Foundations Teamed Up to Clean Windham

By Michael Ryan

WINDHAM - It’s hard to imagine anything better than the work of one foundation other than two foundations working together.

Nobody was talking trash when the Community of Windham Foundation and Windham Foundation teamed up, this past weekend.

Well, they were sort of talking trash but only to get the task accomplished of filling many bags with litter and strewn garbage from along Route 23.

The State highway serves as Main Street for the town and the volunteer picker-uppers also prettified a short stretch of Mitchell Hollow Road.

Not limiting the Cleanup Day effort to what everyone might notice, jobs were similarly done in the hamlets of Maplecrest and Hensonville.

“We successfully filled seventeen bags, keeping Windham beautiful,” said Community of Windham Foundation member Denise Meehan, noting the overall theme for the combined assault is Mission Possible.

“This is the first Mission Possible and we are planning a second one for the fall, maybe another cleanup or a project that would help someone.

“We are very grateful to everyone who came out, particularly the students from Windham-Ashland-Jewett school and Math teacher Joe Pudlewski, who organized them,” Meehan said.

Sophia Dyjak, Ryan Rush and Jack Baldner represented WAJ and “we also appreciate [Windham Movie Theater proprietor] Pat Higgins, offering free Subway sandwiches for all,” Meehan said.

“Sam Carpenter picked up the bags quickly for us. Sherry Wack and her grandsons sons pitched-in in Maplecrest and [Community of Windham Foundation member] Annie Jakubowski did a bag in Hensonville.”

Everything went off without a hitch…almost. “We will get walkie-talkies next time. Nobody wants to answer their cell phone at a time like that,” Meehan said, laughing.

And there was a humorous case of mistaken identity. “We wore our orange vests, for safety, of course. Someone walked over to me and asked me if I was a prisoner,” Meehan said.

Inmates are often seen along area highways in brightly-colored vests, gaining good behavior points by assisting with community projects.

Windham Foundation president Paul Mutter, following the event, said in an email, “Phyllis and I participated in a wonderful Spring Road Clean-Up,” referring to fellow Windham Foundation member Phyllis Parrish.

“It was organized by Denise Meehan and Jeri Miltenberger. We participated on behalf of the Windham Foundation in a show of support for the great work of the Community of Windham Foundation.”