Op-Ed: Fellow NCHS Seniors, Acknowledging Our ‘Obstacles’

To the Class of 2018:

We’ve reached the calm before the storm. It’s as if I can physically feel the internal clock that counts down the days until I leave my 15 years in New Canaan behind ticking its last few counts. Comprehending the fact that the class of 2018 is now just going to be a name painted on a mural in the hallway by the Wagner Room is overwhelming. As anyone who has run their course through the New Canaan Public Schools system can attest, it feels like we’ve been curated since kindergarten to establish the unique identity of our grade both within our community and without. We are constantly asked what legacy our class will leave, what foot we want to put forward for future groups of students to follow.

How Will Graduating NCHS Seniors Spend This Summer?

Everyone who lives in New Canaan knows that in the summertime it becomes essentially a ghost town, with high-pitched middle school student screeches notably absent from Mackenzies and elsewhere. It begs the question: Where does our town’s youth venture off to in the summer? We asked some members of the New Canaan High School graduating class of 2018 to find out how students would be spending their few months off before college. What we learned was that most teens’ summers revolved around one of three categories—career, travel, or volunteer work. For senior Grace Brady, who will be attending Vanderbilt University in the fall, the spare time offered the opportunity to travel and help rural communities.

Journey to ‘England or France’ at Updated Parterre Garden [CORRECTION]

After months of planning and “yard work,” a newly designed formal garden at Waveny House is in place and residents say they’re enjoying it. Those visiting the town park can now use additional benches as they walk through new plantings, boxwoods and shrubbery along the northern wall of the “parterre garden,” just east of the balcony behind the mansion. “Sitting on the back patio of Waveny and looking down at the parterre, you are transported to England or France,” said New Canaan Garden Club First Vice President Manda Riggs. New Canaan resident Cassidy Little visited the garden on a recent afternoon and is looking to use it as a backdrop for a photography project. “I’m very familiar with Waveny, I run through its trails almost every day in the fall,” she said.

New Canaan Music Earns ‘Business of the Year’ Honors

Now more than ever, it takes both a special kind of business and business owner to succeed. New Canaan has seen many stores open and close their doors, and among those a special few have stayed up and running while being loved by our town’s residents. Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Tucker Murphy said New Canaan Music owner and town resident Phil Williams may be seen as a model for other businesses. “For retail to survive in a town like New Canaan, it has to be about the experience,” Murphy said. “Phil has done just that.”

On June 27, Williams will be recognized as “Business of the Year” during the Chamber’s Annual Awards Luncheon.

‘Fantastic’ GreenLink Trail Attracts Athletes, Nature Lovers

It has been a little less than three months since the grand opening of New Canaan’s “GreenLink” trail and “greenway,” a walkable loop that includes, Irwin Park and the Nature Center. It traverses three New Canaan Land Trust properties, allowing citizens to take full advantage of their bounty. Some say that you can’t take the GreenLink path without seeing at least one fellow resident taking a stroll, so we took it upon ourselves to peruse around and find out how people are feeling about it. Jogging down the trail, New Canaan resident Katherine Mettler said the quality path for her knees helped with running. “At some trails, like Waveny, running on the pavement can be really hard on your knees,” she said.