Author: Webmaster (Page 11 of 25)

This gifted and committed auditioned group, known for its talent and wide-ranging repertoire, is a crowd-pleasing favorite in the area.

Acabella was originally founded in 2001 by Kathy Knapp and Heather Raker, who both loved to sing and were looking for an opportunity to sing again as part of a group. Thus, they formed Acabella, which combines the musical term, a cappella meaning unaccompanied by musical instruments, and bella, the Italian word for beautiful. The group is currently directed by Heather Raker and Carolyn Woodberry with Caroline LaMorte as a creative director.

Acabella is presently comprised of 14 women from the Lower Fairfield County area. Membership in the group is by audition, including musical exercises and a solo performance. Members’ musical backgrounds include singing in undergraduate and graduate a cappella groups and various choirs, as well as performing in musical theater, bands, and coffeehouses.

Arranged by Alex Garnett.

Hudson Link was founded in 1998, at a time where New York state and federal funding for college education in prisons ceased. The abrupt loss of a college program had a devastating effect on prison morale. As a result, inmates at Sing Sing Correctional Facility reached out to religious and academic volunteers for assistance, which received their immediate response.

Believing in the transformative power of education, Hudson Link helps men and women prepare themselves for more constructive and meaningful lives while incarcerated and upon reentering society. We accomplish this by providing the opportunity to experience the positive effects of learning at the college level.

In 12 years, we have granted 200 Associate and Bachelor Degrees. We currently have over 200 men and women enrolled in our programs. More than 50 men and women have been released from prison and most work in the social services field. NOT ONE of our graduates has ever been reincarcerated for a new crime – that is a 0% recidivism rate.

The average recidivism rate in NYS is 60% — within 3 years of release from prison, 60% of the men and women will be reincarcerated for a new crime.

Sean Pica is the Executive Director of Hudson Link, a not-for-profit organization, that provides college education, life skills and re-entry support to incarcerated men and women in five New York State Correctional Facilities to help them make a positive impact on their own lives, their families and communities. His responsibilities include program and operations management, business development, fundraising and implementation of the strategic goals and objectives of Hudson Link.

Prior to joining Hudson Link, Sean was the Director of Club Access, a psychosocial clubhouse for adults with mental health disabilities, and a tenant advocate for the James Weldon Johnson Housing Projects in East Harlem.

Sean also serves as a Senior Fellow with Mercy College’s Center for Social and Criminal Justice, on the Board of Career Gear re-entry services organization and as a facilitator for STRIVE Fatherhood Programs. He earned a Master of Professional Studies degree from the New York Theological Seminary, a Master of Social Work degree from Hunter College and is currently pursuing his MBA at Mercy College.

Catalina Horak is Executive Director of Neighbors Link in Stamford which opened on June 12, 2011, as an affiliate of Neighbors Link Northern Westchester, a successful 12-year-old nonprofit organization in Mount Kisco, NY.

Neighbors Link has developed a strategic plan to replicate its mission and successful programs in other interested communities.

Stamford is honored to be the inaugural partner in this endeavor. While our name and programs are similar to those of Neighbor’s Link Northern Westchester, Neighbors Link Stamford is led and operated by members of the greater Stamford community.

Neighbors Link Stamford’s purpose is to strengthen the whole community by actively enhancing the healthy integration of immigrants. NLS’s goals span 3 areas relative to immigrant integration:

• EDUCATE (English language, computer and other classes);
• EMPOWER (connect individuals and families with schools, health, legal, law enforcement and other vital services); and
• EMPLOY (develop job skills and a worker center to match day workers with available jobs).

NLS is pleased to have reached more than 2400 Stamford-area immigrants to date, but they recognize that there remain some 22,000 recent immigrants in Stamford alone (source: US Census) whose integration needs have not yet been addressed. The majority of our clients work in service jobs in Stamford and its neighboring towns, including Darien and New Canaan. In Stamford alone, immigrants comprise 37% of the city’s total population. (text adapted from Neighbors Link in Stamford website.)

