Still Time For Bristol Community To Nominate Honorees For 'Patriots Day Awards'

By Brian M. Johnson, The Bristol Press

March 4, 2022

There’s still time for the community to nominate honorees for this year’s “Patriots Day Awards,” organized by The Veterans Strong Community Center and the Wernicki family.

Patriots Day is held in recognition of The Battle of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. This event was referred to as “The Shot Heard Round the World” by poet Ralph Waldo Emerson. It was the first battle that started the American Revolutionary War.

Patriots Day is also used as an occasion to honor veterans and service members in local communities. Four Bristol patriots were nominated in both 2018 and 2019 to receive Patriots Day awards. Now, after a brief break due to the pandemic, the Veterans Strong Community Center hopes to bring back what they hope will become a long-standing annual tradition.

"I think Patriots Day is about giving back to your community holistically, not just from a military perspective,” said Amy Wernicki, board president at Veterans Strong Community Center, Inc. “When we look at Patriots Day, they were serving their communities. We’ll be looking at how nominees made Bristol better in addition to serving our country."

Nomination letters are now being accepted for the selection of this year’s Patriots Day honorees. Bristol residents are asked to consider nominating a local veteran, serviceman or servicewoman either living or deceased. In their letter, they are asked to write how this person has been heroic in serving our country.

Letters must be sent by or before March 25 to the attention of Maggie Wernicki: The Patriots’ Day Initiative 87 Great Pine Path, Plantsville, CT 06479. People can also email letters to maggie.wernicki@gmail.com.

Wernicki said Stacey Perrone-Petta, of Wolcott, was the first to propose the recognition of Patriots Day in Connecticut.

Wernicki said Sen. Rob Sampson, of Southington and Wolcott, was “instrumental” in getting legislation passed to make the holiday official. Wolcott then became the first community to adopt a Patriots Day ceremony in Connecticut, with Bristol being the second.

Gina Salvatore hosted the Patriots Day awards in 2018 in Bristol and Maggie Wernicki hosted them in 2019 for the second year in partnership with the Veterans Strong Community Center. Maggie Wernicki later became a board member at the Veterans Strong Community Center.

The 2019 recipients of Bristol’s Patriots Day awards were John Phelan, Dave Carello, Bob Barnett and Frank Nicastro.

The 2018 Patriots Day Award recipients were Art Ward, Tim Gamache, John Lodovico and Bob Coffey.

Brian M. Johnson can be reached at 860-973-1806 or bjohnson@bristolpress.com.