001[Music] please stay on for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag please remain standing for the national anthem [Music] [Applause] thank you palms up 5th graders and they were under the direction of our music teacher this is ded Moroz wrap yourself around and get out of that Sun which we are so grateful for this afternoon I'll welcome again everyone I'm dr. Apple the principal here at Pennbrook elementary school it's an incredible honor to be standing here today for the ribbon cutting of the Pembroke playground I could barely envision two years ago with phenomenal efforts tenacity a teamwork was started as a little seed of a dream turned into reality an accessible inclusive playground so that all of our students could play together it's my pleasure this afternoon to host the ribbon-cutting and
002we're honored to have a few speakers we'd like to start with mayor mark fountain give you our thanks for unprecedented partnership in matching our funds exceeding your funds with it out of his advocacy without his manpower and leadership this dream would not have come true mayor Mark's team mr. Tom Hughes mr. Ron and everyone else were instrumental in getting this playground built their communication support and genuine enthusiasm for this project were heartwarming thank you mr. Martin thank you very much dr. Apple we're so proud of the work that's done here I actually went to Pembroke school and I was the first kindergarten class that was on this side but mrs. Conroy where nobody remembers but I did have mr. cherry later for Grade four so this is just a wonderful building with a wonderful history
003in our city so it's my honor and privilege to be here we have a number of dignitaries with us I'm sure you've already knout some of that but I just want to make sure that they're recognized from the Board of Education we have you met and well up Palmeiras with us I know Pat Johnston is here we have Rachel so les key Richardson le Joe Britton have all joined us I see Joe martino who left us to go to region wherever but he's back today so we still talked to him we still love dr. sale of course and now I do want to recognize Tim Nolan who's our highways to pretend that does a ton of work and really has a great vision in terms of these projects and how they all come together I
004also want to recognize our council people are council president joe Calvo is here councilman Farley Santos is with us and Councilwoman Colleen Stanley who had a hand in the paving is with us okay what does she would have had a hand in the painting it you could but anyways um you know of course a real superstar here today is leave the piano [Music] when she had this dream this vision this idea this thought she emailed me early on said can help can help raise some money or help contact people put together a list and so her and rich Tinelli and I met a number of times shaking the threes beating people up embarrassing them yelling at them ringing them and screaming at them and begging and it finally just convincing them that this was a
005worthy donation to make for this community but she really spearheaded this effort and in the end when she came in and about June and I said okay how much you got and I said well what do you need and I said well we'll match whatever you've been able to do that work came from the City Council myself and our Director of Finance so without Lee's drive determination envisioned this thing doesn't happen I just want to thank her publicly so much I think this is there's only one other playground like this in the area late where is it okay so this one in Waterbury there's one in Richfield Brookfield in Danbury so we're one of four within about a 45 mile radius that's pretty amazing I can't lie to you I'm gonna come up here on
006the weekends and bounce around on this floor here if you can feel it it's pretty cool you know it's got a lot of give-and-take and not the greatest thing we'll be able to come up here and watch kids play in this facility that's really what it's all about the end of the day so congratulations the entire team that came together great job and we'll be excited to cut a ribbon a little bit right now I'm going to ask dr. Passarella come for he's got a a few words first of all what do you think about the playground you can't dream what something's going to be you can't achieve it I'm very proud of that if someone said yeah that was part of this wrist dr. Thomas luzhin husband with the pto with the town we
007go around there's 169 municipalities in connecticut and we go stare at hospitals this is what and I didn't graduate from here by the lake but I still think it's a great school mister who's going to be there so Walston took the superintendent's going to speak well he's nude it's a second year he's got the way he did it as well so thank you for having me we'll open the paper so good good evening everyone so my voice doesn't project as well as dr. Tsao so forgive me for going a traditional route I just wanna number one thankfully and dr. Apple for inviting me to speak I appreciate him honoured turbo's to be up here in this afternoon as a former principal I used to have words of like kind of home to inspirational quotes on
008my desk every day cause quite frankly I needed them to maintain my sanity day to day but i but i recalled one that I think meets the occasion this afternoon we we have some incredible people in this community and it's incredible people that make things like today have it it's so let's please let me share this quote with you and I think this is appropriate for the occasion so to make a difference the difference in someone's life you don't have to be brilliant rich beautiful or perfect you just have to care this is a quote by Mandy Hale and and certainly I don't know how much money Lee Viviano and Sharon temple and Richie Ginelli and all the other people have but to this community you certainly smart beautiful and brilliant and we just want
