During the June 18 luncheon meeting, Derby-Shelton Rotary Club President Joe Shapiro presented checks to 14 area nonprofits as awards in the club’s 2026 grants program totaled $18,000 to assist the nonprofits in carrying out the missions. The Club’s board of directors reviewed all of the applications and made the decisions. Representatives of the nonprofits were attended as invited guests and made brief remarks as the check were presented.

Grant Awardees

The Derby Veterans Memorial building was originally built as the first Unitarian Church in Connecticut way back in 1905. The beautiful stone building was taken over by the various veterans’ groups back in 1927. The city owns the building but the veterans’ group still operates the building. The railings needed extensive repair and painting and club members had a couple of enjoyable work days making it happen.

The Derby-Shelton Rotary Club is pleased to announce the winners of its annual scholarship program for Derby and Shelton High School students. Scholarship Committee Chair Ed Sheehy announced the awards at the weekly club meeting on May 28 at the Brownson Country Club. All of the winning students were in attendance along with their proud parents and administrators from both schools. Watch for more pictures later.

This year’s awardees are:

Each of the awardees gave a quick update at the meeting highlighting their experiences and the colleges they will be attending next year.

The members of the committee in addition to Ed Sheehy were Rotarians Rosemary Allen, Pat Carey, Lucy Andrade, and Kim Caro as well as administrators Jen Moffet of Derby High School and Lisa Sapienza Girard of Shelton High School.,

Kim Ryan-Caro

Linda Holmes-Hannon

Rotarians Kim Ryan-Caro and Linda Homes-Hannon are in line for special awards in the next few weeks. Kim has been announced as our club’s selection for the Norm Parsells Award which was presented at the awards luncheon at the Chris Bargas Golf Club at Whitney Farms in Monroe on April 9.

The Norman K. Parsells Award, is presented annually to honor the memory and spirit of Norm Parsells. He was a dedicated Rotarian who served his community and Rotary, demonstrating Rotary’s ideal of “Service Above Self”. This year’s recipients of the Award will be recognized as Rotarians who personify the same spirit and dedication to their community and Rotary that Norm represented during his lifetime. Clubs in Bridgeport, Fairfield, Trumbull, Monroe, Stratford, Milford, Devon, Orange and Derby-Shelton are involved.

A week later, Linda will be an honored for at the First Annual Area 6 “Service Above Self” luncheon which our club will be hosting at the Brownson Country Club starting at noon.

Both of these outstanding women are past presidents of the club and have been very active leaders and innovators in the Club.

Gary Scarpa received Dorothy Larson Award from Jim Gildea, VP of Derby Historical Society

The Derby Historical Society the prestigious Dorothy Larson Award to Rotarian Gary Scarpa at its annual meeting on April 12, 2026. The award is presented annually to an individual for his or her many contributions to the community which in the spirit of the award’s namesake coincides with the mission of the Derby Historical Society, which is to preserve, protect, and honor our cultural and traditional values.

Gary Scarpa is a lifelong resident of Shelton. He enjoyed a lengthy and fulfilling career as an English teacher and guidance counselor at Shelton High School and he and his wife, Francesca, were inaugural inductees into the Shelton High School Hall of Fame in 2017. Gary and Fran are known throughout the region for their work in local theater, they founded Center Stage Theatre in Shelton in 2005, and they have been recognized by numerous organizations for excellence in theater. After retiring from both education and theater, Gary reinvented himself and began writing fiction. Since 2021, he has published three novels — Exit 14, What are the Chances?, and Still Life — all set in the Lower Naugatuck Valley. His first work of nonfiction, Lessons from the Stage, is set to be published this spring.

Derby-Shelton Rotary offers a variety of scholarships for students at Derby and Shelton High Schools. The deadline for submission this year is May 6. You can read more about eligibility requirements and the variety of scholarships available by clicking here.

Derby Interact L-R: Dr. Matthew Conway Jr. (superintendent), Ms. Carlin Ali (advisor), Breanna Perez (president), Sophie Mraz (vice-president), Ava Umpierre (treasurer), Gabe Tovar (co-secretary), Jayson Drayton (co-secretary and RYLA attendee), Shirley Diglio-Guerrette (RYLA attendee), Ms. Jennifer Moffat (advisor), and Mrs. Jennifer Olson (DHS Principal).

Shelton Interact: Shelton: Mrs. Kathleen Riddle (SHS principal), Mrs. Lynn Giordano (advisor), Akshita Upadhyay (secretary), Mallory Bohrer (vice-president), Savana Ostrosky (president), Dr. Kenneth Saranich (superintendent)

The Derby-Shelton Rotary Club welcomed a very impressive group of students from the Derby and Shelton High School Interact clubs at the weekly meeting on January 29. The officers of each club received their special officer pins and the presidents of both clubs as well as students who attended the recent RYLA convention also spoke about their experiences.

The students from the schools were also joined by the Superintendents of Schools (Dr. Matthew Conway & Kenneth Saranich) and Principals of the schools (Jen Olson and Kathleen Riddle) who have been great supporters of the programs. The Club is also very thankful for Carlin Ali and Jennifer Moffat in Derby and Lynn Giordan in Shelton who are the faculty advisors for the clubs.

Rotarian Gary Scarpa, who is a former educator at Shelton High School, served as the master of ceremony for the luncheon. Gary is also the Youth Services Chair for the Club. He opened the program by introducing Jayson Drayton and Shirley Diglio-Guerrette who spoke about their experiences attending the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) held at Connecticut College last November. RYLA is District 7980’s leadership training program for young men and women in grades 9, 10, 11, and 12 (Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors & Seniors). RYLA is held twice a year, in the fall and spring. RYLA is an internationally recognized program, attended by over 9,000 young adults each year, who are sponsored by Rotary Clubs in more than 25 countries. Derby-Shelton was pleased to have such outstanding students represent our Club this past year.

Gary then presented officer pins to the leaders of the two clubs. Vidhi Awadaria, treasurer of the Shelton Club was not able to attend the luncheon, but was also recognized and will receive her pin.

Derby Officers

Shelton Officers

Interact clubs bring together young people ages 12-18 to develop leadership skills while discovering the power of Service Above Self. There are 14,911 Interact Clubs in 145 different countries. There are 342,953 members!

The City of Derby is in the midst of its 350^th birthday celebration and Derby-Shelton Rotary is on the verge of celebrating its 100th birthday in 2027.  Though the club is eagerly looking forward to its 100^th, it recently took time to look back at its origins. The very first meeting of the Club was held in the legendary Hotel Clark in Derby. The city is currently in the midst of a project to highlight some of its 350 years by placing commemorative plaques at locations of significance in the area once known as the Borough of Birmingham. Birmingham was one of the three boroughs in the city and covered the area west of the Naugatuck River that became the industrial, commercial, and financial heart of the city. Though the city currently has no hotels, the Hotel Clark and its predecessor Bassett House dominated social life in the city. Being located right next door to the Sterling Theater, it was a natural location for those visiting the city. Visiting sports teams including the cadets of West Point stayed in Derby when playing at the Yale Bowl as did rowing teams competing on the Housatonic River course by the Cooke boathouse.

The plaque which was a joint project between the Derby-Shelton Rotary Club and Tom D’Addario of Capwood Associates which owns the current office building on the site at 100 Elizabeth Street. They shared the cost of the plaque which tells the story of the area and Rotary’s birth in Derby and was installed by the Department of Public Works in Derby on January 13, 2026.

Bassett House celebrating a national holiday in its heyday.