|
|
Fresh fish has come back to Route 7! Every Friday and Saturday (all day long & all year long), in front of Redding Veternary Hospital, you will see a big white fish truck. “The Fish Guy” is ready, willing and able to help you make the finest fish selections.
Questions? Email: TheFishGuyLLC@yahoo.com
Read more on HamletHub.com/Ridgefield!
One hundred forty eight women from in and around Fairfield County have found laughter where there once were tears, roses in a bush of thorns. Together, they have rebuilt and restored- not only their personal lives, but the lives of their families. The women all have something in common: divorce.
Divorced Women and Wine, is the brainchild of Ridgefield elementary school paraprofessional, Connie Johnson. The dynamic group helps women cope with the stress of divorce by providing them with friendship, fun and a realm of support services. Johnson chuckles as she admits, “I started the group for selfish reasons and had no noble cause in mind. I wanted to meet women that I could have fun with when my kids were not with me. I had no idea it would help so many women.”
In the confidential company of one another, the ladies share stories, thoughts and life’s struggles. They find solace in one another; sometimes laughing, sometimes crying and lots of times doing a little of both. “My first meeting, I thought I’d go home and cry. I laughed until I nearly peed in my pants,” says Sherman.
The logistics of the Friday evening gatherings are simple. “I email the group to see if anyone wants to host and limit the group to the first 10-12 women who sign up. We like to keep it intimate,” says Johnson. The homes of members are the meeting venues; the ladies bring wine and the host provides some finger food. “The agenda is what everyone brings to the meeting,” says Johnson. Women of all ages and walks of life are part of the group. “We have women in their twenties and women in their sixties,” says Johnson.
Lifelong friendships have been created through Divorced Women and Wine. “To have people behind me was tremendous. I had one divorced friend before this group. These are my best friends,” says Kristen Sherman of North Salem. Tracey Iaizzi of Bethel, an IT director for a local publishing company agrees, “I joined the group because I needed female friends who I could connect with. I couldn’t ask for more- to have all of these girl friends that I love spending time with. I’ve never laughed more.”
In addition to regularly scheduled meetings, the ladies plan other fun outings including First Friday’s at the Aldrich, concerts in Ballard Park, movies and happy hours. At the time of this interview, some of the members were in the midst of planning a White Water Rafting trip. “It’s made me break out of my comfort zone, “says Sherman. In fact, the ladies have a mantra, in the words of Eleanor Roosevelt, “Do one thing that scares you every day.”
But being there for each other goes beyond lending a compassionate ear. “Barbara is helping me find a job,” says Sherman. “I was a homemaker for 17 years and I’m trying to get back into the swing of things,” she adds. “It won’t be long,” pipes in Financial Advisor, Barbara McMahon. The group shares vital resources that span from qualified divorce attorneys to career opportunities and counseling services.
“When you’re in it, you can’t see. You wonder how you’ll ever get through it – from the kids to the logistics and lack of finances,” says Mc Mahon. Empowering each other, the members of the group pick up broken pieces and put their lives back together.
“It’s painful, but through support and a lot of laughing, you can get out the on the other side,” says Johnson.
*This story appeared in Ridgefield Magazine.
*Photograph by caryn leigh posnansky
Read more on HamletHub
The “Farm to Table” sponsors pictured from left to right: Joe and Ilsa Keller and their son Harlan from Garden of Ideas, Sarah Bouissou from Bernard’s, along with Pam Rybarczyk from ROAR. Missing is Monica Brown from 109 Cheese & Wine
By Meg Reilly
Expect lively bidding at this year’s ROAR with Laughter fundraiser event on February 25th. Among the exciting live auction items that include a Sonoma Valley wine trip, a private villa vacation in Manzanillo, Mexico and the ever-popular Macy’s Fireworks VIP evening, is a unique dining experience created and donated by three local businesses and long-time ROAR supporters
New this year is a fabulous “Farm to Table” evening hosted by The Garden of Ideas, 109 Cheese & Wine and Bernard’s. The evening will kick off with a tour led by Joe and Ilsa Keller, The Garden of Ideas owners, to view their beautiful grounds made up of eight acres of marsh, woodland, meadow and vegetable plots. Wine and hors d’oeuvres, carefully paired by Monica Brown of 109 Cheese & Wine, will follow the tour. Bernard’s own Sarah Bouissou will use her culinary talents to create a menu that centers on the bounties of the garden. “Creating this special evening to support ROAR was important to all us involved with its planning. It will truly be a magical evening”, said Sarah.
