Celebrate Southington! Award Selection Committee Co-Chairs Named

(February 3, 2008) – Susan (Sue) Smayda, Executive Director of Southington Library and the Barnes Museum, and Patricia Walden, Executive Vice President, Central Connecticut Senior Health Services in Southington, have agreed to co-chair the selection committee for this year’s Community Foundation of Greater New Britain Celebrate Southington! award, part of the Foundation’s four-town Celebrate Our Communities! community service awards program in Berlin, New Britain, Plainville and Southington.

Smayda has lived in Southington since 1985. She is a founding member of the Southington Chamber Singers and a performer with the group, as well as a member of Southington Rotary and the Board of Directors of Southington/Cheshire YMCA. A librarian for more than 30 years, she was the recipient of the Connecticut Library Association’s Special Achievement Award and was named Wallingford Business Woman of the Year.

Walden oversees the senior care communities organized under the Central Connecticut Health Alliance, which include Southington Care Center, Jerome Home and Arbor Rose in New Britain, The Orchards at Southington, and Mulberry Gardens of Southington. In addition, her professional contributions have included serving on former HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson’s Advisory Committee on Regulatory Reform, and serving as an adjunct professor at Quinnipiac University in the health services administration department and at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Hartford teaching health care management and gerontology courses.  She is currently on the Board of Directors for the Connecticut Association of Not-for-Profit Health Care Facilities and the Southington/Cheshire YMCA. She is also a member and past president of the Southington Rotary.

Smayda and Walden will lead a group of business and community leaders in reviewing this year’s nominations for the outstanding grassroots volunteer in Southington. The Celebrate Southington! award recipient will earn the right to designate a $2,500 grant award from the Community Foundation of Greater New Britain to a Southington charity or community service organization of their choice. The Community Foundation has earmarked a total of $10,000 in grant awards for the program in its four communities.
The Southington Citizen is media sponsor of the Celebrate Southington! award. On-line nomination forms are available by visiting The Southington Citizen website at www.thesouthingtoncitizen.com, or the Community Foundation of Greater New Britain’s website at www.cfgnb.org. Nomination deadline is March 2. For more information call (860) 229-6018. The recipient will be announced this spring.

About the Community Foundation of Greater New Britain
Established in 1941, the Community Foundation of Greater New Britain connects donors who care with causes that matter in Berlin, New Britain, Plainville and Southington. It does this by raising resources and developing partnerships that make a measurable improvement in the quality of life in each of these communities.

Media Contact
Susan Lewis (860) 243-1447 (office), (860) 798-8909 (cell),
slewis@aomc.com