DerbyCares group to fight blight

DERBY - City officials have launched an initiative aimed at organizing volunteers to help fight blight.

Read a story about the plan here by New Haven Register correspondent Jean Falbo-Sosnovich.

Celebrate Shelton Saturday at handmade market

Activities to include Easter Egg Hunt 
SHELTON - Downtown Handmade Market, a celebration of handmade artisans, takes place on the First Saturdays of every month in the Conti Building, 415 Howe Ave. (near Farmer’s Market) from 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

We invite you to join us with 30 handmade artisans, children’s play room brought to you by The Kidnetic Clubhouse, live music with Dave Hogan, and a perfect place to spend your First Saturdays. 

We will be offering an Easter Egg Hunt for children ages 7 and under. Meet at The Hoopla Shop from 10:30-11:30 a.m. and 3:30-4:30 p.m. 

Specialty prizes for some lucky winners! Support local. Celebrate Shelton.

Artisans include: Triangle Tea Life, The Liquid Lunch, Stone Gardens Farm, Spoiled, Bowtique by Alexa, Benny The Baker, Lisa’s Soaps, Bel Mare Creations, Reid's BBQ, Look and Sea, Bead Dangle Design, GPC Designs, The Little Dog Laughed, BooBoo Bags, Hipponotic Candle, Little Bee of CT, BBA Bracelets, MarlaBee Designs, Chaise Chic, Hawker Metalworks, Chalk It Up!, Crissy’s Wellness Essentials, The Tiny Hobo and TJJ Sews, Origami Owl, Lilla Rose as well as year-round Conti Building shops including bringtheHoopla, The Glass Source Stained Glass Studio, Periodic Tableware,Nikki's Candy Boutique and Shadee Lady Window Treatments and Interior Design. 

Our featured non-profit of the month is Moving With HOPE. 

And a very special thank you to our April sponsor: Next Step Living.

Learn more about Celebrate Shelton at www.celebrateshelton.com and follow us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/celebrateshelton) and Instagram. For any questions, email us celebrateshelton@gmail.com or call us, 203-924-4368.

Ample parking is available; the site is handicap accessible.


This is a press release from Nicole Heriot-Mikula, owner, bringtheHoopla.

Valley troupe to launch school program next month in Shelton

To present 'As You Like It' to 4th graders

SHELTON - Valley Shakespeare Festival, in cooperation with the Shelton Board of Education in May.

The three-year old, Shelton-based, non-profit theater company is known around the Valley for its free and low cost productions of classic literary works.  

Most notable among them are its free summer outdoor productions of “The Comedy of Errors” (2013) and “Much Ado About Nothing” (2014) which were presented at Shelton’s Veterans Memorial-Riverwalk Park.  

Also popular are its free holiday productions of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” (at the Shelton History Center in 2013 and at Shelton’s Plumb Memorial Library in 2014) and Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” at the Derby Neck Library this past Valentine’s Day.   

This summer they will present four free performances of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” outdoors at the Park at 8 p.m. July 9-12.

The company’s Education Initiative Program is the brainchild of its Executive and Artistic Director and Shelton native, Tom Simonetti. 

It’s constructed in strict accordance with Shelton’s adopted Common Core Standards and is aimed at renewing students’ interest in, and appreciation for, classic literature through live performance.

The work he has chosen to present to inaugurate the program is Shakespeare’s “As You Like It,” a comedy in which four sets of young couples “discover” themselves and their places in a society during their exile in the Forest of Arden.

The program will be presented by a touring cast of eight professional actors. Before viewing the actual performance of the play, students will participate in workshops with these actors who “live and breathe the texts,” as Simonetti puts it.  

“The workshops are extremely important to the experience because these actors know how to present the material in a way which will inspire and instruct the students to not only understand the play and its themes and language, but to learn how to interpret other classical texts and documents by using language and context clues.”  He said he is delighted to bring this fairy tale to life for Shelton’s fourth-graders, but added that, while on the surface it seems a light-hearted story, it deals with very serious and timeless issues which still resonate with young people today. 

“The transformation of these characters from the self-absorbed, selfish, and entitled people they are at court  to the mature, self-aware and tolerant individuals they become in the forest is extremely timely in a culture in which “selfie” is a word in the Webster dictionary,” Simonetti said. 

“Ironically, it is through a jumble of deceptions and disguises that their true selves finally emerge and allow them all to find their happy endings.”

Simonetti has also enlisted the talents of local band member Benny Mikula of “The Alpaca Gnomes,” to compose an original score to accompany the performances, as this is the most musical of all of Shakespeare’s works.

The program will begin its run at the schools the week of May 4, with a free preview for the local community May 2 at the Shelton Community Center gym, 41 Church St.

  

The preview will begin at 1:30 p.m with the workshop; the play will follow at 2 p.m.  Community members can reserve space for the free preview by visiting VSF’s website at www.vsfestival.org or by calling 203-513-9446.

Valley Shakespeare Festival is excited and grateful to the Shelton Board of Education to be the first district in the Valley to embrace this program and hopes that, in the coming years, it will be expanded throughout all grade levels in the system and be adopted by all districts Valley-wide.

This is a press release from Valley Shakespeare Festival, a federally tax-exempt, non-profit theater company dedicated to bringing free Shakespeare to the Lower Naugatuck Valley. 

Forum highlights the good, the bad, and a vision for Derby's future

Tiffany Zezula from Pace University Land Use Law Center in White Plains, N.Y. facilitates a forum last week at Grassy Hill Lodge in Derby.


DERBY - Concerned citizens turned out March 25 for a forum to offer their ideas for moving the city forward.
Please click here for the story in the Valley Independent Sentinel.

Seymour FD seeks volunteers

*Sharing from the Facebook page of the Office of Seymour First Selectman Kurt Miller.

Griffin Hospital in Derby to host talk on incontinence issues

DERBY - Griffin Hospital, 130 Division St., will host a free, lively discussion on incontinence and how individuals can take back control of their lives from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. April 23.

Join Registered Physical Therapist Nancy Corvigno for “Don’t Make Me Laugh,” an informal and relaxed talk about pelvic health, warning signs for bladder and bowel control issues and treatment options.


“Incontinence is common in men and women, but many times people are reluctant to seek medical attention due to embarrassment, the feeling that nothing can be done, or that it is a normal part of life,” Corvigno said.

"I want these individuals to know that they are not alone and they do not have to live with these problems.”

This presentation is sponsored by the Valley Senior Services Council and Griffin Hospital, and is funded by the Valley United Way and TEAM, Inc.

A light lunch will be served.

To register or for more information, call Diane, 203-732-7434 or visit the events calendar at griffinhealth.org

This is a press release from Griffin Hospital.