Joveto De Carvalho '11 and Jeanne McDonagh, digital photography teacher at New Canaan High School with Joveto's photograph "Great Uncle" for which he won first prize in the Student Category in the Carriage Barn Arts Center 30th Annual Juried Photography Show. Diane Knetzger photo.

What We Did On Our Summer Vacations

From the New York Stage…

To Professional Halls.

Edited by Laura Walbert

Robert and Mary Henrikson Receive the Swanhaus Award for Devoted Service

Diane Knetzger photos

The 2009 John and Betsy Swanhaus Award was presented to beaming Robert and Mary Henrikson during this year's annual Fall Fundraiser event on September 19. Kellen Tyler, '97 spoke warmly about his years with the Henriksons. While thanking the more than 275 guests at the event, Robert said "it is Mary and I who thank A Better Chance of New Canaan for the opportunity to be Kellen's Host Parents."
 

A Better Chance of New Canaan president emeritus Melinda Fager and Vice President Quentin Leo presented the award.
 

Franklin Peña, '92 introduced his host parent Betsy Swanhaus as part of the duo for whom the award was established, and praised them -- and all host families -- for their love, support and guidance.

John and Betsy Swanhaus - Lifetimes of Service

When describing how she and her late husband John became A Better Chance of New Canaan Host Parents more than 20 years ago, Betsy Swanhaus said recently, "it was just the natural flow of things.
 

We began hosting Fresh Air Fund children in the late 1970s with a 6 year-old girl. Over the next 12 years she and two more boys spent two weeks -- which usually became a month – with us each summer. We especially wanted one of those boys to become an ABC student here in New Canaan, but he decided not to do it."
 

Despite that disappointment the natural flow led the Swanhaus family (including daughter Kristy, and sons Michael, Tripp, and Tom) to themselves become an A Better Chance of New Canaan Host Family.
 

In 1989 they welcomed Franklin Peña, then a 15 year-old rising sophomore from Brooklyn, NY, into their family. Franklin graduated in 1992.
 

Again in 1993, the Swanhaus family welcomed 14 year-old Travis Galloway, who graduated in 1997.
 

Both Franklin and Travis are still in regular contact with Betsy and the Swanhaus children. Franklin and Travis also shared with the family the painful loss of John to cancer in November 2007.
 

Betsy smiled broadly as she recounted the nicknames Franklin and Travis had lovingly given John; “Your Royal Highness,” and “MP” (Mr. Perfect) respectively. She said that both boys deeply respected John because he was a role model like none other they had ever known.
 

John Swanhaus was indeed a very successful businessman, but all-important in Franklin’s view, “John loved his family and he showed it. John cooked, he even cleaned the kitchen.”
 

For both Franklin and Travis, Grace said at Sunday evening sit-down family dinners, and thoughtful conversation with music in the background steeped into potent life-changing experiences.
 

But, Betsy quickly added that John could also be tough when it was called for. If honesty or respect for one another was ever at issue with the boys or his own children John called them on it.
 

Reflecting in her own self-effacing way on a key to parenting young boys through their teens, high school and college careers, and beyond Betsy said, “it’s the father role that's most important.”
 

She said that among the things she feels is essential for A Better Chance of New Canaan Host Parents to focus on is building healthy self-esteem in their student from day one.
 

To that end, A Better Chance of New Canaan has for several years conducted an orientation program for all first year students and host families. This program has proven to be very successful.
 

For John and Betsy Swanhaus the natural flow of a lifetime of service sprung from their deep religious beliefs and John’s membership in the Knights of Malta. In addition to their years as host parents, and their support of many charities including the Malta House shelter for unwed mothers in Norwalk, John and Betsy made 9 pilgrimages to Lourdes, France to care for the sick.
 

It is for their outstanding example that A Better Chance of New Canaan created the Swanhaus Award, our highest honor.

Story and photo by Quentin Leo

Meet Our New Resident Directors

A Better Chance of New Canaan 2005 alumni David Cox and Rodney Yartey took their next big steps recently as they graduated from New York University and Colgate, respectively.
 

