NewsCommunity Community snapshots By mycitizensnews - October 8, 2016 0 52 Courtney Ligi, of Prospect, has been named director of the Naugatuck Chamber of Commerce, a division of the Waterbury Regional Chamber. Ligi, who is also the Waterbury chamber’s special events director, started working with the Waterbury Regional Chamber in 2005 as an administrative assistant. In 2008, she was promoted to the special events director, and in 2012 she was named director of the chamber’s Young Professionals of Waterbury Region. Additionally, Ligi is director of the chamber’s Leadership Greater Waterbury program and program director of the Business Women’s Forum. As director, Ligi will be responsible for working with the chamber team to coordinate programs and work with the Naugatuck Economic Development Corporation. –CONTRIBUTED Boy Scout Troop 102 from Naugatuck bicycled close to 90 miles in five days during a trip to Cope Cod, Mass., in August. The trip included visits to the Nauset Model Railroad Club, the JFK Museum, the Hyannis Duckmobile Tour, the Chatham Lighthouse and Coast Guard Center, the Chatham Shark Conservancy and the Werner Schmidt Observatory. For more information, call 203-723-7345. –CONTRIBUTED Students and teachers at Western Elementary School in Naugatuck wear orange to raise awareness of child hunger during the Western School Goes Orange program Oct. 4. Students collected food to donate to the Naugatuck Ecumenical Food Bank as part of the program. –CONTRIBUTED The Naugatuck Senior center held its 12th annual Naugatuck Senior Day Sept. 15. Over 300 people attended the event, which featured 50 social service and health information booths for seniors. –CONTRIBUTED St. Francis-St. Hedwig School seventh-grader Ashley Galvao, left, receives a medal from Naugatuck Mayor N. Warren ‘Pete’ Hess for being the highest performing reader in her grade Sept. 23 during an event to kick off the school’s annual reading program at the school in Naugatuck. This year’s program, called Ready Set Read, has an Olympic theme and was kicked off with an Olympic-style opening ceremony. –LUKE MARSHALL St. Francis-St. Hedwig School fourth-graders Alexandra Heim, left, and Kathlyn Freitas, both 9, perform cartwheels Sept. 23 during an event to kick off the school’s annual reading program at the school in Naugatuck. This year’s program, called Ready Set Read, has an Olympic theme and was kicked off with an Olympic-style opening ceremony. –LUKE MARSHALL Diane Teixeira, of Naugatuck, was recently named to the Board of Directors of Acts 4 Ministry, Inc., a non-denominational, non-profit charitable organization based in Waterbury. Teixeira, an Ion Bank branch manager in two branches in Waterbury, currently volunteers as the publicity director for the Naugatuck Youth Soccer Board, tournament director for the Naugatuck Invitational Soccer Tournament, committee member for the Naugatuck Chamber of Commerce Duck Day & Race, and co-chair of the Waterbury Regional Chamber’s Lakewood Wolcott Street Association. –CONTRIBUTED Longtime former Naugatuck High School boys soccer coach Art Nunes, center, was honored Sept. 24 during the Naugatuck Education Foundation’s annual golf tournament. Nunes was honored for his dedication to the community, to the hundreds of players he coached and to the sport of soccer. State representatives David Labriola, R-Oxford, and Rosa Rebimbas, R-Naugatuck, presented Nunes with a state proclamation. The tournament was a fundraiser for NEF, a nonprofit organization that works to improve local public schools and also gives grants to teachers every year to fund unique educational programs that are not funded in the annual budget. For more information, visit www.naugatuckeducationfoundation.org.–CONTRIBUTED Long River Middle School sixth-graders stand around a peace sign they helped make out of pinwheels Sept. 22 outside of the school in Prospect. The project was part of Pinwheels for Peace, a national program created to celebrate International Day of Peace on Sept. 21. Each of the pinwheels was created by sixth- and seventh-grade students as part of their geography and social studies classes. –LUKE MARSHALL Beacon Falls resident Aidan Shea, of Naugatuck’s Troop 138, was awarded his Eagle Scout rank on Sept. 25. For his Eagle Scout project, Shea offered residents of Beacon Falls new or replacement house numbers to help first responders more easily find the correct residence when responding to an emergency. –CONTRIBUTED Boy Scout Jeffrey Varesio, of Troop 258 in Prospect, worked on his Eagle Scout project Sept. 17 at Saint Vincent Ferrer Church in Naugatuck. He landscaped an area of the grounds, creating a cross shrubbery with crushed rock. His fellow Boy Scouts from Troop 258, friends, and family assisted him with his project. Pictured, Adam Telesca, Jacob Marks, Kyle Bolduc, Matthew Hankey, Jeffrey Varesio, Brandon Peach and Zach Cochran. Not pictured, Nathan Bouffard, Casey Redd, Brian Kieffer and Gabriel Johnson. –CONTRIBUTED Lauren Reilly, a 2016 Naugatuck High School graduate, recently received The Jean O’Brien Memorial Scholarship from the Waterbury Teachers Federal Credit Union. The four-year scholarship is granted to a student with a declared major in education and plans for a career in teaching. Reilly attends Southern Connecticut State University. Pictured, from left, scholarship winner John Swanson, WCTFCU Board member Linda Caesar, scholarship winner Jake Rinaldi, Reilly, Chairman of the Board of Directors John Cronan, scholarship winner Kathleen Stango, board member John Fontaine and board member Gary Huckins. –CONTRIBUTED The Ion Bank Foundation recently awarded a $5,000 grant to the Neighborhood Housing Services of Waterbury to aid community building and engagement efforts. Pictured, from left, Charles J. Boulier III, president and CEO of Ion Bank and Ion Bank Foundation; Erika Cooper, of Neighborhood Housing Services of Waterbury, Kevin Taylor, executive director of Neighborhood Housing Services of Waterbury, and Nancy Fay, of Ion Bank and secretary of the Board of Directors of the Neighborhood Housing Services of Waterbury. –CONTRIBUTED The Ion Bank Foundation recently awarded a $10,000 grant to the Cheshire Food Pantry to help fund the construction of a new facility. Pictured, from left, John DeLeo, of Ion Investments, David Drescher, president and CEO of Ion Insurance, John Palmeri, treasurer of the Cheshire Food Pantry, Patty Hartmann, executive director of the Cheshire Food Pantry, Paul Bowman, president of the Cheshire Food Pantry, and Kevin King, of Ion Bank. –CONTRIBUTED