ROAR with Laughter takes place on February 25 at 7 pm at the Matrix Banquet and Conference Center. To make your reservation, learn more about the event or place your pre-event online auction bid, go to www.roar-ridgefield.org.
*Photo courtesy Donna Svendsen
Read more on www.hamlethub.com/ridgefield
“I’m so proud to be a Tiger. And a gay one, at that, ” says 2011 RHS Valedictorian Patrick Ford-Matz
By Dia Sharma, HamletHub Intern
Last night, the Facebook and Twitter homepages of current and graduated Ridgefield High School students were flooded with outspoken statuses regarding a recent Twitter account which targeted gay and lesbian students in the community, namely at RHS.
Within a few hours of the creation of the account, students acted out against the unknown creator of the account, and more importantly, cyber-bullying in general. Kelly Aaronson, a senior at Ridgefield High School, made her status “Ashamed to be a part of the RHS student body right now.” Aaronson’s got thirty-one likes and twelve comments on it last night, demonstrating the youth community’s views against cyber-bullying.
When asked about her involvement in responding to the offensive Twitter account, RHS Alum Kiera Bloch said that it was impossible to stand by and not react to the fact that individual students were being called out. “In light of recent local events, as well as the general crimes against the gay community on a national level, we felt it was necessary to address the issue,” Bloch said.
Holly Walker, another RHS Alum, and Bloch drafted a letter to RHS Principal Jeffrey Jaslow last night, posted the letter on Facebook, and asked students to sign their name in a Facebook Inbox to add as an addendum at the end of the letter. Within hours, hundreds of students had demonstrated their support for the anti-cyber-bullying movement currently taking place through the social media vessel in Southern Connecticut.
A Facebook group titled “Southern Connecticut High Schools: An End to Cyber Bullying” was created last night. It was originally titled “RHS: An End to Cyber-bullying” and was renamed with Southern Connecticut in the title to incorporate multiple high schools in the area, including Joel Barlow High School and Weston High School. The group currently has over 1000 members, including students from a variety of high schools as well as parents of students.
But why? Why such a drastic reaction to a single Twitter account?
“We have all been bullied or know someone who has been bullied,” Bloch said. She, in addition to hundreds of students in Ridgefield, believe that it is the responsibility of Ridgefield High School’s administration, faculty, and student body to foster an environment where students feel safe, regardless of their personal beliefs or sexual orientation.
Although the Twitter account has been deleted, the aftermath is still very much alive. “It’s important that the victims of these accounts are aware of the tremendous positive response that has come from the entire Ridgefield community,” Bloch said. “It’s inspiring and it’s important,” she added.
When RHS Alum and Class of 2011 Valedictorian Patrick Ford-Matz was asked about the issue, he said, “I’ve been bragging about RHS since I got to Penn. My friends here seemed shocked I felt comfortable enough to come out in high school, but it seemed like the most natural thing in the world to me. In retrospect, Ridgefield High is a remarkably accepting and progressive place. Sure, this incident shook my faith a bit, but the remarkable and massive reaction by the student body just reinforces why I’m so proud to be a Tiger. And a gay one, at that.”
Bloch and Walker are still working diligently to spread the anti-cyber-bullying movement, working primarily through social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, but also sending informative emails to news sites and administrators in and around Ridgefield.
Mike Lauterborn in front of his ‘Writing for Interactive Media’ class
*Thanks to Fairfield HamletHub editor, Mike Lauterborn for writing this great article. He captures the entrepreneural spirit of the Hubs and encourages his students to bring their writing to the next level through creative online media.
