First Selectman Jamie Cosgrove took the Rotary Club’s Ice Bucket ALS challenge Friday afternoon along with a group of town employees, Rotary Club members, Representative Town Meeting (RTM) members and even the town’s probate judge. They assembled on the town Green after work, standing in a circle and ready to get dunked. The fire chief hovered above.
For the 40 or so who gathered on the Green, there were no ice buckets. Instead, Fire Chief Jack Ahern, crawling along an outstretched ladder atop a fire truck outside Town Hall found a way to make this event a group dunking. He positioned his truck and himself above the crowd.
Then he flipped a switch, and, voila, out came a wide spray of showers. Here’s how it sounded.
Bill Donaruma, a property appraiser, and a member of the Rotary Club, told the assembled group that the Rotary Club sent its challenge to Branford Town Hall and municipal workers via its Facebook page last Wednesday.
By the next day, he received word from Trista Milici, Cosgrove’s executive assistant, that the ice bucket challenge was on. The time: 4:30 p.m. The place: the town Green.
Here’s the group photo with Milici standing between Donaruma and Cosgrove.
Not all the town department heads and employees participated. Most skipped the event. But Town Clerk Lisa Arpin, Finance Director Jim Finch, Animal Shelter Director Laura Burban and her deputy Pam Medlyn were on the scene. So were Joanne Cleary, the tax collector, Police Capt. Geoffrey Morgan, Jose Giner, the town planner, Ray Ingraham, the Republican RTM majority leader and a strong contingent from the Rotary Club.
Donaruma stepped forward to announce the Rotary challenge to the crowd, saying that all the money collected will go to ALS. “We have Trista and the first selectman here, the most important people in Town Hall,” he observed with a smile. Applause followed.
Before the official spray took place, Cosgrove, standing in front, said: “After this, I will challenge the Branford Board of Education, the town of Guilford and and BHCare.” More applause.
“Here we go,” someone said.
“Here it comes,” said another.
As the spray hit, there were sounds and grunts of “ahs,” and “ohs!” and “Wow” along with shouts and laughter. AHHHHHHHH was the overall sound as the sprays hit faces, arms and clothes.
Within seconds, everyone was appropriately drenched.
Soon it was over. Or so everyone thought.
Before you could figure out why, two buckets of water were dumped over the head of Peter Cimino, the executive director of the Branford Counseling Center. He laughed.
Judge Forgione took the dousing in good spirit.
Everyone agreed it was for a good cause.
###
So how much exactly was raised for ALS research? I wonder if the town's resources could be better spent repairing the roads and taking down dead trees, instead of participating in these fads. I certainly notice there is no dearth of funding for the redundant brick sidewalk being installed on the south and eastern sides of the green. Meanwhile, the taxpayers in this town are getting their suspensions wrecked on countless potholes and bad patches all over town. I'd like to dunk a few folks in town hall personally.