Tag Archives: Tom Hofstetter

Roundup: Remarkable Staples Video, WTF Food Rescue, WFM Young Shoots …

Posted on June 22, 2022 | 1 comment

The Staples High School Class of 2022 is now part of history.

But tonight they live on — on the big screen.

The Remarkable Theatre screens a 60-minute film — created by the theater’s Staples interns — highlighting the graduating class.

There are interviews with nearly 2 dozen seniors, plus footage contributed by other students. It was produced over the past 2 weeks, so it is definitely timely.

Gates open at 8 p.m. tonight, for tailgating. The film begins at 8:45. Tickets are $20 per person or $50 per car, whichever is cheaper — with no limit on the number of passengers. Click here to purchase, and for more details.

Eamon Brannigan is one of the stars of the Class of 2022 Senior Night film.

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If you’re a good gardener, you grow your own food.

If you’re a very good (and lucky!) gardener, you’ve got way more than  you need.

But there’s only so much lettuce, peas and zucchini you can give to your friends.

So chew on this: Wakeman Town Farm has partnered with Westport Grow-a-Row and Food Rescue US-Fairfield County on a new produce donation drop off site.

Bring your abundance to WTF’s farm stand any Saturday, between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m.; coolers are set up there. Your fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs will help people struggling with food insecurity, throughout Fairfield County.

Questions? Email Haley@foodrescue.us. Follow @grow.a.row_westport on Instagram for updates.

The drop-off spot is hard to miss.

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And speaking of gardens:

Westport Farmers’ Market‘s 6th annual Young Shoots Photography Contest. Snap!

There are 3 age categories: 5-9 years old, 10-14 and 15-18. Any photo taken at one of the Thursday Farmers’ Markets is eligible. Judging is by a panel of local artists, and the public.

The contest runs from a week from this tomorrow (June 23) through July 31. Winners — who earn a $100 cash, WFM swag and a gift card for a MoCA Westport class — will be celebrated at Gilbertie’s Herbs & Garden Center, with catering by Sugar & Olives.

Ann Burmeister — Farmers’ Market board member and Who Grows Your Food photographer — will help youngsters as they take shots at the Market tomorrow. A WFM team member will be on hand throughout the contest to answer questions.

Click here to submit photos, and for more information.

“Starstem” by Calista Finkelstein was a previous “Young Shoots” winner in the 8-10 category.

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Yesterday’s obituary of longtime Westport volunteer Tom Hofstetter included incorrect information about a memorial service at Saugatuck Harbor Yacht Club. The family will hold a private burial only; there is no service.

ThomasHofstetter

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On June 30, nearly everyone in Westport will watch the July 4th fireworks. (I know, I know …)

But if pyrotechnics aren’t your thing, you’ve got an artistic option.

The opening reception for MoCA’s new exhibition — “Women Pulling at the Threads of Social Discourse” — is set for that night (6 to 8 p.m.; free).

The show explores how “female artists, utilizing textiles as their medium, subvert the social expectation of crafting by lambasting this soft medium with political and social awareness.”

It focuses on flags, as a symbol of solidarity for women of the suffrage movement, and an emblem of protest. Flags in “Women Pulling at the Threads of Social Discourse” were assembled using mixed media and the fiber arts to ignite positive social change.

So — with those flags — there is a connection to Independence Day after all.

The exhibition runs through September 4. Click here for more information.

The MoCA exhibition logo is based on the original colors of the suffragist movement.

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Another opening, another show:

Amy Simon Fine Art (123 Main Street), hosts an opening reception this Saturday (June 25, 3 to 5 p.m.) for the new “Visual Alchemy” show. Artists include Barry Katz, David Skillicorn and Louise P. Sloane.

Untitled #11– encaustic over plaster. (Barry Katz)

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It’s not true that Benjamin Franklin wanted a wild turkey — not an eagle — to be America’s national symbol.

The actual story: In a letter to his daughter, he criticized the original eagle design for the Great Seal, saying it looked like a turkey.

Well, after a long period away, wild turkeys have returned to Westport. The other day, Carol Cederbaum saw 3 of them roosting on her back deck. She got this shot a female, before they spotted her behind the window.

Is it a handsome “Westport … Naturally” subject, or not? You be the judge.

(Photo/Carol Cederbaum)

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And finally … in the past week we’ve given shout-outs to Staples grads, and Brian Wilson. Here’s one more — together — as the Class of 2022 gets ready for their “Senior Night” at the Remarkable Theater (story above):

(“06880” relies entirely on reader support. If you like these Roundups, please donate here.)

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Posted in Arts, Entertainment, Environment, Staples HS

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Remembering Tom Hofstetter

Posted on June 21, 2022 | 3 comments

Longtime Westporter Tom Hofstetter — whose civic involvement in Westport included Sunrise Rotary, sports, the arts, his church and more —  died peacefully last week in Aiken, South Carolina. He was 90.

The Baltimore native majored in history at Washington College, then attended the University of Maryland Law School. After training at the Army Intelligence School, he served as an undercover CIC agent in Japan and Korea, at the end of the Korean War.

Back in the US, he obtained credentials from a small Maryland newspaper, and traveled to Cuba to report on the revolution there. He endured a restaurant bombing, and had weapons pointed in his face.

Returning to Baltimore, Tom worked in sales with Dun & Bradstreet, then transitioned into the brokerage business with Merrill Lynch. He became Walston & Company’s Northeastern sales manager, while completing courses at the University of Pennsylvania’s Investment Banking Institute.

Tom proposed to his wife Sally the first day he met her, at a Sunday morning church service.

