Riverside Avenue Pollination
A bee sits on a patch of Black Eyed Susans along Riverside Avenue this evening. WestportLocal.com photo
News 12: Westporter Seeks, Finds Owner of $500 Cash Gift
Westport woman goes on hunt to return $500 to rightful owner
News 12 Connecticut Staff, July 26th, 2021
A woman from Westport decided to return a card found on the ground with $500 inside to its rightful owner.
Gabrielle Perry, 23, was headed to dinner with friends in South Norwalk when she found the card in the parking lot of the Maritime Aquarium on July 10.
“I see there's an envelope on the ground…it said Reverend Dennis on the outside,” says Perry. “The outside said ‘Thank you for marrying us’ and then the inside was a really sweet, heartfelt note to the reverend and it seemed like they knew each other for a really long time.”
Perry tells News 12 the card had no last names. Only “From Christina and Dave.”
“That's when I contacted my friend's mom who's good at searching for people online,” said Perry.
The friend’s mother Google searched "Christina and David wedding Connecticut,” and one of the first hits brought her to the registries for a Christina Ulreich and David Kean. From there, she found Ulreich through LinkedIn and her job.
“I got married on July 11 and it was a beautiful day,” says Chrisitna Ulreich-Kean. “The thing that dampened the morning was when I found out that the gift we had given our reverend who was performing the ceremony had been lost the night before at our rehearsal dinner.”
The dinner was at The Spread in South Norwalk.
Ulreich-Kean figured the gift was gone and focused on enjoying her big day with friends and family.
That night, after the wedding Ulreich-Kean got an email which said: “I hope this is the Christina of Christina and David that are getting married on July 11. We're desperately trying to find the owners of the card. Please let us know if that was you.”
A shocked Ulreich-Kean and her new husband met up with Perry the next day and returned the card to the reverend.
“It was incredible that she even saw the cash and wanted to return it…That they went to so much trouble to find us was just really incredible,” says Ulreich-Kean.
Westport Police Department, Stop and Shop, Announce Food Drive on Saturday
Westport Police Department Release
The Westport Police Department, in conjunction with the local Super Stop & Shop, will be hosting a food drive on Saturday July 31, 2021, between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. All donations will directly support Homes with Hope, the Gillespie Center Homeless Shelter, and the Gillespie Center’s food pantry. Your donations will help to provide meals to the Gillespie Center’s residents, those who are at risk of homelessness, and community members in need. We ask for your support and generosity to help make this food drive a success.
Homes with Hope is a Westport based organization that for the last thirty-seven years has been dedicated to ending homelessness in Fairfield County by creating independent living opportunities for its clients. The Gillespie Center is a homeless shelter for single men and women that typically operates at 100% capacity. Your donations will help provide meals to those who this organization serves.
Westport Police officers and volunteers will accept non-perishable food items as well as cash donations in front of the Super Stop & Shop grocery store, which is located at 1790 Post Road East, Westport, CT on Saturday, July 31, 2021, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Suggested Items to Donate:
Canned Meats, Tuna, Salmon, Spam, Pasta, Pasta Sauces, Chili, Hot/Cold Cereal, Canned Fruit, Canned & Dry Soups, Peanut Butter, Jelly, Mac & Cheese, Rice, Granola Bars, Pancake Mix, Syrup, and Mayonnaise
If you would like to more information about Homes with Hope, please go to: www.hwhct.org
Homes with Hope maintains an IRS 501-c3 status, so all contributions are tax deductible.
We would like to take a moment to thank Super Stop & Shop for hosting this food drive as well as all the generous donors who continue to support the important work of Homes with Hope.
