“Mary has had a special part of the East Haven community,” said one of her nominators. From her time as the president of the East Haven Chamber of Commerce to the time she has spent putting together the East Haven Fall Festival for 20 years where she was one of the original committee members, Mary Cacace has devoted much of her life to the betterment of East Haven. She has been volunteering since the early 1980s and many attribute her to the start of the annual tree lighting in East Haven. She is now involved with the Friends of the Library. “To me it’s easy to volunteer,” she says. “I just feel that it’s something that’s necessary to do.”