Winners Announced for Memorial Day Parade Floats
Best Development of a Theme
League of Women Voters
Best Youth Organization Float
Suzuki Music Schools
Most Creative Float
Westport Paddle Club
Best Community Organization float
Westport Rotary
Most Colorful Float
VFW Auxiliary 399
Best Overall Float
Y’s Men of Westport\Weston
Special “Pep Award”
Staples, Bedford Middle & Coleytown Middle School Bands
Memorial Day Parade Float Judges:
Betty Lou Cummings, Ruth Whelan, Diana Heisinger & Mary Ann Lindwall
Parade Master:
William (Bill) Vornkahl
The Memorial Day Parade Guide: Celebrating a Westport Tradition
The 2021 Westport Memorial Day Parade Route. Start: 9:00 AM [Saugatuck Elementary School]
End: 10:30 AM [Memorial Day Ceremony, Veteran’s Green]
2021 Parade Marshall: Nicholas Rossi, WWII Veteran
2021 Float Contest Theme: Honoring Women Veterans
Line of March:
Honor Division
Col. John Chester Fife & Drum Corps
Westport Police Department
Westport Volunteer EMS
Grand Marshal Nicholas Rossi
World War II Veterans
1st Division
Dignitaries - RTM Members
Westport Community Band
Connecticut Veterans Honor Guard
Joseph J. Clinton Post 399 - Veterans of Foreign Wars
August Matthias Post 63 - American Legion
VFW Auxiliary 399 Westport Float
2nd Division
Nash Drum Corps
Westport Fire Department
Y's Men of Westport/Weston
Westport Baseball – Hawks
Westport Little League Baseball
Westport Little League - Blue Jays
Westport PAL Boys and Girls Lacrosse
Westport Soccer Association
Staples High School Marching Band
Bedford Middle School Marching Band
Coleytown Middle School Marching Band
Staples Tuition Grants
Staples Rugby Club
Assumption Church - Knights of Columbus Council #3688
Suzuki Music Schools
St. Paul Christian School
Westport Woman's Club
3rd Division
Girl Scouts
The League of Women Voters of Westport
Boy Scouts of America
The United Methodist Church of Westport & Weston
Builders Beyond Borders
Westport Paddle Club
Westport Library
Westport Weston Family YMCA
Junior Colonial Fife & Drum Corps of Westbrook, CT
Videos: Tom “Big Red” Leyden’s Videos of the 1981 and 1969 Westport Memorial Day Parades
Thomas Leydon, “Big Red”, was an active Westporter who served the Assumption Church parish for nearly six decades in addition to coaching PAL Pop Warner football and remaining an avid model train collector. Leydon died in July of 2020 at the age of 82 due to an extended illness, leaving a void in the community he so fiercely supported. His YouTube channel holds two time capsules of Westport - videos of both the 1981 and 1969 Memorial Day Parades in Westport.
He shared with us the Parade in 1981, as seen and heard from the steps of Assumption Church on Riverside Avenue, and then the 1969 Parade as seen from the corner of Myrtle Avenue and Evergreen Avenue. Both videos freeze time as Westporters of bygone eras march by the screen. His YouTube channel is still active, and documents the two moments in the community’s history for both new and old Westporters to see the community as it was.
Foul Weather, Good Wind Surfing
A windsurfer waits for a gust to carry him out of the harbor off of Compo Beach this afternoon. With air temperatures reading closer to 46 degrees and a water temperature of about 50 degrees, the wetsuit was surely needed to keep warm today.