News

New Canaan Old Timers Association To Induct Six Athletes, Honor Wilky Gilmore

By |

After missing a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the spotlight will once again shine on local sports figures from the past as the New Canaan Old Timers Association hosts its annual honoree ceremony on Sunday, September 19th at Waveny. 2021 inductees will be Bobby Festo, Paul Gallo, Tom McInerney, Lew Socci and Katey Twombly. Also being recognized at this year’s affair as the Loren J. Keyes Memorial Honoree is all-time New Canaan basketball great, the late Wilky Gilmore. 

Bobby Festo is listed in the Who’s Who of American High School Athletes as an All-American in track and field, an honorable mention on the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletics Conference county soccer team as a goalkeeper his senior year in New Canaan. He holds many track and field records as a sprinter for New Canaan, and won many medals at state and invitational track and field competitions as a sprinter in both individual events and as a member of a relay team. He went to college at Southern Connecticut State College where he joined the men’s track team for a year and a half while also participating on the men’s soccer team.

Around Town

‘Hometown Icon’: Bobby Peloso Turns 60

By |

Bobby Peloso became part of Marianne Perry’s life when she moved to New Canaan in 1979, though it would be many years before she met him. Driving along Route 123, Perry would see Peloso standing each day on a grass verge off the east side of the state road, between Urban and Hill Streets, waving to passersby from the edge of a large garden. “I remember always seeing this person,” Perry, for the past 14 years an Urban Street neighbor and friend of Peloso’s, told NewCanaanite.com. 

“He is just a delight. We still see him most every day. He is part of our lives.