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The Land of the Sweets comes to Westport

The Land of the Sweets comes to Westport

Just fifteen minutes into the Nutcracker tea party at the Westport Woman’s Club, sparkles are already gathering on the floor. Seven tables sit around the room. Each has a bright pink table cloth and a tall, and of course sparkly, nutcracker centerpiece.

Sixty attendees file in one-by-one on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Some are parents, others grandparents, and others are excited little girls. As each family settles at a table, the young girls climb onto their knees in order to reach the paper crowns and hershey kisses scattered across the table cloth.

“I thought it was the perfect event for Evelyn to get introduced to ‘The Nutcracker’,” Arlene Johnson, Vice President of Finance for the Woman’s club and former AP Biology teacher at Staples High School, said.

Evelyn, Johnson’s granddaughter, dressed up special wearing what she described as a, “dress with ballerina stuff on it.”

The pinnacle of the event was the reading of ‘The Nutcracker’ which was done by Mary Ellen Marpe, wife of First Selectman Jim Marpe. Each time a new character was introduced a costumed ballerina from the Westport Academy of Dance scurried into the room on tip-toe while the little girls crowded around Marpe ohh’d and ahh’d.

Miranda Saunders ’15, wore a large white tutu.

Tickets to the event cost 40 dollars a head. All proceeds are going to the Waltersville School’s Performing Arts Program, in Bridgeport.

“People have been doing ballet teas for years, but we have never had anything like that,” Suzan Murphy, the Chair of the Event and the Ways and Means President of the Woman’s club, said. The event was her brainchild.

After the reading, the girls mingled with the dancers from Westport Academy. “They were all so excited to get their pictures taken with us and even asked for autographs,” Harley Kowalsky ’15 said.

“I’m excited to help continue the dream of ‘The Nutcracker’ for these kids,” Lulu Busk ’17, who was one of the Westport Academy dancers who interacted with the girls, said.

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Claire Dinshaw, Editor
It may have been a visceral feeling that instigated Claire Dinshaw ’17 to apply for a sports editor position her sophomore year, however, she refers to the moment she submitted her application as, “one of the best decisions [She] has made in high school.” Journalism for Dinshaw has always been a part of her life. Her mother was actually an active participant in the journalism industry where she worked for Vogue Magazine before moving to sales. Despite having relations to journalism prior to high school, Dinshaw had instilled that she “was one of those kids who thought that she would never do what their parents do. I’m going to do something completely different” she said. Swaying towards science and math courses, joining Introduction to Journalism seemed like a “fun elective” because she had “room to add one more class to [her] schedule.” Coming out of Introduction to Journalism, Dinshaw was still not set on joining the Inklings staff. That is, until her application got accepted and she earned her role as the sports editor. “A week after joining Advanced Journalism I knew I had made the right decision and I instantly loved it” Dinshaw said. When she isn’t working as a news editor in her second year on the paper, Dinshaw can be found at Dance Dimensions in Norwalk where she has been dancing since she was three years old. For Dinshaw, journalism connects not only to the English department, but also with the ability to collect information and put that information into “organized cohesive thoughts.” These skills may not relate to her favorite course, science, but from journalism she has developed “life skills that [she] will carry beyond the classroom.”

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