Category Archives: Teenagers

Toquet Hall: Touring The Town’s Teen Center

Posted on March 13, 2026 | 2 comments

As a homeschooled middle schooler, Quinn Fitts was vaguely aware of Toquet Hall.

Yet until, as a Staples High School freshman, she heard youth board members of the town’s teen center talk about an upcoming “’20s Night” — 1900s, not 2000s — she had never gone.

But she climbed the stairs to Toquet (it’s in one of those if-you-know,-you-know locations, in the alley between the Post Road and Jesup Road by the Westport Book Shop).

Toquet Hall’s funky exterior.

Quinn walked into the wide-open room, with couches, a stage, video games and snacks. She played table games, and card games.

“It was pretty cool,” she recalls.

Toquet Hall: the view from the stage.

Two years later, Quinn is on the Toquet Hall youth board herself.

They meet weekly. They plan, and run, events. “It’s a great way to get involved in the community of Westport,” she says.

And to offer fun, low-key activities to middle and high schoolers here.

As the youth board has done for nearly 3 decades — ever since the center opened in 1998, in a 19th-century building that was once an opera house — they’ve tried to get the word out that it is a great place to hang out.

Plenty to do for everyone, at Toquet Hall.

One of the first big events Quinn helped with was “Spicy Twos” — a “Hot Ones”-esque evening. More recently, she worked on another “20s Night.”

On Friday, March 20 Toquet Hall is open from 5 to 10 p.m., for board games, card games, video games (there’s a Switch, Wii, and 3 types of Smash Bros), pool, or just talking with friends.

Pool, video games, and much more.

The next event (Saturday, March 21) is “Jeopardy Night.” In the works: a “Star Wars” movie.

And of course, there is music.

The Townies get ready to play.

Toquet also offers events for middle schoolers. (Tonight — Friday — there’s a Super Smash Bros. tournament, from 7 to 9 p.m.). And it’s open for drop-ins after school for that age group too.

Quinn is part of Staples Players. Her friends enjoy Toquet Hall (and serve on its youth board).

She wants other friend groups to come too.

“It’s a fun place to hang out,” she notes. “We don’t have other places where you can just exist for free, except the library.”

For more information, including a calendar, click here. The Instagram is @toquethall.

(“06880” often covers Westport’s youth scene — plus everything else in town. If you enjoy stories like this, please click here to support our work. Thank you!)

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Posted in Downtown, Teenagers

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“Art, Jazz + Blues”: MoCA Exhibit Sings

Posted on March 11, 2026 | 2 comments

“06880” culture correspondent Robin Moyer Chung visited MoCA\CT’s new exhibition, “Art, Jazz + The Blues.” She reports:

In 2006 Westport artist Eric von Schmidt decided his master series, “Giants of the Blues,” should be hung in Staples High School, instead of the Smithsonian Institution.

Painted from the 1990s through 2004, the series of 7 paintings is an exhaustively researched visual account of legendary folk, blues and jazz creators and performers throughout the 20th century. The Smithsonian was eager to add it to their artistic and cultural accessions.

“Blues Piano Players” — from Eric von Schmidt’s “Giants of the Blues” — hung for 20 years in the Staples High School auditorium lobby (above). Most students, staff and theater-goers are unaware of its significance. (Photo/Lynn Untermeyer Miller)

But von Schmidt wanted the series to culturally enrich local students, as well as give back to Staples — his alma mater, which he credited with fostering his love of art.

Twenty years later these paintings — on long-term loan to Westport Public Art Collections (WestPAC), courtesy of the artist’s family — are largely ignored. Their historical importance is muted by the institutional halls and activity of a bustling school.

Planning “Art, Jazz + The Blues,” curators Anne Boberski and Ive Covaci knew that von Schmidt’s series should be its cornerstone. Boberski calls it “a lens to think about how music impacts visual arts.”

The curators then expanded von Schmidt’s narrative. with musically-themed works from the WestPAC collection and local artists.

Given that the exhibit features a number of Black figures, and the WestPAC collection is of primarily white artists (a current initiative will broaden its diversity), Boberski and Covaci reached out to area institutions for works from well-known African American artists like Faith Ringgold (whose works are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Guggenheim and Museum of Modern Art), Romare Bearden, Jack Whitten, and celebrated quilter Michael Cummings.

