Thank You, Rochelle Charnin, for Volunteering at Building One Community

Thank you, Rochelle Charnin, for organizing a program at Building One Community that paired clients with volunteer support teams.

We hope others join you.

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

Rochelle Charnin’s Efforts

For the past three years, Rochelle Charnin’s volunteerism at Building One Community has been one of 100% dedication and commitment.

As a non-practicing lawyer, Rochelle has put her training and experience to great use at B1C. At a time when we were struggling with the idea of family separation and the struggles of local immigrant families, she was instrumental in starting our Community Support Group model.

This program, which has been used successfully in other parts of Connecticut, pairs an attorney who is representing a client with a support team of trained volunteers.  

Rochelle has been so effective as a volunteer that she was recently hired as a part-time staff member at B1C, helping us manage the legal immigration program.

— by Margarita Zimmerman of Building One Community

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);—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.