Around Town

‘We Are a Place That Can Receive People’: Despite Executive Order, Nonprofit ‘NC Welcomes’ Readies for Refugee Family

By |

For Cindy Stewart, a New Canaan resident for 11 years, recent changes in the United States’ immigration policies are an opportunity to teach her teenage children lessons in democracy. Chief among those is “to make their own voices heard,” according to Stewart. “I feel like it’s important for us to model that for them and to show them to stand up for what we believe in and I want to support our view for what this nation is all about, and this is part of our process,” Stewart said Sunday afternoon from Morrill Hall at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, moments after signing up for the ‘Welcome’ and ‘Transportation’ committees of a newly formed New Canaan group seeking to help resettle a refugee family. “We talk a lot at home over the dinner table about the political situation in Syria.

Around Town

PHOTOS: May Fair 2016

By |

Scores of New Canaanites and area residents arrived at the (pesticide-free) grounds of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on Saturday for the annual May Fair. Under a gray sky and scattered light rain, children and families smiled and screamed on rides, feasted on barbecue from the Holy Smokers, as well as cotton candy, strawberry shortcake, pizza from Joe’s Pizza and ice cream from Baskin Robbins, shopped at the hugely popular White Elephant tag sale and enjoyed live music from School of Rock New Canaan musicians. For the second straight year, the fair featured a “Friday Night Lights” preview prior to the traditional fair, with rides and food.

Around Town

Letter: St. Mark’s Collecting Winter Coats, Jackets and Vests

By |

Dear Editor,

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church is currently collecting clean, gently used winter coats, jackets, and vests for our friends and neighbors in need—hats, gloves, and mittens welcome, too. Once sorted, these will be taken to New Canaan’s department of Health & Human Services, which will distribute them to individuals and families just before Christmas. There will be drop boxes in three locations on the St. Mark’s campus—outside the Lion’s Den Bookstore, in the hallway outside Morrill Hall and at the entrance to the Church House in the rear.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

By |

We’re hearing that the wonderful New Canaan Beautification League hosted its second annual Mead Park Breakfast on a recent sunny morning, as a way to say ‘Thank You’ to town employees including many DPW crewmen for their support and partnership in making our village lovely throughout the year (see gallery above). The event was held in the colonnade at Mead Park (a popular spot that had been WPA-era children’s wading pool, originally). Recognized at a recent Town Council meeting for its effective local work, the nonprofit organization creates the hanging baskets downtown and manages many of the traffic triangles around New Canaan. “This non-profit organization of volunteers is open to all, whether for social, civic-minded or educational purposes,” league memberts tell us. “No green thumb is necessary.

Around Town

Club Connecticut To Host ‘Four on The Fourth’ Road Race in New Canaan on Saturday

By |

Although summer is viewed by many New Canaanites as a time of relaxation, the local running community never stops. Club Connecticut will host the 33rd annual Four on the Fourth road race this Saturday at 9 a.m. starting at St. Mark’s Church. The four-mile race travels up Oenoke Ridge Road and onto West Road, continuing down West for a good stretch before turning around and heading right back to the church, and it usually has a few hundred participants, organizers say. “The Four on the Fourth, the last couple of years has [had] a couple hundred [participants],” race director Jim Gerweck told the New Canaanite.