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Category: Community - Page 7

Looking for a great story this summer…check out the new book, Just Cate, which as co-authors Angela Martin and Noelle Alix note, “is a dual memoir and story of lifelong friendship, of being there for each other through it all.  When Noelle’s daughter Cate was born with Down Syndrome, we unknowingly began our second stage of growing up.  Discovering little by little that it’s the simple things that matter most.  And so life continues, the road behind us and the road ahead of us.  Forever friends, forever changed.”

Last year I photographed Cate in her blue robe holding her favorite fruit for the cover shot of Just Cate and it’s been great getting to know their families!  I love how the cover came out with it’s beautiful design from Liz Panke.  I recently spent a day traveling with Noelle and Angela to Angela’s parents’ home in the Hudson Valley to be videotaped and interviewed about the project.  In fact, that videotape was for B.I.G., an organization of women who are working on the next stage of the careers, going back to work after kids, completely changing what they want to do in life, growing their businesses…or like Angela and Noelle, driving a 10-year writing project to completion.

A huge congratulations to Noelle and Angela and Cate!!  You can order Just Cate at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble  or direct from their website: justcate.com.

Mention Junior High or Middle School to many adults and it often conjures up less than stellar memories.  The awkwardness, bullying, cliques, you name it.  Yet, at the same time, this transition to High School is critical to the academic future of students as they shift gears to more challenging learning.

Grace Academy Middle School for Girls in downtown Hartford is changing all of this…and the results were plain to see in our visit there last month.  Grace Academy teaches some 60 girls in grades 5-8, and Jane’s friend Lindsey works with the school…and invited us to a luncheon in January to meet the girls and their staff.  These teenagers were so nice–smart, polite, disciplined and determined to succeed.  Great to see this school making a big difference in these girls’ lives.

If you’d like to contribute your time or money to Grace Academy so they can continue to build these girls’ character and brains, please visit their website to see a variety of ways you can help.  Below are a few photos from their event and click here for some more

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