They’re fit, but friendly. They’re competitive, but close. They run for various reasons — to win a race, do their personal best, or simply finish — and at various paces, but they all love to run.
And they don’t get a lot of publicity.
For an activity that’s been around for over 60 years, the Westport Road Runners races get very little attention.
Unless you’re near Compo, Burying Hill Beach or Longshore on a Saturday morning, you don’t know the long-running (ho ho) series even exists.
The series of 10 races — each longer than the week before — culminates in a 10-miler the Saturday before Labor Day.
Road Runners was one of the only such events when it began in the 1960s. The Labor Day race was particularly popular, attracting some of the top athletes in the Northeast.
Westport’s Parks & Recreation Department has sponsored Road Runners since its inception. Co-sponsors now include Pequot Runners and Fleet Feet. The selectwoman’s office and Police Department offer important assistance.
And they’re off! The start of a Westport Road Runner race.
But the man making it work for nearly all that time — all but 3 of its 62 years — is Laddie Lawrence.
A star runner in Staples High School’s Class of 1964 — and now, for well over 50 years — the Wreckers’ cross country, indoor and outdoor track coach — he does it all.
He sets up the course, oversees every aspect of each race, then cleans up. There would be no Road Runners without Laddie Lawrence.
He just finished his 59th year as Road Runners director. If that sounds like a long time: It is.
Regulars who have served for years include Jim Gerweck, Charlie Wolgast, Ray Prezkop, Dave Parise, Anne Parise and Mary Parise.
This year’s group of recent alumni or current Staples athletes includes Morgan Samuel, Will Boberski, Oliver Samuel, Jonas Varnas, Michael Bernier, Ben Buchalter, Alex Price, Luke Rabacs, Daisy Seaborne, Preston Siroka, Nate Hordon, Mikhail Mikhalchuk, Oliver Galin, Connor O’Neill and Samuel Zwick Lavinsky.
All are today’s Unsung Heroes.
But Laddie Lawrence wins this week’s gold.
(Unsung Hero is a weekly “06880” feature. To nominate a hero, email 06880blog@gmail.com. To support our work, please click here. Thank you!)
As our town (and the rest of the nation) debates the impact of smartphones on kids, the Westport Public Schools take a lead role.
In partnership with Westport Together, the district is hosting Dr. Delaney Ruston. A Fulbright Scholar, physician and filmmaker, she created the 2016 documentary “Screenagers.“
The event — “Parenting Screenagers: Tips for Success” — is set for Monday, September 23 (7 p.m., Bedford Middle School auditorium). Ruston will share tools that help parents manage screen time issues.
Superintendent of schools Thomas Scarice says, “the community is well aware of my convictions about the negative impact that smartphones and social media have had on our children, from elementary through high school.
“I strongly encourage you to make every effort to attend. I will be there, alongside our families and school community.”
Speaking of food and drink: It’s called a Beer Garden, but Wakeman Town Farm’s Sunday, October 13 event (noon to 4 p.m.) is fun for the whole family.
The day includes live music by Hitch and the Giddy-Up + Rob Morton, lawn games, bubbles, animal encounters, and pumpkin crafts.
Among the lunch options: Pizza by Tony Pizza Napolitano, treats from Food Truck Refinery, and ice cream from Saugatuck Sweets and LANDTECH!
Adults enjoy local beers from Greens Farms Spirits, and spirits by 5th State Distillery.
Tickets are $10 for adults; kids go free. Food, beverage and craft purchases are a la carte. Proceeds benefit Wakeman Town Farm educational programs. Click here to purchase, and for more information.
As everyone some people only astronomers know, this Saturday is International Observe the Moon Night.
The annual worldwide event encourages observation and appreciation of (duh) the Moon.
Thanks to the Westport Astronomical Society, you can do it in their great observatory (182 Bayberry Lane, 8 p.m.).
If skies are clear, they’ll open the dome and use their telescopes to look at features on the waxing gibbous moon.
The WAS says: “The giant satellite has been Earth’s constant companion for an estimated 4.5 billion years, and viewed by every human that’s ever walked the Earth.