Bridgeport, CT – What better way to show students the potential of a Blog than to introduce them to someone who has made a commercial success of her own?
That was Mike Lauterborn’s thinking when he invited Kerry Anne Ducey, the founder of HamletHub, to speak in his “Writing for Interactive Media” class at the University of Bridgeport on Tuesday, June 24. Professor Lauterborn is also the Editor of Fairfield’s HamletHub, one of 11 town sites the HamletHub network now encompasses in Connecticut.
Ducey, as a long-time Ridgefield resident, has always been very plugged into the goings-on in her town and recognized a void in information flow from other local media. As such, and initially under the banner Talk of the Town, she started pushing out information online about events, school news, entertainment, retail offers and more, often while still in her pajamas and from a small computer in her bedroom.
The community really began to tune into her posts and she started to receive inquiries from businesses that wanted to advertise on her site. More clients came on board, which created more workload than she could effectively handle. The opportunity to broaden her scope also presented itself.
Ducey’s husband Ken, a mergers and acquisitions exec, stepped in to help her replicate the site’s template, change the name to HamletHub (to avoid any potential dispute with The New Yorker magazine and its Talk of the Town feature) and appoint other locally plugged-in people to serve as editors of its sister sites.
Now the initial Ridgefield site is a comprehensive business model that the other Hubs are eagerly mirroring, with respective editors dispensing local content, promoting the site through Twitter and Facebook, and attracting the interest of both advertisers and subscribers.
Lauterborn’s students – 16 undergraduates in all – have created their own Blog sites, themed around topics of their personal interest. The goal is that they gradually become experts in these topics, garner abundant followers and attract their own advertisers who want to align with content relevant to their businesses.
You may not believe that someone with a background in fashion and art and no prior movie making experience is capable of directing and producing an award winning film on their first try. You may also find it hard to believe that watching a movie about horses can be so thought provoking that it leads you to question your actions and how they impact the world.
In the award winning movie, “Buck”, Redding resident, Cindy Meehl has combined her passion for horses with her admiration and respect for one charismatic horseman, Buck Brannaman, to create an unforgettable documentary that looks like a feature film. Yet, the film does not star any high-priced actors, and the horses do not allow for a “take 2”. None of the scenes are scripted.
Meehl follows Brannaman to beautiful ranches throughout country where he holds clinics helping what he calls “horses with people problems”. She adeptly captures horses and their owners hungry for Brannaman’s tutelage. “How am I going to bring people to this idea if they are bored? They have to fall in love to get what he [Buck] is doing,” says Meehl.
Many of those who have seen “Buck” have fallen hard. An abundance of viewers have written to Meehl praising the film. School teachers recount stories where “Buck” helps them teach their students. Inmates in prisons write about how the movie relates to their lives. “It reached people in such a broad way. I was told that a lawyer shut down his office and took sixteen people to see the movie. Afterward, he discussed how they could improve inter-office relationships,” explains Meehl.
“Buck” premiered onscreen this past summer just a few miles from Meehl’s home at one of her old stomping grounds- Bethel Cinema. “It was surreal to be in Bethel. There were people I knew – it was overwhelming. The people who supported me and championed me along the way showed up. It was really nice,” explains Meehl. And she’s won broader acclaim; taking home The Sundance Audience Award, the Audience Award at Full Frame Documentary Film Festival as well as the 2011 Best Documentary at The Crossroads Film Festival.
“Buck” demonstrates how Brannanman’s love and passion for horses helps him accomplish the impossible- taming the most unruly of beasts. And in doing so, the master horseman tames the human spirit. Brannaman uses a gentle touch rather than force to train horses. “Wouldn’t anyone want to be in harmony with an animal?” questions Meehl. We learn from Brannaman that being in harmony with an animal, means being in harmony with yourself. “A horse is a mirror to the soul and sometimes, you might not like what you see in the mirror,” states Brannaman.
