Novelette Peterkin joins the Maritime Aquarium Board of Directors

Read the article here; and here in The Hour.

The Maritime Aquarium recently elected Novelette to the Board of Directors.

The other new members are Diane Schlinkert, an active civic leader in Darien who serves on the boards of At Home in Darien and the town’s Garden Club; Norm Bloom of Copps Island Oysters in Norwalk; and the Rev. Dr. Lindsay E. Curtis of Grace Baptist Church in Norwalk.

Norwalk developer and Carver friend, Clay Fowler, founding partner, chair and CEO of Spinnaker Real Estate Partners, was elected to be the Aquarium’s next chair of the Board of Trustees.

Since joining the not-for-profit Carver Foundation in 2004, Novelette Peterkin has led the transformation of Carver’s reach and impact – from a vibrant community center to a citywide network of before- and after-school and summer programs delivering equitable and holistic support to more than 2,300 students. Carver staff works closely with school and community leaders to foster environments that support students in almost all K-12 Norwalk Public Schools, Side by Side Charter School, and the Classical Studies Magnet Academy (in Bridgeport). She began her professional career as a private wealth manager in New York, and also has served as assistant director of residential services for the Andrus Children’s Center in New York.

Jason Patlis, president and CEO of The Maritime Aquarium, celebrated the opportunities and insights that the new trustees bring to the organization, and recognized the vital importance of strong leadership by Fowler and outgoing chair Audrey Weil.

“This has been among the most challenging years in the history of The Maritime Aquarium, and it is by virtue of the close partnership with Audrey Weil that we have navigated the pandemic and the Walk Bridge impacts, and it is with the steady leadership of Clay Fowler that we will emerge from these challenges stronger than ever before,” Patlis said. “Looking ahead to this new era, we welcome the new class of trustees who represent the rich diversity of Norwalk itself.

“With Novelette, we hope to strengthen Aquarium programs that elevate underserved and lower-income students, and, with Rev. Curtis’ help, we can link the goals of stewardship that unite both the religious community and the conservation community, and that look to inspire and empower families,” Patlis said.

Our Holiday Gift event is TODAY, Monday, Dec 21st, 10AM to 6PM!

Parents and guardians, due to the expected inclement weather last week, the Carver Holiday Gift event scheduled for Friday, December 18th, was moved to today, Monday, December 21st at the Carver Community Center from 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.

Parents should report to the community center entrance/door at the back end of the parking lot near the picnic area.

Gift bags are already organized for each family based on the number of children registered for the event.

Masks and identification are required when picking up gifts. In keeping with social distancing and CDC guidelines just the adult that signed up for the event should come to pick up the gifts.

Happy Holidays and Stay Safe!

Senator Murphy's annual Martin Luther King Jr. essay contest

The annual Martin Luther King Jr. Essay contest is underway. K-12 students from across Connecticut are participating in honoring the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by submitting essays that reflect on Dr. King’s dream, their own aspirations, and what Dr. King means to them.

Essays should be no more than 500 words for high school students, 300 words for middle school students, and 100-200 for elementary school students. Pictures are optional for elementary school submissions.

The deadline is January 8. If you have any questions about the contest please reach out to MLK_Essay@murphy.senate.gov

The Norwalk Public Library will also host a Norwalk celebration for students whose essays feature three pillars of Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy: Educational equity; Environmental equity; Equity/racial justice. Students should send a copy of their essay to their principal so that the essays can also be submitted to the Norwalk Public Library.

‘Go Build a Snowman': School District Declares Snow Day to Help Families at Tough Time

In the letter that went viral, a Superintendent in West Virginia, Bondy Shay Gibson, encouraged families in Jefferson County to turn off their computers and enjoy the first powder of the season.

“It has been a year of seemingly endless loss and the stress of trying to make up for that loss. For just a moment, we can all let go of the worry of making up for the many things we missed by making sure this is one thing our kids won’t lose this year ... So please, enjoy a day of sledding and hot chocolate and cozy fires. Take pictures of your kids in snow hats they will outgrow by next year and read books that you have wanted to lose yourself in, but haven’t had the time. We will return to the serious and urgent business of growing up on Thursday, but for tomorrow ... go build a snowman.”

YMCA's Bedford Family Social Responsibility Fund awards Carver -- See the video!

The Bedford Family Social Responsibility Fund supports organizations that provide direct or supplemental educational opportunities. As a result the Fund supports a wide range of programs. Carver has been among The Fund’s beneficiaries for years. Thank you!

