Around Town

‘A Fairly Amazing Run’: Cynthia Gorey To Leave New Canaan Community Foundation After 14 Years

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Though it isn’t measurable by any single data point, Cynthia Gorey’s influence in leading the New Canaan Community Foundation for 14-plus years as its executive director, later president and CEO, may be sketched in terms of numbers. NCCF was 25 years old when the organization’s Board of Directors hired Gorey as its first full-time employee, in 2002, and at the time the nonprofit oversaw about $3 million in assets in three or four separate funds, according to current board President Leo Karl III. Today, NCCF controls a little more than $16 million, and for the last several years it’s distributed more than $1 million in annual grants, Karl said. NCCF also now counts nearly 40 separate funds—they vary from board-directed to donor-advised or agency funds set aside for nonprofits’ capital or long-term endowments—and they’re pooled and invested together. In total, NCCF in Gorey’s tenure has distributed more than $11 million—touching people’s lives with a breadth and depth that defies calculation.

Business

Faith, Family and Fierce on the Court: Rose Kelley Karl

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[This is the second installment in a four-part series “Matriarchs of Main & Elm,” profiling the women behind New Canaan’s great business families.]

New Canaan’s Sara Schubert can remember walking through the woods as an 8-year-old girl to visit her grandmother, Rose Karl, at the Carter Street home that the family had built in 1926—the same year Rose’s own father, Henry Kelley, laid the cornerstone at the “new” New Canaan High School, now the police department. There, the woman whose leadership, wisdom and commitment to loved ones would make an indelible mark on an iconic New Canaan business and family, greeted young Sara with freshly baked cookies, milk and—characteristically—meaningful conversation. “I knew I wanted to be a school teacher, get married someday and have kids, and Grandma always told me that it should happen in that order,” Sara recalled on a recent afternoon. “She also told me to have a backup plan in case computers took over a teacher’s job, and this was back in the ‘70s. She was always so insightful, grounded and forward-thinking.”

One of 15 children born at the turn of the century to the prominent Kelley family of Carter Street, Rose would marry Leo Karl, Sr. at St.

Business

High Praise for New Canaan’s Karl Chevrolet, ‘Volt’ Electric Vehicle from State Officials

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State environmental and auto industry officials on Tuesday praised a longstanding New Canaan business for its vision and commitment by way of touting a recently launched rebate program that promotes low-emissions electric vehicles. Since it launched in June, the “Connecticut Hydrogen and Electric Vehicle Purchase Rebate” or ‘CHEAPR’ program has seen more than $200,000 in rebates paid out, spurring the purchase or lease of more than 100 vehicles, state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Robert Klee said during a press event held on the showroom floor of Karl Chevrolet on Elm Street. Standing beside a not-yet-available 2016 Chevy Volt model that was shipped in especially by GM, Klee—his own state-owned Volt charging at the dealership’s own station alongside the building—noted that Leo Karl III, president of Karl Chevrolet, has led efforts across a wide swath of lower Fairfield County to see electric vehicle charging stations installed. The CHEAPR program offers cash rebates of up to $3,000. “It is really this sort of visionary leadership at this level that we need around the state to really drive home” the advantages of driving electric vehicles, Klee said.

Around Town

Recognizing New Canaan’s Volunteers: Locals, Community Foundation To Continue Town Tradition

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A group of locals is seeing to it that an important and longstanding tradition—of recognizing those in New Canaan who give of their time through volunteerism—will continue. For nearly 20 years, local volunteers had been honored through a spring program that involved the United Way. When that organization no longer was able to support the effort, locals who served on a committee overseeing the volunteer awards decided to find another way to get recognition for those who have earned it. “We’re talking about the person who usually flies under the radar, who has been doing something for a long time out of the goodness of their heart,” said Tucker Murphy, a member of the committee. Now, with generous support from the New Canaan Community Foundation, the awards will go on, with a Nov.

News

Letter: Supporting Youth Sports and Fitness through the Ram Spirit Fund

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Dear Editor,

I’m writing to bring attention to a broad based community wide effort to improve our athletic fields. I invite every New Canaan resident to step forward and support the Ram Spirit Fund (RSF) Capital Campaign in progress now. The RSF represents a new collaborative effort that links our High School athletic program with various youth sports organizations with a shared vision to enhance our town’s athletic complex to meet current and future needs. Organizations coming together to create the Ram Spirit Fund include the NC Rams All Sports Booster Club, New Canaan Youth Football, New Canaan Soccer Association, New Canaan Youth Field Hockey and New Canaan Lacrosse Association. Phase 1 of this campaign seeks to raise Two Million Dollars to cover the cost of creating two new turf fields located between the current Water Tower Turf Field and Dunning Stadium (one full size regulation field and one smaller practice field), along with the re-surfacing of the Dunning turf.