“Groovin’ High” (Faith Ringgold)

These appear alongside cover art for several David Brubeck records, drawn by Joan Miró and Arnold Roth, as well as a charming lithograph of Brubeck himself by Robert Risko.

Each piece displays an optimistic passion for its musical counterpart, manifested in colorful and chaotic patterns (the jazz room), or the energy of folks participating in or simply enjoying the soundtrack.

The exhibit is exuberant, and ties a deft string around the intertwining relationship of music, dance and art. Truly, it does “visualize sound, celebrate performance” of its period.

“Dave Brubeck” (Robert Risko)

Which brings us back to high school.

Each year MoCA\CT and WestPAC create a themed exhibit, coupled with works by student artists, based on a prompt associated with the theme.

This year, those works offer an interesting juxtaposition to the larger WestPAC show. The theme is “The Sound of Us.”

The number of submissions was fewer than usual. Perhaps that is because of the prompt: “Choose a song between 2020 to now and create a work of art that shows its effects on youth culture either through fashion, social interactions, speech, education, political alertness and activism, and life in general.”

That is an intriguing question — though personally I had a tricky time trying to answer it with words, let alone art. Few students could. I applaud those up for the challenge.

What it did effect were some unexpected and dispirited responses to today’s music, and its interdependence on videos.

A few examples:

Julia W., “Older”: “… music is no longer about the song but also the singer …many popular singers are young and ones that are not use Botox and plastic surgery to make them look younger. The title of my piece comes from a line in the song where people are telling the singer not to age.”

“Older” (Julia W.)

Mia C., “Stuck”: “My piece focuses on feeling like you’re stuck as everyone else moves around you. That there is just so much going on, you’re tempted to try everything but you don’t really know where to go, and that’s when you feel like you can’t escape.”

Josephine C.O., “American Teenager”: “My generation is growing up under the expectation of not being able to own a house, an extreme political divide, and an online world that we still haven’t quite figured out how to integrate into our lives.”

“American Teenager” (Josephine C.O.)

Many songs in today’s youth culture tackle tough subjects head-on, like mental health struggles, poverty, and violence. Hip hop, rap and emotionally honest pop lyrics have opened new veins of awareness and concern.

Fortunately, in this culture also exists a dialogue and acceptance of issues that were not available in years past.

As “Art Jazz + The Blues” is informed by the independence and resiliency of its age, “The Sound of Us” is informed by the angst, tension — and joy — of theirs.

(The exhibit runs through June 7. Click here for more information. To learn more about WestPAC, click here.)

(“06880” regularly covers Westport’s diverse arts scene. If you enjoy stories like this, please click here to support our work. Thank you!)

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Social Media Is Not Healthy For …

Posted on March 10, 2026 | 4 comments

It was the most iconic anti-war image of the Vietnam era: A flower, set against a yellow background, with the words — suggesting a child’s handwriting — “War is not healthy for children and other living things.”

Designed in 1965 by activist/artist/mother Lorraine Schneider, it became the logo for an organization called Another Mother for Peace.

It was incorporated into posters, flyers, newsletters, datebooks, buttons, cards and jewelry, and became an internationally recognized plea for peace.

More than half a century later, it’s back.

Westporter Cathy Utz and Fairfield resident Grayson Craddock have resurrected, redesigned and redeployed it, to fight another war: the one against social media.

Cathy Utz

A 1979 graduate of Staples High School, Utz was too young to participate in anti-Vietnam marches or rallies.

But she knew the poster well. It hung for years in the home of Estelle Margolis, the mother of a family friend and a longtime Westport peace advocate.

Today, Utz is a therapist. Her 3 sons are adults. But in her work she sees the negative impacts of social media on young people, and their families.

Craddock’s children are 15, 13 and 7. He too knows the pressures and problems caused by social media.

Craddock — a graphic designer — works with Utz’s husband, Tom Greenwald, in Broadway advertising.

Grayson Craddock

He was unfamiliar with the “War is not healthy …” design. But when Utz came to him with the idea of recreating it for the modern era, he understood the need.

And what was needed.

He had to transfer the feel of the poster, without infringing on creative rights. And it had to feel as if a young person made it.

