Take On Life

Hi everyone,

Just over two years ago, Danbury’s Joel Levitt sat in a hospital bed with four titanium bolts burrowed into his skull to stabilize a rebuilt spine.

It was a pretty awful spot in life, but Levitt, a retired district arts coordinator for Danbury Public Schools, made the best of it.

“Like I had any other choice,” the hard-wired optimist said Tuesday.

And yet, somewhere between staring at the ceiling — again — and taking a sweeping inventory of his guts, Levitt found meaning in his plight. He found a reason to create again, even if his right hand initially refused to buy into it.

Right then and there, Joel Levitt decided to start an organization devoted to injured artists — people just like him — who had been robbed of their ability by illness.

Fast-forward to this spring.

On April 11, Levitt will realize his dream when Artists in Transition, the non-profit group he founded, holds its inaugural conference at the Westside Campus of Western Connecticut State University in Danbury.

The five-hour long conference, which is open to visual and performing artists who have physical and/or mental health issues, will have 15 different breakout sessions.

“It just goes to prove what you can do when you’re obsessed,” Levitt said. “This project started when I was in recovery and it just took off from there. It took over my life in many ways and I’m very happy that it did.

“Even if I can’t use my hands to create art, I can type — or at least, a reasonable facsimile of typing — to get the word out,” Levitt added. “It’s about focusing on what you can do to contribute, not what you can’t do.”

To read more about Joel Levitt and Artists in Transition, check out my “Take on Life” column Friday.

Only in the print edition of The News-Times.

Hi everyone,

F. Scott Fitzgerald, my all-time favorite author, once said, “Genius is the ability to put into effect what is on your mind.”

Alyssa Knickerbocker, a graduate of Bethel High School, and the daughter of Adrienne Thompson and Bethel First Selectman Matt Knickerbocker, knows the feeling.

Flatmancrooked Publishing – www.flatmancrooked.com – recently launched Knickerbocker’s debut novella, “Your Rightful Home.” A novella is shorter than a novel, typically between 10,000 and 40,000 words, according to Flatmancrooked.

Here’s a taste from the Flatmancrooked Web site: 

“Lydia was your neighbor, the childhood friend you spent all your time with. Then a lie sends Lydia running out of your front door, after which she disappears. In Your Rightful Home we follow the life of a woman from childhood to adulthood and her struggle to discover who she is in the light of a tragedy she feels she may have caused. Are the formative powers of loss insurmountable? Can a single indiscretion define a person’s entire life?”

Want to read “Your Rightful Home” for yourself? Guess what, you’re not alone.

During Knickerbocker’s launch earlier this month, the University of Wisconsin graduate student sold 200 copies of her novella in four days!

Fortunately, you still have time to get a copy for yourself — if you hurry.

Another 400 first edition copies of  ”Your Righful Home” are available at the Flatmancrooked Web site. The price is $10.50 plus shipping and handling.

Hi everyone,

For some middle school kids, sensory overload is music blasting through their headphones.

For others, such as the junior fellowship kids at Bethel United Methodist Church, sensory overload is feeling your stomach grind in futility after 30 hours of fasting.

Or maybe, feeling your face freeze when you sleep outside in a cardboard box.

In February.

These activities — and more — are part of “30 Hour Famine,” a worldwide program designed to boost awareness of hunger and to convince kids they can do something about it.

From Friday afternoon to Saturday night, about 20 kids from the Bethel United Methodist Church — most of them in sixth, seventh or eighth grade — will experience the conditions of the less fortunate for 30 hours.

As residents of Fairfield County, one of the most affluent counties in America, many Greater Danbury kids take three square meals a day for granted. They don’t have to worry about bloated bellies and sunken futures.

The “30 Hour Famine” reminds these kids that not everyone is so lucky, even in well-heeled Fairfield County.

To read more about the “30 Hour Famine,” check out my Take on Life column Wednesday.

Only in the print edition of The News-Times.

Hi everyone,

Last week, I wrote about a food drive at the War Memorial in Danbury to honor the late Pete Bartholomew, a beloved teacher at St. Peter-Sacred Heart of Jesus School in Danbury.

Organizers of Sunday’s food drive — including Joan Takacs, the mother of an eighth-grade student at the school — were blown away by the compassion and generosity of folks who came out to support Pete.

The food drive collected 1,680 pounds of food — nearly a ton! — to honor Pete’s memory and to help feed hungry people in Greater Danbury.

If you didn’t make it to the War Memorial on Sunday, you can still honor Pete by donating to a scholarship in his name.

Contributions can be made to the Peter A. Bartholomew Memorial Scholarship Fund, St. Peter-Sacred Heart of Jesus School, 98 Main St., Danbury 06810.

