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Falls Village Day Care Center Celebrates with Wild Abandon
The Falls Village Day Care Center celebrates its 20th year of caring for the community's children by presenting the music of Wild Abandon in a family concert on Saturday, June 1 at 7 p.m. at Music Mountain in Falls Village, with pre-concert festivities starting at 6:15 p.m. The performance will also feature Irish step dancing and Scottish piping. The benefit, one of the Center's major fundraising efforts of the year, is sponsored by Aquarion Water Company of Connecticut.
Wild Abandon, a well known ensemble of twelve local musicians, plays a repertoire of "the hits of the 17th and 18th centuries, mostly Scottish, Irish and English tunes," explains Tony Gravett, the group’s pianist. Its members are all amateur musicians and include a plumber, surveyor, art dealer, veterinary assistant, computer consultant, lawyer, graphic designer, nutritionist, retired educator, jeweler, college student, and artist/ gardener. This traditional, upbeat orchestra includes guitar, mandolin, recorder, hammered dulcimer, bodhran, concertina, fiddle, double-bass, accordion, piano, didgeridoo and spoons. Their music can be heard on the CD Clocktower Tracks II, which includes the best of their live and studio recordings.
Irish step dancing will be performed by members of Wethersfield's Griffith Celtic Dance Company, under the direction of Colleen and Mary Beth Griffith. These young champion Irish step-dancers have performed extensively throughout New England and the New York region, bringing audiences to their feet with their precision and dynamic performances. Several of the members are currently dancing on Broadway in Riverdance and on the road in Lord of the Dance and Feet of Flames.
Piper Neil Roberts, born in Connecticut to a mostly Scots-Irish family, performs at parades, graduations and concerts as a soloist and also as a member of the well-known Berkshire Highlanders Pipes and Drums of Pittsfield. Recently, he and the Highlanders performed from the stage at Tanglewood as part of as Prairie Home Companion broadcast.
Falls Village Day Care Center was started in 1982, when the Falls Village Board of Education approved an unusual request from community members to house the newly formed day care center in an unused room at Lee H. Kellogg School. This arrangement was unique at the time in the Region One School District, and supported the early growth of the programs offered by Falls Village Day Care. These programs continued to develop when the Center moved to the renovated town recreation building on Page Road in 1986. The building was expanded in 1996 to accommodate the growing need for infant and toddler care in the community, and it remains the current home of the Center today. At the June benefit concert, the many people who were instrumental in establishing and directing the Center in its first years will be honored and recognized.
The Center serves the families and businesses of Falls Village and the surrounding Connecticut towns, as well as Ashley Falls, MA, and Millerton, NY. Its mission is to provide quality care and developmentally stimulating programs for infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and children attending before and after elementary school in a safe and nurturing environment. Through creative play, literature, art, music and outdoor activities, the Center's experienced and committed staff encourages age-appropriate social skills, self-awareness, fine and large motor skills, and positive self-esteem.
Funds raised from the concert will help pay for field trip costs, science materials, art supplies, sports and playground equipment, as well as books and music and other program-related expenses.
Tickets are $12 adults, $6 children; tickets are available at the Falls Village Day Care Center on Page Road (off Route 7), Village Deli Mart, Mountainside Café, Lindell's in North Canaan, West Cornwall Video, and Oblong Books in Millerton. For more info or advance ticket purchase (credit card orders only), call 860-824-7169.
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