Category Archives: Towns

Old Lyme Non-profit Supports Breast Cancer Prevention with Online Art Exhibition

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Backus Hospital staff stand with Maina Foundation founder Alka Shrikhande.

OLD LYME—Connecticut resident and Pfizer alumna, Alka Shrikhande, says, “When my mom, a beautiful and loving woman, lost her battle against breast cancer in 2006, the question I asked myself was, whether she would still be alive if the cancer had been detected earlier with yearly mammograms?”

In 2008, Shrikhande established Maina Foundation, a nonprofit based in Old Lyme, whose mission is to increase awareness of breast cancer, promote early detection, and offer financial assistance—where it is able—for treatment. 

With low overheads, and an all-volunteer staff, almost all the money the organization raises goes towards three areas of support.

Locally, Maina Foundation has donated to Backus Breast Cancer Center in Norwich, Conn., to assist breast cancer patients in Eastern Connecticut from diagnosis through treatment, and beyond. 

Maina Foundation representatives present New York City Health and Hospitals Metropolitan Breast Care Center in Manhattan with a check for funding.

In New York, Maina Foundation has been collaborating with the New York City (NYC) Health and Hospitals Metropolitan Breast Care Center in Manhattan to support breast cancer patients in need, to obtain advanced diagnostic imaging.

And, in India, the organization has had a significant impact on screening and raising awareness of breast cancer in underserved communities at multiple hospitals in Mumbai, Rishikesh, and Chennai, to name a few. 

From October to December this year, in honor of Breast Cancer Prevention Month, Maina Foundation is excited to be partnering with artists, both local and national, in their 3rd Annual Online Art Exhibition. Images of the art for sale can be found on the Maina Foundation website—the list price includes shipping, and there is no sales tax.

This year, 20 percent of the proceeds from the art sale will be donated to NYC Health and Hospitals Metropolitan Breast Care Center, to provide comprehensive breast cancer care to underserved and vulnerable populations, regardless of their ability to pay. 

Featured artists include:

Howard Park, a local artist and photographer, was led by his love of the sea, from Boston, via the L’Ecole d’Art Decorative de Nice, to Connecticut where he now lives in East Lyme. In 2001, Park sailed around the world. He has won numerous awards from the New England Watercolor Society, the Mystic Museum of Art and the Lyme Art Association. 

Lisa Miceli, is a local artist who has won multiple awards for her plein air art with a focus on expressionist watercolors and oils. She has been Influenced, amongst others, by her grandmother, Lucille Gauthier, an illustrator, watercolorist, and a Works Progress Administration artist in the 1930’s. Miceli was the winner of the JMW Turner watercolor competition at the Mystic Seaport.

Natalie Sambamurty, a Maina Foundation board member, works with acrylic, watercolors and oil paints. She draws inspiration from wildlife, traditional Indian art and lifestyles, nature, and different cultures of the world. She is passionate about children’s and women’s health. 

Laya Joseph, a New York-based artist, is influenced by her botanist background. She works primarily in acrylic and mixed media, and her paintings are mostly abstracts and semi abstracts, expressionistic in style and often rooted in her memories and experiences.

Ritu Khetan, inspired by the beauty of henna art, creates intricate patterns on candles, trays, and home décor. Khetan has introduced the art of henna to students of Carnegie Mellon University, and loves to share the joy of simply “creating.”

Sneha Khetan, an 8th Grader from Charlotte, N.C., makes handmade cards and shadow boxes, and is the founder of Sustainable Charlotte, an organization that promotes sustainable living with an aim to educate the public about the climate crisis. 

Girish Nair, is known for his live painting on stage alongside musicians and other performing artists. Although known for his portraits in oil and color pencils, he has a special interest in creating abstracts and theological interpretations. His art has raised more than $60,000 for multiple charitable organizations.

Geeta Pathak, transformed innocent doodles in school books to priceless canvases. Life, with all its precious moments of love, angst, heartache, amidst playing different roles of daughter, sister, friend, wife, and mother, all came together one day as art became her lifeline. This is why she paints everything and anything she perceives to be “in the moment.”

With the support of the community, Maina Foundation hopes to raise much-needed funds to continue their programs and fulfil their mission to raise breast cancer awareness. Please consider supporting their mission by purchasing these beautiful paintings, created by the featured artists.

