Plumb Memorial Library in Shelton creating American flag 'quilt'

 

SHELTON - America is like a quilt; many pieces, colors, and stories, all held together by a common thread. 

Plumb Memorial Library is creating an American flag “quilt” display in the downstairs lobby to celebrate the diverse stories that make up our community and our country.

Share your family’s story, culture, or heritage! You can include a drawing, photo, recipe, memory, or a story about an ancestor who overcame challenges or followed their dream to America.

Stop by the library to pick up a “fabric swatch,” or bring your story on a piece of paper (8” high x 6” wide), and we’ll add it to the quilt. Contributions can be anonymous if you prefer.

Come help us stitch together the many stories that make up the American experience!

For more information: https://sheltonlibrarysystem.org/flag-quilt-display.../... 

Shared from the Shelton Library System Facebook page.

'Turnback Tuesday' asks help identifying photos from Derby 300th celebration

Turnback Tuesday is looking for your help. Derby Public Library has a photo album in our collection from Derby’s 300th celebration in 1975.

There are 262 images of the event which took place over a span of 10 days. Unfortunately these images are not completely labeled.

This is where you can help. If you or any of your family members were at the event, we would appreciate it if you could come to the Library and help us put names to faces. You would be doing a great service in helping the Library to preserve history.

These images are but just a sample of what we have.

You can contact the Library at (203) 736-1482 or at dplreference@biblio.org, and please ask for Christine. We look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks goes to the Derby Public Library staff for sharing interesting local history each week.

This is shared from the Library's Facebook page.

Ansonia Police Department shares pics of flooding

Photos posted by APD at 5:21 p.m. 

St. Paul's Church in Shelton to hold egg hunt, crafts, photos with Easter Bunny

 

Derby Neck Library program offers pictorial views of Valley in 1902

1902 photo courtesy of Connecticut DEEP

Derby Neck Library reference librarian Pat Sweeney offered an interesting presentation last week featuring candid photos of the area taken in 1902.

A friend and I both were captivated by the photos, which had been part of a Derby Neck Library project spearheaded by businesswoman, conservationist, and philanthropist Frances Osborne Kellogg (1876-1956) to record scenes of everyday life.

The photos are owned by the Osborne Homestead Museum at 500 Hawthorne Ave., Derby, Kellogg's lifelong home. The museum is operated by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and the photos belong to the state of Connecticut.

Many of the places and buildings depicted are easily recognizable, but not all. Sweeney said the photos are not labeled.

The program also served as a remembrance of the official public opening of Derby Neck Library in January, 1908. Kellogg's father, Major Wilbur Fisk Osborne, was a founder of the library.

Next up: Sweeney will give a PowerPoint presentation at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 16 describing what was happening in the Valley during World War II.
Attendees will learn how local towns worked diligently in the war effort. 

Sweeney will discuss fashions of the era, favorite films, rationing measures, war bond drives, and much more.

The Library is at 307 Hawthorne Ave., Derby.

Derby Cultural Commission offers Mother's Day photos, fun to support Ukraine

 

Derby Public Library seeks historic photos of houses, businesses, parades, more

 

Beacon Falls Public Library seeks photos of town for sesquicentennial celebration

 

Valley Community Foundation seeks inspirational photos of hope during pandemic

Reflecting on a year of living with COVID-19, The Valley Community Foundation is asking local residents for help by sharing their inspirational pictures from the past 12 months.

“In light of everything we have endured during this pandemic, our 2020 annual report will be about a year of resilience. Despite the challenges, life-adjustments, and adversity that so many have faced, there still remains hope and inspiration during such unprecedented times. We would like to see what inspired the members of our community this past year,” said VCF President & CEO Sharon Closius. 

“We are looking for snapshots of these messages of hope, encouragement, and love reminding us that we are in this together. That is why we are asking Valley residents to share their pictures so we can paint an accurate picture.”

Pictures can include yard signs thanking frontline workers, appreciation for first responders, inspirational messages in windows, words of encouragement written in chalk on driveways, images of hearts, and so on. 

Please send high resolution images in JPG format to VCF’s staff at contactus@valleyfoundation.org.

Out of an abundance of caution, the 2021 VCF annual reception will not be held in person because of COVID-19. VCF will again host the event in a digital format. 

The staff hopes to create a video montage of community-submitted pictures that reflects the resilience of the Valley community during this pandemic at the event.

About the Valley Community Foundation

Established in 2004, the Valley Community Foundation distributes $1.6 million in grants each year to support the local nonprofit sector and the people it serves.

VCF works in strong partnership with The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven (TCF), to promote philanthropy in Ansonia, Derby, Oxford, Seymour, and Shelton and receives a majority of its discretionary funding as a result of The Gates Fund and other preference funds at TCF that benefit the Valley. 

