Emily Myers - Norwich Citizen of the year for 2024 - A photo essay

A Celebration on the Green and fun for all

Good afternoon Norwich,

I am sharing with you the photos that were taken at the Celebrate Norwich event that was held on June 2, 2024. The photos were taken by Kata Sasvari, and sent to me to share with my readers and the community at large. One of the scheduled events was to present an award to the 2024 citizen of the year. A well deserved one , I might add.

Enjoy the photo essay and thanks again to all who made this possible.

Emily Meyers, 2024 Norwich Citizen of the year

Cover photo courtesy of Kata Sasvari

The Meyers family L to R Ethan, Jack ,Emily, and Zoe

All photos for this story (except for the family photo above) are shared from Kata’s collection which can be seen by clicking the link below. I have selected some to highlight a few of the events in the story.

View my photos at: https://www.katasasvari.com/TucksRockDojo/2024/Celebrate-Norwich-/Photos

This thank you e-mail from Emily appeared in todays listserv

23. Thank you Norwich Women's Club!
From: Emily Myers <emilypiercemyers@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 2 Jun 2024 21:27:31 -0400

I wanted to extend a huge thanks to the Norwich Women's Club for the
Citizen of the Year Award. I am humbled by this recognition and need to
thank the person/s who wrote my generous nomination, my fellow members of
the Norwich organizations I am a part of and most importantly my family. I
owe a huge debt of gratitude to my parents Jay and Deb Van Arman for
teaching us kids the meaning of civic duty. I learned the meaning of
community involvement from them. Last but not least, thanks to my immediate
family for their constant love and support.

I believe that volunteering and involvement make a healthy, strong
community. If you're not already participating, I encourage you to choose
just one club, committee or organization to join. You will get so much more
out of the experience than you put in. The benefits and connections you
will make are so valuable and rewarding.

Thanks to my amazing hometown Norwich, it was so wonderful to join you all
on the green tonight.

Sincerely,
Emily Myers

And here are just some of the reasons that she was selected.

Emily (Van Arman) Myers selected as the "Norwich Citizen of the year", by the Norwich Women's Club:
2024 Norwich Citizen of the Year: Emily Myers

Drive down Union Village Road into town, and you can't miss the iconic view of Meeting House Farm – green fields, red barns, and a white farmhouse set against the rolling hills of the Upper Valley. Fittingly, our 2024 Norwich Citizen of the Year, Emily Myers, was born and raised on this Norwich landmark. After 20 years away she returned to take over as steward of her ancestral farm and to raise her family in the community that holds a special place in her heart. Her dedication to serving others and enriching the community embodies the spirit of Norwich, making her a well-deserved Citizen of the Year.
If you’ve met Emily, you know about her exceptional commitment to veterans in Norwich and beyond. Her homecoming followed two decades of service in the US Air Force, both on active duty and as a military spouse. She’s a 25-year member and Service Officer of American Legion Post #8 and was recently honored as the 2023 VT Service Officer of the Year. She helps veterans get healthcare and benefits, visits the ill and injured, supports grieving families, and gives final honors at burials. Supporting veterans is truly a full-body commitment for Emily as she raises funds for The Veterans Place and Josh’s House by running 45+ miles from Norwich University to Norwich, VT every June.
But Emily’s dedication doesn’t stop with veterans. If there’s an opportunity to bring people together and build community bonds, chances are Emily is involved. She serves as VP of the Norwich Public Library board, is a Cemetery Commissioner, and sits on the Norwich Development Review Board. She’s a driving force behind the newly created non-profit Norwich Community Collaborative, working to restore the Grange Hall as a community center. She is instrumental in keeping town traditions alive, like the Memorial Day parade and the Norwich pageant. And in her work with her family to restore and maintain the buildings, grounds and activities of Meeting House Farm, she keeps alive an important part of Norwich’s farming history.
So if you run into Emily as she’s placing flags along Main Street, cleaning headstones in the cemetery, flipping pancakes at the Grange, setting up hay bales for the pageant, driving a veteran to the VA, heading to a town meeting, tapping her maples, recording a podcast for the Historical Society, training for her big run or simply having a friendly chat in the aisles of Dan and Whit’s, please give her a high five — and ask her what else she’s up to, because we’ve barely scratched the surface of all she does for our community!
And join us on the green at 6:00 pm on Sunday, June 2 to see Emily receive the $500 donation Ledyard Bank provides to the charity of the recipients choice.  No surprise that Emily has picked the Norwich Community Collaborative!

And now its time to :

Read on and view some specific event photos or just view them all it’s you choice of course.

This was the schedule of events in case you missed it.

In viewing this photo, it looks like this event was well attended

The Norwich Lions club was on hand to serve hamburgers and hotdogs and there was ice cream provided by the Norwich farm Creamery and also a Norwich cup cake contest and even a raffle.

- 4 to 7 - Music by several bands from Tuck’s Rock Dojo
- 4 to 7 – Hot dogs and hamburgers for sale by Norwich Lions Club and
homemade ice cream from Norwich Creamery
- 4 to 5 - Games for kids on the green run by MCS’s Melanie Farwell –
sack racing, stick & ring race, beanbag throw
- 4 to 5 - Drop off your entries to the Great Norwich Cupcake Contest –
judging at 5:00, cupcakes on sale afterward!
- 5 to 6 - Bubbles with our own Bubble Master
- 5 to 6 – Stilts with Lizzie – one pair sized for adults, 2 for kids!
- 6:00 – Raffle drawing for a 1 year membership to the Upper Valley
Aquatic Center and a package of three 60 min. personal training sessions
- 6:10 – Citizen of the Year Award presentation – help us to honor
Norwich’s own Emily Myers
Bring your chairs or blanket and help the Norwich Women’s Club to
Celebrate Norwich! Donations welcomed all day at our free watermelon and
balloons table, which will be matched by a generous local sponsor. Please
join us on the green, though if the weather doesn’t cooperate almost
everything will be moved into Tracy Hall.

A special thank you to the Norwich Women’s Club for sponsoring this event:

Norwich Women’s Club president Annette Brown making the Citizen of the year presentation.

And to the Ledyard National Bank for the presentation of the check to the Norwich Community Collaborative which was Emily’s chosen organization.

Let’s not forget the band that rocked the event with music from 4-7

Face painting

Now that is a tall order!

And the bubble machines .. what fun!

Along with all the above organizations and participants that are listed in the above event schedule. I would not want to miss thanking someone therefore I will refer to the event schedule and say thanks to all who made this a nice event.

Thanks for reading and supporting my Newsletter about Norwich