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Community Corner

A Thanksgiving Message from First Selectman Michael Tetreau

'I wish our Fairfield community a happy and healthy holiday season and a heartfelt thank you for everything each and every person did during this storm.'

This Thanksgiving, we have much to be grateful for. We also continue to keep our fellow residents whom were badly affected by Storm Sandy in our thoughts and prayers. I wish that all our residents, as well as those affected in other communities, fully recover from this terrible storm. You are not alone and you are not forgotten.

At this time of thanks, I would like to recognize the tremendous number of town and school employees, residents, volunteers, local businesses and organizations, and those residing outside our community for stepping forward to help our town during and following Storm Sandy. While there are so many of you who remain unnamed, our town thanks you for donating food, blankets, baby supplies, clothes, money, cleaning supplies, goods and services, and your time. Your fellow residents will never forget your kindness. 

Despite the devastation left by the worst storm to hit Fairfield in our lifetime, our community became even stronger and closer as we helped one another. One of the most impressive things seen throughout this storm was the outpouring of support that touched every facet of our town. That spirit of giving to others is what makes Fairfield so special.

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I commend the leadership of Fairfield’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) for working around the clock, without much sleep, in order to ensure our citizens’ safety. As I joined this outstanding team for two weeks, I couldn’t be more impressed with their expertise and dedication to our town.  

Every town department played a role in this storm. This town could not have been cleaned up and kept safe without the outstanding work of our town and school employees who set aside their own troubles at home with power outages and tree damage to come into work to serve their town.  Never once did one employee complain, miss a shift or come in late. In fact, many employees came in when they didn’t have to or stayed much later then asked because they did not want to let their community down. These are your public servants at their best. These are the people behind the scenes that go above and beyond and because of their efforts no lives were lost and no major personal injuries were reported. 

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The Town is also deeply grateful to the dedicated resident volunteers who ran the shelter and storm call-in center; our volunteer fire departments; the town’s appointed and elected officials; our federal and state delegation; the governor and lieutenant governor; the State Environmental Conservation Police (EnCon); the Urban Search and Rescue Team; the National Guard; Operation Hope; Carolton Hospital; our two universities; Fairfield’s scouts and police explorers; local churches and synagogues; Salvation Army, Red Cross and CT Food Bank.

A special thank you to the three inspiring women who grew up in Fairfield for spearheading the largest volunteer clean-up effort in the town’s history with over 1,000 volunteers assisting homeowners on over 70 streets in our beach area. While there are so many of you who remain unnamed, we are very grateful to all the individuals, organizations and businesses that helped make a difference on this special day.

While we cannot predict what Mother Nature may have in store for us, we can count on one another to get us through difficult times like these.  Storm Sandy showed us that Fairfield is resilient and as strong as ever.  It is a great testament to who we are as a community when we see such an extraordinary level of kindness, selflessness and dedication on the part of so many. 

This Thanksgiving, let’s not forgot our fellow residents who are still in need.   Let’s be grateful to what is most precious to us -- family and community. I wish our Fairfield community a happy and healthy holiday season and a heartfelt thank you for everything each and every person did during this storm.

 

Sincerely,

Michael C. Tetreau

First Selectman

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