Sharing the moment with David (left) is his Host Parent (and president emeritus ABC of New Canaan) Melinda Fager.
 

With Rodney (right) is his proud Host Parent Bruce Calvert.
 

David, who studied film at New York University, graduated on May 13, with his parents and Host Parents Jeff and Melinda Fager attending. David has already moved into his new apartment in Brooklyn and has resumed his job as a Genius at Apple's Fifth Avenue Store.
 

Rodney, who studied business and religion at Colgate University graduated on May 17, with friends, the Fagers, and Host Parents Marjie and Bruce Calvert attending. In June, Rodney resumed his job at New York's MKP Capital.

New Canaan ABC students recently had the opportunity to meet with Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Russel L. Honoré, a three-star general who served as the commander of Joint Task Force-Katrina and led the Department of Defense response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Dubbed by some as the “Ragin’ Cajun”, LTG Honoré is actually of Louisiana Creole background. The meeting was facilitated by the New Canaan Red Cross.
 

Prior to his post-Katrina service, General Honoré served as the 33rd commanding general of the U.S. First Army at Fort Gillem, Georgia, served in command and staff positions focusing on defense support to Civil Authorities and Homeland Defense, and had a distinguished 37-year career in the U.S. Army. He often advises Congress and government agencies and is the emergency preparedness contributor to CNN Worldwide. The General’s book, Survival, How a Culture of Preparedness Can Save You and Your Family From Disasters, is both a memoir and an eyewitness report of the Katrina aftermath, one of the most devastating storms to hit the United States.
 

Yet the General’s conversation with the ABC students did not center on Katrina, but rather his youth and the obstacles he had to overcome. During dinner, he captivated the table of ABC young men with stories of his younger years. General Honoré was born in 1947 in the fertile bottomland 25 miles northwest of Baton Rouge, the eighth son of 12 children. He described his father as a “hard-working subsistence farmer who invested his life in his land. This was a time and place of self-sufficiency, when people were expected to fend for themselves.”
 

It was also a time of segregation, felt profoundly in the South. General Honoré lived a half mile from a school, but was bussed one hour from his home to a “non-white” school. When he got a job working for a local farmer after school, the $3 he brought to his parents was the only cash in his home. When he made his first trip to Atlanta to attend a 4-H show, he and 24 other young black men traveled across Louisiana, Alabama and Georgia at night for fear they would be attacked during daylight hours. The next time the General arrived in Atlanta it was in a jumbo jet with his name emblazoned on the side.
 

Despite trouble with his studies, especially writing, General Honoré attended college, joined the ROTC, and built a rich life, including a wonderful family and an outstanding career. He gave the boys signed copies of his book, and later sent them all copies of Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, a book he thought they should read. He also invited them to visit West Point. He shared his most important life lessons with our students, communicating things that no one else could.

Juan Puma is the 2008 Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Essayist

Since my freshman year, I’ve had the privilege of hearing some great ABC scholars—Rodney Yartey, Carl Brown, and Eric Ho—share their thoughts on the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King. It is somewhat intimidating to follow in their footsteps, but I believe that these past four years in the ABC Program have helped prepare me to surmount such challenges.

Dr. King once said, “What affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” The segregation of the Jim Crow South was not only hurtful to African Americans; it was hurtful to the entire nation. Racism is an assault on the very ideals on which this country was founded—on the notion that “All men are created equal.”

King hoped to tear down the divisive walls of racism to form a truly United States. While nearly 40 years have passed since he lived, Dr. King’s teachings and message are still prevalent in our society and must remain so. I believe that the ABC Program keeps Dr. King’s dream alive in offering improved educational opportunities to minorities to right past injustices. I am proud to be part of this program and the caring community that supports its mission. Today is about celebrating and honoring one man’s commitment to justice, and remembering the struggles that King and others endured in the fight for equality. King’s story of activism and adversity often reminds of the struggles my own family faced in seeking better opportunities.

