Library card design winners included, from left, Michelle Fisher, Catherine D’Jay, Hailey DeWalt, and Elizabeth DiSalvo.

An independent panel of judges has chosen winners in each of five categories from among 85 entries in a contest to find the best library card designs for the new Ridgefield Library.

The winning entries will be displayed at the library and shortly on its web site www.RidgefieldLibrary.org  where members of the public will be able to place their own votes for a “People’s Choice” award.

The theme was “Magical Words: How Books Spark Our Imagination.”

Five categories  produced the following winners, according to a panel of judges that included five local arts professionals:

• K-5th Grade: Hailey DeWalt, Flat Rock Drive
• Middle School : Catherine D’Jay, Rustic Drive
• High School: Sandra Carpenter, West Lane
• Adult: Elizabeth DiSalvo, White Birch Road
• Professional: Michelle Fisher, Ramapoo Road

“We are delighted by both the quality and number of entries,” Mary Rindfleisch, assistant director at the Ridgefield Library, said.  “It far exceeded our expectations and is a reminder of the enthusiasm for learning and creativity in our community.”

She said,  “Anyone interested in seeing the entire entry, including runners up and special mentions, can view it now at the temporary library on Governor Street.”

The judges were: Alison Greeley, chairwoman of the Ridgefield Arts Council; Tracy Moore, education director of the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum; Mary Louise O’Connell, president of the Board of the Ridgefield Guild of Artists; Diane Antezzo, children’s programmer at the library; Marcia Simha, local artist and creator of the community mural for the New Ridgefield Library; and Nick Kilsby, a community volunteer who initiated the contest.

For more information contact Mary Rindfleisch at 203-438-2282, ext. 1009 or mfrind@ridgefieldlibrary.org.

Kyle Malin, left, of Ridgefield, with his friend Daniel Barden, who died in the Sandy Hook shootings.

To aid the Daniel Foundation, created in memory of one of the Sandy Hook victims, a group in Ridgefield has joined to raise $25,000 to help isolated children who never seem to make friends or belong.

The Daniel Foundation was founded by Jackie and Mark Barden in the memory of their 6-year-old son. Its focus is on eliminating and reducing social isolation and building a better sense of community.

According to Ms. Barden, “When we thought about the foundation, we though about what Daniel would want us to do. Daniel was very aware of children who would sit alone and be isolated. He would try and include them in his activities.

“We find it so ironic that the school’s shooter was a student who had always been isolated. We feel that if there had been a Daniel in the shooter’s life, the outcome at Sandy Hook might have been different.”

Since Melissa Olsen Malin’s son Kyle was best friends with Daniel, Ms. Malin wanted to help the Daniel Foundation, but did not really know how.

A plan came together over Christmas, however, when three Ridgefield sisters, the Olsen sisters — Susan, Melissa, and Carrie — and Carrie’s husband, Jeffrey Warner, met and the usual holiday spirit was not there because of the absence of Daniel.

For several years, Susan Olsen and her brother-in-law, Jeff Warner, had run the 26-mile Marine Corps Marathon in  Washington, D.C., but they had not planned on training and running this year. But then Susan told the group, “We are going to run the 26 miles for the 26 people who lost their lives in Sandy Hook,” and their project began with the phrase, 26 Miles for 26 Victims.

People all around the country were very motivated to run for Green Team Daniel and $16,000 was raised through the Marine Corps Marathon held the third weekend in October. With other smaller projects in the area, the Daniel Foundation was now up to $22,000, just $3,000 short of its goal.

Jeff Warner and Susan Olsen were at Marine Corps Marathon in October, running for Team Daniel, “26 miles for 26 victims.”

To date, Melissa’s sister, Carrie Warner, has been going store to store, door to door, running raffles and silent auctions, making special Team Daniel T-shirts, and doing everything she can to help reach the family goal.

Ms. Warner even admitted, “I was getting to be a pain to people, but my family feels so strongly about doing something productive in Daniel’s memory. Daniel was such an outgoing, loving and happy child.”

“The children in Sandy Hook have been deeply scarred by the December experience but are beginning to open up and talk and remember the good things about their special friends. My nephew, Kyle, always wears a little cat around his neck like the one that Daniel wore. This keeps Daniel close to his heart,” Ms. Warner said.

“We are also so thankful to all the people that have reached out to help fund the Daniel Foundation,” she said. “Jessica Wilmot, the owner of the Ancient Mariner, was wonderful. She let us use her facility and band for our major fund-raising event. However, we are still looking for others like her to donate or help us run an event.”

To donate directly to the Daniel Foundation, go to www.youcaring.com/help-a-neighbor/marine-corp-marathon-for-daniel-barden/50945  . For more information, email Ms. Warner at carriewarner1@comcast.net .”

Josh Ruxin, who grew up in Ridgefield, will discuss his recently released book A Thousand Hills to Heaven: Love, Hope, and a Restaurant in Rwanda at the Ridgefield Library on Thursday, Nov. 21, at 7 p.m.

