The Thanksgiving Day fire just over the border in Weston destroyed one family’s home. It disrupted the holiday for their 26 guests — and for dozens of firefighters and other first responders from several towns.
Carmine Cenatiempo did not battle the blaze. But he deserves a shout-out nonetheless. Weston Emergency Medical Technician Ben Frimmer writes:
“Our crew was on scene for over 16 hours. When an event like that happens, we feed our teams in the field.
“It’s challenging to find food at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving. Curtis Gunn called Carmine (who owns Calise’s Market in Westport.
“Within an hour and a half, he had left his own Thanksgiving meal, cooked and delivered food to feed the team. I was quite impressed with his selflessness.”
Both Staples High School football games this year this year against Greenwich were shutouts.
Each team won one of them.
Unfortunately for the Wreckers, the Cardinals’ victory came yesterday, 14-0 in the semifinals of the state “LL” (extra large schools) tournament.
It was revenge for the visitors, who were trounced 27-0 at the same Paul Lane Field on Thanksgiving Day.
Staples — ranked second in the state tourney ends the season 10-2. Greenwich, seeded #3, advanced to the title game against #5 West Haven. The game is set for 6:30 p.m. Saturday, at Central Connecticut State College.
Speaking of sports: There was a reunion of sorts in Las Vegas on Saturday.
Staples graduates Lau ten Cate and Dylan Hoke were on opposing teams — for Amherst and Connecticut College, respectively — in the championhship match of the NCAA Division III men’s soccer tournament.
After scoreless sregulation and overtime, Amherst won 4-3 on penalty kicks.
Ten Cate — who played for Beachside’s MLS Next academy team during his high school years — has been injured this year, and did not play in the final. Hoke, a former Wrecker and Beachside athlete, played 93 minutes. He had an excellent freshman season for the Camels.
Every Sunday since Hamas invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, a group of residents has marched through town. They remind passersby of the need to bring the hostages home.
Yesterday, Jennifer Wolff reports, they were joined by a special guest: Santa Claus.
The Big Guy even chanted: “Bring them home now!”
Santa Claus, with yesterday’s Run4TheirLives marchers.
And finally … on this date in 1851, the first YMCA was established n North America. It opened in Montreal.
(Sports, politics, heroes — they’re here today, and every day, at “06880.” If you appreciate our hyper-local coverage, please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
The first casualty of the Post Road East construction project was a dozen or so trees at Linxweiler House, between McDonald’s and Fresh Market.
The second casualty is a dozen or so businesses on the other side of the street.
Crews have completely blocked the median’s left-hand cut-through, just before the Roseville Road light. There is also no left-hand turn onto Hillspoint Road.
Work is shut down for Easter weekend. So customers headed west who want to patronize Calise’s Market, International Wines, the Double L Farm Stand or other stores have to head to Mitchells or beyond, to turn around.
A plumbing business there missed a delivery yesterday. The driver refused to turn around, forcing the owner to travel to Bridgeport to pick it up.
There is no word on how long the closures will last.
Yellow construction truck blocks the Post Road East cut-through. (Photo/Michael Calise)
The Westport Museum for History & Culture and Westport Country Playhouse are collaborating on a new micro-exhibit.
“Music of the American Experience: Black Excellence and the Sounds of the Jazz Age” is on view in the Playhouse lobby, from April 11th to 29th.
Tying in with the Playhouse’s current production, “Ain’t Misbehavin’: The Fats Waller Musical,” the exhibit explores music featured in the show, and the historical events that led to the Harlem Renaissance.
It’s free, and open 2 hours before show time.
Last fall, the Museum’s exhibit “Departures/Arrivals” accompanied the WCP production “From the Mississippi Delta,” about the Great Migration.
“Ain’t Misbehavin’”’s score of jazz, blues and swing music of the 1920s and ’30s provides insight into a vibrant time in American history and music.
For more information on the show, including tickets, click here.
The cast of “Ain’t Misbehavin’” (from left): Judith Franklin, Will Stone, Miya Bass, Jay Copeland, Paris Bennett. (Photo/Ron Heerkens Jr.)
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It’s about time.
Miggs Burroughs is the Westport Book Shop’s guest exhibitor of the month.
The Staples High School graduate has designed hundreds of logos, ads, brochures and websites for commercial and non-profit clients throughout Fairfield County — often pro bono.
