Thank You, Darien Firefighters, for Volunteering at the Town’s Fire Depts

Thank you, Darien firefighters, including Chiefs Vic Pensiero, Shaun Volin and John Hessmer for your work protecting the town.

We hope others join you.

—This is part of a daily series of articles profiling the volunteers recognized in May at the Darien annual volunteer recognition luncheon organized by the Community Fund of Darien.

About the Work of Darien’s Volunteer Firefighters

The Darien Board of Selectmen is honored and proud to nominate our three all-volunteer Fire Departments: Darien Fire Department, Noroton Fire Department and Noroton Heights Fire Department as our 2019 Darien Community Fund Volunteers of the Year! 

The magnitude of contribution to our town can best be described in numbers:

* 1 Dedicated Mission to preserve life and property in Darien, on Interstate 95 and in cooperation with our neighboring towns

* 3 well trained, independently managed departments

* 24 fire response apparatuses and vehicles to manage

* 24/7/365 on-call service, putting emergency response before all else

* 124 years of volunteer fire service

* 173 active volunteer fire fighters

* 1948 total fire calls in 2018

* Priceless — the extraordinary commitment and dedication to the Town of Darien by the men and women who volunteer their time as fire service responders

Thank you Vic, Shaun and John thanks so very much!

— by First Selectman Jayme Stevenson on behalf of the Board of Selectmen

About This Series

• The profiles in this series were presented at the 2019 volunteer recognition luncheon held at the Darien Community Association and recorded (in this video) by Darien TV79.
• Darien runs on volunteers — from our churches to our town government, schools, political parties, sports teams, three fire departments and our local nonprofits. They’re the largest part of what makes this town a community. We should all encourage them and thank them.
• Darienite.com is running this series now, while more people are thinking about whether they want to volunteer in the upcoming year. We may run it sooner after the next event, in 2020.
• Each article presents the description provided about that volunteer (or sometimes more than one) as provided by an organization that benefited from that person’s efforts.

Here’s the Full List of Volunteers

Each of these volunteers was recognized this year and will be profiled in this series:

Shyamla Menon (A Better Chance);—Nina Miller (At Home in Darien);—Rochelle Charnin (Building One Community);—Frank Huck (Darien Arts Center);—Darien Firefighters, including Chiefs Vic Pensiero, Shaun Volin & John Hessmer (Darien Board of Selectman);—Pam Miller (Darien Book Aide Plan);—Cheryl Williams (Darien Chamber of Commerce);—Pat Parlette (Darien Community Association);—Tiffany O’Connor (Darien High School);—Anne Lise Brown (Darien High School Parents’ Association);—Carolyn McGrath (Darien Historical Society);—Janet Cling (Darien Land Trust);—Kathy Larkins (Darien Human Services);—Peter Eder (Darien Library);—Mike Wheeler (Darien TV79);—Scott Overbeck (Darien YMCA);—Jennifer Geddes (Domestic Violence Crisis Center);—David Ball (Family Centers);—Shelly Skoglund (League of Women Voters);—Andrea Huntington (Mather Homestead Foundation);—Katie and Emily Wiley (Norwalk Grassroots Tennis);—Hayley Ackers (Person-to-Person);—Margaret “Annie” Slaughter (Silver Hill Hospital of New Canaan);—Reeve Boeckmann & Elizabeth Hall (The Carver Foundation of Norwalk);—Jill McCammon (The Community Fund of Darien);—Bryne Pozzi (The Darien Foundation);—Donna Collins (The Darien Nature Center);—Kathy Arrix (The Depot, Darien Youth Center);—Annie Arrix & Lily Kosnik (Thriving Youth);—Stephanie O’Malley (Tokeneke PTO);—Katie Murphy (Darien Youth Commission).

Sponsors of the 2019 Recognition Luncheon were the Darien Community Association, Brown Thayer Shed and Halstead Real Estate.