Governor Dannel P. Malloy had a busy schedule filled with stops throughout Fairfield County Thursday. His day included acting as the keynote speaker for the Stamford Chamber of Commerce meeting, grabbing a shake at the Norwalk Dairy King and heading to the Stepping Stones Museum.
"It was the 25th anniversary of the Chamber of Commerce and I gave a pretty good speech, I thought, but of course I always think all my talks are good," the governor joked as he left Dairy King.
While grabbing a shake after the Chamber of Commerce meeting with Senator Bob Duff, who accompanied Malloy on his trip around Norwalk, Malloy was unexpectedly met at the Dairy King by close to 40 students from Winston Preparatory High School in Norwalk.
Gerrard Evans' History class came to visit the shop where they heard Malloy would be present. The governor took approximately 10 minutes to field questions from the students, who pressed him about subjects ranging from balancing Connecticut's natural beauty with industrialization and factory growth to what the hardest parts of the job were.
"This was great, seeing the students was great," Malloy said. "I loved it. Its a wonderful school for kids who have different educational styles and needs. I had no idea they were going to be here but I loved them."
Savvas Ioannidis, who's been the owner of Dairy King for 36 years, said he was excited to have the governor visit.
"Governor Malloy comes to my place of business and 40 wonderful children also come to visit," he exclaimed. "This is not a bad deal. It's very exciting to meet him."
Malloy said the purpose of the day was to just get a feel for what's going on around town. He was also making stops at Wall Street Place Development and the board at Lockwood Matthews Mansion, and he'll be showing Norwalk a little more love Friday for the opening of the Ice House, the new ice skating rink.
"Just checking in with people, seeing what's going on," said Malloy. "I'm going to go take a look at the area where the grant is going to be spent on the bond commission. I'm going to go check out where we are and what's going on. Norwalk is close to my heart."
