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Carver hosts the first Norwalk Public Schools Choice Fair

The first annual NPS High School Choice Fair took place with great success in the Richard Whitcomb Gymnasium at the Carver Community Center last night.

Families joined staff representatives from high schools, pathways, academies, and various NPS departments to learn about the many opportunities available to our students. Here is news about this event at Nancy on Norwalk. Lottery applications for high schools are here norwalkps.org/choiceprograms.

We are grateful to have been able to support this important opportunity for families and for all the NPS staff members and students who helped support this event. The NPS Elementary School Choice Fair will be held in January.

NPS high school programs offer a wide variety of opportunities from hands-on industry experience to earning a college degree and health certifications and engaging with counterparts globally.

PreK through middle school students can take advantage of magnet programs focused on language, character, college and career readiness, and visual and performing arts.

NPS also prides itself on neighborhood schools, which build community and offer their own unique programs and educational opportunities. 

High School Applications are now available! Please click here to apply.

Deloitte employees return for IMPACT Day at the Carver Community Center

Deloitte’s IMPACT Day is an annual day of community service and a longstanding tradition at the Carver Community Center.

Every year, volunteers from Deloitte’s Stamford office devote their IMPACT Day activities to refurbishing, organizing, and beautifying the Carver Community Center.

During their most recent visit, Deloitte employees helped Carver organize closet space and paint doors in the community center - tedious but necessary tasks that would have been difficult to complete without the help of Deloitte.

In the past, Deloitte has helped transform the community center by assisting with landscaping and painting the inside of the building. We’re grateful to them for the gracious work they do for Carver each year.

Many, many thanks to Deloitte and their employees for generously volunteering their time to support Carver!

If you’re interested in corporate volunteer opportunities, please reach out to Jim Schaffer at jim@carvercenterct.org.

The Hour: Norwalk high school choice fair set for Nov. 3 at the Carver Community Center

See the article here.

NORWALK — Incoming high school students can preview their options for the future at the district’s high school choice fair next week.

Norwalk Public Schools will host its school choice fair on Nov. 3 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Carver Foundation of Norwalk, at 7 Academy St. Reservations to attend are not needed.

Representatives from Brien McMahon and Norwalk high schools, the Center for Global Studies, and P-TECH Norwalk will be on hand to answer questions as well as representatives from the International Baccalaureate program, the Digital Media & Communications Academy, the Marine Science Academy, and the Healthcare Academy.

The Multilingual Learners Welcome Center and other district services will also be represented.

Applications for all high school lotteries will be available online this fall. Laptops will be available at the choice fair for those who need help completing lottery applications.

emily.morgan@hearstmediact.com

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After the Bell students embrace their heritage at Brookside Elementary School

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To mark the end of Hispanic Heritage Month, Brookside’s After the Bell program held a lively celebration that encouraged Carver students to explore their ethnic backgrounds.

Brookside Elementary School is situated in the Flax Hill neighborhood of Norwalk, a quick 10 minute drive from the Carver Community Center. Signs with the message, “Be kind at Brookside,” are scattered throughout the lawn and building. True to those words, when I arrived at Brookside and explained I was a Carver employee, I was warmly welcomed and led to the cafeteria, where Carver’s after-school program, After the Bell, was convened.

The cafeteria at Brookside was buzzing with excitement. Children were gathered around tables, adjusting the focal points of the afternoon: paper smocks they had created and decorated with flags of the countries their families came from.

I snapped a photo of one of the girls, her bright smile exposing missing baby teeth. Afterwards, I asked which countries the flags on her smock represented. “Honduras,” she said, pointing to a blue and white flag with blue stars, “and Costa Rica,” she explained as she pointed to the other.

Groups of students lined up to show off their unique creations. The countries represented included Peru, Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Italy, and the United States - serving as a reminder of the diversity among both Hispanic Americans and the students in Carver’s programs.

