The 2nd Annual Charity Shopping Night will be held Thursday, Dec. 5 from 5-8 p.m. at Smith Insurance, 15 Liberty Way, Niantic. There will be more than 30 vendors, a raffle and door prizes. Wine and appetizers will be available. Admission is a new, unwrapped toy for the Tommy Toy Fund.

The Builders and Remodelers Association of Eastern Connecticut Inc. will celebrate 55 years at its Annual Awards and Installation of Officers Night on Friday, Dec. 6 at the Mystic Marriott.

The 2013 Awards Winners are: Distinguished Service, Eddie Abbiati, Ring's End; Associate of the Year, Holly Winslow, Tile America; Remodeler of the Year, David Preka, Advanced Improvements LLC; Builder of the Year, Thomas Buxton III, T.F. Buxton Ltd.; Clarence Bruninga Housing Hall of Fame, Rico Mastronunzio, Brom Builders.

The cost is $50 per person. For more information go to www.baec.net. The deadline to register is Monday.

The Greater Norwich Area Chamber of Commerce will hold its 2nd Annual Holiday Shop Local Bazaar Saturday, Dec. 7 from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Norwich, 10 Laura Blvd.

Santa will be available for visits from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Non-perishable food donations and unwrapped toys will be collected to support the local food banks and Tommy Toy Fund.

Paul X. Lupo of Easton has joined the Waterford accounting office of Frederick L. DiMella, CPA. Lupo is an enrolled agent and securities licensed who specializes in Trust and Estate Planning and Taxation. He can be reached at 850-443-8640.

The Chamber of Commerce of Eastern CT will host a Business After Hours on Wednesday, Dec. 4 at the Hilton Mystic. Guests are invited to enjoy hors d'oeuvres and drinks while networking and making new professional contacts from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The hotel is located at 20 Coogan Boulevard, just across the street from the Mystic Aquarium and Olde Mistick Village. Attendees are encouraged to bring a new, unwrapped toy in support of Toys for Tots.

Preceding the BAH will be a Member Benefit Workshop at 4 p.m. This casual orientation is designed for new members and/or any members who would like a refresher on all that the Chamber has to offer.

To learn more or RSVP for either event, visit www.ChamberECT.com/chamber-activities or call (860) 701-9113.

Scient Federal Credit Union and their partner, GreenPath Financial Wellness, teamed up to teach financial education to eighth-grade students at ISAAC school in New London as part of their Financial Cent$ program.

The credit union, located at 60 Colver Ave., Groton, provided ISAAC teachers with a lesson plan and gave the students a study guide and a practice check set. Over five one-hour sessions, students learned how to budget, write checks, manage money, and more. For more information on the Financial Cent$ program, contact Meghan Hopkins at 860.441.0937 or 860.389.1365.

For more information on the credit union, call 877.860.6928 or visit www.scientfcu.org.

Twenty-six Panera Bread bakery-cafes in Rhode Island, Southeastern Massachusetts and Greater Hartford/eastern Connecticut have kicked off their Holiday Gift Drive campaign.

Customers can participate by selecting a gift tag with a specific child's first name on it, and then purchasing the "wish list" items noted. Gifts should be brought back to the manager of the bakery-cafe by Monday, Dec. 9 unwrapped in a shopping or gift bag with the gift tag attached.

Groton and Waterford cafes are partnering with the Riverfront Children's Center based in Groton; Lisbon is working with the United Community & Family Services in Jewett City. The bakery-cafes are owned and operated by Panera Bread/Howley Bread Group based in Cumberland, R.I.

Jeremy Ponte of Pawcatuck and Ben Carroll of Westerly, of Precision Fitness of Pawcatuck, have become Level II Functional Movement Specialists. Ponte and Carroll spent three days in Philadelphia where they were taught the entire fundamentals of the Functional Movement Screen system, combining lecture with extensive hands-on lab work incorporating kettlebells and band as corrective tools to fix movement dysfunction.

