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Peter Conte: Getting Involved, Staying Involved

Peter Conte is one of those go-to guys—when his wife Donna’s best friend was moving back to Connecticut from Virginia, it was Peter who flew down to Virginia to drive a U-Haul truck back. With his sons Peter Jr. and Christopher “pretty much grown up,” he was looking to get more involved in town again, and as it happens, he didn’t have to look far.

Every summer, Peter is a regular at the town’s summer concerts on the green, where every week, he’d see First Selectman Michael Freda. He introduced himself.

Through those conversations, Freda got Peter in touch with New Reach, an organization that helps families affected by homelessness and poverty find housing solutions and achieve stability. As the store manager for Mattress Firm on Universal Drive, Peter was quickly able to collaborate with the organization.

“I called New Reach, I donated all the pillows” from an old store display, Peter says.

He’s since stayed an active advocate for New Reach.

“I’ll volunteer my time, I’ll do whatever I can. I’ll try to get other people involved,” he says, noting he encourages others who have old furniture they’re getting rid of to call New Reach and have them take it.

He says the volunteer work goes hand in hand with foster care, which is something Mattress Firm supports through charitable donations. His store collected toys ahead of the holidays, and throughout the year, he says there’s always some kind of drive going on that will benefit foster children, whether it’s shoes, coats, school supplies, or monetary donations.

“A really cool thing is, what we collect in this area stays in this area,” Peter says.

The issue is something he’s familiar with. Peter’s grandparents used to foster kids when he was young. Two of his family members were adopted, and he has good friends who have adopted as well.

“Adoption and foster care has been in my family my whole life,” Peter says.

As culture coach for his company’s Southeast Connecticut district (which he says is an unpaid title), Peter reaches out to get other employees involved in projects like fundraisers and company get-togethers. Peter has attended a cancer walk in Hartford, and says he’ll work diligently to get people involved in other cancer walks in the area.

One of the reasons he personally stays involved with the cancer fundraisers is because he lost his father to cancer, and his brother, who was a first responder during the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, is in the hospital battling cancer right now.

A former football player, he’s also helped out one of his son’s football team and coached a son’s town league basketball team for a year.

“I felt bad because they didn’t win the league, so I went out and bought these little trophies and gave them all little trophies; took them out for pizza,” Peter says.

A new project Peter has discussed with Freda is revitalizing a town park—Peter is looking to take some time off to help with that.

“It’s a win-win situation,” Peter says, “I live here, I get to help people here, I get involved in the community, I work here,” he says. “I love North Haven.”