Oxford Resident receives award from the Derby Historical Society

The Dr. John I. Howe Award is awarded by the Derby Historical Society to a businessman or woman, individual, group, firm, corporation, or industry whose presence has consistently benefited one or more communities in the Valley region in the spirit of its namesake. This benefit is either through activism, perseverance, and/or philanthropy to the extent that the Derby Historical Society recognizes that they will be remembered in an historical context by future generations.

Pat has selflessly served the people of the Valley in many ways throughout her career. We are excited to announce that she has earned the distinction of being selected for the Dr. John I. Howe Award. The Award is named after Dr. John Ireland Howe who was a founding father of the Industrial Revolution. Howe invented the mass production machine which made the pin "common". The Industrial Revolution which Dr. Howe helped engineer led to increased immigrant migration into the Valley making it a melting pot for many nationalities.

Patricia (Pat) Tarasovic is a resident of Oxford since 1979 who served as Director of the Volunteer Action Center and Vice President of Community Engagement at Valley United Way from 1991 to 2020. In addition, Pat has always been an active volunteer in Oxford and the Valley community. Pat is married to Nicholas (Nick) Tarasovic and they have 3 children and 6 grandchildren.

Pat worked for close to thirty years for Valley Non-Profits. During her time at VUW, she founded the Corporate Volunteer Council (CVC) and High School Volunteer Council, which has provided non-profits and individuals with hundreds of projects, and thousands of hours of service. Such initiatives helped tackle food security in the Valley and assisted vulnerable families in need through programs like the Back to School for Kids Program and Holiday Giving. She founded Harvest House with the CVC, a community-wide initiative to build a house of food that provided hundreds of thousands of pounds of nonperishables to local pantries since 2005. In 2014, Pat helped to develop a Food Task Force in the Valley with the Council for Health and Human Services where she was Chairman from 2016-2018.

Pat has been the recipient of several regional, state, and congressional awards from local agencies such as the Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce, Connecticut Education Association, Connecticut Junior Women, Derby-Shelton Rotary Club, TEAM, Inc. YMCA, Birmingham Group Health Services and Valley Women Making a Difference, TEAM, Inc. Pat is a Corporator for Griffin Hospital. She was Co-Founder of Griffin Hospital’s Valley Goes Pink and served as Co-Chair for the Campaign for Breast Wellness that supported the development of the Hewitt Breast Center for Cancer Care at Griffin Hospital. Pat was appointed by the Governor to Serve on the State of Community Service Commission.