WESTPORT–Westport’s annual celebration of the founding of the United Nations drew 250 guests from over 50 different countries on Saturday, June 27. The guests were UN delegates, administrators and their families.

The day-long celebration featured 

• shopping on Main Street during the annual sidewalk sale, 
• watching the Westport Sunrise Rotary’s annual Great Duck Race, 
• a soccer match between the visitors and the Westport Knights,
• tours of  Wakeman Town Farm, The Westport Museum of History and Culture and Earthplace.

First Selectman Kevin Christie welcomed the visitors to Westport from a podium set up on Jesup Green.

UN Under-Secretary-General Christian Saunders read a statement from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Saunders said that “Westport will always be an important part of the UN’s extended family.” The work of the United Nations, he said, “is increasingly under threat from conflicts, divisions, mistrust and dwindling funding. Human rights and international law are being flouted and ignored. Countries are turning their backs on one another, and on the global problem-solving system that the UN has embodied since 1945. 

“More than ever, we need the spirit of solidarity your community exemplifies.”