Garelick and Herbs, Great Cakes, Bagel Maven, Gold's Deli, Compo Beach Concession, Village Bagels of Norwalk, The Food Pantry, The Immaculate Baking Co., Stew Leonard's, Fairway Market, Whole Foods, Stop & Shop, Costco, Dunkin Donuts, Trader Joe's and Stiles Market. All net proceeds gained from registration fees and sponsorship are donated to more than 30 nonprofit organizations in Westport and in our neighboring communities. The Westport Young Women's League is a non-profit philanthropic organization of women committed to promoting a sense of community through volunteerism, social activities and fundraising for local charities.

To this end, the chamber has committed $10,000 of its funds to help with the hiring of experts in urban design, parking, traffic flow, public spaces, pedestrian safety, and municipal infrastructure enhancements, all of which must be studied to successfully plan Westport's future. If the town is going to have a say in ensuring that our community has the best traffic flow, adequate parking, pedestrian safety, improved flood control measures, more public spaces and a beautiful streetscape, we believe the Downtown 2020 Committee's work is important and deserving of our financial support.

Some years ago, when Elvira's Deli & Pizza ran into financial difficulty, the neighborhood (and some others) gave her money to help over the rough period. [...] because new construction in Elivra's neighborhood has presented a business opportunity for mobile food vendors to supply coffee-break and lunch provisions for the workers, Elvira's owners want the town to bail `em out again -- this time at the expense of other food vendors who also are trying to make a go of it.

From the time children are in grade school they are taught about America's great representative government. While we no longer have village meetings where all attend and voice opinions directly, we vote for people to represent us in the Senate and House of Representatives. Some senators (the week of April 15) acted in a manner that disgraced the concept of representative government. When money talks and influences votes, then the ballot box speaks louder.

Years ago, 27 in truth, I watched our daughter as Peter Pan in a Long Lots School production of that timeless show. The production was mind boggling, the scenery, the lighting, the sound system, the voices, the choreography and the acting were fabulous. The skills and stage presence of the major performers, starting with Peter, were out of this world. The dance numbers in the second act were particularly captivating, joyous, natural and performed as if they had worked together for months and months,

Joan McIver wrote that she will reluctantly "bow to discouragement and old age" and no longer join the weekly Wetport protest of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan ("Protester bowing out, urges troop withdrawl," April 3). A few weeks ago President Karzai demanded that we withdraw all troops from Wardak Province and turn over control of Bagram Prison immediately! Just look at the angry faces of the people in Kabul, protesting our presence in The New York Times photo on March 17. [...] I see no way to stop reminding people of the deadly, costly, insane war we are in.

The planned pedestrian crosswalk at the intersection of Post Road and Bulkley Avenue near Shake Shack to be most effective should include "pedestrian countdown signals," which display to pedestrians time left for crossing the roadway. Effective traffic safety solutions utilizing the latest technologies, combined with compliance by pedestrians and vehicle operators, would significantly reduce, if not eliminate, pedestrian/vehicle traffic accidents in Westport.

On April 8, the Westport Board of Education will vote for, or hopefully against, a proposal for five full days of kindergarten. Jill Mann (March 29) and Brooke Petrosino (April 3) have both written excellent letters to the Westport News explaining why they believe Westport should continue with the current program of three full days and two half days.

Because they offer excellent services, I have been pleased to refer Westport residents to them when Westporters seek residential/assisted living. [...] it has always saddened me when a Westporter becomes frail and must leave their Westport doctor, dentist, shopping sites, friends, family to start over in another town in their advanced years. Atria Senior Living specializes in residential/assisted living and has developed a good model of care within their organization.

The main focus was adding more "choice" time. Because of all the new demands on kindergartners back then, teachers were having a hard time fitting it all in. Looking at the district's numbers, it is shocking to see the number of additional minutes these young minds will spend performing compared to the minutes they get to play, process and work on social skills. The wisest option is to leave the schedule as is and make informed decisions based on results rather than what ifs, as our kids are assessed against the benchmarks of the Connecticut Core Standards. With a little tweaking, our current schedule will effectively prepare our students to meet these standards and leave four hours for them to do the work of childhood: just play.