Craddock worked with paper. He spent a day cutting out pieces, and arranging them with a glue stick. Then he took photos.

When Craddock showed his work to friends, they understood immediately. Even more tellingly, they noticed it evoked child’s play, like crafts, which have fallen out of favor lately.

Because of the pull of social media.

In the 1960s, Schneider’s art raised money for Another Mother for Peace.

Utz and Craddock — who donated all his time and talent — searched for a modern-day non-profit that could benefit from this one.

They found the Organization for Social Media Safety. Called “the first consumer protection organization exclusively focused on social media, they help protect against social media dangers like cyberbullying, sextortion, sexual harassment, anxiety, depression, suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, substance abuse and trafficking.

They work with schools, youth groups and corporations, and have developed both a K-12 curriculum and free program for parents.

Craddock also designed a website: SocialMediaIsNotHealthy.com. Through it, he and Utz offer merchandise with the updated design, including posters, mugs, t-shirts, hoodies, tote bags, bumper stickers, decals — and smartphone cases.

“We are well aware of the irony that our message has to go out via social media,” Utz says.

“Social media by itself is not bad. But we have to be aware of its bad effects.”

The website, she and Craddock hope, will “remind us to be more mindful, and dial our use back.”

(“06880” encourages limited social media use. But before you shut off your device today, please click here to contribute to “06880.” Our blog IS healthy, for children and other living things. Thanks!)

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Posted in Children, History, Local business, technology, Teenagers

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“Urinetown”: Staples Players Present “Pee-G” Show

Posted on March 4, 2026 | 7 comments

Big corporations are not charging us to take a leak — yet.

But the way things are going, you never know.

That dystopian — dysto-pee-an? — premise is the heart of “Urinetown.”

The curtain rises next week on Staples Players’ production of the Tony Award-winning satirical musical. There are 5 performances only: Thursday, March 12 (7 p.m.); Friday and Saturday, March 13 and 14 (7:30 p.m.), and Saturday and Sunday, March 14 and 15 (2 p.m.).

Grayson Jandora (center) as Officer Lockstock, with the ensemble of “Urinetown.”

This marks the third time that Players directors David Roth and Kerry Long have staged the darkly humorous show.

As with all Players revivals, there are important differences. The show is set in no specific time period. The first 2 times, Roth and Kerry imagined it in the 1940s. This time around, it’s a time “adjacent” to ours.

For the first time, there will be port-a-potties on stage.

And — in a nod both to “Urinetown’s” winking references to “Les Misérables,” and Players’ stunning production of that show last fall — Colin Walker, Jordan Janota and his tech crew have built a barricade out of toilet paper.

“Audiences who saw ‘Les Mis’ will definitely get the reference,” Long says.

She and Roth are as excited about this version as they were the first two.

“It’s very funny. The music and characters are great,” Roth says.

“And it’s really relevant today — the whole idea of big corporations taking advantage of poor people, and resources drying up.” (A 20-year drought has caused a government ban on private toilets; a single company now owns all the paid public toilets.)

Cat Betit (Penelope Pennywise) with Harry McLaughlin (Old Man Strong), and the ensemble. (Photos/Kerry Long)

The directors know that a show called “Urinetown” may cause parents with children to hesitate.

“It’s very appropriate for younger kids,” Roth says. “If your kids talk about peeing, this is fine for them.”

“Children will get the potty humor,” Long adds. “But adults understand the bigger themes — and they’re not as silly.”

As always, Players will collect donations for a good, theme-related cause. This time it’s a UNICEF’s Safe Water for Every Child Fund.

In a special twist, actors will be stationed at restroom doors during intermission. They won’t charge audience members to go — but they will have buckets for cash.

(Tickets are on sale now for “Urinetown.” Click here to purchase, and for more information.)

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Posted in Arts, Entertainment, Staples HS, Teenagers

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Rec Basketball: A Love Note

Posted on February 27, 2026 | 8 comments

Lee Shufro moved to Westport in 2020.  He serves on the executive boards of the Westport Youth Commission and Downtown Merchants Association. He is also a Rec Basketball coach. (His last year of organized basketball was the Stamford High School freshman team.)  