Police Officers Assn. of CT Endorses Norm Needleman for 33rd State Senate District, Includes Lyme

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Norm Needleman (D), is the incumbent candidate for 33rd State Senate District, which includes Lyme.

The Police Officers Association of Connecticut has endorsed State Senator Norm Needleman for another term in the Connecticut State Senate.

As the First Selectman of Essex, Sen. Needleman works directly with police and first responders in his community. As a State Senator, he has taken steps to engage with local police departments, assist them where and when possible, and learn more about what they need to best succeed in their roles.

Knowing the vital importance of public safety, Sen. Needleman is committed to supporting policing strategies that benefit both officers and the public, allowing for them to safely and effectively keep our communities protected.

“Police in our communities rush toward danger while the rest of us flee. They play a direct and vital role in our communities, keeping us safe and ensuring those who break the law will meet necessary consequences,” said Sen. Needleman.

He continued, “I am honored to receive the support of the POACT, which represents approximately 5,000 police officers across the state, and will continue working to make sure our communities receive the care and service they need while the people who provide that care and service are able to go home at the end of the day with the compensation they deserve.”

In 2019 and 2023, Sen. Needleman voted for the bipartisan four-year Connecticut State Police labor union contracts providing officers with raises and bonuses as well as improved benefits. Specifically, that contract raised the pay for State Police trooper trainees, which will benefit the state’s ability to recruit and retain qualified troopers.

Sen. Needleman has also voted to support policies providing police officers with access to care for post-traumatic stress caused on the job among other significant improvements.

This latest endorsement comes after previously announced support for Norm from the Independent Party, Retired Teachers of Connecticut, Planned Parenthood, CT Realtors, Reproductive Action Now, 314 Action Fund and AFT Connecticut, among others.

Sen. Needleman was unanimously renominated this spring by the Democratic Party to represent the town of Lyme along with Colchester, Chester, Clinton, Deep River, East Haddam, East Hampton, Essex, Haddam, Old Saybrook, Portland and Westbrook.

In addition to working as Senate Chair of the Energy and Technology Committee, Sen. Needleman also works as Vice Chair of the Planning and Development Committee and a member of the Finance, Revenue and Bonding, Transportation and Commerce Committees.

Sen. Needleman founded and runs a manufacturing company, Tower Laboratories in Centerbrook, and is currently serving his sixth term as the First Selectman of Essex.

Editor’s Note: This article is based on a press release issued by Sen. Needleman’s office.

‘Planned Parenthood’, ‘Reproductive Equity’ Endorse Wisialowski for 23rd District

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Jane Wisialowsi is the Democratic candidate for the 23rd District State Representative.

LYME/OLD LYME/OLD SAYBROOK/ – Leading reproductive rights organizations Planned Parenthood of Connecticut and Reproductive Equity Now have both endorsed Jane Wisialowski in her campaign for 23rd District State Representative (Old Saybrook, Westbrook, Old Lyme, and  Lyme).

These endorsements highlight Wisialowski’s commitment to reproductive rights and healthcare access. 

In a statement announcing the endorsement, Planned Parenthood said of Wisialowski, “We  are grateful that you have indicated that, as a legislator, you are willing to advocate for protecting  and expanding access to sexual and reproductive health and rights for all people.”

The statement added, “We are in an urgent moment and working together we can achieve our vision for a future where all people in Connecticut can realize the right to control their bodies, their lives, and their futures.” 

Reproductive Equity Now announced its endorsement in August: “The right to abortion, contraception, IVF, and all forms of reproductive health care are facing existential threats on the national stage,” president Rebecca Hart Holder said in a statement.

She continued, “Reproductive Equity Now is proud to endorse candidates who are ready to fight for reproductive equity and ensure that Connecticut remains a firewall for abortion access in post-Roe America.” 

“I am so proud to receive the endorsement of these two brave organizations that are on the front line in the fight for women’s reproductive freedom,” said Wisialowski.

She continued, “When elected, I will always fight to protect women’s reproductive  rights, access to contraception and IVF.”

Editor’s Note: This article is based on a press release issued by Jane Wisialowski’s Campaign Office.

