New London CT Rotary - Community Awards

Michael Belt began the presentation of the Unsung Hero Award to Car Lee by mentioning that Carl was an active member of the St. James congregation. Carl has helped the church with heating and plumbing projects, and that spirit of involvement and helpfulness was the theme that would carry through the awards presentation.

Carl has been involved with the greater New London community. He is currently the head of the West Street Neighborhood Alliance, part of the New London Neighborhood Alliance, a group Carl has been active with a long while. He was a graduate, a few years ago, of the “Police Academy,” a program that teaches citizens about what police do and how to interact with them. Carl and former City Councilor John Maynard formed C.O.P — “Citizens on Patrol. Over time, that group became less active, but was restarted after the shooting of Jarrad at Paky’s a few years ago.

Modest but enthusiastic, Carl Lee expanded his community service and became very active in the boardwalk rehabilitation project at Ocean Beach and is a member of S.O.B. — Save Ocean Beach.

Peg Curtin gave Carl Lee the Unsung Hero Award, and then Carl spoke. He thanked his wife, Pat, for her 45 years of love and support. Carl said New London is a great city, and it is the volunteers who really make it all happen. He said volunteering takes a lot of commitment, a lot of time, and you have to have fun while you are doing it. You have to take things on with a smile. Carl talked about the neighborhood alliances and Ocean Beach projects, including refurbishing of the kids’ pool and playground. He thanked our Rotary club for our recent contribution of $5,000 to S.O.B., and reminded us of the April 24^th project to replace the toilets.

Carl ended his acceptance speech with thanks to our club for his award and thanks to us as citizens for volunteering our time and money to help New London. He ended by saying “If you need a hand, give me a call!”

Carl Lee is clearly a New Londoner who loves his city and who has donated his time, energy and talents to help improve it. He puts the focus on results and the community, not himself, which makes him truly an unsung hero.

The Unsung Hero Award, as conferred by the club, shall be used on service to the community. It is an award of the club and it was established to honor a person within our community who has given volunteer service over the years without regard to recognition or reward.

The guidelines for selecting the recipient of the Unsung Hero Award include the following:

1.The recipient should be a volunteer who has worked in the community without recognition.
2.The recipient should be selected for community work that is not related to Rotary activities.
3.The recipient should be someone who has not been honored by an organization or public testimonial.
4.The recipient should be someone who has not held office in the sponsoring organization.
5.The recipient should be generally unknown to the majority of the community.

The Unsung Hero Committee, as appointed by the President, is responsible for the selection of each year's Unsung Hero. The award should traditionally be presented during National Volunteer Week, but may be presented at any other time.