As March Madness approaches, Lee shoots the lights out with this paean to his passion. He writes:

Rec basketball holds a place dear to my heart. It is part of the mosaic that makes Westport such a great town.

Westport’s Park & Recreation Department operates the program, under the stewardship of Max Robbins.

Since 2019, he has done it all: promotion, registration, recruitment of commissioners and coaches, securing game officials, procurement of uniforms, creating practice and game schedules, and organizing the end-of-season events.

Fun is an important part of Rec Basketball.

The program includes pre-K and 1st- grade clinics, plus competitive leagues from 2nd grade through high school for boys and girls (though girls have not had a high school league since 2018).

This year there are 1,081 players — about 20% of all eligible students.

The program depends on adult volunteers. 174 have volunteered this year, mostly as coaches and league commissioners. As in other youth sports leagues, parents make the engine run.

I salute all the players’ parents. You schlep to schools for pick-ups and drop-offs.  You go to games intending just to watch, but you are cajoled into sitting at the scorer’s table, keeping track of fouls or maintaining the scoreboard.  Thank you! It truly does take a village.

Parents are part of the Rec Basketball village.

For the kids, it’s more than just a game. Their leagues became a social ecosystem. Post-draft Snapchats flow when kids find out who is on their team (and which one was “stacked”).

During the season they walk the halls, high-fiving a teammate who just scored their first basket or made a clutch free- throw.

Lunch tables buzz with game discussions, analyzed like an NBA finals game 7.

With 5 elementary schools feeding into 2 middle schools, and then into Staples, Rec Basketball serves as a bonding experience where everyone knows each other.

Rec’s formal rules, honed over decades, enshrine fundamental tenets of sportsmanship and equity.

First and most importantly: Everyone plays an equal amount of time. Rather than weed players out, Rec encourages players of all skill levels to participate. From the best players (often on travel teams) to kids who just like to hoop it up in their driveway, everyone plays the same. This rule is sacrosanct.

Playing …

Second: Great pains are taken to ensure the teams are fair. Leagues work together to draft players, so each team (at least on paper) is equal. That’s why we have tryouts – to evenly place players, for balanced rosters. Coaches want fun, fair and even contests.

All league regular season games are played for tournament seeding — which brings us to March Madness.

It’s the culmination of months of practice, and what distinguishes Westport’s league from other towns.

It is more than just a post-season tournament. Parks & Rec creates an entire format of fun games and experiences. From knock-out to 3-point tournaments, there is an activity for everyone.

After each team is eliminated, they get a mini-pizza party in the cafeteria. And of course, a champion is crowned. Queue up the “One Shining Moment” song!

… and warming up. (All photos courtesy of Lee Shufro)

I’ve been a volunteer coach since I moved to Westport in 2020 (my first season was post-Covid). Being a coach is one of the ways I’ve been welcomed to the town.

The season is long, stretching from mid-November tryouts to the championship in early March. Over the years, I’ve spent many hours in gyms rating players.  I’ve huddled with other coaches at Viva Zapata, drafting players with spreadsheets rivaling those found on Wall Street.

I’ve sent countless emails to parents to “remember to bring water to the game,” with play-by-play game stories. It’s been a true labor of love.

If I may speak for all players, coaches and parents: Just like all youth sports, it has been a massive commitment — but well worth it, on and off the court.

Many times I’ve been in a restaurant when a parent says hi, and thanks me for coaching their son years ago. I’ve formed bonds with other coaches, as we post game results and smooth over any issues via text chat. I’ve coached alongside other parents for years, building a rivalry that exists only in my head.

Lastly and most importantly, Rec Basketball has given me a platform to bond with my son.

We’ve been through it all. It’s crazy. but one of my fondest memories of Westport is his 5th  grade team’s run to the Final Four as the last seed.

With March Madness quickly approaching, the Rec season will come to its close.

As my son enters Staples next year, this merry-go-round will eventually stop. We will both graduate Rec Basketball. We will turn the page on another chapter of his childhood.

Goodbye and goodnight, Rec Basketball. I love thee!

(“06880” regularly covers Westport kids’ activities — and their parents’ too. If you appreciate our hyper-local, 24/7/365 focus, please click here to support our work. Thank you!)

