Lucky Duck: Westporter Wins 2022 Great Duck Race, $5,000 Prize, with Duck #410
Janet Mittleman, a Westporter for 32 years, was this year’s Lucky Duck as her rubber ducky won the Westport Rotary’s Great Duck Race today on Jesup Green. Mittleman and her five year old grandson James Gladstein were all smiles as they came to claim their prize from First Selectwoman Jen Tooker and members of the Westport Rotary clubs after their duck, #410, made its way the fastest down the manmade river - with water supplied by Westport firefighters. Thousands of ducks took the plunge today from the bucket of an AJ Penna frontloader, with every duck randomly assigned a number that corresponded to a donor’s ticket. All money collected from the duck race goes back into the community as the funding supports numerous non-profit organizations and local events through the Westport Rotaries. WestportLocal.com photo
Runners (floaters?) up for this year’s race included:
Nick Battaglino
Anna Brady
Rob Graham
Alexnder Strompen
Tracey Cauley
Wen Hsu
Rady Johnson
Jason Wolgast
Silvia Durno
Passing the Football against Pastel Skies
Wednesday night’s warm skies allowed for some extra time to pass the football as Compo Beach slowly wound down for the evening. WestportLocal.com photo
Quiet Morning for Compo Lifeguards
Compo Beach Lifeguards had a quiet morning as hundreds of empty chairs lined the shoreline and nobody headed into the surf. The lifeguarding team will remain on their chairs tonight until 6:00 PM as part of their regular Summer hours. WestportLocal.com photo
Ghost Beach: Hundreds of Chairs with Nobody to Fill Them ahead of Fireworks
Hundreds of community members headed to Compo Beach this morning - some before sunrise - to stake their claim on the sand ahead of Westport’s fireworks spectacular. The beach appears busier than ever for a Thursday morning, but was silent as the chairs waited idly by for their families to return. A Westport tradition every year: the sight was one for sore eyes after two years without the Independence Day celebration. WestportLocal.com photo
“Yes, even the wall.”