For Ashley Lesco, supporting the people of East Haven comes through two channels: from Town Hall as a member of the Town Council and as a member of the East Haven Rotary Club.

Both of Ashley’s roles involve her collaborating with people to accomplish things for the greater good by “making sure you're doing the best thing for the town, no matter what other issues are going on,” she says.

From the Town Council to the Rotary, Ashley recognizes that “it definitely takes a village.”

“It’s not just one person doing everything,” Ashley says. “We all work as a group, and it’s really an amazing thing.”

Ashley first joined the Rotary in 2018. Ashley had seen her mother join and was then motivated to do so herself after discussing with her mom “all the good things that the Rotary did for our community and families and everyone in East Haven” and knowing that she “wanted to be a part of that.”

It was the altruistic principles of the Rotary which spoke to Ashley, who strongly identifies with its main objective of “Service above self.”

“I always looked at things that way. I always wanted to do things for other people before I did them for myself,” says Ashley. “I would always try to help someone before buying myself something. If someone needed something, I would want to help them out as much as I can.”

This mindset has carried over into Ashley’s leadership of the Rotary’s annual Thanksgiving meal delivery program, in which the organization sends hundreds of meals to East Haven residents who are in need of a holiday meal. This year marks the program’s 18th year of the service since it was started by Rotarian Robert Parenti.

“It started as cooking the meal and having people sit down and eat it and deliver it. as well,” says Ashley. “Then as the years went by, it changed over, especially with COVID, just to deliver.”

Meal ingredients were collected from Boston Market and Shoreline Cafe and Catering & Branford and have been cooked up to provide a meal primarily for senior citizens in East Haven, says Ashley. When she sees the need for meals in town and then gets to literally deliver for those people, it’s an emotional experience for Ashley.

“The past two have been really hard to see the amount of people in our community who actually need help. The phone calls that I get—because I take every single phone call myself—to hear the stories of the reasoning why they need it, honestly, it makes me take a second look at how, if I thought my life was not great at that moment, how other people really have it much worse,” Ashley says. “It’s honestly such a pleasure to get to help these families, whether they're elderly or a family with young children, anything. It's just such an honor to be able to make sure that they have food on their table for a holiday.”

As a member of the Town Council, Ashley represents District 1, the confines of which rest within the downtown area of East Haven. As she enters her sixth year on the Town Council in 2025, Ashley thinks back to what motivated to run for her first term.

“I saw how things were going on in town. and I wanted to be a part of a bigger voice,” she says.

Ashley adds that she wanted to see how she could “help move the town in the right direction instead of going backwards,” while garnering the skills and the know-how to accomplish that goal.

One of the issues which motivated Ashley to run in 2018 was when she saw the new plans for the old high school to be converted into what is now The Tyler Apartments senior living facility. The complex sits a few doors down from where she lives, and Ashley says that it “was important to me,” especially regarding “the deplorability of the building itself,” to help it become what it is now. Ashley also saw the conditions of Veterans Memorial Ice Rink and the town pool, further motivating her to pursue a position on the council.

While representing District 1, Ashley feels proud to represent all of East Haven on the Town Council, in addition to collaborating with council members regardless of their partisanship.

“That’s the biggest thing is joining in with everyone, getting along, making sure you're doing the best thing for the town, no matter what other issues are going on. That's our main focus,” she says.

The focus for Ashley and her colleagues on the council continues to be their efforts on major issues such as short-term rentals and drafting new regulations for them after an initial draft was sent back to workshop this past summer.

“We’re hoping to have that finished by early next year, so that the members of our community can be happy with what we come out with,” says Ashley.