Around Town

‘Project Pink’ Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign Prepares To Launch [Q&A]

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The annual breast cancer awareness campaign that sees downtown New Canaan “turn pink”—with personalized pink tags and ribbons on lampposts—is about to get underway. Created by New Canaanites Julie Stein and Jera Flood, “Project Pink” is entering its fourth year. We put some questions to Stein as the effort—a fundraiser for the Breast Cancer Alliance during Breast Cancer Awareness Month—approaches. Here’s our exchange. ***

New Canaanite: This is the fourth year of Project Pink, which you launched in 2023, five years after your own breast cancer diagnosis.

Around Town

‘May Love Be the Last Word’: New Canaan Gathers for 9/11 Ceremony

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Rick Rescorla is probably not a household name in New Canaan. As Police Chief John DiFederico noted on Friday morning, Rescorla had no direct ties to the town. 

Yet his story of “unmatched valor” on Sept. 11, 2001 reflects the same “extraordinary courage” demonstrated by “ordinary men and women” on a day that saw 2,977 innocent lives lost—among them “343 firefighters, 71 law enforcement officers, and dozens of medical personnel who ran directly towards danger so that others may live,” DiFederico told more than 200 people gathered on the front lawn of Town Hall for the community’s annual 9/11 memorial service. “Rick was a decorated Vietnam veteran who served as director of corporate security for Morgan Stanley in the World Trade Center,” DiFederico said from a podium on the front steps of Town Hall on a picture-perfect late-summer morning. “At that time, Morgan Stanley employed 2,700 employees and occupied 22 stories, 22 floors of the South Tower.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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New Canaan Police at 9:14 a.m on Sept. 3 received a report from a New Norwalk Road resident of fraud of American Airlines tickets. ***

Tickets are now on sale for the inaugural New Canaan Dance Academy Foundation Gala, to be held Saturday, Sept. 26 at New Canaan Library. ***

A lightning strike on Old Stamford Road caused a fire in the attic of a home in August, leading to water damage, Fire Marshal Paul Payne reported to the Fire Commission at its regular meeting Tuesday.

Around Town

‘Paint the Town Pink’: NCFD Launches T-Shirt Sale at the Firehouse in Support of Those Fighting Breast Cancer

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As it does for so many, cancer touches Silvana Freeland personally. A volunteer firefighter with New Canaan Fire Co. No. 1 for more than three years, Freeland lost her great aunt Lina “Lele” Aversa to breast cancer. “Breast cancer in particular is a cause that hits close to home for me,” Freeland, a New Canaan resident who grew up in Stamford, told NewCanaanite.com.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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New Canaan Police are investigating the theft of a vehicle reported stolen from Arrowhead Trail at 11:50 a.m. on Aug. 29. ***

A little rain and one-day postponement did not keep attendees away from the 10th Annual Community Addiction Awareness Vigil on Wednesday night, with several hundred people gathering at South Avenue and Elm Street for the powerful event, organized by New Canaan Parent Support Group founder Paul Reinhardt. Emceed by Liberation Programs CEO John Hamilton, the Vigil featured performances by the Musical Intervention Recovery band led by Adam Christoferson, original music from two recovery songwriters, keynote speakers in long-term recovery—including Kera Townshend, who attended New Canaan High School with Evan Reinhardt—and scores of additions to the “Hope and Remembrance Wall” that appears each year at Morse Court, where loved ones place orange heart stickers honoring those lost to and battling with addiction. ***

The National Charity League’s New Canaan Chapter celebrated the achievements of the organization’s middle school- and high school-aged members during a “welcome back” event held Sunday out back of Waveny House.