James Bairaktaris 10/3/21 James Bairaktaris 10/3/21

Georgetown Day Celebrations Returns to Redding Community for 18th Year

The 18th annual Georgetown Day Celebration transformed the usually quiet Main Street in Georgetown, Connecticut into a festival for all ages today. Live music, kids’ activities, fresh food, and local vendors lined the small street as hundreds of families joined in on the celebration. Being yet another local event delayed due to the pandemic, its return this year allowed the Redding community and surrounding neighbors to come together while supporting the local organizations sponsoring the event. All photos by Jaime Bairaktaris. Click to enlarge photos. — The 18th annual Georgetown Day Celebration transformed the usually quiet Main Street in Georgetown, Connecticut into a festival for all ages today. Live music, kids’ activities, fresh food, and local vendors lined the small street as hundreds of families joined in on the celebration. Being yet another local event delayed due to the pandemic, its return this year allowed the Redding community and surrounding neighbors to come together while supporting the local organizations sponsoring the event.
`All photos by Jaime Bairaktaris. Click to enlarge photos.`

James Bairaktaris 10/1/21 James Bairaktaris 10/1/21

12th Annual Push Against Cancer Planned for Sunday

Corrected Date: Sunday, October 3rd

The Push Against Cancer is a friendly push-up-a-thon geared at all age and fitness-levels. The event raises funds for The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, a non-profit founded by beloved Westporter and award-winning actor Paul Newman in 1988 to provide “a different kind of healing” to seriously ill children and their families.

Over the last decade, the Push Against Cancer has raised over $725k to help kids battling illnesses from cancer to sickle cell enjoy summer camp and other joy-filled, camp-inspired experiences. Every child who participates in Camp programs does so at no cost to their family, and, with their medical needs and adapted activities, the cost to attend is not insignificant - it costs $2,500 for one child to attend one week of camp. While there, kids are no longer patients; they are simply KIDS, surrounded by friends who understand what they’re going through. The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp brings healing experiences to more than 20,000 seriously ill kids and families annually. All programs, both onsite at the Ashford, CT camp and in hospitals and communities across the Northeast, are free of charge to campers and their families.

This year’s Push Against Cancer will be held on Sunday, October 3 at Staples High School in Westport, CT on the girls’ lacrosse/field hockey field. In 2010, founder Andy Berman, a local fitness professional, was opening a new gym in Westport. He wanted to find a way to give back to the community he was joining. When he learned about The Hole in the Wall Gang and that it had been founded by local Paul Newman, Andy knew he had found his charity. He started the Push Against Cancer with about 20 participants who raised $9,900, doing pushups in his former gym, Fitness Factory. The event grew each year; in 2015, over 40 participants raised $44k, 2016 saw over 100 participants raise $67k, 2017’s 242 participants raised $128k. In 2018 there were 334 participants who raised over $150k and 2019 brought over 350 participants and raised over $265k! With a global pandemic shaking things up in 2020, founder Andy Berman and his team quickly pivoted from an in-person event to a virtual one. With participants tuning in to Zoom from all over the country - and despite Covid illnesses and global financial disarray - PAC still managed to raise over $80,000.

Thanks to high vaccination rates and low illness transmission rates, 2021 is back in person! We hope to raise enough money to send over 100 kids to camp this year. This year’s event is again being held at Staples High School, which gives the event a unique flavor and has encouraged more high school students and athletic teams to participate. Once again, the Push Against Cancer has the support and participation of many important local organizations including the Westport Police Department and Police Chief Foti Koskinas, the Westport Fire Department and Fire Chief Robert Yost, Westport’s own CT State Senator Will Haskell, Westport First Selectman James Marpe, and Staples High School Principal Stafford Thomas. The Staples High School’s specialty choral group, the Orphenians, will be performing the National Anthem under the direction of advisor Luke Rosenberg.

SAFETY AND FUNDRAISING

To maximize safety via social distancing, participants will be spaced out on the field. As always, the event is a friendly, non-competitive push-up-a-thon, where the number of pushups completed is simply for personal satisfaction and/or bragging rights. There is a $40 registration fee, which goes toward each participant’s $100 requested fundraising minimum.

To register, or to donate visit

http://getinvolved.holeinthewallgang.org/2021pac

To become a corporate sponsor, or for more information, please email Chief Administrative Officer Sherry Jonas at Sherry.PushAgainstCancer@gmail.com.