Around Town

PHOTOS: Waveny Park Conservancy’s Inaugural ‘Tailgate’ Party and Fundraiser Draws Hundreds

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The Waveny Park Conservancy’s inaugural fundraiser came off in high style on Saturday night, as an estimated 400 to 500 locals enjoyed the cherished park’s first-ever tailgate party under a full “hunter’s moon.”

Town resident Joe Scarborough’s “Morning Joe Music” band played the balcony out back of Waveny House and had scores of the revelers dancing, while others warmed by a firepit and mingled about some 80 cars parked in four rows, before a massive inflatable TV broadcasting college football. Brock Saxe, who co-chaired the event with Scott Gress, said: “We were very lucky that Joe Scarborough and his band offered their services for the first annual Waveny Park Conservancy tailgate, and we are happy that everybody in the community turned out to support the conservancy.”

He added: “It all made for a great evening.”

New Canaan’s Bob Seelert, chairman of the conservancy’s board, called the first-ever tailgate party “a fantastic event, displaying New Canaan at its best, and demonstrating that Waveny indeed is the town’s ‘crown jewel,’ with the community displaying great support for everything the conservancy is trying to do.” What it’s trying to do includes redeveloping the disused “cornfields” area in the southeastern corner of Waveny and restoring the pond at the foot of the sledding hill, and evidence of the conservancy’s work already is evident in new trails that lead to the main house. The nonprofit organization also is focused on managing the park’s woodlands, improving the entrance from South Avenue and returning the gardens around Waveny House to what originally was envisioned by the Olmstead Brothers landscaping firm, hired by the Laphams more than 100 years ago. The organization is still tallying all ticket sales from the tailgate, and Saxe noted that several residents additionally gave money to the conservancy at “the giving tree.” The group also sold out of its branded blankets early into the event, he said.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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Exciting news: We’re hearing that New Canaan’s defunct Outback Teen Center is being renamed ‘The Hub’ by the re-formed board charged with developing new uses for the structure behind Town Hall. Word is, the board is looking at a mix of human services, as well as wellness and possibly food providers to generate revenue at the disused building. New info: New Canaanite Bob Albus, head of the board, told us a program for special needs adults in town will run in the lower level of The Hub on weekdays, and that other activities could include after-school tutoring and mentoring and babysitting for parents who are shopping or dining downtown, and notable local agencies such as Getabout and Staying Put In New Canaan are part of the conversation. “We want to touch virtually every life in town from infants to seniors and really have an expansive program that addresses what are some unmet needs in town,” Albus told NewCanaanite.com. An online fundraising campaign is underway here—designed both to secure some “start-up” money for The Hub and to engage the community, Albus said.

Business

Town Resident Mariola Galavis Takes Over School of Rock New Canaan

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Mariola Galavis couldn’t put her finger on just what was making her unhappy in the summer of 2011. The Venezuela native—one decade in the United States at that point, including seven here in New Canaan—wasn’t necessarily depressed, yet panic attacks inexplicably had set in, just as a determinedly pursued, successful career in management consulting landed her in a job that offered security without purpose. “I felt like I was wasting my life, sitting there in an office, going to meetings all day, because it was just meetings and meetings and meetings,” Galavis on Monday morning recalled of a position she’d held for six years in Westchester, sitting now on a well-worn sofa down the hall from her dramatically different office here in town. “Then I said, ‘I don’t need it.’ ”

With support from her husband and parents, Galavis consulted a professional therapist (“I took charge immediately because I was like, ‘What the hell is going on with me?’ ”), quit her job to stay home with her two boys and, for the first time in her life, pursued a creative endeavor that still suited her mathematical mind. Last week, Galavis—an MBA from MIT under her belt and several years consulting with Andersen for manufacturing, utilities and oil companies in Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil and Miami—took over the day-to-day operations as the new owner of School of Rock New Canaan.