News

‘Caffeine & Carburetors’ Raises $27,000 for Waveny Park Conservancy

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The October installment of Caffeine & Carburetors, the popular car show, raised more than $27,000 for a nonprofit organization that works to ensure that Waveny Park continues to thrive. The Waveny Park Conservancy is “thrilled” to receive the support from Caffeine & Carburetors, according to the organization’s chair, Fell Herdeg. “It’s a meaningful gift to the Conservancy,” he said Thursday evening from the forecourt of Waveny House, accepting the gift alongside Conservancy Executive Director Michelle Crookenden from C&C from founder Doug Zumbach and Director of Business Development Claire Drexler. 

Herdeg added: “We love that they’re able to hold it here and I think it draws more people into town—the beauty of our town, the beauty of the park, get to experience the park, all which we think are just wonderful benefits. We’re very appreciative of their support.”

Launched by Zumbach outside his eponymous coffee shop on Pine Street, C&C since last year has raised tens of thousands of dollars for local causes and organizations including the Conservancy, New Canaan Community Foundation, Automotive Assistance Fund and New Canaan Chamber of Commerce “Shop New Canaan” gift card program. 

The total raised from October’s show, which requires antique and specialty show car owners to register for a fee, was $27,476. Overall, Drexler said, C&C — which now is held twice per year, once downtown and once at Waveny — “has become much more organized.”

“We have established great communication channels with all of our partners involved, including the police, the CERT volunteers and the town of New Canaan,” Drexler said.

Around Town

Conservancy Plans ‘Merritt Parkway Trail’ Improvements in Waveny

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The nonprofit organization that works to ensure that New Canaan’s most popular park continues to thrive has a plan to improve one of its major walking trails. The southernmost trail at Waveny—running about .75 miles alongside the Merritt Parkway, from the Lapham Road overpass to the Exit 37 (now 14) southbound on/off ramps—is exposed to the state road at multiple points. For Waveny walkers, that exposure can disrupt visitors’ enjoyment of nature by spoiling the woodland view and bringing in motor vehicle noise, according to the Waveny Park Conservancy. “Let’s move it away, move the trail away from the highway, and get all this buffer from additional woodlands,” the Conservancy’s board chair, Fell Herdeg, told members of the Board of Selectmen last week. “And then put some of the design ethos back in there from the Olmsted Brothers.