Hundreds turn out for Noah event at Mountainside
 By Adam Wittenberg
 Record-Journal staff
  WALLINGFORD - Christian Bourdon was awestruck Saturday night, and for a good reason.
  Hundreds of people packed the Mountainside Outing Club for the "A Night for Noah Dance" to dance, listen to music and raise money for Noah's Ark of Hope, an organ­ization raising money for a playscape at Hubbard Park.
  "I'm overwhelmed," Bour­don said while surveying the crowd. "The support we got after Noah's accident was overwhelming, but it's three months after that and it's more and more. You kind of expect your family to be there for you, but to have all these friends and the community there is overwhelming."
  Bourdon's one-year-old son Noah died Aug. 11 after he fell from a playscape at Baldwin Pond.
  Since then, Bourdon and his wife, Sarah, have formed the non-profit foundation that is named for their son. They set out to raise $100,000 to­ward the cost of a handi­capped accessible playscape at the park, but have eclipsed that goal well ahead of sched­ule.
  "We initially set a goal of raising $100,000 in one year because we wanted it to be successful," said Christian Bourdon, the city's recreation programs supervisor. "We achieved that in two months, thanks in a large part to the Rotary," which has pledged a total of $50,000. The foundation's new goal is $175,000, Bourdon said. A playground committee has $50,000 on hand, and the foundation's money will fund the rest of the approximately $230,000 project.
  "Our main concern is to raise funds for this playscape so that (Noah's) name will live on," said Kathy Shower­da, who helped organize the dance. "We printed 800 tick­ets," which sold for $20 each. "People have been excellent. They just want to do more and more all the time."

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  Kathy's husband, Michael, is in the River Street Band, which played for the crowd" I just want everybody to have a good time," he said be­fore taking the stage. "There are some fundraisers that peo­ple have to drag themselves out to, but not this one."
  Nancy Crispino, who also helped plan the event, is close with the Bourdon family.
  "Our kids all went to school together" at Platt High School, Crispino said. "And my son, Matthew, played football with Chris at the University of New Hampshire."
  Bourdon, who played offen­sive tackle in college, said the New England Patriots offered him a free agent contract in 1995.
  "I had already stopped train­ing and chasing the dream," Bourdon said. "The Patriots of­fensive line coached called on the second day of the draft. I told him I'd already lost 20 pounds. Bill Parcells was the coach then, and he was notori­ous for selecting guys from big schools. I honestly think they would have brought me in, beat me up for three months and said ‘you're not going to make it.' " Instead of football, Bourdon earned a master's degree in public administration and took a job with the city.
  His connections with the community run deep, and Noah's tragedy has brought out friends from far and wide.
  "I went to school with Chris," said Kristy Giacco, who was at Mountainside with her husband, Tony. "He was a year ahead of me. This seemed like a great cause to support. We have two kids, ages three and one, so this hit close to home."
  "Baldwin Pond is about 100 yards from our house, so it real­ly hit home," Tony Giacco said. When asked if he planned to dance, Tony Giacco said his wife was more likely be seen on the dance floor.
  "If they play a few slow songs, I'll be out there," Giacco said.
 awittenberg@record-journal.com (203) 317-2231