Mike Sansur — a highly regarded and longtime technology education teacher at Staples High School — was killed in an automobile accident yesterday morning.
Mike Sansur
According to The Day of New London, Sansur — who was 52 years old, and lived in Darien — was driving northbound on I-95. He stopped in the left lane for an unknown reason, between Exits 70 and 71 in Old Lyme, just before 7:30 a.m.
Fernando Dixon, 26, of Oxford, driving a Kia, rear-ended the car. Sansur was taken to Lawrence + Memorial Hospital, where he died of his injuries,
His son Michael, 21. of Milford, was a passenger. He was taken to Yale New Haven Hospital by Life Star helicopter. Dixon sustained minor injuries.
Sansur was in his 18th year at Staples High School. He taught previously at Ansonia High.
In a message to Westport families and staff, superintendent of schools Thomas Scarice called Sansur a “beloved” teacher.
“We are devastated by this news, and our hearts are with the Sansur family during this difficult time,” he said.
“Mike was a personal favorite of countless students and staff. His career has been marked by inspirational stories of positively impacting the lives of students at Staples, and creating an unparalleled sense of belonging in his classroom.”
Working collaboratively to solve tech ed. problems, in Mike Sansur’s room.
As a technology education teacher, Sansur created courses teaching hands-on skills, while integrating STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) into his curriculum.
His goal was to “encourage students to unearth talents, learn lifelong skills, and discover further courses of study or career paths.” Many went on to careers in fields like electronics, engineering, automotive technology, construction management and architecture. (Click here for a story about a student inspired by Sansur to pursue a career as an electrician.)
Shane Lozyniak wired this electrical panel in Mike Sansur’s class.
He challenged students to build miniature race cars for competitions, bridges out of thin wood to support heavy weights, and projects like lamps and skateboards.
Mike Sansur introduced architecture and construction management skills into his tech ed. curriculum.
Last May in “06880,” Sansur proudly described the number of girls enrolled in what was once a male-dominated department. (Click here to read.)
Last spring, Parker Pretty posed at her workstation.
Scarice said that the Staples and district-wide crisis teams are developing plans to support students and staff.
For a very popular place, not many people recognized the Sherwood Diner as the location for last week’s Photo Challenge.
In fact, only one did.
It took awhile, but Lynn Untermeyer Miller eventually identified the bushes in planters in Ellen Wentworth’s image as the ones outside the Post Road East institution. (Click here to see.)
Incorrect guesses ranged all over town: the Senior Center, La Plage, Burying Hill and Old Mill Beach, The Porch @ Christie’s and Terrain.
Will this week’s Photo Challenge be easier? Click “Comments” below if you know where in Westport you would see this:
A sold-out crowd filled Fairfield University’s Quick Center for last night’s “Stand Up for Comedy.”
The benefit — the 15th annual for Homes with Hope, but the first in-person comedy show for them since COVID struck — featured comedian Pat McGann. He knew his audience, and deftly straddled the line between humor and awareness of the the crucial work HwH does to ease homelessness and food insecurity in Westport.
A “paddle raise” pledge drive before McGann took the stage marked a milestone: Over 15 years, “Stand Up for Comedy” has now raised over $3 million.
Pat McGann, on stage at the Quick Center. (Photo/Dan Woog)
Also last night: MoCA Westport’s opening reception for “From the Pen to the Knife.” The exhibit features watercolors by Marian Christy. Now 90 years old, she invented Knifed Watercolors — using only palette knives and puddles of paint (no drawing, no brushes).
Christy was a Pulitzer-Prize nominated journalist for the first chapter of her life, when women had limited journalistic opportunities. During this second chapter, she pivoted from “the pen to the knife.”
The exhibition is on view through November 27. Docent-led tours are available on Thursday afternoons (advance registration requested). Admission is complimentary on Thursdays after 4 p.m. For more information, visit click here,
Also yesterday: Westoberfest — sponsored by the Downtown Merchants Association — and the Fall Fete, showcasing Sconset Square. It was a full day in Westport, for sure.
It’s autumn in Westport — a time when everyone has a “favorite” tree.
I have several. They’re at Staples High School’s Loeffler Field — the long-time home of the soccer teams. They hold a special place in my heart, because I had them planted there 16 years ago, when we built a terrace at the top of the hill.
Shira Honigstein loves them too. She sent this photo, for today’s “Westport … Naturally” feature.
WestportMoms is our town’s go-to multi-platform destination for upcoming family and kid events, merchants and helping professional news, and and school and camp advice.