By becoming a FMS-II, Ponte and Carroll can more effectively identify physical imbalances or weaknesses and strengthen them with simple corrective exercises.

For more information, call Todd Cambio at 860-287-3768 or email him at tcambio@GoPrecisionFitness.com.

The Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut will host its monthly Brown Bag Seminar on the subject of Social Media on Wednesday, Dec. 11 from noon to 1 p.m. An expert from Miranda Creative, the Norwich based marketing firm, will discuss anticipated social media trends for 2014 and how to make them work for your business.

This free event will be held at the Chamber office, 914 Hartford Turnpike, Waterford, and is open only to Chamber members. Space is limited and fills up quickly; to reserve a seat, please www.chamberECT.com/chamber-activities or call (860) 701-9113.

Gina Lavalley, Banquet Captain, Mystic Marriott Hotel & Spa, was recently honored by the Connecticut Lodging Association as a "Star of the Industry" during the CLA's 109th Annual Meeting, held Nov. 20 at the Mystic Marriott Hotel and Spa.

Lavalley was named Outstanding Food & Beverage Associate of the Year.

Two others associates from Waterford Hotel Group were recognized: John Fraher, General Manager, Marriott Hartford Downtown, Outstanding General Manager of the Year (over 151 rooms); and Wanda Baez, Housekeeping Room Attendant, Hilton Hartford, Outstanding Housekeeping Associate of the Year.

Waterford Hotel Group manages the 285-room Mystic Marriott Hotel & Spa, 409-room Marriott Hartford Downtown, 393-room Hilton Hartford, as well as 26 additional properties nationwide.

For more information, visit www.ctlodging.org and www.waterfordhotelgroup.com.

UCFS will host an Access Health CT enrollment event on Saturday, Dec. 7 from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. at The Edward & Mary Lord Family Health Center, 47 Town St., Norwich.

Certified Assisters and Application Counselors will be available to help with the online application process. This event is free and open to the public. Appointments are required. Call 860-822-4798 for more information or to schedule an appointment.

The Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut has organized a ribbon cutting for member business Grand Wine and Spirits in Groton on Tuesday, Dec. 3.

The shop has relocated two doors down from its previous location in the Groton Square Plaza on Route 12 into a larger, newly renovated facility that includes a wine tasting bar, a private event room, and other amenities.

Guests are invited to explore the new space, enjoy light refreshments, and meet the local contractors and designers who worked on the new store. The event begins at 6 p.m. There is no cost to attend. To learn more, visit www.chamberECT.com/chamber-activities or call (860) 701-9113.

The Greater Norwich Area Chamber of Commerce will hold a Business After Hours, Thursday, Dec. 5 from 5:30-7:30pm at Putnam Bank, 40 High St., Norwich. Participants are asked to bring new or gently used winter clothing for Thames Valley Council for Community Action, Inc.

Ninety Nine Restaurant & Pub raised more than $530,000 for almost 70 local chapters of the Boys & Girls Club in communities throughout New England and New York during the 4th annual Boys & Girls Club Fundraiser in October This year marks the 17th year of service to the organization and another company-wide fundraising record.

Each Ninety Nine Restaurant has a relationship at the local level with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. For more information, visit www.99restaurants.com or find them on Facebook.

Veteran financial advisers Romaine A. Macomb and Theresa V. Donatelli have joined Northstar Wealth Partners in Old Saybrook.

The advisers, previously with Essex Financial Services, have nearly five decades of experience in the field and collectively oversaw nearly $800 million in assets. They were joined by retirement plan coordinator Ellie Kasimir.

Northstar is part of LPL Financial LLC, the nation's largest independent broker-dealer and a wholly owned subsidiary of LPL Financial Holdings.

Macomb and Donatelli work with two other veteran advisers, Tyler Potts and J Addison McAraw, who joined Northstar last summer. The advisers work primarily with individuals having high net worth.

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