When newlyweds Josh and Alissa Ruxin first moved to Rwanda from Manhattan in 2006, Josh focused his efforts on health and development work in a village that was the epicenter of a genocide. Alissa took a different route. After volunteering with orphans of the genocide and helping to raise scholarship support for many, she realized that what they really needed was jobs so they could put themselves through school. So she built and opened a gourmet restaurant, Heaven, as a sustainable, even profitable model of what can be done.

Josh Ruxin is on the faculty at Columbia University, directs Health Builders and contributes to the New York Times and Forbes.

This program is free, but registration is recommended at www.ridgefieldlibrary.org or by calling 203-438-2282.

John Lennon

John T. Lennon of Ridgefield, a retired executive with Oldsmobile, died Nov. 8 at Caretel Inns of Linden in Linden, Mich. He was 78 years old and the husband of Pat Lennon.

Mr. Lennon was born in Woburn, Mass., on Feb. 13, 1935, a son of John T. Sr. and Mary G. Lennon, and grew up in Woburn. He graduated from St. Michael’s College in Winooski, Vt., and served in the U.S. Marine Corps.

He spent more than 30 years with the Oldsmobile division of General Motors, rising from an assistant car distributor to regional manager of the upper East Coast. He retired in 1997.

A Ridgefielder since 1991, he and his family had previously lived in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, California, Buffalo, and Danbury.

Mr. Lennon was a member of Ridgefield Men’s Club, the American Legion Post, and St. Mary Church.

For relaxation, he enjoyed sports and reading.

“He loved telling stories,” his wife Pat said. “He was actually quite funny — he had an amazing sense of humor.”

Besides his wife, he is survived by a daughter Valerie Brouillette and her husband Ken of Catalina, Ariz., and their children, Amber and Jack of Bellingham, Wash., and Brittany of Catalina; and a daughter, Cynthia Kent and her husband, Brian, of Fenton, Mich., and their children, Libby and Reagan of Fenton; and a brother, Paul Lennon and his wife, Elaine, of Woburn.

A memorial Mass will be celebrated Saturday, Dec. 7, at 10:15 a.m. at St. Mary Church.

Contributions in his memory may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association Connecticut, 2075 Silas Deane Highway, Suite 100, Rocky Hill, CT 06067.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of John F. Kennedy, the Ridgefield Library will screen the recently released documentary American Experience: JFK on Friday, Nov. 22 starting at 12:30 p.m.

Throughout the day refreshments will be served and there will be an opportunity for library patrons to share their reminiscences of where they were on that fateful day.

The documentary offers a new perspective on John F. Kennedy’s private life, his relationship with his wife, Jackie, his close connection to his brother, Robert, and his bond with his father, Joe. The film also reevaluates his strengths and weaknesses JFK brought to bear on the Oval Office as he navigated some of the most explosive events of the mid-20th century. The film is 240 minutes long. Attendees may watch it in its entirety or drop in and stay for as long as they are able.

For more information visit www.ridgefieldlibrary.org or by call 203-438-2282.

Lillian Ruth Hruda Peterson, a resident of Ridgefield Crossings, died Tuesday, Nov. 12. She was 90.

Born in Chicago, Ill., to Joseph Hruda and Lillian Houdek Hruda, she graduated from the University of Illinois in 1945 with a master of science in chemistry. She first worked as an organic research chemist for the Armour Research Foundation in Chicago from 1945 to 1951.

She married in 1948 to Richard Allen Peterson and divorced in 1978. She returned to full-time work in 1971 as a high school mathematics and computer science teacher in Wilmington, Del., until she retired.

Ms. Peterson was active in the founding of the Newark, Del., Fellowship for Unitarian Universalists and volunteered for many years at the Hockessin branch of the New Castle County, Del. library.

She is survived by five children: Barbara Lynn Hruda of Newark, Lawrence Scott Peterson of Las Vegas, Nev., Eric Bruce Peterson of Evanston, Ill., Stephen Kurt Peterson of Newark, and Carla Laurie Peterson Kahlbaugh of Danbury,  as well as several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Four Kings, Two names, Two Countries is a new history class available through Ridgefield Continuing Education.

“While Louis XIII and Louis XIV of France were establishing and consolidating their power as absolutist monarchs, in England the monarchy was defeated in a civil war and replaced by a commonwealth,” Instructor Nancy Maxwell said. “Charles I was executed, yet his son lived to reclaim the throne. This course will examine the goals, achievements, mistakes and personalities of all four kings, placing the kings in the context of 17th century attitudes and perspectives and revealing the legacy of the four rulers.”

Class meets on Mondays, Nov. 25 and Dec. 2, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at East Ridge Middle School. Cost is $39. Visit www.ridgefieldschools.org or phone Peggy Bruno at 203-431-2812 to register.

Another local election is behind us, and we welcome the citizen volunteers from both parties who bring diverse experience and creative thinking to the boards which govern Ridgefield. These citizens give freely of their time to make Ridgefield and our way of life better.

