Posted onMay 25, 2021|Comments Off on Helping Neighbors: Camp, Grad Celebration Donations Needed
For years, Westport’s Human Services Department has run 2 important spring collections. Community donations provide critical support to families needing financial assistance for summer camp programs, and the end-of-school-year celebrations that so many others take for granted.
For parents of kids, the pandemic has made the need even more urgent. Lost social and educational time — combined with fewer affordable structure activities, and adult stress — has driven financially insecure families into greater distress.
Childcare and summer enrichment programs — registered for without a second thought by a number of Westporters — are crucial for children in those circumstances.
After a rough year, summer activities are important.
Camps are in a bind too. After not opening last year, they’ve been unable to offer the same number of discounted tuitions as in the past.
Just as important — for 8th and 12th graders’ social well-being — is having appropriate clothing for graduation ceremonies. Cash and gift card donations help parents with those purchases. They may also hep families share a special meal, to recognize their children’s achievements.
Human Services director Elaine Daignault invites residents to contribute to the department’s Family to Family programs: “DHS Campership Fund” and/or “DHS Ceremonies and Celebrations Fund.”
No one wants to feel left out at graduation.
Every dollar counts. An average week of day camp in the area is $300.
Click here; under “Seasonal Program Name,” click the fund(s) you wish to contribute to. Checks can be sent to Human Services Department, 110 Myrtle Avenue, Westport, CT 06880 (indicate which fund on the memo line).
Questions? Email adaugelli@westportct.gov, or call Annette D’Augelli at 203-341-1050.
Comments Off on Helping Neighbors: Camp, Grad Celebration Donations Needed
“On behalf of the Town of Westport, I want to reiterate that acts of discrimination, racism and anti-Semitism will not be tolerated in our community. Over the past year, as a country, we witnessed the murder of George Floyd, terrifying attacks against the Asian and Pacific Islander communities, and countless other acts of hatred and discrimination. And in recent days, we have seen acts of anti-Semitism strikingly close to us in New York City.
Let there be no doubt, anti-Semitism has no place in our community. We respect our Jewish neighbors and visitors. Westport is an inclusive community that embraces diversity and has always celebrated all cultures and religious beliefs. We must continue to respect everyone regardless of their race, creed or ethnic origin. I encourage all in the community to reaffirm these values during this challenging period.
I stand with our friends and neighbors who feel threatened by these terrible activities. Make no mistake, Westport is focused on protecting all residents and visitors. We have stepped up security in and around our synagogues and temples and will do everything necessary to keep our community safe and free from discrimination and hate.
Just in time for Memorial Day, the Remarkable Theater has added a very appropriate new movie to its schedule.
“Saving Private Ryan” screens on Sunday (May 30, 8 p.m.). There’s a special holiday price of $25 per car. But of course the classic World War II film is priceless.
Click here for tickets, and the rest of this week’s slate.
Congratulations to the Staples High School girls track team. They won the FCIAC championship yesterday.
Individual winners for coach Jesse McCray’s team include Ava Harvey (long jump, 16′ 9.5″; triple jump, 34′ 3/4″) and Tatum Havemann (800 meters, 2:17.56, personal record), and Isabelle Blend (pole vault, 8′).
The 4×400 meter relay team of Francine Stevens, Olivia Bollo, Hannah Murphy and Samantha Dewitt blazed to a school record 4:01.52, winning gold.
The 4×100 meter relay squad (Molly Liles, Bollo, Murphy, Laura Spheeris) also set a school record, placing 2nd in 50.13.
The 4×800 meter team (Leigh Foran, Josie Dolan, Nicole Holmes, Lyah Muktavaram) took silver in 9:48.98. Also second: Francine Stevens (100, 12.41; 200, 25.05) and Dewitt (400, 59.68, personal record).
Francine Stevens won her 100 meter heat. (Photo/Barry Guiduli)
Beechwood Arts’ 2nd of 3 “Classical Smackdown Concerts is set for Thursday (May 27, 7 p.m.). Pianist Frederic Chiu will perform Bach vs. Glass — and an international audience will vote for their favorite.
Frederic’s first of 3 Classical Smackdown Concerts “Heart & Soul” was very exciting with interesting results from the first ever Global Smackdown Vote! The audience was truly global with people from Australia, China, Europe and all over the US!
Westport Business Networking International (BNI) will sponsor a “Discover Your Well Being Expo” on June 16 (6 to 9 p.m., Salon Paul Michael, Westport).
The free event includes informational booths from a chiropractor, personal trainer, functional medicine specialist, organizer, clean crafted wine distributor, counseling service, plus beverages, hors d’oeuvres and interactive demonstrations.
