Dear New Canaan Community,
Nine years ago, Gil and I moved to this beautiful town with two middle school-aged girls. We were, as so many are, taken with the walking village life, the centrality of the school as a critical community anchor, and especially by the incredible amount of open public land that highlights New England beauty.
As we prepare to relocate back home to the Midwest (for family, for work and for study) I feel compelled to share a few thoughts, having served the community in several ways in our nine years here. What I have come to love about New Canaan through my involvement with Rotary, League of Women Voters, the New Canaan Clergy Association and certainly in my role as the Community Initiative Director at Grace Farms Foundation, is the dedication and dynamism of the not-for-profit sector here in town.
In our pursuit to define that somewhat nebulous term “community,” Sharon Prince and I have often remarked with appreciation how the strong cross-sector collaborations between municipal government and local non-profits, combined with amazing energy from active citizens, is what builds strong community. I delight in sharing with our leadership team all I have seen first hand that happens in town; whether at September 11 Memorial Events or at Rotary’s Lobsterfest, at Caffeine and Carburetors, in the Pop Up Park, at the Sidewalk Sale and Holiday Stroll, the (now) Annual Addiction Vigil, people coming together following the horror in Sandy Hook and deadly shootings in Las Vegas, and much more. This defines the essence of community- far more than just a lovely town to live in, commute from, and raise a family. It’s about people coming together across all lines of difference.
With that, allow me a few words of encouragement: that each of us, individually, make every effort to be a little more gracious with our words with one another. This involves listening intently as well as responding thoughtfully. Surely we all feel the strain of this moment of fiscal uncertainty in our state and the burden New Canaan bears. Naturally tensions run high when ideas for change to help us grow and evolve are introduced.
But if we can resist participating in the profoundly uncivil discourse we are experiencing on a national level—if we could model productive disagreement that does not divide but honors our different views and finds truly meaningful pathways forward—we will actually support our local businesses, organizations, and institutions in town working so hard to keep New Canaan flourishing. There is plenty of room for preserving what is beautiful and historic and also make space for what is new and to contemplate what is worth wanting, as my colleague Dr. Matthew Croasmun suggests.
Gil and I will always be grateful for the treasured friends we have developed here, both professional and personal, and we will undoubtedly bring many of you with us in our hearts.
With heartfelt affection,
Lisa Lynne Kirkpatrick
The Kirkpatrick’s have made an indelible mark on New Canaan, and we will strive to keep working toward the community cohesion you both have so beautifully modeled. Sending you off is so bittersweet, but we do so with much love and gratitude. Thank you for all you and Gil have done to bring people together, with love as the cornerstone.