RW celebrates volunteers, elects new leadership

On Friday, April 4, Revitalizing Waterbury (RW) hosted its annual membership meeting at the home of John and Linda Wulff. Every year, RW brings together community members, business owners, board members and committee volunteers to celebrate the mission of the organization, recent accomplishments, and to plan for the year ahead. The annual meeting is also a time to recognize volunteer service for 2013 and give parting thanks to long-serving volunteers.

This year, two of RW’s most valuable and active board members stepped down after fulfilling their terms of office: MK Monley, who served on the RW Board of Directors for eight years and as RW board president for three years, was instrumental in post-Irene clean-up and ReBuild Waterbury efforts. Chris Nordle, who served on the board for three years and as RW treasurer for two years, has dedicated tremendous time and effort to improving the organization’s fiscal health. They were each presented with an RW “Super Hero” cape with words of praise and recognition for all their contributions to RW and the Waterbury community.

“Simply stated, the energy and vision that MK and Chris brought to RW will be missed tremendously,” said RW executive director Fauna Hurley. “Each of us in this organization has come to count on them for leadership, guidance and support. I hope they understand that they may be asked to put their RW capes on every now and again.”

RW announced the following new members of its Board of Directors: Chelsea Bardot-Lewis, Dr. Richard Burgoyne, Rob Hofmann, Jennifer Lajoie and Paul Reed. RW’s board officers for 2014-2015 are Tamatha Thomas-Haase, president; John Wulff, vice president; Jennifer Lajoie, treasurer; and Will Senning, secretary.

RW is an action-oriented nonprofit organization. Since 1991, its mission has been to preserve and enhance the economic, historic and social vitality of downtown Waterbury. Working through four volunteer-led committees, RW strives to create and maintain a vibrant downtown that serves as a social and economic hub for the community, and a warm and welcoming home away from home for visitors. To learn more about RW or to become a member, visit revitalizingwaterbury.org.

Fauna Hurley is executive director of Revitalizing Waterbury.