Around Town

The Kiwanis Club of New Canaan Grants $16,000 to Local Organizations Serving Youth

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The Kiwanis Club of New Canaan met at the New Canaan YMCA on Friday to give $16,000 to 16 local nonprofit organizations serving youth, thanks largely to funds raised at the Zerbini Family Circus last June. According to Kiwanian David Hoyle, an attorney who sits on the club’s Allocations Subcommittee, just three years ago the club was only able to give away $2,000. “I think it is just a wonderful thing to be able to give this much money away,” Hoyle told the New Canaanite. “You feel like you’re making that much more of a difference. It’s really great and it’s wonderful because of all of the work that the folks and [Kiwanian] Kathy [Holland] and [YMCA Marketing Director] Kristina [Barrett] do for the service.

Around Town

New Canaan Nonprofits Participating in ‘Giving Day’

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On Thursday, some 18 New Canaan nonprofit organizations will participate in a 24-hour fundraising blitz known as Giving Day. Hosted by the Fairfield County Community Foundation under the slogan “Give Where You Live” and with a goal of raising $1 million on a single day, Giving Day invites donors to give at least $10 to as many charities as they can. The organization that has the most individual donations will win an extra $25,000, while the organization that raises the most money will get another $20,000 (more information on prizes is available here). We asked participating local nonprofits to send us a single sentence communicating to NewCanaanite.com readers why they’re a great candidate for a donation on this day. Here are the New Canaan nonprofits, according to the Giving Day website, with their responses (those agencies that have not yet responded can email me directly at editor@newcanaanite.com and I will update this story):

A Better Chance of New Canaan: “The mission of the ABC of New Canaan is to offer capable minority youth the opportunity to learn in a superior educational program while also preparing them to assume positions of responsibility and leadership in American society.”
Carriage Barn Arts Center/New Canaan Society for the Arts: “Please support the New Canaan Society for the Arts/Carriage Barn Arts Center on this Fairfield County Giving Day and help us fulfill our goal of providing exceptional art exhibitions, accessible children’s art education, and cultural programs.”
Filling in the Blanks: “Your support will allow FILLING IN THE BLANKS to provide over 300 hungry children with meals on the weekend.”
Future 5: “Now with over 100 active members, Future 5 is helping motivated, low income high school students stay on track and connect to their full potential.”
Getabout
Hungry Kidzz: “We provide weekend bags of food during the summer, a 4th of July ‘Freedom (barbecue) Box’ and 1000s of holiday stockings in December.”

Around Town

Catching Kids Doing Great Things: CARES Leadership Graduates Share Their Success

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New Canaan CARES Leadership Challenge program, having almost finished its thirteenth year of instruction, graduated a class of 22 high school students on Wednesday, Jan. 7th. For those unfamiliar with the course, Leadership students are required to attend 45 hours of after-school curriculum training where NC CARES staff work with them on important skills such as organization, time management, public speaking, goal-setting, and offering and receiving constructive criticism. Students are then assigned to teams and are expected to complete 15 hours of community service on projects working with youth or assisting the elderly. Projects are intentionally assigned to place students outside of their comfort zones and students are encouraged to “face their fears and overcome their reservations.”

These service learning projects allow students to engage in drama, teaching, creating multi-media public service announcements and other new activities.

Around Town

Kiwanis Club of New Canaan Awards $16,000 to 25 Local Organizations

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Six years ago, the Kiwanis Club of New Canaan—a nonprofit organization whose mission is “serving the children of the world”—doled out $1,800 to seven local recipient groups in line with its cause, with monies coming from established, though limited, events such as the St. Patrick’s Day Dinner. On Friday—thanks mostly to the more recent, very popular Zerbini Family Circus, which Kiwanis presents in conjunction with the New Canaan YMCA—Kiwanis was able to give nearly $16,000 to 25 organizations. According to 6-year Kiwanian David Hoyle, an attorney in town who helped host a gathering at the Y to mark the handing out of those funds, the circus “has really changed what we’re able to do.”

“We work really well with them and they do stuff that we can’t do and vice versa,” Hoyle said. “[YMCA Marketing Director] Kristina Barrett and [Kiwanian] Kathy Holland just do yeoman’s work.”
Local organizations receiving allocations include ABC House, CERT, Future 5, New Canaan Historical Society, Pesticide-Free New Canaan and Summer Theatre of New Canaan.

News

Heroin and New Canaan, Part 3 of 3: ‘Reach Out to a Person’

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Editor’s Note: This is the final installment of a three-part series. The first two parts can be found here:

Heroin and New Canaan, Part 1 of 3: Tracing and Defining a Problem
Heroin and New Canaan, Part 2 of 3: Parenting

 

On Friday at work, Ed Milton was visited by New Canaan High School students who talked to him about everything from an unfinished school project to bothersome friends and parents. Most of the teens who come to Milton—an outreach worker with Kids In Crisis who’s based in the high school itself—find him through their own friends, and family conflict is a frequent topic of conversation. “Developmentally, they should be looking for their independence, so that is and should be number one,” Milton said Friday afternoon in front of the New Canaan Playhouse, a pack of eighth-graders huddled nearby. Milton recalled how one New Canaan teen described his role: “This kid was so brilliant.