ABC House of New Canaan

Podcast: NCHS Senior and ABC Scholar Adrian Davis

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This week on 0684-Radi0, our free weekly podcast (subscribe here in the iTunes Store), we talk to Adrian Davis, a New Canaan High School senior who started here four years ago a as a scholar in the A Better Chance of New Canaan program. A Better Chance of New Canaan is grateful to all who purchased tickets to its sold-out “Night of the Stars” benefit gala on Saturday. Those wishing to support the organization may do so here on the ABC website. Here are recent episodes of 0684-Radi0:

News

Letter: On Stepping Down, a ’Thank You’ from ABC House Co-Resident Directors 

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Recently, A Better Chance of New Canaan (ABC House) held its annual graduation party for our two NCHS seniors. Josiah Jones and Kai Clancy each addressed the guests and reflected on their four years in the ABC program, NCHS, and the ABC house itself. It is amazing how the boys grow in confidence and poise, and speak from the heart in front of a large group. It was inspiring to hear them speak so positively of the experience and thank those who helped them along the way. Now it’s our turn to look back and say THANK YOU as we step away from our posts as Co-Resident Directors of the ABC House of New Canaan.

Around Town

PHOTOS: ‘Caffeine & Carburetors’ Kicks Off 2018 Season in Downtown New Canaan

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Hundreds of classic and specialty car enthusiasts visited downtown New Canaan on a clear, crisp morning Sunday for the first Caffeine & Carburetors show of the 2018 season. People gripping coffee cups, baby strollers and dog leashes strolled along Pine Street and the one-way stretch of Elm, both cordoned off for pedestrians. Police, volunteers and members of the Community Emergency Response Team or ‘CERT’ guided visitors and motorists safely across Park Street and led out a limited number of show cars whose owners left early. “It’s going very well,” said Doug Zumbach, who founded Caffeine & Carburetors outside his eponymous coffee shop on Pine Street eight years ago. “Once again the enthusiasts have come out, the residents have come out.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station found a West Nile Virus-infected mosquito in New Canaan, state officials said Thursday, in what’s called the ‘Hoyt Swamp.’ That’s located up against the Merritt Parkway near Exit 38 (here). No human cases of the virus have been reported in the state this season. Officials say using mosquito repellant and covering up when the insects are most active (dawn and dusk) are simple, effective prevention measures. ***

Pet Pantry Warehouse on Grove Street—host of the annual Dog Days New Canaan—is hiring management and entry-level personnel for its store here in town. ***

The Board of Selectmen this week voted 3-0 to approve the hiring of Nathan Vass Jr. as a welder equipment operator in the Department of Public Works.

News

‘A Sense of Unity’: New Canaan High School Senior, ABC Student Rajon Mitchell Reflects on His Experience

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New Canaan High School senior Rajon Mitchell recalls his freshman-year self as a “much quieter, shyer version” of the young man he is today. An ABC House of New Canaan student from a tough neighborhood in the Bronx, N.Y., Mitchell had distinguished himself as a student in the city by leaning into his instincts as an introvert, keeping to himself and going his own way. “While that’s nice and that brought me success before, in my time prior to coming to New Canaan, having the ability and having the skills to connect with others, make relationships, it’s just so much better,” a smiling Mitchell said on a recent afternoon standing outside Town Hall, where he’s interning during his final month as an NCHS student in the Inland Wetlands Department. “And being able to have a team to go further and quicker.”

They’re life lessons that Mitchell—an organizer for an ABC fundraising car wash to be held 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday at Saxe Middle School—will take to Northeastern University in Boston this fall. Bright, authentic, naturally curious and engaging, Mitchell in four years as a New Canaan student not only has come into his own as a person, according to those who have tracked his progress here, but also intellectually, feeding a genuine thirst for new ideas and experiences.