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03/23/2016 08:30 AMHer “joiner” tendency has served Brandy Richards well as a Coast Guard wife who moves with her husband’s career every few years. It has also served the town of Killingworth well.
Since moving to the area last July with her husband Matt and their four children when Matt, a Coast Guard Academy grad and current lieutenant, was assigned back to New London as a pollution response officer, Brandy joined the Killingworth Conservation Commission (CC). She is the contact person behind the commission’s first, hopefully annual, Killingworth Clean Up Day to be held Saturday, April 30.
The event is sponsored by the CC and supported by Girl Scout Troop 60779. The goal is for everyone in town to pick up litter in their neighborhood and to bring what they have collected, both trash and recyclables (separated), to the Transfer Station on Recycle Way between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Recycle Way is on Route 81, just north of the Killingworth Library and behind Rocco Reale Field.
The CC asks that parents supervise their children and that participants wear bright clothes to be visible to passers-by, and also wear gloves to pick up items.
Brandy says, “The Girl Scouts will be [at the Transfer Station] marking the areas that people are cleaning on a map. As people come and bring their recycling and the trash they picked up along the roadside, they’ll get a small pet rock the Girl Scouts made. They collected some rocks and decorated them with googly eyes and smiley faces. People can put it in their gardens or whatever.”
Brandy says the Girl Scouts have been involved every step of the way, from creating the flyer and the logos to refining their vision of what the event is going to be.
“I’m the contact person for people to call to say where they want to clean up,” Brandy says. “If they want an idea, they can call me and I can [assign] them a particular place. We have some in mind, but really the idea is to clean up your own neighborhood. It’s our first year so we’re kind of keeping it basic, and we hope to see this really grow in the future.”
A Fresh Face
Brandy readily acknowledges both her status as a newbie and her excitement at contributing to a cause she holds dear.
“There are some people who have spent 30 years doing things for Killingworth,” she says. “They’ve been dedicating their life to the town and I’ve only been here a few months. [Killingworth Clean Up Day] was really spearheaded by Cathy Iino, our first selectman, and the local Girl Scout troop. They decided that they wanted the community to get cleaned up and that they wanted community involvement.”
Brandy adds, “Because I am new to town, I really want to emphasize how the commission has really been working hard for years and years to make Killingworth a great place and how the Girl Scouts are really leading the way on this. And our commission chairperson is Susan Dean, and she does so many fantastic things. She’s super involved with our youth, and everybody on the board has something else—the land trust, or they’re on the historic commission, or they’re bringing astronomy to the community. There’s all these little things I keep finding out people are doing.”
The Girl Scouts came to a CC meeting last week and shared their reasons for wanting to start the event.
“I wrote down all the fantastic reasons,” Brandy says, taking out a list. “‘Pride in the community, character, community togetherness, help the environment, and to increase visitors.’ The Conservation Commission really wanted to do it because cleaning up the environment is one of our goals. But we also want to increase civic engagement with our youth. Every year we’re hoping to get a group involved in this event. This year it’s the Girl Scouts, and it could be the Girl Scouts every year, but we want to really engage the youth with the cleanup, to get them involved in some way.”
The CC plans to start working with Killingworth Elementary School to teach the students about recycling. At press time, Brandy was scheduled to meet with Principal Dennis Reed this week to come up with a plan.
“I think you have to start with the kids,” Brandy says. “The kids come home and they say [to their parents], ‘Why aren’t we doing this? There was a presentation.’”
From Coast to Coast to Killingworth
Brandy and her family have lived in Washington, Alaska, Maine, and New Hampshire thanks to Matt’s career.
“We move somewhere and he instantly has friends because of [fellow academy grads], and I’m a joiner—I’m like, ‘Where are the book clubs?’” Brandy says.
Their four children are son Bryce, 6, daughter Charli, 4, and twin boys Sully and Thomas, 2 ½.
Though she hasn’t officially worked since 2008, Brandy has held many interesting jobs.
“I was a community planner, and it was a lot of just sitting at a desk,” she says. “I thought I’d be out in the community. I went back to teaching because I had done some teaching in Providence, and then I taught for two years on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, and that was really fun. That’s where I really got into teaching. I went back to teaching in Massachusetts at a charter school. I went [to grad school] for community planning and I just happened to start teaching math, and I’m actually going back for my master’s in math education. I’ve been a human rights investigator.
“With the military you get to bounce around. I haven’t worked since 2008, so I’ve just been volunteering. When we got to Killingworth, there were just so many opportunities to get involved. People are so nice.”
The Richardses knew they wanted to live in Killingworth pretty quickly.
“I came for a weekend and looked at 30 houses from Old Lyme to Branford, and both the ones I wanted were within a mile of each other in Killingworth,” Brandy says. “And of course, it’s more affordable. You can get a bigger-sized house for less money. It’s really an interesting place. I’m loving the people, and it’s really easy to get involved.”
Shortly after moving to town, Brandy’s introduction to town service started when she got lost on a trail.
Brandy recalls, “I love to run, so I was running on a trail and I saw a woman with a dog. I was like, ‘I don’t know how to get out of here,’ and she was super nice, like, ‘Here’s the way to get out.’ Later on at Parmelee Farm, I happened to see the woman with the dog, and I went up and started chatting again. She says, ‘Oh, my name’s Cathy Iino, and I’m the first selectman.’ The fact that you can just be walking a trail and get help from a local selectman is fantastic.
“I was telling her how excited I was about developing our recycling program. We compost, we recycle. [My son] came home and he says, ‘I couldn’t find the recycling bin.’ He’s in 1st grade. So he’s like, ‘Mom, I couldn’t find it in my classroom. We need to do something about this.’ I said, ‘Okay, let’s do something.’ So I talked to Cathy about it and she told me about the position on the Conservation Commission.”
Brandy finds Facebook is another great way to connect and get involved.
She says, “I started ‘Killingworth Stomping Grounds’ which is a local [Facebook] group just to post things about Killingworth. For instance, recently I posted, ‘Does anyone know of any goats that can help me weed my yard?’ and someone responded, ‘Yeah, I do.’ So it’s just a way for us to talk as a community. I know there’s plenty of [groups] out there, but there wasn’t one central to Killingworth. It’s really hard to have face time with people, but I still want to know things. That’s why I found Facebook to be fantastic for getting to know my neighbors as we move from place to place. We absolutely love Killingworth.”
Brandy jokes, “We’ve been called ketchup because we go good with everything. Although, we’re vegetarians, so we’re like tofu—we take on the flavor of anything we mix with.”
The first Killingworth Clean Up Day is scheduled for Saturday, April 30. Residents can bring trash and recyclables to the transfer station between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. and get a token of appreciation from the Girl Scouts.
For more info, or to have the Girl Scouts to give a presentation on the event to your organization, call Brandy at 978-270-9510 or email bcurtisrichards@gmail.com.
To nominate someone for Person of the Week, email Melissa Johnson at m.johnson@zip06.com.