NewCanaanite.com (https://newcanaanite.com/category/new-canaan-news/around-new-canaan)
This is our New Canaan news catch-all category—stories about traffic calming, public parks, local weather, human services efforts and other quality of life matters facing New Canaanites.
The Summer Internship Program is sponsored by Karp Associates. Eight years ago, New Canaan Police Officer Clinton Jarvis went to the hospital for an allergic reaction. He woke up two hours later with a second diagnosis. Doctors had noticed something in the scans: cysts covering both kidneys, consistent with Polycystic Kidney Disease. He was 35 years old.
The Summer Internship Program is sponsored by the New Canaan Racquet Club. For months, New Canaan resident and Eagle Scout candidate Josh Trepanier quietly worked behind the scenes to improve one of the town’s preserved open spaces. Trepanier designed and built a new interpretive kiosk at the New Canaan Land Trust’s Browne Preserve while organizing a volunteer day in which fellow Scouts removed more than nine large leaf bags of invasive plants and replaced them with native species donated by Copia Home & Garden. The project, which took more than six months of planning, will leave a lasting impact on both the preserve and those who visit it, according to Robin Bates-Mason, executive director of the New Canaan Land Trust. “Projects like these are incredibly valuable to organizations like the New Canaan Land Trust because this is going to be the next generation of young leaders,” Bates-Mason said.
Local filmmaker, writer and educator Claire Ayoub is helping young storytellers discover their voices through her new Try Anyway Creative Workshops, a summer program that blends creative writing, screenwriting and directing into an encouraging, hands-on experience for students in grades 4 through 7. Unlike traditional writing classes, Ayoub’s workshops focus less on grades and perfection and more on creativity, confidence and collaboration, she said. “I love creating a space for kids to just show up and not have to worry about grades or doing things right,” Ayoub said. “It’s about exploring themselves creatively.” The workshops grew out of creative writing classes Ayoub began teaching in New Canaan this spring.
The Summer Internship Program is sponsored by the New Canaan Racquet Club. Six Midcentury Modern homes on Chichester Road have become New Canaan’s first historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places, marking a milestone in the preservation of the town’s internationally recognized architectural heritage, advocates say. Officially listed on March 2, the “Chichester Road Historic District” recognizes both the distinctive architecture and the natural landscape that helped make New Canaan a center of Midcentury Modern design. The new designation follows a nearly two-year effort led by the New Canaan Preservation Alliance, a nonprofit organization. “The goals were to inform the public of the importance of preservation; to recognize the significance of the terrain and architecture on Chichester Road that has been well preserved; to honor the original architects who designed houses in the district between 1956 and 1964; and to enable the owners of these houses to receive tax credits for restoration of their properties,” Susan Pollish, secretary of the New Canaan Preservation Alliance, told NewCanaanite.com.
The Summer Theatre of New Canaan is putting on “Matilda” this summer, running July 10 through 26 at New Canaan High School. We sat down with the nonprofit organization’s founder and artistic director, Melody Libonati, to talk about the show, cast and what makes this production special. Here’s a transcription of our conversation. ***
New Canaanite: Tell us a little bit about the Summer Theatre of New Canaan. How long have you been putting on shows here and how did it get started?