Bear Naked is a food company that makes whole grain granolas, granola bites, and oatmeal. The company was launched in 2002 by Kelly Flatley and Brendan Synnott. In 2007, Bear Naked was purchased by Kashi , a subsidiary of Kellogg's . Bear Naked is based out of La Jolla , California . As of 2023, the company is owned by WK Kellogg Co .
33-453: Kelly Flatley and Brendan Synnott are the co-founders of Bear Naked granola. Flatley came up with the name – “bear” which evoked the outdoors, while “naked” implied the absence of additives. In college, Flatley made granola in her dorm room and shared it with friends. Flatley met Synnott in 2002 in Darien, Connecticut . Flatley was making her granola through the night and delivering it to local stores
66-484: A language other than English at home. The town's exclusive policies in the early 20th century were similar to other segregated suburbs of the time, including Beverly Hills , California, and Tuxedo Park , New York. There were events involving anti-Black racism and anti-Semitism in the 1930s and 1940s, with Darien being a prototypical sundown town . Darien is one of the few municipalities in Connecticut that comply with
99-575: A population of 21,499 and a land area of just under 13 square miles (34 km ), it is the smallest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast . The town is part of the Western Connecticut Planning Region . It has a high rate of marriage, and high average number of children per household. Situated on the Long Island Sound , between the cities of Stamford and Norwalk , the town of Darien is a bedroom community of New York City in
132-468: A woman whose husband did not live with her, and 18.3% were non-families. Of all households 15.6% were made up of individuals, and 8.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.95 and the average family size was 3.31. In the town, the population was spread out, with 32.5% under the age of 18, 3.0% from 18 to 24, 28.2% from 25 to 44, 24.0% from 45 to 64, and 12.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age
165-522: Is an ice rink. Founded in 1928, Noroton Yacht Club runs the largest junior sailing program in the United States. Elected bodies in the town government are a five-member Board of Selectmen , a nine-member Board of Education , a seven-member Board of Finance , a six-member Planning and Zoning Commission, three-member Board of Assessment Appeals, and a 100-member, nonpartisan Representative Town Meeting . The town has several elective offices as well:
198-600: Is bordered on the west by Stamford, on the north by New Canaan , and on the east by Norwalk. On the south it faces Long Island Sound and the North Shore of Long Island . It is part of the Connecticut panhandle jutting into New York state. Darien has a humid continental climate , similar to that of New York City, with warm to hot summers and cold winters. The highest recorded temperature was 103 °F (39 °C) in July 1966, while
231-525: Is meant to be energetic and hopes to appeal to millennials and others with active lives. Bear Naked's marketing strategy included presenting its product in a resealable cellophane pouch with a transparent window. In 2019, Bear Naked made its stand-up pouch from 100% recyclable materials. Darien, Connecticut Darien ( / ˌ d ɛər i ˈ æ n / DAIR -ee- AN ) is a coastal town in Fairfield County, Connecticut , United States. With
264-423: Is part of "Sustainable Fairfield County"—a cooperative organization made up of ten Fairfield County communities that have joined forces to help advance environmental sustainability and responsibility county-wide. The other municipalities include Easton, Fairfield, Greenwich, New Canaan, Norwalk, Trumbull, Weston, Westport and Wilton. Historically, Darien has been a solidly Republican town; but in 2016 , in spite of
297-535: Is protected by three independent all-volunteer fire departments in three fire districts. The Darien Police Department is composed of 51 sworn officers, 18 traffic agents, 12 civilian employees and is headquartered at 25 Hecker Avenue in Darien, CT. The Department maintains a fleet of 30 vehicles which includes 13 marked patrol units, a motorcycle, a 27-foot (8.2 m) SAFEboat, a special services vehicle, undercover vehicles and administrative vehicles. The Department acts as
330-423: Is shoreline beaches on Long Island Sound. Weed Beach features a beach and swimming area, clubhouse, playground, picnic area, concession stand, and tennis and paddle courts. In 2022, the town purchased a 60-acre (24 ha) island, Great Island, from the estate William Ziegler . The Darien Community Association bird sanctuary is a 4-acre (1.6 ha) woodland behind Meadowlands manor. The Darien Ice House
363-448: Is still the proper pronunciation. "You can always tell when someone is not from here, because they do pronounce it the way it's spelled," Louise Berry, director of the town library, said in a 2006 interview. Darien was mostly white Protestant through the middle of the twentieth century, but by the twenty-first century it had become a multi-ethnic town with residents of many religions and backgrounds. One of seven households report speaking
