Scheithes to receive Citizenship Award

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Fred and Jeanne Scheithe, of Naugatuck, will be honored with the 2016 Franklin Johnson Sr. Citizenship Award Dec. 8 during the annual Mayor’s Breakfast at Jesse Camille’s Restaurant. –CONTRIBUTED
Fred and Jeanne Scheithe, of Naugatuck, will be honored with the 2016 Franklin Johnson Sr. Citizenship Award Dec. 8 during the annual Mayor’s Breakfast at Jesse Camille’s Restaurant. –CONTRIBUTED

NAUGATUCK — The borough is honoring a couple who has given back to the youth of Naugatuck for more than three decades.

Lifelong borough residents Fred and Jeanne Scheithe are the recipients of the 2016 Franklin Johnson Sr. Citizenship Award. They will be honored Dec. 8 during the annual Mayor’s Breakfast at Jesse Camille’s Restaurant.

Mayoral Aide Ed Carter said the Scheithes were chosen because of their commitment to the youth of Naugatuck.

Fred Scheithe taught in Naugatuck for 39 years, with more than 30 of those years at Hillside School when it was the borough’s middle school.

In addition, Fred Scheithe coached the Naugatuck High School volleyball team for 24 years, 10 years as an assistant coach and 14 years as the head coach. He also coached the girls’ summer basketball league for a decade and has coached the middle school girls basketball team for 33 years.

“The first kids that I taught are turning 55 and 56 years old, which is crazy. The same with coaching. The kids are in their 30s and 40s now,” Fred Scheithe said.

Jeanne Scheithe taught in the borough for 33 years, with 25 of those years at Hillside School.

“If you check social media you can see the students who, over the years, have kept in contact with them, the reunions and weddings they get invited to,” Carter said. “So you know they are very special people that have done great things for the community.”

Jeanne Scheithe recalled one year when the summer basketball team made it to the final. The couple was vacationing in Maine at the time of the final.

“So we actually drove back from Maine to go to the finals so he could coach the kids in the finals and then drove back to Maine the same night,” Jeanne Scheithe recalled.

Fred Scheithe said he and Jeanne have watched the children they taught and coached grow up, and still remain in contact with them.

“We’ve established so many great relationships with the kids and their parents. A lot of the kids I coached and taught we now socialize with,” Fred Scheithe said.

The award is named for Franklin Johnson, Sr., a former guidance counselor at Naugatuck High School.

“The award was created to honor somebody who has gone out and done something for the borough of Naugatuck. Not just in the past year, but over the years,” Carter said. “It recognizes that person, or couple’s, commitment to the borough and doing better things here in the borough for the betterment of people.”

Fred Scheithe said he was in high school when Johnson worked there and is honored to receive an award named after him.

“I would say it’s a very big honor because Mr. Johnson was always about the kids, an advocate for them, always involved,” Fred Scheithe said. “To be associated with him and his name, especially us both being educators, is a very big honor for us.”

For more information or tickets to the breakfast, contact Carter at 203-720-7208.