Hi everyone,

Last October in New Fairfield, a racist e-mail was forwarded by two former Republican Town Committee members. The message was swiftly condemned by many in town, including First Selectman John Hodge.

New Fairfield’s Jeff and Janice Wiggins were also deeply troubled by the e-mail’s ignorant contents. But there’s a big difference between being troubled and doing nothing, and being troubled and taking on intolerance head on.

Jeff and Janice Wiggins chose the latter. Before long, so did some of their friends and neighbors. Now, four months after that racist e-mail turned heads and stomachs, the grassroots group has grown to include about two dozen members.

On May 15, the group hopes to hold “Building Bridges,” a celebration of New Fairfield’s rich cultural diversity. The date is tentative at this point, but it should be firmed up in the coming weeks.

The event will include food booths, singing, dancing, storytelling, kids activities, anything that is representative of cultures from around the world, and just maybe, around the block.

To read more about “Building Bridges,” check out my “Take on Life” column Sunday.

Only in the print edition of The News-Times.

Hi everyone,

Pete Bartholomew, his family and friends will tell you, always believed in following your heart, even if the road was a little bumpy sometimes.

After serving in the U.S. Air Force, and working in accounting and construction, Pete went back to school a few years ago to become a teacher.

To the kids at St. Peter-Sacred Heart of Jesus School in Danbury, it was the best move he ever made.

Then again, that was Pete.

In Pete’s world, life was meant to be experienced — at home with his family in Danbury, in the classroom, on the basketball court, on the softball field, wherever this amazing journey took him.

That’s why his passing has been so hard.

Pete Bartholomew died unexpectedly Feb. 3 after collapsing at the War Memorial in Danbury while playing basketball. He was 53 years old.

On Sunday, St. Peter-Sacred Heart of Jesus School will hold a food drive in Pete’s honor at the War Memorial from noon to 3 p.m.  

It’s a fitting tribute to Pete, the man who spent countless hours overseeing the school’s food drives, the man who served generous portions of hope and wisdom to his students.

And anyone else who ever knew him.

“We didn’t go anywhere without seeing someone he knew or I knew, even when we went on vacation in the Bahamas,” said Judy Bartholomew, Pete’s widow.

Judy and Pete would’ve been married six years on July 4th. It was the second marriage for both of them and they had a blast at their wedding. They were married at Capellaro’s Grove in Bethel.

“It was a picnic-barbecue wedding. Everybody had a great time,” Judy said. “My husband wore a pair of shorts and a golf shirt. We had so much fun.”

Combined, Pete and Judy brought seven kids into their circle of love.

“We beat the Brady Bunch,” Judy said with a wistful laugh.

This year, the Bartholomew bunch will grow by two.

Pete’s son, Bob, and his wife, Cheryl, of Brookfield, are expecting a baby Feb. 24. Pete’s daughter, Heather, and her husband, Phil, of New Milford, are expecting a baby Sept. 8.

To read more about Pete Bartholomew’s legacy of love, check out my “Take on Life” column on Friday.

Only in the print edition of The News-Times.

Hi everyone,

Bethel’s Samantha Mauro, a former News-Times intern, ”beared” her soul Wednesday to the Danbury Fire Department.

Samantha, a 21-year-old Western Connecticut State University senior, donated about 75 “Trauma Bears” to Danbury’s bravest. The firefighters will give the stuffed animals to kids who have been victims of fires.

According to Samantha’s sister, WLAD reporter Jillian Mauro, Samantha (third from right) began making her “Trauma Bears” when she was 13 years old as part of a community service project.

“We occasionally get donations of this sort and they come in handy for kids who may be scared,” Danbury Fire Chief Geoff Herald told Jillian. “We just distributed some at an incident we responded to on South Street.”

As it turns out, Samantha’s donation couldn’t have come at a better time. Herald said the department is running out of the stuffed bears donated by the American Red Cross a while back.

Way to go, Samantha!

Hi everyone,

Luis Encalada didn’t have to die.

The Ecuadorean immigrant who was found beaten and bleeding internally from a lacerated liver last November in Danbury could have been saved, according to a local doctor familiar with trauma-based medicine.

“The sad thing about these types of injuries is — if you catch them early, right after they happen — they’re 99 percent curable,” the doctor said Tuesday afternoon.

“If someone is brought to the ER right away — say a kid who got hurt playing lacrosse, or there was a car accident — there’s a very good chance you’re going to have a positive outcome.”

Instead, the 42-year-old Encalada spent precious time bleeding — nearly an hour — last Nov. 6 in a driveway on Town Hill Avenue in Danbury.

To read more about Encalada, and the man accused of manslaughter and assault in his death, check out my “Take on Life” column on Wednesday.

Only in the print edition of The News-Times.