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Woodbury Scholarship Fund Recipient Update

A 2002 Woodbury Scholarship Fund (WSF) winner has achieved national recognition for her senior year at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Jenna Notti, a double major in business administration and fashion merchandising, has been named a William G. McGowan Scholar.

Marist’s top business student for 2005-2006, Ms. Notti is receiving $18,000 from the William G. McGowan Charitable Fund honoring the pioneer in the telecommunications industry and founder and chairman of MCI Communications Corp. McGowan’s contributions to today’s business world were the focus of Ms. Notti’s 1,000-word essay included in her application for the award.

Like the WSF, the McGowan fund seeks excellent students to ensure they have the means to pursue further achievement. McGowan himself was admitted to Harvard Business School to study for his MBA degree, but lacked funds to complete his studies until he won Harvard’s Baker Scholars award.

The faculty committee reviews nominees’ academic records, leadership qualities, character, and commitment to helping others. Colleges and universities may only offer their students if they have business programs accredited by either the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International or the Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs.

Ms. Notti has maintained a grade point average of 3.7 out of 4.00, is a member of the Dean’s Circle and the AACSB honor society Beta Gamma Sigma, and is involved in the Marist chapter of Habitat for Humanity. For three years, in Big Brothers Big Sisters, she has been a friend to a little girl, now 9, with whom she lunches, does arts and crafts, and shares her experiences. "She wants to be a fashion designer, too," says Ms. Notti.

Daughter of Lisa and Ken Notti of Hillside Road, Ms. Notti has completed two summer internships in New York City. In 2004 for the merchandising division of Saint Eve International, she sent swatches to factories for new season orders and updated accounts tracing sales at existing outlets. In 2005 for B. Robinson’s Product Development Department she helped with development of designer sunglasses, doing a trend board of Isaac Mizrahi models for Target, helping design and develop specification sheets for Betsy Johnson merchandise, and running a trunk show at Bergdorf Goodman for the Judith Lieber sunglasses collection .

In December she plans to finish her business degree with three major projects: business plans for Google and for Ask Jeeves, and a marketing plan for Apple Ipod. In May, developing a business plan for a collection done by a Marist senior design major, she will complete her fashion merchandising degree.

One of four members of her Nonnewaug class now attending Marist, Ms. Notti plans to seek employment next spring and enter the fashion profession immediately after graduation, before thinking about graduate school.

Supported by the generosity of local residents, WSF manages many endowments given to celebrate or remember beloved family and community members. At www.wsfund.org, those wishing more information will find details. Those who wish to donate or discuss the advantages of giving appreciate stocks, unredeemed IRA accounts, and bequests may contact Chair Cam Gardella, 263-4952, or write WSF at Box 716, Woodbury, CT 06798. Because WSF is an all-volunteer effort to send forth excellent students to represent Woodbury, almost all funds go to graduates to use in education after high school.

The 2004 Woodbury Scholarship Fund Annual Benefit Golf Tournament

Bob LaBonne Sr. is helping the Woodbury Scholarship Fund kick off its 12th Annual Benefit Golf Tournament scheduled for Monday, May 17th at the Country Club of Waterbury.  Bob will serve as Honorary Chairman for the event in recognition of his longstanding community service.
 
Bob is the well-known owner and chairman of LaBonne's Market that opened in Woodbury in 1987. He has focused his business on high quality and meat products throughout his 56 years of experience in retail food marketing. Fortunately for Woodbury, he always lends strong community support as well.  Distinctly people oriented, he has always held a visible position in the communities where he does business.
 
Bob has been particularly prominent in his hometown of Watertown where he is extremely active in the
Watertown Lion's Club. Along with serving on the board of directors of the Connecticut Food Stores and
being a past president, he is the President of the Watertown Foundation, a board member of Watertown
VNA Health at Home, and founding president of Watertown Crime Stoppers. He is a past president of the
Watertown Chamber of Commerce and a committee member for the Easter Seal Ham-o-Shanter fundraising drive. Bob has raised thousands of dollars for the Watertown Junior Golf Program. 
 
Bob's philanthropy extends beyond his hometown. In 1991, Bob started the LaBonne's 1% Rebate Program for charities, churches, school groups an non-profit organizations to join and save LaBonne's grocery receipts.  Since it's inception, LaBonne's has given back to these organizations over $272,000; and is growing!  Many Woodbury organizations benefit from this program.  LaBonne's Annual Charity Golf Tournament has raised over $100,000 for the area food banks.
 
