Former NHL All-Star Theo Fleury enthralled visitors as the headlining motivational speaker to help raise money for medical research of an extremely rare brain disease during a recent visit to the Ridgefield Playhouse on Rare Disease Day.Fleury spoke about his struggles with addiction and mental health associated with physical abuse at the hands of a former youth hockey coach in Canada. ...

Ellen Emerson is a self-admitted cat person. That works out nicely because she’s the cat adoption coordinator at PAWS, the non-profit Pet Animal Welfare Society–a no-kill shelter for cats and dogs in Norwalk. Emerson began her current role at PAWS (founded in 1962) over two years ago, bringing over 25 years of volunteering at shelters and professional experience to the organization as ...

Sometimes, it takes something like surviving cancer to give you a reason to change your life.A lover of animals, Lisa Miskella, a Stratford native, had planned to be a veterinarian, but as often happens, life had other ideas. After a cancer diagnosis in 2012 and a year of surgeries and recovery, Miskella who had raised a family and ran home-based businesses like candle making and party ...

The mother of New Canaan resident, former Florida congressman and MSNBC's "Morning Joe" co-host Joe Scarborough, Mary Joanna Clark Scarborough, died on Saturday, March 2, 2019 in Jupiter, Florida.Mary Jo Scarborough was born June 22, 1932 to William and Jewel Clark in Dalton, Georgia, during the depths of the Great Depression. She moved with her family to Rome, GA in fifth grade ...

Sean Cahill, Principal and Managing Director of Avison Young's Fairfield/Westchester office, announced agents Christopher Grundy and James Searl completed a sale to find a new home in Stamford for the Elayne and James Schoke Jewish Family Service of Fairfield County.The non-profit organization will relocate to 196 Greyrock Place in Stamford, a 7,500-square-foot office condominium. The ...

In today's world, with school activities, sports, doctor’s appointments and play dates, it can be difficult for the working parent to chauffer her child to the right place at the right time. Cue VanGo.Started specifically to support working moms, founder and Norwalk resident Marta Jamrozik credits her own mom as largely inspiring her kid-friendly Uber-like car service and app.“Both of ...

Blame Shonda Rhimes. Pound Ridge native and John Jay-Cross River High School grad, Class of ’90, Matthew Del Negro was looking forward to his role on the ABC hit show "Scandal" amping up in 2017. Then the storyline changed.“I went from 16 episodes that season to 3,” said Del Negro. “It got really slow, excruciatingly slow. I couldn’t just wait for the phone to ring.”Never one to ...

Lisa Smith knows dogs. The Ossining resident has fostered dogs for the past eight years, working with eight major rescue organizations in the area. She is co-owner of Canine Kindergarten, a doggie daycare started over 15 years ago in Verplanck and now with two additional locations in Mount Kisco and Yorktown. And, as of October of last year, Smith is the founder of A Good Dog ...

It’s no surprise that plenty of  people watch the Super Bowl just for the spectacle. And part of the spectacle are the ads. Commercials airing during game time are as dissected the next day as the game itself. Among the ads gathering praise in the Monday morning quarterbacking is one by Norwalk-based startup Bon & Viv Spiked Seltzer.Developed by Bullish, a New York ...

Admit it. You number among the millions who cannot resist a cute cat photo. Emily Kempa certainly couldn’t.Pets didn’t seem to be in the cards for Norwalk’s Kempa family with dad having a severe cat allergy. Certainly rescues were out. But Emily Kempa wasn’t deterred. A little research found that Siberian Forest cats are known to be “hypo-allergenic,” and a particular photo of a fuzzy ...