At the end of the festivities, students gathered around two piñatas they had crafted out of cardboard and paper-mâché. Laughter filled the gymnasium as each child eagerly took a swing, delighted by the promise of candy. When the piñatas were finally ripped apart, spilling out their sweet treats, the candy was gathered up and put into Ziploc bags for the students to take home. Everyone went home with a bag - demonstrating equity in action.

Carver’s commitment

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are at the core of Carver’s work. Established over 80 years ago as a community center to support black adolescents, Carver has always worked to provide equitable access to opportunity so children and youth can realize their fullest potential. We have since expanded our reach to ensure all students are benefiting from our work, regardless of their race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and native language. Carver is dedicated to fostering a positive, empowering learning environment in which all students experience a sense of respect, belonging, and worth. The Hispanic Heritage Month celebration at Brookside highlights that commitment.

Carver is grateful to Brookside’s After the Bell employees for their ingenuity and incredible support of Carver kids. Many thanks to Ms. Monica Cervantes, Ms. Andralee Davidson-Hunter, Ms. Fawnia Hennegan, Mr. Joe Lombardo, and Mr. Colin Page.

Norwalk's Community Services Department is here for you!

Click on the image above to go to the online referral form

The Community Services Department's mission is to increase and sustain the social well-being and health of all Norwalk residents.

Lamond Daniels, LCSW, MPA, Chief of Community Services, is charged with unifying initiatives and programs that directly affect the social well-being and health of the residents of Norwalk.

Other Community Services Department Leaders:

Lamond Daniels, LCSW, MPA, Chief of Community Services

  Resources & Additional Information

Carver employees complete First Aid/CPR/AED training

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Certified teachers, paraprofessionals, and other Carver employees across all programs spent their Saturday morning receiving First Aid, CPR, and AED training. Every year, we provide this training for employees who need to renew their certification.

The safety and well-being of our students always comes first. We know they’re in good hands with our staff and we’re grateful to have such a great team.

Second annual Rowayton Racketlon raises generous support for Carver kids!

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A group of Rowayton residents organized the second annual Rowayton Racketlon for the benefit of Carver kids on Sunday, September 26th. The event happened at the Rowayton Community Center and nearly 50 Rowaytonites participated. The event this year also benefited the Rowayton Fire Department, a great friend of the Carver community — and Fire Department volunteers cooked for the event!

A total of $5,000 was raised, $2,500 for each organization.

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The event was inspired by the sport of Racketlon in which competitors play a sequence of four racket sports back-to-back: ping pong, badminton, squash, and tennis. It originated in Finland and Sweden and was modeled on other combination sports like the triathlon and decathlon (which helped inspire the name Racketlon.)

For the Rowayton Racketlon, the four sports were changed to paddle tennis, pickleball, badminton, and ping pong to make it easier to play all four sports at the same location.  Participants were divided into six teams of eight people each.  Everyone played all four sports, one sport after the other, and the winning team was determined by the total number of games won across all of the events. 

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While you’re probably familiar with badminton and ping pong, you might not be a pickleball fanatic – yet. Pickleball is growing at a rate that is almost unprecedented in the history of American sports. Part of its popularity is that it is much easier to learn and play than tennis and other racket sports.  Norwalk has been joining the bandwagon with courts at the Norwalk Senior Center, Nathan Hale Middle School, Ludlow Park and Roosevelt Elementary School and Norwalk Parks and Recreation recently announced plans to create four dedicated pickleball courts at Woodward Avenue Park by Spring 2022.

Paddle Tennis (technically Platform Tennis, to distinguish it from Paddle Ball) is a sport that was invented nearby, in Scarsdale, NY in 1928.  It is played outdoors on raised courts with chicken wire fences that you can play the ball off of.  While it has historically been more of a winter sport, it is also being played in the summertime more and more.

The Rowayton Racketlon was conceived as a way to bring together people who love playing these different sports, to have some fun competition and to give back to the overall community.

While these generous Rowayton Carver donors had a lot of fun that day, Carver students were the winners!

Thank You, Rowayton Racketlon!