Date: Fri 12-Jun-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

Mountain-special-olympics

Full Text:

TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN

If you've ever had the urge to outrun the police, last weekend would have been

your best chance. A contingent from the Newtown Department of Police Services

left their cruisers at the station and ran nine miles through town from

Dodgingtown to Botsford June 5 as part of the Connecticut Special Olympics Law

Enforcement Torch Run.

Two intrepid officers, Lieutenant David Lydem and Officer Gladys Keating, did

their colleagues one better - running an additional three miles into Easton to

demonstrate their support for the Special Olympics programs. The local leg of

the torch run was part of 11 legs run throughout the state from June 3 through

5 in preparation for the Special Olympics.

If you want donate a little of your time this summer to the Special Olympics

cause, the Greater Danbury Area Special Olympics softball team is looking for

volunteers for this summer season. Bee arts editor Shannon Hicks has been

working with the team for two summers (this will be her third), and promises

the time anyone can volunteer will be more than fulfilling. Practices begin

this week and continue into August, when a tournament is played in Hartford

against other teams from across the state.

Can't make the tournament? No problem - volunteers are still needed to work

with athletes during the practice sessions each week, which are held Tuesday

and Thursday in Bethel from 6-8 pm. All you need to bring with you is a

softball glove and some positive energy.

Danbury's softball team is made up of athletes who are not physically

handicapped, but just a little mentally slow. Volunteers are needed to help

the athletes learn how to throw and catch a ball, and/or accompany the teams

(there are three, divided by skill level) to Qualifier and Tournament events.

Volunteers can be any age.

Want more information? Call Shannon Hicks at the Bee office (426-3141) or

Kevin Cooper, who is the area coordinator for Special Olympics, at 740-5195

extension 319.

When Cindy Curtis Simon moved from one end of town to the other last October,

she made sure she brought her mailbox with her. It had sentimental value, she

said. Just last week, her husband, Fuzzy, decided to put it back up at their

new address. Inside it, he found mail from last October. Mostly bills, Cindy

said.

For several years, Melissa Pilchard and Bob Cascella worked as colleagues in

town government - although rivals might be a better word. Melissa is a

Democratic council member and Bob was the Republican first selectman until

last year. In a strange twist of fate, the two are back working together once

again, only this time on the same team, as realtors for William Pitt Real

Estate.

The new bypass road through Fairfield Hills opened for traffic Tuesday morning

to the delight of those hoping it will alleviate traffic in the center of two.

In other bypass news, longtime Newtown resident and Legislative Council

member, Donald Studley, underwent triple bypass surgery on the same day. Mr

Studley is reportedly doing fine and recovering quickly.

After six years in Newtown, Steve and Ann Adams have moved on. They've sold

their home on Great Ring Road in Sandy Hook and moved to Woodstock in

northeastern Connecticut. Annie works for the Department of Mental Health and

her job takes her throughout the eastern part of the state. Steve, who is a

former chairman of the Planning & Zoning Commission and the Republican Town

Committee in Newtown, gradually will move his law practice from Fairfield to

his new home.

A baby flying squirrel was trapped in the fireplace at Wendy Beres' house on

Turkey Hill Road for most of the past week. Wendy suspects that the tiny

squirrel fell out of a nest into her chimney and wasn't strong enough to climb

out. It was too small - about the size of a chipmunk - to trap so she put

custard cups full of water and birdseed inside the fireplace doors to keep it

alive. The squirrel, by now named Fuzzy by the Beres family, ate the food. It

finally disappeared so Wendy hopes it made its way to freedom. Wendy says she

is sure it was a flying squirrel because it had webbing that stretched from

front to back legs, a long bushy tail, and what she described as "a typical

squirrel face - cute."

Donny "Boxcars" Lewis turned double sixes last week.

Rich Rauner says he is a real celebrity at the Temple University Hospital

where he is waiting for a heart transplant. He's received so many cards,

letters, photographs, newspaper clippings and other mail from home that the

other patients are convinced he must be the most important person in town.

Rich says he can talk your ear off but he isn't much of a letter writer

despite - or maybe because of - his many years with the post office. He is

trying to respond to the well-wishers, however. He has been moved to a new

room (701A) but he's still on the seventh floor so all mail will reach him.

Write him at Temple University Hospital, Parkenson Building, Room 701A, Broad

and Ontario Streets, Philadelphia, PA 19140.

If you are out and about on Sunday afternoon, stop by the Matthew Curtiss

House to watch an old-fashioned quilting bee in progress. Costumed guides also

will be on hand between 1 and 4 pm to share stories and information about the

18th century house-museum on Main Street.

I will return here, in full costume, at the same time next week, so be sure

to...

Read me again.