The voluntary commitment made by Ridgefield board members is very much the same as that made by our country’s earliest elected officials in the years following our independence from England. Our forefathers sought independence when Great Britain imposed tighter administrative controls and increased financial obligations. America was founded on the belief that government must be limited, must be for the benefit of its citizens, and must protect the individual and unalienable rights of all citizens. Elected officials governed for all as they would for themselves, safeguarding the liberties and freedoms of their fellow Americans. The two-party system did, indeed, bring differences in opinion then, just as it does now. But the essence of our America — the absolute principle of individual freedom, prevailed.

By sharp contrast, our elected leaders in Hartford and Washington operate far differently today. Service to country has seemingly become more about individual power and status. Governing has become more about self-interest and self-preservation. What may begin as wise legislation — at least from initial appearance and propaganda — eventually unveils itself to reveal non-essential entitlements and new regulations which serve the interests of the few at the expense of the liberties and freedoms of other Americans.

Our politicians promise to protect the basic rights spelled out in the Declaration and the Constitution but end up violating the rights of some people in order to benefit others. It comes as no surprise that people are pitted against one another, with government choosing winners and losers. Our federal government is anything but “limited;” it seems more like the Europe we ran away from.

We are fortunate to live in Ridgefield, our small town which still thrives as a free society. It is reassuring that we install volunteer government which works earnestly and selflessly to fairly represent all fellow Ridgefielders.

However, the challenges ahead of them are daunting. On the town side, there is the ongoing difficulty of reconciling the state’s affordable housing mandate — 8-30 (g) —  with our town’s character. We can all see the evidence — the harmful impact on density, traffic and sewer. But I wonder if my fellow citizens comprehend the power they’ve lost in the process.

On the school side, it is very likely that health insurance premiums will increase dramatically as a consequence of Obamacare. These costs will consume a larger and larger portion of our school budgets for the foreseeable future. Because of a harmful federal law, we have lost the budget latitude to implement beneficial programs for our students. Do my fellow citizens see how they have lost power?

Hartford and Washington need to pay closer attention to American history and to the many small towns, like Ridgefield, which operate on the premise of citizen volunteers.

This column is supplied by the Republican Town Committee.

BMW of Ridgefield promotes Anna Bromfield, Trevor Cornelis

BMW of Ridgefield has promoted Anna Bromfield and Trevor Cornelis, effective December.

Ms. Bromfield started at BMW of Ridgefield in April, 2012 as business development specialist. With the growing business development teams in both sales and service, the need to merge and manage the departments together arose.

In her new role, she will be overseeing both departments as supervisor, business development sales and service.  “On the sales side, my goal is to make our clients feel as special as the product they are buying,” she said. “In service, it’s to make sure our customers have the Ultimate Service experience.”

Before joining BMW of Ridgefield, Ms. Bromfield worked at BMW of Mt. Kisco as a sales administrator for four years. She has two sons, one of whom is currently attending Ridgefield High School as a sophomore. In her leisure time, she likes to kayak, entertain and pursue her interests in art, history and archeology.

Mr. Cornelis will be a business development specialist. He has worked for BMW of Ridgefield as lot attendant since May. His previous experience includes three years   at Greentree Toyota in the service department. He is also pursuing his bachelor’s degree in business management.

In his free time, he enjoys driving his M3 up to Lime Rock Park to attend races and other events.

Hout Ly, general sales manager at BMW of Ridgefield, said, “We are happy to welcome both Anna and Trevor into their new roles. We are excited to see our employees grow with our business and accepting new challenges.”

Financial security will be topic for talks

People interested in learning about how to achieve financial stability in uncertain times may join Sergio DaSilveira of Webster Bank and his colleague, Rob Ramsey of Webster Investment Services, for a free “lunch and learn” presentation on  Achieving Financial Security in the New Year, on Tuesday, Dec. 3, at 11:45 a .m.

The program will cover an economic overview, income solutions in a low yield environment, social security, legacy planning and elder fraud and abuse.

Hosted by Laurel Ridge Health Care Center, 642 Danbury Road (Route 7), registration opens at 11:45 a.m. with presentation starting promptly at noon. Complimentary light lunch will be provided with reservation. Reserve by calling 203- 438-8226.

Weichert Realty will collect toys

The Weichert Family of Companies recently began the 35th Annual Weichert Toy Drive.

Members of the community are invited to drop off new, unwrapped toys at Weichert’s office at 388 Main Street through Dec. 13.

The toys will be delivered throughout the holidays in conjunction with local charities that assist financially and physically disadvantaged children.

Jim Weichert, president and founder of Weichert, Realtors, said,  “I’m proud to say that for the last 35 years we’ve had the unique privilege of making a special difference, and brightening the spirits of those less fortunate in this country. I invite you to join us in our efforts to give the greatest gift of all this holiday season: joy to the children and families who need it most.”