As an avid golfer, LaBonne's has been a sponsor and participant in the Woodbury Scholarship Fund Golf Tournament since it's first tournament year in 1993.  And, he'll be back this year, welcoming golfers to the WSF tournament.
  
Featured at the tournament are a full lunch and 18 holes of golf with fees and cart.  The format of play is "best ball of four" with a shotgun start at 12:00 Noon.  Immediately following tournament play, tee-offs
start the Sanditz Travel Agency Shoot-out for the most competitive golfers and the Wayne Pratt Antique
Shoot-out for those "antique" golfers.  A banquet dinner with prizes and trophies follows all.
 
The registration fee is $185 with a registration deadline of May 8th.  Individual entries are welcome, as are foursomes. Registration forms will be made available at the Woodbury Public Library. 
 
For more information, call Reed Bertolette at (203) 263 2886 or write to Golf Tournament, Woodbury
Scholarship Fund, PO Box 716, Woodbury CT 06798.
 
Pictured above from the left are Bob LaBonne Sr. and WSF Trustee, Reed Bertolette.

The Woodbury Scholarship Fund Recipient Update

A 1991 graduate of Nonnewaug High School, with a little help from the Woodbury Scholarship Fund (WSF), is contributing to world health, especially maternal and pediatric. In fact, Jennifer L. Gardella has just returned from two weeks in South Africa where she worked with Cape Town colleagues to develop a protocol to study AIDS transmission from mother to infant.

Cherishing memories of the small town feel of Region 14, Jennifer last fall visited Nonnewaug and was struck by how it has expanded since the days when she ran cross country, did gymnastics, and played tennis as well as excelling academically and winning the Mill House Scholarship administered by WSF.

While at Gettysburg College to earn her Bachelors Degree, Jennifer majored in biology and minored in art; her intramural sports included soccer and tennis.

After graduating, she accepted a position in the Pharmacy Department of Waterbury Hospital. For two years she worked on quality control for crash carts and putting together patients’ daily regimens.

In 1997, with a friend, she moved to Washington, D.C. to share an apartment and work as a medical assistant with a three-physician practice. She next joined a company doing data management for clinical trials; for example, she developed data from patient forms in an American Foundation for AIDS research on an antiretroviral drug.

In November 2000, she had the opportunity to join the Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trial Group (PACTG) with the title of Clinical Trial Specialist. PACTG has a grant from the National Institutes of Health to function as the operation center for forty sites in the United States, two in Thailand, and two in South America.

According to Jennifer, they “coordinate development of research concepts involving pediatric HIV infections.” The packaged protocols "are used by doctors and nurses in the field” with children presenting at the 44 PACTG clinics.

In Cape Town, she helped develop a study of the new Rapid HIV Test in pregnant women; this takes only twenty minutes instead of the weeks required in the past. Now that the protocol has been written and the studies are ready to be implemented, she will be returning to Cape Town in late spring to help set up the studies, develop sample storage, and conduct protocol specific training of clinical personnel.

For more information, readers may consul the PACTG web page at HTTP://PACTG.S-3.com

Home to celebrate her thirtieth birthday with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Cam Gardella, Jennifer said she is continuing her humanities diversity by studying oil painting. She and her cat Beatrice now live in an apartment in Northwest Washington D.C.

Already embarked on public health courses to apply toward a Masters Degree, Jennifer is applying to study part time at either Johns Hopkins University or George Washington University.

Science “is the Gardella gene,” she says. Roxburians born between 1911 and 1940 may have been delivered by her great grandmother, Dr. Mary McIntyre, who earned her medical degree in Glasgow, Scotland; met her husband Wilber on a visit to New York; and before World War I moved with him to Roxbury where, with a horse and buggy, she practiced medicine from her office in the Hat Shop on South Street. Jennifer’s grandmother, Joan Gardella, was a registered nurse.

WSF has awarded over 200 scholarships to local students for study beyond high school. Because WSF has tax exempt status, not only are cash gifts deductible from income taxes, appreciated capital holdings like stock held for more than one year may be deductible at full fair market value as well as allowing the donor to avoid tax on the gain.

The Woodbury Scholarship Fund, Inc.
P.O. Box 716
Woodbury, Connecticut 06798-0716