Presented by Leslie K Rogers and Debra Koenig

Thursday, February 7 at 7 p.m.

The college process often becomes a "rite of passage" about gaining admission to the "right" school. Despite our best intentions, this process can create stress for the entire family and affect our child's self esteem. Colleges are telling us that we are sending them students who are academically but not emotionally prepared for their college experience.

This presentation offers parents the opportunity and tools to identify and effectively manage the anxiety associated with the college process. We CAN help our children develop the independence and confidence necessary to be resilient young adults, who can successfully make the transition to college and beyond, while maintaining strong bonds with their family. The college application process is ripe with opportunities that help our children hone these life skills.

This presentation will be led by facilitators who have "been there" numerous times and who can help bring a perspective that can help us while we are in the "thick of it."

Leslie K Rogers, LCSW is a psychotherapist with a specialty that includes couples and families. She has been teaching parenting skills for the past 13 years and has been through the college process five times.

Debra Koenig has over 12 years experience developing curriculum and facilitating parenting classes in Fairfield County. She is a JD currently studying for her Masters in Family Therapy at Fairfield University.

Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs on Thorndal Circle (behind Nielsen's).

Becky Aikman, author of "Saturday Night Widows" was our featured speaker on Thursday, January 30, 2013.

One night in 2010, Becky Aikman convened the first meeting of what she called the “Saturday Night Widows”—a group of six women (she among them) shocked to find themselves widowed in the middle of their lives. Becky’s idea was to create an amateur support group to help one another not only past the toughest transition they’d ever made, but to reinvent themselves in the face of grief and build their lives anew.

For more information, please see this post.

Dolcetti #1

December 11 - January 17

L. D. D’Isernia, a Rye New York native, has always been involved in the arts. As a young child she became involved in painting because of her great-grandfather, an accomplished lifetime oil painter in New York City. “I can remember him setting up his palette and asking me to help him.”

A graduate of Suny Purchase, she has continued to pursue her passion of painting. The charming scenery and upbeat palette are pulled from her imagination and experience. Today Laurie strictly studies with her mentor Laurel Stern Boeck, an accomplished award winning congressional oil painter. Working out of her studio “Little Squab” here in Darien, she collaborates with decorators and accepts commissioned paintings for clients. Laurie has ribboned paintings and shows her works in Bedford, New York, Palm Beach, Florida, and Greenwich, Connecticut.

Beasts of the Southern Wild will screen in our Community Room Friday, January 11

Friday, January 4 at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. – Trouble with the Curve (2012) Starring Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams, Justin Timberlake; Rated PG-13; 111 minutes; Closed captioned for the hearing impaired.

Gus Lobel has been one of the best scouts in baseball for decades, but, despite his efforts to hide it, age is starting to catch up with him. The one person who might be able to help is also the one person Gus would never ask: his daughter, Mickey an associate at a high-powered Atlanta law firm whose drive and ambition has put her on the fast track to becoming partner. Against her better judgment, and over Gus's objections, Mickey joins him on his latest scouting trip to North Carolina, jeopardizing her own career to save his. Forced to spend time together for the first time in years, each makes new discoveries—revealing long-held truths about their past and present that could change their future.

For more information, please watch the film's trailer.

Friday, January 11 at 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. – Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) Starring Quvenzhané Wallis, Dwight Henry and Levy Easterly; Rated PG-13; 94 minutes. Closed captioned for the hearing impaired.

Hushpuppy, an intrepid six-year-old girl, lives with her father, Wink, in the Bathtub, a southern Delta community at the edge of the world. Wink's tough love prepares her for the unraveling of the universe; for a time when he's no longer there to protect her. When Wink contracts a mysterious illness, nature flies out of whack, temperatures rise, and the ice caps melt, unleashing an army of prehistoric creatures called aurochs. With the waters rising, the aurochs coming, and Wink's health fading, Hushpuppy goes in search of her lost mother.

For more information, please watch the film's trailer.

Friday, January 18 at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. – To Rome with Love (2012) Starring Woody Allen, Alec Baldwin, Jesse Eisenberg, Roberto Benigni, and Penelope Cruz; Rated R; 112 minutes; Closed captioned for the hearing impaired.

Set in the romantic city of Rome, this movie features intertwining stories. There is the worker who wakes up to find himself a celebrity, an architect who takes a trip back to the street he lived on as a student, a young couple on their honeymoon, and a frustrated opera director who has a talent for discovering talented singers.

For more information, please watch the film's trailer.

Friday, January 25 at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. – The Words (2012) Starring Bradley Cooper, Zoe Zaldana, Dennis Quaid; Rated PG-13; 97 minutes; Closed captioned for the hearing impaired.

This layered romantic drama follows young writer Rory Jansen who finally achieves long sought after literary success after publishing the next great American novel. There’s only one catch – he didn’t write it. As the past comes back to haunt him and his literary star continues to rise, Jansen is forced to confront the steep price that must be paid for stealing another man’s work and for placing ambition and success above life’s most fundamental three words.

For more information, please watch the film's trailer.

All films are free and open to the public.

Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs on Thorndal Circle (behind Nielsen's).