Brannaman has truly discovered and implemented, what Meehl calls, “the better way” of interacting with horses which transcends into healthier relationships on a human level. “Everyone should know this, when you get it, you can take your horse to places you never thought and it reaches you so far beyond the horses,” explains Meehl.
Meehl brilliantly weaves the fabric of Brannaman’s abusive childhood into the film. His gentle method of horse training is built on mutual respect and compassion which is a direct contradiction to his violent past. “When something is scared for its life, I get that,” Brannaman says in the film.
Brannaman is a real life horse whisper, and the inspiration for Robert Redford’s film The Horse Whisperer. In fact, Meehl interviews Redford in her film. “Little miracles happened…like getting Robert Redford to do an interview when you are a no body director,” chuckles Meehl. Redford talks about Brannaman’s humanity and gentle spirit as a horseman.
“Buck gives you pearls of wisdom,” says Meehl. And, these “Buckisms”, as Meehl calls them, will resonate with you long after you leave the theater. “I think we needed this movie,” adds Meehl. I think she’s right.
If you weren’t able to see “Buck” on the big screen you can now pick it up on DVD. “We put in a lot of extras in the DVD,” says Meehl. What’s more, Meehl and Brannaman provide the commentary for the DVD version. It is available at all major retail stores.
*This story appeared in Bethel Magazine.
Read more stories on HamletHub/Ridgefield
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter
*Photo courtesy: Kristen Jensen
How many lemonade stands have you stopped at in your life? It seems kids are born with a beautiful entrepreneurial spirit. Some kids take that spirit to the next level—moving from the lemonade stands to mowing lawns or walking neighbors’ dogs.
Do you have a kidpreneur living at your house? If so, we’d like to hear from them. I happen to be the mom of a kidpreneur. My son began a coffee delivery business at the age of 10. He went on to create an online sports website where he would track scores, feature video, and provide game time commentary. He even had contributing writers and one advertiser.
Kids with ideas have no boundaries. And, unlike adults, they don’t focus on the obstacles that could potentially cause roadblocks. They focus their energies on the joy of creating and the people who will potentially benefit from their product, service, or organization.
One of our HamletHub editors, Sally Allen, is the mom of a kidpreneur. Henry’s Handmade Connecticut Candles was born of Henry’s desire to earn some money so he could purchase Legos.
“I started making candles because my dad said I had to start paying for my own Legos. I love Legos and save my money to buy them,” Henry explains on his website. “I came up with candles, which my dad said was an ok idea. I did some research and decided to make the best candles ever, ” he adds.
While most candles are created from oil, Henry decided to make his candles out of beeswax made in the United States. Yes, the candles are a bit more expensive when composed of beeswax, especially American beeswax, but they are also 100 percent natural, healthier for the environment and for you. He offers unscented and scented (with aromatherapy essential oils) candles.
Even the wicks on Henry’s Handmade Candles are natural, made either from wood or 100 percent cotton and attached with melted wax.
“Most wicks are attached with glue,” Henry points out. “It’s easier and faster, but that also means you’re burning chemicals in your home. Why would you want to do that?”
Because Henry doesn’t use any chemicals or preservatives, when all the wax burns down, the jars can easily be cleaned out and reused.
His two most popular items are his travel candles, which come in light-weight tins, and his pinecone firestarters. For the latter, Henry attaches a wick to the pinecones, which he collected hyperlocally at Sherwood Island, by drizzling wax on them. They keep your fire blazing and, if you wish, nicely scented.
Visit Henry’s fantastic website, where his motto is “You design it, I make it.” You can place your custom order—choosing the type of container, scent, and color—right there on his website.
If your child is a kidpreneur, we’d love to feature his or her idea on HamletHub. Please have your child write to us at: Info@hamlethub.com and let us know all about what they have created.