“It’s one of the solar system’s most remarkable objects, and quite likely a major reason that life even exists on our planet. The moon is an incredible body that has fascinated and puzzled our ancestors from the very first time we looked up.
“Don’t know your Mare from a Mons? Can’t tell a Sinus from a Vallis? A Crater from an Oceanus? Saturday is the night to find out. We’ll point out the Apollo landing sites as well as craters, the ‘oceans’ of the Moon, and features like the Straight Wall. See you for some lunacy at 8 p.m.”
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Westport chefs are on the menu at Harvesting Hope.
The benefit for Bridgeport Rescue Mission (September 19, 6 p.m., Aitoro Appliances, 401 Westport Avenue, Norwalk) — a night of delicious food tasting and philanthropy.
Among the 8 celebrity chefs cooking for guests: Bill Taibe (owner of Don Memo, The Whelk and Kawa Ni), and Matt Storch of Match Burger Lobster.
Extra course: A special presentation by Michel Nischan. The leader in sustainable food practices and 4-time James Beard Award winner is also a founder of the Westport Farmers Market.
Staples High School Class of 1961 graduate Michael Friedman brought his rock ‘n’ roll photos from 1969 to ’73 — of the Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, The Band and so many others — to yesterday’s Westport Rotary Club meeting.
Friedman — a producer and manager in the music business from the ’60s through the ’80s — described the long, strange trip his negatives took, from the heyday of rock to their discovery by his wife in 2017.
They’ve now been published in a book called “Exposed: The Lost Negatives and Untold Stories of Michael Friedman.”
Friedman told the Rotarians about many of the performers he represented, including the Stones, Joplin, Band, Tina Turner, Rita Coolidge and his “hero and inspiration,” Kris Kristofferson.
Michael Friedman, at yesterday’s Westport Rotary Club. (Photo/Dave Matlow)
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Weston resident Hilary Gibson died Saturday, in Weston. She was 66.
After graduating from WC Mepham High School on Long Island in 1975, she earned a BA from Tufts University in 1979, and an MBA from Columbia Business School in 1982.
Hilary worked in financial services as a chief of staff at Marine Midland, Lehman Brothers, CS First Boston and Credit Suisse Private Banking until 1998, when she retired.
She and her husband moved to Atlanta, and focused attention on their son Ted.
Hilary was an avid long distance bike rider, hiker and sailor. She trekked in the Himalayas, sailed in the Caribbean, and skiing in the East and West.
After living in the Netherlands while her husband was with ING, Hilary and the family returned to Westport in 2004. Among other activities, she was head of education at the Westport Historical Society.
Hilary is survived by her husband Weston; son of New York City; cousins RuthAnn Stafford of Boseman, Montana, and Toby Meshberg, of Fairfield, and brother, Zachary Wechsler of Torrance, California.
Funeral services will be held tomorrow (Thursday, September 12, 1 p.m., Temple Shalom, Norwalk. Burial will follow at Willowbrook Cemetery in Westport.
Shiva will be observed at the home of William Gibson in Weston tomorrow after the internment, until 8 p.m. For more information, to join a livestream, or to share a condolence message, click here.
And finally … in honor of both International Observe the Moon Night, and Harvesting Hope (stories above):
(You rely on “06880” to tell you what’s going on in Westport. We rely on our readers’ support to keep doing it. Please click here to make a tax-deductible contribution. Thank you!)
No matter what else goes on today — September 11, 2024 — the shadow of September 11, 2001 hangs over us all.
That horrible day changed our lives forever. We know it now — and we sensed it then.
Here’s what I wrote 3 days later — September 14, 2001 — in my Westport News “Woog’s World” column.
It was a bit past noon on Tuesday, the Tuesday that will change all of our lives forever.
Fifty miles from Westport smoke billowed from what, just hours before, was the World Trade Center.
A number of Westporters once worked there. The twin towers were never particularly beautiful, but in their own way they were majestic. Whether driving past them on the New Jersey Turnpike, flying near them coming in to the airport, or taking out-of-town friends or relatives to the top, we took a certain amount of pride in them.
We’re Westporters, but in a way we’re also New Yorkers. The World Trade Center symbolized that, though we live in suburban Connecticut, we all feel in some way connected to the most exciting, glamorous, powerful city in the world.