My parents both grew up in an impoverished agricultural region of Ecuador. While he was in the sixth grade, my father’s family’s crops failed to grow one season, and he had to drop out of school to work fulltime. My mother attended school through the tenth grade and anticipated going to college, but sudden family illness forced her to leave school as well to help tend the family farm.

My parents eventually immigrated to the United States, but they continued to face hardships. Through their determination, however, they found a foothold and made the best of things in Harlem, New York. The ABC Program has also helped pave the pathway to success for my family. My parents’ dreams really began to solidify seven years ago when my older sister started at the Darien ABC Program. She has since become the first member of my family to attend college and is currently enrolled at Columbia University on a full scholarship. And I stand here, just five months from graduating New Canaan High School and pursuing higher education.

But this story would not have been written if not for the spark that Dr. King lit years ago that still burns in the hearts of passionate, idealistic people today. Like my parents, Dr. King believed that change is possible. My parents hoped to change the future for my siblings and me, as Martin Luther King dreamed of changing the country by eliminating racism.

During the march on Washington for jobs and freedom in 1963, Martin Luther King delivered one of the most electrifying speeches in the history of America. With more than a quarter of a million listeners gathered—the largest protest the country had ever witnessed—Dr. King preached one inspirational statement after another. I’d like to recite his entire speech, but in the interest of time, I’ll just quote one of my favorite lines:

“I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.”

The American dream is greatly revered in this country—the notion that any individual can achieve success through hard work and determination is a major building block of our cultural identity. But racism and segregation created barriers in hindering million of minorities' pursuits of the American dream. In its compassionate integrity, however, the ABC program looks to rectify the lasting ill effects of past racist practices. The A Better Chance Program of New Canaan is a perfect example of the "table of brotherhood" that Dr. King envisioned.

ABC represents the potential for people of different races to live in harmony and to continue advocating Dr. King's dream for equality. I believe it is partially because of Dr. King that minorities like myself now have the opportunity to go to college and accomplish our dreams.

Dr. King's repetition of "I have a dream" is powerful in his famed speech because dreams are universal seeds of hope that keep us motivated and striving to succeed. I have the utmost regard for Dr. King, as his dreams helped inspire and make possible my own dreams and those of countless others. It is encouraging to see so many like-minded people gathered here today, and I know that we will continue fighting the good fight to truly make Dr. King's dreams a reality.
 

Thank you.

Editor's Note: Juan Puma is a member of the class of 2012 at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY.

Photo courtesy of the New Canaan News~Review

January, 11, 2007. This year's annual celebration of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was held at the United Methodist Church in New Canaan on January 15. Each year the event brings together New Canaan's races and religions, families, youth, adults and seniors for the ecumenical program of speeches and music.

Speakers from New Canaan's religious and community leadership, and gospel music by the Serendipity Choir filled this year's program. Each year one young man from the ABC House in New Canaan is invited to take the pulpit and deliver an essay about how Dr. King's achievements 40 years ago benefit Americans today.

This year's ABC essayist, Eric Ho, a senior at the high school remarked that the opportunity to go through the ABC program would not have been possible without the civil rights movement and Dr. King's commitment to leave the world a better place than he found it.

Eric's outstanding essay included vignettes of his personal history as an Asian-American whose parents are Chinese immigrants, and his insights into the minority experience seen through the eyes of an inner-city youngster and now as a college-bound young man in pursuit of the American dream.

Full text of Eric's essay:

Martin Luther King Jr's Legacy for Asian-Americans

When I was first asked to speak on behalf of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr I was skeptical and reluctant to accept the offer. I asked to myself “What does this Asian kid possibly have to say about the great Dr. King?” then it occurred to me right then and there. There’s nothing I can say that hasn’t been said already. Dr. King’s life has been documented extensively and his memory is well preserved in American history forever, but generally speaking I am standing before you today because I have a genuine voice of my own to share. I’d also like to share and reminisce in Dr. King’s legacy and memory with you all this morning.

