Madison News Roundup

Will Strickler, who twice won the Connecticut State Amateur Championship while playing out of the Madison, CT  Country Club, earned his 2011 PGA tour card on Monday.

Strickler survived by the narrowest of margins, bogeying the last hole of the 6-day, 108-hole PGA Tour Q-School for a 4-over-par 76, but managed to hold on and earn his tour card. Playing in the next-to-last group, Strickler’s bogey dropped him back to 9 under par for the week, but tied him for 27th, good enough to earn his card. Had Strickler parred the hole, exactly 25 players would have gotten their cards, but the bogey allowed Scott Gordon and Billy Horschel to earn their tour cards.

Strickler, 24, of Gainesville, FL, won the Connecticut State Amateur Championship in 2007 and 2008. He played his college golf at the University of Florida, and this past year played on the Canadian Professional Golf Tour, where his best finish was a tie for 4th in November’s Desert Dunes Classic.

This year’s Q-School Tour Qualifying event in Orlando was won by PGA Tour veteran Billy Mayfair, with an 18-under-par 411.

The Madison A Better Chance (ABC) Program will be presenting its Holiday Concert at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 4, at the First Congregational Church on the Green in Madison immediately following the Community Tree Lighting Ceremony.  This highly anticipated annual event will feature many local performers.  Deb Heinrich will open the concert with a solo, followed with performances by the Shoreline Youth Symphony under the direction of Bill and Ann Clemmons, members of Shoreline Soul led by Angela Clemmons, and local singer/songwriter Kailin Garrity.  The program also will feature the women’s a capella group from the University of Connecticut, the UConn Chordials, as well as the University of Connecticut’s men’s a capella group, the Conn-Men.  There is no admission fee for this concert, but there will be a free will donation.  All proceeds go to the Madison ABC Program which recruits talented inner city youth and offers them a four-year opportunity to attend Daniel Hand High School in preparation for a successful college experience. The Madison ABC Program, a non-profit organization, relies totally on contributions and special projects like this Holiday Concert.

It took nearly a year to gut and build a new restaurant on the site of the former Vicky’s Corner Restaurant, but the painstaking efforts were worth it. This month the Madison Chamber of Commerce presented Donahue’s Madison Beach Grille — the swank new restaurant at 1320 Boston Post Road — with the Herman D’Atri Community Improvement Award.

The presentation was made Nov. 18 at the Chamber’s Business with a Twist event at Madison House.

To see just how much work went into the making of Donahue’s, you can view photo slide show or a photo gallery on Donahue’s Facebook page.

The Deacon John Grave House, 581 Boston Post Road in Madison, CT, will hold its annual Holiday Faire Thursday, Dec. 2 through Sunday, Dec. 5, featuring gifts you won’t find anywhere else and a new “Love Your Local” room.

Shopping hours will be Thursday, Dec. 2, from 7-10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, Dec. 3 and 4 from noon to 6 p.m.; and Sunday, Dec. 5 from noon to 4 p.m.  For more information, call 203-245-4798.

Local health officials say that Pertussis (Whooping Cough) is making a comeback and is a serious risk for babies up to one year old. Caregivers for Children one year old and younger who have not been vaccinated with the Tdap vaccination are encouraged to get vaccinated. The East Shore District Health Department is offering Tdap vaccinations for caregivers 18 to 64 years old. The vaccine is not currently approved for those over 64 years old, however off label use approval is anticipated soon.  There is a $10 fee for caregivers who live outside of Branford, East Haven, North Branford, Guilford, or Madison. More information is available on the health department’s website, http://www.madisonct.org/Health_Dept/pertussis.html

The Friends of Scranton Library invite you to kick off Native American Heritage Month with an exciting program at 7 p.m. tonight (Monday, Nov. 29) in the Scranton Library Community Room.

• The event is free and open to the public.
• Bring your artifact collection for identification by our three experts while you learn about our local past.
• Meet Gary Nolf, founding member and past President of the Friends of the Office of State Archaeology, who will discuss early Native American hunting instruments including the 25,000 year old atlatl.
• Don Rankin, local and longtime Friends of Hammonasset Board member will discuss Connecticut’s geological changes, the archaeological record and Native American history leading up to the Pequot War of 1637.
• Dale Carson, Abenaki, will describe, display and offer traditional Native American crafts for purchase.
• Light refreshments will be served.
• Preregistration requested www.scrantonlibrary.org

The Grove School, a co-educational, therapeutic boarding and day school for adolescents in grades 7-12, has expanded its art therapy program and added Elizabeth Ferguson, an art therapist, to its clinical department.

“At Grove School, we are committed to providing students with clinical services that help them overcome their individual social, emotional and learning challenges,” said Richard Chorney, president and CEO of the Madison, CT school.  “If there is a therapy available that can help our kids, then we want to be part of it.  We are excited to expand our comprehensive milieu approach to employ an art therapist and hope to offer other creative arts therapies, as well.  For now, though, our focus is on establishing Art Therapy and we are delighted to have Elizabeth Ferguson to help us with the process.”

Art Therapy is the therapeutic use of art making.  It is where visual art and psychology coincide and is used to help people with varying needs from specific emotional or physical challenges to those who wish to gain insight and personal growth.  Grove School’s program consists of individual art therapy, as well as group art therapy.  The program is also a training site for art therapy student interns.

The establishment of a permanent Art Therapy program underscores a year of significant improvements to the school which have included the improvement of the physical campus with the completion of the Alice Chorney Education Center, as well as breaking ground on two other new buildings.  “It’s been a year of exciting, positive change for the school,” Chorney said. “We hope it will translate into even better care and treatment for our students – our number one priority at Grove School.”

A moldering castle, two elderly spinsters, and a long-held secret make for a delicious gothic romance in Kate Morton’s latest, The Distant Hours. Morton will be on hand for a book signing at R.J. Julia beginning at 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 29.

Tickets for this event are $5 which may be used toward the purchase of the book.

Tuxis Pond, autumn 2008 / Christopher Jennings Penders, photographer.

A beautiful photo of Madison’s Tuxis Pond in autumn 2008, taken by talented local photographer Christopher Jennings Penders. You can view and/or purchase this photo here: http://www.cjpphotos.com/p/tuxis_pondbrautmn/tuxispond101508c55.

View or purchase more of Chris’s Madison photo’s here: http://www.cjpphotos.com/g/madison_connecticut.

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