He created Westport’s town flag, a US postage stamp, an Easter egg for the Reagan White House, and 4 Time magazine covers. He’s also a co-founder of the Artists Collective of Westport. His honors and awards are too many to list here (so click here to see).
Westport Book Shop will exhibit Miggs’ “Signs of Compassion.” The work is a composite of 30 individual lenticular images, each showing a member of the Westport community using American Sign Language to sign a word or phrase from an Emily Dickinson poem about compassion. It can be seen during business hours (Sundays and Mondays, noon to 5 p.m.; Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.).
A larger version will be exhibited in the lobby of the United Nations building soon.
Miggs Burroughs with “Signs of Compassion,” at the Westport Book Shop.
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From time to time, we see a variety of markings on local roads.
These days, the Evergreen Parkway/Tamarac Road intersection is particularly colorful.
It’s part of the sewer project in the area. And every color means something different.
Alert — and engineer-minded — “06880” reader Mark Mathias notes: “Blue is for water lines. Yellow is for gas lines. Pink is a survey marker. White is the proposed dig area.”
On Sunday, May 7 — as she’s done since it began — Laura will be part of the 18th annual STAR Walk at Sherwood Island State Park.
It’s a fundraiser for the non-profit, which serves more than 700 area families. They support 11 group homes and 16 apartments so that people with intellectual and developmental differences can live independently. They provide training and job placement for 236 adults, plus intervention services for infants and children.
Last year, Laura raised over $16,000. “Team Laura” was second, out of 30 teams.
You can purchase “stars” ($1 minimum each). Click here, or send a check made out to STAR Inc. to Laura Blair, 58 Woodside Avenue, Westport, CT 06880.
Ray Flanigan was a soccer star at Staples High School. After graduating in 1969, and then from Hartwick College, he coached and played on Westport teams. He moved to Bethel, and many Westporters made the trip to the photo shop he owned for decades.
His wife Juleen was a special education teacher, revered throughout the state. A severe concussion, suffered when a large truck smashed into her in 2014, resulted in permanent impairment.
In 2018 she was diagnosed with early stage Alzheimer’s. Through fitness, nutrition, proper sleep, music, her faith and assistance from her family and friends, she delayed the disease’s progress.
In November — having difficulty recognizing family members, and needing full time care — she moved into a facility. The cost is $8,200 a month.
A walk on May 13 (11 a.m., Bethel High School track) will raise needed funds. But anyone, anywhere can donate to Juleen’s care. Click here for details.
Yesterday, “06880” profiled architect and solar energy advocate John Rountree.
Next Thursday (April 13, 5 p.m.., Zoom), he’ll present his insights on the benefits of solar energy in public buildings, to the Public Site & Building Commission.
Rountree is no stranger to the subject. He has already designed the solar panels for Westport’s fire headquarters and train station.
This is a rendering John Roundtree made for Westport fire headquarters. The actual view today looks very similar.
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Westport’s sister city of Lyman, Ukraine continues to need our aid.
And Westporters of all ages help.
Yesterday, Staples High School sophomores Sam Rossoni and Alex Kuster spent several hours sorting through and documenting supplies, donated by the town for police organizations in the embattled city.
It takes a village — and ours stands ready to help.
Alex Kuster and Sam Rossoni flank Ukraine Aid International’s Katya Wauchope, at the police station garage where goods for Lyman are stored before shipment.
On Tuesday, Staples High School’s Club Green formally thanked Westport’s Representative Town Meeting for passing an ordinance limiting the use of leaf blowers.
But, senior Tanvi Gorre says, “the RTM set more than a green standard throughout this process. As a student involved in the process, the RTM gave me the liberty to share my voice and aid change in our town.
“Although our young voices are still deemed null in a sea of experience, I never experienced this feeling with the RTM. They were willing to see the power in someone who hasn’t seen the world for what it is, but instead for what it can be.
“They were willing to respect me enough to challenge me. For that, I am truly grateful.”
Tanvi Gorre thanks the Westport RTM, on behalf of Club Green and herself.
Staples freshmen Adam Turner and Matthew Lupinacci helped lead Maritime Rowing Club’s Under-16 coxed quad to victory at the San Diego Crew Classic last weekend.
The premier regatta includes over 100 races, and draws more than 4,000 athletes. This year marked the 50th anniversary of the Crew Classic, but only the 4th year that youth sculling events were included.
