Lauren Stephens of East Norwalk is the winner of the Darwin Day Poster Contest, as announced by the planners of the Southern Connecticut’s Third Annual Darwin Day Dinner, to be held on Friday eve, February 11, 2011 at the Continental Manor in Norwalk.
Contestants, attendees at last year’s event, came from many towns. They struck a variety of poses with a life-size cutout of Charles Darwin. Runners up were Sara Sikes, who gave old Charlie a kiss, and Jackie Piette, who offered him wine. Lauren exhibited great flair and excitement, giving him a familial pat on the shoulder. Tim Connolly gave Charlie a manly “nuggie” (a little friendly jab), and Carl Granholm made Charlie’s cane seem real by sharing it. Town winners included Craig Tomarkin (Fairfield), the McMillen family (Westport), Mike Retsky (Trumbull), Naomi Starobin and Ed von Stein (Stamford), John MacKenzie (Stamford), and Mitch Kalmus (Brookfield).
Darwin Day is an international celebration of science and humanity held on or around February 12th, the day on which Charles Darwin was born in 1809. Specifically, the event celebrates the discoveries and life of the man who first described biological evolution via natural selection with scientific rigor. More generally, Darwin Day expresses gratitude for the enormous benefits that scientific knowledge, acquired through human curiosity and ingenuity, has contributed to the advancement of humanity. This will be a memorable event for all, and everyone is guaranteed to go home smarter, or at least knowing more than when they arrived!
The Darwin Day Dinner is an eventful eve with cocktail hour, full course dinner, fascinating conversation, table-teamed science quiz, and a fascinating talk by Yale’s Paul Turner, PhD, director of Yale’s Turner Lab.
Carl Granholm
Reserving for the event is a good idea, since last year’s event was sold out. Send name, address, e-mail address, phone, names of your attendees, their dinner choices, and $55 per person ($60 after Feb 1) to CT Darwin Day Committee, 249 Chestnut Hill Road, Norwalk CT 06851. Meal choices are New York Angus Sirloin, Chicken Marsala, Pan Seared Salmon, and Eggplant Parmigiana.
A short video will soon be posted to YouTube about the event. Its link, with other information will be available at darwindayct.org.
The Cocktail Hour will begin at 7 PM, and a full course dinner will be served at 8 PM. The multiple-choice Science Quiz, often amusing or counter-intuitive, has proved to be great fun, as each banquet table debates its answers to the questions being posed. Paul Turner PhD, Associate Professor of Ecology and Environmental Biology at Yale University, and Director of Yale’s Turner Lab, has been tapped as the speaker. His talk on “Viruses – The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” puts in entertaining terms new information on viral evolution and what it means for us. And there’ll be time for dining and stimulating conversation.
The event is sponsored by The Congregation for Humanistic Judaism of Fairfield County, The Wilton Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), the Unitarian Church in Westport and the Norwalk Public Schools Science Department. Proceeds from the event go to the National Center for Science Education.
