For the Love of Community

 

(Photo: Greenwich Historical Society)

The first goal I had when I started calling Greenwich football back in 2000 was to make it about the community.

Sure, I wanted the broadcasts to sound professional but I also wanted there to be a sense of home to the production.

To that end, we immersed ourselves in understanding Greenwich football (and eventually Brunswick and other teams as well).

All of that was on full display last night at the Greenwich Old Timers Athletic Association Awards Dinner.

I've been attending in parts for 20 years and last night was the first time I viewed it from behind the podium.

It's the sense of community that bonds the whole gathering. Every year, while being dazzled by big names who are the national honorees, the true star has always been the stories of the town they love.

That, of course, was led by Mark Yusko, in his 32nd year as toastmaster. Mark's a "townie" as I've told you, even if he no longer lives in Greenwich.

I was assistant toastmaster, in my first year. I wasn't born in Greenwich but have worked here for 25 years and now live here.

The room is perhaps the toughest I've ever worked in, and why?

Community.

It's the first time friends and classmates and teammates have seen each other in one year. Two years. Thirty years.

So, I get it. They want to chat and catch up.

But, just like with Hunt Scanlon's conferences, there's a schedule. While it might not be as rigid as Hunt Scanlon it's still a schedule and I'm trying to adhere to it.

So quieting the crowd was a challenge.

But I was dazzled by the sense of community.

I listened to Mark and every speaker bring up a distant friend, story, business, and myriad other things that I didn't have the first clue about but loved nonetheless.

It's a banquet in that it starts with a cocktail hour that I spent in the VIP room (me? Very Important?) and proceeds into the grand ballroom for the beginning of the program. That sense of community included the presentation of colors and the national anthem.

There's pomp and circumstance, including the introduction of the dais with the honorees and the honored guests. 

Oh, and me.

While it was a night of the Mets (Todd Zeile) and Islanders (their owner, John Ledecky), there were plenty of Yankees references and more. The Rangers were represented as famed goal scorer Stephane Matteau was also in the house.

Zeile and Ledecky also included Greenwich in their comments and Zeile lives in the town and Ledecky grew up in the town. It turns out he also worked at WGCH at one time, making it five GCHers in the house with Ledecky, me, Mark Yusko, Chris Erway, and Bill Daughtry.

The event also a fundraiser, as the Old Timers raises money for youth sports for scholarships, and more. It's a wonderful, benevolent organization that I'm proud to be a small part of.

And will probably be a bigger part of in the future.

To be continued on that.

With chicken, cake, coffee, and beverages consumed, speeches given, awards presented, hugs and laughs, and a few tears, the guests called it a night.

Chris Erway and I stepped to the bar to toast a successful evening.

His first as an attendee.

My first in this new role.

I remain so overwhelmed by the number of people who stopped up to say hello and remind me of something I said or that I simply covered them.

That's community.

Cheers, Greenwich. I might not have been born here but I'm grateful for how you've welcomed me.