In March of 2015, the Westport Weston Family YMCA received a very generous gift from the estate of Ruth T. Bedford. Ms. Bedford, a YMCA trustee emeritus, a philanthropist, and a strong advocate for the YMCA continued the family legacy with her gift.

Her grandfather, Edward T. Bedford, established the first Westport YMCA in 1923. In 1944, Edward’s son, Frederick T. Bedford and his wife (Ruth’s parents) provided the funding that made it possible to buy Camp Mahackeno, the YMCA’s summer day camp where the current facility is located. Ms. Bedford was instrumental in helping the YMCA to renovate and expand its original downtown Westport location during the 1980s. Ms. Bedford’s gift will allow the YMCA to be a leader in the community and change lives for the next 100 years.

In 2015, the YMCA Board of Trustees established the Bedford Family Social Responsibility Fund (the “Fund”) to give back to the community and carry forward the legacy of Ruth Bedford. The initial endowment of the Fund was $5 million and earnings from this endowment will support one-year grants to one or more local programs, which will be selected through an annual grant process.

Carver alumnus Philippe Lerebours' idealism is grounded with a sense of strategy

Philippe Lerebours is a person of rare elegance, intellectual range and moral seriousness, whose idealism is grounded with a sense of strategy.

He is a leader who cares about justice, diversity and equity. Philippe clearly feels an obligation to go on thinking and caring and striving in spite of persistent societal challenges.

Coming from a genuinely thoughtful and generous heart, we share Philippe’s story and some of his thoughts with you here. Through it all emerges the real potential for change that our next generation of leaders are hard at work trying to create.  

Philippe earned a B.S. degree in Business Administration, with a concentration in Finance, from the Nicolais School of Business at Wagner College in 2019.

He has since been working as a Brand Marketing Coordinator at Fairstead, a real estate investor, developer, owner and operator specializing in affordable and mixed-income housing. Fairstead is home to over 350 employees. Since its inception in 2014, Fairstead has acquired, developed or preserved more than $4 billion in assets comprised of over 15,000 units.

Philippe still serves on the Executive Committee of the Black Professional Alliance at Wagner College to help connect and grow Wagner’s Black community of students, graduates, and professionals. The BPA helps students to gain access to personal and professional development opportunities while receiving exclusive invitations to enrichment experiences, both in person and via virtual platforms. Philippe also continues to work alongside Wagner’s Office of Institutional Advancement, “…to help them strategize and develop methods of engaging Wagner's Black student and alumni population in a meaningful and impactful manner.” 

During his years at Wagner, Philippe also served as Treasurer, Secretary, Vice President and in his senior year as Co-President for the Black Student Union and participated in the Bonner Leaders Program, the anchor program within the Center for Leadership and Community Engagement at Wagner.

During my experience at Wagner College, aside from the classroom, I spent most of my time cultivating safe spaces for Black students through my leadership of the Black Student Union. Through this opportunity I quickly learned that safe spaces were a catalyst and tool ultimately towards our success, collegiate and beyond. I dove deeper into this direct relationship through several internships in the real estate space that deepened my knowledge of the complex history and current landscape of real estate development in the New York City metropolitan area.

During his college years, Phillippe interned at Marcus and Millichap, one of the world’s largest commercial real estate firms. He interned as an investment analyst at (and contributed to the blog of) Staten Island’s real estate firm, Casandra Properties. He interned at Juice Bar EV, the acclaimed electric vehicle charging station company helping to build and integrate the infrastructure necessary to prepare facilities and properties for the new energy future of mobility.

Shortly after graduating from Norwalk High School, Philippe became a licensed real estate salesperson for Coldwell Banker in Greenwich.

Born and raised in Norwalk to Haitian parents, Philippe developed a passion for civic engagement, networking, mentoring and philanthropy early in life and became a bright light in the Carver community through the years. Philippe also developed a keen sense of social justice.

While Norwalk is racially diverse, it’s also an example of the racial wealth disparity that exists all across our country. Norwalk’s median household income is a drastic $100,000 less than its surrounding mostly white, wealthy towns. This same disparity holds true between Norwalk’s neighborhoods, creating a quiet, modern segregated city.

This dynamic in the environment that raised me taught me very early in my life that the trajectory of one's life can be tied closely to their proximity to equity, diversity, and access to resources - all of which is often heavily influenced by one’s zip code. This early lesson sparked my interest in communities, spaces and homes, and is what keeps me committed to learning more about people and the spaces that they inhabit. 

