MxCC Shines Spotlight on Public Service October 19-25

In an effort to show solid support for our community, Middlesex Community College is rallying to make an extra effort to volunteer time and talent during Connecticut’s statewide “Public Higher Education Make a Difference Week” taking place October 19-25.  The College is reaching out to students, faculty, staff and supporters to take time out to collect food for the needy, help children with homework, and clean the environment. 

This campaign is part of a statewide program to celebrate and promote civic engagement while developing students’ citizenship skills, forging community partnerships and integrating service learning and volunteering at Connecticut’s public colleges and universities. The week-long initiative includes more than 50 projects around the state, and culminates on October 25 which is “National Make a Difference Day.”

Specific MxCC volunteer opportunities include:

• FOOD DRIVES – MxCC’s students and faculty are sponsoring a week-long food drive for the Amazing Grace Food Pantry in Middletown from October 19-24. Bins for the non-perishable food items will be on campus in Snow Hall, rm. 508, Wheaton Hall, and the Student Activities office. Volunteers are needed to pack up food and deliver to the food pantry on Friday, October 24. MxCC’s Meriden Center will also conduct a week-long food drive and a school supplies drive. 
• SOUP DINNER – Volunteers are needed to help serve and clean up at the St. Vincent de Paul Soup Dinner on Thursday, October 23 from 4 – 8 p.m. at St. Francis Church in Middletown.
• E-CYCLING – The MxCC Computer Club is bringing back Green Monster e-Cycling for another free collection of old or unwanted electronics for zero-waste recycling.  The all-day event will take place from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Wednesday, October 22. 
• AFTER-SCHOOL HELP – Volunteers are needed all week for the Green St. Arts Center’s Discovery AfterSchool Program located on Green Street in Middletown to serve as snack time assistants, teaching assistants, and homework helpers for students.
• INVASIVE SPECIES CLEAN-UP – MxCC’s Student Environmental Association for Sustainability, in concert with the Middletown Conservation Commission, seeks volunteers to assist with clean-up of invasive species on open land in Middletown on Thursday, October 23 from 2-5 p.m. 

For more information, or to participate in any of these events, please visit http://mxcc.edu/ctmakeadiff or http://ctpublicsmakeadiff.org. Please follow MxCC’s volunteer activity on Twitter using #CTpublicsmakeadiff or follow posts to Instagram and Facebook at CTmakesadiff.org.

Soup Kitchen, Shelter Leaders Join HBO Filmmaker Monday Night For Screening, Talk

OPEN to the COMMUNITY

Monday, April 7th

the Center for Film Studies

301 Washington Terrace

Click for Directions & Parking 

5pm Refreshments/6pm Film 

presented by Wesleyan-Middletown Relations Committee

Harry Gantz will be coming to Wesleyan's Center for Film Studies on April 7th at 6 pm to share his film "American Winter". Join us for a screening of this powerful documentary and a panel talk, including Ron Krom, Executive Director of the St. Vincent de Paul soup kitchen, and Mackenzie Tyson, Program Manager at the Eddy Shelter, following the film. Light refreshments will be served before the film at 5:00. The event is free of charge.

Produced and directed by Emmy award-winning filmmakers, Joe and Harry Gantz, American Winter is a documentary feature film that follows the personal stories of families struggling in the aftermath of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Preview below:

Filmmaker To Screen & Discuss Documentary "American Winter" in Middletown

OPEN to the COMMUNITY

Monday, April 7th

the Center for Film Studies

301 Washington Terrace

Click for Directions & Parking 

5pm Refreshments/6pm Film 

presented by Wesleyan-Middletown Relations Committee

Produced and directed by Emmy award-winning filmmakers, Joe and Harry Gantz, American Winter is a documentary feature film that follows the personal stories of families struggling in the aftermath of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Harry Gantz will be coming to Wesleyan's Center for Film Studies on April 7th at 6 pm to share his film and speak with students and the Middletown community. Join us for a screening of this powerful documentary and a panel talk, including Ron Krom, Executive Director of the St. Vincent de Paul soup kitchen, and Mackenzie Tyson, Program Manager at the Eddy Shelter, following the film. Light refreshments will be served before the film at 5:00. The event is free of charge.

