Planet New Canaan ‘Green Gala’ Set for Sept. 14 [Q&A]

One of New Canaan’s most unique and active nonprofit organizations is hosting its major fundraiser in about two weeks. Planet New Canaan’s Green Gala will be held 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 14 at the Carriage Barn Arts Center (tickets here). Sponsors include Walter Stewart’s Market, Northeast Building Supply, Karl Chevrolet and NewCanaanite.com. 

We put some questions to the nonprofit organization’s president, Robin Bates Mason, ahead of the event. Here’s our exchange.

Podcast: The ‘Cam Hutchins Pollinator Garden’

This week on “0684-Radi0,” our free podcast (subscribe here in iTunes), we talk to Robin Bates Mason, president of Planet New Canaan, about efforts to install a pollinator garden dedicated to the memory and legacy of former Conservation Commission Chair Cam Hutchins in Bristow Park. Those efforts include a matching grant from Sustainable CT for which advocates for the Cam Hutchins Pollinator Garden currently are fundraising (details for donating here). Here are recent episodes of 0684-Radi0:

Q&A: Composting Talk To Be Held Thursday at New Canaan Library

New Canaan Library, Planet New Canaan and the Conservation Commission are co-sponsoring a talk about composting on Thursday. Registration is open for ‘Anyone Can Compost: Approaches to Home Composting that Work for You,’ to be held at 6 p.m. on June 15 in the Jim & Dede Bartlett Auditorium at the library. It features Master Gardener and Composter Alice Ely, garden education chair at Wakeman Town Farm, one of the organizers of Westport’s Pollinator Pathway, a UConn Advanced Master Gardener and a UConn Master Composter. Composting is widely practiced in New Canaan. According to data supplied by the Department of Public Works, the total food scrap collection weight at the transfer station (in pounds) for the five weeks starting May 3 are: 1,110, 1,420, 980, 1,040 and 1,150.

‘Stuff Has Been Moving’: New Canaan Swap Shop Officially Launches at Transfer Station

The organizers of the New Canaan Swap Shop say a name like ‘Take It or Leave It’ may have fit the facility better, since the Transfer Station passholders who can use it are free to either drop off items as donations, pick up free stuff or both. But the “Swap Shop” name has stuck and, since an official opening last week that followed a soft launch around Thanksgiving, “stuff has been moving,” according to Robin Bates Mason, president of Planet New Canaan. “Sometimes when stuff comes in, it goes out right away,” Bates Mason said on Wednesday morning as she and fellow volunteers arranged items for the Swap Shop’s operating hours of 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday through Saturday. “We had someone bring in a big bag of PlayStation games. One guy brought in a year-old flatscreen TV and literally 20 minutes later it was out the door.