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The Granby Drummer
Five things to know for a successful Granby Road Race By Aubrey Schulz
Eleanor Roosevelt touched many lives By Susan Patricelli Regan
On Saturday, May 4, we want all runners and members of the community to have an enjoyable morning, whether you are racing or spectating. The morning consists of a 5K and 10K race starting at 8:30 a.m. in front of the Granby Memorial Middle School on Route 10/202. At 9:30 a.m., a Kids’ 1 Mile Fun Run caps off the morning of running. Get ready!
1. You can register on race day using your phone, but only until 8 a.m. But who needs that stress? Don’t wait until the last minute. Visit ghymca.org/ events/granby-road-race to register in advance. The deadline to get a tee-shirt was April 19, but you still get all the other great benefits! 2. When parking, use the entrance to the high school/middle school off Route 189. The entrance on Route 10/202 will be closed because the volunteers will be setting up for the race. Arrive early to get a good parking spot and reduce prerace nerves. 3. Runners love spectators! Let’s make some noise: make a sign, ring that cowbell! Cheer on the 5K runners in Salmon Brook Park, especially near the tennis courts. Make some noise for the 10K runners before they enter the woods into McLean. They run along Canton Road and enter the woods just after Whitman Drive. Stand on the corner of any street
May 2024
Daniel Owen of North Granby running an earlier 10K race through McLean. Photo by Jay Harder
along that stretch of road and cheer your loudest. 4. We love volunteers! It takes a lot of help to pull off a great race. We are looking for help on race day. Key jobs are handing out water and directing runners. Email granbyroadrace@ghymca. org to volunteer. 5. Celebrate the history of the Granby Road Race. As you toe the Dennis Lobo Start Line, race up Hildreth Hill and cross the David Bale Finish Line, you help honor the founders of the race who will forever be a part of the Granby Road Race course. Let’s make the 2024 edition of the Granby Road Race a great one! We look forward to seeing you out there on race day!
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Part-time 4pm-9pm for 20 or 25 hours, includes every other weekend. We are looking for caring and compassionate certified nurse aides (CNAs). We offer excellent patient to aide ratios along with a supportive, friendly team environment with patient-centered care always the goal. We have a 25% weekend differential with competitive hourly pay rates. Call us today to see why McLean Care is the best care! McLean, Simsbury, 860-658-3724. EOE.
I noted with interest the article submitted by Sarah Merrill of Granby Racial Reconciliation (GRR) regarding the personal and political friendship between First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary McLeod Bethune, one of the nation’s most powerful Black political figures through the 1930s and 40s. Mrs. Roosevelt’s voice was respectfully welcomed on many global issues while President Roosevelt was infirmed with poliomyelitis during his years in office. By demeanor she was a cultured and worldly woman who managed to resonate with peers (both men and women) as well as the minimally educated person without patronizing the recipient of her message. Sylvia Davis Patricelli, my mother, was honored by Roosevelt’s influence by bridging her internationally recognized talent as a portrait painter in her homeland and her new home as a WWII war bride in Hartford, having married my father in Sydney. Roosevelt had heard about my mother’s accomplishments, which included a significant array of Solomon Island native paintings, while accompanying her father on a gold mining trip to the Solomons a year before the start of the war. To support Patricelli, Roosevelt wrote in her daily national newspaper column, My Day, of my mother’s achievements including her graduation from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and recognition as the youngest and most talented student. She graduated from the academy at the age of 15. Roosevelt had a personal relationship with Beatrice Auerbach, owner of G. Fox & Company, and encouraged Auerbach to hold an exhibition in the store. Roosevelt confirmed that if Auerbach did so that she would attend and speak at the event that occurred in 1951. Subsequently, the first lady sat
Susan Patricelli Regan with portrait of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Submitted photo
for her almost-life-size portrait, which now hangs in our home in Granby. The exhibition was sponsored by G. Fox & Co., WTIC and the Wadsworth Atheneum. Auerbach also commissioned my mother to paint her portrait, which was done at the Auerbach Farm in Bloomfield. That portrait hung in Auerbach’s office and when she died the portrait was draped in black velvet and hung in the front window of the store for several weeks. The portrait now resides with the family. In Patricelli’s memory, in 2017 our family established a non-profit foundation that provides fine art scholarships for secondary education tuition. Scholarships are awarded to high school students pursuing a minor or major in the creative arts. The Sylvia Davis Fine Arts scholarship has been awarded in private and public schools across Connecticut, including Granby Memorial High School. For the past three years the award has been with the CREC Half-day Art Program. See Sylvia Davis Patricelli’s story, paintings and hear Mrs. Roosevelt’s entire speech at the 1951 exhibition, as well as further foundation information, at sylviadavisartfoundation.org