To learn how your gifts of cash, life insurance, appreciated stocks, bonds, real estate, and other assets can help to support the quality of life in the Valley, please visit the website at www.valleyfoundation.org or contact VCF President Sharon Closius, at sclosius@valleyfoundation.org or 203-751-9162.

This is a press release from the Valley Community Foundation.

From the fall foliage archives

A 'decorated' tree that caught my eye a few years ago.

16th annual TEAM Festival of Trees slated at Shelton Senior Center

TEAM, Inc. photo

SHELTON - Volunteer Caregivers at TEAM, Inc. will host the 16th annual Festival of Trees Nov. 23-24 at Shelton Senior Center, 81 Wheeler St.
Hours are 10 a.m.-3 p.m. both days.

The event will feature a holiday marketplace, refreshments, gift basket raffles, tree raffles, photos with holiday characters, and free admission.

RJS Designs, LLC will have a Christmas Tree and Fireplace Mantel displayed at the Festival of Trees for raffling. So come on down and check it out!
For more information visit www.teaminc.org.

Commission's photo quiz asks residents how well they know Derby

https://www.derbyct.gov/media/Picture%20Quiz.pdf

Easter photos at Armory to benefit Ansonia Youth Cheer

Derby Cultural Commission to host Egg-cellent Easter party on Green

Apple Rehab Shelton Lakes to host egg hunt for community

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SHELTON - Apple Rehab Shelton Lakes, 5 Lake Road, will host an Easter Egg Hunt from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. March 31.

The free event will include separate areas for big kids and little kids, photos with the bunny, crafts, face painting, and refreshments. 

Please RSVP for number of children and their ages to reception, 203-924-2635.

*Information shared from a Facebook event page.

Recuperation journey: Expect the unexpected

I ended up spending Friday night at Hotel Yale-New Haven. 
It was a rather spur-of-the-moment visit. 

Without going into detail, on Friday I experienced a symptom I hadn't had before. It was concerning so I called the transplantation center. My kidney transplant was on May 9, and luckily I've had no complications since then.

My nephrologist had me go to the ER, where my daughter, Allegra, and I waited for more than seven hours before learning they wanted to admit me. 
We were surprised when they told us that, since an ultrasound had showed no problems with my new kidney.

Since I wasn't in any pain and the staff was busy with many patients coming in, we had to wait in the hallway. It was a perfect place for people watching. 

Some of the conversations I couldn't help but overhear were quite interesting. 
The best line was when a physician told an older man the procedure he was going to perform would have "no complications except for pain." 

Allegra and I were getting punchy at that point and thought that was really amusing.
I finally got into a room at 3 a.m. on the transplant floor. 

This was my view this morning:

But all's well that ends well. My nephrologist and the surgeon who performed the transplant visited me this morning and told me they were sending me home! That was a nice surprise. I was expecting more tests.

I have to follow up with another specialist this week. But that's no biggie. One gets used to all this stuff.

This was my nicer view in May, seen from the same floor but in another part of the building. 

Recuperation journey: 'Prison for junk'

Taking a walk back in time
My mother passed away more than a year ago at age 92, and this afternoon our son Cameron helped us clean out a storage unit that contained her things - a china set, crystal goblets, old vinyl record albums, a brass umbrella stand.

When he and I pulled up to the storage facility, surrounded by locked, wrought-iron fences and all, I said, "I feel like we're visiting a prison." 
We chuckled. Cameron said, "It's like a prison for junk." 

That's pretty accurate, I'd say! I'm sure people put stuff there and pay the bill every month but never get around to returning for it. I'm glad we finally did. 

But I soon learned there was more than junk inside for us. There were treasures, especially the photos!

I had to share this one of my parents' wedding day. It was taken outside the Little Church Around the Corner (Church of the Resurrection) in Manhattan, where they were married in 1951. I've never seen the photo before and I was thrilled to find it.

My maternal grandparents, my parents, and my paternal grandmother, October, 1951. 

Pet photos with Santa to benefit Friends of Shelton Animal Shelter

SHELTON - Pet Photos with Santa will be held at Pet Supplies Plus, 675 Bridgeport Ave., from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday.

Digital photos are $19; cash and checks will be accepted.

All proceeds will benefit the Friends of the Shelton Animal Shelter. 

All pets must be leashed.

This information is shared from an online community calendar sponsored by The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven and The New Haven Independent. 

Photos of bygone era now on display at Seymour Town Hall

 A Firemen's Parade on Main Street in 1896. / Photo from Seymour Historical Society 

I'm always on the lookout for local history-related items. 

I recommend this story about Seymour by my friend, New Haven Register correspondent Jean Falbo-Sosnovich. 

It's so interesting to see and read how life was like more than a century ago.

Griffin Hospital in Derby as it looked in its early days

Sharing this photograph with permission from The Valley Post Facebook page. 

I love looking at all old photos, but especially those that give us a glimpse of days gone by here in our community.