View From the Green

By Colleen Gundlach

Jim Harrington, Mary Fanette, Libby Bordon, Jim Hotchkiss, Barbara Tracey, Ann DeCerbo, Sid Toomey and Sandy Evans are just a few of the townspeople who had received the Norfolk Community Service Award, better known as the Volunteer of the Year Award in years past.  In the late 90s and first decade of the 2000s, Norfolk residents placed ballots in boxes located around town, to nominate the person who would receive this award each year. Then, at a dinner hosted by the Republican Town Committee, the chosen volunteer would be celebrated with local and state dignitaries in attendance.  Other past winners of this award were Bob Peterson, Ted Hinman, Paul Hosch, Turi Rostad, Leo Colwell, Jr., Lou Barbagallo, Carl Gundlach and Marc Tonan. 

It has been more than ten years since there was a formal process for recognizing the manner in which volunteers keep Norfolk running and safe. To close this gap, the editors of Norfolk Now have decided to celebrate the newspaper’s 20^th anniversary by publishing a special feature each month for the rest of this year, honoring the people who give up their time, talents and sometimes a lot of sleep to be there when they are needed.  Each month we plan to feature three volunteers, from all aspects of Norfolk life, and give a little bit of insight into who they are and why they volunteer.

The first in this series, titled Norfolk Salutes, can be found on page ___ of this issue. Thalyia Byrne, Michael Fox and Richard Byrne are spotlighted this month.  All three are members of the Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department, but each is a multi-faceted volunteer, who can be seen wearing more than one volunteer hat around town.

Volunteers are found everywhere in Norfolk.  Take a stroll around town and you will find them in action at Botelle School, at both churches, at the ambulance barn, the fire house and the library.  Then stop off at Town Hall and see how many people donate their time to endless hours of meetings of boards and commissions.  Look around at the beauty of our village proper and thank the all-volunteer Norfolk Community Association.  Ask the Weekend in Norfolk committee how many people stepped up to make this past weekend so special – all volunteers.  Who did all the hard work of planning and implementing affordable housing in town?  It was all volunteers. 

Back in 2013, when Norfolk Now was celebrating its 10-year anniversary, the paper hosted a town-wide discussion at Infinity Hall, titled “Norfolk 2023,” to visualize what the town would look like in 2023.  One of the points that came out of that meeting was that volunteers would continue to be as important as, if not more important, in 2023 than they were in 2013.  That prediction certainly did come true.

There are so many areas where people work quietly behind the scenes to make our town so special. The editors of Norfolk Now invite you to send us the names of volunteers who should be honored this year in Norfolk Salutes, at editor@nornow.org.  So, while the newspaper is celebrating 20 years we can, in a small way, also celebrate the people of Norfolk who are the true backbone of our community.