The Darien Nature Center Reopened Its Animal Room. Now It's Reviving the Wreath Auction That Pays for the Year.

On June 4, the Darien Nature Center posted a short announcement. Starting the next day, the building at 120 Brookside Road would close to the public so work could begin on the Animal Room. It ended on a hopeful note:

We look forward to welcoming you back later this summer!

Summer ended with the doors still closed. The room reopened on Saturday, October 17, with animal encounters and s'mores. 203local reported that the grand opening needed no registration. The Center later wrote that its donors had a private unveiling on the Thursday before, and the public came back that Saturday.

The timing of the reopening matters less than who paid for it. The Animal Room was rebuilt with money raised in Darien. Weeks after it opened, the Center is also bringing back an old holiday fundraiser built the same way. Wreaths made by neighbors are auctioned to neighbors, and the money pays for the programs the new room was built to hold. Taken together, the two say a lot about how this small building in Cherry Lawn Park keeps going.

A Room Paid For Close to Home

The campaign started in spring 2025. Patch reported a fundraising target of $250,000. Plans also covered upgrades to the kitchen, flooring and generator alongside the animal habitats. The Center described the goal as better animal welfare through natural, enriching habitats, plus a room that teaches more and invites visitors to stay longer.

When the Center announced the campaign was finished, it explained how the money came together. The Darien Foundation, the lead donor, gave an initial $50,000 grant to launch the project. It then added $20,000 more to get the campaign over the line so construction could begin. The Riley Family Foundation put up a $50,000 challenge grant, which the Center credited with rallying the community behind the project. The opening-day thanks also named The Borman Family Foundation, The Rogers Family Foundation, Jon and Colleen Thompson, The Blackman Family Foundation and the Hausberg Family. The rest of the donors are listed on the Center's Animal Room donor page.

Those two foundation commitments add up to $120,000, close to half the target Patch reported. The donor page lists more families and foundations in the $10,000 to $49,999 tiers, along with smaller gifts. In the post announcing the campaign was finished, which still appears on the Nature Center's homepage, the Center thanked "every donor, family, volunteer, and friend who believed in our vision."

What the Money Built

The biggest change covers the walls. While construction was underway, the Center posted that its 30-foot walls were being covered in a mural of a native Connecticut forest, with the room's beam worked into the trees. The campaign brochure explained the idea in more detail. It planned oak, hickory and beech trees, a painted brook that runs into the existing turtle pond, and a three-dimensional oak limb along that beam. It also planned a songbird panel above the turtle tank by local bird artist Michael DiGiorgio and a mesh enclosure that would put the doves inside the forest scene.

The Center says more than 20 animals live there. Almost every one of them has a name:

• Up at night: Blinken and Luna, the Eastern Screech Owls; Scout, the African Pygmy Hedgehog; Harry and Blossom, the sugar gliders
• Scales: Sunny the corn snake, Otto the ball python, Ziggy the leopard gecko, Sage the bearded dragon
• Shells: Rocky the Eastern Box Turtle and Speedy the Eastern Painted Turtle
• Fur: Kuzco the chinchilla, Seymour and Phil the rabbits, Nugget the guinea pig, Butter and Biscuit the rats, Midnight and Shadow the gerbils, Ollie and Miko the ferrets
• Everyone else: Paz and Pearl the doves, Kermit the White's Tree Frog, Charlotte the Arizona blonde tarantula, and a colony of Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches that go without individual names

The work on the room reached outdoors too. This fall the Center thanked Kris Barker at the Gardener's Center for native perennials, which nature educators Victoria and Lindsey have been replanting around the building for the Pollinator Pathway.

The Tradition Coming Back Alongside It

The Animal Room cost money once. The programs inside it cost money every year, and that is where the Festival of Wreaths comes in.

The Center's Festival of Wreaths page calls it a tradition being brought back. For years, local artists, crafters, businesses and community members made one-of-a-kind holiday wreaths and donated them to the Nature Center. This year the Center is inviting people to do it again, in any style: "Traditional, natural, whimsical, elegant, colorful, unexpected — anything goes!" The wreaths go on display at the Center and are auctioned, with the proceeds supporting nature education programs all year.

Patch reported that bidding closes at the end of the December 3 reception, and the wreaths go home with the winning bidders that night. The wreaths are made locally, bought locally, and the proceeds go back into programs at the same building that houses the owls and the hedgehog.

There is still time to take part as a maker. Finished wreaths are due at the Nature Center on November 23, the same day the display opens. Sign-up details are on the Festival page.

The Calendar From Here

The Nature Center's Holiday Market kicks things off. Its vendor list has a local streak too. DoChéri Chocolate makes European-style artisan chocolates in Darien. Turtle Moon Health is a Wilton company selling honey, teas and natural wellness products. Ceramics by Maggie Chow makes nature-inspired pottery. The Perfect Stitch sells handmade dog kerchiefs and accessories. Noonday sells jewelry and accessories handcrafted by women around the world. The market is free, with no registration.

The two November 21 markets overlap, so it's easy to do both. Brookside Road in the morning leaves plenty of time to reach Darien Commons before the Pop Shop closes. It features local makers selling apparel, jewelry, home décor and gifts. According to the Darien Chamber of Commerce, the wreath display is free to view. On a weekday you could see the Animal Room and the wreaths in the same visit.

Around the Building

The Nature Center sits inside Cherry Lawn Park. The Town describes the park's 27.5 acres as holding a natural pond, walking trails, community gardens, a playground, a gazebo, Casey Field and picnic areas. Other people care for the pond as well. Earlier this year, Lindsey and Victoria pulled tangled fishing line, hooks and lures from the branches and water there, and the Center asked anglers to cast responsibly. The Parks and Recreation Commission's April 2026 minutes said dredging of the Cherry Lawn Park pond was scheduled to begin in the fall.

Dogs have their own space here. Under the Town's Parks and Recreation rules, dogs may be off leash at any time in the grass area between the Nature Center and Brookside Road, and must be leashed between the parking lot and that area. From September 1 through May 31, the rest of the park allows off-leash dogs from dawn to 10:30 a.m. on weekdays and from dawn to 8:30 a.m. on weekends. Playgrounds, community gardens and playfields are excluded. A November morning walk can end at the wreath display once the building opens.

The Center's Animal Room page lists visiting hours of 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday. Early Saturday is a good time to visit the owls before the markets get busy.

At Susan Vanech Properties, we follow the places that hold Darien together, from Cherry Lawn Park to the Post Road. If the season has you thinking about your own home's place in that picture, request a confidential valuation and we'll talk it through over coffee, perhaps after a stop at the wreaths.