009to thank you for your efforts this is an amazing amazing legacy Lee you've left behind for this member community and the greater Danbury we just want to thank you and thank you I would like to introduce mr. Richard Ginelli mr. Gianelli represents the Board of Education this afternoon and we really could not have realized our fundraising goals without the direct support from the Board of Education mr. Gianelli also deserves extra special recognition as an individual his thoughtfulness and commitment to helping us raise funds his networking his connections his persistence his communication and his genuine support and advocacy for this project were remarkable mr. Gianelli we couldn't have done it without you and on behalf of the Pembroke community we'd like to present you with just a small recognition for all of your hard work for
010the playground to benefit all of the children of Danbury so thank you doctor prefer the convenience I don't have a speech to make and if I did I'd go off script anyway but basically I want you all to take notice is to what you did number one number two so thank you all personally on behalf of the group that put this together it so thank you for for this it was from donations from selling lemonade as well as the the monetary donors as well as those that gave us the entire service provided materials for us and more important not more important to be but equally important gave us advice as to how to do this both Lee and I this is the first time we did this and we really didn't know what the hell
011we were doing the the funds we raised I'm not considerable for what we did but it shows that on me I think one of the strong points here is the community is that this is truly a community project we got together with parents with children with the municipality to put something together as we said we're the fourth in the state to to have it that shows a lot for our community it shows a lot for what we think education is education leads require and we step up that our plate and we take the the onus ourselves and don't point fingers I also want to say thank you to the mayor and the council for bringing the ball over the line for the goal that helped us out tremendously I learned two things from this and
012it's I'm 78 years old so there is you can't teach an old dog new tricks when I learned to be humble Vivian taught me to go out there and beg don't be ashamed I did it so much people already said I already gave and I think at that point I was becoming a nuisance the other thing more importantly I was embarrassed that I never really understood but never gave any thought with my own children or my grandchildren coming to the playground and not understanding the needs of somebody else that to me was an eye-opener so it's taught me in my current life now to look at things through a different lens not through only the lens that I have and when I own or what I physically can do but also for other people and
013that I think was phenomenally important for me to learn and I really expect that and I thank me and this project for bringing that to my attention again applaud the people that are sitting next to you behind you shake their hands you're all part of it thank you very much and also I shouldn't forget the the administrative staff dr. Sal Kevin and dr. Ann Mead Kelly my friend Jill Martino everybody the Board of Ed helped us put this together thank you very much our final person to speak tonight is Viviana [Applause] miss Viviana as you all know was the backbone and the muscle behind this enormous project of her unwavering commitment and fierce dedication to envisioning the playground and raising the funds never ceased miss Viviana was literally single-handedly our playground fundraiser director coordinator and
014organizer she is our champion we the playground the pembroke playground is your legacy and we will be forever grateful to you [Applause] there's a lot of people for me to thanks tonight I'm gonna read a script so just bear with me please thank you to everyone who is here to celebrate the completion of the pembroke playground this project started as a building based project with friends and family of pembroke making donations from far away as Oregon and New Zealand then an amazing thing happened it became a community-wide initiative supported by many back in the fall of 2017 dr. Apple Andrew Lambeau and Rachel Wade had a discussion with the Pembroke school governance committee about getting the playground drainage fixed upon further discussion it was decided the committee would embrace the idea of fundraising for a
015new playground with new drainage in January 2018 dr. Apple Andrew Rachel and the rest of the committee allowed me to join the fundraising effort the first four months were spent searching for grants that could possibly fund this project a website was formed at account was established in a PayPal link both of them together small donations started trickling in slowly in June the students of Scotland school in Richfield made a remarkable donation of thousand dollars we have Scotland students stand please [Music] [Applause] their donation brought more awareness to the project then Richard Genelia current board Abed member join the task force with a renewed energy since then Richard and I had stopped texted emailed called visited and mailed information to nonprofit organizations large corporations local small businesses banks and more friends and family in October almost
016a year ago Christa vino an owner of this Pat City tattoo managed a fundraiser that collected almost ten thousand dollars in one day I was skeptical when he suggested many fundraising events followed at Mac spirits hummus and pita company Papa John's McDonald's chick-fil-a with silicosis and Texas Roadhouse a few local corporations and businesses also made very generous donations such as Praxair Cardus and chuck steak house look the Kiwanis Club and Richfield rotary will made ferry kind donations the VFW Post 149 also gave donations and held a successful bingo fundraiser with students attending Broadview middle school other avenues of support included the golf outing last summer sponsored by rich Bellinger from Satara investors formerly known as foresters financial we made some new friends in Richfield that joined the project they were Cathy Graham and Dan Campbell