Literature in the Lymes: ‘The Life Impossible’ by Matt Haig

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Matt Haig has written some wonderful books.

I recommend The Midnight Library especially and I was pleasantly surprised to find something new in The Life Impossible. Many authors embrace a certain vein but Matt Haig takes a step further with each new book.

Seventy-two-year-old Grace Winters is ready to call it a day. She is a retired, widowed math teacher mourning the death of her only child 30 years ago. Nothing will change. How could it and why in God`s name would she want it to?

She has come to terms with her grief and her passionless existence until a letter arrives from a woman she cheered up one lonely Christmas in 1979. One Christina van der Berg has bequeathed Grace a house in Ibiza … Ibiza, Spain; what on earth?

While she is semi-upside-down having, “Minimally invasive, radio frequency-based vein ablation surgery”, Grace decides to go.

Through the format of a story told to a former student in an email, she tells us of her impossible new life.

It’s a wonderful, humorous, often lonely journey of putting one foot in front of the other. Grace is braver than she expects. She goes diving at night in a tie-dyed bathing suit! She finds a mysterious jar of sea water that fills itself. Finding herself talking to a goat she starts to question her sanity.

Alone in a new place she seeks out people who knew her friend Christina, to try to find out what happened. How and why did Christina die? How did she know it was going to happen? Many things seem unanswerable … but they are.

Nothing she is expecting is there. Nothing we can possibly expect is there. What she finds is more than unexpected. She finds connections to people, to a place, to an unearthly source of strength and consciousness and thought that will save Ibiza.

It saved Christina.

It will save Grace.,

About the author: Jen Petty Hilger grew up in New York and London, England, but finds herself happily quiet living by the water in Old Lyme. She and her husband have six children between them and a myriad of rescued animals.

Lyme-Old Lyme Schools Give Update on PK-8 Building Project

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Renovations at Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School were included in the $57.6 million plan, which residents approved in a November 2022 referendum.

Project Costs for Three of Four Schools Now $119K Under Budget 
OLD LYME—The Lyme-Old Lyme (LOL) Board of Education has today given an update on the progress of the PK-8 Building Project for which voters approved $57,555,000 in November 2022. 

The project itself is, more accurately, two different projects as they are being supported by two different state grant programs.   

Prior to the referendum, the district received an Extension and Alteration Grant commitment from the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) for Mile Creek School in the amount of $9,075,088.

Subsequent to the referendum, three district schools (Center School, Lyme School, and LOL Middle School) received a separate HVAC/Indoor Air Quality grant from DAS in the amount of $12,009,717.   

Only the first of these two grants was anticipated in the planning and informational materials provided to the voters at the time of the referendum. The additional $12 million in grants reduced the amount of local tax dollars necessary to fund the project. These additional grant monies, combined with the lower interest rate environment for bonds and notes, will save the Lyme-Old Lyme community around $16 million.  

Lyme-Old Lyme Schools Superintendent Ian Neviaser said, “We are proud of these additional savings this early in the process yet remain committed to completing the project within the amount authorized at referendum.” He explained that In order to do so, the Board of Education’s Building Committee had taken action to address what were initially very high bid responses for some portions of the work.  Rebidding certain components of the project resulted in over $3 million of cost reductions.

In addition, the committee, with approval from the board of education, reassigned the proposed renovation work for the security vestibules at Lyme School, Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School, and Center School from the PK-8 project budget to the  board of education’s “rainy day” fund at an estimated cost of approximately $1 million, with such work to be completed on the same schedule as had been originally planned as a part of the PK-8 project.  

Upon the recommendation of the building committee, and with the endorsement of the fire marshal, the board of education also approved retaining the existing compartmentalized fire protection system in lieu of adding sprinklers at Lyme School and Mile Creek School. 

These decisions, along with a few other minor adjustments, have allowed the building committee to finalize project costs for Lyme School, Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School, and Center School that are $119,612 under budget. 

The committee expects to receive bid responses for the Mile Creek School project on or about Oct. 17, 2024. The portion of work relative to Mile Creek is estimated to represent about $25 million of the total PK-8 project cost. 

Neviaser concluded, “We share this good news to keep our communities informed and commend those involved for their commitment to completing these projects on time and within the approved budget.”