Julia Perkins

REDDING — Older adults at Meadow Ridge found a way to beat the heat while celebrating the summer solstice on Thursday. The continuing care retirement community hosted a summer kickoff party and memory care activities to mark the longest day of the year — a day that the Alzheimer’s Association promotes awareness for dementia. Activities were held indoors because of the excessive heat and humidity, Meadow Ridge said. The heat index value, the measure of how hot the air feels from the temperature…

SOUTHBURY — Holding up photos of people kidnapped from Israel by Hamas, community members rallied this week to demand the release of hostages held captive for months by the terrorist group. Called the “Let My People Go” rally, the demonstration brought two to three dozen people to the Jewish Federation of Western Connecticut’s Walzer Jewish Community Campus on Thursday evening. The demonstrators carried posters with pictures of the hostages, including 80-year-old Yoram Metzger and 19-year-old…

DANBURY — Students at Western Connecticut State University celebrated a sunny Earth Day on Monday with a series of activities. Throughout the day on both campuses, students could create seed balls or “up-cycled” origami flowers and animals with paper from discarded books. There were also scheduled opportunities for students to recycle their electronics or pick up a free plant or seedling kit. The university’s Permaculture Garden was open for two hours for tours. Hannah Reynolds, associate pro…

At Daily Bread Food Pantry’s distribution before Christmas, hundreds of people picked up the usual assortment of nutritious food items, along with some treats.

The Danbury Collective will address the challenges facing children and youth by aligning resources and working collaboratively to improve outcomes for all.

The Danbury area is offering a number of holiday-themed events, while local residents and groups are earning honors, during this holiday season.

The Danbury Youth Soccer Club Girls 2011 Travel team of Danbury went undefeated and won their division championship, among other community highlights.

A number of events, from art shows to anniversary celebrations as well as turkey trots and concerts, will be held across the Danbury area.

Many concerts, exhibits, events and more are offered during the last week of October and first week of November in the Danbury area.

Nick Grossman, a professional ghost hunter and psychic, will take over the Broken Symmetry taproom at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 29 for a “Paranormal Night.”