017from Fairfield County Bank and Bill Craig over there somewhere and Terry garlic from Craig's jewelers they asked many of our Richfield many of their Richfield clients and friends to support the project as well as created the playground Pro Shores Oh No DPS printing here in Danbury donated lawn signs for us to spread the word all around town about the project two of our largest donors were Goldstone Family Foundation and the Danbury Public Schools Board of Education without their support the playground would not have been completed this year other schools within the district helped fundraise among their own student body such as King Street intermediate Park Avenue Stagg Lee ruff and the Western Academy at Danbury high school the athletic department yes department at Tamborine high school also supported our efforts with their resources through the
018guidance of the ship's Alvis training dr. Thomas principal of broad view and former principal of Pembroke gave Richard and I fundraising guidance dr. Mead the director of Danbury Family Learning Center guided me through grant writing process and spent many hours writing a challenging grant for this project there are many Pembroke teachers tutors staff and parents including the PTO who have helped participate at the fundraising events and even froze during football game donation collections at the high school they also helped pass out fliers spread the word on social media and found golf foursomes for the golf outing the list is too long to mention every staff member who volunteered it would be easier to mention the few staff members that didn't I should mention the staff members who did volunteer the most at the most events
019that were held honorable mentions go to Alison Safford Shannon Turner [Applause] Rachel Wade the elementary art department had painted the sign located at the top of exit five ramp that big obnoxious sign that's finally gone she did a beautiful job on that sign and miss shields she repeatedly brought those little cans hands that all of you are collecting to the recycle center that in itself was a huge deal because I didn't want to do it so many tutors were a big part of this project as well Maria Lorie and pool area supported by craziness throughout this project handsome bottles to the grocery store for the deposit money throughout the school year Tiffany Michelle Laura and Jeanette volunteered their time at multiple events and passed out fliers all over town Deana even held a lemonade stand
020event this summer in her neighborhood the tutors at Pembroke Oh above and beyond every single day and this is just a small mention of their amazing acts of kindness local leaders in our community such as representative David R Conte representative Ken Tucker and senator Julie Kushner they attempted to collect funds from the state of Connecticut for this project so unsuccessful their interest and dedicated support was appreciated mayor Belton committed funds to complete the fundraising effort with the unanimous vote I'm gonna say that again a unanimous vote of the City Council [Applause] mayor battens team Antonio I adore Ola and Tom Hughes coronated many things too many things that I don't know anything about which resulted in this beautiful playground here and it's not just for Cambridge students but it's for students in the Greater Danbury
021area Ron's Ebola robbed Cibola from child sleep created many blueprint drafts of the playground and proposals over the past two years to ensure that we truly had an accessible playground I met the needs of all of our students this happened over many phone conferences and emails he's definitely not gonna miss me calling him or emailing him changes today ceremony was supported by a number of people Tom Hughes ensured that we had a podium to stand here the ribbon and the giant scissors which we're going to be using momentarily our friends at Danbury Public Schools administrative offices printed the programs for us Aylmer of Pama donated the large case the pitner family somewhere out there they're former Pembroke alumni they asked to donate made sure that you had chairs to sit in that there was tables
022the sound system is working we had a flag and garbage cans the last people to thank or dr. Appel and Richard G dally thank you for tolerating late night texts crazy brainstorming sessions coaching me through emotionally frustrated moments there were many and reading through thousands of emails over the span of this project if I didn't mention you in this long long list of things it is not because your kindness was not appreciated it has been a long almost two months to sum up in only about five minutes to conclude though the hard work of so many volunteers I want to say thank you for being a part of this wonderful moment of Everett elementary school [Applause] they are mark dr. Sal why don't you come on up here obviously miss Viviano mr. Gianelli come on
023up I also just want to commend one of our construction teams of the back there Dan Reiser who I works very hard every day for us did a nice job I hear to so Dan thank you so here's what we're gonna do leave don't get too fast here we're gonna we're gonna do a countdown so we're gonna go three two one and then you guys are gonna come up after one nod one after one all right and so we want all of you out there to help us in Tony you want to come up here time time you come on up here you guys look all sad sitting there come on come on come on [Applause] this Pat Pat Johnson here yeah come on up here and a joke I'll go aren't you Monday hey
024yeah let's stop and let's get some of our kids behind here - thanks Kevin I see the teacher coming out farthing come up here and I grab Joe Rachel I like it when the teacher Kevin you wanna come up [Music] [Applause] [Music] you