Read more at HamletHub.com Follow us on Facebook and Twitter
Look to “A New Year, A New You!” with Kris Carr & Gabrielle Bernstein to inspire at The Ridgefield Playhouse on Thursday, January 26
Look to Kris Carr & Gabrielle Bernstein “A New Year, A New You!” to inspire with their Crazy Sexy Miracles Lecture at The Ridgefield Playhouse on Thursday, January 26. Best-selling authors Kris Carr and Gabrielle Bernstein join forces in “A New Year, A New You!” that takes the audience on a “thinking outside the box” inspirational journey geared to allow miracles to occur… naturally. Kris Carr’s message is one of living a full life as a cancer survivor. Gabrielle Bernstein helps reorganize cluttered thoughts into a thriving state of mind based on her new book Spirit Junkie. These dynamic gals will present their motivational ideas on Thursday, January 26, at 7:30 p.m. at The Ridgefield Playhouse. Make-up consultations will be a lobby highlight at 6:30 p.m. along with a juice bar and hors- d’oeuvre courtesy of Nature’s Temptations. This event is underwritten by Adam Broderick Salon & Spa Health and Wellness Series and partially underwritten by Nature’s Temptations with media sponsor 98Q.
Something to look forward to in the New Year, this event will be a feel-good “girl’s night out”, quality mother/daughter time, or a do-something-good-for-yourself retreat designed for girls and women of all ages! With insight from Kris Carr and Gabrielle Bernstein — gurus of positive thinking — attendees will learn how to ignite positive change to add fuel to New Year’s resolutions.
Kris Carr is a New York Times best-selling author, motivational speaker and kick-ass wellness coach. She is the subject of the inspirational documentary, Crazy Sexy Cancer, which she wrote and directed for TLC. She wrote the award-winning Crazy Sexy Cancer book series. Kris’ third book, Crazy Sexy Diet, redefines healthy living and transforms dieting into a lifestyle game plan for wellness warriors. Carr regularly lectures at medical schools, hospitals, wellness centers, and universities such as Harvard. Television appearances include: The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, the Today Show and The Oprah Winfrey Show. Recently featured in the New York Times Sunday Styles section as the next generation guru, motivational speaker, life coach and author, Gabrielle Bernstein was just one year out of college when she co-founded the Women’s Entrepreneurial Network (WEN), a non-profit professional organization that connects female entrepreneurs. WEN started a local mentor program for young women, WEN Mentors, and is best known for its signature Gift of Service Exchange events.
For tickets ($35), call the box office at 203-438-5795. For more information on The Ridgefield Playhouse, visit ridgefieldplayhouse.org. The Ridgefield Playhouse is a not-for-profit performing arts center located at 80 East Ridge, parallel to Main Street, Ridgefield, CT.
Read more at HamletHub.com/Ridgefield
Note: The Connecticut Media Group is not responsible for posts and comments written by non-staff members.
 |
Kerry Anne DuceyKerry Anne Ducey founded Ridgefield Ct’s first and locally owned blog , Ridgefield’s Talk of Our Town, and is a freelance writer for Ridgefield Magazine, voted the 2008 Publication of the Year by the CT Press Club. Kerry Anne served as Managing Editor for Ridgefield Connecticut’s Ridgefield at 300, a commemorative coffee table book, published by Morris Media Group. Prior to her writing career, Kerry Anne graduated summa cum laude from Adelphi University in New York, earning a master’s degree in elementary education. She taught in various schools throughout NY and CT for nearly twenty years. In her spare time, Kerry Anne and her husband Ken are busy raising three children, hiking with their dogs, skiing, and serving many charitable organizations including Young Life and the Ridgefield Visiting Nurses Association. |
 |
SPB's High School FootballNews, analysis, commentary and features on Connecticut high school football by Sean Patrick Bowley. |
 |
Only in BridgeportAward-winning journalist Lennie Grimaldi cracks open the juicy stuff in Connecticut's largest city. |
 |
Ruby Red StilettosHolly is a quirky, stiletto-clad writer, foodie, health nut in search of good friends and good fun. |
 |
Joe's ViewJoe is the Connecticut Post's entertainment writer. |
Copyright © 2013 Hearst Communications Inc.