This is a quite new, really responsive, and effective agency.

They have a great story to tell, and she can tell it.

Arranged by Marc Thorne

Mike is a Senior Columnist for Yahoo Finance, where he writes, analyzes and comments on the economy, the stock markets and corporate news.

He has covered Wall Street for 20 years, including 15 years as a columnist and feature writer for Barron’s magazine.

He is a regular on-air contributor to CNBC and a frequent guest on other cable and broadcast news programs.

(The following is food for thought from Mike’s latest post)  Never mind Hong Kong protests, Pimco’s palace intrigue or violent clashes in the Middle East. The crucial influence on our markets now is what investors are willing to pay for junk.

The high-yield, or junk bond, market has been the pounding heart of the bull market, pumping the cheap liquidity created by central banks through the corporate economy, attracting billions from income-parched investors, enabling generous corporate share buybacks and making stocks look attractive in comparison.

That’s why the recent bout of nervous selling in high-yield debt has got the stock market fibrillating in the six trading days since the Standard & Poor’s 500 index hit an all-time high a week ago Friday.

The junk-bond spread is the amount of extra yield investors demand above Treasury securities to compensate for the risk lower-rated issuers might default. This spread, while still quite tight versus history, weakened to its widest levels of the year Friday, according to bond strategists at RBS. At 4.62 percentage points above comparable Treasuries, the spread was up substantially from 4.08 points at the end of 2013.

Arranged by Gehr Brown

William Happer, the Cyrus Fogg Bracket Professor of Physics at Princeton University, is a highly regarded physicist whose research includes selected dynamics of climate change. As such, he is superbly equipped to discuss the roles of natural forces and fossil fuel-generated CO2 in climate change.

A particular interest of Prof. Happer’s is properly quantifying the greenhouse impact of CO2. Prof. Happer’s work on climate change has included numerous research papers, presentations at Congressional subcommittees, briefing Congressional staff, authoring opinion pieces for the Wall Street Journal, and providing papers for general readership as well as presentations at various universities and research institutions. Professor Happer has the ability to lucidly explain and discuss climate change, a most challenging task.

Arranged by Phillip Meyer

Michael is also a former professional minor league baseball player.

From Wikipedia:

Dante has appeared in 30 films and 150 television shows.^[1] He is notable for spending seven years in supporting roles under contract to three major studios at once: MGM, Warner Brothers and Twentieth Century Fox. He considers his best performances the role that he played in Killer Instinct on the CBS television series Desilu Playhouse, along with his roles in the movies Westbound, Winterhawk andSeven Thieves.^[1]

Dante was cast twice in on the ABC/Warner Brothers western series, Colt .45, starring Wayde Preston. Dante and Forrest Lewisportrayed Davey Lewis and Willy Ford, respectively, in the 1957 episode “The $3,000 Bullet”. Dante then played the role of Ab Saunders in the 1958 episode “The Deserters”, with Angie Dickinson as Laura Meadows and Myron Healey as an unnamed fur trader. That episode was directed by Leslie H. Martinson.^[2]He also appeared on the ABC-WB crime drama, Bourbon Street Beat, withAndrew Duggan, on the syndicated adventure series, Rescue 8, starring Jim Davis and Lang Jeffries, and in three episodes of CBS’sThe Texan, starring Rory Calhoun.

Dante made two guest appearances on Perry Mason starring Raymond Burr. In 1959 he played Arthur Manning in “The Case of the Dangerous Dowager,” and in 1965 he played murder victim Douglas Kelland in “The Case of the Feather Cloak.”

His 1967 performance in the “Friday’s Child” episode of Star Trek as a member of an alien race, has garnered him invitations to Star Trek conventions.^[1] He also had a recurring role as the Sioux Chief Crazy Horse in the short-lived ABC military western series, Custerstarring Wayne Maunder in the title role of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer.

Dante also has recurring roles on the television serials Days of our Lives and General Hospital.

