www.southingtoncitizen.com
Volume 18, Number 53
Friday, December 31, 2021
Southington’s year in review By Jesse Buchanan Record-Journal staff
The past year saw a town-wide debate over recreational marijuana, a host of new public school district leaders and a municipal election. Here are some of the top stories from Southington in 2021.
Family, friends and neighbors gathered along Knights Court in Southington to welcome 11-year-old Benjamin Marek home on Christmas Eve after almost a year of treatment for brain cancer. Devin Leith-Yessian, Record-Journal
After year-long battle with brain cancer, 11-year-old boy gets big welcome home By Devin Leith-Yessian Record-Journal staff
Escorted by two dump trucks trumpeting their horns, Ben Marek, the 11-year-old the town rallied around since his brain cancer diagnosis nearly a year ago, returned home to crowds of family, friends and neighbors on Christmas Eve.
"We just love you all and we couldn't have gotten here without all the support and love that everyone put behind Benjamin and I believe that helped make him strong enough to get where we are today," his mother Stacy Marek said to the dozens of people gathered outside her family’s Knights Court home Dec. 24.
Soon after his diagnosis and subsequent hospitalization in February 2021, the town began showing its support through letters handwritten by his classmates at Hatton Elementary School, signs put up by businesses across town and donations to a GoFundMe campaign.
The year opened with a Southington elementary school student winning statewide election as Connecticut’s Kid Governor in January. Reese Naughton who attends Oshana Elementary School, hoped to encourage the creation of community crates where people can pick up a free mask and leave a positive note for others. She also planned to establish virtual events to raise money for masks and other sanitary equipment for schools that are running low. With her 102-year-old great-grandmother in a nursing home, she wants to create care packages that can encourage lonely seniors shut in by the pandemic. More than 6,000 fifth-graders from around the state chose Reese from among seven finalists, each with their own platforms and ideas. The Kid Governor program, run by the nonprofit Connecticut Democracy Center, allows fifth-graders in participating schools to vote and to learn about civic participation. In February, former schools superintendent Tim Connellan announced his plans to retire. The Board of Education chose his assistant superintendent, Steve Madancy, as his replacement for the 2021-22 school year.
See Marek, A3
See Year in Review, A12
Community services expanded holiday distribution programs By Devin Leith-Yessian Record-Journal staff
A wealth of volunteers allowed Southington Community Services to expand its holiday gift distribution programs, providing food, gifts and Christmas trees to households.
“It was the best ever year, I can't tell you enough … and it's all because of the volunteers and people (who) came through,” said Southington Community Services Director Janet Mellon. The largest of the distributions, the
holiday basket program, provided food and grocery store gift cards to 1,265 individuals in 601 households. In past years, recipients lined up to receive baskets, but last year during the pandemic community services began delivering the baskets to homes to limit contact. Over 50 vol-
unteers arranged the baskets ahead of time and then spent Dec. 18 loading them into vehicles and shuttling them across town. The baskets are composed of nonperishables from non-profits that See Volunteers, A2