Cotter
The fund was set up by Cotter’s daughter, Ellen (Cotter) Lenart, and Ellen’s son, David, the past chief of Derby Storm Ambulance and Rescue Corps.
“As my grandfather was coming near his end, he wanted to leave something that would live on,” David Lenart said.
Ed Cotter was a legend in Valley fire and EMS, having been a co-founder of the Storms. Cotter was also a photographer for the New Haven Register and the Evening Sentinel, and is a member of the Connecticut Firefighters Hall of Fame and the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists Hall of Fame.
Cotter passed away on Jan. 21, 2012. The Edward J. Cotter Memorial Fund was set up that year. Click here to make a donation.
The fund at the Valley Community Foundation, once it hits $10,000, will give an annual donation to the Storms and to St. Mary’s Church in Derby, where Cotter was a parishioner.
As of late December, the fund was about $400 shy of its $10,000 goal.
David Lenart is hoping some publicity about the fund will push it over the edge.
“We’re just trying to raise some awareness,” Lenart said. “We’re just trying to raise some awareness.”
John J. Ready, the VCF’s donor services and development officer, said the Cotter fund was set up as a build-a-fund, which gives funds about three to five years to hit the $10,000 mark.
“The fund is about two years old. Seeing they are only about $400 shy, I don’t think anticipate it being very much longer to hit that bench mark,” Ready said. “Everybody wins when it gets to that level.”
