DAWS Person of the Year: Honoring Paul Caso

This year’s Puppy Ball honoree is Paul S. Caso – owner of Paul Stewart Caso Landscaping, LLC located in Bethel, CT, a firm that focuses on exceptional service, long-term client relationships and community service.

In selecting Paul as DAWS’s 2010 Person of the Year, the shelter selected a local hero who embodies leadership, community spirit and dedication to DAWS mission of helping animals in need.

Among his many contributions to DAWS in 2009, Paul and his team landscaped the new DAWS shelter sign and the plantings that surround it during the Spring.  They continued to maintain the area throughout the year.  Now, thanks to this generous donation and Paul’s leadership, the shelter now has much friendlier “curb appeal” and the authentic (decommissioned) fire hydrant Paul installed is a very popular stop for our canine residents when DAWS volunteers take them out for walks.  Also, in October, PSC Landscaping served as one of the Lead Dog sponsors of DAWS Walk for Animals – one of the Shelter’s most important annual community and fundraising endeavors.

Paul, a native of Bethel and a graduate of Bethel High School and WestConn, is active in the Danbury Kiwanis Club and donates generously to other local charities.  Paul’s family includes his wife, Erin, daughter Indie, and his dogs – Griswold, who Paul brags is as handsome as Cary Grant with slightly shorter legs, and Hugo, a very sweet SATO from Puerto Rico.  (Both dogs were adopted from DAWS.)

PSC Landscaping has grown considerably since its inception over 15 years ago.  Paul is especially proud to have had the same key members of his team for almost a decade.  "In an industry with such high turnover, I'm fortunate to have the same quality-oriented, dependable guys working alongside me year after year," he commented.  With more than 50 years of combined landscaping expertise, Paul and his team stay busy most of the year with design work -- performing landscaping maintenance, landscape and masonry installations, fence installations, and even outdoor construction projects. During the colder months of the year, Paul enjoys investing in and rehabbing real estate in Bethel and Danbury.  He is happy that his business has reached a point where he can find time to get involved in worthwhile organizations such as DAWS.

"The community has been good to me and I am grateful," Paul acknowledges.  "I’ve seen the difference DAWS makes in the lives of scared and neglected animals – and in the lives of humans. I was a newlywed when we adopted our first dog.  Erin and I adopted Griswold shortly after returning from our honeymoon in 2006, and he made us a family overnight.  I’m proud to support the mission of DAWS to rescue, rehabilitate and rehome companion animals."

By the same token, DAWS is proud to recognize Paul’s as our 2010 Person of the Year for his involvement in the local community as well as his ongoing dedication and service to DAWS.