Monthly Archives: June 2025

Jane Fonda to Receive 10th Annual ‘Spirit of Katharine Hepburn Award’ at ‘the Kate’ Gala in Old Saybrook, Sept. 14

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Jane Fonda. Photo credit: James Franklin

OLD SAYBROOK, CT – The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center (the Kate) has announced that global icon Jane Fonda will receive the 10th annual Spirit of Katharine Hepburn Award at the Kate’s Gala presented by The RiverLane on Sunday, Sept.14.

The award is presented each year to an individual, who embodies the spirit, independence, and character of the legendary actress.

The Gala is the non-profit arts organization’s largest fundraiser with proceeds supporting performing arts events, the official Katharine Hepburn Museum, and arts education programs that serve more than 3,000 students each year.

The event celebrates two women – Katharine Hepburn and Jane Fonda – who guided their careers to their own standards and worked on behalf of human rights, the environment and other important social justice causes.

The two co-starred in the critically acclaimed and beloved film On Golden Pond along with Henry Fonda.

Jane Fonda is a two-time Academy Award-winning actor (Best Actress in 1971 for Klute and in 1978 for Coming Home), producer, author, activist, and fitness guru. Her career has spanned over 50 years, accumulating a body of film work that includes more than 50 films and significant contributions to political causes such as women’s rights, Native Americans’ rights, and environmental protection.

She is a seven-time Golden Globe® winner and was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2021. She accepted The Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival.

In April of 2024, Fonda accepted the TIME Magazine Earth Award. She also received the SAG Lifetime Achievement Award in February 2025. 

2023 was a banner year for Fonda, with four films released. Most recently, she lent her voice to ‘Grandmama’ in DreamWorks’ animated film Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken. Before that, Fonda reunited with Diane Keaton, Mary Steenburgen, and Candice Bergen for Focus Features’ Book Club 2.

She also starred in the highly anticipated 80 For Brady opposite Lily Tomlin, Sally Field, and Rita Moreno, released by Paramount Pictures.

There was also Moving On by Paul Weitz for Roadside Attractions, in which Fonda starred opposite her longtime friend and colleague, Lily Tomlin. Other notable credits include Grace & Frankie, Netflix’s longest-running original series. For her work on the series, she received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 2017. She also released Jane Fonda in Five Acts, a documentary for HBO chronicling her life and activism.

Fonda continues to lead the charge on the climate emergency via Fire Drill Fridays, the national movement to protest government inaction on climate change, which she started in October 2019 in partnership with Greenpeace USA. In 2022, she launched the Jane Fonda Climate PAC, focused on defeating political allies of the fossil fuel industry.

Her latest book, “What Can I Do? My Path From Climate Despair to Action,” details her personal journey with the movement and provides solutions for communities to combat the climate crisis. Notably, Fonda celebrated her 85th birthday by raising $1 million for her nonprofit, the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power & Potential (GCAPP).

Past recipients of the award include Dick Cavett, Glenn Close, Ann Nyberg, Christine Baranski, Cher, Sam Waterston, Martina Navratilova, Candice Bergen, and Laura Linney.

Tickets on sale soon at www.thekate.org.  For information on the Gala and sponsorship opportunities, call 860-510-0473.

Editor’s Note: i) This article is based on a press release issued June 5 by Intersect Public Solutions.

ii) The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center (the Kate) is a not-for-profit performing arts organization located in the historic theatre/town hall on Main Street in Old Saybrook. Originally opened in 1911, and reopened as the Kate in 2009, the building is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.   The Kate includes a state-of-the-art 285-seat theatre and presents work in several genres including music, theater, opera, dance, comedy, film, and a variety of children’s programing.  The theater lobby boasts the official Katharine Hepburn Museum, celebrating Old Saybrook’s most celebrated resident, with exhibits featuring personal affects and memorabilia, costumes, letters and home movies.

Talking Transportation: Wires Down on Metro-North Cause Multiple Delays

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Jim Cameron

We take our train service for granted. For the 80,000 daily Connecticut riders on Metro-North the service is dependable and on-time … usually. But not last Thursday evening (June 5), the hottest day of the year (so far), when the overhead catenary power lines were dragged down near Westport. No power means no trains.

What caused the problem won’t be known for a while. Given the heat it might be “wire sag.” Or maybe it was a worn out pantograph carbon shoe (the thing on top of the train that touches the catenary power line.)  Whatever the cause, the results were fast and long-lasting.

