Around Town

Kiwanis Club of New Canaan Is Now Accepting Local Nonprofits’ Requests for Funding, Feb. 29 Deadline

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A local civic organization whose mission is “serving the children of the world” announced Wednesday that it’s opening its annual season for funding requests from nonprofit organization. The Kiwanis Club of New Canaan will be able to allocate up to $2,000 per applicant and will take applications through the end of this month (Feb. 29—it’s a Leap Year). “Those interested should submit a letter with the agency name, contact information, mission statement, detailed description of program, proposed use for funds and amount requested,” Kiwanis said in a press release. “Explanations of how your mission fits within the Kiwanis mission.”

Last year, with funds raised mainly through its summertime Zerbini Famiy Circus—presented in partnership with the New Canaan YMCA—Kiwanians gave a total of $16,000 to 16 local nonprofit organizations.

Around Town

Three New Canaan Organizations Collaborate on Art Therapy

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Silver Hill Hospital has launched an integrated art therapy experience this summer for patients from its Adolescent Transitional Living Program at the Silvermine Arts Center, thanks to a $5,000 grant by the New Canaan Community Foundation. The program, a collaboration between Silver Hill Hospital and the Silvermine Arts Center, enables patients to leave the Silver Hill campus once a week in order to learn new visual artistic skills, as well as enhance preexisting skills, according to those involved in it. “We started prior to the grant working with Silvermine Arts Center, because they are the preeminent arts guild in Fairfield County and they are right up the street from us, and I was struck by the fortuitous colocation of our two facilities,” said Dr. Aaron Krasner, chief of the Adolescent Transitional Living Program. “I was also developing our internal art therapy program at the time, and I thought it was match made in heaven.”

Krasner found the arts to be an important part in his patients’ recoveries, a conclusion grounded in scientific basis and study. Thanks to the NCCF grant, Sunday sessions will see participants work in various media, including hand-built ceramics, printmaking, sculpture and multimedia painting. “Creative expression and what I like to call adjunctive therapeutic activities are very important for adolescents who are engaged in serious psychotherapy and other psychosocial interventions,” Krasner said.

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.