Society honors Paul Hallahan

A leading insurance professional organization recently recognized Paul Hallahan of Ridgefield for dedication and ongoing leadership in the insurance industry. Mr. Hallahan is a branch partner at Lawley Westchester Group in Elmsford, N.Y.

The Society of Certified Insurance Counselors (CIC) honored Mr. Hallahan for 10 years of successfully maintaining the Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC) designation, denoting significant commitment to advanced knowledge and customer service.

“This honor is an acknowledgment of the priority Paul Hallahan places on education and professional growth,” said the society’s president, Dr. William T. Hold. “Customers, associates and the insurance profession as a whole benefit from such dedication.”

The CIC Program is nationally recognized as the premier continuing education program for insurance professionals, with programs offered in all 50 states and Puerto Rico.

CT PC Tech moves to Branchville

CT PC Tech, formerly CT PC Exchange, has moved to 41 Ethan Allen Highway (Route 7) in Branchville, across from the Branchville Train Station and next to Tusk & Cup Coffee.

The company provides assistance with PCs, Macs, tablets and smart phones.

Doug Hayden, owner of CT PC Tech, said “Whether the issue is a crashed hard drive, slow processing, virus and malware problems, lost data, or one of the hundred other snags that can affect computers today, we diagnose problems and recommend solutions, usually within 24 hours.”

CT PC Tech is open 9 to 5 p.m weekdays. Call 203-431-9662 or visit their website www.ctpctech.com for more information.

Tops at Raveis for October

Adam Sebastian was recognized as the Top Listing Associate and The Morris Group Top Listing Team in the Ridgefield/Redding office of William Raveis Real Estate Mortgage and Insurance for October.

Isabelle Valentin was Top Selling Associate and The Morris Group Top Selling Team,

The Morris Group was Top Producing Team.

David Everson was honored for Excellence in Customer Service.

Classes will teach Microsoft Publisher

Microsoft Publisher 2010 is a two session class available through Ridgefield Continuing Education that can help people create newsletters, brochures, flyers, greeting cards, invitations, and posters.

Users can also create their own personalized logo, print their own business cards, stationery, and promotional materials. Import images from other clip art programs, scanned images, digitized photo disks, or the Internet.

Instructor Lizabeth Doty is a professional educator for more than 35 years

Class meets on Mondays, Dec. 2 and 9, from 6 to 8:30 p.m.  Cost is $99 (Ridgefield seniors age 62 and older pay $79).

Other classes starting soon include using Social Networks, iPhone, Skype, Word, Excel, Windows 7, eBay, Pinterest, and Photoshop Elements.

Visit www.ridgefieldschools.org or phone Peggy Bruno at 203- 431-2812 for details or to register.

Contractor roundup will help Habitat

Housatonic Habitat for Humanity is holding a month-long donation drive with the focus on the collection of new and gently used construction materials.

Spearheaded by Clark Construction of Ridgefield Inc., Contractor Roundup is collecting construction materials that will be sold at the Danbury Housatonic Habitat for Humanity ReStore.

Contractors and homeowners can clear their storage spaces, basements and garages of unused items that would eventually be thrown away and donate them to the non-profit. Items accepted include: sinks, vanities, windows, doors, cabinets, tile, appliances, tools and other usable construction materials.

Other supporters of Contractor Roundup include  Branchville Self Storage, PODS, Ridgefield Supply Company, Ridgefield Printing, Sign-A-Rama, and the Home Builders and Remodelers Association of Fairfield County.

Donations will be collected at Branchville Self Storage, 70 West Branchville Road, near the Branchville Train Station every Thursday, Friday and Saturday between Nov. 14 and Dec. 14, with the exception of Thanksgiving weekend. Hours are Thursdays 10 to 7, Fridays 8 to 4, and Saturdays 9 to 1. For information about accepted materials   call the ReStore at 203-205-0952 or email Donations@Housatonichabitat.org.

Residents will be able to voice their opinions and ask questions about a proposed cell tower that will overlook the Titicus Valley during a public information session on Dec. 14 in the lower level conference room in town hall at 10:30 a.m.

Ray Vergati, the site development manager of Danbury-based Homeland Towers, confirmed the date of the public hearing, adding that the technical report filed with the town on Nov. 4 gives officials 90 days to review the application before it goes in front of the Connecticut Siting Council.

“We feel there’s definitely a certain need for a tower in that area of Ridgefield, which is a well-traveled area with public schools and an athletic stadium,” Mr. Vergati said.

“We believe it will enhance public safety and eliminate some of those safety problems that have compiled over the last ten-plus years.”

First Selectman Rudy Marconi said  he talked to the applicant’s attorney, Chris Fisher, last week after the technical report was officially filed and they worked to find a date to host the promised public hearing.

Mr. Marconi will be present at the information session  to represent the town.

“The presentation will be run by Homeland’s people,” he said. “We’ve discussed the idea of having an information meeting here in town for some time now and this is that opportunity for our residents.”

