Page 16 - Fall 2022 Tags and Swipes

Tags and Swipes, Fall 2022

Farmington Valley Chorus (continued)

Congratulations to the winners and to the Regional Management team and Coastline Show Chorus for
pivoting and bending and adapting with guns blazing to this new way of competing. We’re looking
forward to next year.

Speaking of first timers- we sang in three newbies since contest: Mary Lou, Sonia and Wendy. They are all
burning to join us on stage in Phoenix.

Our newest newbie, Cecilia Maryann, was born July 1st to our newbie front row tenor Rebecca. Mom and
baby are happy and healthy. We bet Cecilia will be a fiery future Sweet Adeline some day..

To make sure we are smokin’ on that stage in September we had Lynn Smith via Zoom one
sparkling night, then Ryan Heller came in to light a fire under our vocal production, and Karen Sweeters
blazed in to make sure our expression is red hot.

All work and no play is feverishly boring so Cheryl made sure we could cool down with a party and boat
rides at her house in Harwinton. Burgers and dogs, salads of all kinds, and a special FVC punch along with
silly games of cheese balls and shaving cream, captured shoes and of course water balloons soon after
singing for the neighbors, made for an exceptionally wonderful "just being together laughing a lot " time.

Other celebrations included some chorus longevity anniversaries. Congratulations to Erika on 5 years,
Mayuko on 1 year, and Ann-Marie, Megan, and Corinna on 10 years!

It is with heavy hearts that we share that Karen Puzzo, a 42
year member of Farmington Valley Chorus, passed away on
July 3rd surrounded by her family and friends with the
Hartford skyline lit up in fireworks for a proper send off.
Karen was a wonderful force of nature. She joined
Farmington Valley in 1980 and along with some fabulous
bass singing, quickly became the queen of costumes, the
sovereign leader of sets and scripts and the mistress of
mayhem.

Karen was the Competition Coordinator for Region 1, and
noticing her many organizational skills she was voted on to
the Regional Board of Directors and eventually became
Regent. She traveled the world with FVC, but the sweetest
moment in her Sweet Adelines career was when she was
presented with the first Marge Bennett Award. The criteria
for the award were to ”be a lady, a friend, be beautiful
inside and out and loved by everyone you meet”. That was
Karen to the letter. Karen treasured and wore that angel
necklace given to her for the award every day. She will be
sorely missed.
Karen Puzzo.

16

North Atlantic Region 1 Sweet Adelines