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“Students Speak”: Looking Back And Ahead, Pressure All Around

Posted on February 24, 2026 | 10 comments

“Students Speak” is a regular feature of “06880.” We offer this space to Westport teenagers, to talk about anything important in their lives.

Sienna Tzou is a sophomore at Staples High School. She has lived in Westport since 2013.

She is a member of the Pre-med and Asian Students clubs, and co-president of Staples Writers’ Room. She competes regionally in bouldering and lead climbing, and has worked as a barista at Retreat Sweets and a CIT at Rock Climb Fairfield. Sienna tutors young students each week at the Westport Library. She enjoys reading, writing, and watching horror movies. Sienna writes:

It’s getting closer to the time when I have to know what I want to do with my life.

In the underappreciated years of middle school I tried much harder than any of my peers, likely even more than a handful of them combined. I outdid every part of my life that I could get my hands on.

Sienna Tzou

I participated in multiple sports, after-school clubs, and 3 early morning music ensembles. I studied SAT vocabulary daily, wrote notes of analysis on the books I read in my free time, made lists of target and safety universities I’d apply to, and loathed if even a shred of space wasn’t filled in my calendar.

I was always told that middle school didn’t matter, but I was relentless in earning straight A’s anyway. I felt the need to succeed in every subject, including the ones I struggled in. The last thing I’d want to do on a Friday evening became the only thing I did on Friday evenings.

I kept tearing away at my brittle and depleted supply of youthful vitality, rocking back and forth and rocketing off the seesaw of my emotions.

I wasn’t just bitten down; I was sawed down to the quick by everything that did not matter. The only person I was competing with was myself, but I was regrettably up against the most vile and ruthless competitor yet, no match for a middle-school kid.

Now that I look back, I don’t thank my previous self nor do any fond memories refract the occasional creep-ups of those times. If I take a look at the list of target schools I spent hours researching to devise, it would almost look like I was kidding myself.

Reality was just code for something unwarranted and extraterrestrial that existed in another dimension as a kid of 13 years.

This immense pressure has grown and developed, and thankfully subdued upon my entry to high school. It has still, nevertheless, attached the roots of its existence into my skull, thus being incurable.

Most kids from here come from parents who passed on the traits of ambition to succeed. From the looks of it, to fail would mean shaming the generations that had preceded us, breaking off the end of the chain. We simply don’t feel like we can afford being the weakest link.

Away from school: Sienna Tzou pursues one of her passions, at Rock Climb Fairfield.

This doesn’t apply for absolutely every teenager in Westport, but as soon as someone announces they’ll be taking 4 AP classes next year, a gang of teens will crowd the counselors’ suite to take 5. Most seek to be well-rounded, but does that leave any room for uniquely sharp edges?

Given that it’s the time of year for course selection, I’ve seen my peers compile AP after AP because it will “look good for resumes” or because they “can’t take fewer APs” than Academic Rival #12.

An abundantly resource-rich environment for personal growth and the cultivation of youthful learning has unfolded into a landscape of deadly competitive aptitude.

I can’t speak for everyone at Staples, but from observation from the span of my time in high school so far, taking the learning to heart without the side thought of a grade or credit is an endangered species.

From many accounts, students have locked themselves in their rooms from when they got home to after their entire family was asleep, drank multiple servings of caffeine when they felt at risk of falling asleep, and quit activities they genuinely enjoyed to pursue a grade in a class that wasn’t relevant to their interests.

What’s a grave eye opener is that up until we’ve turned 18 and rounded the corner to be sent off to face the world on our own, we are living in the smallest capsule of time in our lives.

The average person in the US lives for roughly 78 years. Sleep consumes 1/3 of their life, while 1/7 of their waking life is spent on social media. Gen Z spends increased hours on their phones, more than the average adult. Most Americans spend 60% of their lives working, the majority of them not finding joy in their role but only working the job for the sake of their paycheck.

A decade later: Where are they now?

How heavily we focus on our academics now paves the way to undergraduate university to grad school to careers to the rest of our lives. This is the age-old proverb we are spoonfed as soon as our conscious mind can comprehend this.

It’s not wrong, but our generation is accustomed to nothing else, and we therefore expect ourselves to be versions of perfection, some not even existent.

