Monson to honor tornado volunteers

MONSON ? A special ceremony to honor the 2012 citizens of the year ? all the volunteers who helped after last year's tornado ? will be held Tuesday night by Monson Rotary at Dave Grieve Park at the gazebo downtown.

The stone to honor the volunteers already is in place and will be dedicated that night. It reads: ?Forever Grateful to all the Volunteers who Participated in Monson?s Recovery from the Tornado of June 1, 2011.?

Dorothy P. Jenkins, a Rotary Club member, said that when it came time to choose its citizen of the year, the club could not select just one person because so many had donated their time to help Monson. Two letters suggesting that all the volunteers be honored, from Town Administrator Gretchen E. Neggers and resident Geraldine DePace, were particularly moving, she said.

?How could you just choose one from all the people who helped Monson?,? Jenkins said. ?It was the right decision to make.?

Pastor Robert Marrone, of the First Church of Monson, will do the invocation at the ceremony. Jenkins said the highway staff helped move the stone, found on Jeanne and Kenneth Bailey?s Ely Road property after the tornado, to the park. Made of Monson granite, Jenkins said ?this strong base stands as a permanent reminder to all who pass through Main Street in the town of Monson . . . Monson strong.?

?Monson strong? became a catchphrase in the days after the tornado to describe the resilience of the community.

Free food will be served all night starting at 6 p.m. until none is left. JB Catering, which is operated by Rotarian Jeanne Bailey, will prepare the food, while other Rotarians serve it. Hamburgers, hot dogs and sweet potato fries will be served, along with water and soda. Monson Village Pizza will donate free pizza. The club also will collect donations for Open Pantry.

The event, which is partially funded by a Cultural Council grant, will be held rain or shine, but if it rains, the 7 p.m. concert by the Dan Kane Singers will be moved inside Memorial Hall across the street, Jenkins said.

Jeanne Bailey said that after the tornado downed so many trees on their property they found granite buried in the woods, under brush.

?I knew it didn?t get blown in,? she said. ?It was the perfect shape ? a square piece of granite.?

She thought it was the right shape for a memorial stone, and that?s how it came to be used as a marker for the volunteers. Bailey said she was told by her late neighbor that there used to be a trail going past her property to Mt. Ella leading to a zoo that featured lions and alligators. That was back in the 1800s. The granite was brought up the trail from the Flynt Quarry for the zoo, she said.

Local landmarks such as Memorial Hall and Monson Free Library are made of granite from the quarry.

Source: http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/08/monson_to_honor_tornado_volunt.html

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