Summer finale: Rotary surprises Lewis with park honor, awards Sunzilla prizes
September 23, 2024 | By Camryn Brauns | Community News Service
Rotarian Al Lewis is honored with the Rusty Parker Memorial Park gazebo dedication announced by fellow Waterbury Rotary Club member Theresa Wood and Waterbury Municipal Manager Tom Leitz. Photo by Gordon Miller
A crowd gathered at Rusty Parker Memorial Park recently for the final farmers market of the season and to find out who won this year’s “Hunt for Sunzilla.” But first, they honored a man who helped make the park happen.
As a 43-year member of the Waterbury Rotary Club, Al Lewis has played a key role in building, cleaning and improving the park over the years.
“Our Rotary Club maintains this park, and so that means all of our members have had a hand in doing something,” Lewis said. “I mean, we just kind of do it all.”
Lewis and fellow Rotarians helped create Rusty Parker Memorial Park in 1983. Lewis says they made a commitment to the town, as well as themselves.
“We just had to put something here for the community. Now, every time I come here I reflect back on when these trees were only two inches tall,” said Lewis, surrounded by the fully grown trees he once planted in the park.
That commitment continues, even after the town took over the park two years ago. “We felt, if we’re going to build something, we don’t want to leave a burden on the town, so we made a commitment that whatever we build here, we’re going to take care of,” Lewis said.
On a warm summerlike Thursday, Sept. 12, Rusty Parker Park bustled with activity for the final farmers market of the season. Vendors lined up along the sidewalks selling vegetables, flowers and crafts; children played on the swings and Rotarians scooped free Ben & Jerry’s ice cream urging everyone passing by to have some before it melted.
The grassy lawn by the bandstand was set up for the sunflower and zucchini judging as contestants carefully laid their giant sunflower stalks down to be measured and weighed. Rotarians with tape measures and a scale carefully examined the entries to determine the winners.
Just before the Sunzilla winners were announced, the live band The Rustics handed over their microphones to Rotary Club member Theresa Wood and Town Manager Tom Leitz. The pair took center stage of the gazebo to honor Al Lewis for his 43-year commitment to the Rotary with a metal plate engraved with his name.
Wood smiled, satisfied that it appeared as if Lewis was unaware of what the Rotarians were planning. Completely surprised by this dedication, Lewis joined Wood and Leitz to be recognized as one of the chief engineers responsible for designing and creating Rusty Parker Park.
“Al made everything happen,” Leitz said in his dedication speech, crediting the Rotarian as a person that can be counted on as the keeper of the park’s history. Only in his job as manager since late 2022, Leitz said he quickly has learned where to turn for questions regarding Rusty Parker Park. “Every answer was Al,” he said.
The engraved plate recognizing Lewis will be mounted on the gazebo.
The photos above from the Waterbury Rotary Club archive collected by the Waterbury Historical Society. Click on each image to enlarge and view the captions. Below Al Lewis with his family: daughter Sarah Lewis, wife Sandy Lewis, and daughter Kaitlyn Lewis Keating. Photo by Gordon Miller
The Hunt for Sunzilla and more
People came from all around town with their biggest sunflowers for the Sunzilla judging. Photo by Gordon Miller
As Lewis walked off the gazebo stage, plaque in hand and wife Sandy by his side, it was time to crown the winners of this year’s Hunt for Sunzilla (the largest sunflower) and the Other Green Monster (the biggest zucchini).
Dressed head to toe in sunflower-themed apparel, Rotary member John Malter grabbed the megaphone to announce the winners. The organizer of the annual contest now in its 31st year, Malter coined the term “Sunzilla,” calling it the grandaddy prize. “The Other Green Monster” is a nod to Fenway Park, he noted.
“With sunflowers, you can’t do anything but smile at them,” Malter said. “So I can’t think of a better thing to add to part of our summer and part of our Rotary and part of our community.”
Back in May, Malter visited Brookside Primary School, Moretown Elementary School, and Crossett Brook Middle School to deliver trees, pass out sunflower seeds, and talk about the importance of the Arbor Day holiday.
“We help people. We help communities,” Malter said. “And this tends to be a piece that really helps to get kids growing.”
First prize for Sunzilla was given to Mike Bedit, whose sunflower clocked in at 13 feet, 5.5 inches. Last year’s Sunzilla champions, father-son duo Ed and Alex Greiner, claimed first prize for both diameter of their flower’s head, which measured 16 inches and weighed 9 pounds.
Patty McKibben and Rhonda Mannon both claimed first prizes for their Other Green Monster zucchinis, McKibben winning for her 17-and-a-quarter incher, and Mannon’s for weighing in at six pounds, 10 ounces.
Contest entries during the judging. Photo by Gordon Miller
Also part of the annual competition is a special contest just for kids. Malter wrangled a group of young contestants, all 12 and under, for the sunflower seed-spitting contest, which took place at the swingset’s edge at the park.
Each contestant spit their seeds as close to a bullseye – a makeshift hula-hoop target – as possible. Although the seeds seemed to blend into the wood chip surface, their camouflage was no match for Malter and the Rotary’s judging team, who awarded Alex Greiner with a first-place prize for spitting a sunflower seed 105.5 inches.
All prize winners walked away with an assortment of goodies including bird feeders, bird houses, sunflower seeds, gift bags and a cash prize provided by the Farmers Market and other local businesses, Evergreen Gardens, Sunflower Natural Foods and Waterbury True Value Hardware.
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