Mr. Vergati, whose firm is partnering with AT&T on the project, added that the town has no control over the application from a zoning perspective and that the report filed last week was intended for the town to weigh in from a “purely advisory perspective.”

“This is the standard process,” he explained. “The siting council is not involved yet and they won’t be sent the report until after the 90 days is up.

“They’ve been doing this a while and they’re very savvy when it comes to looking at these applications.”

He estimated it would take the state’s siting council five to six months to review the proposal and then vote whether or not to pass it.

If it gets approved, then the town would be given 30 days to approve a building permit for the site location, Mr. Vergati said.

He added that it would take at least another 60 days after getting the permit to get the site constructed and the tower erected.

Add in the time it will take AT&T to get their equipment on the pole and residents are looking at cell service in the Ridgebury area by fall of 2014,  Mr. Vergati said.

According to the technical report, the tower site will bring wireless service to more than 5,000 residents in the area.

More than 30 single-family homes are described as being within 1,000 feet of the proposed tower site, including one as close as 264 feet to the northeast.

The 3.19-acre site would be accessed off Old Stagecoach Road.

Sandy Carpenter stands with AP US History teacher Jenn DeJulio in front of the mural she painted last spring in the history wing of Ridgefield High School. Ms. Carpenter, a senior, has taken AP Art the last two years and has painted several murals around the school. —Steve Coulter photo

In the many halls of history, there are events, symbols and people who teach the enduring and inspirational lesson that the past is an invaluable part of understanding the present and making progress toward a better future.

And now, in the hallway of Ridgefield High School’s history wing, a mural echoes that same essential message, connecting art and social studies — two seemingly distant subjects — under the same belief that everyone can take away something from the past and recreate it.

Thanks to the hard work of senior Sandy Carpenter, future RHS students will have the beckoning symbol as motivation to dream of the impossible and make it happen.

“We basically talked about things we both loved from American history,” said Ms. Carpenter, who worked with her Advanced Placement History teacher, Jenn DeJulio, on crafting the mural.

The painting consists of several images — a portrait of Abraham Lincoln and another of Rosie the Riveter, the Statue of Liberty, the United State’s Constitution, the New York City skyline and an eagle, soaring overhead.

Also included are symbolic numbers — 13 and 19 — for the 13th and 19th amendments of the constitution.

“The 19th amendment, which ended woman’s suffrage, and is located closest to Rosie the Riveter and the 13th amendment, which abolished slavery, and is located closest to Lincoln,” she explains.

Ms. Carpenter started working on the mural on May 16, a day after she took her AP History exam — on which she scored a perfect five.

“I’d like to think I’m pretty good at history,” she said.

“She’s one of the best history students I’ve ever had,” Ms. DeJulio chimes in.

Ms. Carpenter finished the project on June 24 after working on and off on it for over a month, dedicating sometimes as much as six hours a week on the painting process.

She used regular acrylic brushes and swears she’s not “one of those snobby art people who has to have best brush possible.”

The most time-consuming part of the sketching and coloring was taking out and putting away the paint, she said.

The mural began with pencil sketch that Ms. Carpenter showed to her AP art teacher, Anne Lester, and worked her way to doing a watercolor before finally painting in the images she had selected.

“Ms. Lester felt it was going to be too complicated so I took out an emblem with an eagle on it that was pretty big and made it smaller and put it on Rosie’s collar,” she explained. “I had a full American flag and took that out.

“Basically, I made it more simple and got rid of the stuff that would have required more time to finish.”

The final part of her design was selecting a quote that would run along the bottom — a message that would encapsulate the broadness of both art and history.

She turned to the head of the history department, Larry Freidman, for help.

“I was thinking an Abraham Lincoln quote but he wanted something that better characterized the social studies and gender issues; something that captured the innovation and creativeness that brings art and history together,” she said.

The pair ended up going with a famous Robert F. Kennedy phrase: “Some men see things as they are and say ‘why.’ I dream things that never were and say ‘why not.’”

“It’s the epitome of what art is and also, when you look at history — everything that could happen and everything that has happened — you see past, present and future in there,” she explains. “I dream of things that could be and I make them happen — it’s really a beautiful quote.”

Ms. DeJulio adds that the quote symbolizes “the purpose of why teach history.”

The mural wasn’t the first for Ms. Carpenter, who’s been an active artist since kindergarten and first started painting around the fifth grade.

“I’ve been doing it for so long, I can’t remember when I started,” she claims.

She designed and colored the painting that’s in the school’s athletic training room and has been asked to do other decorations in the weight room and other parts of the athletic complex.

Ms. Carpenter, who plays varsity soccer, basketball, and lacrosse for the Tigers, said she was excited when Ms. DeJulio approached her last spring about bringing her talents to the school’s history wing.

“I finally have one in the hallway that everyone can see, which is great,” she said.

If the drawing and the sports weren’t enough, Ms. Carpenter spends her time working in five AP classes — government and politics, literature and composition, Spanish, art, and calculus.

