UConn, entrepreneurs and Bigelow
Cindi Bigelow, president and CEO of Fairfield-based Bigelow Tea, will headline “Connecticut Celebrates Entrepreneurs,” a UConn School of Business networking/business event slated for Sept. 20, 8:30 a.m. – 2 p.m. at the UConn Stamford main building. The morning features exhibits and workshops; the lunch from noon-1:30 p.m. will feature Bigelow”™s keynote address. Tickets are $50 or $450 for a table of 10. For more information, contact Amanda Spada at Aspada@business.uconn.edu.
Help with jobs
There will be a job fair Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2 p.m. called “TING” (Temple Israel Networking Group for individuals in their job search), Temple Israel, 14 Coleytown Road, Westport. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call Temple Israel at 227-1293.
Banker joins a special board
Webster Bank today announced that Christopher Motl, senior vice president, director of middle-market segment banking at Webster, was recently named to Special Olympics Connecticut Board of Directors. The organization provides year-round sports training and competition opportunities for individuals of all abilities.
Motl joined Webster in 2004 and has more than 20-years experience in the banking industry. A resident of Glastonbury, he is based in Hartford.
Webster provides business and consumer banking, mortgages, financial planning, trust and investment services through 169 banking offices; 305 ATMs; telephone banking; mobile banking; and the Internet.
Curtain call
Since beginning in Bethel in January 2010, Ultra Violet Productions (UVP) has brought stories, songs and smiles through youth theater to the greater Danbury community. From January to July, UVP “merged” into the Sandy Hook Arts Center for Kids (SHACK) in the wake of the horrible tragedy of last December. For seven months UVP/SHACK offered free healing arts programs, as well as low-cost theater sessions to help bring healing to the community through the arts. Due to lack of funding, the SHACK closed July 7, 2013. The SHACK donated all of the remaining items to two local Newtown charities.
The mission of UVP is to build a child”™s self-esteem through a no-pressure approach to theater.
UVP is now accepting registrations for its fall/winter session to begin Saturday, Sept. 28, and run through Saturday, Dec. 7. This year”™s production is “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Classes are geared toward children ages 4-14 years old and are held at Dance Dimensions in Brookfield, 14 Del Mar Drive. On the night of the production UVP will hold a hat, glove and sock drive to donate to the homeless through the Dorothy Day Hospitality House in Danbury.
Diamond for the defense
James Diamond has joined the Stamford-based law firm of Cacace Tusch & Santagata. His specialty is criminal defense law.
Across 24 years, Diamond”™s work has included representations in investigations and prosecutions on the state and federal levels. His cases run the spectrum from white-collar crime to violent crime. He has defended more than 1,000 clients and participated in 30 criminal trials.
Diamond was a Connecticut state prosecuting attorney for six years and also a public policy adviser to the New York state attorney general”™s office. He teaches courses on the college level.
Diamond divides his time between Connecticut and Arizona, where he is licensed to practice in the Pascua Yaqui Tribal Court and where he is studying for his doctorate in juridical science degree, the highest degree in law.
Sizzling ranking for Smith
Cathleen F. Smith, president of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Connecticut and Westchester County, N.Y., has been named one of The Commercial Record”™s “Women of FIRE,” an annual award honoring the key female players in the local FIRE (Finance, Insurance and Real Estate) sector.
“We searched for the best of the best ”“ those women who are making a difference through innovation, hard work, team-building, philanthropy, mentoring or leadership ”“ and these women demonstrate these roles,” said Timothy M. Warren Jr., CEO of Boston-based The Warren Group, real estate and finance publishers and publisher of The Commercial Record.
Smith, of Ridgefield, was appointed president of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Connecticut and Westchester in 2010. She oversees the day-to-day operations of more than 50 real estate offices and more than 2,100 sales associates and employees.
By dint of splint in New Canaan
Coastal Orthopaedics will open its fourth patient office in New Canaan this month; it is specifically designed for orthopedic care. The new office will be a resource for area patients requiring urgent management of musculoskeletal injuries as well for consultation regarding complex chronic conditions.
The office will be at 28-30 East Ave. at the corner of Cherry Street. Hours will be Monday-Thursday, 8:30 a.m-5p.m. and Friday from 8:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Other Coastal Orthopaedic offices are in Norwalk, Darien and Westport.
Vaccaro nets top adviser honors
Westport Resources, a leading independent investment and financial planning firm serving individuals, families, municipalities and institutions around the world, announced its founder and CEO, John Adams Vaccaro, has been named for the fifth consecutive year as one of Barron”™s “Top 100 Independent Financial Advisors” in America for 2013. Barron”™s, published in August by Dow Jones & Co. Vaccaro is one of the two Connecticut-based financial advisers on the list.
Westport Resources was founded in 1986 by Vaccaro. It also maintains an office in Naples, Fla.
Peer support for docents
The Fairfield County Community Foundation has awarded Housatonic Community College (HHC) $15,000 to support its peer docent program with the Bridgeport Public Schools.
Entering its 14th year, the HMA peer docent program introduces students to art and art history, teaches them to look at art critically, and ultimately provides them with an opportunity to develop visual, analytical, and leadership skills that will assist them across the academic disciplines and throughout their lifetimes. With its arts enrichment emphasis, the program teaches Bridgeport students to become “experts” about several works and present their knowledge to their classmates during guided tours.
The focus of this year”™s program is on architecture with an examination noteworthy Bridgeport structures, urban planning and preservation, as well as on architectural drawings and prints in HMA”™s permanent collection that will be on view in the Community Gallery Sept. 9-Oct. 25.
“We”™re delighted to receive this generous measure of support for the program,” said HCC director of institutional advancement Christopher Carollo. “It”™s through programs like these that students learn to understand and appreciate art at an early age. It”™s through the generosity of organizations like the Fairfield County Community Foundation that Housatonic is able to offer such a program.”