Scores of trains were delayed throughout the Northeast Corridor, both on Metro-North and Amtrak. But two were stranded between stations with no power … and no AC. One, an Amtrak train carrying 400 people, got very hot. Because the windows don’t open, people started to get upset according to media reports.

Metro-North trains have long carried emergency water supplies for such incidents, but not Amtrak trains.

Eventually diesel trains came to the rescue (along with local fire fighters), but the delays were far from over … lingering into Friday’s service the next day.

How did passengers on the delayed and rerouted trains make out?  Based on interviews, pretty well given the circumstances and Metro-North’s quick response.

Substitute buses are usually the answer, but at the peak of rush hour (when the incident occurred) most buses were already on their regular runs. It’s not like there’s a fleet of spare buses on standby. And remember … a full Metro-North train can carry 1000 passengers. A bus, maybe 60 (including standees.)

A reporter friend of mine, who lives in eastern Connecticut, grabbed the 5:22 p.m. train from Grand Central to New Haven and, within minutes of departure the hundreds of passengers onboard were warned of problems: the train would terminate at South Norwalk.

There he caught a bus, only to be dumped somewhere in East Norwalk when the driver pulled to a stop and said “I’m done working, everybody off. There’s another bus coming.”  

“None of us knew where we were,” said my friend, eventually paying $120 for a cab to West Haven where he’d parked his car. He eventually got home about 11:45 p.m.

“Everybody was pretty ‘chill’ and patient,” he said, impressed that Metro-North staffers wearing distinctive vests were at the stations directing the throngs. “I’m just glad that Metro-North was doing something,” he said. “The whole experience taught us just how vulnerable we are when things go wrong.”

Another colleague, Paul Murnane from WINS, caught an 8 p.m. train from Grand Central, getting no further than Greens Farms where the platform was jammed with tired travelers. Sure enough, vested railroad staffers directed the throngs down a hill to three waiting buses, which immediately filled up and departed. More buses were promised and quickly arrived. Murnane’s bus even got a State Police escort, arriving in Fairfield at 11:30 p.m.

Again, he says the crowds were patient and well behaved. “It’s hard to have a riot in Vineyard Vines,” he said, commenting on the riders’ summer attire. A 40-year rider of these rails, he too was impressed with the railroad’s response.

Stuff happens on a railroad depending on aging infrastructure. So if you’re taking a train, always have a “plan B”.  And BYO water.

And kudos to Metro-North for their handling of this situation, especially for keeping passengers informed.

Editor’s Notes: i) Jim Cameron is the founder of the Commuter Action Group and advocates for Connecticut rail riders. He writes a weekly column called ‘Talking Transportation,’ which is published by a number of publications in the state.
ii) ”Talking Transportation” recently won first place in the general column/commentary category in the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists Excellence in Journalism Contest.

TOP STORY: Ashlawn Farm Caps 12 Years as ‘Launching and Landing Pad’ for ‘Tour de Lyme’

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About 580 riders came out for the ‘Tour de Lyme’ on Sunday, June 1. Photo by Warner Swain.

LYME—Roughly 600 riders per year, bringing in about $65,000 annually for the Lyme Land Trust, have started out from Ashlawn Farm on Bill Hill Road for more than a decade as part of the perennially bucolic Tour de Lyme. 

Now, the family farm is bringing its popular coffee roasting operations back home as the land trust seeks out a change of scenery for the bike riding tradition. 

Those at the 13th Tour de Lyme, held last weekend, were the last to cycle and celebrate on the farm. 

Land Trust Executive Director Kristina White in a phone interview this week said the farm has donated the space to the Tour de Lyme at no charge for a dozen years. 

White described the arrangement as a large undertaking for the landowners, who coordinated mowing and haying operations to make room for hundreds of cars in preparation for the event that would take over their property for a full weekend. 

“The land trust really appreciates what they’ve done for us, because the Tour de Lyme would not have been what it was if Ashlawn Farm wasn’t there,” she said. 

Carol Adams, co-owner of the farm with husband Bill Donovan, said in an email that the family will continue to enjoy their hobby animals and gardens while allowing another farm to use some of the fields and outbuildings. Meanwhile, they are turning the barn where Ashlawn Farm Coffee was born and brewed in 2002 into an updated roastery. 

The coffee business since 2013 has operated out of a cafe near the Old Saybrook train station. That’s also where they roast beans sourced from farms all over the world. 

As the small business outgrew the space, Adams said it was natural to look back to their own rural roots. “We are so lucky to have the space, and we have reached the point where we need to use it,” she said. 

The cafe will continue to operate in Old Saybrook. 