BNI is a networking group of business professionals. They seek one new members in each of these categories: interior designer, home inspector, developer, heating and air conditioning contractor, chef, and attorneys who practice estate and elder law.
Terrapin is an aptly named Grateful Dead cover band. They’ve built a devoted area following.
And next month they’ll play a special, private, 100-person outdoor show, at Wakeman Town Farm. Fine food and themed beverages by Marcia Selden Catering are available for pre-purchase.
The June 26 event is a benefit for CLASP Homes, the great non-profit that helps people with disabilities. Click here for tickets.
Today’s “Westport … Naturally” photo comes from Grayson Braun. She writes:
“This little guy has been hanging around our yard — probably because we are one of the few houses in our immediate area without a dog. He has enjoyed our grass, and the occasional hosta leaf.”
And finally … I can’t believe I missed Bob Dylan’s 80th birthday yesterday. (I also can’t believe he is 80.)
I could link to dozens of his songs that have impacted my life. I could make an entire list of those with I’m-still-discovering-more-there lyrics (“Memphis Blues Again,” “Queen Jane Approximately,” “Desolation Row”), those with political power (“The Times They Are A-Changin’,” “Hurricane”), and those whose studio musicians are vastly underrated (“Like a Rolling Stone,” “Jokerman,” “Changing of the Guards”).
But I’ll narrow today’s selection down to 4 that, to me, define Bob Dylan. What are yours?
Police Chief Foti Koskinas feels Westport drivers’ pains. He hears their pleas for a traffic cop on Riverside Avenue, at the Cribari Bridge. The Westport Police Department is on the case.
But there is another side to Westport’s traffic woes too.
Driving habits have changed dramatically during COVID, Koskinas and public safety officer Al D’Amura say. Though Westporters have returned to work, all but 1oo or so of the Saugatuck and Greens Farms train station parking spots are empty every day. Those folks drive instead.
The situation is the same at every train station from Greenwich to New Haven. That’s why I-95 and the Merritt Parkway have become parking lots.
Looking for every bit of help, drivers turn to apps like Waze. Offered an alternate route, they take it.
Which is why we see more and more backups on Riverside Avenue. As well as Wilton Road, Cross Highway, Long Lots Road — anywhere Waze says is even slightly better. It’s a problem at I-95 exits 17 and 18, and Merritt exits 41 and 42.
When William Cribari and other officers were posted at what was then called the Bridge Street Bridge, Koskinas says, they facilitated 100 to 200 vehicles to and from trains.
Traffic is no longer timed to trains, Koskinas explains. Moving traffic off the bridge in the morning, and through Riverside Avenue in the evening, sounds like a great idea.
But Waze and traffic apps would immediately sense the smoother flow — making the alternate route off I-95 even more appealing to highway drivers.
A traffic officer will immiediately take over the Riverside Avenue post made famous by William William Cribari (Photo courtesy of Paul Ehrismann)
Still — starting immediately – there will be an officer on Riverside by the bridge, in the late afternoon.
“We’ll monitor the situation, to see if it helps or hurts,” Koskinas says.
“We may find that as much as people don’t like waiting through 4 or 5 light cycles, it’s better than having 300 more cars coming through Saugatuck. We don’t know what we’ll find for sure. We’ll study it.”
That’s not the only new traffic post in town. An agent will be posted from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Post Road/Wilton Road/Riverside Avenue intersection.
Actually, it’s not “new.” As a young officer, Koskinas once manned that corner.
Facilitating traffic there impacts other lights on the Post Road. For example, waving through more cars from Wilton Road might cause more of a temporary backup through the already congested downtown area.
“We understand the importance to merchants, and everyone,” Koskinas says. As with Saugatuck, he and D’Amura will monitor the situation closely.
As for another suggestion from an “06880” reader — installation of a light at the top of I-95 eastbound Exit 18 — Koskinas says, “we fully support it. It’s come up before.” His department — in collaboration with the Board of Selectmen — will make that recommendation to the state Department of Transportation.
Sherwood Island Connector is a state road. There will be engineering studies, and budget issues. It could take a while.
So for now, you might want to get off at Exit 17. A traffic cop there will move traffic along.
Or maybe he’ll inadvertently invite other I-95 drivers to join you.
The Ruth Steinkraus Cohen Bridge downtown honors a woman whose life was filled with music and service. She was dedicated to hospitality and the United Nations. Through jUNe Day and other events, she brought tens of thousands of international visitors to Westport.
Every jUNe Day, flags of many United Nations members fly on the Ruth Steinkraus Cohen Post Road bridge. Cohen established the annual event in 1965.
The basement of Steinkraus Cohen’s Darbrook Road home was filled with paperwork. She never discarded a program, agenda, or the minutes of one of her Wednesday meetings.