And now that same city was under attack. From the largest McMansion to the most modest Westport home, men and women frantically tried to make contact with spouses, relatives and friends who work in downtown Manhattan.
The iconic 9/11 photo was taken by Westport’s Spencer Platt. He lived near the Twin Towers on that awful morning.
At Staples High School, teenagers who grew up thinking the worst thing that can happen is wearing the wrong shirt or shoes, were engaged in a similar quest.
Many of their fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers work in New York. Many others knew loved ones who were flying that morning, or in Washington, or somewhere else that might possibly become the next city under siege.
Meanwhile, on Whitney Street, a pretty young woman dressed in her best late-summer clothes rode a bicycle down the road.
It was, after all, a beautiful day. Along the East Coast there was not a cloud n the sky — not, that is, unless you count the clouds filled with flames, dust and debris erupting from the collapse of the World Trade Center.
It was a perfect day to ride a bicycle, unless of course you were terrified you had lost a loved one, were glued to a television set wherever you could find one, or were so overwhelmed by grief and rage and fright and confusion because you had no idea what was next for America that riding a bicycle was absolutely the furthest thing from your mind.
On the other hand, perhaps riding a bicycle was exactly the right reaction. Perhaps doing something so innocent, so routine, so life-affirming, was just was some of us should have been doing.
If tragedy teaches us anything, it is that human beings react to stress in a variety of ways. Who is to say that riding a bicycle is not the perfect way to tell Osama bin Laden, or whoever turns out to be responsible for these dastardly deeds, that America’s spirit will not be broken?
But I could not have ridden a bicycle down the road on Tuesday. I sat, transfixed, devouring the television coverage of events that, in their own way, may turn out to be as transforming for this world as Pearl Harbor was nearly 60 years earlier.
I could not bear to watch what I was seeing, but neither could I tear myself away. Each time I saw the gaping holes in those two towers, every time I saw those enormous symbols of strength and power and (even in these economically shaky times) American prosperity crumble in upon themselves like a silly disaster movie, the scene was more surreal than the previous time.
Life will be equally surreal for all of us for a long time to come.
I wondered, as I watched the video shots of the jet planes slam into the World Trade Center over and over and over again, what must have been going through each passenger’s mind.
Like many Westporters, I fly often. Like most I grumble about the delays and crowded planes, but like them too I feel a secret, unspoken thrill every time the sky is clear, the air is blue and the scenery terrific. Tuesday was that kind of day.
For the rest of my life, I suspect, flying will never be the same. And the increased security we will face at every airport, on each plane, is only part of what I fear.
So much remains to be sorted out. We will hear, in the days to come, of Westporters who have lost family members and friends in the World Trade Center. We will hear too of those who have lost their jobs when their companies collapsed, either directly or indirectly, as a result of the terrorism.
Sherwood Island State Park is the site of Connecticut’s official 9/11 Memorial. (Photo/David Squires)
We will drive along the New Jersey Turnpike, or stand on a particular street in Manhattan, perhaps even take out-of-town guests to gaze at the landmark we will come to call “the place the twin towers used to be.”
Our casual grocery store and soccer sideline conversations will be filled with stories: who was where when the terror first hit, and what happened in the hours after.
Our newspapers and airwaves will be clogged with experts trying to explain — though that will never be possible — what it all means for us, in the short term and long term, as individuals and a society.
Our world has already changed, in ways that will take years, if not decades, to understand. We are nowhere close to comprehending the meaning of all this.
The world will go on, of course. Our planet will continue to spin; men and women will continue to commute to New York, and pretty women in Westport will continue to ride bicycles down Whitney Street.
At the same time, sadly, none of that will ever be the same.
Among the nearly 3,000 victims of 9/11, 161 were from Connecticut.
Two lived in Westport: Jonathan Uman and Bradley Vadas. Brothers Keith and Scott Coleman grew up here. All worked at the World Trade Center.
They were sons, fathers and brothers. They had much of their lives still ahead of them.
Today, we remember all those killed that day. Twenty-three years later, we still grieve.
