Roundup: DMA, DPIC, I-95 …

Tickets are going fast for Saturday’s Westoberfest. We’ll drink to that!

The event (2 to 5 p.m., off Elm Street includes beer tasting from dozens of craft breweries; live music; food by Walrus Alley, Kneads Bakery, Lobstercraft and Little Pub; a children’s area run by the Artists’ Collective of Westport and MoCA; a street magician, bubbles and face painting; pumpkin and apple giveaways; food trucks, and vendors like Savvy + Grace.

Take-home tasting glasses with koozies are courtesy of Lux Bond & Green.

It’s all sponsored by the Westport Downtown Association. Click here for tickets, and more information.

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Speaking of downtown: The Downtown Plan Implementation Committee holds a public meeting tomorrow (Thursday, October 12, 8:30 a.m., Town Hall Room 201).

Remote and in-person comments from the public will be received as time is available, or via email: DPIC-comments@westportct.gov.

The agenda includes a review of the parking lots design master plan, pedestrian access, sustainability and maintenance.

Parker Harding Plaza

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If you wonder why the state Department of Transportation is temporarily closing I-95 Exit 17, during the bridge rehabilitation project, check out yesterday’s scene:

(Photo/Jared McGill)

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This Sunday (October 15, 9 a.m.), the Board of Finance and the Long Lots School Building Committee will make a site visit to the elementary school.

BOF chair Lee Caney told “06880” that the tour will give members of his committee “the opportunity to review the Long Lots property, so we will have a better understanding of the terrain when we begin to discuss the funding of the project.”

No funding request has yet been made. But the BOF is one of the bodies that will be involved during the approval process for the $100 million project.

The finance board makes regular site tours before voting on appropriations, Caney added.

Long Lots Elementary School

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Miggs Burroughs and Mark Yurkiw have finished installing their “Signs of Compassion” exhibit at the United Nations.

The work depicts Burroughs’ “Signs of Compassion” — 30 lenticular photos, showing local residents using sign language to recite Emily Dickinson’s poem of the same name — and Yurkiw’s accompanying Braille “prayer wheel” mantra, based on those he saw in Bhutan (including a wheelchair-accessible element).

It takes up the entire 100-foot wall in the UN lobby.

Ever since the United Nations moved into its Manhattan headquarters in 1951, the lobby’s rotating art exhibit has been sponsored by member nations. For what is believed to be the first time, the featured works are offered by individual artists.

This is also the first time that Connecticut artists are featured at the UN.

“Signs of Compassion” is open to the public now through November 20, weekdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Miggs Burroughs’ “Signs of Compassion,” in the UN lobby. Mark Yurkiw’s “prayer wheel” mantra is also displayed nearby.

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October’s Staples High Students of the Month include Joshua Jordan. He’s the senior who helped develop “06880”‘s very popular new app (available at the iPhone and Android stores).

Students of the Month “help make Staples a welcoming place for their peers and teachers alike. They are the ‘glue’ of the Staples community: the type of kind, cheerful, hard-working, trustworthy students that keep the high school together, making it the special place that it is.”

Congratulations to Joshua, and fellow senior Juan Nieves; juniors Mia Ferrigno and Evan Wallitt; sophomores Adam Turner and Addison Welling, and freshmen Autumn Kaye and Jaxsyn Liebert.

Staples’ October Students of the Month (from left): Joshua Jordan, Juan Nieves, Mia Ferrigno, Addison Welling, Adam Turner, Evan Wallitt, Autumn Kaye. Missing: Jaxsyn Liebert.

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Another Staples student of note: Andrew Rebello.

The junior was one of 5 national winners of a Working Support of Education (Wise) Financial Literacy Ambassadors Award.

Students must score at least 95 on the Wise certification test. Three rounds of judging follows. Each winner earned $1,000.

Andrew Rebello

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 Middle and high school students looking to serve their community can do walkways.

Westport’s Department of Health & Human Services is registering youngsters looking to help senior citizens with yardwork this fall and winter.

It’s a chance to make connections — and cash. Seniors are encouraged to pay $15 an hour (minimum wage), for outdoor work only.

Interested students should complete an enrollment form and receive parental permission to participate. Questions? Call 203-341-1050 or email humansrv@westportct.gov.

Seniors may request the “We Do Walkway” list through the same phone and email above.

Kids! Help seniors with shoveling (and raking). It’s fun (and profitable).

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Speaking of teenagers: Tomorrow, the Teen Awareness Group welcomes the International Save A Life Tour to Staples High.

The safe-driving program includes driving simulators. Students “get behind the wheel” to see the effects of impaired and distracted driving.

Sounds like a program that would benefit some adult drivers, too.

Distracted driving simulator.

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Longtime Westporters Suzanne Sheridan and Rozanne Gates will be (very deservedly) celebrated by the Triangle Community Center.

Fairfield County’s LGBTQ organization has named the music/photography/ activist couple its “Community” honorees. The award will be presented at TCC’s Visionary Gala October 21 (6:30 p.m., The Water’s Edge at Giovanni’s, Darien).

The event includes a DJ, food and cocktails, and silent and live auctions. Click here for tickets and more information.

Suzanne and Rozanne were instrumental in creating Fairfield County’s first Pride Festival in 2002, and urging the General Assembly to pass civil union legislation in 2005. As soon as the law was passed, they became the first Westport couple to be civilly united. They married legally in 2010.

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For the third year, Rach’s Hope Family Fun Walk will raise funds for food, transportation and lodging for people with loved ones in intensive care units.

Recent recipients include a Massachusetts family with a youngster suffering from a traumatic brain injury, a family whose child was critically injured at the Michigan State shooting, and a Fairfield County family with a child in critical care.

The event is October 22 (3 p.m., Compo Beach Ned Dimes Marina).

Rach’s Hope honors the 2015 Staples High School graduate who died from a rare illness at 21 years old, while at Cornell University.

The “Family Fun Walk” for everyone includes Rachel’s family. Her grandfather Michael Isenberg pledged to walk 1,000 miles yearly for Rach’s Hope. Participants will join him in walking the last mile, to fulfill his pledge.

They’ll also receive Rach’s Hope swag, hear music from Fairfield-based Ellis Island Band, and enjoy gourmet pizza and drinks from Pizza Pie Wagon and Greens Farms Spirit Shop.

To purchase tickets, donate or learn more about Rach’s Hope, click here. You can follow them on  Facebook and Instagram.

 Rach’s Hope, at Ned Dimes Marina.

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Republicans and Democrats can agree on one thing: If their kids are interested in cheer, they should to to the the Staples High School cheer team’s Election Day clinic (November 7, 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

The clinic — a fundraiser for the squad — sold out last year. The fee ($75 before November 1, $85 after) includes lunch and a t-shirt. Click here to register, and for more information.

Staples High School 2023 cheer team.

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