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09/02/2021 08:30 AMStephanie Proulx liked the Chester Rotary’s annual Lobster Fest so much that she joined the organization. Now, along with Ted Taigen, the Chester Rotary’s president, Steph is co-chair of the event, this year called Lobsters on the Lawn.
Tickets for the event, on Saturday, Sept. 11 at the Chester Fairgrounds, will only be sold online at: chesterrotary.org. Ticket purchasers will also receive a half-hour time slot in which to pick up their dinners. Gates open at 2 p.m. Live music runs from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Last year, Chester Rotary had planned a big celebration for the 50th anniversary of the event. COVID-19 changed that. Instead of a sit-down dinner, the Lobster Fest was a takeout event. Some Chester Rotarians called last year dinner Lobster Fest 49 ½.
Lobsters on the Lawn, as Rotary is calling the event this year, will feature two ways to enjoy lobster: take out or eating at well-spaced tables at the Chester Fairgrounds. Diners are also encouraged to bring their own tables if they prefer. There will no longer be a big tent with diners sitting together, a change Chester Rotary made with an eye to pandemic precautions.
Steph points out another change: bigger lobsters. Dinner will be a single 1 ½-pound lobster, rather than two small “chicken lobsters.” And if attendees prefer the steak option, this year there will be a larger New York strip steak rather than, as in previous years, two smaller steaks that Rotarian Jan Taigen described as baseball steaks because they are filets, each the size of a baseball.
For those who chose to eat at the fairgrounds, two groups will provide music, the Gary Torello Band and John Brown and the Back Porch Pickers.
There will be a special tribute this year to Betty Tremalgia, a lifelong Chester resident who has a unique distinction: She has attended every single lobster fest since the dinners started.
Proceeds from Lobsters on the Lawn go towards the support that Chester Rotary provides to local groups, among them Tri-Town Youth Services, the Chester Hose Company, Camp Hazen YMCA and Shoreline Soup Kitchens. Chester Rotary also contributed to the outdoor classroom project at Chester Elementary School spearheaded by Lol and Charlene Fearon.
“We did plantings and beautification,” Steph notes.
She adds that in some cases grants from the local Rotary Club can be augmented by matching funds from the district, which encompasses a number of clubs.
“That can make the donations even more significant,” she says.
Steph grew up in Madison and went to local school before high school at Portsmouth Abbey in Rhode Island. She wanted to go there they had a program that would have enabled her to continue horseback riding. That isn’t how things turned out.
“I didn’t ride at all,” she says. “I played soccer and lacrosse.”
She stayed in Rhode Island for college at Salve Regina University, majoring in political science. Then she came back to Connecticut, where she continued her long association with Camp Hazen YMCA. She was first a camper, then a counselor, and finally a year-round employee in charge of development.
Now Steph works in medical communications, developing written materials on new medications and arranging meetings to let the medical community learn about them. Her job had involved a lot of travel until the pandemic.
“I was traveling every other week. I miss it. I’m definitely ready to go back,” she says.
She has developed a pandemic hobby: gardening. She started with three small vegetable patches. Now she has a large, fenced vegetable garden, 20 feet by 20 feet, in the back of her house.
“I got 100 tomatoes this month,” she says.
She is also doing a lot of landscaping.
“Once you start, you just can’t stop,” she admits.
In addition to gardening, Steph and her husband Steve Cline, an attorney who practices in Essex, have been training a new puppy, a rescue Steph has named Molly. Steph had a DNA test done for Molly and says she is a mix of German shepherd, Labrador retriever, and husky.
Her other dog, Maverick, is a Nova Scotia duck tolling retriever. Steph got the dog at an adoption event; Maverick had been surrendered by his former owners. Steph didn’t know very much about the breed, but Maverick has converted her.
“Adopting was a total fluke but now I will always have one,” she says.
Steph is now the sergeant-at-arms of the Chester Rotary. It’s her job to collect the Happy Dollars at meetings. Rotary members contribute Happy Dollars every week to mark things they want to celebrate. The funds, used at the club’s discretion for anything from awards to club outings and refreshments, allow Rotary to donate all the money collected from events like Lobsters on the Lawn to the community organizations they support.
Steph is committed Rotarian.
“It’s a great organization, great friendships, lifelong connections,” she says.
Last year, at the take-out Lobster Fest, Steph was one of the people who delivered meals to people’s cars. Even though there is an option to eat at Chester Fairgrounds at this year’s Lobsters on the Lawn, Steph will still be helping those who prefer takeout to carry their dinners to vehicles.
“I must have done a good job last year because they asked me again,” she says.
Lobsters on the Lawn
Chester Rotary’s annual Lobsters on the Lawn is on Saturday, Sept. 11. Gates Open at 2 p.m. with live music from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. To order tickets, visit chesterrotary.org and click on the link for the event. All tickets will be sold online. No tickets will be sold at the door.