SHELTON — The Derby-Shelton Rotary Club held its 5th Annual Flags for Heroes Ceremony on Saturday, June 13, 2026, at Shelton Veterans Memorial Park.

This patriotic community tribute honored heroes who have made a meaningful impact in our lives — including veterans, active military, first responders, healthcare workers, teachers, coaches, community leaders, neighbors, and loved ones.

In the weeks leading up to the ceremony, hundreds of American flags were displayed on the Derby Green and the Shelton Veterans Memorial Park in a powerful visual tribute to service, sacrifice, and community pride. They will continue on display until June 18.

Community members, families, and businesses sponsored over 300 flags in honor of their heroes. Each sponsored flag includes a commemorative tag bearing the hero’s name and recognition.

New This Year

Sponsors also had the opportunity to upload a photo of their hero, which were featured on a slideshow throughout the morning and during the ceremony as part of the event’s commemorative display—bringing each tribute even more to life. Many did send in photos and we look forward to even more next year.

Proceeds from the Flags for Heroes program support local charitable initiatives and community service projects led by the Derby-Shelton Rotary Club.

The ceremony will feature patriotic reflections, community recognition, and a moment of gratitude honoring those who serve and inspire. Something new this year is that we will be displaying a slideshow of our heroes with the photos being provided.

This year’s event is especially meaningful as it coincides with the United States 250th Anniversary, making it a powerful moment to celebrate patriotism, unity, and service.

Click on following links to see all the heroes honored with flags from:

Derby         Shelton

Rotarians and friends came together for an evening of fun and to support Rotary’s efforts to End Polio Now.  At the Courtyard Marriott in Shelton, The Bare Slate held a workshop where participants stained, stenciled and dabbed to produce individual projects.  With complimentary wine and snacks, tea cup raffles and fellowship, money was raised to help the End Polio Now Initiative of Rotary International.

When Rotary began its Polio Eradication Program in 1988, there were 350,000 cases of wild polio in 125 countries.  Since then, the global burden of polio has been reduced by 99.9%.

Eradication efforts have successfully wiped out two of the three wild poliovirus strains. In February 2026, the World Health Organization reported that wild polio cases in Afghanistan and Pakistan had fallen to 41 cases across 24 districts.  Afghanistan and Pakistan are the only remining polio endemic countries where insecurity continues to hamper efforts to reach all children.

The Initiative vaccinates millions of children multiple times annually.  Every year more than 650,000 children are spared lifelong paralysis thanks to continued polio eradication efforts.  With fundraisers like this, we continue our efforts and are almost there.

Polio anywhere is a risk everywhere.  Together…we End Polio Now

This happy group of third graders at St. Mary / St. Michael School were thrilled with their new dictionaries.

Derby-Shelton Rotarians have made it an annual habit to assist in the education of all third graders in Derby and Shelton since 2003. Each year members of the club take time to visit each of the public and private grammar schools in the two towns and present each of the third graders with their own dictionary! Kim Ryan-Caro who coordinates the program each year reports that 424 dictionaries were given out this year by the following volunteers:

Shelton

Booth Hill School – Liza Gambino

Elizabeth Shelton School – Joe & JoAnn Shapiro and Gary Scarpa

Long Hill School – Lucy Andrade and Sharon Herman

Mohegan School – Carolyn Dow

Sunnyside – Gayle Kreho

Derby

Bradley School – Linda Homes-Hannon

St. Mary/St. Michael – Jack Walsh

A few pictures of Linda in action at Bradley School:

Since 2008, Derby-Shelton Rotarians (and friends) have taken pleasure in delivering buckets of sand to seniors in Derby and Shelton in advance of upcoming winter storms. This year, the Club is delivering 100 buckets to those in the two towns who have requested the buckets to help give their porches, stairs, and sidewalks a little more traction throughout the upcoming months. As always Kim Ryan-Caro did another outstanding job coordinating the project with club president Joe Shapiro mapping out delivery routes. A special thanks goes to the Shelton Department of Public Works for helping to make this project possible.

The following are this year’s volunteers with their assignments.

Check out all these smiling Rotarians (and friends) as they prepare the buckets for delivery on a freezing December Day!