Over 60 boxes of Steinkraus Cohen’s papers have been stored at Adams Academy on Morningside Drive North. This month, the United Nations Association of Southwestern Connecticut is tackling them — helped by 4 talented and hard-working Staples High School interns.
Kylie Race, Claire Redmer, Savannah Schaefer and Samuel Zuckerman started the cleanout last week. They wanted this internship to learn about international relations. Now they’re getting a crash course in how Steinkraus Cohen thought globally — and acted locally — for 50 years.
Claire Redmer, Kylie Race and Savannah Schaefer encounter an actual film reel.
The interns sorted through box after box. They found press clippings of Steinkraus Cohen with Eleanor Roosevelt, and letters from George Bush, Bill Clinton and Kofi Annan.
Savannah Schaefer with 50 years of correspondence.
There were hundreds of photographs of 50 years’ worth of jUNe Days, with international visitors enjoying Westport.
With the interns’ help, the UNA SW CT hopes to create a Ruth Steinkraus Collection of papers.
Sam and Savannah are learning about archiving, and will lead the process with Joan Hass. Kylie and Claire are designing and building a new website, with Michaela MacColl. All the interns are creating original content, reflecting their own interests under Marge Neuiwenhuis’ educator’s eye.
The tagline for “06880” is “Where Westport meets the world.” Sounds like a good one for Staples’ internship program too.
Sam Zuckerman knew this was the national flag of Comoros.
Staples High School’s Jazz Combo earned 1st place at the 2021 National Jazz Festival this weekend. They competed in Small Ensemble Division 1 Live Performance.
Leading the quintet were seniors Lucas Lieberman (piano) and Abe Rubin (bass). The other members are sophomores: Noah Jahnel (tenor saxophone), Delaney McGee (trumpet), and Witt Lindau (drums).
Lucas was named the Superior Musician for the division, while Delaney and Witt were selected as 2 of the 3 Outstanding Musicians.
The Staples High School Jazz Ensemble participated in the Large Ensemble Division 1 Live Performance competition. Though they did not place, the adjudicators called the ensemble a “swingin’ band” and “one of the better bands that we’ve heard, in a tough division.” Congratulations to director Phil Giampietro, and all the musicians!
Westport’s back-to-normal journey continued yesterday, with a pair of just-like-old-times events.
The Westport Woman’s Club held its annual-except-for-last-year art show. Paintings, photos, ceramics — all by local artists — were admired (and bought) by a large, joyful bunch of happy-to-be-back art lovers.
Miggs Burroughs and Nina Bentley were among the artists exhibiting at yesterday’s Westport Woman’s Club show.
And Frederic Chiu and Jeanine Esposito opened Beechwood — their Weston Road home, where they host regular arts salons (and more) — to the public, for the first time in a year.
The grounds were spectacular. Especially the centerpiece: an ancient copper beech tree, which gives the property and the arts series its name.
The Beechwood copper birch tree. (Photo/June Rose Whittaker)
COVID stopped many things this year — but not the National Charity League.
Yesterday, Staples High School’s chapter of the mother/daughter community service organization honored 5 pairs — each of whom did more than 30 hours annually — with a “car caravan.”
It ended with a ceremonial “tea” at Ned Dimes Marina, for all 16 seniors.
National Charity League seniors, at Ned Dimes Marina. Back row (from left): Lauren Spheeris, Milei Wyatt, Grace Maloney, Tatiana Bicalho, Daphne Baker, Hannah Murphy, Kaytlyn Carnahan, Callie Rourke, Kyla Race. Front row: Maya Sampath, Abby Ragland, Isabelle Gerard, Hayley Buckman, Elana Lundbye, Sarah Corneck, Chloe Chaple..
Just added to the Remarkable Theater’s schedule: “Private Benjamin.” It’s this Thursday (May 27, 8 p.m.). The parking lot opens at 7 p.m., for tailgating.
Boston College’s “Spoon River Revival” has won the Outstanding Creative Ensemble Award from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.
Four cast members — including Staples High School Class of 2020 graduate Nick Rossi — were chosen to participate in the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship competition. The award provides recognition, honor and financial assistance to outstanding student performers for the further pursuit of education. Click here for the full story.
Emily (Sophie Rossman) and George (Nick Rossi) at the soda shop, in Staples Players’ production of “Our Town.” (Photo/Kerry Long)
Nadine Wilf grew up on the beach in Jamaica. She loved her career in restaurants, and as a private chef.
Her new office is her favorite yet. And why not? It’s at Compo Beach.
The Wilton resident is the general manager of Hook’d on the Sound. The concession stand opened last week.
The pandemic posed challenges — including a year-long delay in construction workers and materials.
But Hook’d is here. Early reviews are very favorable. And — with the possible exception of her boss, owner Itai Shoffman — no one is more excited than Wilf.
