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Maria Campos Harlow
Executive Director, United Way of Meriden & Wallingford
Powering
Meriden’s Workforce
May
17, 2022
It
all changed with COVID. Maria Campos Harlow,
Executive
Director of the United Way of Meriden & Wallingford (UWMW), previously
Director of the Spanish Community of Wallingford, addressed 33 Y’s Men
of Meriden (4 by Zoom) on May 17, outlining a new thrust for the agency
brought on by the pandemic.
The
epidemic has struck many local citizens financially and unemployment
today has become commonplace. And yet, many companies are struggling
both with employment and retention of workers. UWMW, along with its
community partners, has been developing programs to get folks upskilled
for placement into better jobs and income to better provide for
themselves and their families.
When ARPA (American
Rescue Plan Act) funds became available, the UWMW applied in
Meriden and received a three-year grant of $664,526 to assist with this
mission. This facilitated the employment of a Workforce Navigator,
delegated to match motivated unemployed individuals with job
opportunities at local companies. The current caseload is 40 unemployed
in Meriden and 20 in Wallingford (ARPA funding for Wallingford has yet
to be determined).
Harlow responded to multiple questions
from the Y’s Men audience including how to get employment for homeless
citizens (answer: referral to the proper agencies, while acknowledging
that some people are resistant to being helped). She also noted that the
UWMW does not train for employment, but rather acts as a conduit for
linking motivated unemployed folks with potential long-term jobs. And
she also commented that some of today’s younger generation appear to
have different work priorities.
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Jerry
Augustine
Vice-chairman
Greater Middletown Military Museum
Vietnam Beyond
May
10, 2022
“All
gave some, some gave all”. This saying set the tone for a presentation
to 38 Y’s Men of Meriden (4 by Zoom) on May 10 by Jerry Augustine,
Vice-chairman of the Greater Middletown Military Museum, as he used a
DVD to present his wartime experiences during 1965-1967, the height of
the Vietnam War.
Drafted into the U.S. Army, Middletown
resident Augustine began a 22-month hitch with the military, including
one year of active duty in Vietnam. Prior to going overseas, his wife
insisted that he take his camera, a Brownie Hawkeye box model. Within a
week of arrival in Vietnam in August 1966, he was deployed as part of
the 110-man B Company in Tay Nam Province near the Cambodian border,
with a mission to protect Saigon.
Augustine illustrated his tour of
duty, backed by dynamic music, with numerous slides made from his photos
plus multiple videos. His Company first built a base camp in 30 days
(“we built a city”). Images then documented squad patrols, a Viet Cong
bunker, and wading in chin-deep water through rice paddies with rifles
held high. Conditions were often frightful, with temperatures soaring up
to 130 degrees with high humidity and swarms of mosquitoes. Many images
displayed helicopter assaults, setting up mortar positions, and comrades
being assigned as “tunnel rats” (armed with a .45 pistol and a grenade,
searching through tunnels for the enemy).
Augustine noted four personal
incidents that stood out for him: falling into a trap with pointed
bamboo sticks (left over from prior French military action), a fall into
a well, a friendly-fire 155 mm howitzer shell exploding and blowing him
off his mount at 1:00 am while on guard duty, and once being struck by a
rifle grenade (which failed to explode) while chopping through the
jungle with a machete while on point with a machine gun. Also portrayed
were images of numerous search and destroy missions and helicopter
assaults. Other images included fellow troops washing their feet and
socks in a rice paddy, swimming in a bomb crater during monsoon season,
and a resupply by parachute.