“I get a solid seven and a half hours,” she says about her sleep schedule.

Although art and history are the focus of her most-seen mural to date, Ms. Carpenter’s favorite subject is actually biology, which she has applied it to her artwork and hopes to study next year at college.

“I love AP art because we get to do a concentration, which is like picking your own area to focus on, about something you’re really passionate about,” she said. “Last year I combined art and biology and this year my concentration is on the woman as a goddess.”

She is studying Greek mythology — honing her skills history, English and philosophy — while incorporating them into “art nouveau” and also how they relate to women’s issues today.

“I like to do things in art that I am passionate about outside of art,” she concludes. “Hopefully, I can do murals as my internship in the spring.”

But what about free time?

There’s not much of it these days, in the middle of the grueling college application process but she’s still somehow got enough to draw and to get those crucial seven and a half hours of sleep, all despite taking five AP courses and playing three varsity sports.

“Art has always been something I’ve done on the side, in addition to soccer, basketball and school” she explains of her free time, if you can call it that. “I also like dogs, taking walks in nature and writing.”

The Ridgefield Woman’s Club Craft Fair, part of Destination Ridgefield Holiday Markets, is being held on Saturday, Nov. 23, from 10 to 4 at East Ridge Middle School.

For the 43rd year, the proceeds from the fair will benefit local area charitable organizations and causes, including Ridgefield High School senior scholarships.

For instance, at the Take-a-Chance table, one can buy a ticket to win one of the many crafts donated by this year’s crafters. Monies from this table will go to the Ridgefield Food Pantry and the Women’s Center of Greater Danbury.

In addition to enjoying shopping a wide selection of items from the 100 exhibiting vendors, attendees will also be able to purchase coffee, tea, other beverages, breakfast pastries, snacks and light lunch selections that include soup, wraps, hot dogs, chili and more.

Tickets are adults $7, children 12 and under are free. Park once and catch the shuttle bus that stops downtown at the Community Center. For more information call 203-438-6101 or visit rwc-craftfair.com.

Western Connecticut Home Care was awarded $30,000 from The Leir Charitable Foundations of Ridgefield to fund the agency’s home monitoring programs. The donation made in memory of Henry and Erna D. Leir, will be used to provide Telehealth and Lifeline to patients receiving home care services.

“Telehealth Program is vital to the continued improvement in clinical outcomes and to ensuring our patients remain in their homes and out of the hospital,” said Brian O’Loughlin, home care administrator. Telehealth use small electronic devices placed in a patient’s home that allow clinicians to monitor the patient’s vital signs from a remote location.

Western Connecticut Home Care patients who are high risk for falls are provided a Philips Lifeline with an automatic fall detector. Falls are the most frequently occurring accident for seniors.,

Western Connecticut Home Care, formerly Danbury Visiting Nurse Association, is a non-profit, Medicare certified, state licensed medical home care agency. For additional information visit www.westernconnecticuthomecare.org or call 203-792-4120.

Buying and Selling on eBay is a Ridgefield Continuing Education class that provides hands-on experience using eBay.

Instructor Eileen Burton has a small French collectibles business and has spent more than eight years buying and selling on eBay.

Class meets on Wednesdays, Dec. 4 and 11 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Venus Building. Cost is $81. Visit ridgefieldschools.org or phone Peggy Bruno at 203-431-2812 for more information.

Fall brings cooler weather and time to clean up the lawn, organize the garage and get ready for the winter. The Internal Revenue Service wants to remind taxpayers that fall is also a good time to review their tax situation.

Withholding

Taking a few minutes to make sure what was taken out of your paycheck matches your projected tax bill can save you headaches next year. If not enough was withheld, you will owe tax for 2013 and may have to pay a penalty.

Changes to your income

Changes to your income, like taking a second job, having a spouse go back to work, or receiving income not subject to withholding, such as rent, dividends, or interest, can alter the amount that needs to be withheld.

It’s also very important to check your withholding if there are significant personal or financial changes in your life that involve adding or losing an exemption such as marriage, divorce, birth or adoption of a child, purchase or sale of a new home, or retirement.

With the help of current pay stubs and a copy of last year’s tax form, the “Withholding Calculator” on IRS.gov can help you know if the right amount is being withheld. Information from the automated calculator can then be used to revise a W-4 to give to your employer.

Record keeping

Keeping track of receipts and other records throughout the year can help you avoid problems at tax time.

If you itemize, you should keep receipts, invoices, mileage logs, canceled checks and other records to support deductions or credits you claim on your tax return.

Generally, tax records should be kept for three years, but some documents, for example, records relating to a home purchase or sale, stock transactions, IRAs and business or rental property, should be kept longer.

For more information on what types of records to keep, see Recordkeeping at IRS.gov.

Seated (left to right): Evie Vazquez and Angel Urioste. Standing (left to right): Patricia Hunsberger, Valerie Swenson, Darcey Wulkan and Caroline Arcoleo.

