…but this blue jay can’t wait.
(Photo/Irene Penny)
Today’s snowstorm was just as predicted: quick and heavy. Already, it seems to be winding down.
But it left plenty of cancellations in its wake.
Among them: tonight’s discussion on alternatives to coyote trapping and killing. It’s been rescheduled for Monday (February 13), 7 p.m. at Town Hall.
Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell say it. Bernie Sanders and Barack Obama say it too: In these polarized times, Americans should think not about what divides us, but what unites us.
Kyle Mendelson is actually doing something about it.
The 2010 Staples High School graduate is not a politician. He’s not a pundit, or a preacher. He’s just an ordinary guy, wanting to make a difference one day at a time.
Okay, maybe not so ordinary.
At Staples he was known for lacrosse. He played a year of D-I at Manhattan College, then transferred to Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles. He studied political science and social urban policy, focusing on the social causes and psychology of urban gangs. Each summer, he worked as a Compo Beach lifeguard.
Kyle Mendelson and his family, during his Staples High School lacrosse days.
In 2014 Kyle moved to New York City. He got involved in education reform and after-school programs, through New York Cares and the New York Urban Debate League. He’s now completing a post-bacc year, researching education policy.
Recently, on a run, he heard an interview with Maya Angelou. Her words inspired him to “help, understand and fall in love with the humans who make up this country again.”
He’d already been thinking about ways to become more socially active — without being overly political.
“Ever since this past election cycle began, I think — regardless of political preference — there was a trend to abandon our humanity and citizenry, and separate ourselves into categories.
“It seems like our culture has decided to tick boxes on what applies to them — socioeconomic standing, gender, ethnicity, religion, level of education, etc.”
Kyle hopes to find a way to address Americans as humans, not “divided individuals.”
Which is why this May, he’ll drive across the country. His route will take him through many red states. Along the way — stopping in Phoenix, El Paso, Austin, Houston, New Orleans, Montgomer, Atlanta, Charlotte, Washington, Baltimore and New York, ending in Bridgeport — he’ll meet with religious leaders, elected officials, non-profit executives and community organizers.
More importantly, Kyle will devote a full day in each city to volunteer work. That way, he says, he can “better understand and work, as an American, to help each community improve where it most needs.”
Kyle already has his route mapped out.
This won’t be his first cross country trip. In fact, driving across America is one of his passions.
He believes that seeing the nation by car allows each person to “truly understand the complexity of this country. It’s not often displayed in the media or pop culture,” which is dominated by urban hubs of social influence.
It’s one thing to see the broad expanse of America first hand. It’s another to “sit down, speak, meet and work with the human beings in each community to realize we’re all the same — just with different stories.”
He hopes to realize that “we all have our struggles, concerns and stresses. But we are all far more similar than dissimilar. And at the core of our division right now, we are all (for the most part) trying to do what is right and decent for us and our loved ones.”
Unfortunately, Kyle says, “we often forget that we’re part of something greater.” He hopes to help people realize that we can come together by “just loving, and helping one another through empathy.”
As he drives across the land, Kyle will carry some of Westport with him. Growing up here “110% shaped me into the person I am,” he says.
However, moving here from L.A. the summer before 7th grade was a shock. As his parents drove him around his new town, he looked for homeless people. He was shocked to realize he would not continue to see poverty.
As he got older, Kyle says, “I gained such an appreciation for the fact that I was from a place that was so highly educated and well read, and had a group of people who had powerful influence on the world around us.”
Seeing the economic and social dichotomy between Westport and Bridgeport sparked his interest in political science. Research in his major led him to education policy. Kyle says that “education is the all-powerful tool by which we can empower a community, and help it to reform from the inside out.”
Kyle Mendelson today.
Half of his cross country trip is selfless. The other half is “totally selfish.”
Personally, he hopes to “walk away with a renewed sense of patriotism and love for humans, who just want to love and be loved.”
He also wants to inspire each person he speaks or volunteers with to go and help others, talk to someone with a different background, or better understand that “our divisions don’t make us any less human.”
Even inspiring just one person to do that, he says, may create a ripple effect that “makes the world just a teeny tiny bit better.”
(Want to help Kyle Mendelson help others? He’s raising money for expenses; click here to help. Excess funds will be donated to organizations he partners with along the way. To suggest a community organization or leader for Kyle to partner with — or to join him for a leg — email BeKindDoGood.KTM@gmail.com)
Posted in People, Politics, Sports, Staples HS
In the past few years, media reporting on transgender issues has moved from rare and/or gawking to serious and respectful.
Because of press attention, many Americans now know that suicide is an enormous issue in the trans community. Over 40% of people identifying as transgender have attempted suicide — 92% of them before the age of 25.
But statistics are just numbers. Now, one of those suicides has struck very close to home.
Earlier this month, Emelia Worth killed herself at the Kent School. She was 18, and a few years earlier attended Saugatuck Elementary School. Students there knew her as Carl.
A few weeks before her death, Emelia had given a chapel talk to the school.
According to the Norwalk Hour, she said:
For once, I’ve actually chosen my words very carefully … Let me explain myself to you, not as Carl the experienced senior giving a chapel talk. But as Carl, the really scared child who is worried that they may have waited too long to get real.
After announcing she was battling depression, she said: “I am transgender. I puzzle every day why I came out a boy.”
Emelia Worth
Emelia’s mother, Elsa Worth, said that suicidal depression — not a lack of support from family, friends or school officials — led to her death.
Emelia — a 4-year class representative at Kent, senior prefect, orchestra and jazz band musician — had already been accepted to the Universities of New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Her mother told the Hour that she wanted to study linguistics and be a professor.
Worth also said that Emelia also planned to begin hormone treatments in March. The newspaper reported that Kent was planning to allow her to live in a girls’ dorm. No one there knew of any bullying.
Her death surprised a former Saugatuck El classmate. The boy — now a senior — had known Emelia as Carl: “an insanely good artist.” The two had camped out in New Hampshire as children, and played card games.
“I realized that he was gone. This kid who had only been happy, and made everyone around him happy, was dead because she was so sad.”
The senior says that at his public high school in Fairfield County (not Staples), there are 2 openly trans students.
“They are treated with the utmost respect,” he says. They can change in their own locker rooms if they choose, and use non-gendered bathrooms. Staples has the same options for trans students.
The senior says, “We treat our trans friends just like anyone else. They’re some of the nicest people I know.”
We’ll never know how much that feeling of being trapped in the wrong body contributed to Emelia’s depression. Sadly, we do know she leaves behind her mother and father (Steven), and brothers Bo and Orion.
Memorial services are set for Friday, February 10 (St. James Church, Keene, NH) and Tuesday, February 14 (Kent School). In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Emelia Carl ’17 Scholarship. Click here, or send to Kent School, PO Box 2006, Kent, CT 06757.
Posted in Education, Teenagers
Tagged CarlEmelia Worth, depression, Kent School, suicide, transgender youth
(Photo/Amy Schneider)
(Photo/Tricia Freeman)
On December 8, the script for a Super Bowl ad landed on John Noble’s desk.
The executive director for FIXER Partners — a 1981 Staples High School graduate — says, “It spoke to my core beliefs. That’s incredibly rare in advertising.”
He had just 7 weeks to help produce the spot. That would be a daunting challenge — let alone doing it over the holidays, knowing the audience would be yuuuuuge.
But Noble rose to the challenge. And the ad — for 84 Lumber — became one of the most talked-about in an already-crowded Super Bowl ad environment.
John Noble
Fox deemed the ad — depicting a migrant mother and daughter’s long, treacherous journey to America (including a massive wall) too controversial to show.
So Noble and the company — a Pennsylvania-based supplier of building materials — aired an edited 1:30 version. At the end, viewers were invited to “See the conclusion” at 84 Lumber’s website.
At the end of that 5:44 video, the words “The will to succeed is always welcome here” spoke to both the American spirit, and 84 Lumber’s desire to attract the best employees, wherever they are.
It’s already been viewed nearly 10 million times.
The moment the spot was shown Sunday night, Noble’s Facebook page blew up. Included were “some pretty negative right wing responses,” he tells “06880.”
Patiently, he posted that the spot was not about wide open borders, which “nobody wants.” Instead it’s about “good, honest, hard-working people.”
The big door at the end of the ad is “a visual metaphor for opening our country to those people. We want and need good moral people of all races, creeds and colors in this great country of ours.”
To Noble’s surprise, he engaged in “fairly positive and open dialogue” with some of the naysayers. “It felt good,” he adds.
Noble — whose father was a noted advertising executive — has been producing big commercials for many years. But this was the initial one for the company he recently launched, FIXER.
“It was a heck of a first project,” he laughs.
Building the wall, on the dusty Mexican set.
The University of Maryland and School of Visual Arts graduate cites Bedford Junior High School teachers Ed Hall, Sal Cassano and Barbara Candee as early influences.
“I wasn’t a particularly good student,” he notes. “In their own respective ways, each of those people coached or taught me that I would develop on my own schedule, and my own time. They were right.”
Noble’s mother recently celebrated a half century in the home she raised him in. Whenever he’s back east, working in New York, he stays here.
“Early evenings at the beach with a cold beer, chowing down an Art’s deli combo or a slice of Jordan’s garlic and onion pizza — life gets no better!” he says.
John Noble appreciates Westport — and America.
And he’s glad that he helped bring 84 Lumber’s message that this is the land of opportunity to a larger audience than even he imagined, 2 months ago.
(Hat tips: Ted Gangi, Brian Pettee, Chris Strausser, Russell Sherman and Suzanne Sherman Propp)
Posted in Media, People, Politics, Sports, Staples HS
Tagged 84 Lumber, FIXER Partners, John Noble, Super Bowl ads
Natalie Toraty is a Jewish Israeli, of Iranian descent.
She came to the US in 2004, to work as a diamond buyer. A single mom with 2 kids, she moved to Westport 5 years ago. “It’s a beautiful town,” Natalie says.
Following the American Dream, she wanted to be her own boss. She quit her job, used most of her savings, and last September opened Noya Fine Jewelry at 18 Riverside Avenue. It’s a fine place, but like any local business it’s had its struggles.
But that hasn’t stopped Natalie from giving back.
In the aftermath of President Trump’s ban on Muslims from 7 countries, she and a few employees were talking.
They remarked that this is Valentine’s season. But they did not see any love.
So they came up with a lovely idea. Noya Fine Jewelry will contribute a percentage of proceeds generated from its Valentine’s Day Kabana trunk show — and throughout the entire month — to Amaliah. The Israeli-American organization provides medical care and relief to Syrian refugee families, and supports projects creating safe, secure zones in that war-torn land.
Natalie Toraty (left) and her business partner Renee Serfaty.
The refugee crisis is very personal. The mother and sister of a designer who works closely with Natalie have been stuck in Damascus for a long time.
Natalie and her team have changed Noya’s tagline — “Just for You” — into the deeper, more substantive “Just for Them.” The window displays that message in 4 languages.
It’s a call, Natalie says, for the community to come together, share love, and support refugees.
Reaction has been powerful. Customers have appreciated what Noya is doing.
A special “Share the Love” event takes place this Saturday (February 11, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.) at Noya Fine Jewelry, 18 Riverside Avenue. But you can stop in any time all month long, to help Amaliah.
Part of the Kabana collection.
Posted in Arts, Local business, Organizations, People, Politics
Tagged Kabana, Natalie Toraty, Noya Fine Jewelry, Syrian refugees
Jon Walker died last week, of complications from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and frontotemporal degeneration, a rare brain disease. He was 46 years old.
Jon Walker
Jon was part of the very tight-knit Staples High School Class of 1988 — a group that’s remained loyal and true ever since graduation.
Jon was a 3-sport athlete, with a sly wit and tremendous “people skills.” I was fortunate to coach him in youth soccer, and was overwhelmed to see how many friends, teammates and admirers attended his memorial service on Sunday.
Jem Sollinger was among those who delivered warm, eloquent eulogies. He said:
Westport in the 1970s was classic suburbia. On any given weekend the fields and courts at Coleytown, Long Lots, Rogers, Kowalsky, Gault and Bedford buzzed with activity. We competed in Little League baseball, rec and travel soccer, and YMCA basketball.
In a town filled with many outstanding adolescent athletes, it was Jonathan Walker who truly stood out.
His uncanny athleticism bordered on artistry. To watch Jon swing a baseball bat was an experience. It was effortless, and so smooth. He had unrivaled hand-eye coordination.
Jon was also a master strategist. He understood and executed gamesmanship before it was even part of athletic nomenclature. If his brother Sam was (and still is) the Luke Skywalker of “gamesmanship,” Jon was Obi Wan. He knew how to exploit others’ weaknesses, and maximize his strengths.
Jon was as clutch as they came. His heroics under pressure cooker atmospheres are still talked about with great admiration and awe.
Slotting the deciding penalty kick side panel in the U-16 state cup soccer quarterfinal against Wallingford; draining a fadeaway buzzer-beater for Staples basketball his senior year, or scoring the winning goal in sudden death overtime in the 1987 FCIAC soccer championship before 2,000 fans under the lights at Wilton High School — Jon was clutch. With the game on the line, he was your man.
Jon Walker (raised hand) celebrates with Staples High School teammates, after scoring an overtime goal to win the 1987 FCIAC championship.
He played 3 years of varsity basketball and 2 years of varsity soccer at Staples. Late winter of his senior year, sitting at lunch, Jon and Rob Capria got into heated banter about baseball. Rob was adamant that Jon did not have the ability to make the team — especially after 4 years away from the sport.
On a dare — having not picked up a bat or glove for that long — Jon went out for the team. Five games into the season, he was the starting 3rd baseman. He was a natural.
After high school Jon ventured to George Washington University for a year, before transferring. At Skidmore he played varsity basketball for 1 year, and varsity soccer his junior and senior years.
Coupled with his athleticism was Jon’s love of competition. This past October, we played 9 holes of golf at Longshore. His ALS limited his mobility to the point where it took him 45 seconds to tee up the ball at each hole. He had no ability to speak.
His longtime friend Andrew Udell — whose support and commitment to Jon over the past year has known no bounds — shot a 46. I shot a 57.
Jon shot a 43.
Last fall, Jon Walker was a popular presence at Staples High School soccer games. He had lost the ability to speak, but he was embraced by the team, and responded with thumb’s-up signs of encouragement. Here he is flanked by captains Josh Berman, Spencer Daniels and Daniel Reid.
Jon held those closest to him to very high standards. The closer you were to him, the tougher he was on you. He loved his mother Sandra, his father Howard, and his brother Sam very much. But as the first-born he could push boundaries. He was tough on Sam and would sometimes lose his patience. It was Howard, who Jon resembled on so many levels, who often reeled him in. “Jonathan: You keep talking to Samuel that way, you won’t be sleeping under this roof tonight.”
Usually at this point Jon would say, “Lets go to your house and get a BSIT” — an acronym he made up for the “Best Sandwiches in Town.” Off we would go to 102 Bayberry, where we plowed through Gold’s cold cuts, and he would play with my parents’ dog Willy.
With a tight circle of friends — many of whom rarely shied away from the spotlight — Jon kept a lower profile. But he was always present. A quiet leader, he knew how to motivate and push buttons.
Jon was a dichotomy. In many ways he was very simple. He didn’t embrace the urban setting of DC his first year in college. But he flourished in the intimate community setting of Saratoga and Skidmore. He never had the desire to move to New York or any other city. He loved Fairfield County.
He didn’t like change. He worked for the same company for over 20 years. (He did leave for a brief stint as a trader. His New York commute lasted 3 weeks.) Jon could have thrived in that scene, but it wasn’t for him. He loved the simplicity of the suburbs, and playing basketball, soccer, and softball through his 40s.
As much of a “country boy” as he was, Jon’s street smarts were off the charts. When we were 16 Jon, George Llorens, Ryan Burke and I took a trip to New York to see a Knicks game.
As we exited the Garden, a hustler looking to capitalize on 4 sheltered suburbanites said, “I get you a cab.” Unbeknownst to us, this wasn’t a free service.
After hailing a taxi, the man looked at us and said “1 dollar each.” I handed him a dollar and got in the cab. George and Ryan did the same. Jon looked the guy in the eye, shook his hand and said, “Thank you very much.”
That was JW. He was street savvy, skeptical, and took great pride in not being manipulated or taken advantage of.
The 1986 Connecticut state soccer champion Westport Warriors team. Jon Walker is in the back row, 2nd from left.
Jon’s competitive drive and relentlessness served him well when he met Bridget. He pursued her with abandon, and knew he had found his soulmate. Wildly loyal to each other, they navigated the challenges that can come with marriage with sensitivity, fearlessness and passion. They were true college sweethearts.
Jon loved being a dad. If there was anyone he loved as much as Bridget, it was Ellery. She lit up his face. And his adoration for William knew no bounds. He loved sending video clips of William playing indoor soccer. He was a proud soccer dad.
Jon battled his ALS and FTP with courage and a smile. As his neurological diseases progressed, he became much simpler. He smiled more. He said “I love you” often. The grace he displayed as an athlete came to the forefront of his persona at the end.
How lucky we all were to have had him as a friend, and to have been on his “team.”
Posted in People, Sports, Staples HS
Tagged Jem Sollinger, Jon Walker, Staples High School boys soccer
Well, at least for one person.
Alert “06880” reader Jaime Bairaktaris spotted this sign at our town’s favorite (okay, only) car wash:
Intrigued, he asked the cashier for the back story.
Apparently, Tesla vehicles cannot be put into neutral and pulled through the car wash tunnel — unless someone sits in the front seat.
Because every Westport Wash & Wax customer must get out of the car, this causes quite an inconvenience. As soon as you step out of a Tesla, it stops moving.
So a free detailing awaits any geek who can figure out how to let Teslas remain in neutral, even without anyone in the front.
Gentlemen, start your engines!
Posted in Local business, technology, Transportation
When Staples High School students plan summer internships, they often gravitate toward their interests: Fashion. Journalism. Sports.
Sarah Barnett is no different. But although the senior serves as dance captain for Staples Players and dances with the Performing Arts Center of Connecticut, last summer she focused on another passion.
Sarah worked at Gastroenterology Associates of Fairfield County.
Where, as an unpaid intern, she researched different types of preparations for colonoscopies.
Sarah Barnett, hard at work.
That idea did not come out of the blue. Sarah — who is interested in a caerer in medicine — has taken Staples’ high-level Authentic Science Research course since sophomore year.
Last year she designed an independent project with teachers Karen Thompson and Philip Abraham. The aim was to discover the best colonoscopy prep method. As she amassed information, she realized that every doctor’s report was subjective. Her data was skewed by each physician’s personality.
That work — and her summer internship — helped her find a scale that produced much better data.
Which is how last month — while most of her friends took mid-terms at Staples — Sarah found herself in Singapore.
There, she presented her information in a research paper competition, as part of the very prestigious International Youth Science Forum.
Sarah Barnett presenting her research to a judge at the International Youth Science Forum in Singapore.
She traveled to the Hwa Chong Institution with her teacher Ms. Thompson, and Staples junior Charlie Colasurdo. He took part in a science master classes with — among others — 4 Nobel laureates.
Sarah’s event was not for the faint-hearted. She presented to 2 highly qualified judges, then answered questions.
Of 30 participants, Sarah was selected as one of only 5 semifinalists. That entailed another round of presentations and questions.
She did not advance to the finals. But that did not quench Sarah’s enthusiasm for colonoscopy prep — or research in general.
“It was an amazing experience,” she says. “It made me so excited for a future in science. I love finding new, unexpected thing to study.”
Noting “it was so inspiring to be around bright, passionate students,” she also appreciated the cultural aspect of the International Forum. There were presentations on countries around the world. Sarah made friends with students form Brunei and Estonia — places, she admits, she’d barely heard of.
Sarah Barnett (center). Her Singapore experience exposed her to students from around the globe.
Back in Westport, she’s preparing for the Connecticut Science Fair. While it sounds small potatoes compared to Singapore, it’s the first step to qualify for the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Her goals are twofold: win a scholarship, and get important feedback from judges.
Sarah is also making plans to study colonoscopy prep from the patients’ side. She’ll look at factors like cost and comfort — while of course making sure her data is as objective as possible.
This summer, she hopes for an internship at Yale in neurophysiology in cell biology. Sarah admits, “I don’t know anything about it, but I love neuroscience.”
She’s also applying to Earthplace, for a research project in water cleanliness. That’s another of Sarah Barnett’s passions.
Kids these days!
Posted in Categories
Tricia Freeman spotted this bald eagle yesterday, enjoying a pre-Super Bowl meal at Nash’s Pond.
Fun fact: America’s national bird is not actually “bald.” The name comes from an older meaning of the word: “white-headed.”
Posted in Environment
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