Longtime New Canaan Volunteer To Be Honored At Gridiron Event

Information via the Gridiron Club of New Canaan

NEW CANAAN, CT — Wendy Coleman Dixon Hilboldt will be honored for her many years of community service at the 63rd annual Gridiron dinner April 24-25, 2025, at the Country Club of New Canaan.

According to a news release provided by the Gridiron Club of New Canaan, the event is open to the public, and all are welcome to attend both days' events.

Tickets will be available online beginning March 13, 2025. More information on tickets and pricing will soon be available on the club's website and Facebook page.

Since her youngest days, Hilboldt has been a volunteer. At New Canaan High School, she organized school dances and proms, worked the football concessions, and served as class officer, according to the Gridiron Club.

Hilboldt graduated from Skidmore College, where she was an RA and Head Resident, and a skiing and tennis instructor on weekends. At Skidmore, she also caught the EMT bug, earning an A in Advanced First Aid.

Hilboldt graduated with a degree in elementary education with department honors.

Returning home to New Canaan in 1978, Hilboldt quickly began giving back to her community. She became a resident tutor at the ABC House, worked at New Canaan High School as the coordinator of student activities, and served as a director of the Teen Center, where she choreographed two productions.

Hilboldt also joined the New Canaan Volunteer Ambulance Corps, where she has served with distinction for 46 years. She earned an degree in early childhood education from Fairfield University and has been a kindergarten teacher, math teacher, tutor and long-term substitute teacher over the years.

Hilboldt helped launch and grow the New Canaan Food Pantry. She has served on the board of the New Canaan Community Foundation and is currently on their Behavioral Health Committee.

Hilboldt and her husband, Jim, have three grown children, Emily, Molly and Andrew, as well as six grandchildren. They are long-time members and choristers at St. Mark's church, where Hilboldt has also been a stalwart May Fair volunteer for more than forty years.

No stranger to Gridiron, her husband was in the cast of the 1995 show honoring Hilboldt's father, Harry Coleman.

Each year, the Gridiron Club of New Canaan celebrates a local citizen who has set a great example of community spirit and leadership, with a dinner and roast, as the life of the "Fall Guy" is portrayed on stage in an original musical. The cast features a group of businessmen-by-day New Canaanites who shed all modesty to sing and dance their way through the life and times of the Fall Guy – this year, "Fall Gal" – and the evening is sure to prove entertaining for all.

The Gridiron Club donates net proceeds from the show to a charity of the honoree’s choosing. Hilboldt has chosen the New Canaan High School Scholarship Fund, where she has served on the Executive Board and Grant Committee since her father passed away in 2006, to be the 2025 recipient.

Anyone who wishes to be included on the club's mailing list is asked to visit www.gridironclubofnc.org and click "Sign Up for Our Newsletter" at the bottom of the page.