NORTH CANAAN — For five years, Jeremy Kaminski drove the 500-mile round trip from Philadelphia to North Canaan at least every other weekend. His love for this area grew almost as fast as his love for hometown girl Ashleigh Bergenty. He finally moved here — and now the couple just got word they have been selected as a partner family with Habitat for Humanity of Northwest Connecticut. Construction is expected to start as soon as weather permits at a site off of Salisbury Road (Route 44). It is almost directly across the street from where Bergenty grew up.“This is the greatest gift we’ve ever gotten in our lives,” Kaminski said. When contacted this past Sunday, he said Ashleigh was out with her mom, Debbie Bergenty, shopping for “furniture we can’t afford.”“She’s not really going to buy anything, but she’s so excited, she had to do something.”For Kaminski, the home they will help build seals his chosen fate to remain here. He likes being just a visitor to “the city” now (his mom still lives in Philly) and being able to enjoy the country full time — and go fishing whenever he wants. The couple’s new home will be adjacent to the Housatonic River.It will be the ninth build for Habitat for Humanity of Northwest Connecticut, and the first in North Canaan. The lot was acquired as part of a subdivision on the riverfront property.The couple who will eventually live there met on the Internet in 2002. About three years ago, Bergenty invited Kaminski to live here with her. She had moved into the apartment above her grandparents’ home on West Main Street. They settled into a happy life, which now includes Hunter James, their English springer spaniel, and guinea pigs Jack and Willy. She is the executive director at Wangum Village, a retirement community in North Canaan. He works at Hamilton Books in Falls Village.Meanwhile, they have been saving and looking for a home to buy. They’ve found that even though it’s supposed to be a buyer’s market sellers are not budging on their asking prices. “And everytime we get some money together for a down payment, something happens, like car repairs. It’s really hard to get ahead,” Kaminski said.A concern for their future is Bergenty’s multiple sclerosis, which may one day affect her mobility. The home will be on one story. That’s a typical Habitat approach — the organization feels it makes for safer builds — but it’s essential for this Habitat partner family. It will have two bedrooms and one large bathroom, with extra wide doorways.“We’re excited that it will be very green,” Kaminski said. “It will be built with things like a tankless hot water heater and radiant heat in the slab.”When visited at their home the next day, Bergenty said that, no, she had not (yet) bought any new furniture.It was she who received the phone call from Habitat, on April 1. When she called Kaminski, he was dubious.“But then I told myself it had to be true,” he said. “I couldn’t believe she would be so cruel as to make a joke out of that.”The word quickly spread among family, who also had to be reassured it wasn’t an April Fool’s Day prank.Bergenty said she is happy they will be living so close to her parents. Her brother, Joshua, has a home a short way down Salisbury Road. She will miss the convenience of walking in the town center — but the trade off is that it will be a quick trip to the river for fishing, and for swims for Hunter.Kaminski said they weren’t told specifically why they were selected, but that they are humbled by the honor. At the same time, he believes they deserve it, because they have the mindset of being community givers. “I know I want to volunteer for Habitat through the future. I am going to make sure building our home is not the end of the relationship.”
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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