Ask Darcey Wulkan what are the three most important characteristics of her business, The Ridgefield Salon & Spa, and she’ll say “attention to detail, personalized service and natural products.”

However, a fourth characteristic that one can’t help notice is fast growing.

She opened The Ridgefield Salon & Spa in August 2010 at 10 Roberts Lane, in the Eppoliti Building, in a 600-square-foot space that she shared and was the only employee. Today, at the same address, she has 1,200 square feet (unshared) and 14 employees.

The salon and spa’s full range of services includes skin care, hair care, makeup, manicures and pedicures, massage therapy, waxing, lash and brow enhancement, aloe-based air-brush spray tanning, and a boutique that carries natural beauty and aromatherapy products and jewelry by local designers.

“Our most popular skin care service is microdermabrasion, a medical-grade skin resurfacing treatment,” she said. “As to makeup, we use mineral-based products, which are healthier for the skin. For nail care we use Shellac, an ultraviolet gel polish that results in no chipping and has a two-week wear. As an alternative, we offer Vinylux, a 10-day polish that doesn’t require UV lighting.” Hair care includes smoothing treatments, coloring using a high-end herbal color line from Italy, and traditional styling services.

Asked about plans for future growth, Ms. Wulkan smiled and said, “Stay tuned.”

The approaching holidays are the theme of many of the weekend’s multitude of activities — some covered in the Holiday Guide in this week’s issue of The Press.

• Festive Home opens for a six-week run at the Guild of Artists.
• Artique fine pottery and crafts runs all weekend at St. Stephen’s.
• The Tree Festival is also under way at the Community Center.
• Becky’s New Car is playing Friday through Sunday at the Theater Barn.
• Diary of Anne Frank is on stage at RHS Friday through Sunday.
• LeAnn Rimes stars in the Playhouse gala benefit Friday.
• The Crafts Fair of the Ridgefield Woman’s Club is Saturday
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar will be at the Playhouse Saturday.
• The Western Connecticut Youth Orchestra will be in concert Sunday.
• Hamlet in HD will be on screen at the Playhouse Sunday.
• Newbie comics will show off their jokes Sunday morning at the Playhouse.
• Jazz will be available Sunday night at Sarah’s.

Details on all of these events will be found in this week’s Press. The basics on many are in the Datebook.

For information on local and regional events, see Arts & Leisure’s This Weekend listings.

“Three begets two,” Finance Board Chairman Dave Ulmer told Tuesday night’s tri-board meeting.

A two-hour discussion among the town’s three major budget-making boards — finance, selectmen and education — ranged from town taxes and borrowing to capital spending priorities to the slowed enrollment decline and delayed possibility of an elementary school closing.

Near the end, Mr. Ulmer offered his overview analysis of the coming budget season to colleagues on the boards of selectmen and education.

“If you guys come in at 3%, and you guys come in at 3%,” he said to the two boards, “that’s $3.5 million more spending.”

It was a ballpark calculation: roughly $1 million for a 3% increase to the selectmen’s current $45-million town budget, and $2.5 million for a 3% increase to the $83-million school budget.

For the current year, Mr. Ulmer added, the tax rate is assisted by $1.75 million in non-tax revenue from the town’s surplus fund balance — the town’s “rainy day fund,” as Mr. Ulmer described it.

To meet the finance board’s guideline of maintaining the fund balance at 8% to 9% of the annual budget, now $128 million, it would have to be kept at about $11 million.

That could be done again next year, Mr. Ulmer suggested, while still siphoning off some of the fund balance to offset the spending increase requests anticipated from the selectmen and school board.

“If it’s a $3.5-million nut, we use some number from fund balance and maybe it’s a $2.5-million nut,” Mr. Ulmer said.

The town’s annual property taxes total about $114 million, he said.

“To cover another $2.5 million is somewhere in the lower 2% range,” Mr. Ulmer said.

“There’s nothing that tells me we wouldn’t still search for a 2% number,” he said. “We have a shot at a 2% tax rate.”

It won’t be easy to do.

“There’s nothing I see that suggests household income is going back up,” Mr. Ulmer said. “That’s kind of a tread-water situation in the economy.”

But the town has done pretty well holding down costs the last few years.

From 2007, when the economy bottomed out, to 2013, the Board of Selectmen’s town budget has gone up 9.6%, Mr. Ulmer said, and the Board of Education’s school budget has gone up 10.8%.

“That’s over a five-year span — pretty good,” he said. “I commend the job you’re doing.”

Over that time, he added, “the tax rate has gone up 3.8%” — though he admitted that keeping the tax increase so much below the spending increase was made possible by “serendipity” a couple of years back when CL&P gave the town a $4.3-million refund from decades of inadvertent overcharges for electricity at the high school

School Superintendent Deborah Low showed the meeting enrollment figures that had the K-12 student population dropping by 83 over three years, from enrollment of 5,312 in 2011-12 to 5,229 in 2013-14.

