News

Letter: ‘Thank You’ from Outback Teen Center for Successful Fundraiser

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Dear Editor,

The Board of Directors of the Outback Teen Center would like to thank all who made possible our winter fundraising event, ‘All In for the OUTBACK!’ The evening was a success with more than 100 guests in attendance. The event opened with live entertainment from The School of Rock and The Verticals, followed by a well-attended poker tournament, casino games, appetizers and cocktails, and live rock music from Lost & Found. The evening concluded with the raffle drawing—Luke Anderson was the proud winner of the poker tournament’s grand prize, a trip to Las Vegas for two with airfare, hotel and VIP tickets to a show. The lucky winner of the most coveted raffle prize of the evening—a Louis Vuitton handbag—was Gillian DePalo. We would like to thank our organizer Claudia Pagazani de Ferreira for chairing the event and Christine Simmons, Outback Community Director for her tireless effort to ensure its success.

News

East School Parents Fund $35,000 in New Playground Equipment for Kindergarten, First Grade

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Thanks to the generosity of East School parents, kindergarteners and first-graders on Little Brook Road as soon as April will enjoy new playground equipment that’s designed both to provide fun and stimulate the senses. The Board of Education at its regular meeting Monday night voted 8-0 to accept a $35,000 gift from the East School PTC that will go toward a rollerslide, grab bar, hand hold/leg lift and other equipment from Delano, Minn.-based playground design firm Landscape Structures. The figure includes the relocation in the playground of a popular “fire truck” and introduction of new woodchips that will be needed for the site, according to PTC Co-President Patty Zoccolillo and East School Principal Kris Woleck. Weather-permitting, the new gear will go in over April Break, Zoccolillo said. “I just wanted to mention once again the incredible generosity of our parent body,” she told the school board at the meeting, held in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School.

News

Letter: Supporting the Outback and New Canaan’s Evolving Needs

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Dear Editor:

On March 7th, 2015, New Canaan Teen Center (“the Outback”) will hold an important annual winter fundraiser. We hope the community will join us to support the Outback as we look to preserve its presence and continue to evolve the center into a place that meets the current needs of the youth and families in our community. As you may have noticed the Outback has been featured in the news recently regarding its funding. Last year the Town of New Canaan provided a grant of $20,000 to the center and proposed $19,000 grant for next year. This amount falls short of the center’s financial needs and it may be in jeopardy.

Government

Outback Proposes that Town ‘Repurpose,’ Take Over Teen Center for Estimated $83,000 Annually

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The town could assume the costs and day-to-day operation of Outback Teen Center for an estimated $83,000 per year, under a new proposal from the nonprofit organization’s board of directors. Under a proposed three-year trial, the New Canaan Recreation Department would take over the Outback, with the town covering its $225,000 annual operating budget—offset by $70,000 that the board would fundraise, $33,000 in income (rentals, programs) and an additional $39,000 saved by sliding in a Rec staffer to run it. Built in 2001 as a teen center with funds raised privately, and on town land through a no-cost lease, the Outback’s board is seeking “to repurpose the center to align with the current needs of the town’s youth.”

“The Board is proposing reorienting the Outback Teen Center as a Youth and Family Community Center while maintaining its emphasis on middle school and high school programming and family events,” according to the board’s proposal, which can be found in full below. “A portion of our community’s indoor recreational and enrichment needs is being well served by the adult and senior community center in town, Lapham. It is important to have a designated facility to serve the social and enrichment needs of the youth and families in town.”

The proposal, titled “Repurposing the Outback: Plan for a Youth and Family Community Center (YC),” calls for the Outback board to turn over the building to the town in exchange for providing programs for youth and families.

Around Town

First Selectman: New Canaan’s Commitment to Youth Evident, Regardless of Outback Funding

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Beyond the taxpayer funds that benefit youth through the public schools—some two-thirds of the entire budget—New Canaan supports its young people by spending some $354,000 each year on its own human services personnel and nonprofit agencies that serve youth, according to the town’s highest elected official. So the idea that spending taxpayer money on the Outback Teen Center is synonymous with supporting youth here is a “misnomer,” First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said Tuesday. “We sometimes think that the Teen Center is the building—it personifies in some people’s minds the commitment the town has [to youth], but it is a private entity,” Mallozzi said at a regular meeting of the Board of Finance, held in the Sturgess Room at the New Canaan Nature Center. “The misnomer is that if you don’t support the Teen Center, you are not in the teen business,” said Mallozzi, who serves as the finance board’s chairman. “I just want to make sure that we all understand: There are a lot of great agencies out there doing some wonderful things, some with a building and some without a building—whether it’s the churches, the YMCA or the Teen Center itself.