I’m at the juncture where I have to choose how I want to lead my life. I regret how extreme middle school was for me, but I know that what I’m pursuing will last me for the rest of the years I live

(“Students Speak” is open to all students who live or attend school in Westport. You can write on any topic relevant to your life. Send questions or submissions to 06880blog@gmail.com.)

(“06880” is your hyper-local blog. We exist for — and are supported by — our readers. Contributions are welcome! Please click here to make a tax-deductible donation. Thank you!)

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Roundup: The Blizzard, The Thing Date, The Job Bank …

Posted on February 23, 2026 | 1 comment

Westport and Weston seem to have weathered the Blizzard of 2026 well.

At least, judging from the low number of power outages.

As of 6 a.m., Eversource reported only 17 Westport customers without electricity. That’s 0.13% of the town. They all appeared to be in the Center Street area of Greens Farms.

Weston had 85 outages (2.17%).

Statewide, 8,104 residents had lost power (0.61.%).

Snow and wind is expected to continue through noon. Another 2 to 4 inches of snow are possible, with winds continuing at 25 to 35 miles an hour.

Stay warm and safe! If you need anything, please email 06880blog@gmail.com. We’ll do our best to help!

The view outside “06880” headquarters. (Photo/Dan Woog)

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An incorrect date was listed yesterday, in the story on The Thing’s VersoFest show this week.

The band appears this Friday (February 27, 8 p.m.), at the Westport Library. Click here for tickets and more information. Click here for yesterday’s piece on the group.

The Thing

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It may not seem like it now.

But summer begins in 121 days. And the Westport Youth Commission’s Student Job Bank has employers looking to hire teenagers.

The platform helps local businesses and organizations offer part-time, seasonal and intern positions to high school students. Jobs include retail work, business support, non-profit assistance, lifeguarding, camp counseling and more. The Job Bank can be found here. 

The Student Job Bank is free to businesses and students.

Businesses that have summer jobs need to fill out this form.

Students are encouraged to sign up for job alerts with their personal email so they will know when jobs are first posted.

Questions? Email kgodburn@westportct.gov.

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Speaking of high school students: Congratulations to Staples wrestlers Gavin Donaldson (120 pounds), Seamus Brannigan (126) and Julian Rousseau (215) — all first-place winners at Saturday’s state “LL” (extra large schools) tournament.

Congrats too to silver medalist Damian Rousseau.

Those 4 — plus Kai Schwartz (132) and Jessiah Jones (190) — move on to the state open meet this coming weekend.

 

Staples head coach Jordan Marion (far left), and Staples wrestlers at the LL tournament. First-place winners holding their bout sheets are (from left in the middle) Julian Rousseau, Gavin Donaldson and Seamus Brannigan.

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The landscape is very white today.

But yesterday morning, Laurie Sorensen’s yard was green and red.

She snapped this photo of a colorful cardinal, for today’s “Westport … Naturally” feature.

 

(Photo/Laurie Sorensen)

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And finally … what can we do, except:

(Tired of shoveling? Not ready to start yet? Relax … it’s the perfect time to click here and support “06880.” We can’t dig out your car. But we can continue to provide 24/7/365 news and info. Thank you!)

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Posted in Entertainment, Library, Local business, Teenagers, Weather

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VersoFest Concert Kickoff: It’s Jack Bradley’s Thing

Posted on February 22, 2026 | Leave a comment

Jack Bradley did not see the Doors, Yardbirds or Cream play at Staples High School.

He was born 30 years after those legendary concerts (and many others).

But the 2016 Weston High School graduate is a huge rock ‘n’ roll fan.

And to paraphrase the Byrds — another great band that played here — he wants to be a rock ‘n’ roll star.

Bradley is well on his way.

Jack Bradley

For the past few years, the guitarist’s band The Thing has drawn attention — and sold out shows across the US and Europe — with their music.

It mixes the Kinks, Grand Funk Railroad, Pink Floyd and garage and psychedelic bands of the 1960s and ’70s, with newer artists like The Black Keys.

This Friday (February 27, 8 p.m.), they kick off the Westport Library’s 5th annual VersoFest.

The actual 4-day music and media extravaganza takes place March 26-29. But The Thing will be on a national tour then. So the Library snagged them for this show. It will be the opening date of that tour.

