It started with the simple idea of helping residents pay for college, trade school or other post-secondary education. That’s still the mission six decades later. As today’s officers and board members reflected on 60 years of giving away money, they can see the fruits of all that labor. NSAF has granted more than 1,500 interest-free loans to more than 1,000 residents since its founding in 1966 by a partnership of the Newington Jaycees, school PTA members and civic leaders.

They identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or otherwise part of the LGBTQIA+ community. They want to be accepted by and engaged in this town like everyone else. Newington Pride was formed in September 2024. Its motto is “here from the start, here to stay.” Members represent a wide variety of careers including technical writer, health care billing and coding, educator, retired state Department of Children and Families employee, domestic violence a

Life is a puzzle. Sometimes pieces just don’t fit. You can’t force pieces to interlock, no matter how hard you try. Even if you press or bang them together there’s always something awkward in how they look. You know it’s just not right. People often spend a long time in search of that missing or connecting piece. This can be is especially true for at-risk women and young women.

Recent studies indicate that loneliness is now a health epidemic. The lack of social connection is considered an illness that medical professionals say is more dangerous than smoking 15 cigarettes a day and deadlier than obesity.

But while wine, yoga, good food and a little self-care isn’t foreign to the Mountain Mommas, this group has spent the last 30 years taking annual trips that involve rugged outdoor adventures such as backpacking, canoeing and cycling – while also developing unbreakable bonds.

On September 11, 2001, Leah Lopez took a late breakfast before heading into New York C ity on a Metro North train that never arrived. "I happened to be on the train an hour later than I woul d have usually been," she says over coffee at LaSalle in Collinsville. "After that I doubled down on what I really wanted to do with my life."