Melissa Bailey Photo
Firefighter Wilfredo Pabon delivers a food basket to Amelida Velasquez.
Fire Lt. Steve Durand, who grew up in Fair Haven and descended from an Italian immigrant fruit-peddler, returned to his neighborhood school Tuesday to help the next wave of newcomers put food on the Thanksgiving dinner table.
Durand organized a donation drive among firefighters that netted $1,000 to buy turkeys and other Thanksgiving food for families at Fair Haven School. The donation helped the school expand its annual holiday food drive to serve about 200 families, according to Principal Margaret-Mary Gethings.
The connection took place on Sept. 11, when Durand (pictured) and fellow firefighters visited the school to read books to kids. Gethings (at left in photo) asked him if he’d be willing to help with the school’s Thanksgiving food drive. Durand said yes.
The request hit home for him: Durand attended Fair Haven School from grades 5 to 8, back when it was Fair Haven Middle. He grew up not far from the school, on Lloyd Street, as part of a large Italian family that occupied four houses in a row. The family would gather 40 people for big Italian Thanksgiving dinners. Durand recently married and moved to West Haven, but he still has family in the neighborhood.
Durand rounded up donations in the Lombard Avenue firehouse, where he works. The Hispanic Firefighters Association and the fire union chipped in, too. Meanwhile, Fair Haven staff recruited donations from other groups: Amity High School; Southern Connecticut State University; Kinney & Gunning Law Offices; Libero Jewelers in North Haven; Hamden Youth Hockey; and Chabaso Bakery, which donated 200 loaves of bread.
With all of those donations, members of Fair Haven’s student council assembled boxes of canned goods, toiletries, and pies. Staff bought turkeys and stashed them in school freezers.
On Tuesday, a brigade of firefighters descended on the school to help distribute the bounty.
Firefighters Antonio Almodovar and Miguel Rosado carried boxes of food for Fair Haven School moms Cynthia Fargas (pictured) and Amelia Feliciano.
Amelida Velasquez (pictured at the top of this story), who has two kids at the school, led firefighter Wilfredo Pabon to her car. Pabon’s dad moved to New Haven over 50 years ago from Puerto Rico. Velasquez is a new immigrant from Guatemala. She said she planned to prepare a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner for 10 people, complete with turkey and “punche,” a Spanglish word for “punch.”
Outside the school, Durand recalled his own immigrant roots: His great-grandfather moved to New Haven from Italy and worked as a fruit peddler.
“When my family moved here,” he said, there were Italian, Irish and Polish immigrants moving into town. He said the next wave of newcomers are just like his ancestors. “They’re just from a different part of the world.”
Past stories on Fair Haven School:
• VH1 Helps 15th City School Start Tooting
• Mr. Shen & Ms. Benicio Hit The Books
• Maneva & Co. Take On The ‘Burbs
• Aekrama & Ali Learn The Drill
• Fair Haven Makes Room For Newest Students
• From Burundi, A Heart Beats On
• As Death Nears, She Passes Down The Dance