Other Maritime rowers from Westport included Mina Leon (part of the 4th place women’s under 17 4x), and Daniel Kleeger (part of the 6th place men’s youth B 4x B).
Boys Under 16 picture: L-R: William Whitman, Henry Brauweiler, Asher Daniel, Matthew Lupinacci, Adam Turner
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Caron Keenan — former chair of Staples’ foreign language department — died peacefully on Wednesday. He was 84, and lived in Fairfield.
The Norwalk native originally intended to enter the priesthood. After graduating magna cum laude from Fairfield University and earning an M.A. in French at Assumption College, he taught middle school in Stamford before joining Staples as a French and Latin teacher in 1967.
He was also an assistant headmaster for library and media, before retiring in 1995.
Caron — a passionate ham radio operator (WA1OMJ) — helped run Staples’ radio station WWPT. He was an early adopter of Apple computers, promoting computer labs in Westport schools and repairing Apple II(e)s and the first Macintoshes.
He had a lifelong relationship with France. On a sabbatical, he lived in Rennes with his young family. He organized school exchanges, there and made many close friends.
He wrote a book about American high schools for French audiences, “Life in a High School.”
In retirement he enjoyed researching his ancestors in the US, Quebec and Ireland.
Caron is survived by his wife of 59 years, Lynn; children Christine Fodor (Gabor) of Fairfield, Keenan (Ashlee) of St. Augustine, Florida and Kevin (Sarah Azaransky) of New York City, and grandchildren Calli, Michael and Daniel Fodor, Ryan Keenan, and Finn Keenan and Anna Lucy Azaransky. Other family includes the Sjodins, Kanes, Caskins and Eckloffs.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held Wednesday, April 12 (10:30 a.m., The Chapel at St. Pius X, 834 Brookside Drive, Fairfield. Burial will follow at St. John’s Cemetery, Norwalk.
Caron Keenan
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Staples High School Class of 2002 Jared Frank visited his hometown recently. In the heart of downtown, near Gorham Island, he spotted this sleeping swan.
It’s today’s “Westport … Naturally” image, and a peaceful way to begin the Easter (egg) weekend.
And finally … speaking of “Ain’t Misbehavin'” (story above): Here’s Fats Waller’s original stride piano performance of the song. He co-wrote it for the musical “Connie’s Hot Chocolates” (called “Hot Chocolates” when it moved from Connie’s Inn in Harlem to the Hudson Theater on Broadway).
He re-recorded “Ain’t Misbehavin’” as a vocal in 1943.
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When Carmine Cenatiempo was a teenager, he worked in the John’s Best kitchen. Sandra Calise — about the same age — was a waitress.
As a young kid, he came to the US from Ischia. That’s where her grandparents are from.
No longer teenagers, they got married at Cobb’s Mill.
Carmine and Sandra then …
Thirty years ago this July 1, they bought Calise’s Market.
It was a longtime family business. The previous owners — Sandra’s grandparents — ran it as a grocery and butcher shop.
Carmine and Sandra made it more of a deli. Always a popular spot on the Post Road — just east of Sakura and Cumberland Farms — they ensured it’s a consistently good, always friendly place to eat (and linger).
Sandra does not work there. After graduating from Sacred Heart University, she’s at Settlers & Traders, her father’s real estate company.
But Carmine is always there (except when he’s making a delivery — to a Staples sports team, or any of his many other catering clients).
Carmine and Sandra never say no. Their generosity supports everything, from youth sports and the Weston Fire Department to Pink Aid.
… and now.
Carmine loves his deli, his customers and his family. He and his wife have 3 kids: Francesca (a student at St. Catherine’s in Bridgeport), CJ (who was born at home, before the Weston EMS could arrive) and Charlotte (a soccer player at Gettysburg College).
Carmine works 7 days a week. He never takes a vacation. But he visited Charlotte this spring, when she studied abroad in Rome. With CJ, they visited Ischia — Carmine’s first time back in 40 years.
If you’ve ever been to Calise’s, you know Carmine’s kindness, grace and smile. He and Sandra are humble and loving. They would never ask for anything for themselves.
So a grateful friend — Jean Lepore — is asking instead: Can “06880” give a shoutout to Carmine, Sandra and Calise’s Deli, on their 30th anniversary as owners?
We’re more than honored to do that. In fact — for 3 decades of service, generosity and kindness to our community — Carmine and Sandra are our Unsung Heroes of the week!
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