LIVE from The Travelers Championship: Cromwell Childrens Coalition

Tom Danyliw, President of the Cromwell Childrens Coalition, joins us live from the Travelers Championship to share how the group began and its mission to anonymously help children in need.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Allison to Mrs broadcasting from the Travelers Championship in Cromwell.
We're here for Birdie's for charity. Alongside, I have Tom Dan.
I have Tom Danelou He is president of the Cromwell
Children's Coalition.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Good morning, good morning, it's wonderful be here.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Wonderful For those who don't know about the Cromwell Children's Coalition,
how did it begin and what.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Is it all about? We began about eight years ago,
literally around the kitchen table on Main Street in Cromwell,
a group of friends who were trying to do something
for the children at Crumwell. And in those eight years
we've grown tremendously. It's a whole community effort. We have
oh buy in from the schools, the town hall. Every

(00:42):
resident knows us and helps us out. We run several
events during the year. Our next one is actually, believe
it or not, our Memorial Day weekend car show that
got rained out. We'll be doing it on Labor Day
weekend and instead on the twenty nine August. We always
get a great, great turnout from out of state in

(01:02):
fact as well, and all the money that we raise
goes straight back to the kids. We have no staff
or volunteer only, and it's just a great thing to
be a part of, much like the Birdies for Gerald,
except I mean, as you know Travelers, it's kind of
that Cromwell thing. Travelers is all about giving back to
the community, and we're just really excited to be a partner.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
Tell me about some of the programs and services that
you offer.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Well, the most important thing about us is that we're
double blind or completely anonymous both ways. So we worked
with community partners, school counselors, rerec departments, even individual teachers
have reached out to us, and we don't collect the
child's name, and the child never finds out that it's us,
but it can be anything at all. One of our

(01:50):
first ones seven and a half years ago was arranging
for a bike for a fifteen year old who needed
a bike doing from their first job. One of the
last ones that we did was helping raise money after
catastrophic death in the family. It really depends on what

(02:12):
that child needs just to be a child.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
Tell me what kind of impact you've seen from the
families or the children.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Probably the most important one, I think is a recognition
that it's not a sign of weakness to ask for
how what are you do? It was a little bit
more openness, and I'd like to see that happen a
little bit more.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
And I think that they feel tremendously grateful and happy
from the help that you've given them.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
You know, it's really fantastic. The kids says, they become
adults frequently come back and volunteer at ardens. A lot
of the children who do stay in town, many of
them go away to school and come back. And we've
been around long enough that we've seen some of that.
They end up showing up meetings, helping out at the

(03:01):
book show. It's fantastic, isn't that beautiful?

Speaker 1 (03:04):
You have an amazing job. We're here for Bertie's for
charity and every dollar raise we're going to get fifteen
cents from Webster Bank. If you'd like to donate, go
to Cromwell Children's Coalition dot org or Travelers Championship. Of course,
you could use sponsors for other things donations as we
just talked about, volunteers to help YEP.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
All of the above the more than Merrion. We're in
the part of a virtuous cycle. Got to keep that
cycle going.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
I'm speaking with Tom Danelou, president of the Cromwell Children's Coalition.
Again that web address Cromwell Children's Coalition dot org or
just go to Travelers Championship dot com. Thank you so
much for being here and for serving the community.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
Thank you for having me.