Walking through town the other day, alert “06880” reader Rick Leonard stopped to admire the renovation of the former Sherwood home on Church Lane, opposite the Y.
Peering through the chain link fence, he noticed old newspapers half buried in construction detritus.
Rick couldn’t see the name, but read the date: June 5, 1908. He was impressed with the good condition of the papers — and the headlines.
One read: “Thieves Steal Pastor’s Trousers.”
Another was titled “Rich Man Raids Wife, Clubman.”
What an exciting summer that must have been! And to think that now all we worry about are taxes, senior housing, education, the economy and distracted driving.
The good news from the Fresh Air Fund: Over 50 area families have signed up to take a child this summer.
The bad news: Approximately 800 kids still need to be placed.
Estrella -- Martha Mintzer's Fresh Air Fund "daughter" -- plays in the pool.
For 135 summers the Fresh Air Fund has given inner-city youngsters the chance for vacations. For nearly as many years, Westporters have opened their homes to young New Yorkers.
Families — some of whom develop ongoing relationships with the children they host, as well as their siblings and parents — do whatever activities they wish with their Fresh Air kids: the beach, Levitt, library programs and much more.
Camp Mahackeno takes Fresh Air Fund children for free (if there’s room).
A Staples student has offered free swim lessons to any youngsters.
Some families don’t do anything organized. Hanging around is plenty of fun too.
Ryan, Lauren and Matthew Beranek, with Della, do a typical summer activity: a lemonade stand.
Host families need not include young children. An empty-nester couple just took two girls. They — the kids and older parents — had a blast.
Fresh Air Fund youngsters come for 1 or 2 weeks. Potential host families — who can choose the gender and age range of “their” kids — must undergo an interview. The house is checked for safety. References are checked too.
Area coordinator Martha Mintzer is pleased with the 50 area families she’s got so far. It’s more than last year.
But she can’t help thinking about the hundreds still waiting to come.
(To volunteer as a Fresh Air Fund host, email martha_mintzer@yahoo.com, or call 203-226-6627.)
If you were near the cannons at Westport’s 4th 1st of July fireworks — or clicked a link on “06880” — you were entertained by For the Heart, Westport’s fresh-faced, energetic and mega-talented teenage singing group.
But as great as they sound, their back story is even more inspiring.
Six years ago, Bedford 7th grader Caley Beretta was enjoying Music Theater of Connecticut. She’d made new friends from throughout Fairfield County. “We wanted an excuse to get together and sing,” she recalls. On a whim, they called Westport Health Care Center (formerly Mediplex), and offered to perform.
They sang songs from their favorite musicals, like “Wicked” and “Rent.”
“They loved it, but we had no idea ‘Sound of Music’ would be better,” Caley laughs.
For the Heart -- 2011 version. (Photo by Kerry Long)
They had such a good time — and the feedback was so great — that Caley and her friends googled more assisted living facilities in the area. They created a song list, borrowed sheet music from MTC, rehearsed in her basement — and before long For the Heart “was legit,” Caley says.
First Night 2006 was their 1st non-elderly show. The crowd loved them — especially 9-year-old additions Melissa Beretta and Cara McNiff, who sang “Matchmaker.”
For the Heart kept singing. In 2009 Chris McNiff and a few others went to college. Caley followed the next year. Before leaving, she brought in new members.
The newcomers suggested Jake Landau as music director. Caley calls the rising Staples junior “incredibly talented and dedicated. He wowed us.”
The 12 members — including Stapleites Amanda Horowitz, Tyler Jent, August Laska, Grace McDavid-Seidner, Michelle Pauker, Emily Ressler and Clay Singer, plus Fairfield Ludlowe’s Steve Autore and Fairfield Warde’s Johnny Shea — form what Caley calls “For the Heart 2.0.”
Like a proud parent, she calls the current group “much more polished.” And, she says, “we now do the right songs for each audience.”
They’ve also amped up their performing schedule.
Right before Christmas, they made a memorable visit to the Westport Health Care Center.
They caroled room to room. It was an intensely personal experience, at an extremely vulnerable time for the elderly men and women.
Their smiles — and the reactions they get at all their shows — are what keep the For the Heart kids gonig.
A Christmas appearance.
After one performance, a woman told the teenagers that, long ago, she’d been an opera singer. When the group sang “Anything Goes,” a man said he once directed the show.
(As with all performers, they can’t always please everyone. One person was very offended that they didn’t know “Go Tell it on the Mountain” at Christmastime.)
One of For the Heart’s most memorable gigs was at a Bridgeport after-school program. The children sang along with Disney songs — and when the teenagers came off the stage to join them in the audience, the youngsters went wild.
This year, the group hopes to sing for new audiences. Children’s hospitals are high on their list.
Working around active teenagers’ schedules is not easy. But — despite commitments to their theater and choral groups, schoolwork, SAT courses and the bajillion other things kids today do — the members make For the Heart a high priority.
They sing 15 to 18 selections each show — and they learn new songs for every performance. The fireworks marked their 40th concert.
So how much money does For the Heart make?
