By Jody Dietch
Orange Democratic Town Committee
Jody Dietch
Recently the Orange Democratic Town Committee held its annual O’Sullivan Award dinner. This annual dinner, in its 10th year, recognizes a local community member who exemplifies community service while honoring the O’Sullivan family who have given so much over the years to the Orange community as well as other area towns and cities.
This year, we honored Betty Hadlock. Hadlock’s bio is on our website (OrangeCTDems.org/o-sullivan-award-recipients). If I included it here, it would exceed my allotted word count. Hadlock exemplifies what we define as an O’Sullivan honoree as have our past honorees: Paul Davis, the late Bob Shanley, Trish Pearson, Sue Cohen, Kevin Moffett, Judy Primavera, Kevin Hadlock, Mitch Goldblatt and Phil Smith.
Being part of the ODTC isn’t just about politics. Yes, our focus is to support democratic ideals and elect Democrats to local, state and national office. However, we are also about supporting our community. We do this in many different ways. Many of our members are also involved in other organizations in town.
Here are a few of the organizations and committees where ODTC members also serve: PTAs, the Lions Club of Orange, the Rotary Club of Orange, the Garden Club of Orange, Orange Community Women, the Orange Recycling Committee, OGAT, Orange Indivisible, the Case Memorial Library board, as well as our youth sports. The list goes on.
We are a diverse group of citizens representing many communities in Orange. We want to strive to be sure all members of the Orange community are represented on the ODTC. We have members from all three districts, from retirees to young professionals, from members with young children to the young at heart with grandchildren. We have lifelong Orange residents with historical knowledge and newer residents with their eyes to the future of our town. We have strong liberal members and more moderate Democrats.
Our diversity allows us to be open to all perspectives on issues. Our community service provides the ability to meet others and hear their concerns, suggestions and perspectives while giving back to the town we all love. So being part of the ODTC is not just about politics. As a matter of fact, being part of the ODTC is more about community than politics. We are a group of Orange Democratic voters working to improve our community.
We are also elected members. We welcome members throughout the year and welcome guests to our meetings. If you would like to learn more about the ODTC, please reach out to me at JLDOrange@yahoo.com.
Finally, we want to wish everyone a happy Passover and happy Easter to those who celebrate, and hope our friends who just celebrated Eid al-Fitr, Eid Saeed.
Jody Dietch is the chair of the Orange Democratic Town Committee.