Before he was a rocker, Bradley was a producer. Not many teenagers were as obsessed as he was with rock. So he created a makeshift studio in his Weston basement, recording and producing rappers.

But during a stint at Millbrook — after Fairfield Country Day School, and before Weston High — he’d met Michael Carter and Zane Acord. They bonded over their love for music their parents loved.

They stayed in touch after Bradley left. They scattered across the country — he went to Berklee College of Music in Boston Zane headed South, and Mike to the Pacific Northwest. When the pandemic hit, they reunited in a big farmhouse in Sharon, Connecticut.

They recruited a drummer, recorded there, then moved to Brooklyn. They won a Battle of the Bands at Our Wicked Lady — the famed (and now closed) music venue there — which kick-started their career.

Jack Bradley and The Thing.

The Thing was invited to South by Southwest. They bought a van, and for the past 2 1/2 years have played over 300 shows.

Thursday’s will be their first in Westport, though.

The route to the Library began in late 2024, when the band played at Fairfield Theater Company.

Bradley met Dick Wingate there. The longtime music industry executive and Westport resident — a key figure in past VersoFests — made the connection for this year.

Bradley is familiar with the event. Gang of Four kicked off their “Long Goodbye” tour at it last year. He was there, and met the band.

The Thing and friends, at Flushing Meadows Park.

Bradley looks forward to their own tour kickoff. He expects a crowd like many of their US shows: teenagers and grandparents. (Their European audiences tend to include “the whole town.”)

He hopes there will be plenty of fans in between. His own parents will be there, for sure. (His mother is very proud that Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon features The Thing often, on his Sirius XM show.)

From last year, Bradley knows what it’s like to hear and play music in a library. He’s not sure his bandmates do.

“If you haven’t been there, you don’t realize how cool” the venue is, he says.

But, he warns: “We’re loud!”

Also cool: the opening act.

Fever Dream is a 5-person group. Staples and Weston High musicians Seamus Brannigan, Griffin Delmhorst, Ari Sklar, Harry Schultz and Ezra Schwartz play covers of their favorite classic/alternative rock and grunge songs, along with originals they’ll release soon.

Fever Dream. Three members (top row) performed in Staples Players’ “Les Misérables” last fall.

Jack Bradley didn’t have a band, when he was in high school.

This Thursday, a large VersoFest crowd will see that once again, it’s The Thing.

For tickets and more information on The Thing show, click here. For the full VersoFest lineup — including Wyclef Jean, Ani DiFranco and much more — click here.

(“06880” regularly covers the local entertainment scene — including its many fascinating back stories. If you enjoy posts like this, please click here to support our work. Thank you!)

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Seniors Meet Seniors

Posted on February 13, 2026 | 5 comments

When Gunnar Eklund and Graysen Peters headed to the Senior Center last Friday to meet with members, they figured there would be a generation gap.

After all, they’re a very different type of senior: 12th graders.

But instead of trying to explain their lives to a bunch of older people, they settled into an easy conversation. Amid banter and laughter, both sides asked questions, and offered honest responses.

The Senior Center seniors surprised the Staples seniors with their knowledge of AI. The teenagers surprised the Baby Boomers and Silent Generation by not reflexively opposing the high school cellphone ban.

And when their time was up, they all stayed for another hour, chatting and listening and learning from each other.

Gunnar Eklund and Graysen Peters (standing), at the Senior Center.

The “Seniors Meet Seniors” event began with an invitation from the Center, to Steven Greenberg’s Friday morning chat group. Staples assistant principal Christine Cincotta recommended Gunnar and Graysen.

Through their activities — he’s on the debate team; she’s in Model UN; both competed nationally with Staples’ We the People class — they know how to communicate.

Still, they wondered how well they could connect with a much older group.

Yet barriers quickly fell. What they thought would be a “presentation” turned into, Gunnar says, “a Socratic seminar.”

Gunnar Eklund

The Senior Center attendees wanted to know, for example, the best way to communicate with their grandchildren. Together, they agreed that phone calls — scheduled consistently, if possible —  have much more impact than texts. Actual written letters are important too.

That resonated with the teens, They knew their own grandparents enjoyed connecting with them. But the conversation reinforced how important that is.