He worked closely with Maryland’s governor and Baltimore’s mayor on many civic initiatives. He held leadership positions on the Baltimore Jail Board, Airport Planning Commission, Jaycees and Tourism Commission, and Fort McHenry. In 1964 he ran as the Republican candidate for Maryland’s 7th US Congressional District.

After moving to Westport in 1969, Tom served as vice president at Walston’s New York headquarters, and was active at the New York Stock Exchange. He led their first national marketing conference, and was pivotal in the exchange’s expansion into insurance and annuity sales.

ThomasHofstetter

After Wall Street, he opened Westport’s first brokerage branch. He built an extensive brokerage presence in Fairfield County, as Salomon Smith Barney’s vice president of investments.

He also traveled throughout Europe, in Hungary and Slovenia prior to the fall of the Iron Curtain. He sailed extensively too, on his sailboat moored at Compo Beach.

In Westport Tom founded the Sunrise Rotary Club, and served as president of Little League. He was also chief of the Tanka Tiki Indians – YMCA Indian Guides; board member of the Westport-Weston Foundation; board member of the Westport Historical Society; deacon of Greens Farms Congregational Church; 2-term master of Masonic Lodge #65; president of the Norwalk Symphonic Orchestra, and chairman of the board of Ashlar of Newtown, a skilled nursing facility.

In retirement Tom spent time at his Vermont cabin of 30 years, exploring the back country. He and Sally also traveled through the Caribbean, Russia, the Cape of Good Hope and the Arctic. He became a scholar of Arctic history and a collector of Inuit art, traveling extensively by light aircraft and Russian icebreaker to the far reaches of the area.

Relocating to Aiken in 1998, Tom promoted the arts. He served as president of the Augusta Opera, co-founder and past chairman of the Aiken Symphony, founder of the Aiken Opera Society, and trustee of Friends of Hopelands and Rye Patch, Inc.

He also created Aiken Performing Arts, which introduced the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra to the area in 2005. He brought in world-class artists, while creating outreach opportunities through master classes and more.

Tom is survived by Sally, his wife of 62 year; son Thomas C. Hofstetter III, daughter Kimberly Dracon, 5 grandsons and sister Joyce May.

Funeral services are set for Saturday, June 25 in Aiken. Tom will be laid to rest on Thursday, June 30 in Westport, at a private family burial.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Aiken Symphony Orchestra, 262 East Gate Drive #440, Aiken, SC 29803.

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Posted in Arts, Obituaries, religion, Sports

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Help With Staten Island Holiday Gifts

Posted on December 7, 2012 | 1 comment

Alert “06880” reader Christy Colasurdo writes:

You covered the incredible effort made by Tom Hofstetter and a few other Westport families to help out families in Staten Island after Sandy. They ended up delivering 8 truckloads of supplies donated by Westporters to Staten Island, Breezy Point, the Rockaways and New York City.

But the story did not end there.

Three of the women involved — Lisa Fierro, Nell Bernegger and Veronica Hofstetter — were so moved after seeing the wreckage on Staten Island, that they could not just walk away.

Now they’re collecting gifts to brighten the holidays of Staten Island teens. That’s not easy, in a season with so many appeals for donations.

Lisa, Nell and Veronica say:

We have learned there is a huge need for toys and holiday gifts for kids 12 to 17 years old. Toys for Tots and other groups focus on kids 11 years old and younger. We want to fill the gap.

Help a hurricane victim this holiday season.

Help a hurricane victim this holiday season.

We’re working with the Staten Island Recovery Team. But we have very tight deadlines to get the gifts to Staten Island before the first of 3 holiday celebrations, beginning on December 18.

Our goal is to provide 1,100 new gifts in the $20-$25 range for teens. (No gift cards please!)

Gift ideas include:

  • Basketballs, soccer balls, footballs
  • Makeup and/or nail polish sets
  • Pillow pets (animals only; no characters)
  • Pampering and body care gifts
  • Teenage/family-targeted games
  •  Popular books of interest to teens
  • Anything else of interest to teenager

Drop-off dates for gifts — unwrapped, please! — are this weekend: December 8 and 9,under the covered area at 8 Brookside Drive, off North Compo.

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Posted in People, Teenagers, Weather

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Hard-Hit Westport Helps Even Worse-Off New Jersey And Staten Island

Posted on November 3, 2012 | 12 comments

Last night, longtime Westporter Tom Hofstetter got to thinking.

He’d received an “all hands” notice from his yacht club, asking for people to clean up after Hurricane Sandy.

He was happy to pitch in. Gut he and his family figured there might be an even more meaningful way to contribute to relief efforts.

Looking out their Bridge Street window — at the corner of Imperial Avenue — they had an “aha!” moment.

They rented a truck for a week. Every day, they’ll collect supplies.

Every night, they’ll take them to relief shelters in New Jersey and Staten Island.

Tom Hofstetter and his big, hopefully supplies-filled truck.. (Photo by Heidi McGee)

Supplies can be dropped off every time — at the corner of Bridge Street and Imperial  Avenue —  from 9 a.m. to 8:59 p.m. At 9 sharp, the truck leaves. The 1st run is tonight.

Tom said that anything helps, but there were special requests for large black garbage bags and heavy work gloves. Other items needed:

  • Blankets
  • Baby items: diapers, wipes, etc.
  • Flashlights
  • C and D batteries
  • Water
  • Canned food
  • Socks
  • Towels
  • Toothbrushes and toothpaste
  • Pet food

Westport’s in pretty bad shape. Other areas are even worse.

They don’t have much. But at least they — and we — have Tom Hofstetter.

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Posted in People, Weather

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