Laura T. Brown Career Achievement Award

Laura T. Brown Career Achievement Award

Laura T. Brown was born on July 18, 1949 and lived in Cheshire with her husband Gary and daughter Lisa.  She was a graduate of SCSU and majored in social work. She began her career in Waterbury in the field of elder services. In 1988, she made a career change and became a positive force as the Director of Meriden YSB. Laura was an active CYSA Board Member, who focused on advocacy for youth and families. Laura’s life was not always easy as she became pregnant at the age of 17 and dropped out of high school to become a mother. She later pushed herself to get her GED and sent herself to college for her BS and then MS degrees. She worked very hard throughout her years to advocate for youth struggling with teen issues similar to her own. She volunteered in her church. She was a mentor through the Big Brothers/Big Sisters Program. She enjoyed the outdoors- walking, running, camping in the White Mountains. She also loved being challenged on the local ROPES courses with youth groups. She was able to create a youth center in Meriden in an old abandoned school. Unfortunately, that school building named the LauraT.BrownTeenCenter was torn down in recent years. There are over 30 organizations including Meriden Youth Services that continue the advocacy work that Laura began all those years ago. Laura also developed the first Project Graduation Program in 1989 gathering staff and parents to host a drug free event for the Meriden High School graduates. She was passionate about educating youth with respect to drugs and alcohol use and abuse. One of her famed sporting programs was a drug awareness event starring the NY Giants and the FBI. Her friend Pepper Johnson assisted in the planning and coordination of this monumental event. Laura fell ill to cancer in the winter of 1993. She battled courageously for 9 months pushing herself to get to work as often as she could until she passed on October 10, 1993, at the age of 44. Her widowed husband Gary is remarried, had another daughter, and resides in Wallingford. Their daughter Lisa is married with children and is a special education teacher in Cheshire.

Those who have been awarded the award have met the following criteria:

• A long history of service with YSB(s) (at least 20 years)
• Mastery of the ACU functions as evidenced by one or more of the following:
  • Creation of new, innovative program(s) 
  • Adaptation of existing program(s) into a model program(s)     
  • Effective collaborations among service providers
  • Increasing the YSB’s budget, services ,and or volunteer pool
  • Research into youth issues and service delivery models
  • Advocacy for youth on the individual and on the systems level
  • Furthering the understanding of positive youth development and the role of YSB’s locally, among YSB’s and throughout the state.

Laura T. Brown Career Achievement Award Winners 

1994        Ed Meincke

1995        David Blumenkrantz

1996        Gene Marchaund

1997        John Cottrel

1998        Al Hutchinson

1999        Janet Remayko

2000        Ron Cretera

2001        Larry Freundlich

2002        Al Slobodien

2003        Tracy Halstead

2004        Ken Freidenberg

2005        Pat Naylor

2006        David Melillo

2007        Kelly Cronin

2008        Eileen McNulty

2009        Joel Rosenberg

2010        Christopher Montes

2011        Lori Stanczyc

2012        Mary Roche Cronin

2013        Pat Maneggia

2014        Dennis Sheridan

2015        Sue Saucier

2016        Kay Eyberse

2017        Teri Drew

2018        Barbara Lockhart

2019        Bob Petrucelli

2022        Tamara Trojanowski

2023        Cephus Nolen