As trees come down along the Post Road, a new one will grow at the Senior Center.
Tomorrow (8:30 a.m.), a ceremony on the front lawn will honor Sue Pfister. The longtime director — and 35-year employee of Westport’s Department of Human Services — retired on December 31.
She oversaw construction of the existing building in 2004, and an expansion 12 years later.
This is not the first time Pfister will be feted. Sue’s Café — where weekday meals are served, and other festivities take place — is a key part of the Senior Center.
Sue Pfister
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Three finalists have been announced for the 10th annual TEAM Westport’s Teen Diversity Essay Contest.
Tyler Darden (a Staples High School senior), Annie Dizon (Greens Farms Academy senior) and Savvy Dreas (GFA) will vie for the first prize of $1,000. Runners-up will receive $750 and $500, respectively.
The winner will be announced Tuesday (April 18, 6 p.m., Westport Library).
The contest is open to any students in grades 9-12 attending a school in Westport, or those who live in Westport and go to school elsewhere.
The prompt this year was: “The Dialogue Challenge: Effective Engagement on Race, Ethnicity, Religion and LGBTQIA+.” In 1,000 words or less, students were asked to “reflect on your own interactions with people who have different racial, ethnic, religious, and/or LGBTQIA+ identities and/or perspectives. What kinds of conversations were particularly helpful in prompting you to rethink your beliefs or opinions, perhaps causing you to change your mind or enabling you to better understand others’ points of view? Based on these experiences, what specific actions would you suggest that individuals, schools, and/or town entities in Westport take to promote good-faith dialogue, reduce bias, and foster understanding?”
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Sustainable Westport celebrates Earth Day (Saturday, April 22, 8 to 11 a.m.) with a clean-up program at Wakeman Fields. It’s part of a town-wide program, sponsored by the Parks & Recreation Department.
Bags will be provided. Children are welcome.
And — as anyone who has been to Wakeman knows — there is plenty of trash to be picked up.
The Wakeman athletic field. You can’t see the garbage left by kids — and their parents — from here.
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The Westport Rotary Club has been named the Most Outstanding Large Club (over 34 members) in District 7980.
The Charles W. Pettengill Award will be presented at the club’s Tuesday (April 18) meeting. Selectwomen Jen Tooker and Andrea Moore will honor Westport Rotary for their accomplishments in Fairfield County, and to Rotary worldwide.
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Marianna (“Mollie) Oliver died recently, after a long illness. She was 98 years old.
A Westport resident for over 70 years, she worked as a translator, writer and editor for the United Nations and other international governmental organizations (IGOs) her entire professional life, until retiring in her 80s.
A native of Burnley in northwest England, she graduated with top honors (a “First”) in modern languages from Somerville College, Oxford in 1945.
She and Thomas Wood Oliver married in 1947. They moved to the US that year to work for the newly founded United Nations, first in Lake Success, Long Island and then in Manhattan following completion of UN headquarters.
Mollie worked full time as a translator of French and Spanish and later as an editor until some time after the birth of her 2 children in the early 1950s.
For the next 5 decades she was in much demand by the UN and other IGOs, including the UN’s Economic and Social Council, the Pan American Health Organization, and International Atomic Energy Agency, as both a translator and precis writer.
Mollie did these many jobs part-time, dividing the rest of her time between the family’s townhouse on the southern coast of Portugal, and the family home in Westport.
She became a member of the Westport Weston Community Theater soon after its founding in the 1950s. Over the next 6 decades she had many leading and supporting roles, including the early “The Lady’s Not for Burning.” Her final role was at the age of 90, in Agatha Christie’s “The Unexpected Guest.”
Mollie read avidly and widely, and was a keen gardener and birdwatcher, but first and foremost, her family says, “she was a loving wife, mother, and friend.”
She was predeceased by her husband of 48 years, Thomas Wood Oliver, in 1995, She is survived by her son Thomas Oliver of Westport and daughter Griselda Ann Oliver of Rockwall, Texas.
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For generations, the Compo Beach jetties have attracted all ages, for all kinds of activities.
Today’s “Westport … Naturally” photo shows 2 things to do there.
(Photo/DInkin Fotografix)
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And finally … in honor of the kid in the photo above:
(“06880” is always fishin’ for funds. If you’d like to support your hyper-local blog, please click here. Thank you!)
