Westonites of the Week: Weston Residents

What an amazing weekend!

The rides! The sno-cones! The parade-that-almost-wasn't-but-then-it-stopped-raining! Those large, stuffed bananas so many kids won! Tailgating behind the scrambler! The race (can you believe someone ran it in 15 minutes?)! And hallelujah! The sweet, blessed summer weather!

Summer has officially started. And boy oh boy, have we earned it.

The Memorial Day Fair and 5k race, the biggest fundraisers of the year for our Parent Teacher Organzations, were both run with such clock-like efficiency that it makes me wonder — to quote a dear friend who shall remain nameless  — are the organizers Swiss?

Patch would like to take this opportunity to express our profound thanks and gratefulness to those Westonites who made this weekend a reality.

The 5k race, which kicks off the weekend every year with a bright and early Saturday start, was directed this year by parents Karen Hagen and Anne Santa-Maria. It was won by Zach Schwartz of Newtown in a super-speedy 15 minutes, 28 seconds.

On Saturday afternoon, the Fair opened, with much discussion centering around the new ride, a spin-inducing ferris-wheel-mixed-with-a-sumersault. The verdict by most? Outstanding.

Also outstanding is the estimated $40,000 the Fair earned for the WIS and Hurlbutt Parent Teacher Organizations, according to co-director Caroline Schreder.

It was also co-directed by Jennifer Goetz.

In the past, proceeds from the Fair have been used to purchase SmartBoards and playground equipment.

"It's such a substantial amount of money for our schools," Schreder noted. 

"I found planning the Fair to be very rewarding," she continued. "It's such a town tradition."

Volunteers from all over town came forward to work the ticket booths, bake, man the Hurlbutt parking lot (because volunteers get the best parking, of course), among many other duties too numerous to count.

Most appreciative of all were the kids, who raced from rides to games and back again, joy shining from red faces, and flattened, wet bangs stuck to foreheads. Teenagers looked a bit more casual, but even in their studied coolness there was no mistaking the excitement that only our Memorial Day weekend can bring.

Two older rides, Zero Gravity and Freefall, were the subject of many dares. This reporter did not take the bait, lest the rest of her weekend be marred by nausea; she was content to relax with her thoughts on the baseball field adjacent to the Onion Barn, thinking that yes, this truly was, is, and always will be the best weekend of the year.

Thanks to so many by so many for making our small town so collectively happy. And most of all, thanks to our military service members, without whom we would not have the freedom we enjoy, sometimes too casually, in this reporter's opinion.

Happy summer!