Around Town

New Foosball, Ping Pong Tables Popular at ‘Hot Spot’ Waveny Pool

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Many New Canaanites spend their summer relaxing by the pool—especially one in particular: Waveny pool. An increasingly popular Dog Days destination, especially during the sustained hot days that New Canaan is seeing this week, the Waveny pool through the summer hosts a whole range of activities: The Waveny Gators teams welcome children ages 7  to 17 to participate in swimming and diving teams, and children 10 to 13 to be a part of the water polo team. During their season, the teams practice each morning, and participate in meets against the Roxbury Club, Rocky Point Club, Roton Point Club, Middlesex Club, Shore & Country Club—the Gators finished up recently with a meet against Newfield Swim Club (summer home of NCHS math teacher David Fine). Kids’ athletics are held in the morning and the pool tends to get busier for visitors in the afternoons, according to Recreation Director Steve Benko. “The best time [to go to the pool] is probably in the afternoon, around 2 o’clock.

Around Town

‘The Best Way To Spend The Summer’: Wednesday Summer Concerts At Waveny

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Whether you’re a fan of folk, country, rhythm and blues, or just fancy a night out under the stars, New Canaan’s Waveny Summer Concert Series is a great local summertime option. A free, weekly event open to the public on Wednesday evenings at 7:30 p.m. on the lawn behind the Waveny House, the series opened June 27 and will continue weekly through Aug. 26. The July 29 installment, featuring ’50s and ’60s group T&T Dreamin’, is sponsored by NewCanaanite.com. “We try to come out every week that we can,” New Canaan resident Bill Lawler said on the sun-splotched lawn out back of Waveny House as the July 22 concert got underway.

News

New Canaan Flag Football League Sees Dramatic Rise in Popularity among Local Youth

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Every Saturday morning throughout the fall, New Canaanites should expect to see the Water Tower field packed with young boys and girls huddling up, running plays, tossing the pigskin and otherwise competing against each other in a full-on version of the nation’s most popular sport—but this is not tackle football, it’s flag football. Since the start of the co-ed Recreational New Canaan Flag Football League (NCFFL) in 2005, the program has rapidly expanded and—thanks in part to a popular week-long preseason camp in August—welcomes kids from 2nd through 8th grade to participate. When children are young, some parents worry about their kids playing tackle football for fear that they will get hurt, officials in the program say. Flag football gives kids the opportunity to learn and develop their techniques in the sport that they love, with not as much worry about concussions or other injuries. “It got started because Phil Davis, who is a good friend of mine—we are going back almost 10 years,” Craig Hunt said, who has been involved with the program in 2008.

Around Town

Waveny Summer Concert Series To Start Wednesday

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The summer season of music has begun, with the Waveny Summer Concert Series kicking off Wednesday. Hosted by the New Canaan Recreation Department, the series will run every Wednesday throughout the summer from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. on the lawn behind the Waveny house. The Recreation Department encourages New Canaan families to bring a chair or blanket, a picnic supper, and enjoy the music at all of the free concerts throughout the summer. The summer lineup features Kenn Morr, Cool Shoes, Gunsmoke, Airborne, The Bookends, Doug Allen, T&T Dreamin’, Billy and the Showmen, Otis and the Hurricanes, Jon Saxon, and Fairfield Counts Band. “Some of the groups we’ve had we’ve had for several years,” Recreation Director Steve Benko told New Canaanite.

Around Town

New Canaan Tradition: Fishing Derby at Mill Pond Set for April 12

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Town officials have set the date for a cherished community event at Mill Pond whose roots go back nearly 50 years in New Canaan. Derby Day—listed on the town’s website as the George Cogswell Memorial Fishing Derby 2014, named for a former New Canaan police officer—will start at 9 a.m. on Saturday, April 12 (registration opens at 8:30 a.m.), according to a press release issued by New Canaan Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Tucker Murphy. The pond, which New Canaan has dredged every other year, will be stocked ahead of the event with 370 pounds of rainbow trout, Murphy said. The dredging of Mill Pond came up recently, at a March 19 Town Council meeting, during a presentation from Department of Public Works Director Michael Pastore and Assistant Director Tiger Mann. According to Mann, Mill and Mead Ponds (neither of which were skate-able this past winter) are dredged every other year at a cost of about $10,000 each time.