The Community Fund of Darien honored 52 volunteers for their continued service dedication the town on Friday, May 17, at the 34th annual Darien Volunteer Recognition Day. Bernier is six weeks into her new role as the executive director of the Community Fund of Darien. Volunteers from groups such as the Darien Arts Center, the Garden Club of Darien, the Open Door Shelter and many others received awards. The Obie Harrington-Howes Community Spirit Award, the past winners of which were Bob Wells, Joe Viesta and Marge Harrington, is presented to a volunteer who has served several organizations and has made a difference through active volunteer work. Mandel, who has lived in Darien for almost 80 years, has served on a plethora of boards, committees and agencies: she was president of the Darien Library, the Fairfield County Community Foundation and the Norwalk Community College Foundation; a member of the boards of Finance and Education; the founding secretary of Aging-in-Place Gallivant; and served as first selectman. The grants are given to organizations that promote family strengthening, special needs, basic needs (such as food, shelter and health care), at-risk youth support, self-sufficiency, and crisis and abuse support.

Jan Dilenschneider threw open the French doors in her painting studio and welcomed the ice-cold weather. During that storm two years ago, Dilenschneider created a mixed-media oil painting with pastel, "A Birch and a Pine in a Whiteout," which earned her best in show at the 20th annual School of Art Student Exhibition, sponsored by the Silvermine Arts Center. Dilenschneider's works include landscapes and still-life pieces. Sitting in her studio two weeks ago, the muted walls highlighted by her landscapes and still-life pieces, Dilenschneider discussed her upcoming show. [...] Dilenschneider said the room, which is on the second floor and offers a balcony overlooking the Sound, doubles as a dining area when she entertains. Two doors, hidden to the naked eye, slide open to reveal where she puts her paintings when company arrives. [...] someone pointed out to her that "some people actually hang paintings on the walls." Today, she takes advantage of her surroundings, painting landscapes of the water and tall reeds, as well as her penchant for still-life fruit.

The fair, which raises money to support the community's emergency medical services, begins immediately after the parade and continues until 3 p.m. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at the gate. Food selections new this year are crab salad from Fisherman's Net, Southwestern veggie wraps from the Goose, homemade doughnuts made onsite by Postie's Non-Stop Donut Shop and warm Bavarian pretzels.

The search for five campus monitors at the elementary schools drags on as a wider net is cast in an effort to attract more candidates with security backgrounds. The original job was posted on March 22, the day after the Representative Town Meeting approved the appropriation of $75,000 for campus monitors for the remainder of the school year. The desire to implement the campus monitors came as a result of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown on Dec. 14. During the March RTM meeting, Falcone told the members that it's not just the campus monitors who are in charge of ensuring a safe environment in the schools, but the responsibilities fall upon the shoulders of all of the teachers and other staff.

Repair crews fixed a cracked rail joint bar last month in the area of track on the Bridgeport border where an eastbound Metro-North train derailed last Friday and was struck by a second train, according to federal investigators. The joint repaired by the railroad in April is not the same one federal investigators have focused on after finding two pieces of rail broken apart at a joint bar at the scene of the crash last Friday evening which injured 76 people, National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Nicholas Worrell said. Allen Zarembski, a rail engineering professor at the University of Delaware College of Engineering who worked for the American Association of Railroads for 27 years said that the underlying flaws that eventually develop into rail breakages at joints can remain barely detectable for years before rapidly progressing over a series of months to cause a derailment or other accident. During an interview, the engineer of the eastbound train told investigators that he observed something not right with the track ahead as he approached the Interstate 95 overpass, and that his train had ground to a halt before being struck, according to the announcement. Working through wireless radio frequency spectrum, a positive train control monitors the position and speed of trains throughout a railway and transmits necessary orders to on-board systems when it is determined that a train needs to stop to avoid a crash. Worrell said that NTSB investigators have collected a wide array of evidence including photos, video, data from on-board the railcars, and maintenance and inspection records for the trains involved in the crash.

The threat of showers and thunderstorms across southwestern Connecticut today is rated at 100 percent, with a daytime temperature rising to a high in the mid-60s under cloudy skies, the NWS says. Tonight. more rain is in the forecast as the temperature drops to the upper-40s., with a north wind 14 to 16 mph. There remains a slight chance of rain Sunday, under mostly cloudy skies as temperatures rise to a high in the mid-60s. On Monday, Memorial Day, the wet weather cycle finally rolls from the area and holiday skies should be sunny.