Nadine Wilf, Itai Shoffman and the new Hook’d logo.
She shares his vision of Hook’d as “beach life, with a bit of sophistication.” With a full breakfast lunch and dinner menu, smoothies, soft-serve ice cream, “wonderful service” — and more on the way, like a candy bar, retail store featuring local artisans, and plantings outside — she hopes there is something for everyone.
Shoffman grew up in Greenwich, but had Westport friends and spent time at Compo. He operated public spaces professionally, and jumped at the chance to bid on the Westport concession.
“It’s an amazing space,” the owner says. “It deserves something special.” Most concessions — even Tod’s Point, his familiar Greenwich beach — do not have the same large area or level of amenities.
Over the past year, the former Joey’s by the Shore has been completely gutted. There is new paint, new equipment, new tiles on the counter, and a new logo.
Also new: the option to order online (www.hookdonthesound.com — the website will be live soon). A text will be sent when the order is ready. A special line for pickup will help ease crowds.
As with Joey’s, house accounts are available.
Like Joey’s, Hook’d has hired local help. Of the 32 cashiers — including auxiliary operations at Longshore’s golf halfway house (already open) and pool (open by this weekend) — Wilf says that all but 3 are Westporters.
Some of the staff, ready to serve. (Photos/Dan Woog)
Hours are tentatively 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekends, 9 to 7 on weekends. But there were crowds the first Friday, so they kept the doors open. Later hours may be coming.
All employees are masked. Because Shoffman rents a town building, Parks & Recreation signage will soon be posted, recommending masks in the indoor space.
The Parks and Rec staff has been very helpful, he notes. On Saturday, they helped haul tables and umbrellas.
Shoffman and Wilf plan special events — perhaps a barbecue day, or working with the Rotary Club on its annual LobsterFest in September.
Long before then, he hopes, Westporters will be hooked on his new concession stand.
George F. Keane — longtime Westporter, founder of the Common Fund, and a noted philanthropic investment strategist — died peacefully on Thursday in Trumbull, where he had spent time convalescing from a long illness.
His son, Staples High School Class of 1971 graduate Brian Keane, writes:
My father was my north star. A young boy’s hero. A protector, the one who knew what to do. My Little League coach. My advisor (and my staunchest critic).
Though we had our battles from time to time, and we each had success in very different worlds, we never lost touch, nor did we ever lose the deep bond of love that we had for each other. In the end I served as his caretaker, along with other very able and loving people.
George F. Keane
He had a long, and remarkable life. He touched many other’s lives along the way. He gave people their starts, helped people in their time of need, and made his mark on the world. You couldn’t ask for much more out of life.
He came from modest means, a child of the Great Depression, growing up in Danbury. He would be the first in his family ever to graduate college. He would later serve on the college’s board.
Though we grew up in Westport, our family was middle class at best. However, my father would rise throughout his life to become a successful philanthropic investment strategist, founder of the Common Fund, now in its 50th year, employing hundreds of people, advising over 1,500 institutions, with $40 billion under management.
He was awarded 2 honorary doctorates, and the Fredrick D. Patterson Award for his 12 years of service as a director of the United Negro College Fund. He served on many prestigious boards, and worked with Research Affiliates of California to form a new index fund.
He battled the affliction of alcoholism as a younger man to attain 41 years of sobriety, and was an example to others.
He loved life too, and had lots of fun. He was a gifted singer, a well traveled tourist, a patron of the arts, a sports enthusiast. He lived well, ate well, loved well. He didn’t golf real well, but had fun at that too, as the world’s most generous scorekeeper.
A loving husband, father, grandfather and extended family man, he was a kind, intelligent, generous and very successful man, who helped out many people in his life, and leaves a long list of bereaved admirers.
For me though, he was simply Dad. I will always love him dearly for who he was, and always deeply appreciate what he did for me, and for the example that he set.
On May 20 my father passed peacefully, at 91, sitting in a chair in his assisted living apartment where he had been convalescing from a long illness. It was as though he were merely taking a nap.
Brian Keane
The night before we had dinner together, just the 2 of us. We went out on the patio, spent a few hours together, and he took the long walk back to his apartment in unwavering stride. After a lifetime of pursuing life with such tenacity and persistence, I never expected the Irish goodbye.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Wednesday (May 26, 10:30 a.m., St. Peter Church, 104 Main Street, Danbury). George F. Keane will be laid to rest alongside his older brother, James R. Keane, and his parents Alexander Keane and Anna Krebs Keane in St Peter’s Cemetery in Danbury immediately following the service.
There will be a celebration of life event at some point later in the year.
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Looking for every bit of help, drivers turn to apps like Waze. Offered an alternate route, they take it.
