Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling and Superintendent Manuel Rivera announce donations received for the newly formed Mayor’s Student Engineering & Science program. Presentation of a check for $10,000 will be made on Thursday, December 18, 2014 at City Hall.
Next Step Living and New England Smart Energy will be presenting the Mayor’s Energy and Environment Task Force a donation for their participation in the Norwalk Energy Challenge, which began August 1, 2014. As a result of the Norwalk Energy Challenge, over 200 completed home energy assessments have saved Norwalk homeowners an estimated $50,000 to $120,000 on their energy costs.
The success of this year’s Norwalk Energy Challenge and expected donations from the next Energy Challenge, starting January 1, 2015, as well as private donations, make up the MEETF promised donation of $20,000 for the Mayor’s Engineering & Science Program.
This newly formed program will accommodate fifty Norwalk middle school children from low-income families at the Maritime Aquarium. The program will be split into two, one week programs, with twenty five children participating in each one week session. Curriculum was designed by MEETF, Tamre-Diane Mockus, K-12 Science & Health Instructional Specialist for the Board of Education and Tom Naiman, Director of Education for the Maritime Aquarium for the program.
Councilman John Kydes, Chairman of the MEETF said, “It feels great to have helped save Norwalk residents money on their energy costs and then used those donations to start the Mayor’s Engineering & Science Program. It’s a win, win for Norwalk!”
Mayor Rilling praised the new program by saying, “We are giving these children the tools they need for high school and beyond.”