CT Host Family Visits "Sons" in Russia

Ian, Clare, and Hilary Livingston with Sergey (L) and Nick (R) at the Summer Palace. (Note Nick's tee shirt which was purchased while he was here last fall.)

In August, the Livingston Family of Rowayton, CT, paid a visit to St. Petersburg, Russia, where they reunited with Sergey Levanov and Nikolay (“Nick”) Korsakov. The Livingstons served as host family to Sergey during the Rossijanochka dance troupe’s October 2009 performance tour.

Host mom, Wendell, shared some of the details of their visit: “[W]e met [Sergey and Nick] for dinner our first day there, then went to see Nick dance at a restaurant where he works each evening entertaining tourists; the following day Nick and Sergey took us to the ferry to go to Peter the Great’s Summer Palace, a spectacular site, where they took us on a tour of the grounds. Sergey was quite the team leader, speaking for us at the ticket booths, to waitresses, etc., helping us to negotiate our way around the city where little is posted in English. He then arranged for his mother to get us tickets to the ballet while his father managed to get us tickets to a football match between the top teams from Russia and France. The lads took our older two kids out to the clubs two separate evenings and made quite a few toasts to ‘friends’. Our kids probably would have stayed out all night if we hadn't insisted that they return to the hotel by 3 am (a curfew which kept getting extended since they were having such a great time).”

Thank you to the Livingstons for sharing their home and the story of their continuing connection!

Staff Changes at Creative Connections

Alan Steckler, Creative Connections' founder and Executive Director since 1992, announced today these changes and additions to CC's staff:

* Alan's title is now President and CEO
* Melissa Thomson is now the Chief Operating Officer
* Sudha Sankar remains the Program Director
* Miguel Barreto is now the Director of Operations
* Polly Loughran is now the Program Manager


These changes will help Creative Connections better serve our exchange partners and expand our programming and outreach to bring quality cultural experiences to even more of the world's young people.

We've Moved Across the Street to Stepping Stones Museum for Children

In late August, Creative Connections moved across the street. Our new offices are in Stepping Stones Museum for Children.

While we remain a fully separate organization, we eagerly anticipate the joint programming we will be providing for the hundreds of thousands visitors that come to Stepping Stones each year.

Initial plans call for an international art exhibit for their November re-opening, working with their middle/high school volunteers on an Artlink Plus exchange, and bringing our International Young Performers' Tour (featuring a troupe of talented teenage Cambodian folk and temple dancers) to the museum in May.

Our street address has changed to Mathews Park, 303 West Avenue, Norwalk, CT 06850 but our email address and phone numbers remain the same.

Please stop by for a tour of our new space and the wonderful museum. We'd love to show you around!

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