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Donna Christopher

Contributing Writer

dchristopher@dailyvoice.com

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Lifestyle

April Will Be 'Interesting' — Rental Prices Up In This Fairfield City, While Down In Country The spring rental season deflated as it was about to take off when the March kickoff collided with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Nevertheless, rents are up in Fairfield County's priciest rental zip code. Typically rent prices increase in March, but according to the nationwide listing service RENTCafé, rental housing searches on its site dropped by 25 percent from March 11 to March 17. Last year in the same week traffic was down 4 percent. The national year-over-year rent increase in March (2.9 percent) was slower than the one in February (3.2 percent), pegging the average…

by Donna Christopher

04/10/2020

Schools

Students' PSA Urges 'Hard To Count' Community: Fill Out Census Days before the COVD-19 shutdown, two student groups from Westchester high schools filmed a Spanish-speaking video to encourage immigrants and assuage their fears over privacy in completing the U.S. Census. Since then, we've all gotten a two-week extension to April 15 and the information can be provided online here. This week with the deadline approaching, students at Fox Lane and Byram Hills High Schools in Mt. Kisco and Armonk, respectively, are further promoting the public service announcement, asking “hard to count” neighborhoods to fill out the census. The col…

by Donna Christopher

04/07/2020

Schools

Seniors In 'Last Years', Parents Of Sick Children On Covid-19 Calls From School Nurses Here One man said he was lonely having no visits from family and being alone in his final years, while a parent of a chronically ill child needed guidance this week. They were people New Canaan school nurses talked to this week when they started making coronavirus calls to local residents. The New Canaan Public Schools nursing staff is working with the Town of New Canaan's Health Department to fight the pandemic. Typically they'd be attending to children, tweens and teens in the nurse's office coming in with colds, stomachaches, and headaches, but this week the calls were to adults, many …

by Donna Christopher

04/03/2020

Lifestyle

Oddly Quiet Diners Still Dish Favorites For Westchester Customers For Delivery & Takeout The expected noisy chorus of plates and cutlery combined with the chatter of people talking at once seems oddly hushed on a mid-day phone call to Westchester's Bedford Diner. The iconic diner, which draws from throughout the county as well as Connecticut, still serves some of its customers' favorite dishes for deconstruction at home either alone in isolation on a sofa or in the bosom of your family kitchen. And though revenue is down 80 percent, Tony Dimopoulos, son of the Bedford Diner's owner, said the popular eatery, known to offer great steaks and seafood amid a robust rotation of …

by Donna Christopher

04/02/2020

Schools

Check-In Before You Checkup Says Fairfield County Pediatrician Vaccinations and well visits are important, even during coronavirus (COVID19), but these days, you'll want to call ahead before paying a visit to your children's pediatrician. Chances are you appointment will be handled via phone, Skype or Facetime. Dr. Lori Storch Smith, with Bay Street Pediatrics in Westport, misses the in-person visits, but has been enjoying getting to know her patients in a new setting. "I strongly encourage patients to take advantage of any telemedicine option offered. With telehealth," Dr. Smith explained, "we see each other and I get to meet their pe…

by Donna Christopher

04/01/2020

Politics

Sen. David Carlucci: Thousands Of 'Selfless' Mental Health Professionals Offer Free Service Coronavirus is advancing in Westchester. Everyone can feel afraid or anxious in isolation. Some even panic. This impacts us all and more significantly if we have a mental illness. New York State residents now have the support of mental health professionals who have volunteered their services to offer free mental health counseling. Appointments can be scheduled through the NYS COVID-19 Emotional Support Hotline at 1-844-863-9314. In making the announcement on Wednesday, March 26, Sen. David Carlucci thanked the "6,000 selfless mental health professionals" who volunteered. Carlucci, a Democra…

by Donna Christopher

03/26/2020

Schools

Remote Schooling Through April 20 Or Longer? Parents (And Kids) Are Adapting For many children, including those of Sarah O'Brien Moles, a working mother from Milford, the initial excitement at home-schooling quickly melted into sadness. "My daughter who's in the second grade loves school, and she was really sad when the school closed. Both my kids love their teachers and I'm bummed that time was taken away from them," said Moles, whose younger child, a boy, is in kindergarten. With a week and a half of managing their kids' at-home learning under their belts, parents like Moles talk of originally feeling frustrated but have still managed to adapt and …

by Donna Christopher

03/25/2020

Politics

Duff: Make Good Decisions, Watch Out For Children, Check Seniors & 'Stay Safe, Stay Home' "We can all take measures to protect our safety. Be selfless. Be neighborly. Be safe." Those words from Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff are to reassure those facing the coronavirus pandemic with uncertainty and fear. They're to remind us: We're in this together. The Senator urges all to keep practicing social distancing, stressing that it's to "protect everyone." Duff has been diligently practicing social distancing, noting that when encountering another person while jogging or walking his dog, he crosses to the other side. Today, Tuesday, March 24, Connecticut woke up to Gov. …

by Donna Christopher

03/24/2020

Schools

Coronavirus Doesn’t Stop Filling in Blanks From Feeding Fairfield County School Children Thousands of school children in Connecticut's richest county are hungry on the weekends. Nonprofit Filling in the Blanks (FIB) has strived to fill those bellies and on a typical Friday would have free take-home meals for Saturday and Sunday available to 2,500 children — all of whom rely on free or reduced-price lunch to meet their nutritional needs while school is in session. But March 20 was not your typical Friday: No school was in session and the organization's co-founders/co-directors Shawnee Knight and Tina Kramer scrambled to make alternate plans so their usual weekend meal recipients …

by Donna Christopher

03/24/2020

Lifestyle

With Everyone Pitching In Coronavirus Won't Stop These Groups From Feeding Hungry The coronavirus won't stop people from being hungry in lower Fairfield County where 15,000 families ordinarily rely on food pantry supplies for their meals. The elderly, too afraid to go out, might already be running out of food and added to that list, a local social service agency employee worries, Nothing has changed in terms of need so a robust effort is underway among social service organizations to keep the food supplies available to the most vulnerable, Food Bank of Lower Fairfield County Executive Director Kate Lombardo stressed on Friday, March 19 as we prepare to shut-in for the we…

by Donna Christopher

03/20/2020

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