Martha Deegan nominates Marcy Sansolo as this week’s Unsung Hero. Martha writes:
Marcy started “What Up Westport” — a Facebook group serving thousands of Westport residents — the night before Thanksgiving in 2016, on a lark.
Marcy Sansolo
Within a few days, she lost interest. But her husband goaded her to post her daily thoughts, plus a song of the day (which might be relevant to her posts).
She has posted almost daily (and from 4 different countries) since then.
One of the things for which she has become marginally famous is “Social Media Experiments.”
The first was in June 2017. She asked the Facebook group if they thought she could collect 20 non-perishable items from them for a local food bank within 1 hour. They would meet her in the Westport Library parking lot.
That day, she collected over 1,000 items.
Since then she has collected hats, gloves and socks during the winter months; prom dresses; school supplies; Puerto Rico hurricane relief diapers (until shelves in Westport were completely depleted); numerous food drives; support for Parkland High School, and a yearly holiday gift drive, for which FB group members shop in stores or scour their drawers for gifts kids can give to their parents.
In the 7 years Marcy has run What Up Westport, she has organized 24 “Social Media Experiments.” That’s 3-4 a year, but she claims it’s not enough.
In addition, Marcy ran a “Music For Youth” band instrument drive for Bridgeport. That brought in well over 150 trumpets, trombones and more, for youngsters who could not afford them but loved to play.
Marcy Sansolo, with a small number of holiday toy drive donations.
She believes WUW brings out the best in people, by tapping into our best instincts.
Finally, Marcy is a great encourager to get us to shop locally, and support Westport’s many precious small businesses. She walks her dog while window shopping, and reports on many new shops.
PS: Marcy exists mainly on cotton candy grapes, and sumo oranges. When a new shipment of grapes hits Fresh Market, people send her texts.
The inside of her refrigerator is a marvel. I think she must have a tie-in with the Container Store. Such incredible organization!
(Marcy Sansolo is definitely an Unsung Hero. To join What Up Westport on Facebook, click here. To nominate an Unsung Hero, email 06880blog@gmail.com.)
(Unsung Hero is a weekly “06880” feature. To nominate a hero, email 06880blog@gmail.com. To support our work, please click here. Thank you!)
Marcy makes me laugh or cry, (or both) on a daily basis!!! She inspires me to be the best human that I can be. She introduces me to new music and moves me with her choices of older songs that I know but haven’t heard in a while.. I look forward to shopping for her various drives – in particular the holiday gift drive for students in Bridgeport.
I can’t say enough about how wonderful she and her blog are!!!!!!!
Marcy is a straight up bad ass 🇺🇸her love for Trader Joe’s parking lot too…cannot forget that. And every Christmas, her gift in the Hersheys kiss commercial with the, “phew!” Sound.
I love Marcy’s WUW posts. She puts into words what I’m feeling when the headlines tell us the world has gone crazy and she’s always there to remind us of the many reasons we have to be grateful – cotton candy grapes, dog friends, great library, spring days, community and more…
We love Marcy we are very lucky to have her in downtown Westport she does wonderful things for everyone
I’m the husband mentioned above, and I applaud Martha (and Dan) for giving Marcy thevrecognition she so richly deserves. And I can assure you she does more than window shop in town. (We have the credit card statements to prove it.)
Marcy has done a lot to help Bridgeport schools. She works tirelessly to help students