Brownie Camera

Jerry Augustine book

Speaker with CT Governor Ned Lamont
But this video journal also included
many scenes of non-combatants: farmers (with women doing most of the
hard work), donation of tons of captured rice to those in need, planting
rice paddies, kids in villages and provision of American medical care.
This program ended with a poignant tribute to fellow servicemen from
Company B who were KIA. Augustine has documented his experiences in his
2021 book “Vietnam Beyond”. |
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Cathryn J. Prince
Author, Journalist
Death in the Baltic
The WW2 Sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff
May 3, 2022
It’s
the biggest maritime disaster in the history of the world, yet few
people have heard of it. Speaking to 43 Y’s Men of Meriden (5 by Zoom)
on May 3, Cathryn J. Prince, author and journalist, used a PowerPoint
presentation to depict the World War II sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff
on Jan. 30, 1945, during the waning months of the war.
Named after the assassinated
41-year-old head of the Swiss Nazi Party and a friend of Adolf Hitler,
the Wilhelm Gustloff was launched on May 5, 1937 (the day before the
Hindenburg disaster in Lakehurst NJ) as a cruise ship that plied the
Mediterranean, used as a propaganda tool for the KDF (Kraft
durch Freude: “Strength Through Joy“)
movement to promote the
advantages of Nazism to
the German people and internationally. Shortly thereafter, it was
converted to a hospital ship and then to a U-Boat training vessel.
By January of 1945, the outcome of
World War II had been determined. The Third Reich was in free fall as
the Allies advanced from the west and the Russians closed in from the
east. Berlin arranged an eleventh-hour exodus for thousands of German
civilians trapped in East Prussia in the Red Army's way. Approximately
10,500 women, children, sick, and elderly (along with some military
personnel) were packed aboard the Gustloff (designed to carry 1500
passengers). Boarding was chaotic; priority was given to women with
infants, so some babies were passed down the gangplank to other women
attempting to board.
With sighs of relief, the ship
departed from Gotenhafen on Jan. 30 at nighttime on a planned 12-hour
voyage to Kiel, Germany; however, Soviet submarine S-13 successfully
fired three torpedoes, resulting in the Gustloff sinking in about an
hour in the frigid Baltic Sea. Many passengers died on board from the
explosions and from drowning, while others died in the icy sea. Of these
who originally boarded, approximately 1000 survived; about 9,500
perished (six times the death toll of the Titanic).

Author's Book

Wilhelm Gustloff
Prince’s research
especially reached out to a number of survivors, including Helga Reuter
Knickerbocker (whose family-owned Reuter Furniture Factory was taken
over by the Nazis), Ellen and Irene Tschinkur, Inge Roedecker, and Horst
Woit (age 10 at the time of the sinking). More information is available
in her book “Death in the Baltic: the World War II Sinking of the
Wilhelm Gustloff”. |
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Betty Johnson
Consultant
Bigelow Tea Company
The History of Tea and How it is Processed
April
26, 2022
Speaking
to 44 Y’s Men of Meriden (7 by Zoom) on April 26, Betty Johnson, company
consultant, spoke about the
Bigelow
Tea Co., including the history of tea and how it is processed.
Bigelow Tea with about 400 employees has been headquartered in Fairfield
CT since its founding, but is currently moving manufacturing operations
to Orange CT.
Tea as a beverage has a history dating
back some 5000 years. It was “discovered” in China by a man sitting by a
tree when a wild tea leaf fell into his drink, adding to its flavor. It
migrated into Japan (eventually home to the Japanese Tea Ceremony), and
by 1600 A.D to the West where it was quickly adopted, especially by the
English who added milk and sugar; it was so expensive that it was kept
under lock and key, available only to the wealthy. “High Tea”, which
included a full meal, was originated by the English working class; in
the American Colonies, the “British Tea Party” later reflected anger
over the high British tax on imported tea. The tea bag itself was later
invented in New York City, with original silk pouches soon replaced by
paper bags; later, adding ice was first tried during a very hot day at
the World’s Fair in 1904, and iced tea then surged in popularity.
In 1945 at age 59, interior designer
Ruth Bigelow began experimenting with traditional black tea by adding
orange rind and spices. She had her friends sample it and found there
were “constant comments” about its unique taste. Today, the Constant
Comment flavor remains the most popular of Bigelow’s 150 blends of
flavored tea. Marketing was a challenge, as grocers did not want to
stock it; however, after a gentleman noted the great aroma of the tea,
“whiffing jars” were successfully added to grocers’ displays, soon
resulting in sales.

A cup of tea

Ruth Bigelow

Gift to each attending Y's Men member
Control of this family-owned business
passed from Ruth and her husband to son David and later to granddaughter
Cindi, President and CEO since 2005. Raw tea remains grown in Sri Lanka
and China, cultivated in warm muggy soil at high altitudes, where only
the top two leaves are harvested by women and girls. Bigelow currently
produces about two billion teabags annually; in addition to its
flavoring, the tea is marketed in special packages which will retain the
full flavor for at least three years (and which will completely survive
an accidental cycle through a washing machine).
Johnson then described the makeup of
different teas (black, green, oolong and white) and their important
ingredients (caffeine, tannins and essential oils which have medicinal
properties). After weathering a full 20 minutes of questions, she then
presented each attendee with a decorative Bigelow bag loaded with a
selection of teabags. |
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