Week In Review: Local Kids Take Up Soccer, New Art Exhibit Opens, and Summer Days Heat Up

People in Port Chester love Al Collins. And, judging by the feedback we've gotten, so do Patch readers.

Collins and his soccer clinic were the subjects of a Thursday feature by contributor Edouard Boulat, and readers showed their appreciation for "Big Al" in comments and e-mails.

For the third straight year, Collins is running a camp for local kids to hone their soccer skills under dedicated instructors for six weeks -- they get soccer balls, uniforms and equipment, and it's all free.

Collins, who fondly remembers barbecues and games in the park as a kid, raises the money himself every year and delivers it to the rec department to buy the equipment. Recreation Superintendent Thomas Hroncich recalled Collins walking into his office the year he started the camp.

"He showed up and put $4,000 on my desk," Hroncich said. "I've never experienced that before."

Next up for Collins: starting a free basketball camp for local kids.

On the other side of town, Lauri Francis has been reaching out to donors and members of Port Chester's Brazilian community at Cafe Brazil. Francis is the founder of Blessings for Brazil, and Rob Rennie's Monday profile detailed how a few people in New York are helping kids in another hemisphere.

Working with volunteers across the U.S. -- and another in Brazil -- Francis' group raises money to send books to Brazilian school kids and provide grants for their teachers. The group also works with an orphanage in Rio de Janeiro.

It isn't easy getting acting gigs when you're 6'5", a arts writer Christine Loughran discovered when she profiled children's entertainer Lou del Bianco.

Getting his start in plays at Port Chester High School, and later at a Manhattan drama school, del Bianco wanted to be a traditional actor until he discovered he had a knack for making kids laugh and sing.

Twenty-three years and six albums later, del Bianco has made long car rides easier for thousands of parents by getting their kids to sing along to his songs about clubhouses, geography and history.

In local government news, Port Chester's trustees will return to action with a special meeting tomorrow, where they're expected to vote on whether to hire a new police officer. On the horizon are debates about abolishing payouts for a discontinued benefits program, as well as an ongoing legal battle with taxi companies that want to keep competition out of the village.

An anticipated report on last month's election didn't materialize this week. The report, which analyzes exit poll data, is under review by the Department of Justice before village government can make it available to the public.

And while things settled down later in the week, police had their hands full last weekend -- a Greenwich man was arrested after driving with a blood alcohol level that was three times the legal limit, a poorly written bomb threat citing "Allah" turned out to be a disgruntled former resident, a food fight turned into a fist fight at a local deli.

In our third week since going live, we're continuing the learning and growing process as we cover the community. We can't do it without your help. Got an event coming up or a story you think we should cover? E-mail us, and keep the feedback coming.