As you all probably know, I’m a senior at the ABC house of New Canaan, and these past four years living in this town I’ve really gotten a strong understanding of what it means to be part of a community. Your community is where your foundations and principles are based upon and when I think of Dr. King I think of how strong and committed he was for the communities and affiliations he was involved with. He was a leader as a minister at the Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama as well as being a important figure for the NAACP. Dr. King was the central catalyst for African-Americans during the civil rights movement; he gained mass influence among his supporters and never let them down. He was true to himself through his words, the practice of nonviolence, and the act of protest. To imagine how powerful a community can be when every one stands together hand in hand to fight for a single cause is astonishing, but for an entire country to come together, we would be able to overcome anything.

This is where the all famous “I have a Dream” speech comes in; Martin Luther King stood poised and spoke eloquently, candidly, and passionately for freedom, equality, and for a country where someday all people are not judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. It was a pivotal speech that led to the passing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 which outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Remember, when the Civil Rights Act was first passed it didn’t just mean everyone was going to wake up the next morning sharing the same lunch tables, going to the same churches, or sharing the same water fountains. For we are a species of habit and unless we break out of our daily routine we will never be able to experience change in life. What I’m speaking about are the divisions in our multicultural America that segregates each and every one of us. Just look around us, why is it that so many black people live in Harlem, all the Chinese reside in China town, and the Italians live in little Italy? It’s not a coincidence that your not suppose to mix apples and oranges but when you do mix a bunch of fruits together, you get a pretty good fruit salad.

One of the toughest decisions I had to make at the young age of 13 was to leave my family and my home in New York to attend high school in the town of New Canaan through the assistance of the ABC program. What made it so difficult was the fact that it wasn’t my decision to make. When I first came up here for an interview, I was afraid; I had never spent a night in my life anywhere besides the city. I remember feeling uncomfortable, lonely, and insecure. I hated the thought of spending the next four years in a predominately white town. Especially the thought of being the only Asian living in a house with six other African-American scared the crap out of me. When I got home after my interview I vowed I would never go back. Fortunately my parents accepted the opportunity offered me behind my back or else I would never have been able to take advantage of the first class education NCHS has offered me, or the roof the ABC House put over my head, and not to mention generosity of the community.

When I compared my fear to commit to the ABC program. I thought of my parents. As a first generation born Chinese-American, my parents immigrated to the United States seeking to peruse the American dream. The risk that my parents took to leave, not only their home, but your own native country to come to America not knowing a single word in English, and making a living to send me and my three brothers through the American public school system is unbelievable. They wanted to climb the ladder so that their children could move on where they left off. It takes a lot of courage to overcome adversity, and to overcome adversity proves the importance of resilience.

Nearly four years later, I am six months away from being only the second Asian out of 60 New Canaan ABC scholars to graduate from New Canaan High school in the past 30 years. I have reaped the benefits of a program created initially to provide African-Americans with an advantage for equal access to the nation's top schools, education, and career opportunities. All of this wouldn’t be possible today for me and minorities across the country if it weren’t for the roots of the civil rights movement, and Dr. King’s goal to leave the world a better place than he found it. I felt that Dr. King’s dream and determination paved the way for others to have hope and dreams of their own. I am still part of dream on a larger scale, to send myself to college, be successful, and give back to those who have made it possible. Then those who have ever supported me could watch their dream come true. One day I will rest in peace like Dr. King knowing the world is still awake to keep the dream alive.

June 4, 2007, New Canaan High School Head Football Coach Lou Marinelli presented senior Steve Gallego (above) with the Jack Dempsey Memorial Award at the school's annual awards ceremony. The award certificate was accompanied by an engraved plaque and gold clock desk set which cites The Jack Dempsey Memorial Award - for heroism, sacrifice and loyalty in the face of adversity.

When asked later if the award was for any specific act of heroism or sacrifice, Steven replied with his characteristic modesty, "I don't recall." The award is not intended specifically for athletic achievement, but to recognize exemplary character. Steven did say that that made it even more important to him to receive the award from Coach Marinelli.

A Better Chance of New Canaan President Melinda Fager congratulated Steven by saying, "it just doesn't get any better than this."

Editor's Note: Steven Gallego is a member of the class of 2011 at Villanova.