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09/26/2018 08:30 AMIn May, Eileen Pettit retired from her position as assistant director of recreation, leaving a busy schedule of summer camps and concerts after 30 years in the department.
Over the summer, Eileen moved to Naples, Florida, with her wife, Anne Marie. They were married in the Omni Hotel around Thanksgiving 2017 after 25 years together.
“Years and years ago I said, ‘When I retire, Naples is where I want to be,’” Eileen says.
Eileen says she is confident leaving her department in the hands of Andy DelVecchio, who has taken over her position, as well as the rest of her staff she left behind.
“My staff always liked the fact that we became family over the years,” she says. “Not everybody can say that.”
One of Eileen’s favorite jobs in the department was managing the summer concert series. Though the concerts on the green began before Eileen’s time in the recreation department, she helped make it what it is today.
“[Planning] basically became a year-round effort,” she says. “Originally there were seven concerts on Tuesday evenings in the summer…Over the past seven or eight years, we increased that to 12 concerts.”
When Eileen shifted the concert series’ focus away from oldies and toward cover and tribute bands, its attendance jumped.
“It becomes a very community-oriented evening,” she says. “It was one of my favorite parts of my job.”
Eileen would begin looking for new acts in August, visiting venues across the region, judging audience reactions, and handling the slew of groups who wanted to perform their act for North Haven’s crowd.
Her goal was “to put a lineup together that would be interesting to a lot of different people,” she says.
When Eileen was in charge of finding the lineup, she made sure to bring back community favorites like the Classics, an oldies band that remains popular despite changing crowds.
“I’ll tell you, people really were appreciative and very generous,” she says.
Last year, the Department of Recreation took over the Halloween Trunk or Treat program that originated in the first selectman’s office when a snowstorm made Halloween unsafe one year.
The department, which will host the event again this year, takes place in the high school parking lot, where people can come with a trunk load of candy to pass out for trick or treaters in a safe way.
Originally from Weston, Connecticut, Eileen went to Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) for a degree in physical education before coming to North Haven to make her career.
When Eileen left SCSU, she took a job as director of North Haven’s summer camps, planning daily activities as well as field trips for children aged 6 to 12.
During the pursuit of her Physical Education degree, she student taught at the North Haven High School for a year, leading to her decision to look for work in town after she graduated.
“I loved it. I loved the school,” she said. “I met a lot of great people.”
As director of the summer camps, Eileen would organize field trips to places like the Liberty Bell cruise in New Haven and the Beardsley Zoo. During one trip to the zoo, Eileen saw something that would change the recreation department’s summer camps for the better.
“We pulled in and I saw another bus from North Haven. It happened to be Camp Celebration,” Eileen says.
At the time, Camp Celebration was North Haven’s summer camp program for children with special needs. It was also run by North Haven, but separately from the other kids.
Afterwards, Eileen spoke to Nancy Ceballos, then the director of Camp Celebration, and they decided to integrate the two summer camps.
“At that time, inclusion wasn’t like what it is now,” Eileen says. “Let’s make it one camp. They’re all children.”
Eileen went on to expand North Haven’s Special Olympics program from just a few sports to many other events including bowling, track and field, softball, and several others.
“We made accommodations and we still are making accommodations for people with special needs,” Eileen says.
Now that Eileen is retired from North Haven, she doesn’t expect to work anymore, though she might volunteer when she and her wife are settled in to their new home in Florida.
“I loved every minute,” Eileen says. “Not everybody gets up every day and looks forward to going to work and I can honestly say that I did.”