First Congregational Food Drive At Stop And Shop Saturday

From St. Vincent de Paul
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This Saturday, August 17, members and friends of First Congregational Church in Middletown will be having a food drive at the Stop and Shop Supermarket which is located at 416 East Main Street in Middletown.

The hours of the food drive will be 9:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M.

The food collected will be donated to The Amazing Grace Food Pantry a program of St. Vincent de Paul Middletown. Amazing Grace is currently serving approximately 1,000 Middletown families each month. The organizers of the drive hope to help restock the shelves of Amazing Grace as summer months always cause a slowdown in donations.

St. Vincent DePaul’s Soup Kitchen Needs You!

(Article written by Katy Swede Taillon, from the Independent Day School Rotary Interact Club)

At St. Vincent DePaul’s Soup Kitchen, people are plentiful but supplies are scarce. If a mug is returned to the counter, it can’t just sit around. It has to be instantly washed in the dishwasher, dried with the few towels, the soup kitchen has on hand, and refilled to serve another person a cup of juice with their lunch.

Because we know there is a need for mugs, dishtowels, flatware (such as forks, knifes and spoons), the IDS Interact Club, sponsored by and working in cooperation with the Middletown Rotary Club, are determined to help. About 25 or more students from the Independent Day School Middle School are leading the charge to gain more resources for St. Vincent De Paul.

Throughout the month of March, the Interact Club and the entire IDS community will be donating mugs, dish towels, silverware, and other useful kitchen items like serving spoons and soup ladles. The collection is for the whole school and the Interact Club wants to invite the entire Greater Middletown community to join us in helping out. Please help the club out by donating directly so they can help others at the soup kitchen! If you have extra items for the soup kitchen, they can be delivered to the soup kitchen on Main Street in Middletown between 10:00 a.m. through 2:30 p.m. and ask for Mandie or Lydia.

Please bring:

~Mugs

~Dishtowels

~Silverware/Flatware

~Serving pieces like slotted spoons, soup ladles, serving forks, spatulas, etc.

This is a great way to do some Spring cleaning and clear out what you do not need or use in your kitchen any more, and still help others. Thank you for helping!

Benefits for St. Vincent DePaul Place

The 28-year-old Middletown-based Connecticut Gilbert & Sullivan Society will revive "Patience," in October as a benefit for St. Vincent DePaul Place, which served 80,000 meals to the needy and homeless last year. "Patience" is a satire on the aesthetic movement which flourished in Britain between 1870 and 1885, chief proponents of which were Oscar Wilde, Algernon Swinburne and James Whistler. The work pokes fun at affectation and excess in cultural fads and ubiquitous commercialism. Performances are Oct. 24 and 25 at 8pm and Oct. 26 at 2pm in "the old Middletown High School" (now Woodrow Wilson Middle) on Hunting Hill Avenue.

This comic masterpiece premiered in London in 1881; Oscar Wilde was handsomely paid to lecture on the work in the States prior to its tour. "Patience" was moved to the lavish Savoy Hotel and Theatre, built for the presentation of G&S works; it was the first theatre to be lit by electric light. "Patience" is now enjoying revivals, recordings and DVDs made by many international companies.

Featured in the CG&SS revival are Dave Henderson, Katherine Yeager and Jeff Soun Long of Middletown, Allan and Victoria Church of Meriden, Bill Ziegler of Chester, Carol Connolly of New Haven, Kathleen Thompson of Hebron, Caroline Ismail of Waterford, Hal Chernoff of Simsbury, Renee Haines of Southington, and Don Shirer of Westbrook. There are 50 performers, a 23-piece professional orchestra, and a production staff of 25 artists, stage hands, costumers, set designers, painters and administrators. Sue Sweeney is rehearsal accompanist. Robert Cumming will direct and Dr. John Dreslin will conduct.

Fifty percent of profit from "Patience" will be matched 50% by the Mayor of Middletown. Tickets are $25 (adults) and $15 (students) prior to Oct. 19; adult tickets are $30 thereafter and at the door. Checks to CG&SS may be mailed to CG&SS, Box 2152, Middletown, with a small self-addressed, stamped envelope enclosed.

The revival/benefit is aided in part by Pfizer, Bank of America, and the Middletown Foundation for the Arts.

For further information call 1-800-866-1606 or visit www.ctgilbertandsullivan.org.

Press contact: Bob Cumming, 1-800-866-1606 or 860-873-1207.