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Few Derby-Shelton Rotary projects bring more smiles to faces of children than the annual distribution of attractive winter coats to children enrolled in the early childhood programs run by TEAM, Inc. This year the club donated 72 coats to children participating in Team’s programs. The Club has been doing this since 2008 and the total number of coats distributed now stands at well over 1,200. Project Warmth is national in scope, but its impact is felt most in local communities. We have a couple of pictures of some smiling kids with new coats featured below and you can even view a couple of videos dating all the way back to 2008 here.

Ernie Luise, a past club president and also a past District Governor coordinates the program on behalf of the club and Jamie Peterson, Lead Director of Early Childhood, handles the arrangements for TEAM. One parent’s comment sums up the feelings about the program – “I didn’t expect this and it came just when we needed it”. Derby-Shelton Rotary is proud to work with TEAM to make this program possible.

The 1916 Derby-Shelton Bridge which received a complete makeover ending in 2024 has been enhanced once again in time for Memorial Day thanks to the Derby-Shelton Rotary Club and the Derby and Shelton Public Works Departments. Brand new American flags have been installed just in time for the annual Memorial Day parade which takes place on Monday, May 26 and the Rotary Club’s Flags for Heroes program. Work crews deployed the flags from the light posts along the bridge on a windy day that showed the beauty of the display. The middle of the bridge is the site of a special wreath ceremony during the parade each year honoring those who died in the service of their country. Learn more about the Flags for Heroes program here.

The Derby-Shelton Rotary Club held a special and very successful Do-it-Yourself Tray Workshop on February 7 with proceeds to benefit the Club’s efforts to eradicate Polio.

Thank you to everyone who attended.

Full details are in the poster below.

Just in time for the first warning signs of winter snow, Derby-Shelton Rotarians spent the day loading buckets of sand and slat to be delivered to senior citizens in Deby and Shelton. This annual project under the direction of Kim Caro is a time consuming and physically challenging event for Rotarians as they fill the buckets and then deliver them in person to seniors who signed up in the weeks prior to the event.  Volunteers who participated in this year’s effort included:

Joe and JoAnn Shapiro
Doug LaMonte
Kim Caro
Linda Homes-Hannon
Carolyn Dow
Porter McKinnon
Jeff Forte
Tom Wilson
Chris Carey
Sharon Herman
Liza Gambin
Danny Allen
Sal Rio
Matt McGeen
Drew Scott

Over 90 seniors are benefitting from this year’s program.

Some additional pictures:

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Students at St. Mary-St. Michael School in Derby proudly display their new dictionaries!

Derby-Shelton Rotarians are very busy distributing dictionaries to every third grader to public and parochial schools in Derby and Shelton as they have been doing since 2003. We’re checking for previous numbers, but Kim Ryan Caro who chairs the program reports that we have distributed an average of 504 dictionaries since 2011.

This year’s volunteers and the schools they will be visiting are:

Liza Gioni Gambino- Booth Hill

Lucy Andrade- Long hill

Carolyn Dow and Sharon Herman – Mohegan

Lorraine Inzerra and Betsey Doane -Sunnyside

Ernie Luise – Holy Trinity Catholic Academy

Joe and JoAnn Shapiro- Elizabeth Shelton

Jack Walsh – Saint Mary/Saint Michael’s (Derby)

Linda Hannon Holmes – Bradley (Derby)

Pat Tarasovic – Irving (Derby)

Kim Ryan Caro will help Pat

These happy kids are showing off their stylish new winter coats!

The Derby-Shelton Rotary club is at it again helping to make for a warm and fashionable winter for some of the children at TEAM, Inc. This year that means that 72 children will be receiving brand new winter coats just as the temperature starts to drop. The Derby-Shelton Rotary Club has been participating in Project Warmth since 2001 and has donated 1,192 coats and 36 pairs of sneakers to children in the Valley serviced by TEAM. Jamie Peterson, Lead Director of Early Childhood at TEAM noted that not only are the kids thrilled with their coats, but so are the parents. One new parent saw the coats and said, “I’d love one, but I just don’t have the money for it right now”. When she found out it was a gift; she cried happy tears. Rotary is not in the tears business, but as you can see in the pictures above, we are in the smiles business. Thanks to Rotarian Ernie Luise for once again coordinating this important program for the Club.