By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT — Three donations, including one for $103,000 honoring Max Harper, the Staples High School senior who died from injuries in a motorbike accident last Sept. 11, have been accepted by town officials.

The largest donation, arranged by Max’s father, Marcus Harper, is from the Martino Family Foundation and will be used to set up “Live Life to the Max,” a program for boys with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), town Human Services Director Elaine Daignault told the Board of Selectwomen, which officially accepted the donations last Wednesday.

“His father has been looking to make meaning out of this terrible tragedy,” Daignault said. “One of the things that he shared with us is that Max had ADHD.” 

The donation will be seed money for a scholarship for young men ages 15 to 18 for a 12-week program to address challenges experienced by those diagnosed with ADHD, she said, including academics, focus, and social and emotional issues “Boys are much more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD,” she added.

Program participants also will meet in groups and work on daily social skills, she said. In addition, parents’ feedback will be solicited.

“It’s a very exciting project. We’re really, really thrilled to be able to honor Max Harper, but also to be part of a program that is going to help so many people,” Daignault said.

Harper, 18, died from injuries he suffered when the dirt bike he was riding on Old Hill Road collided with a truck on a sharp curve in the road. A day after the crash, he was mourned by fellow students from Staples and Greens Farms Academy, where he previously attended classes, at an impromptu Compo Beach gathering and in a moving remembrance written by Patrick Micinilio, an assistant principal at Staples.

The Martino Family Foundation, based in New Canaan, is a private organization that awards grants to nonprofits for a variety of charitable programs.

Club 203 donation

The selectwomen also accepted $10,000 from the Westport Woman’s Club to sustain the Club 203 program for disabled adults.

Club 203, started in September 2022 by the town’s Commission on People With Disabilities, has become so popular it draws participants from all over Fairfield County and even New York, Daignault told the selectwomen.

“We plan to come up with a framework for other organizations and municipalities to take our ideas and create it in their own communities,” she said. The growth of the program and its widespread participation shows that “obviously we are filling a need. This grant is going to help us to continue that effort.”

Club 203 is an unfunded project, she added, run entirely by volunteers and using donated space from nonprofit organizations for events all over Westport, including MoCA, Westport Library, YMCA, Earthplace and VFW. The town covers only the club’s liability insurance and the cost of volunteer background checks, she said.

“This grant is going to help us with sustainability” of the program, she added. A schedule of Club 203 events can be found on the group’s website.

Senior center donation

A third donation accepted by the selectwomen was a $10,000 grant from the John Walsh/Walsh Family Foundation for programs at the Westport Center for Senior Activities.

The donors asked simply that the donation “be put toward the greatest need” at the senior center, Daignault said. The director and staff of the center will study how the grant can best be used to support the center’s programs, she said.

Selectwoman Candice Savin thanked the donors and said she is enthusiastic about what the three donations would accomplish. “This all sounds amazing,” she said.

“I continue to be overwhelmed by the generosity of our community,” First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker added. “A huge thank you to all these donors.”

Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman and has taught journalism at New York and Southern Connecticut State universities.