Robin Tauck and the Westport Weston Family YMCA are teaming up again.
The former trustee, benefactor of the Robin Tauck Wellness Center and longtime executive with her family’s international travel company celebrates the Y’s 100-year anniversary with a $100,000 matching challenge.
From now through June 30, Robin will match every dollar donated at $500 and above. Funds will go toward new programs for seniors, adults, and youth that improve health outcomes.
They include fitness and well-being for arthritis, Parkinson’s, cancer management and other diseases, and special strength and conditioning program for youths.
Funds will also benefit the Y’s financial assistance program, serving under-resourced families and those in need.
Donors who contribute $1,000 or more will enjoy a special summer event.
Fore more details and to participate in the matching grant challenge, click here.
Questions? Email kguthrie@westporty.org
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Opioid abuse is rampant everywhere — including Westport.
And in the event of an overdose, everyone can help.
A free overdose awareness and Narcan training session is set for next Friday (May 12, 4 to 5 p.m., Positive Directions, 90 Post Road West).
Topics include how and when to administer Narcan, and prevention resources and messages to share.
Registration is required; click here.
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A pre-Mothers Day pop-up shopping event This Friday (May 12, 12-4 p.m., Yoga45, 201 Main Street) benefits A Better Chance of Westport.
A portion of sales will go to the local organization, which for 20 years has offered educational opportunities to academically gifted young men of color.
It’s a great way to shop local, at a women-owned store, for Mom — and for a great cause!
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Among many other things, Verso Studios and the Westport Library are becoming a film hub for movie buffs throughout the area.
On May 19 (7 p.m., the Lundberg Family Foundation Masters Film Series launches, to tie it all together.
The first event is the Connecticut premiere of the documentary “Heaven Stood Still: The Incarnations of Willy DeVille.” Area residents Chris Frantz and Crispin Cioe are featured in the film.
A Q&A after the showing with the filmmakers, including the filmmakers; Frantz and Cioe, and DeVille’s niece.
The Lundberg Family Foundation Masters Film Series will showcase films and filmmakers. It bridges independent production and established innovation. Special screenings coupled with master classes will “educate and inspire on modes of production and storytelling craft, as well as technical, philosophical, and historical aspects.”
Master classes on June 14 and 21 will focus on techniques to convert a film concept into a compelling documentary story.
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Brown University 1968 Bernicestine McLeod Bailey adds another degree later this month. The IT leader and longtime advocate for inclusion of alumni of color will receive an honorary degree — doctor of humane letters — at the commencement ceremony.
Following her career as an IBM systems engineer, she established McLeod Associates, a pioneering minority-owned IT consulting firm.
McLeod Bailey is a founding member of TEAM Westport, and former board member of the Westport Library and Fairfield County’s Community Foundation.
At Brown, she is a longtime member of the Pembroke Center Advisory Council and served as founding chair of its Archives Committee with a focus on elevating gender history. She has established funds to support undergraduate diversity and initiatives highlighting Black history at the university.
McLeod Bailey served as a Brown trustee from 2001 to 2007, and is an honorary lifetime member of the President’s Advisory Council on Diversity. She also received the Brown Bear Award, the Brown Alumni Association’s highest volunteer honor.
McLeod Bailey and her husband, Brown alumnus Harold Bailey Jr., are the parents of Brown alumni Aisha (Class of 1999) and Harold III (Class of 2003).
Bernicestine McLeod Bailey
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Last night’s Pic of the Day showed tulips blooming beautifully at the Minute Man monument.
How did they get there?
Andrew Colabella — RTM member and all-things-Westport booster — planted 100 bulbs.
Another 400 are coming this fall, he promises.
Andrew Colabella, with a bulb at the Minute Man monument. (Photo/Jimmy Izzo)
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Former Westporter Kristin Erickson died April 25 in New Fairfield. She was 62.
She studied at Northfield Mount Hermon, Denison and Southern Connecticut State Universities, and a earned a master’s degree in social work from Fordham University.
As a hospice social worker, Kristin had “a remarkable capacity to show up for people and their families in very dark moments.” She was passionate about death with dignity, access to mental health resources, and caring for senior dogs and dogs with high needs. She was recently certified as a death doula.
Kristin and her former husband Dan Carpenter raised 3 children in Fairfield. They were her pride and joy. Her family says, “she was a creative, goofy, and above all, deeply loving mother. She also filled roles as a cool aunt, second mom to her kid’s friends, and dedicated dog mom.”
Kristin spent the past years between West Palm Beach and New Fairfield with her partner Ken Green and his dogs. She spent a lot of time with her mom, Sue, as well. Kristin had recently become certified as a death doula and had continued to hold space for people at the end of their lives.
Kristin is survived by her parents, Susan and George Erickson; children Nell, Guthrie and Aria Carpenter; siblings Jon and Martha Erickson and their partners Jayne and Bones; nieces Riley, Mullein, Romy, and Faye, and many lifelong friends.
n lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Compassion & Choices, a non-profit Kristin was passionate about.
Kristin Erickson
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There’s always something different to see from Grace Salmon Park.
Patricia McMahon framed this “Westport … Naturally shot beautifully, as spring comes to the popular Saugatuck River spot:
(Photo/Patricia McMahon)
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And finally … in honor of Bernicestine McLeod Bailey’s honorary degree from Brown (story above), here is the world’s greatest college fight song.
Sorry, Michigan and Notre Dame. But this one’s clearly the best.
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