In a town where buildings have been named in honor of residents who've made significant contributions to the community, the family of a Branford community legend, the late Joe Trapasso, wants the Branford Community/Senior Center to bear his name.

In March, Trapasso's six adult children composed the naming request into a letter they brought to the Branford Recreation Commission, which is currently taking the item under consideration, chairman Paul Criscuolo told Zip06/The Sound. This week, in an effort to show the commission that many other residents and supporters are in favor of the idea,  the Trapasso family has also launched an online petition, under the heading "Honor Joe Trapasso" at https://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/655/029/698/  

Those without access to the internet can still get their signatures on the petition; call the organizers at (203) 676-2242 for assistance.

The family is hoping to gather 1,000 signatures to bolster their call for the building to be named for their dad, said Branford resident Maggy Trapasso, one of Trapasso's daughters.  After launching the petition on April 29, it quickly gathered hundreds of supporters, with about half of the signatures coming from current residents and many others coming in from those who remember Joe Trapasso, she said.

"We're getting an incredible response," said Maggy Trapasso. "It's not just the numbers; its what people are saying; and from many different generations, going back to the '50's."

At the petition website, family friend Greg Robinson writes, in part "...in 1957, under Joe's inspired leadership, the community of Branford came together in an unprecedented grassroots campaign to build what would become a nationally recognized recreation center. Based on the principle of inclusiveness, the recreation department was groundbreaking in the expansiveness of its programming, serving all segments of the population."

Trapasso was also nationally recognized for his work to help 35 towns develop senior centers. In fact, the Branford Community House, when it was built, was created as a co-use, recreational and senior center building. Over time, the senior center split off and was moved into the former Canoe Brook School building.

On the petition, the family's proposed name for the building is "The Joe Trapasso Community House dedicated to World War II Veterans." The lengthy title takes into consideration an important bit of history involved with the original community house -- the Town's 1981 dedication of the building to World War II Veterans. Maggy Trapasso said her dad, a proud WWII veteran, oversaw the dedication and would want it to stand with the building.

"We're trying to take a page out our dad's playbook, which is to be inclusive; and he would be insistent that [WWII veterans' dedidication] persists," she said. "The last thing we want is for the vets to feel dishonored in some way."

However, if not for Trapasso, that building may have never stood.  Trapasso conceived and organized a grassroots community fundraising campaign which succeeded in building and opening the Branford Community House in 1963.  To raise the money, kids sold nightcrawlers, families collected cans for cash, the Women's Club dedicated dances and fund-drives, and hundreds of residents signed donor cards promising as little as 28 cents to as much as $2,430. Brick by brick, the people of Branford helped build the Community House.

"If I asked my dad what was his greatest accomplishment, he would say, 'I brought the community together and we built something amazing,'" said Maggy Trapasso.

Among the original Community House building committee members was the late Dan Cosgrove, who also donated the gym's expandable bleacher seating. In 2003, Cosgrove was honored as the namesake of the Town's animal shelter. Other recent namesake buildings in Branford include Francis Walsh Intermediate School, named for Walsh, who served as building's first principal (1971 – 1994); and the Patricia C. Andriole Volunteer Services Center, named in honor Andriole's four decades of volunteer work and contributions to the town, upon her retirement as Executive Director of the Branford Counseling Center (1994-2013).

Several of the town's school buildings are also named in honor of people who have contributed to the community in past years, said Trapasso.

"We live in a town that does that," she said. "I wish we could do something to honor my dad in this way."

Joe Trapasso's original concept for community house included incorporating space for the town's senior citizens to gather, as well as multi-use, multi-generational community meeting rooms, activity rooms and a full gymnasium with accompanying locker rooms. Trapasso served as Branford's recreation director for 43 years, followed by his protégé, Alex Palluzzi Jr., who is only the second director in the history of the community house. When Trapasso passed away in 2003, he left a legacy that included building the state's first outdoor basketball court, the construction of John B. Sliney Park, Foote Park, Branford's first Little League field, instituting boys and girls recreational basketball tourneys, and motivating the planning, designing, fundraising, and construction of the present-day Branford Community House

Now, the "House that Joe built," located at 46 Church St., is being renovated and expanded by the Town to become Branford's combined Community/Senior Center.  Construction, underway since October 2017, is expected to wrap up by the end of the May.

The expansion project is what prompted the Trapasso family to move forward with the naming idea, said Maggy Trapasso. She said she and her siblings had often discussed it in the past, but put it aside.

"For years, we didn't do it. It never really rested with me; it's always something I wished for him because of who he was," she said. "And so when the whole idea came up about the newly integrated recreation and senior center, that started it up in me again. There's part of me that felt I really couldn't live with myself if I didn't give it a shot."

She also feels the decision to name the building in honor of Joe Trapasso would be a tribute to the community's ability to come together.

"For me, in a time when we've descended into such divisiveness and polarization, for our town to be able to point to an example of the power of the human community to come together to build something that goes on for generations; I just feel like that's a story that should not be lost," said Trapasso. "I've lived in this town, I work in this town; I personally believe this town has incredible special character. And its people like my dad that helped point to the way to what it meant to be a good and honorable person, and what it meant to care about your neighbor. And I just think to have that memorialized, at a time like the one we're living in right now, is just so essential. And if one kid says, 'Who was Joe Trapasso and what did he do?' We get to say, 'Well, he was a man who thought everybody counted. And he built a place to insist on it.' That, to me, is really what this is all about."

Trapasso said the family's grateful to the Recreation Commission for taking their request under consideration. She said she also understands it's a process that requires due diligence.

"They're trying to respond to something we have asked of them. They respectfully and very graciously heard everything we had to say; but obviously they have to deliberate," she said.

After voting unanimously (5-0) at its March 2019 meeting to take the Trapasso family's request under consideration, the item was tabled to the next meeting, which is set for May 8.  The board may or may not make a decision at that time, said Criscuolo.

"As a board, we've listened to a lot of input," Criscuolo said.  "We've had requests from a number of other groups about naming it for other people or other things. We're still taking it all under advisement. We still haven't decided anything yet. We welcome all the input from everyone, so we can make an informed decision."