The Connecticut Sun will honor Akia S. Callum, Tammy De La Cruz, Jen Fry and Robin Roberts during its Women of Inspiration Night presented by Post University at 7 p.m. on Aug. 31 during a game against Brittney Griner and the Phoenix Mercury.

De La Cruz, who lives in Groton, is founder and vice president of Community Speaks Out, which helps people in treatment and recovery from drug abuse; Callum is deputy director of at Waterbury Bridge to Success Community Partnership and the John P. Burke Professor at Post University; Fry, a longtime volleyball coach, owns JenFryTalks, a social justice education firm that explores the intersection of conflict and diversity, equity and inclusion; Roberts is co-anchor of “Good Morning America” and an inductee into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.

People & Places

Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center will present the inaugural Maggie Jones Environmental Hero Award during an event running from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Sept. 22 at the organization’s annual Green-Tie Celebration. The event coincides with the 10th anniversary of DPNC’s acquisition of Coogan Farm in Mystic.

Maggie Jones, director emeritus, will be honored as the first recipient of the award bearing her name. Jones served as director of DPNC for 27 years, helping to permanently protect Mystic’s historic Coogan Farm property from development. The now preserved Coogan acreage was a key link in creating a greenway that today extends, west to east, from Pequot Woods and the Peace Sanctuary in Groton to Coogan, Denison and Avalonia Land Conservancy lands to the Copp’s Brook watershed.

Jones was succeeded in 2019 by executive director Davnet Conway, formerly the Nature Center's senior director of operations and preschool director.

Tickets for the event and ceremony are available at dpnc.org/green-tie-celebration.

Gordon Lord of Stonington has been appointed vice president of US Channel sales organization, secure power at Scheider Electric, Massachusetts' largest clean energy company. In his role, Lord will be responsible for driving revenue, strategy and profitability within the US Channels organization.

As Schneider Electric continues to place emphasis on software, services and sustainability for its channel partners, Lord will be focused on increasing business effectiveness, expanding strategic relationships, driving mutual profitable growth and help customers achieve sustainability goals through digitization.

GSB, formerly known as Guilford Savings Bank, has promoted five employees to key leadership positions.

Renee Pallenberg was promoted to executive vice president, director of marketing. A GSB employee since 1987, Pallenberg has held various banking positions including leadership roles in retail banking and business development, and was named a senior vice president in 2015.

Alex Sulpasso was promoted to executive vice president, client experience officer. Sulpasso joined GSB in January 2019 as vice president, operations manager and was promoted to senior vice president in 2022.

Adriana Mazza was promoted to senior vice president, senior operations manager. Joining GSB in 2022 with more than two decades of banking experience, Mazza had been first vice president, senior operations manager.

Ryan Todd was promoted to senior vice president, risk & information security officer. Todd joined GSB in 2016 as first vice president, information security officer. He succeeds Heather Hackley,who has announced that she will retire at the end of the year.

Kris Cricchi was promoted to controller and will manage the accounting & finance teams. Cricchi has been an employee at GSB since 2011 and most recently held the position of vice president, finance manager.

Additionally, GSB announced that Kyle Eagleson transitioned to the position of first executive vice president, chief operating officer.

Three local residents participated this month in the Girls Scouts of Connecticut’s annual Female Leadership Summer Program at Quinnipiac University.

The trio, Esperanza Seda of Norwich and sisters Olivia and Seren Dozier from Oakdale, were introduced to a weeklong immersion in business and life skills at which a total of 18 entrepreneurial, high-school Girl Scouts experienced college life while completing an intensive curriculum involving social entrepreneurism and well as mentoring on career choices from several Quinnipiac University professors and some of Connecticut’s top women professionals.

UCFS Healthcare in Norwich has been awarded funding to provide coordinated, culturally sensitive, and developmentally appropriate health care services in Norwich at Teachers Memorial Global Studies Magnet School and John B Stanton Elementary School as well as in Montville at the Leonard J. Tyl Middle School school-based health center sites.

SBHCs are partnerships between schools and community health organizations to provide health care where students spend most of their time – in schools. Parents or guardians provide consent for their children to receive care.

The funding was made possible by the Connecticut Department of Public Health. UCFS Healthcare’s proposal was selected from 133 applications submitted by 24 sponsoring organizations after a competitive review process.

For the second consecutive year, Broadband Communities Magazine has recognized Sertex Broadband Solutions of Plainfield in its annual ranking of the Top 100 FTTH organizations in the U.S.

Over the past three decades, Sertex has constructed thousands of miles of fiber networks in remote areas and challenging environments from the mountains to the ocean. Currently, Sertex crews are actively working on projects in five of the six New England states.

For more information, visit www.sertexbroadband.com.

Honors & Awards

The 65th Annual Mystic Outdoor Art Festival jury and the Greater Mystic Chamber of Commerce have announced the winning artists from this year’s festival held last weekend.

