Chamber Names Pomfret Community Service Award Winner

Happy Halloween, Middlesex County. 

I would like to formally announce that our 2011 William J. Pomfret Community Service Award will be presented next week at the Chamber’s Honor the Veterans and Support the Troops Breakfast meeting on Nov. 8.

This year the award goes to Peter Galgano Jr., a former Sargent E-5 in the U.S. Marine Corps. Each year, the Chamber recognizes a man or woman living or working in Middlesex County who served in a branch of the U.S. Armed Services and continues to promote the interests of veterans.

The final criterion for the award is some form of involvement in local or state community organizations. This year, Galgano was chosen because of his tireless work at Middlesex Community College with student-veterans and beyond.

Phil Cacciola, chairman of the Honor the Veterans and Support the Troops Committee, has done a great job of putting this breakfast together—as he always does—and I thank him for his efforts. There will be more on this award, as well as the featured speaker at next week’s breakfast meeting, to come.

Last week was definitely a treat, as the Chamber hosted its 2011 Business to Business Expo event at the Crowne Plaza in Cromwell on Oct. 28. The day was full of activities and we saw record crowds for the business expo, with 110 exhibitors and also for the Middlesex County Fall Career Fair, with over 50 businesses that came out in search of employees; the career fair ran concurrently with all of the expo events.

As you may remember, the Chamber’s expo was once a two-day event that was geared toward the general public. This format proved to be a success over the years.  Several years ago, however, Comcast Business Class—the presenting sponsor—approached us with the idea of making the event a one-day affair that focuses on business and the issues that surround it.

Understanding the importance of the general public as well as the needs of our businesses, we moved the event in this direction and have had tremendous success for the past three years in this new format. 

The morning began early at 7:30 a.m. with an economic forecast breakfast meeting with Don Klepper-Smith and Peter Gioia and our lunch was highlighted by a presentation from Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Catherine Smith. Both events were full, and thanks to our presenters for their time to address issues that are very important to the business community. 

Commissioner Smith gave us an exclusive look at the new jobs bill that was passed along bipartisan lines in Hartford last week as well as the details of the state’s agreement with Jackson Laboratories.  

The 2011 Middlesex County Fall Career Fair was also a major success. Along with the over 50 employers, hundreds of job seekers from across the county and state  attended the fair. Everyone knows that a strong and vibrant workforce is critical to a real economic recovery so I want to offer a special thanks to the Connecticut Department of Labor and Workforce Alliance of New Haven for their great support of this very important event.

The job fair drew record amounts of people in search of employment. Looking at the cross-section of those people, I was just as saddened as last year to see that there are so many people aged 50 and over who are out of work. 

Because of being laid off or having to re-enter the workforce out of retirement, these people have it as difficult as anyone does in this climate. Nonetheless, the persistence and resolve of this group is amazing. I remain confident that as the governor’s jobs bill goes into effect, this group of people who are so very important to our workforce will find homes with new organizations.

Brian Armet and Pamela Luchka, co-chairs of the Chamber’s Expo Committee, should also be praised along with all committee members for their great effort in organizing and preparing for this very large-scale event. Also, I would like to commend Johanna Bond from the Chamber staff for playing such an integral role in the planning and coordination of this event.

Also, thanks to Daniel DeTuccio, Principal & SVP Creative Director and Jennifer Grady, Principal & Director of Accounts of Cyn Advertising, LLC for a great Social Media Boot Camp and Duane Cashin of Cashin & Co. for his presentation on the art of public speaking.

Those who attended Duane’s seminar including two of my staff members were captivated by the presentation and took away some great tips for an area that many of us struggle with.

We closed out the day with an outstanding Executive Evening event from 4 to p.m. Thanks to the Crowne Plaza for providing all the free food and drinks to over 1,000 chamber guests.

For information, visit www.middlesexchamber.com or contact Matt Fraulino at (860) 347-6924 or matthew@middlesexchamber.com.