At approximately 2:45 p.m. today (Tuesday, September 10), Westport Police were alerted to a person who had absconded supervision from St. Vincent’s Behavioral Health at 47 Long Lots Road.
The person has a history of behavioral health issues, as well as domestic violence arrests.
This information, as well as the time of day and school dismissal, guided our response in issuing a Nixle alert.
We set up a perimeter, deployed our drone team, and requested a K-9.
The party was on probation, and fitted with a mobile tracking bracelet. Working with Probation, we tracked him to Compo Road South, where an off-duty police officer located and detained the subject at approximately 3:35 pm.
The party was returned to St. Vincent’s Behavioral Health without issue. Westport Police will continue to investigate this incident.
One of the most well-known homes in Westport — the only one on the north (left) side of the Compo Cove footpath, just over the pedestrian bridge at Sherwood Mill Pond — may soon be a memory.
A “Demolition” sign hangs next to the front door of the house owned for years by Mike Katz, the cowboy hat-wearing man-about-town.
The 43 Compo Mill Cove home — built in 1942 — was originally located across the path, on the right. It boasts an unobstructed view of the Mill Pond. But it’s been unoccupied for quite a while, and seems not to have been maintained since then.
Compo Cove home, with demolition sign next to the front door. (Photo/Dinkin Fotografix)
That’s not the only beach neighborhood home on the chopping block
This one — at 21 Norwalk Avenue, off Soundview Drive — also bears a “Demolition” notice.
(Photo/Dan Woog)
It was built in 1920 — 104 years ago.
Clearly, it’s had some work done over the past century. The non-winterized cottages that were there for much of the 1900s were not like this.
It will sure be interesting to see what the new construction looks like.
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This Saturday’s Westport Country Playhouse’s gala features Emmy and Tony Award winner Kristin Chenoweth, Drama Desk Award-winning conductor and music director Mary-Mitchell Campbell — plus a host of Broadway performers — in a tribute to Cy Coleman (September 14, 7 p.m.).
Like any good benefit, this one includes some very cool live auction items. Among them:
2 tickets to Steve Martin & Martin Short’s “The Dukes of Funnytown!” at Foxwoods, and a post-show meet and greet with the stars.
4 tickets to “Wicked,” and a backstage tour to meet the cast.
Dinner for 10 catered by Gabriele’s, on the Playhouse stage with artistic director Mark Shanahan and managing director Beth Huisking.
Raffle boxes are available too, for a chance to win 2 jewelry pieces by designer Marco Bicego.
Speaking of the Playhouse: They kicked off another intriguing “Script in Hand” season last night, with “Satchel Paige and the Kansas City Swing.”
The show — about the last days of baseball’s Negro Leagues — was enthusiastically received.
The cast of “Satchel Paige,” with playwright/director Trey Ellis of Westport (back row, center) and Playhouse stage manager Megan Smith (front, 3rd from left). (Photo/Dave Matlow)
For decades, longtime Westport resident Jo Ann Miller was an executive in the garment industry.
When international travel wore her down, she became a top real estate agent.
All along, she continued to produce art. As a sculptor, she collaborated with the late Kelley Spearen on many projects.
She also wrote an account of her first attempt at a marathon. The foreward was by her former next door neighbor, and her father’s wing man: John Glenn.
Now Miller is out with a work of fiction. It’s about the aftermath of a July 4, 2004 SEAL team celebration in Iraq that went terribly wrong. The terrorists never forgot. Twenty years later, they seek revenge.
“Terrorist Revenge” will be available soon, at Amazon.
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Local author Michael Hendricks and artist Rebecca Ross greeted their many fans this weekend, at the Westport Book Shop.
They signed copies of “In the Beginning! A Love Story.”
Susie Kowalsky — who sent the photo below — is a huge fan. She bought 5 copies, “to share with the little ones I know and love.”
Rebecca Ross and Michael Hendricks, at the Westport Book Shop.
Guitarist Ed Cherry is well known for his long association with Dizzy Gillespie. Since the bandleader’s death in 1993, Cherry has worked with Paquito D’Rivera, Jon Faddis, John Patton, Hamiet Bluiett, Henry Threadgill, Paula West and Dr. Lonnie Smith.
He has recorded many albums as a leader, and appeared on countless records as a featured soloist.
