The New Canaan Community Foundation on Monday announced that it’s awarding more than $1.25 million in grants this year—a total that the nonprofit organization believes is a record high. Each year, the NCCF convenes “grant review teams” composed of community members and leaders to assess requests for funding among local and area nonprofits. On Monday, the NCCF held its Grant Awards Coffee at New Canaan Library. There, the organization shared that it is awarding grants ranging from $2,500 to $25,000 to nonprofits that cover a wide range of human services and other needs, including ABC New Canaan, The Glass House, New Canaan CARES and Waveny Park Conservancy. The NCCF is “grateful to all of the donors that supported our work this year,” NCCF President and CEO Lauren Patterson told NewCanaanite.com during the coffee.
National planning expert Jeff Speck has spent his career studying what makes cities thrive and has boiled it down to one key factor: walkability. From economists, epidemiologists, and environmentalists to preservationists, planners, and parents, all agree that walkable communities are better in just about every way. Speck explains why walking is useful, particularly regarding land-use, zoning, transit, and parking, and then focuses on how, by sharing examples of places where walking is safe, comfortable, and interesting.
The Board of Education last week voted unanimously to accept a donation that helps kids enrolled in New Canaan Public Schools’ free and reduced lunch program. The “incredibly generous donation” from an unnamed individual goes into an initiative that the district piloted last year within the program, according to Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi. “Without going into too much detail, the long and short of it is that it’s an opportunity to help children across the district that are in that program to have a little bit more flexibility in their purchasing of snacks and food in our cafeteria,” Luizzi said during the Board of Ed’s regular meeting, held Nov. 20 in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School. “There’s one anonymous donor who’s underwriting this for us,” Luizzi said before the school board voted 9-0 in favor of accepting the $27,649.76 donation, facilitated by the New Canaan Community Foundation.
This week on 0684-Radi0, our free podcast (subscribe here in iTunes), we talk to New Canaan’s Chris Falsetta about the Gracie Fund for Pediatric Cancer. Founded by the Falsetta family following a recent diagnosis of leukemia in their 12-year-old daughter, the Gracie Fund is the designated beneficiary for this year’s New Canaan Combine, a fun athletic competition between the New Canaan Police and Fire Departments, as well as community members of all ages. The Combine is scheduled for Oct. 1 (here’s a signup form to volunteer at the event and here’s information on how to sponsor and join a team—click here to contribute directly). Here are recent episodes of 0684-Radi0:
This week on 0684-Radi0, our free podcast (subscribe here in iTunes), we talk to Lauren Patterson, president and CEO of the New Canaan Community Foundation, about the organization’s newly launched Community Behavioral Health Fund.
Here are recent episodes:
