Around Town

New Canaan YMCA Group Arrives in Nairobi, Kenya

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[Editor’s Note: This week, we are publishing posts from Julia Douglas of the New Canaan YMCA as she writes from Nairobi, Kenya, where she’s volunteering with a team to build a playground in the world’s second largest slum, Kibera.]

We arrived at Jomo Kenyatta Airport after more than 24 hours of travel, and the exhaustion quickly shifted to excitement as we stepped off of the plane. We had finally arrived in Kenya, our flights had been fantastic, and we were ready to begin this adventure. The initial visa and passport checks went smoothly, and we proceeded to fill the carts with luggage and duffle bags full of school supplies. We had 12 bags in total, most of them labeled with New Canaan YMCA logos, to say we stood out a little would be a gross understatement. We continued our preparations to leave the airport, and feet from the exit we were stopped by a customs official asking to speak to the leader of our group.

Around Town

Doing Good Abroad: New Canaan YMCA Reps Leave Friday for Africa’s Largest Slum

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[Editor’s Note: Starting Monday through next week, the New Canaan YMCA’s Julia Douglas will publish daily updates and photos of her observations and experiences from Kibera, the world’s second-largest slum, located outside Nairobi, Kenya. Sign up here for our daily newsletter to receive her posts first thing each morning, along with New Canaanite’s always-local news feed.]

Mary Coleman, membership director at the New Canaan YMCA, said she’s always wanted to participate in Peace Corps-type work. An especially well-traveled person already, having visited places such as India, Japan, China and Korea, in addition to Europe, Coleman believes that volunteering to provide manpower abroad would be “very fulfilling.”

“To participate and give back and learn and understand, and to better relate to the community again what it is we are doing here at the Y,” Coleman said Thursday afternoon from a meeting room at the South Avenue facility, with four other women who on Friday will leave together for a 10-day excursion to the largest slum in Africa. “I’m hoping it will be very sobering, life-altering, and that I will bring back some important messages to my family and the community.”

Coleman—along with 10 other people including the YMCA’s Nicki Jezairian, Carolynn Kaufman and Julia Douglas, as well as Anne Goebel, a Stamford Hospital nurse who serves as the Y’s wellness nurse coordinator—on Saturday night will arrive in Nairobi, Kenya, and travel the following day to Kibera, a slum of one million people living in an area about the size of Central Park. Under a partnership that dates back to 2007, the New Canaan YMCA has worked with a child development center in Kibera that provides food, clothing, classroom materials, medical attention and other essentials for hundreds of kids who live there.

Government

YMCA Exit Onto South Avenue To Become Single-Lane

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The New Canaan YMCA’s exit onto South Avenue soon will change from two lanes to one, following a recommendation from state transportation officials. A consulting firm that’s conducted a traffic study of the driveways and parking lots in the expanding facility will install shoulders and stripe the exit lane so that it’s 18 feet wide, “removing the signing that goes with two lanes—left-turn and right-turn only,” according to Michael Galante, executive vice president of Fairfield’s Frederick P. Clark Associates Inc.

“And that is accommodating their [Connecticut Department of Transportation officials’] concerns,” Galante told the Police Commission at its Feb. 25 meeting, held at the New Canaan Police Department. “The state looks at it like this: They would rather have the cars waiting longer in the driveway, rather than have the cars processing more traffic on two lanes.”

The change arises as the YMCA undergoes an expansion and Galante’s firm studies motor vehicle volumes in its driveways to determine the project’s impact on traffic. State officials recommended a similar change from two lanes to one at for the exit driveway at Saxe Middle School, which is set to undergo a rather large capital project next door.

Business

Gower Road Ranch Demolished; Embody Fitness Gourmet Plans $125,000 Interior Fit-Out on Forest

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The New Canaan Building Department on Monday issued a demolition permit for the new owner of a 1949 ranch on Brooks Road to raze the house. The .28-acre lot was purchased for $850,000 in September by a limited partnership out of Greenwich. It isn’t clear what will replace the home that had stood there—the town has not yet received a building permit application for the parcel. The contractor on the $30,000 demo is AC&S Excavating Contractors out of Pound Ridge, N.Y.

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The developer of the mixed-use retail-and-residential complex ‘Heritage Square’ that’s going up on Forest Street on Tuesday put in for a $125,000 interior fit-out for the future home of Embody Fitness Gourmet. The healthy foods provider will occupy one of two retail spaces on street-level in the high-demand complex—Pet Valu will occupy the other.

Around Town

Kiwanis Club of New Canaan Is Now Accepting Local Nonprofits’ Requests for Funding, Feb. 29 Deadline

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A local civic organization whose mission is “serving the children of the world” announced Wednesday that it’s opening its annual season for funding requests from nonprofit organization. The Kiwanis Club of New Canaan will be able to allocate up to $2,000 per applicant and will take applications through the end of this month (Feb. 29—it’s a Leap Year). “Those interested should submit a letter with the agency name, contact information, mission statement, detailed description of program, proposed use for funds and amount requested,” Kiwanis said in a press release. “Explanations of how your mission fits within the Kiwanis mission.”

Last year, with funds raised mainly through its summertime Zerbini Famiy Circus—presented in partnership with the New Canaan YMCA—Kiwanians gave a total of $16,000 to 16 local nonprofit organizations.