This Thursday (September 12), he highlights Jazz at the Post (VFW Joseph J. Clinton Post 399; shows at 7:30 and 8:45 p.m.; dinner from 8 p.m.; $20 music cover, $15 for veterans and students; click here for reservations).
Cherry is joined by bassist Essiet Essiet, drummer Jason Tiemann and saxophonist Greg “The Jazz Rabbi” Wall.
Entrepreneur and real estate developer Stanley Seligson died peacefully at his Westport home, surrounded by his family, on Thursday. He was 90.
Stanley attended the Williston Northampton School, and the University of Connecticut.
Following his father’s death in 1953, Stanley assumed responsibility for the family’s wholesale business, S&S Tobacco. He grew the original company into one of the largest distributors of candy, tobacco, vending and arcade machines in the Northeast.
In 1979, Stanley formed Seligson Properties. The real estate firm has invested in, developed, managed and built nearly 3 million square feet of property. He was the driving force behind many key developments in Norwalk.
Stanley was dedicated to his hometown of Norwalk. He served as an advisor and board member to institutions including the Greater Norwalk Chamber of Commerce, Norwalk YMCA, Maritime Aquarium, Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum, and others
He was named Industry Man of the Year by the Anti-Defamation League and Distributor of the Year by Philip Morris, among other honors.
Stanley had a passion for travel. His family says he “enjoyed many of the finer things in life, but always remained down to earth. He equally valued the simple pleasures found at his homes in Connecticut and Florida.” Stanley cherished these moments.
Stanley was an avid golfer. He learned from top instructors, and played many renowned courses. He was a founding member of Rolling Hills Country Club in Wilton, and was a member of Birchwood Country Club in Westport; Burning Tree Club in Bethesda, Maryland; and Trump International Golf Club and The Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida.
He is survived by his wife of over 50 years, Carole; children Shana and Todd Seligson, sister Suzanne Serlin, and Mary Hill.
A funeral service will be held tomorrow (Wednesday, September 11, 11 a.m., Temple Israel), with a lunch at 2 p.m. at Rolling Hills Country Club in Wilton.
And finally … on this date in 1724, “Jesu, der du meine Seele” — one of Johan Sebastian Bach’s most famous church cantatas — was performed for the first time, in Leipzig.
(Stop! Don’t press the “bach” button — at least, not without first clicking here, to make a tax-deductible contribution to “06880.” Thank you!)
As America mourns the death of James Earl Jones — the man the New York Times calls “a stuttering farm child who became a voice of rolling thunder as one of America’s most versatile actors in a stage, film and television career that plumbed race relations, Shakespeare’s rhapsodic tragedies and the faceless menace of Darth Vader” — his many friends and fans at the Westport Playhouse have particularly fond memories.
Jones died yesterday at his home in Dutchess County, N.Y. He was 93.
In May of 2006, the actor graced the Playhouse stage in the stunning world premiere of the one-man show “Thurgood.” He played Thurgood Marshall, the Black attorney who rose from the streets of Baltimore to the US Supreme Court.
He was met backstage afterward by Cecilia Marshall, Thurgood’s widow; Jack Lemmon; Sigourney Weaver; Tom Brokaw; Vernon Jordan; Joseph Califano; Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee; Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, and others.
But he made time for many more than those world-famous men and women. Despite exhaustion after his long performance, he met with each person waiting at the stage door, one on one in his dressing room.
He said, “They pay my salary. I owe it to them.”
James Earl Jones, in the Westport Country Playhouse world premiere of “Thurgood.” (Photo/T. Charles Erickson)
He especially enjoyed meeting students. Jones visited Thurgood Marshall Middle School for Social Justice in Bridgeport, to plant a tree.
When asked to say a few words, he flipped his ball cap backwards and began speaking as Mufasa from The Lion King.
That enraptured the hundreds of youngsters. But when he switched to the voice of Darth Vader, the response was thunderous.
Jones talked to the students about the importance of reading, learning and family. He urged them to “find something you love to do and, no matter what anyone else says, do it the very best you can.”