The head moms — Megan Rutstein and Melissa Post — always have every child in mind. They know “it takes a village,” and they always support ours.
The other day, they posted this advice. It comes from Dr. Ali Griffith, and is worth repeating for the (few) folks who don’t follow WestportMoms:
Right now, there are no fenced dog parks in Westport. (Winslow Park is enclosed, but there are many gaps and areas without walls or fences.)
Andrew Colabella wants to change that.
The Representative Town Meeting member worked with Karen Kramer and Matthew Mandell to create a petition. The goal is to gauge support, to show town officials the need. Click here to see.
There are gates, and some new fences, at Winslow Park. But it is not a fully enclosed dog run. (Photo/Nell Waters Bernegger)
The Westport Police Department is participating in the Connecticut Department of Transportation’s high visibility distracted driving enforcement campaign. The campaign — beginning today, and running through October 31 — will increase efforts to enforce distracted-driving laws.
Connecticut law prohibits the use of any hand-held mobile device while operating a motor vehicle. Drivers who are 16 or 17 years old are prohibited from using a cell phone or mobile device at any time — even hands free.
The fine for the first offense is $200. It’s $375 for the second ticket, and $625 for the third and subsequent offenses.
Who knew so many “06880” readers also read the New York Post?
I’d need an entire haberdashery to hand out hat tips to everyone who sent me the tabloid story noting Shonda Rhimes’ purchase of Doug and Melissa Bernstein’s 11-bedroom home. The 7.5-acre property also includes a basketball court, bowling alleys, arcade, home theater, playroom, billiards room, 8 fireplaces, kitchen with a pizza oven, tennis court, pool, playground, and outdoor seating and dining areas.
Karen Scott was the KMS Partners at Compass broker who sold the property to the producer/screenwriter/author/global media company CEO/Television Academy Hall of Fame inductee’s agent. Rhimes will move from elsewhere in Westport; the Bernsteins have bought another home here.
Meanwhile, another New York newspaper — the Times — this week ran a Critic’s Notebook piece headlined: “Has War Changed, or Only War Photography?”
It begins by citing a 1991 Staples High School graduate and Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist:
Lynsey Addario began taking war pictures when the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001. Only two-thirds of a century had elapsed since Robert Capa documented the Spanish Civil War. But to go from the exhibition of Capa’s Spain photos at the International Center of Photography to the Addario show at the SVA Chelsea Gallery is to traverse not just time and geography but a profound shift in sensibility. Capa’s pictures express his belief in war as a conflict between good and evil. In our time, which is to say in Addario’s, unwavering faith in the justice of one side has perished, a casualty of too many brutal, pointless, reciprocally corrupt wars.
Addario over the last two decades has taken her camera to some of the most dangerous places on earth. A MacArthur fellow, she is a freelance photographer who shared a Pulitzer Prize for international reporting awarded to The New York Times in 2009 for its coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Like Capa, she calls herself a photojournalist, not an artist. She has said that she is dedicated to “using images to undo preconceptions and to show a reality often misunderstood or misrepresented.” She has also named Capa as one of her main influences, even though many of the preconceptions she seeks to undermine are those he enshrined.
Click here to read the full story. (Hat tip: Kathie Motes Bennewitz)
In one of Lynsey Addario’s most famous photos, Ukrainian soldiers try to save the father of a family of four — the only one at that moment who still had a pulse — moments after being hit by a mortar while trying to flee Irpin, near Kyiv. (Photo/Lynsey Addario for the New York Times)
The Jewish Federation of Greater Fairfield County has received a $5,000 grant from Fairfield County’s Community Foundation.
It’s for their Dignity Grows chapter, part of a national network to fight period poverty among nearly 30% of menstruators in the U.S. Donors and volunteers fund and pack monthly totes of hygiene and period essentials. They’re delivered free of charge to partner agencies, who then provide them to their clients.
From last September through June, the Federation organized 10 packing events — many in Westport — and delivered 800 totes. The grant will help them expand their reach, to meet a growing need.
A packing event hosted by Sharon Navarro (top right, 3rd from right) and Jen Frank (bottom row, 2nd from right). All participants are Westport residents — except the lone male, Ofek Moscovich. He’s the Federation Israel emissary spending a year here. The group packed 100 totes for LifeBridge Community Services in Bridgeport.
On Thursday (October 20), you can meet one. DeTapas restaurant hosts one. He’ll serve a “world-class jamon,” paired with special Spanish wines.
The carver will go from table to table, from 5:30 p.m. on. The cost is $45 per person. Guests can stay and enjoy dinner afterward. To RSVP, use Open Table, or contact the restaurant: hola@detapasrestaurant.com; 203-557-0257.