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#1732851233810396-561: Is the only ambulance service in the nation staffed and run entirely by high school student volunteers, covers one of the deadliest stretches of Interstate 95, and responds to over 1,500 emergency calls annually. The Explorer post is chartered under the Connecticut Yankee Council , and is considered a scouting unit. The service provides emergency care at no cost to the patient, funded entirely by private donations from town residents. Teenagers are allowed to perform patient care due to
429-540: The Democratic primary , Hillary Clinton won 832 votes (69.51%) in Darien, far ahead of self-described democratic socialist U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont with 363 votes (30.33%), reflecting the town’s moderate political identity. Darien is served by the Darien Public Schools , and Darien High School was ranked No. 1 in the "U.S. News Best High Schools in Connecticut" in 2019. The school also ranked in
462-791: The New Haven and Wethersfield colonies and from Norwalk in about 1641. It was not until 1739, however, that the Middlesex Society of the Town of Stamford built the first community church, now the First Congregational Church of Darien, which stands on the original site at the corner of Brookside Road and the Boston Post Road. Tories raided the town several times during the American Revolution ; at one point, they took 26 men in
495-520: The New York metropolitan area (the town has relatively few office buildings), as many residents commute to New York via Metro-North . There are two railroad stations in Darien, Noroton Heights and Darien , linking the town to Grand Central Terminal . There are eleven parks, public beaches, and the Noroton Yacht Club . According to early records, the first clearings of land were made by men from
528-511: The Bear Naked brand, from La Jolla, California. For its initial design, Bear Naked used a logo with three slashes suggesting bear claw marks. They chose a bear symbol because of its appetite for nuts, fruit, and honey. After a redesign in 2015, “Kevin” the bear was introduced. He now appears on all packaging, social media, and the company website. The new design uses orange, the signature color of Bear Naked's flagship Fruit and Nut granola. The color
561-646: The Darien Patch, and The Daily Voice, Darien. A monthly magazine known as New Canaan and Darien Magazine is also published covering Darien, New Canaan, and Rowayton (a section of the city of Norwalk). Sound Watch Magazine . is another monthly publication, founded in 2019, dedicated to local news and history of the area. Most public meetings are filmed and broadcast live, and recorded for later broadcast by Cablevision's Channel 79 Government Access. Films at least partially filmed in Darien with release date include: An ambulance service, known as "Darien EMS – Post 53"
594-530: The Public Safety Answering Point for all 911 and non-emergency Police, Fire and medical-related calls within the Town of Darien, CT. The town is served by two train stations, Noroton Heights and Darien station . The Connecticut Turnpike (Interstate 95) and Post Road (U.S. Route 1.) pass through Darien. Interstate 95 has rest stops in Darien for the southbound and northbound lanes. Louise Hall Tharp Louise Hall Tharp (1898–1992)
627-616: The Republican climate nationwide, Hillary Rodham Clinton became the first Democrat to win in Darien since 1888 when Grover Cleveland beat Benjamin Harrison by two votes. The pattern resembled one in suburban areas across the country that swung hard into the Democratic column due to the Republican Party being increasingly dominated by Donald Trump and right-wing populism which alienated
660-669: The State's mandate to report the racial and ethnic makeup of people stopped by the police. 82% of the people stopped are white, 12% are Black, and 15% are Hispanic. According to the United States Census Bureau , the town has a total area of 14.8 square miles (38 km ), of which 12.9 square miles (33 km ) is land and 2.0 square miles (5.2 km ), or 13.41%, is water. Highways include Interstate 95 . It also has two Metro-North Railroad stations for commuter trains into New York City, Noroton Heights and Darien . Darien
693-564: The company's presence in stores. In 2003, Stew Leonard's supermarket chain in New York picked up their granola, which helped pull the company into commercial success. In 2007, Flatley and Synnott were approached by Kashi, a subsidiary of the Kellogg Company. The partners sold Bear Naked for over $ 60 million. Flatley and Synnott stayed for a year to make a smooth transition to the new parent company. Today, Kellogg's Kashi Co. organic unit manages
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#1732851233810726-433: The fact that Connecticut is one of the few states in the nation which allows emergency medical technicians to be certified at age 16. Students start training while they are in their freshman year of high school. They are elected by current members of Post and then they continue their training supervised by trained adults, Post 53 lets in 20 teenagers a year to join the crew, and includes boys and girls. The town of Darien