Throughout his life — including his memorable run at the Westport Country Playhouse — James Earl Jones truly did all of that. (Hat tip: Pat Blaufuss)
James Earl Jones, at Bridgeport’s Thurgood Marshall School for Social Justice. (Photo/Patricia K. Weber)
Posted onSeptember 10, 2024|Comments Off on Westport’s Sister City: Report From The Ukrainian Front
Here in Westport, fall feels like the start of a new year.
The opening of school always brings the sense that anything is possible. Energy abounds.
And with so many activities ahead — the Westport Country Playhouse gala and Wakeman Town Farm Harvest Fest this weekend; LobsterFest and Westoberfest next weekend, just to name a few — excitement fills the crisp air.
Five thousand miles away in Lyman, Ukraine, the mood is far different.
Anxiety permeates our sister city. Russian troops lurk within shelling distance. Homes, schools, businesses and hospitals are destroyed. Thousands of residents have fled. Some have died.
A damaged home in Lyman …
But the couple of thousand who remain — including some children — are resolute.
The latest report comes from Bogdan Shestopalov. The other day, the director of operations for Ukraine Aid International — the non-profit founded by Westporters Brian and Marshall Mayer — spoke by Zoom with “06880.”
He was in Kyiv. The electricity was on — not always the case, even in the capital city.
Things are tense there — and all over the country, Bogdan noted.
… and apartment building …
Nearly a year after UAI delivered generators, communications equipment, other supplies — and, for the kids, Christmas gifts courtesy of our other sister city, Marigny, France — another difficult winter looms.
Russia’s front line is just 6 miles from Lyman, Bogdan says. There are trenches, and “active warfare.”
Artillery shells from so close are difficult to shoot down. Often, residents have just 3 or 4 minutes’ warning before explosions rock the town.
After each attack, it takes a while to restore power. Basic tasks like cooking are daily struggles.
… and another structure …
Bogdan estimates there are still 600 youngsters — including 150 toddlers — in Lyman. Because of damage to school buildings, and the dangers of attacks, classes take place in small “study centers” scattered everywhere.
“There’s a constant sense of stress,” Bogdan reports.
“People are tired, but resilient. Of course the longer this goes on, the more difficult it becomes.
“It’s exhausting. But there is no other way out. Ukrainians don’t allow ourselves to give up. That’s part of our culture and tradition.”
… and bridges.
Residents and town officials are grateful for Westport’s help, Bogdan says.
As winter approaches, there are new needs: generators, devices for heating and cooking, power banks, hygiene products.
As it has done since the war began, Ukraine Aid International uses cash donations to purchase goods in Europe, then deliver them directly to where they’re needed most.
Autumn 2024 is near. As we look forward to fun and fundraisers here, we also remember our friends in our sister city who anticipate a very different time.
(To donate to Ukraine Aid International, click here. Then click the “I want to support” box; next, select “Support for the City of Lyman.” Scroll down on that page for other donation options (mail, wire transfer and Venmo.)
Marshall Miller, co-founder of Ukraine Aid International, in Lyman.
Comments Off on Westport’s Sister City: Report From The Ukrainian Front
New signs on the (relatively) new fence on the way to Compo Cove note that this part of Sherwood Mill Pond is private property. But — as is also noted — fishermen are welcome. (Photo/Dinkin Fotografix)
Kitt Shapiro is a longtime Westport resident. She has an eclectic background, including owning WEST — the women’s boutique on Post Road East — and writing a book about her mother, the legendary Eartha Kitt.
She also produced Eartha Kitt shows and projects around the world. And she honors her mother’s legacy by raising awareness of colon cancer, and women’s health issues.
The other day, Kitt stopped by for an “06880” podcast chat on the Westport Library stage. We talked about WEST, women-owned small businesses here, and Westport in general; growing up as Eartha Kitt’s daughter, and much more.
Click here to help support “06880” via credit card or PayPal. Any amount is welcome, appreciated — and tax-deductible! Reader contributions keep this blog going. (Alternate methods: Please send a check to “06880”: PO Box 744, Westport, CT 06881. Or use Venmo: @blog06880. Or Zelle: dwoog@optonline.net. Thanks!)
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For an activity that’s been around for over 60 years, the Westport Road Runners races get very little attention.