Michael Dante is currently the host of a syndicated radio talk show, On Deck, previously known as the Michael Dante Celebrity Talk Show on which he interviews some of Hollywood’s biggest stars. His program guests have included Milton Berle, Tony Curtis, andBryant Gumbel.^[1] An avid golfer, he once hosted the annual Michael Dante Celebrity Golf Tournament, a charitable fund-raiser held annually in Palm Springs, California, beginning in 1991.

Scott Kuhner, a DMA member, will speak about one of his ocean adventures with his family.

Dan is President of the and John is Vice President of the Igor I. Sikorsky Historical Archives Organization.

“The mission of the Igor I. Sikorsky Historical Archives is to acquire, manage, protect and make accessible to qualified persons for research and educational purposes, historical documents and memorabilia associated with Igor I. Sikorsky, his life and his careers in aviation, and the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, as well as related predecessor companies. This includes the full history of aircraft design, manufacture, sales and operational use, as well as film and video materials, models, and other memorabilia relating to Igor I. Sikorsky.“
Volunteers (Archivists) are the key to accomplishing our objectives. Currently there are 19 active Archivists who meet weekly on Tuesday and Thursday assisting in a variety of projects such as the cataloging of the thousands of pieces of memorabilia into a computer for ease of location, the reorganization of the files and the expansion of some files to the Administration Building across from the Barrett House, and the review of early 1920 and 1930 velum drawings for preservation and much more.

Additionally, Archivists have expanded participation in Community projects. Joe Keogan, for example, has assisted in setting up a pictorial display of the history of Sikorsky at the Bridgeport Discovery Museum. Igor Sikorsky Jr.. Dan Libertino and Lee Jacobson give video presentation and question and answer sessions to members of schools and other organizations in the greater Bridgeport and New Haven areas.. Art Linden and John Daniell continue their video interview sessions with former key Sikorsky retirees, such as past Presidents, Sikorsky Family Members and a full range of early employees who witnessed the start of the helicopter industry. An area that is expending rapidly involves e-mail questions to the Archives from literally all over the world. The range of questions asked is interesting: The queries range from very technical to filling in gaps in family history of former Sikorsky employees. An Archivist replies to each and every inquiry with a reply to a question to providing copies of archival material.

The growing range of member activities Is not only very interesting but immensely gratifying. Without member support the Igor I. Sikorsky Historical Archives could not continue to preserve and make available the “Legacy of Igor I. Sikorsky.”

Arranged by Andre Guilbert

The U.S.S. Intrepid was launched in Norfolk in 1943 and saw extensive World War II service in the Pacific. Intrepid has the distinction of being the most attacked U.S. vessel by the Japanese, having absorbed 1 torpedo hit in addition to being struck by bomb-laden Kamikazes 5 times.

Continuously modernized in the 1950’s and 60’s, Intrepid specialized in Anti-Submarine Warfare in addition to serving three tours of duty off the coast of Vietnam before finally being retired in 1974.

Mr. Gottlieb is a local historian on subjects of political and military history. He was formerly a professional curator of naval history and the Technical Director of Exhibits at the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in NYC. In these roles, Mr. Gottlieb worked regularly with veterans of all services towards the creation of exhibits accurately illustrating the history of 20th century warfare.

From 1989 through 1997, Mr. Gottlieb coordinated with all branches of the armed services and National Guard towards the preservation of historic ships, aircraft and armor from around the world, and has facilitated the recovery of scores of artifacts from warships slated for demolition from reserve fleets.

For the past ten years Mr. Gottlieb has refocused his professional efforts towards reaching out and addressing the growing needs of aging veterans and their families. In addition to maintaining a private practice as a Counselor and Certified Senior Advisor in Norwalk, CT, he is a field instructor for Sacred Heart University. Mr. Gottlieb offers Pro-Bono counseling services to soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mr. Gottlieb served as an Auxiliary Officer of the United States Coast Guard for 17 years, and for 4 years was Commander of Flotilla 7-2, Division 1 (Southern Region), Sector Long Island Sound North.

Arranged by Alex Garnett.