On Nov. 4, Derby Mayor Anthony Staffieri presented Dr. Tara Nanavati with a plaque, “complimenting him on the fine example of public service and his charity to others and their animals.”
Nanavati has practiced in the Valley for the past 30 years, since he converted a former hot dog stand on the Ansonia-Seymour line into a small veterinarian office.
The plaque notes the many rabies clinics Dr. Nanavati has operated for charitable causes throughout the years, including clinics for St. Michael’s Church in Derby and the Methodist Church in Seymour after a devastating fire recently. Dr. Nanavati has also run clinics to benefit the Ansonia Nature & Recreation Center and the Woodbridge dog pound.
Mayor Staffieri congratulated Dr. Nanavati’s most recent charitable work: holding several rabies clinics and collecting supplies and cash for the survivors of the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti. This latest volunteer effort began in the spring of this year.
After more than two months of collections, Dr. Nanavati had more than 200 boxes weighing more than 3,000 pounds of medical supplies, clothes, bed sheets, shoes, clothing and toiletries. A truck, operated by the Haiti Relief Fund Inc. of Lynbrook, New York, arrived at Dr. Nanavati’s Ansonia veterinarian clinic on April 15. Carlo Thertus, who is CEO and president of the Board of Directors for the organization, and Henry Thertus, who serves as the liaison with their Haiti office, helped pack the truck and shoot photos and video of the event.
Their website, http://www.Haitirelieffund.org, details the relief work that is bringing in donations from throughout the country. For Dr. Nanavati, the collection and donation brings an immense sense of satisfaction, since he knows what it is like to lose a home and live in a tent city: This happened when he was a child in India, and he still remembers the horrible living conditions.
Nanavati, an Orange resident, is joined at his practice these days by his wife, and Becky Mahon, a veterinary assistant who helped load the truck for Haiti.