Philippe became engaged in the Carver community by the 4th grade and never left. He participated in Carver’s after-school and summer programs and most of all the opportunities in between. He worked for our K-5 after-school program called CASPER and our summer camp at the Carver Community Center during his high school years. He fondly remembers Carver staff such as Brian Acevedo and Rhea Gorham as being especially inspiring and helpful.

These two always exuded an inexplicable, consistent, and reliable love and light that was paramount for me during that time, in retrospect. I never left either one of their presence without feeling even better than I did before. They were my pillars in the Carver community. There were others as well, for sure.

Philippe is forgiving and compassionate in his effort to look beyond the futile divisions people make that scream from today’s headlines. Though his eyes miss nothing, and with the attributes of a sharp-eyed geographer, art historian, ethnologist and multilingual poet, Philippe is on a mission.

In my current role at Fairstead, I focus on brand development and strategy. In my position, I use my comprehensive understanding of the vertically integrated approach that our company takes to acquiring, developing, and managing communities across the nation and to strategize methods of leveraging media, press, digital platforms, and print collateral to tell the story of Fairstead to its various stakeholders. Through this role I’m gaining first-hand insight into the broad ecosystem that is the housing market. 

In my daily life, through these roles, and in my commitment to exploring the intersection of people and their homes, I am striving to create a dynamic career in the realm of urban planning and housing policy that allows me to lend my interests [in podcasting, reading, fashion, architecture, history, design, policy, and digital content creation] and professional experience to an industry that has a hand in shaping the future of my community by curating homes, spaces, and environments that serve as a catalyst and tool for success. 

New Canaan High School volunteers bring holiday cheer to our CASPER kids

Click hare to see and read about the SLOBs visit to Carver last year!

Carver has grown to depend on the creative generosity of SLOBs.

This year, because of COVID social distancing rules, SLOBs donated Ginger Bread House kits for our K-5 CASPER students, and two of the SLOBs members facilitated a virtual build-your-own-ginger-bread-house virtual instruction time on Zoom with our CASPER kids.

We are grateful to Kari Pinkernell, our adult liaison, and her two sons who facilitated the activity.

Founded in 2004, the New Canaan High School Service League of Boys (SLOBs) is a student/parent run organization that works to foster the parent-son relationship in a philanthropic organization committed to community service, leadership development, and education. It is an organization of parents and sons who join together in service and educational endeavors to foster community responsibility as well as strengthen the parent-son relationship.

Their stated mission is "for parents and sons to initiate and promote educational and charitable endeavors that foster community responsibility and leadership as well as strengthen the parent-son relationship." They currently serve approximately 30 philanthropic organizations with over 65 different projects.

We are grateful that Carver is among their charitable commitments!

Maritime Aquarium Offers Virtual Programs For Families

Carver’s long-time STEM education partner, the Maritime Aquarium, is not only open, they get even more creative during the pandemic. They are streaming some of their most popular educational programs each week! Students, families and individuals are welcome to take part in these live-streaming virtual programs. All programs require advance reservations to receive the needed link. 

One Million Jobs for Black Americans

OneTen is a nonprofit startup coalition of more than 30 chief executive officers from companies including Merck & Co., International Business Machines Corp. and Nike Inc. who are coming together to connect employers with Black workers.

OneTen aims to create one million jobs for Black Americans over the next 10 years and has so far recruited over 35 company backers and raised more than $100 million in seed funding.

Merck CEO Ken Frazier, one of the startup’s founders, said the nonprofit organization will focus on helping Black Americans without four-year college degrees, but with high school diplomas and other certifications, find and retain “family-sustaining jobs,” or those earning $40,000 or more depending on the region.

Nonprofits, community colleges and credentialing organizations will provide training to help them be successful in business, and the CEOs who have joined the effort are committing to hiring these workers.

Black people make up 12.4% of the U.S. population, but 8% of professionals, a number that has stayed steady since 2013, according to a study by the Center for Talent Innovation, a nonprofit research group. Black people hold 3.2% of senior executive positions, the group said.

Nearly 80% of working-age Black Americans don’t have a four-year college degree, making it a structural barrier for meaningful employment at many companies. OneTen’s goal isn’t only to connect companies with those workers, but also improve how companies are hiring and developing people with four-year college degrees, so that they can address the lack of Black representation in middle and upper management.

Companies will re-examine jobs to see whether they truly require a four-year college degree, calling it a “skills-first approach.” IBM once required a college degree for all its jobs, and now 43% of jobs don’t require a four-year degree. Entry-level work in health care, business and finance operations, cloud-computing, cybersecurity and advanced manufacturing could fit the bill.