Adams credited Lyme officials with their support throughout the approval process to renovate the roastery space. “And then we can spread out, scale up our supply purchases, enjoy a brewing/tasting/cupping lab, soak in the farm vibes and hopefully invite the public to our facility on occasion,” she said. 

A video posted on the business’s Facebook page shows the couple’s progress in adding septic capacity, running water, a coffee lab, storage and office space, and improved flow for shipping and receiving.

Participants gather on the grounds of Ashlawn Farm for a picnic following the Tour de Lyme on June 1, 2025. Photo by Warner Swain.

White, the land trust director, said she’s “not even close” to ironing out all the details or announcing a new site – but she has a plan. 

“We will stay in Lyme, obviously,” she said. 

With a new base will come altered routes for road offerings ranging from a challenging 59 miles to a family-friendly 8 miles.

“We’ve been in the same place for 12 years, so having a new location just means it will be exciting for the riders to come to a new place,” she said. “Some of the rides will be different, so we might be able to attract some of the riders who probably didn’t come because they had done it so many years in a row.”

Two mountain bike routes take riders on a trek through Hartman Park, Walbridge Woodlands and Young preserves as well as the Nehantic State Forest. 

White described cycling as a natural outlet to help support the land trust, which has been around since 1966. 

The event serves as the group’s only fundraiser. Proceeds go toward stewardship, preservation and operating costs, according to White. 

She recalled a rider who told her it was remarkable he’d passed through eight preserves on his ride. The land trust and its partners are responsible for preserving over 12,000 acres in a town where more than half its land mass is protected from development. 

White said riders wind past forests, farms and stone walls on roads with relatively little traffic. “When you’re on a bicycle, because you’re going so much slower than a car, you can see what we’re doing in a very clear way,” she said of the organization’s mission. 

Adams noted the event draws riders “from seemingly everywhere” to the small town that Ashlawn Farm is proud to support.

“We were thrilled to be able to offer up the farm as a launching and landing pad for all those years,” she said.

TOP STORY: Musical Masterworks Mourns Founding Artistic Director, Chamber Music Pioneer Charles Wadsworth

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Chamber music pioneer Charles Wadsworth. Photos courtesy of Musical Masterworks.

OLD LYME–The Musical Masterworks community and beyond is mourning the loss of founding artistic director and pioneering chamber musician Charles Wadsworth. 

The pianist died on May 29 in Manhattan, NY, at the age of 96. 

A tribute from the Musical Masterworks board of directors recalled his arrival on the Old Lyme scene in 1990 when the group was still a fledgling concert series. Wadsworth brought with him a worldwide reputation as the founding director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Spoleto Festival Midday Concerts in Italy and Charleston, S.C. 

Musical Masterworks President Alden Murphy, who was a founding director of the series with her husband Jamie Murphy, told LymeLine in an email that it was a “joyful surprise” when Wadsworth agreed to become the group’s first artistic director. 

Jamie and Alden Murphy, Musical Masterworks founding directors, stand either side of the late Charles Wadsworth.

“Thanks to Charles, three generations of musicians and audiences have found a home at Musical Masterworks,” she continued, adding, “We’re forever grateful for the magic he brought to our community.”

She said his quirky, napkin-scribbled program notes back when the couple first met him at the Spoleto Festival made chamber music feel alive and spontaneous. 

“He brought that same warmth and humor to Old Lyme, transforming our young concert series into something extraordinary,” she noted. 

The group counted Paula Robison, Richard Goode, Chee-Yun, Carter Brey among the many stars he introduced to the Masterworks stage. He passed on a welcoming spirit that still defines the concerts to artistic director Edward Arron in 2009 and Tessa Lark, who took the role in 2022.

“With every performance, we carry forward his joy, his generosity, and his belief in the transformative power of chamber music,” the tribute concluded.

Visit this link to read Mr. Wadsworth’s full obituary published May 28, 2025 by Dignity Memorial.

Old Lyme Land Trust Hosts Bench Building Workshop, Sunday

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It was all smiles at the most recent bench-building event. Photo credit: OLLT.

OLD LYME — UPDATED 6/15: On Sunday, June 14, the Old Lyme Land Trust will host a ‘Bench Building Workshop’ from 1 to 3 p.m.This free, fun event is open to all ages and its objective is to build four benches to be sited on OLLT open space properties for public use.

Materials are precut and ready to assemble. Bring power drill and driver sets.

Light refreshments will be available.

Register at this link to receive details of the location or text 617-699-1920.

This event was postponed from yesterday due to the inclement weather.