True Riverside Dining
A local doe enjoys supper in the shallows of the Saugatuck River alongside Main Street this evening, just past Gorham Island. WestportLocal.com photo
A Westport Summer Rite of Passage: Exploring Seymour Rock
Campers at Longshore Sailing School took part in a Westport rite of passage: sailing their catamarans to Seymour Rock off of Bluff Point, and beaching them to explore the rock and cool off with a swim. WestportLocal.com photo
Community Gallery: Wakeman Town Farm’s First Sustainable Goods Eco Market
Wakeman Town Farm held their first ever Sustainable Goods Eco Market today at their Cross Highway community farm. Vendors, artists, and farm animals dotted the property with homemade and eco-conscious goods for sale, as well as local organizations working to make a difference for the environment. Wakeman Town Farm is a non-profit organization that operates the homestead farm and gardens, which have been around for over one hundred years in the northern section of Westport. To learn more about Wakeman Town Farm, visit their website: wakemantownfarm.org
Click to enlarge gallery. All photos by WestportLocal.com
Playing Together since 1963, Billy and the Showmen Return to Westport
Bill Frenz plays electric guitar to a dancing crowd on Saturday evening at the Levitt Pavilion. The band has been playing together since 1963 throughout the New York and Connecticut regions, rocking rhythm and blues on local stages for generations. The group graduated Greenwich High School in 1968, and through life changes and 53 years - haven’t missed a beat yet. J.C. Martin for WestportLocal.com
Ice Cream Float: Cockenoe Island Ice Cream Boat Sails Again for Summer 2021
Fairfield residents Tobey Sappern, Matt McManus, and Jon Morris float through Cockenoe Island Lagoon as hands and shouts of boats anchored nearby hail the floating ice cream barge for a frozen treat. The boys pilot their center console with on-board ice cream storage through the lagoon each weekend; grabbing an ice cream quickly becoming a newly found tradition for many of the families enjoying the island. WestportLocal.com photo
Sailboat Sunset
With clearer skies tonight, the sunset was easily visible from throughout the community. Storms pushed away from Westport this evening, allowing for a calm evening on the harbor. WestportLocal.com photo
Writer Recounts Racing in the Flying Scot North American Championships in Westport over Weekend
Photo by Art Petrosemolo for The Daily News of Newburyport. As I See It: Fear conquered in the waves
The Daily News of Newburyport | by Marilyn Archibald
“Big wave, big wave, BIG WAVE!”
It was our second day of sailing in the Flying Scot North American Championships in Westport, Connecticut. I had been told that the worst problem with sailing in Long Island Sound during July is usually a lack of wind. Instead, we had stormy, gray skies, 18-knot winds with gusts to 25, and 4-foot seas.
These conditions were unlike anything I had ever encountered. Heading straight into the waves, our 19-foot boat Talk like a Pirate rose and fell with stomach-churning slams. Going sideways to them heeled us over dangerously. In either direction, bucketloads of water drenched us to the skin almost continuously.
Heading out of the harbor, things hadn’t seemed so bad, but the minute we hit open water the real conditions became apparent. Any mistake could result in immediate capsize, a broken boom, collision with another boat, or one of us being flung out of the cockpit into the water.
“I don’t know if I can do this!” I shouted to my husband, David, gripping the jib and shroud lines like grim death.
“Try it! Just one race! You can do this!” he shouted back.
“Nooo,” I moaned, sobbing slightly. Then, I gave myself a mental shake. The truth was, I wasn’t afraid. I trusted my skipper. And if I didn’t do my job as crew to the absolute best of my ability, using everything I had learned over the last 10 years of sailing, I would put us both in real danger. My husband needed me, I needed him, and together we could do this.
So I hung on, moving from one side of the boat to the other as we tacked, yelling back when the waves in front of us looked like something out of The Perfect Storm.
Sailboat races have both upwind and downwind sections, called legs, and while sailing upwind right now was absolutely savage, sailing downwind — while seeming less scary — was actually more dangerous. The waves can push the boat faster than the actual wind speed and cause the front, or bow, of the boat, to be pushed under the water, causing the rudder to come up and control to be lost.
“Get back, get back!” David shouted, as we surfed down one enormous wave after another, and water cascaded over the front of the boat. I scrambled aft and the bow came back up. We finished the race and wave by wave, made it back to the harbor like a rocket ship, soaked, battered and for me at least, utterly exhilarated.
The two days of sailing that followed could not have been more different — nearly flat seas, and so little wind that most boats were towed in and out of the race course like baby ducks in a line. But these light wind conditions, which require the extreme patience that Skipper David has in abundance, favored our skills. We won second place out of more than 20 boats in our division on both days.
I’m a better sailor today than I was a week ago. I’m unlikely to see those extreme conditions again soon, but now I know I can handle them. Doing scary things is hard, but it’s how we grow stronger, as sailors, and as people.
Marilyn Archibald lives in West Newbury and sails with her husband, David, out of Sandy Bay Yacht Club, Rockport, Massachusetts.