At its annual Community Star Award Dinner, North Haven’s Education Foundation will recognize individuals who have made positive community impacts. Scheduled for May 19 at the Quinnipiac University North Haven Campus on Bassett Road, the 2011 ceremony will honor writer Chandra Prasad, Forget Me Not Flower Shop proprietor Luigi Nuzzolillo and former superintendent Sara R. Querfeld.

Community Star Awards are given to community members, alumni and/or residents, past or present, that have made outstanding contributions to the vitality and fabric of the North Haven community through public service, business or academics.

Chandra Prasad

An author of numerous books and short works, including three novels, Chandra Prasad was born and raised in North Haven. She attended the local public education system from kindergarten through high school, and would eventually graduate from Yale University before embarking on a literary career.

Prasad most recently penned Breathe the Sky: A Novel Inspired by the Life of Amelia Earhart. Prasad also wrote On Borrowed Wings, a novel that follows a quarryman’s daughter as she attends 1930s Yale University in the guise of a boy.

Prasad is the originator and editor of Mixed: An Anthology of Short Fiction on the Multiracial Experience. A combination of Indian, Italian, Swedish and English, Prasad drew inspiration from her own multiracial identity in assembling the book, which includes original material by Danzy Senna, Rebecca Walker, Ruth Ozeki and Mat Johnson, among others.

Prasad volunteers her time to speak about literature and writing to libraries, college classes and book groups across Connecticut. She donates signed books to a wide variety of nonprofits to assist in their fundraising efforts. She is a longtime reader and judge for The Connecticut Young Writers Competition, which encourages literary excellence in high school-age writers and poets in Connecticut.

For six years she has served as a Yale alumni interviewer for prospective Yale students from North Haven. After living in New York, Washington DC, and Arizona, Prasad is now back in North Haven, her hometown, with her husband and two young sons. She is currently working on a novel for young adults.

Luigi Nuzzolillo

Luigi Nuzzolillo was born in Italy in 1956. This Fourth of July will mark the 40th anniversary of his move to America. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Southern Connecticut State University. He speaks several languages, and, since 1987, has been owner and president of North Haven’s Forget Me Not Flower Shop.

He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Connecticut Florists Association. Additionally, he volunteers on behalf of Domestic Violence Services of Greater New Haven, Boys and Girls Club of New Haven, Sons and Daughters of Italy and the North Haven Rotary Club. Nuzzolillo has served Rotary in a variety of capacities over the years, including president in 2004 and 2005.

Luigi was recognized as the 2006 Rotarian of the Year; he received the Boys and Girls Club Gold Ring Award in 2010 and was recently named 2011 Citizen of the Year at the North Haven Community Service Awards Dinner.

Sara Querfeld

Sara Querfeld retired as the North Haven superintendent of schools in 2010, culminating 30 years of experience in education, 14 of which were in the North Haven public schools. Upon her retirement from the superintendency, she returned to her first vocation, teaching and learning, and her home town, North Branford, as their director of Curriculum and Instruction.

Querfeld began her career at Guilford High School as a Reading and English Teacher. Over the next 15 years she taught English to hundreds of students, first in Guilford and later at North Branford High School. After seeing how many high school students struggled with their reading skills, Querfeld asked to transfer to Stanley T. Williams Elementary School as the reading/language arts consultant. She wanted to work with the primary grade students as they acquired their early literacy skills.

In 1997, Querfeld left North Branford to become the English/language arts coordinator in North Haven. She soon was appointed the K-12 administrator for social studies and English/language arts. She was named principal of Ridge Road Elementary School in 2000, and became superintendent in 2003.

During her tenure as the superintendent she served on the Connecticut Advisory Council for Teacher Professional Standards, was awarded a MADD Youth Leadership Award in 2009, led the district in receiving the Environmental Protection Agency National Award for Indoor Air Quality, and traveled to China to forge the partnership with North Haven’s Chinese sister schools. This partnership led to exchange visits between administrators, teachers, and students, as well as the addition of Mandarin to curriculum.

In addition, she was at the helm during the construction of the new North Haven High School from ground breaking to completion.

Querfeld also played a prominent role in the creation of the NHEF. The NHEF has provided a technology lab at the middle school, smart boards at each of the elementary schools, a middle school robotics program, digital art equipment at the high school, has reinstated the Connecticut River Salmon project, and has provided the seed money for many teacher crafted mini-grants which otherwise would not have been funded due to budgetary constraints.

Moreover, the NHEF has raised over $300,000 to support educational programs in the North Haven community which are not funded by public funding sources. The NHEF has been fortunate enough to award grants which have resulted in the establishment of the Robotics Program and Technology Lab in the middle school, elementary school science labs, an artist in residence music appreciation program as well as over 30 creativity grant programs which have been developed by various educators throughout the school system.

Past Community Star honorees include Lou Preziosi, Brian and Phyllis Havens, Kathy Rocklin, Dominic Palumbo, Radha Prasad, Louis Tagliatela, Patricia Buonpane, Fred Kelly, Ellen Swirsky, Barbara Pearce, Theresa Viele, Ed Handi, Alicia Clapp, John Graef, Ann Clark and the late Lester Gott, posthumously.

Content provided by the North Haven Education Foundation.