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Q&A: Signs of Love and Gratitude Greet New Canaan Teachers Monday

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Teachers headed back to work Monday at public and private schools in New Canaan, including preschools, were greeted by lawn signs from the community expressing love and gratitude. Nearly 150 locals donated toward the project, conceived by a handful of residents in just over one week, with friends and family members helping place the signs in sub-freezing temperatures (the signs them sleds were made very quickly by Stamford’s Alpha Graphics). We connected with the New Canaan resident who helped spearhead the effort, Sara Bakker, for a Q&A. Here’s our exchange. New Canaanite: How did this project get started? 

Sara Bakker: I heard an interview with Michael J. Fox a couple of months ago.

COVID-19 New Canaan

New Canaan Parents Take on ‘Home Schoolteacher’ Role Amid COVID-19 Emergency

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New Canaan resident Jessica Knowles, an HR consultant and mom of three—a kindergartener and third-grader at South School and fifth-grader at Saxe Middle School—has struggled since late last week to stay on top of work. 

With the kids home as part of the New Canaan Public Schools’ newly launched remote learning program, Knowles’s ability to get back to people, schedule meetings and otherwise do her part-time job has been pushed into the evenings and become “sporadic,” she said. “I work from home and I am not really working, other than really trying to help my kids navigate this,” she said. Knowles is among the hundreds of New Canaan parents who have taken on a new role as “home schoolteacher” under the district’s e-learning program, launched Friday as an educational stopgap amid the COVID-19 emergency. Public school buildings are closed until at least March 30, officials have said. Conducted through email and web platforms and consisting largely of assignments that generate feedback from teachers, the e-learning program is drawing wide praise from the parent community as a testament to the district’s commitment to education.

Around Town

‘Do Good in the World’: New Canaan Man To Run NYC Marathon in Support of Sandy Hook Promise

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At the time he was asked to run last year’s New York City Marathon in support of a cause that’s become very important to him, New Canaan’s Sloan Alexander hadn’t done much running at all since his cross-country days at Guilford High School. 

Alexander was already volunteering for Sandy Hook Promise and otherwise supporting the organization, which seeks to prevent gun violence and honor all gun violence victims through programs and practices that protect children. 

To run the marathon as part of the Sandy Hook Promise team gave Alexander a reason to get back into the sport. “I thought that would be an incredible thing to raise money for them,” he recalled. 

He trained for about six months and completed the 26.2-mile run, raising more than $5,000 as part of the team, which raised more than $120,000 overall. “At the time, I was not that interested in ‘racing’ a marathon versus ‘running’ a marathon,” Alexander said. “I was just really excited about getting off my butt and into running shape again, and to see if I could do it. And then last summer when I did another half-marathon in Ridgefield, that is when it changed for me.”

A professional musician who works in New York City, Alexander said he realized that he could do more than just survive marathon-running, could push himself further in terms of fitness and health and do that while helping organizations that he believes in.