Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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We got a heads-up on Twitter from New Canaanite Peter “The Bushman” Bush of The FOX 95.9 FM about a recently redecorated roof of The Veggie Barn on Cross Street. Looks like town resident and Veggie Barn owner Santo Silvestro supports Donald Trump in ’16. Silvestro wasn’t immediately available for comment. The rooftop likely will be visible to any planes passing overhead. As Bush later Tweeted: “A little something for the Donald to see from 10K.”

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While Peachwave on Forest Street did close last weekend as planned (though the team there decided last-minute to extend by one day, through Sunday), company officials tell us now that a reopening is possible.

Around Town

Eight NCHS Class of ’15 Grads Earn ‘Harold S. Kenney Scholarship’ Awards from Kiwanis Club

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The Kiwanis Club of New Canaan on Wednesday awarded eight deserving 2015 New Canaan High School graduates with $750 scholarships during an annual luncheon. Recipients of the Harold S. Kenney Scholarship awards—named for a longtime Kiwanian and NCHS headmaster who retired in 1973, a summer camp business manager and hockey coach who was named a Hay Fellow in the Humanities by Williams College in 1961—ranged from varsity athletes and aspiring bioengineers to a vocal performance standout who founded her own company and published a book. What they all have in common is “that they are all incredibly motivated and want to make a real difference in the world,” local attorney Jerry Miller, Kiwanis Club treasurer and head of its Scholarship Committee, said during the luncheon, held at Roger Sherman Inn. The Kiwanis Club’s mission is serving the children of the world, and in their own unique ways, the recently graduated NCHS honorees have found ways to lift their peers and younger kids. Here’s a brief bio on each of them, including a direct quote from their application for the scholarship:

Gabriella Borea, entering Fairfield University with possible area of specialization in Engineering: Compiled a cumulative GPA at New Canaan High School of 91.7 and coached at Smart Start Soccer, helping kindergarteners learn basic skills; refereed for the New Canaan Soccer Association; volunteered for TOP Soccer, working with handicapped children; helped elementary-level kids participate in soccer drills and games at the New Canaan Soccer Association Winter Camp.

Around Town

The Kiwanis Club of New Canaan Grants $16,000 to Local Organizations Serving Youth

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The Kiwanis Club of New Canaan met at the New Canaan YMCA on Friday to give $16,000 to 16 local nonprofit organizations serving youth, thanks largely to funds raised at the Zerbini Family Circus last June. According to Kiwanian David Hoyle, an attorney who sits on the club’s Allocations Subcommittee, just three years ago the club was only able to give away $2,000. “I think it is just a wonderful thing to be able to give this much money away,” Hoyle told the New Canaanite. “You feel like you’re making that much more of a difference. It’s really great and it’s wonderful because of all of the work that the folks and [Kiwanian] Kathy [Holland] and [YMCA Marketing Director] Kristina [Barrett] do for the service.

Business

Approved: Pop Up Park Downtown To Remain in Place from End of School through Labor Day

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On the condition that additional details are presented within the next few weeks, officials on Wednesday unanimously approved a proposal to keep the Pop Up Park downtown in place through the summer. Overseen by a volunteer committee since it launched on a test basis three years ago, the Pop Up Park on the last block of South Avenue will run for three straight weekends starting May 30, then remain in place from the end of school (June 19) to Labor Day (Sept. 7), following a 3-0 vote by the Police Commission. Commissioners called the Pop Up Park a successful and well-run effort whose next logical step—and for the volunteers who have spent time and effort setting it up and breaking it down every weekend these past two summers, only viable step—is to try it on a semi-permanent basis. “I have not heard really much grumbling at all,” Commission Chairman Stuart Sawabini said at the group’s regular monthly meeting, held in the Training Room at the New Canaan Police Department.

Around Town

With Two Generous Gifts, Meals on Wheels of New Canaan Boosts Accessibility, Outreach

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Thanks to a pair of generous donations, including from town resident Paul Simon, one of New Canaan’s most essential human services providers is ramping up its efforts to serve clients even better. Meals on Wheels of New Canaan, a volunteer organization established in 1972, operates out of Waveny Care Center and pays its expenses largely through an annual campaign each March, according to Cindy Herbert, president of the nonprofit’s Board of Directors. Within the last year, two unexpected things happened. First, Meals on Wheels in the summer received a $20,000 gift through a private foundation, then in December, Simon following a concert for the Michael J. Fox Foundation directed a $100,000 gift to Meals on Wheels, Herbert said. (Simon’s wife, Edie Brickell, volunteers as a Meals on Wheels delivery driver.)

The funds have gone right back into the organization, in the form of upgrades to food packaging and availability, as well as a new position within Meals on Wheels that’s designed to boost its reach and effectiveness, Herbert said.