Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays from the Disabilities Network of Eastern Connecticut. Just a reminder: the office will close early on the 21st of December so that we may have our annual holiday lunch. The office will reopen on Monday the 24th for a half day, close for the 25th, and reopen for regular hours on the 26th.

This time of year, we ask you to please call before you come to make sure that the office is open, and that there is someone here to assist you. This is especially true on days when the weather is bad, or is expected to be bad. We will close the office for the safety of our staff and consumers in case of poor weather.

Our annual food drive has concluded, and though we are exhausted from the work, we are thrilled that we were able to hand out 53 food baskets which will provide holiday meals to families with disabilities who are in need this season. We thank everyone for their assistance in this project, especially the Wal-mart Super Center in Waterford, which was instrumental in helping us pull off our plan. The day we did our shopping, they provided us with people to assist us, they opened a register for us, and helped us load the groceries into the cars. We had five baskets, and could not have done it ourselves! They also supplied us with fifty dollars worth of free groceries! Thanks guys! We appreciate all of your hardwork, and your dedication to the community!

Point in Time Count

On December 30th, Brynn Hickey and her husband, as well as many other volunteers and board members, will be taking part in the annual Point in Time Count of Homeless individuals in New London County. This is a very important fact finding event which will provide much needed data to organizations, state officials, and lawmakers about people who are homeless in our area. This is also a very important outreach activity which we take part in annually. If you would like to volunteer your time for this event, please call Brynn or Jodi at 860-823-1898!

Open House

The DNEC open house was very nice, and we are all very grateful to the legislators who dropped in to see us.Edith Prague, Kevin Ryan, and Tom Reynolds came by to wish us well. Their commitment to their community and their constituents is laudable. We were so glad to see them.

Coming up in the next couple of weeks: Holiday food baskets are going to be put together for pick up beginning next week (12/17). Also, the office will be closing early on December 21st for the holiday. We work half the day on the 24th and 31st, and are closed on the 25th and the 1st of January.

Upcoming Events

This Friday, come to our 4th annual open house held at our office from 12-3. This year is the first year we are partnering with American School for the Deaf and CRIS Radio to hold a joint event. ASD will be offering free hearing tests, and refreshments will be served. If you stop by, you may also want to bring a non-perishable food item for our food drive.

We are still taking applications for holiday food baskets! Call today-- 860-823-1898!

On January 7th, DNEC is hosting Norwich Nights at the Otis Library from 6-7:30. This month we will be discussing the powerful book "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" by Ken Kessey. Call for more information!