Group Leaders

Mary Beth N.        1992-1993

Shannon V. May    1993 - May 1996

RoseAnne H.        May 1996 - Sept. 2003      provided history from 1992-2003

Stacey F.             Sept 2003 - current         provided the history from 2003 -current

History of Between Counties

CIRCA 1992 - Mary Beth N. , lived in Fairfield,--brainchild of group--approx. 1992 time frame. Coordinated one or two organizational meetings, and named the group. She  moved to Oxford. Shannon V. of Easton volunteered to be the "Area Coordinator".

May 1993, - May 1996 Shannon V. of Easton, first newsletter written, August 25, 1993. First meeting at Shannon's house on June 29th, 1993. There were a few park dates at Owen Fish, one field trip to Captain's Cove. Group was a "CHEA" group. Newsletter was a one page chatty 'letter' mailed out to 8-12 families about 4-5 times a year. Most news-sharing and ideas were done in person or telephone, lots of playground dates in the summer.

May 1996 - Sept. 2003 - RoseAnne H. of Bridgeport, volunteers to take over the group as Shannon is planning to move to Massachusetts.

1996-1997 The current mailing list has 22 family names on it. Some changes and updates to group format included the newsletter changing to a monthly printed issue, from Sept-June, an Adult Support Meeting, monthly Sept – June at host homes in the area.

1997-1999 The group grew to 40 within about 1 year, then to about 85 within the next 2 years...and held steady in the 80's for a few years. Also provided an updated 'phone list' that included all the families phone, names, addresses about two times a year, a children's birthday list separate by boys/girls, about twice a year. I coordinated one large scale 'information day' at First Baptist Church in Fairfield.

1999/2000  MAST (Milford and surrounding towns) -  Helen L. of Milford organizes a  gym day at Margaret Egan Center in Milford and offers it for homeschoolers

2000---Group numbers are in the 80's, newsletter is expensive to print. Approx. 2002, CHEA fell apart and CHN became established, and we became a CHN Group. We slowly switched over to e-mail ..until 2002, when we stopped charging a subscription fee and went 100% e-mail. Also changed Adult Support Meetings to be four times a year. Stacey organizes a year end cook out at the beach in Stratford.

2002 - RoseAnne's remodeling on her home takes over her life. Set up the e-mail list to be 'self-supporting' meaning that subscribers could post events themselves eliminating me as the middleman. I organized one or two things during the year, including Roller Skating twice and the NYC Opera trip in Oct. 2003 that was so successful (68 families attended!).

Sept. 2003 - Stacey F. of Stratford becomes group leader. Between Counties joins Southern Fairfield County Homeschoolers to create a joint Yahoo group called: F-C-H (Fairfield County Homeschoolers). This online group allows homeschoolers from all over Fairfield County to connect and  Meetings with CHN founder Diane C. and with Karen F., the new group leader of SFCH to get acquainted and discuss Between Counties and it’s relationships with CHN and SFCH. Membership remains in the 80’s. We have changed the membership list to a worksheet format to make it easier to upkeep. Children’s list is now by family and is linked to the membership list. (again for easy upkeep).  We have weekly park dates at Wolfe Park in Monroe, the only park that year round is: open to non-residents, keeps their bathrooms open and has water fountains.

2004 Membership is just over 100 families. We now provide membership card for discounts at book stores. We have several mom's coffee nights at Borders in Fairfield to coincide with their teacher discount days.

2006 Not Back to School Party at Wolfe park in September. We organize a potluck picnic that year.

2007 This year we have a Not Back to School cookout. At least 100 kids, moms, dads and even some grandparents attend. We have many families from SFCH as well as BC. Teen group is formed as our group now has more teens. (and Stacey’s children are high school aged.)