Big checks, big thanks for big help with Drive to End Hunger

FALLS VILLAGE — Back in September 2014, Housatonic Valley Regional High School’s athletic director, Anne Macneil, agreed to juggle the sports schedule for the day to allow a helicopter landing and take-off for auto racers Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne and NASCAR’s Rick Hendrick and Alan Gustafson, who were attending an event, Drive to End Hunger, at Lime Rock Park.

The Falls Village Volunteer Fire Department staffed the landing site and provided an ambulance and emergency medical support.

The event, which raised more than $250,000 to combat senior hunger in the Tri-state area, was sponsored by the AARP, the AARP Foundation, Lime Rock Park, the Falls Village Inn and LaBonne’s Markets.

On Thursday, Jan. 15, AARP’s Nora Duncan and C.B. Wismar presented MacNeil and Falls Village fire chief Tim Downs with checks for $2,500 for each organization in gratitude for their assistance.

Both Macneil and Downs dutifully posed for photos with the giant, mock checks.

Afterward, Duncan dug around in an express mail envelope for the real checks. 

“These have been rattling around my office for weeks,” she said. “It makes me nervous.”