Residents Made 2006 A Year Of Helping Others Around The World

By Nancy K. Crevier

Newtown was a giving town in 2006, donating gifts, cash, and most precious of all, time to help others in need.

Kevin Donovan, III, of Newtown found in mission work rewards far different than any he receives as a real estate agent for Advanced Real Estate Company. Mr Donovan spoke with The Bee this year about his late 2005 mission to Jamaica, working with the diocese of Montego Bay in providing spiritual renewal and teachings through his music ministry to remote communities there.

Mr Donovan’s experience in the country of Jamaica and with the people of that region made him the natural choice to lead and collate a mission team made up of 20 people from Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio. The mission to Jamaica was not his first, nor even his second, to the area. As a student at Franciscan University studying for his master’s in counseling, he became involved with mission work five years ago, traveling to many foreign countries, including Thailand, China, and Honduras, as well as Jamaica.

Newtown resident Chuck Samson chose to spend his March vacation in an area that is struggling to attract tourists, struggling to keep its residents, and struggling to take back all that it lost in Hurricane Katrina.

Biloxi, Miss., sustained severe damage when Hurricane Katrina roared ashore in August 2005. “Seven out of ten homes in East Biloxi were destroyed or had to be demolished or removed,” said Mr Samson. “Essentially,” he said, “all of the city was under water. One hundred fifty people in all of Mississippi were lost to that storm.” Along with five other men from the New York Annual Conference (NYAC) of the United Methodist Church, Mr Samson traveled to the Gulf state to offer assistance to residents of East Biloxi, a poor, mostly black part of the city 40 miles east of New Orleans, La., on the Gulf of Mexico.

Other Newtown residents, including The Newtown Bee Associate Editor Shannon Hicks and C.H. Booth librarian Kim Weber, also donated their vacation time in 2006 to travel to the Gulf area and help residents rebuild their homes and lives.

Hundreds of walkers circled the track at Newtown High School during the June Relay For Life. A celebration of survival, hope and memories, Relay For Life fluctuated between solemn ceremonies and all-night festivities as Newtowners banded together to raise funds for cancer research.

Jayson Karp of Newtown spent four hours on Saturday, July 29, seated in a kayak, fighting the waves, wind, thirst, exhaustion, and supertankers as he navigated a 13-mile stretch of Long Island Sound. Along with more than 300 other kayakers making their way from Calf’s Pasture in Norwalk to Huntington Station on Long Island, he kept in mind the stories he had heard from cancer survivors and the charities his efforts supported through Kayak For A Cause.

The Kayak For A Cause mission is to raise awareness and funds for charities chosen by the Carpe Paddlum corporation founded by Scott Carin of Rowayton and Miles Spencer of East Norwalk. The event evolved, said Mr Spencer, from two guys with a bet between them to a few “Type A personalities using their competitive nature to do some good,” to one that attracted kayakers from all over the region and that raised more than $250,000 last year.

Many other charities and organizations were benefited by the generosity of Newtown citizens in 2006, a trend that will hopefully continue into 2007 and beyond.