it as it comes or is needed to pepper the
challenges and humdrum of life with comic relief.  The benefits of laughter could be stretched to include the economic value of providing work for the countless comedians in the world?  Nah.

But, I genuinely believe that that laughter, or even the giggles, can be effective in lifting the spirit.  Humor can be a prescription when you're down in the dumps. Oops.  I wonder if it's addictive!

Depending on the dosage and strength of humor it can bring on a smile, or a few chuckles and when it's really at the top of its game, it can give us a case of the knee-slapping howls.  Warning:  Side effects can range from groaning after hearing a pun to the convulsions of laughter and tears as a result of hilarious situations.

For me, a healthy dose of the upside down comical twists in ordinary life situations usually provides an escape from the ultra-serious moments in life.

Some of the funniest things in life are based on seeing the ridiculous folly of ordinary human behavior. I see that especially in the situations we get into that are on on barely the edge of being believable, but just plausible enough to recognize ourselves in them.

Of course, laughter depends to a large extent on the role players in a situation and how ready the audience is to take its medicine.

I could go on about the variety and intensity of humor and its ability, depending on the audience, to cause anything from a chuckle or two to explosive side-splitting laughter.

Yes, the audience. We seem to get the most out of comedy when in groups, the larger the better. I guess that's true because of those whose funny bone vibrates so easily that they ignite the laughter of others around them.

On that note, how can I resist the opportunity to mention the important role  played by laughter in The Quest for Common Ground.

Now, a piece from Jim Daly Finding Home which got me started on the topic of laughter today.  Daly's illustration uses the kind of unintended humor that raises eyebrows and conjures up ridiculous images based on statements written with less than careful thought. You'll recognize it.

Not for Music Lovers Only

Here’s an idea, out of the blue, maybe? Possibly off your usual range of interests and activities! Still, let's see.

All those thoughts aside, it is a worthwhile idea for a Sunday afternoon family event in several respects: It’s in season, it’s inspiring, it’s musical art that is as impressively powerful as it is inspiring and entertaining and it’s open to the public, free and with no tickets required.

Getting to the point, how about taking the family to a ‘live’ Sunday afternoon concert at 3:00 pm on April 22, 2012. Presented by the Yale Camerata, under the direction of Marguerite L. Brooks, in Woolsey Hall, located at College at Grove, New Haven, CT., there’ll be a live presentation of Handel's historic oratorio, “The Messiah”.

Appropriately performed in the Christmas and Easter seasons, the majestic opus is in three parts, depicting Christ’s Nativity (Part I), the passion, death, resurrection, and ascension (Part II), and the Day of Judgment on earth (Part III).

The coming Yale event is an opportunity for those who may have missed the rich productions of Handel’s Messiah in December 2011 by the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, together with the Cathedral of St. Joseph Schola Cantorum in Hartford, or the performances of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and the Hartford Chorale at the Bushnell Center for Performing Arts in Hartford.

Read more about the details of the April 22nd Messiah concert at Woolsey Hall.

How about a Sunday afternoon treat to some of the world’s finest music!

About Vacations

First, I want to express my thanks for the kind comments, emails and in-person mentions of my Good Friday attempt at free verse. I'm still learning about blogging, and free verse is a new medium for me, so your feedback is both helpful and appreciated.

You may have noticed my extended absence from TQFCG. Grace and I returned recently from an extended respite in the mild climate of Southwest Florida. Our vacation this year was longer than any we’ve previously taken, quite restful and refreshing. It was neither exotic nor exciting, but it enabled us to soak in the peace and quiet away from the humdrum and everyday stresses.

With no roller coaster rides or photos of elephants and penguins to share with you, I'd like to offer, instead, one more experimental expedition in free verse.

Vacations

vacations nurture the body, mind and spirit,
refreshing us with joyful and stress-free
leisure-time, seeing people and places, old and new,
and well-deserved rest and refreshment, too.

vacations offer options galore
whether it’s a tour of the world of fun
for the old and the young
or a cottage on the lake or beach house at the shore.

vacations fulfill the need to think in solitude
or with a very special few, remote from the routine.
vacations can be family time just doing stuff together.
walking, reading, napping or romping in the sun.

ours this winter was like that, and the longest ever,
enjoying an energizing respite in the sun
and the company of those we love
while still remembering briefer escapes of the past.

vacation for us this year was re-vitalizing, too,
awakening our minds to new ideas and possibilities
while taking our smiling hearts to past joys and where we are today. 
vacations. I like the word our Brit friends have for it, holiday.

Easter Sunday: One Solitary Life

The following narrative, adapted from a sermon by Dr. James Allan Francis in 1926, has traveled the world in book, periodical and journalistic form as well as having been narrated countless times. Believing this work remains powerful and unique after 86 years of retelling, we offer it to you today as an appropriate universal message of peace, love, sacrifice, mercy, forgiveness and hope for humanity.

Born in an obscure village, the son of a peasant woman, he grew up inanother village, where he worked in a carpenter's shop until he was thirty. Then for three years he became a wandering preacher.

He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a house. He didn't go to college. He never visited a big city. He never travelled two hundred miles from the place where he was born. He did none of those things one usually associates with greatness.