Not a penny.
Every show is free.
In fact, they pay to perform. Sheet music purchases are a collective effort.
They carpool, to save gas. They borrow music stands. And, they note, both MTC and Staples Players director David Roth have been very helpful.
They’ve talked about a fundraising concert at Toquet Hall. But, Caley says, “what’s great is that this is not about money. It’s to do a show, and make people smile.”
“It’s all about the joy,” Amanda says. “It’s just fun. It makes me happy.”
Grace is gratified by the audience’s smiles. “It’s so great when they sing along, and then ask us to come back.”
“It’s so great to talk to some of the elderly audiences,” Melissa adds. “We hear their memories, and they tell us about when they performed or went to the theater.”
Caley knows that many of her talented performers will go on to accomplish great things, in a variety of venues.
But, she says, “it’s nice to get applause on a high school stage, or sing in a big concert, and 2 weeks later get up with your friends, and perform in jeans in some cafeteria.”
Those performances truly come From the Heart.
(Click below for a few of For the Heart’s greatest hits from the recent Compo Beach fireworks show.)
Not on the art — the judges’ decisions come later — but on the 38th annual Westport Arts Festival itself.
It’s been held on the river edge of Parker Harding Plaza and adjacent Gorham Island for a couple of years now. Before that, it was held in the middle of Main Street.
Some artists like the new location. A cooling breeze blows off the river, and the setting is much more scenic than before.
Other artists — not so much. They say there’s less foot traffic, less energy, and lower sales.
Of course, you can also blame the economy.
Or the gorgeous weather that sends folks scurrying to the beach, not the business district.
Judge for yourself. Both the site, and the art displayed there.
A photographer -- and potential customer -- takes a shot of some intriguing art.
Intriguing sculptures line Gorham Island.
This is not a sculpture. It’s a living statue. I’m sure this guy was much happier standing by the river — not the middle of Main Street — for hours on end.
A youngster finds artwork less interesting than a large tree, stuck in the middle of the Saugatuck River.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Post Road, the ever-smiling Mimi Greenlee oversees the controlled chaos that is the Westport Public Library's summer book sale.
Westporters like to compete in everything: SAT scores. Coolest cars. Most residential square footage.
We’re now Number 1 in a contest that matters more than most. We lead a competition among 14 Connecticut communities to achieve residential energy efficiencies
We’ve had the most home energy solution visits — 160 — since the Neighbor to Neighbor Energy Challenge began in March. (Feedback on those visits is near 100%.)
The town with the 2nd highest number of visits is waaaaay behind — only 75. Eat our emissions, Ridgefield!
We’ve also had the most home energy improvements completed, after those visits. That number — 7 — is pretty low. Still, it beats all the other towns — combined.
Westport project leader Alan Abramson credits the town — including civic leaders, non-profit groups and, ahem, “06880” — with publicizing the home energy visits, and inspiring action.
“As you can tell, we’ve been quite busy,” Abramson says.
“Our success has been primarily a function of a good initial game plan. Now we have to get better at execution of the community leader/community group/non-profit partnership model. And to figure out how to get more people to do the recommended upgrades.”
If you’re reading this with the a/c blasting, think about your bill. Then sign up for a home energy audit.
Just like 160 of your neighbors — with lower bills — have already done.
(To schedule a visit click here, or call 203-292-8088. Homeowners who are income-eligible are entitled to a free visit — contact Westport’s Human Services Department at 203-341-1050.)
Back in the day — when Gorham Island was a private residence, and Main Street had 2-way traffic — a couple of downtown merchants had an idea: Let’s put on an arts show!
38 years later, it’s still going strong.
Artwork -- or street performer? You decide.
Now called a “fine arts festival” (sponsored by the Downtown Merchants Association and complete with website), the event — set for 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. today, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. tomorrow — has morphed into something pretty big.
It’s moved from the Main Street sidewalks to the middle of the road. It expanded to Brooks Corner. Now it’s moved to the back side of the stores: Parker Harding Plaza and the now public Gorham Island.
A handful of artists (who paid just $25 to enter) has expanded to 140 (who pay much more).
In addition to oils, watercolors and charcoal, exhibiting artists include photographers, print makers and sculptors.
There are now street performers: mimes, stilt walkers, living statues, balloon artists and face painters. There’s music, refreshments from Blue Lemon, Da Pietro and Oscar’s.
But one part of the arts show has never changed. And probably never will.
Fish, it is said, don’t know that they’re surrounded by water.
(They also don’t know other important things, like not to bite bait.)
Westporters can be pretty fishy too.
We’re surrounded — from May through September, anyway — by spectacular greenery. An amazing canopy of trees creates a beautiful, lush landscape that we hardly seem to notice.
Just another summer day on High Point Road.
We’re all over the fall foliage. But our awesome verdant summers — meh.
I was reminded of this last weekend. Friends from Virginia were here; later that same day I chatted with a few former Stapleites back for their reunion, now living far from their hometown.
All commented on the greenery that surrounded — and awed — them.
The same scene many of us take for granted every day.
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