HDI Memorial Picnic a Resounding Success

Even the weather turned out better than expected Saturday for the HDI Memorial Picnic, intended to honor at Hartford Distributors and raise funds to establish a at the site.

The event, held at the Manchester Bicentennial Band Shell on the Campus of Manchester Community College, was organized by the Manchester Rotary Club and featured everything from live music – provided by the band In Deep – to a health fair sponsored by ECHN, games, prizes, face painting, a bounce-house for children – and, of course, plenty of food.

Earlier in the week, with Saturday’s forecast looking gloomy and likely to rain, organizers feared a poor turnout, although they would have held the event rain or sun. But the weather accommodated Saturday until after the picnic had ended, and organizers estimated the event might have drawn upwards of 1,500 people, including about 500 bikers who took part in a memorial motorcycle ride from TSI Harley-Davidson/Buell in Ellington to the MCC campus.

The rotary was hoping to raise $100,000 – about $60,000 to cover the cost of the memorial, while anything left over would be donated to the victims’ family fund – and Kate Simms, a Rotarian who helped organize the picnic, said that although the club might not reach that figure by the time all of Saturday’s proceeds were tallied, she was confident that they would reach that sum by the one-year anniversary of the horrific event on Aug. 3.

“We’ve just received tremendous, tremendous support from the whole community,” Simms said. “I’m confident now that we’ll get there.”

In addition to Hartford Distributors employees and members of Teamsters Local 1035, the event drew family and friends, as well as state and local dignitaries. U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, State Comptroller Kevin Lembo, and Mayor Louis Spadaccini were among those who gave speeches on Saturday.

“This is about the healing, and then we’ll raise the money later,” said Darren DeMartino, who volunteered to help organize and staff the picnic. “The idea of this was to have kids running around and to remember people.”

Ross Hollander, chairman and CEO of Hartford Distributors, said that he was grateful for the all the support that the company and its employees have received since the tragedy.

“It’s wonderful thing what the rotary club is doing, and the outpouring of support from the community has just been so heartwarming,” Hollander said. “Who wants to relive something like that, but at the same time we want to make sure that we have a permanent memory of our lost ones.”

Donations can still be made to the memorial fund by visiting www.hdimemorial.com.