He had no credentials but himself.He was only thirty-three when the tide of public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. He was turned over to his enemies and went through a mockery of a trial. He was executed by the state. While he was dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing, the only property he had on earth.

When he was dead he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.Twenty centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure of the human race and the leader of mankind's progress.

All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as that One Solitary Life.
Bibliographic Reference: “The Real Jesus and Other Sermons” © 1926 by the Judson Press of Philadelphia (pp 123-124 titled “Arise Sir Knight!”)

A Stunning Church

Take a look at this incredible 17th church in Jawor, Poland.

Play with the pointers to look all the way around the interior of the church – left, right, up down and zoom in for a closer look at the details.

It was one of three Lutheran churches that were built in Roman Catholic Silesia. Only two remain. The churches were built from wood, loam and straw, outside the city walls, and they were not permitted to have steeples or church bells. The magnificent interior of this church more than makes up for its understated exterior.

A 21st Century Reflection on John 19: 25-26

Jesus at the Cross

Good Friday, April 5, 2012

Tortured, mocked, scourged
And now bearing His own Cross,

Jesus sees his mother.

With Mary, are her sister,
Mary, the wife of Clopas,
and Mary Magdalene.
His beloved disciple, John, is with them.

The dreaded appointed hour is at hand.

Jesus pauses.
In this poignant and significant moment,
He speaks to her.

“Mother, you know I have to go now.”
Then, with a glance indicating that he is referring to John,
Jesus says: “Mother,  Here is your son.
He will take care of you, now, Mom."

Turning then to his trusted friend, He says:
"John, take my mother.
Take her home and
Look after her as your own."

Can we even imagine being at that tortured moment,
Facing a horrible death
And yet, having the capacity to love so deeply
As to think of the needs of anyone else!

His words to Mary served to reinforce her knowledge
That in going to the cross, he was living the will of God.

And that he was not finished. No, he was about to be free,
Free, his future secure in his place with the father.

How can we be free . . .
Free to offer such compassion and love
And be free, in the strength of our faith,  

To trust in our own future with the Father?

- E. Richard Fortunato

Visit Bradley Memorial Gift Shop: An Eye-Opening Treat

Originally published in the Southington Citizen

Retirement has not stopped Southington native, Jackie Marenholz, from making a difference in her community. When she retired last June as Director of Religious Education at St. Dominic Church, we published a story in the Citizen about her 33 years in the world of religious education which included five years at St. Aloysius Church, a period as Kindergarten teacher in the early years of St. Dominic School, followed by her peak role at St. Dominic Church as its Director of Religious Ed since the early 1990s.

Always upbeat, warm and easy to talk to and work with, Jackie Marenholz has discovered that retirement can be sweet, as it offers many opportunities to open new doors and travel exciting and challenging new roads. After considering a number of options, she was soon drawn to the idea of doing some volunteer work at Bradley Memorial Hospital. She had her eye on helping the Gift Shop which presented an opportunity to use her naturally creative talents.

It did not take long for the leadership of the Auxiliary of the Hospital of Central Connecticut at Bradley Memorial Hospital to recognize the accomplished organization and planning skills and wealth of professional experience that Jackie Marenholz brought with her. Wisely, and with a good sense of talent, Auxiliary president, Joan Gillette, offered Marenholz the position of Gift Shop Manager which she accepted. Visitors to Bradley Hospital and the medical center are noticing the transition to "boutique look", some say, at the Gift Shop. Come along with us on a descriptive tour of some of the innovative offerings you'll discover there. An intentional trip might be a well-worthwhile venture.

First, there is no single look or focus, but rather an ever-changing array of distinctive gift ideas, quality gifts that tend to be moderately priced, hostess gifts, shower or birthday gifts, special items such as a new line of handbags along with seasonal and holiday items. Marenholz said that doctors and hospital staff shopped at the Bradley Gift Shop for Christmas presents. Innovations include books by local authors, such as "Beyond the Weeping Willow Tree" by Fr. Henry C. Frascadore and "Images of America: Southington" by Liz Campbell Kopec; a line of redneck wine glasses (an interesting line of mason jars on stem ware) and an exclusive line of Kringle Kandles, the only gift shop in Connecticut to carry them. Asked where she gets her ideas for exciting gift items, Marenholz said, "We use many sources and cover gift and fashion shows and we listen to our customers and our 37 volunteers, without whom we could not do what we’re doing! We also draw on all of these sources for our seasonal themes such as the green theme of this month." Marenholz adds that it has been extremely productive to make changes which the passerby will see every Monday.

Joan Gillette also pointed out that there’s a savings to customers in the exemption of sales tax on purchases at the Gift Shop which is a not -for-profit entity. The revenue of this little shop in the lobby of Bradley Hospital, along with the Auxiliary’s Annual Fashion Gala and other fundraisers, has resulted in contributions of more than one million dollars for improvements to the hospital such as a state-of the art mammogram machine, echo-cardiogram equipment, intravenous smart pumps, EKG machines and continuous help in upgrading medical equipment through the past sixty-five years.