For the same three years, the school system’s consulting demographer had produced projections that showed enrollment would drop by 192 students, from 5,325 in 2011-12 to 5,133 in 2013-14.

The K-12 decrease was less than half what was projected.

Similarly, the K-5 enrollment has not fallen as fast as two different demographers projected. It is now expected to be 2016-17 before  K-5 enrollment reaches the 2,000-student level identified by the school administration and board as the point at which one of the six elementary schools could be closed without overcrowding the remaining five buildings.

“There are obviously factors the demographers cannot factor into their calculations,” school board member Michael Raduazzo said.

School officials might regard the slowed enrollment decline as a reprieve from the difficult and unpleasant task of closing a school.

But selectmen and finance board members — focused more on the $1-million-a-year projected saving from a closing — wondered if the enrollment would ever get low enough for the school board to push ahead with the difficult task.

In any case, the opportunity doesn’t appear likely to come as soon as was once expected.

“The reality is, we have not declined at a rate anything like what was predicted by our demographers,” school board Vice Chairman Irene Burgess said.

Mr. Ulmer also made a case that the town’s debt is under control.

The town has about $83 million in long-term debt, and another $6 million in short-term debt from the Schlumberger purchase.

It is paying down interest and principal at a rate of about $9 million a year, although about $3 to $4 million in new borrowing is added most years.

At the peak of borrowing for the “school bundle” in 2003, Mr. Ulmer said, the long-term debt had been up as high as $140 million.

“We’ve done pretty well on our debt,” he said.

But the selectmen noted that they still hear calls for projects that would require borrowing — like a new police station and a new firehouse.

“My point is, it’s great we’re paying down debt service,” Selectman Andy Bodner said. “There will be more things coming.”

Jennifer Gracie of North Salem, N.Y., who does everything in Ridgefield including learning how to deliver a stand-up comedy routine, will be one of the graduates of Christine O’Leary’s eight-week workshop who will perform during the Comedy Graduation Showcase on Sunday, Nov. 24, at 11 a.m. at the Ridgefield Playhouse.

Jennifer Gracie

Her fellow classmate, Mitchell Prywes, a physician in Danbury who has gained new comedic bedside manner skills as a result of his class, will offer his stand-up routine to a real live audience.

Their coach/teacher is Christine O’Leary, an award-winning professional comedienne, social worker and social media editor who knows how to bring out the comedian in everyone. She will host the event. Bagels and coffee will be available in the lobby for the Sunday morning show-goers.

While Ms. Gracie lives in North Salem, it is in Ridgefield that she does “all of my shopping, dining, pedicures, massages, dog grooming, cupcake purchasing, Ridgefield Playhouse-ing, organic basil purchasing, and anything else vital to happiness.”

She said, “I had frequent dreams my whole life where I was on a stage and people were laughing. The feeling was amazing, and I was always disappointed when I woke up. I decided to make it really happen.”

“I discovered that being a funny person and being able to do stand-up are two different things,” Ms. Gracie said. “A sense of humor is the beginning, but being able to write in a way that will make total strangers relate and laugh is very different than cracking your family up at the dinner table. That process must be learned.”

Ms. Gracie said the hardest part of the workshop experience was standing up and reading material to her classmates for the first time. “I was shaking, but as soon as I heard the first laugh I was hooked, and I looked forward to it each week. It’s a great group of people.”

The class was not a breeze, and she admitted that it was a lot of work writing, editing and practicing. She said Ms. O’Leary always reminded her to trust the process, and she was right.

Mitchell Prywes

Dr. Prywes, a Danbury physician who has practiced in the community for 25 years, took the comedy workshop to be able to check one more thing off his bucket list. He grew up watching stand-up comedians and loved retelling jokes to friends and family, and making them laugh.

When asked how the class changed his ability to do stand-up, he said, “Comedy comes from telling the truth, and solving a problem.”

For Dr. Prywes, the most fun part of the workshop was “watching the entire creative process evolve, and sharing that experience with both Christine and my group of fellow students.” He would absolutely recommend the class to others who have a comedic streak and want to get the nerve to do stand-up.

“Christine is a wonderful teacher, and she has a way of helping you identify and extract where the most humor is derived from your life experiences.”

For tickets to the show, at $10, call or visit the box office at the Ridgefield Playhouse, 203-438-5795.

Will Hammerstein, grandson of lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II and executive director of Oscar Hammerstein’s Highland Farm, will speak at the Ridgefield Library on Sunday, Nov. 24.

He and architect Peter Bachmann will discuss the Hammerstein property in Doylestown, Pa. where Hammerstein wrote, “Oh What a Beautiful Morning” and many other well-beloved songs and musicals. The property is slated for a major renovation: The adaptive reuse and transformation of an existing historic barn, into a state-of-the-art theater and the creation of a house museum.

Registration is recommended at ridgefieldlibrary.org or by calling 202-438-2282.