Have You Heard …? In the Schools, at the Train Station, on the Rink, at the Firehouse

Here’s the low down on what’s up around town:

This year’s Darien Fire Firefighters St. Baldrick’s Day event will be held Saturday, March 31 at Darien Fire Department Headquarters. Anyone who wants to participate —whether you decide to shave your head, volunteer, or donate — may do so by signing up here.

Last year the Darien event raised $93,994 for childhood cancer research. Organizers say they’re hoping to replicate that success this year. The St. Baldrick’s Foundation is a volunteer-powered charity that funds more in childhood cancer research grants than any organization except the U.S. government.

St. Baldrick’s events raise money for infants, children, teens and young adults fighting childhood cancers.

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Expect some new lighting on the south side of the tracks at Noroton Heights Railroad station. On Monday, Feb. 5, Public Works Director Edward Gentile told the Board of Selectmen he expected LED lighting to be up “within two weeks.”

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Darien residents Meg Tweedy, Ben Larrabee and Dana Goodfellow were among those winning awards Sunday at the Rowayton Arts Center exhibition, “Beyond Brushwork.” 

Tweedy came in first place in the mixed media category; Goodfellow won first place in the Print category and Larrabee came in second for digital art.

Amy Schott of Wilton won Best in Show as well as the Gale Parsons Memorial Award. Her piece, “Twisted in Color,” was created from tiny pieces of paper from packaging materials. The competition categories were digital art, drawings, mixed media, paper cuts, pastels and prints.

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Fifth graders at Hindley School and music teacher Kathy Knapp  presented a program on Friday based on Tchaikovsky’s  Nutcracker Ballet.

“The entire 5th grade was involved in collaborating and creating the production and contributed their individual talents to make the show a success,” according to the Darien Public Schools Music Department blog.

Here are pictures from the event:

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The Darien High School Math Modeling club fielded a team of four students — Dan Pfrommer, Julia Pfrommer, Matt Shabet, and Griffin Ott — at the High School Mathematical Contest in Modeling, an international modeling competition, said an announcement from the high school. Here’s more from the announcement:

“The four had 36 hours to evaluate a problem, do appropriate research, develop and tweak their model, and write their results (in only 26 pages — yes, that is a limit).

 

“The problem involved evaluating a particular location as a host for the Winter Olympics — primarily focused on the ability to create challenging ski runs.

“That is, the students had to generate and lay ski paths on mountainous terrain to meet certain objectives of the question, and evaluate against Olympic criteria.  The students earned the recognition of ‘Meritorious’ placing their work in the top 20 percent of all competitors.”

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There are “help wanted” signs at all sorts of retail establishments in and around Darien. Shake Shack in Darien is among those with job openings — find out more here. Johnny’s and Company is looking for a “receptionist/salon co-ordinator” — find out more here.

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Road trivia: Did you know that Darien has a “Tinywood Road”? It appears to be appropriately named, with maybe one or two houses on the street. Here’s where it is.

(Darien’s “Bigwood Road” would be Hollow Tree Ridge Road, of course. But that’s not the road with the longest name — that’s a tie between “Old King’s Highway North” and “Old King’s Highway South.”)

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Love is in the air, especially if you are a reader. Darien Library announced today that it is launching Book Matchmaker, a book recommendation service to help connect readers to great books. Patrons who participate will receive a handpicked book, based on their reading preferences, every 12 weeks.

The Book Matchmaker program is an extension of the Library’s reader advisory service. The goal of the program is to build relationships with patrons while providing tailored reading recommendations to subscribers (participants) in an easy and convenient way. The service is loosely based on start-up subscription businesses such as Stitch Fix and Birch Box.

To participate in the program, patrons fill out a quick and fun online form to determine reading preferences. Patrons are then matched with a reader advisor who every twelve weeks selects a book and checks it out to them with a personalized note explaining the reason behind the selection.

Book Matchmaker is open to adults and teens with registered library cards. For more information or to participate in the program, please visit the Book Matchmaker page on the Darien Library website.

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Darien Fire Department recently tweeted: “After serving more than 46 years as the Financial Secretary of the Darien Fire Dept. (elected in 1971), Robert Eldredge recently stepped down from his position. Mr. Eldredge has been a member of DFD for 57 years! We would like to thank him for his time and service!”

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Lauren Tarshis, author of the popular I Survived series, recently visited Holmes School.  Here are some photos from her visit:

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Norwalk Community College will be holding information sessions in February for those interested in exploring careers in physical therapy. Three information sessions are scheduled for next month, to be held in the PTA lab in W005. The sessions are:

• Thursday, Feb. 15 — 10 a.m.
• Wednesday, Feb. 21 — 2:30 p.m.
• Monday, Feb. 26 — 6 p.m.

There will be a short presentation at the beginning of each session, followed by a question and answer session. Attendees will learn the program requirements, how to apply and career opportunities in physical therapy.

Information packets and program applications will be available at the information sessions. Program applications are due by June 1. Those interested in attending should email Jennifer Bresnick, Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) at jbresnick@norwalk.edu with the session they plan to attend.

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Since December 2017, Stepping Stones Museum for Children in Norwalk has sold 724 memberships to #SteppingStones, which means that 724 new Person-to-Person families will join the Stepping Stones learning community.

For every membership renewed or sold now through Monday, Feb. 19, the museum is giving a free membership to a Person-to-Person family who may not have access to the museum because of financial barriers.

You can get a membership here.