Owner Carlos Pia in his handsomely decorated De Tapas restaurant.
After a successful summer, La Plage pivots to fall. Highlights include “Mussels Wednesday” (Pemaquid Maine mussels with non-stop fries service, paired with a special Pilsner from Spacecat Brewing in Norwalk); “Lobster Bake Thursday” (with head-on shrimp, mussels, clams and andouille), and “Paella Sunday” (clams, mussels, calamari, shrimp, chicken, chorizo).
La Plage also offers a “Halloween Bash” (Sunday, October 30). The winning costume earns 2 tickets to the restaurant’s New Year’s Eve dinner and gala.
The Joggers Club is not running out of great ideas.
Besides Fun Runs every Saturday beginning at 8 a.m. at Compo Beach, and Track Night every Wednesday at 6:q5 p.m. (Staples High School), they’re taking part in races throughout the state. Among them:
Pumpkin Run: October 30 (costumes encouraged)
Jamie’s Run for Children: November 6 (DJ Party after)
Hot Coco 5K: November 12 (“Hottest Race in November”)
Branford Thanksgiving 5K: Thanksgiving
Christmas Run for Children: December 4 (free beer and live music).
The Joggers Club offers a free race bib to each of those races to one member — and discounted coupons for everyone else.
Club membership is $50 a year (new members get a free Endurance Brooks racing shirt. Click here or on Instagram or Facebook for more information.
$50 a year (And new members get a free Endurance Brooks racing shirt)
We’ve featured wasp nests before, in our “Westport … Naturally” series.
But I don’t think I’ve seen any as large — and scary-looking — as this. Pete Powell spotted it on the Longshore golf course, opposite the green at hole 13.
Posted onOctober 15, 2022|Comments Off on Online Art Gallery #132
Today’s online art gallery includes Mona Lisa — unrolled.
That’s just one of the very intriguing near-dozen submissions today.
As I always say: This is your feature. All readers are invited to contribute. Age, level of experience, subject matter — there are no restrictions.
All genres are encouraged. Watercolors, oils, charcoal, pen-and-ink, acrylics, lithographs, macramé, jewelry, sculpture, decoupage and (yes) needlepoint — whatever you’ve got, email it to 06880blog@gmail.com. Share your work with the world!
“Calming Connection” — Photographer Mike Hibbard explains: “The lead mule was in a string bringing supplies to a crew repairing trails and bridges in Olympic National Park.”
“Mona Rolla” — Artist Norm Siegel says: “Oil on canvas with real rollers attached to the canvas.”
“Clouds” (Sharon Paulsen)
Untitled — Photographer Laurie Sorensen says: “I took this photo in New York City by the ferry to Ellis Island and Statue of Liberty. I see why the birds voiced their complaint!”
“Trying to Stay Awake in the Subway” (Lawrence Weisman)
“A Grocery Cart Checks Out Her Shadow” (Peter Barlow)
Everyone talks about historic preservation in Westport.
But — as homes and buildings as old as 200 years, and as new as 20, fall to the wrecking ball — what are our greatest protection needs?
The Westport Historic District Commission recently received a Historic Preservation Enhancement Grant from the State Historic Preservation Office.
Funds will be used to hire a consultant to prepare a town “Preservation Plan.” It will identify and prioritize the greatest areas of need for historic preservation.
The plan will also will help establish and prioritize more Local Historic Districts and Local Historic Designations.
Gorham Avenue is one of Westport’s Historic Districts.
According to Historic District Commission vice chair Grayson Braun, the HDC strives to “preserve and protect the distinctive characteristics of buildings and places significant in the history and development of Westport; maintain and improve the landscape and neighborhood settings of these buildings and places; and encourage design compatible with buildings extant in the area to continue to maintain Westport’s greater artistic, cultural, commercial and residential character which distinguish the town as a desirable community for permanent residents and visitors.”
Properties within a Local Historic District have a higher degree of protection. The HDC must approve an application for alteration to a historic structure, as well as any new construction within a district.
Most old Westport Country Playhouse photos show the famed “summer theater” during that season. Trees obscure the handsome one-time tannery.
The Playhouse season now begins earlier, and ends later. As they prepare for “From the Mississippi Delta” — their final production of 2022 — here’s a fascinating look, with the trees bare.
The photo is undated. But the Westport Country Playhouse is timeless. If you’ve got a Playhouse memory, click “Comments” below.
(Photo courtesy of Bill Stanton)
(Like the Playhouse, “06880” depends on local support. Please click here to help.)
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