79°
NORWALK, Conn. – For Ernie Dumas, the annual Thanksgiving Day dinner he organizes each year at the South Norwalk Community Center is a labor of love and commitment.
The recently elected Democratic Town Committee member and activist has been hosting the dinner for the past 17 years, and he and his wife enjoy the time they spend with their South Norwalk neighbors.
“This is very important to me,” Dumas said. “It’s an honor to be able to do this each year.”
The volunteers at the Thanksgiving Day dinner serve meals to a few hundred residents each year, and for the past several years the event has also included a coat drive.
more than 300 coats for children and adults would be handed out this year, said Darlene Young, who works in Norwalk Mayor Richard Moccia’s office as the jobs program coordinator.
“The community has been very supportive, and we appreciate that very much,” said Young. “We’ve done this for the past five years, and it just gets bigger and bigger each year. It’s become contagious in a good way.”
By 2 p.m. Thursday, more 100 people had come through the doors of the South Main Street center, which shares space Norwalk Economic Opportunity Now. And Dumas was still frying delicious turkeys in large pots behind the building.
“It’s a beautiful thing that we can do here at the center,” said Common Councilman Warren Peña, another of the dinner’s organizers. “Working together, it’s what this holiday is all about.”
Comments (4)
That's too bad, alot of us were hoping the so-called self proclaimed "leader of the Latinos" might stop embarrassing us and actually do some work for the community rather than trying to work an angle as usual.
I was surprised not to find more on Earnie he does so much for the city.He also works for the city and maintains most of the intersection plantings in and around Sono for the city.His list of great things can go on most important he is a decent man with outstanding qualities.His interest is seeing the community grow is also note worthy.
The Mayors office where Darlene does her work saw for the first time a failure with the job programs,kids not working out two years ago put the program in trouble,some companies stepped back from hiring because of troubles the kids created.We had kids in the program a letter home explained what troubles there were,letting us know our kids deserved a thankyou.
Its also bittersweet to see Warren Pena doing so much now named Chairman of the Norwalk Community Center.After explaining to us all the Council job was so overwhelming and not able to secure all the information on some votes and not working with the Mayor and the Republican members as well as he would like finding someone else now to serve on the council will be hard.But in hindsight Warren came out of nowhere so someone to replace him on the council hopefuly is in the making,Maybe Harry Rilling would be the best choice to replace Warren.It should be said now that Warren has stepped up to the center us his people are more than gratefull.
To Earnie and Warren your work for the city sometimes don't get the attention its should but we know how much it takes to put family aside and serve the community as a whole.
Aside from all the problems the Mayor should of also been involved over the last week in the trenches rimnding us all the homeless situtaion has not gotten better but worse now that cold weather is on its way in.
Restore Intergrity in any part of Norwalks facets is a hard thing to do when each problem should be solved for the good of the community and not for a handful for those who are very political.
Its going to be intersting how things now play out in the council now that we need a new member.We all know how hard everyone is trying maybe telling us how we the residents in South Norwalk can start helping Warren do his job effectively with more volunteers Earnie is only one man but does the work of a crew.I imagine he could use some help.
My colleague, Warren Pena, is adding this chairmanship to his duties as an At-Large Councilman. He is not leaving the Common Council. In fact, he is succeeding me as our new Minority Leader! http://www.thehour.com/news/norwalk/pena-to-become-minority-leader-on-norwalk-council-republicans-haven/article_5008620e-90bf-511a-bd75-6b66d9c1b815.html
That's too bad, alot of us were hoping the so-called self proclaimed "leader of the Latinos" might stop embarrassing us and actually do some work for the community rather than trying to work an angle as usual.