759-470: The fall of 2005. Darien sports teams go by the name of the "Blue Wave". Pear Tree Point School , originally named Plumfield School, was a private school on Long Neck, educating students in pre-kindergarten through Grade 5. The school was closed in summer 2018. Darien is served by a local print/online weeklies, the Darien Times , four exclusively online local news websites, Darienite, HamletHub Darien,
792-539: The lowest recorded temperature was −15 °F (−26 °C) in 1968. Snowfall is generally frequent in winter while average precipitation is most common in September. As of the census of 2000, there were 19,607 people, 6,592 households, and 5,385 families residing in the town. The population density was 1,525.2 inhabitants per square mile (588.9/km ). There were 6,792 housing units at an average density of 203.9 inhabitants/km (528.3 persons/sq mi). The racial makeup of
825-610: The more moderate base, a trend referred to as the suburban revolt. In 2020, this trend continued, with Democrat and former Vice President Joe Biden winning over 60% of the vote and U.S. Representative Jim Himes winning it for the first time in his political career. Darien was one of only five towns in Connecticut that backed former Ohio Governor John Kasich over Donald Trump in the 2016 Republican presidential primary . Kasich received 1,284 votes (48.89%), ahead of Trump who garnered 1,070 votes (41.54 percent) and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas with 186 votes (7.22 percent). In
858-414: The next morning. They became business partners and began using a commercial kitchen. They were the only employees of the company at the time, so they created, distributed, and marketed the granola themselves. Initially, commercial distributors would not sell them raw materials, so they bought bulk from their local Costco . Synnott and Flatley pitched their products to organic and natural markets and increased
891-535: The parish prisoner for five months, including the Reverend Moses Mather , pastor of the parish. The Loyalist-Patriot conflict in Darien is the setting for the novel Tory Hole , the first book by children's author Louise Hall Tharp . Middlesex Parish was incorporated as the Town of Darien in 1820. According to the Darien Historical Society, the name Darien was decided upon when the residents of
924-447: The top 150 in the national rankings, and in the top 50 in STEM high schools in the United States. Darien has five elementary schools : Hindley School , Holmes School , Ox Ridge School , Royle School , and Tokeneke School . A $ 27 million addition was completed in 2000 to the town's middle school, Middlesex Middle School , and a new $ 73 million campus for Darien High School was completed in
957-699: The town clerk, probate judge, registrar of voters, tax collector and treasurer. The Board of Finance approves financial measures, including the town budget; the Board of Education controls the town's public schools; the Representative Town Meeting is the main legislative body of the town. Darien has the lowest property taxes of the Fairfield County suburbs of its size, with a mill rate of 15.35 being consistently lower than New Canaan at 15.985 and Westport at 18.09 (rates as of 2016 ). The town of Darien
990-469: The town could not agree on a name to replace Middlesex Parish, many families wanting it to be named after themselves. Some proposed naming the town "Belleville" in honor of Thaddeus Bell, a veteran of the revolutionary war. He apparently rejected the honor while supporting the Darien option. A sailor who had traveled to Isthmus of Darien , then part of the Spanish Empire , suggested the name Darien, which
1023-399: The town was 95.97% White , 0.45% African American , 0.04% Native American , 2.42% Asian , 0.03% Pacific Islander , 0.30% from other races, and 0.80% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.19% of the population. There were 6,592 households, out of which 46.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 74.5% were married couples living together, 5.6% had
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1056-527: Was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 96.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.7 males. In 2019, the median household income was $ 232,523 and the per capita income for the town was $ 116,564. Darien's library was founded in 1894. Andrew Carnegie offered funds for a library, and was rejected. The Darien Library is the most heavily utilized library in Connecticut. Darien maintain 11 parks comprising 203 acres (82 ha) of land. Approximately 30 acres (12 ha) of parkland
1089-438: Was eventually adopted by the people of the town. The town name is pronounced / d ɛər i ˈ æ n / (like "Dairy-Ann"), with stress on the last syllable, and has been referred to as such at least as far back as 1913. It is a common misconception to pronounce the town name as "Dairy-Anne", which many non-residents and non-long-term residents use. The village of Darien, Wisconsin shares this pronunciation; Residents say this
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