Series: Documenting Ridgefield's Response to COVID-19

A gallery of photographs taken by Ridgefielders during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Seamstress Audrey Fanning Hawker’s mask project has brightened many Ridgefield faces while making the community safer. It has helped not only those who wear her masks but Ms. Hawker as well.

Ridgefield Superintendent of Schools Dr. Susie Da Silva talks about the lessons educators and the community have learned.

Ridgefielder Maher Madhoun, M.D., an internal medicine and infectious disease specialist at Stamford Hospital, discusses vaccines to prevent Covid-19, the day before he was to receive his first dose as a frontline worker. Dr. Madhoun also serves on Ridgefield’s Covid-19 task force.

Thomas Main, Head of School, explains how Ridgefield Academy and Landmark Preschools faced the Covid-19 pandemic with resolve and extensive planning, so that after a spring of remote learning all of the students could be offered on-campus school. Mr. Main talks about how the first 12 weeks of the fall have gone.

Gretchen Kennedy Graber, at home with two teenage boys and planning a virtual bar mitzvah. A Ridgefield family adjusts to remote school and creating new routines.

John Preli, director of corporate business controls for the IBM Corporation, as well as a professor at Sacred Heart University and UConn, talks about how supply chains affected everyone as the Covid-19 pandemic took hold. A case in point: where did all the toilet paper go?

The Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra’s last indoor performance was in February, before the coronavirus pandemic hit. Like the town’s other arts organizations, the RSO has had to reinvent its programming on the fly, starting with online presentations and continuing with outdoor performances, in collaboration with Keeler Tavern Museum and History Center, the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, and the Ridgefield Playhouse. Meeting the requirements of social distancing means careful arrangements when dealing with musicians, particularly those playing horns or other wind instruments.

Pam Stoddart explains how a very hands-on, people-oriented organization, where interaction is key, has adapted to the realities of social distancing. As she explains, artists are “creative people” and the Guild has come up with some new ways to keep moving forward. There are more challenges ahead as Ridgefield heads into fall and winter, but the Guild of Artists members are continuing to work and express their artistic vision.

Ridgefield’s Director of Social Services Tony Phillips describes how his department, with the assistance of many volunteers and donations from a variety of sources, has worked to meet the needs of dozens of families whose lives have been upended by the Covid-19 pandemic. Normal programs of food distribution had to be redesigned and new clients assisted.