The following Letter to the Editor was submitted as sponsored (paid for) content, paid by Wilton resident Jennifer Wulff.
To the Editor:
August 26, 2013 was the day I first fell in love with the Wilton school community. It happened as soon as the bus arrived to pick up my daughter for her first day of kindergarten. Don’t fall! I thought, as I watched her little 5-year-old legs tackle those big steps. Then I looked up to see a couple of smiling faces that understood. They were volunteer parents, riding the buses during that first week of school to help the new kindergarteners climb aboard and buckle in. It was the first of many moments here that made me feel like I wasn’t on this parenting journey alone. I had some amazing teammates traveling alongside me.
Team captain? Nicola Davies. She was the PTA bus coordinator for Miller-Driscoll at the time. She had the task of recruiting volunteers, instructing them on using the online sign-up program she designed, and coolheadedly juggling the logistics of getting all the parents on the right buses on the right day at the right time, along with the more delicate task of telling parents that, no, they can’t simply hop on the bus from their own child’s stop. Davies didn’t stop there. Throughout that year and in the many since, she’s the person all of Wilton’s parents can count on for advice, encouragement, and a helping hand whenever one is needed.
Even if you don’t know Davies personally, she has undoubtedly had an effect on making your children’s lives happier, your family life easier, and our schools even better than they already are. Dubbed now as the “do-gooder,” she even managed to stir up a little altruism in me (I’d probably describe myself more as “no-good-doer”) to donate a bit of time to our schools by running the Cider Mill school directory for five years.
In the many roles that Davies has taken on in the Wilton school system — Cider Mill PTA president, Wilton High School PTSA treasurer, and the technology guru behind digitalizing the student and family directories for all four schools, just to name a few—Davies is an inspiration to all of Wilton’s parents in her determination to make everything from raising funds to finding phone numbers more efficient and effective. And she does the hard work it takes to boost the academic opportunities for our kids, too.
Frustrated at the lack of enrichment offerings at Cider Mill, she found a solution in Odyssey of the Mind, a national educational problem-solving STEM competition. She worked with the faculty and administration to bring the program to Wilton, and in 2016, our town was right alongside our neighboring districts, competing for the state title. They’ve been in every championship held since.
What voters in Wilton see in Nicola Davies and the other two candidates on the Democratic ticket — current Board of Education chair Deborah Low and longtime Wilton educator Pam Ely — is a proven dedication to working for our children and our schools. We’re not taking a leap with any of these three candidates, wondering if they have what it takes to do the job. They have already been doing the job for years. We are simply entrusting them to do more of that good work in a more official capacity.
I urge voters to please watch the town forums and interviews with the BOE candidates and read about each candidate’s experience within the field of education and their commitment to serving Wilton’s community before deciding who to give their votes to this Tuesday. My hope is that your support goes to the candidates who have consistently proven their own support of the parents and children of our beautiful town.
Jennifer Wulff
She is an excellent candidate and would do an excellent job for the town of Wilton. She has our vote!