Carol Marelli-a Volunteer to be Cherished

Carol Marelli-a Volunteer to be Cherished

Behind every successful Community Project there is a Volunteer who has the vision and the passion to make it succeed. Two summers ago, then President of the East Lyme Public Trust Foundation, Carol Marelli, presented to our group a plan for a fund raiser and also for a project that would bring our community together for the Holidays. The E.L. P.T. F. immediately agreed to take on this project.

Then, Carol, knowing we could not achieve a success alone, proposed to Niantic Main Street that they partner with us in this endeavor. They, too, happily agreed to join us in this undertaking we called Buoys by the Bay.

Carol then got Sue Kumro, the President of Niantic Main Street, to agree to sell the Buoys at Mermaid Liquors along with Laura Westner and Rachel Redding of Coastal Crab. Both these establishments had a healthy competition to see who could sell the most buoys.

Carol then got East Lyme Tru-Value to donate 1,500 feet of rope to create the handles for the buoys. In addition, Marker 7 Marina agreed to cut and fuse the rope in preparation to making the handles.

As the buoys started to be submitted, she kept detailed records of each submission. Then, she would photograph many of them and send those photos to the Publicity Chair for posting on Facebook and other sites.

Each year, Carol has also organized volunteers to come to her home to attach the ropes to the buoys. This year she has also organized a committee to repair the trees that were created last year and decorate them with lights and garland.

At the end of this process, she was down at the Town Green on Main Street, helping to erect the trees and then transport and hang the buoys, all of which she had stored at her house.

Finally, she organized, with the help of Sue Kumro, the Opening Night Ceremony.

Does anyone have any idea of how many volunteer hours she has dedicated to this project! If we paid her by the hour, she could book a long vacation to the place of her dreams.

Our Community owes her a great debt of gratitude for her creativity, organization, and dedication. Our Town is a special place because of special citizens like Carol.