Kelli O’Hara performing tonight at the Westport Country Playhouse Black & White Gala. The Broadway star and Westport mom sang selections from her life and career. Her musical productions have included “Jekyll & Hyde,” “Follies,” “Sweet Smell of Success,” “Dracula,” “The Light in the Piazza,” “The Pajama Game,” “South Pacific,” “Nice Work If You Can Get It,” “The Bridges of Madison County,” “The King and I,” for which she won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical, and “Kiss Me, Kate.” (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Photo by Samuel Stuart
Library Hosts AP Economics Students
The Westport Library today hosted 175 AP economics students from Staples High School for a teleconference conversation with the author of their summer reading, Steven Pearlstein. Students read his book “Can American Capitalism Survive?: Why Greed Is Not Good, Opportunity Is Not Equal, and Fairness Won’t Make Us Poor.” Pearlstein is a professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, a columnist for The Washington Post, and a Pulitzer Prize winner in 2008 for his Washington Post columns. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo
Saugatuck Scene
Paying Tribute to 9/11 Victims
Gov. Ned Lamont and Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz tonight place flowers on Connecticut’s 9/11 memorial at Sherwood Island State Park in Westport. They led fellow elected officials and members of the public in tribute to the 161 victims with ties to Connecticut who died in the 2001 attacks. Connecticut holds its ceremony early so family members can attend the annual service in New York City on Sept. 11. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com
Breaking Ground for Family Y Expansion
There was a groundbreaking ceremony today for an expansion of the Westport Weston Family Y. A $40 million gift from the late Ruth Bedford, who died in 2014, helped make the expansion possible. According to Steve Halstead, a member of the construction committee, the expansion includes the addition of a 22,000-square foot building adjacent to the main facility and a Camp Mahackeno makeover. Various officials and Y-connected luminaries took turns posing with the ceremonial shovels. Pictured here (l-r) state Sen. Will Haskell, Rosemary Halstead, president of the board of directors, U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, and Patricia Riemersma, Westport Weston Family YMCA CEO. The original 54,000-square-foot, $38.5 million complex at its Mahackeno summer camp property along the Saugatuck River opened in 2014 after a move from its longtime downtown home. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com
Phyllis Groner, 90, WestportNow Photographer
Phyllis Groner, a WestportNow contributing photographer for more than 12 years, died Thursday night. She was 90. Groner had been living in Meadow Ridge, Redding, since suffering injuries in a 2017 car crash in Westport. An avid amateur photographer, she began contributing photos to WestportNow in 2005 and quickly won fans for her variety of subjects ranging from nature scenes and sunsets to various hard news assignments. Her works were exhibited in several locations, including the Westport Library and Westport Center for Senior Activities. She was also active in various organizations, including the Y’s Women and the League of Women Voters of Westport. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, Oct. 26 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Westport Library. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo
Final Goodbye as School Starts
In a scene repeated all over town today, youngsters wave a last goodbye on a school bus on Bayberry Lane as they set out for the first day of school. Police closely followed many school buses to watch for speeding drivers and to discourage passing of buses. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Anna-Liisa Nixon for WestportNow.com
Concern as Horse Goes Down at Polo Match
UPDATE There was concern today after a horse went down during a polo match at Westport’s Fairfield County Hunt Club. After a few minutes, the horse regained its strength and rose but was removed from the field. After a rest, the horse reentered the match and, according to the trainer, no one including the rider or horse, was injured. The match was the 10th annual Gold’s Dragoons Polo Cup Day that saw Squadron A (in yellow) prevail 7-4 over longtime rival Gold’s Dragoons (in red.) Wynatte Chu, riding activities chairman at the Hunt Club, said later the incident was “unfortunate and shocking” and she hoped the horse involved will make a full recovery. She said the Gold’s Dragoons rent the facility from the Hunt Club and their horses are not under the care or management of the club. (See comment from Gold’s Dragoons official below.) (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com
Popping the Question in Westport
In their two-year relationship, the first date John Patterson and Daiane Dasilva had was in Westport. So that’s where, on a footpath overlooking the Saugatuck in Westport’s center, Patterson, 27, of Bridgeport decided to ask Dasilva, 26, of Redding to marry him. She said yes. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) J.C. Martin for WestportNow.com