Daily Five: Noank Holds First Ugly Holiday Sweater Contest

1.  Today is Wednesday, Dec. 12.  The National Weather Service predicts mostly sunny skies and a high temperature of 43 degrees. The low will drop to 32 degrees tonight.

2.  If you’re up for a little public humiliation, here’s a use for those ghastly holiday sweaters we should never wear to a function of any kind. Noank is holding its First Annual Ugly Holiday Sweater competition on Sunday. Just visit the Noank Community Market during store hours (9 a.m. until 7 p.m.) or the Universal Package Store from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. wearing your ugliest/tackiest holiday attire.

Sweatshirts and fleeces are fine. Store staff will photograph you, post the pictures on facebook and let the community vote and decide. The winner will be announced Dec. 23 and receive a large gift basket with items from both stores.

3.  The Groton Board of Education will learn the details of the latest redistricting plan from 7:30 p.m. until 9:30 p.m. today at Claude Chester Elementary School. The plan, to be outlined by the Branford consulting firm Milone & MacBroom, would move 370 elementary students or about 18 percent of students in those grades.

The old plan reviewed by the board would have shifted 526 children to new schools. The goal of the redistricting is to reduce crowding in the schools and correct racial imbalance. If approved by the school board, it would go forward to the state.

4.  The Greater Mystic Chamber of Commerce honored several people with awards at its Silent Auction and Annual Dinner on Dec. 6.

Nicholas Silvia, co-captain of the Stonington High School Football team, a student also been involved with Special Olympics, Big Brothers Big Sisters and Future Business Leaders of America, received the Chamber Foundation’s Joshua Piver Memorial Scholarship.

Mark and Mike Sauchuk of MJ Sauchuk, two brothers who formed a company with one garbage truck and grew it into a company with 15 trucks, received Volunteers of the Year award.

Jonathan Duncklee, the vice president of Duncklee Cooling and Heating, whose employees include five people who have been with the company more than ten years and one who has been there 33 years, won the Edward O. McCabe Employer of the Year award.

Ana Schneider, President of ASA Environmental Products, Inc. who has worked on fundraising for groups including the SECT Hispanic Community, Congregation Beth El, Summer Music and The Women’s Center took home the chamber’s Community Service Award.

5.  The Groton chapter of Freshconnections, a business networking organization for women founded in Mystic, will meet at 8 a.m. today at 14 Masons Island. The free program encourages networking among professional women, and also has chapters throughout New London County, including Norwich, Old Saybrook, Lyme, Stonington and New London.