By Erica Gradecki
Published on 12/23/2005
Old Lyme- Hear the word “adoption,” and most people think of adopting a child, or maybe a puppy. The towns of Lyme and Old Lyme, though, took it one step further: They adopted an entire county, Cameron Parish, which had been devastated by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
The two southeastern Connecticut towns are sending the Louisiana parish, which has five towns, a fire truck filled with presents, including money.
“We started thinking about what we could do and how we could reach out,” said Tim Griswold, first selectman of Old Lyme. “Old Saybrook set an example for us.”
Adopting a town is one thing, but finding the right one to adopt is yet another. So what is a town to do?
“We wanted to adopt a community with an art focus, similar to that of Old Lyme,” Griswold said. “The town of Cameron Parish has a couple thousand and is a coastal town. It has some interesting similarities to Old Lyme and East Lyme.”
The hurricanes shrunk the population of Cameron Parish from approximately 10,000 to 5,000. Victims either lost their lives or fled the town to stay with friends or relatives.
The truck is a 1973 fire engine that had been owned by the Lyme Fire Department. Shipman's Fire Equipment in Waterford got the truck in working order at no charge and even threw in a few air packs for firefighters.
“Lee Watkins, a volunteer fire chief in Lyme, is the one who got it,” Griswold said. “I don't know how. He made calls and found a fire truck.”
A large contribution came from the Region 18 school district, which includes the elementary, middle and high schools. David Klein, superintendent of schools, noted that the community, including the schools, collected more than 400 gifts and $20,000 in cash and checks.
“The district (Region 18) raised approximately $8,000 alone,” Klein said. “Dec. 2 we had a press conference (about the fund raising), so we had two weeks to do it. The Lyme-Old Lyme High School's National Honor Society, headed by adviser Eileen Gannon, alone raised $3,200 for education down there. It's pretty impressive.”
The fire truck left last Tuesday on a flatbed trailer, with the gifts and donations on board.
Driven by Watkins of the Lyme Fire Department, three other members of the Lyme-Old Lyme community went as well: Jeff Ostroff, Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School principal; Mary Stone, member of the Board of Education; and Claire Kearney, reporter of the Lymeline online newspaper.
“The four members will get a better sense of what is needed there,” Klein said.
Lyme-Old Lyme plans to do this three times a year, to give continual support to the Cameron Parish community.
“We'd rather personalize it, than just write a check towards it,” Griswold said.
Jeff Ostroff, who returned to Old Lyme with Watkins, Stone and Kearney at 3 a.m. this past Tuesday, was left with quite an impression by the residents of Cameron Parish.
“The magnitude of what I saw, as far as the demolition of the parish, and the warmth and love and faith that this group of families and community members have in their parish...they have done things that are remarkable as far as keeping the spirit there,” Ostroff said. “It's hard for me to find the words to express the loss. I ran into (about) 20 classes (down there), they were happy to see us and were all grateful and smiling. We hear all about Katrina, but this is a Rita demolition.”