Best in Show (Sponsored by the Arling Family): Richard Borden

Robert Brackman Award Spirit of Mystic (Sponsored by Arruda Real Estate Associates): Tammy Blaise

Beonne Beronda Award for Best New Artist (Sponsored by Grover Insurance): Sammia Atoui

Marion Tetlow Award Best Work by a Local Artist (Sponsored by Block, Janney, Sisley, LLC): Meredith Maher

Milton Baline Award Founders Award (Sponsored by DBA Academy Point, LLC): Allysa Morton

Best of Oil Paintings (Sponsored by Sift Bakery): Robert Blazek

Best of Acrylic Painting (Heather & Mark Somers): R.L. Alexander

Best of Mixed Media (Sponsored by Just Mystic): Nicole Deponte

Best of Illustration/Graphics (Sponsored by R&B Apparel): Abbie Park

Best of Pastels (Sponsored by Sales Up 4 Cancer): Robin Frissella

Best of Photography (Sponsored by Pochal & Pochal Law): Daniel Jones & George Zah

Best of Sculpture (Sponsored by Mermaid Inn): Tim Cromarty

Best of Watercolor (Sponsored by Mystic Marriott): Greg Stones

Fine Crafts (Sponsored by the Katherine Forest Crafts Foundation)

Teddy Goberis Award for Excellence in Ceramics: Joanna Case

Louise Forest Gibson Prize for Excellence in Glass: Cole Quinn

Mabel Kingsbury Fentress Prize for Excellence in Fiber: Shengzhu Bernardin

Joseph Gualtieri Prize for Excellence in Wood: Tasha Rosemond

Alice Clark Hubbard Prize Excellence in Jewelry: Rosalie Walsh

The major sponsors for this year’s event were: Foxwoods Resort Casino, Electric Boat, BMW Of New London, Hartford Healthcare, Chelsea Groton Bank, The Westerly Sun, Capitol Equipment & Marine, Navy Federal Credit Union, Connecticut Mystic Country, Kent and Frost, Yale New Haven Hospital, Advance Window, Mystic Seaport, Stratedia, Mystic Aquarium, the Rotary of Mystic.

Twenty-two hospitals in Connecticut are among the 2,600 nationwide that participate in the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines initiative to improve outcomes for Americans who experience heart disease or stroke.

Each year, the American Heart Association recognizes hospitals across the country for consistently following up-to-date, research-based guidelines to ensure all patients have access to lifesaving care. In Connecticut, twenty-two hospitals were recognized this year, including these locally: Day Kimball Hospital, Lawrence + Memorial Hospital, Midstate Medical Center, William W. Backus Hospital and Windham Hospital.

The William W. Backus Hospital was rated as “high performing” in the treatment of Kidney Failure for 2023-24 by US News & World Report.

For the 2023-24 rankings and ratings, U.S. News evaluated nearly 5,000 medical centers nationwide in 15 specialties and 21 procedures and conditions. In the 15 specialty areas, 164 hospitals were ranked in at least one specialty.

For more information about Hartford HealthCare awards, head to: https://hartfordhealthcare.org/awards.

UCFS Healthcare has been awarded a grant of $3,000 from the Dime Bank Foundation to continue its Fashion Forward program for clients in the Medication Assisted Treatment program. The grant and will be used to continue to support clients as they look to obtain or maintain community-based employment. Initial funding from Dime Bank supported 24 clients, and 71% of those clients obtained or maintained meaningful employment through this grant funding.

Chamber News

The Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut will hold its 2023 Connecticut Sun Business Social from 4:30 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 24, at Mohegan Sun Sky Convention Center, Salon D, 1 Mohegan Sun Blvd., Uncasville.

Park in the Riverview Garage, use the East Entrance into the casino. Admission is $15 for members, $25 non-member. A Connecticut Sun game follows.

Regional community members from the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern CT, The Greater Mystic Chamber of Commerce, The Greater Norwich Area Chamber of Commerce and the Middlesex Chamber of Commerce will be in attendance. To register, visit https://info.chamberect.com/events/details/2023-connecticut-sun-business-social-12748.

The Young Professionals of Eastern CT will hold a 'YPsocial' at Project Oceanology from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 31.

YP members are free, nonmembers $15.

The Greater Mystic Chamber of Commerce will hold a ribbon cutting at 5 p.m. Sept. 13 for Eyes Wide Open Aesthetics LLC, a cosmetic tattooing and skincare business at 22 E. Main St., Mystic.

Visit mysticchamber.org to register. For chamber info, call Krysta Murray, membership manager, at (860) 572-9578, or email krystamurray@mysticchamber.org.

The Greater Norwich Area Chamber of Commerce will hold a BizBlender Networking hosted by Harp & Dragon Pub from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, August 29.

You will begin being paired off and each given 2 minutes to tell your story about your business. Then you will switch partners and get another 2 minutes to tell that person and so on until you have met everyone in the room.

Cost, including lunch, is $20 per person.

For questions, please call the chamber office at 860-887-1647 or email angelaadams@norwichchamber.com

Grants & Scholarships

The Jewett City Savings Bank Foundation has announced a $1,873 grant to the Quinebaug Valley Senior Citizens Center during the bank's Brooklyn office anniversary celebration. The grant will help fund programs at the Senior Center.

Jewett City Savings Bank is a mutual savings bank operating full-service offices in Jewett City, Brooklyn, Dayville, Pawcatuck, Plainfield, Preston, and Putnam.

Nonprofits

Amtrak has launched Amtrak Gives Back, a community engagement program aimed at “engaging with the community to help neighbors understand the scope, impacts and benefits of Amtrak projects, while also serving as a conduit for community feedback.”

Amtrak will support local non-profits through sponsorships and in-kind donations, as well as encouraging employee volunteerism. .

On Track for Good is one initiative in Amtrak’s community engagement program, Amtrak Gives Back. Through this program, Amtrak is supporting nationally recognized and local community-centered non-profit organizations with a limited number of complimentary trips, putting excess capacity to good use.

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