Letter: ‘Thank You’ from The Exchange Club

The Exchange Club of New Canaan had another banner year of sales with 1,260 trees and almost 2,000 wreaths sold at our annual fundraiser in Kiwanis Park. We netted nearly $90,000, which we’ll distribute to local not-for-profit organizations this year. We want to thank the New Canaan community and residents from nearby towns for buying trees and wreaths from us. We were also pleased to see many adults and children attending our annual Lou Moreno tree lighting ceremony. We could not have been successful without the help from many organizations including the Service League of Boys, the Girl and Boy Scouts, Pivot Ministries, the Shepherds, the New Canaan Recreation Department, the Chamber of Commerce, Old Faithful, Studio Singers and watch dog Wisdom.

Did You Hear … ?

New Canaan’s annual ceremony honoring and remembering those lost in the Sept, 11, 2001 terrorist attacks will return to the front steps of Town Hall this Friday, Sept. 11 at 9:55 a.m. Attendees are welcome to join town officials for refreshments following the ceremony, at the New Canaan Firehouse across Main Street, Fire Marshal Fred Baker tells us. ***

Congratulations to 2002 NCHS grad Katherine Pembrook Avgerinos, looking beautiful in these photos on occasion of her July 5 marriage to Ivan Jose Docampo Esmoris in Glyfada, Greece. Here are excerpts from the wedding notice, supplied by her mom:

The Rev. Harold E. Masback, III, former senior minister of the Congregational Church of New Canaan, officiated at the service.        

The bride is the daughter of Michael and Linda Avgerinos, formerly of New Canaan and now residing in Norwalk. The bridegroom is the son of Hilario and Maria Jesus Docampo of Carballo, Spain, in the northeast region of Galicia.

Did You Hear … ?

We’re wishing a speedy recovery for New Canaan First Selectman Rob Mallozzi, who is laid up at home this week—booked already as a vacation week—after spraining his ankle and breaking a lower leg bone (fibula) during a freak accident last weekend. Up in Newport, R.I. with New Canaanites Nick Williams, a second selectman, and Paul Foley, a police commissioner, for the 12-meter sailing races, Mallozzi—who had gone uninjured in eight years as a volunteer firefighter here in town—took a misstep between a sailboat and launch and rolled his ankle. As per Coastal Orthopaedics in Norwalk, the first selectman said he’s got to keep the leg elevated for a full week to prevent swelling and quicken the recovery process, and hopes to be back at work next Tuesday. “Everyone has reached out to me, my wife and family and friends have been wonderful, and as upset as I am, that part of this has made it a little easier,” Mallozzi said on Wednesday. The first selectman was to have taken a real vacation this week, including an Eagles concert, but had to forego it while he recovers at home.

‘It’s All about Our Town’: New Canaan Community Foundation Helps Save Christmas

For many New Canaanites, the high Christmas season launches with the Holiday Stroll and first Sunday of December, when firefighters deck the fire house, and runs through Christmas Eve caroling at God’s Acre and Dec. 25 church services and family dinners. Two important pieces of favorite local Christmas traditions emanate from Kiwanis Park, where the Exchange Club for some 40 years has sold wreaths and trees alongside Santa’s Workshop, where local kids meet the big man on weekends. So when it was discovered suddenly two weeks ago that the fuel oil tank which heats Santa’s Workshop (at the New Canaan Girl Scouts Merrie Bee Cabin) had deteriorated irreparably, raising the prospect of a Workshop-less holiday for scores of locals, it represented a problem not just for the Exchange Club and Girl Scouts, but the community at large. Enter the New Canaan Community Foundation, which immediately issued a $2,600 emergency or “out of cycle” grant to cover most of the cost of a replacement tank.