On Tuesday, Sept. 22, the Wellington Village Council issued a proclamation honoring the Crowned Pearls of Wellington and the Wellington Rotary Club for their “humanitarian efforts and support of the Wellington community.”
Since May, the two civic organizations have provided volunteers each Tuesday morning to hand out food and vouchers to some 900 families per week at Wellington’s food giveaway near the Mall at Wellington Green. The vouchers and food feed a family of four for a week.
“That’s nearly 13,000 meals,” said Community Services Director Paulette Edwards, introducing representatives from each group. “We called upon civic groups to help, and I want to thank you all for showing up.”
The Crowned Pearls is a new community service entity that has organized in Wellington as an interest group affiliated with Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. Seeking to become an official chapter of the sorority, the organization began life as a social club two years ago and currently has a membership of about 50 professional women in the area. They must show active civic engagement to earn their affiliation.
The Rotary has had a Wellington chapter for 40 years showing civic participation for several generations of Rotarians, made up mostly of business leaders from the local community.
“Both of these groups continue to help us with anything we need,” Edwards said.
Crowned Pearls President Jenny Hassell said that her group will continue to offer their support. “We are committed to do whatever we can to help the community,” she said.
Wellington Rotary President David Berns agreed. “We have embraced this project,” he said. “We are honored to be part of this project, and I know you [the council members] were all out there as well.”
The council members took turns praising the two groups for their efforts.
“It’s nice to celebrate one of our newest civic organizations with one of our oldest,” Councilman Michael Napoleone said.
“We all bring a skillset to help the community from the volunteers to the staff members, and we don’t want anyone to go unnoticed for their efforts on this project,” Mayor Anne Gerwig added.
Both Vice Mayor Tanya Siskind and Councilman Michael Drahos said that the groups bring great credit to the Wellington community.
“We really, really appreciate it. We couldn’t do it without you,” Siskind said.
“These are two organizations that personify what is great about Wellington,” Drahos added. “People need to hear about stories like this.”
Councilman John McGovern concluded by thanking them not only for what they have already done, but what they will do in the future.
“We still have not reached the magnitude of what these groups have done,” he said. “These two groups have made it happen week in and week out, despite the adversity. You are a group of devoted givers. From every one of us, please keep standing with us. We need you. I am confident these groups will be there with us.”