The men and women had heard about Staples’ cellphone ban. They were surprised — and pleased — to hear Gunnar and Graysen say they both feel more connected to others now, at lunch.

The older seniors were curious whether cursive writing is still taught. Graysen feels fortunate that her parents taught her how to sign her name; she and her friends struggle though to read cursive. Gunnar, meanwhile, learned it in a previous private school.

The Stapleites were surprised — and impressed — that the Senior Center members know a lot about artificial intelligence. Many use it.

Graysen Peters

When asked whether AI affects critical thinking, the teens offered personal perspectives.

Graysen said her teachers have taught her to use it in a good way. She knows how to fact-check. She does see some students use it as a shortcut.

Gunnar and his friends don’t really want to use it, he said; it takes away from critical thinking. He thinks many Staples teachers are too lenient about AI use.

Both explained about the technology to supposedly detect if students use artificial intelligence to write papers — and the harm that has come from false accusations.

Near the end, Gunnar asked what advice the seniors had for young people.

The main idea was simple: “Be kind!” (“Be kind on the road, too!” one joked.)

They’ve learned that being kind pays off in the long run, they told the teens.

“They said being kind makes you feel better,” Gunnar noted. “It gives you more positive experiences in life.”

Like, say, the experience of chatting about the world as it was, is, and will be one day, when today’s high school seniors are senior citizens.

Gunnar Eklund and Graysen Peters (middle row, 2nd and 4th from left), and the 2025 We the People team in Washington, DC.

(“06880” regularly covers Staples High School, the Senior Center — and everyone of every other age in Westport too. If you enjoy stories like this, please click here to support our work. Thanks!)

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TEAM Westport Teen Essay Contest Topic: Declaration Of Independence

Posted on February 11, 2026 | 5 comments

This year, America celebrates 250 years of the Declaration of Independence.

It’s a lot older than TEAM Westport. But it’s a perfect topic for the town commission’s 13th Annual Teen Diversity Essay Contest.

This year’s prompt is:

This year, the United States will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a document which Abraham Lincoln called “a rebuke and a stumbling-block to tyranny and oppression.”

The Declaration of Independence was a product of its time, drafted to rally the colonists to defy Great Britain, support the creation of an autonomous and independent nation and attract allies to its cause.

Nonetheless, its claims have been universalized and imbued with fresh meaning by people here and around the world who have regarded it as an enduring beacon of hope in their own work to seek equal rights, freedom and self-determination.

The famous words in the Declaration’s preamble proclaiming as a self-evident truth that all men are created equal and have inalienable rights endowed by their Creator, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness have been widely employed to assert the inherent dignity and fundamental human rights of each person.

The Declaration of Independence is a foundational document in American political and social life that also inspires TEAM Westport’s mission: to build a community where diversity is welcomed, and inclusion, respect, and belonging are actively extended to all who live, work, attend school, or visit in Westport — regardless of ethnicity, gender identity, race, religion, and sexual orientation.

 In 1,000 words or less please comment on the following:

 1) The relevance and value of the Declaration of Independence in your everyday life and your duties or obligations, if any, to uphold its principles for all people living within our democratic society;

AND…

2) Opportunities, if any, you believe town leaders (including fellow students, school officials, community members, and TEAM Westport) could create to act differently or additionally to reinforce the principles of the Declaration of Independence.

For the past 23 years, TEAM Westport has been a town-appointed committee focused on making Westport a welcoming community with respect to race, ethnicity, religion and LGBTQ+.

“With this contest every year, we seek student input on important topics,” said TEAM Westport chair Harold Bailey. “However, at this time and on this subject, nothing could be more relevant for contemplation.”  

The contest is open to all students in grades 9-12 who are Westport residents, or attend a Westport school (public or private).

Up to 3 cash prizes will be awarded. The first prize is $1,000; second prize is $750; third prize is $500.

The deadline is March 16. Winners will be honored in a Westport Library ceremony on April 28.

Click here for essay applications, the prompt, and contest entry rules.

2025 essay winners (from left): then-1st Selectwoman Jen Tooker, Westport Library director Bill Harmer, Annam Olasewere, Aanya Gandhi, Sienna Tzou, Souleye Kebe, Staples High principal Stafford Thomas, TEAM Westport chair Harold Bailey. (Photo/Dan Woog)

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