About 500 Darienites cheered, shouted, clapped, whistled and held flags, signs or phones at a downtown demonstration of support Friday morning for town resident Ali Truwit as she prepares to leave for the 2024 Paralympics in Paris.
Part of the crowd waits for the honoree to arrive.
The honoree arrives.
Truwit said she’s grateful for the support shown at the parade:
Truwit wins the “Biggest Smile in the Crowd” award.
“I’m so incredibly grateful and so excited to represent my country and represent this town,” Truwit said at a brief news conference on the sidewalk, surrounded by 500 smiling faces.
An enormous American flag, perhaps 100 feet long, hung from a firetruck’s extended ladder. Plenty of firefighters and their fire engines were present at the parade, and at least one truck drove in it. Amid the cheers, Truwit arrived in an SUV, which stopped for about 10 minutes near the front of Grieb’s Pharmacy.
First Selectman Jon Zagrodzky, one of several people wearing “Team Truwit” hats, wished her well, and several TV cameramen asked her questions as she stood behind a few microphones.
“I could never have imagined this is where I’d be right now, and I’m so grateful and so proud […] It is such an honor and it touches me beyond belief to think that this many people are here supporting me. […] I am just so, so grateful.”
Appreciation all around.
The crowd of well-wishers held a variety of signs as they cheered on Truwit: “Go Ali /Darien Blue Wave / USA” said one. At least two signs just showed pictures of the competitor, one with her swim cap on, another without. Other signs said, “You Go Ali,” and “You Go, Girl.”
Red, white and blue signs.
Two days after graduating from Yale in 2023, Ali was on vacation in the Turks and Cacaos where she was bitten by a shark, forcing the amputation of her leg. When she could, she started swimming again, eventually preparing for competition in the Paralympics.
Friends and family have been “by my side since the moment of the attack, and their support has not wavered since, and it’s made all the difference,” she said.
“I’ve been working really hard. It takes a lot to come back after a life-changing trauma and in just over a year make the Paralympics. I couldn’t have done it without all of the support of my coach and everybody behind me.”
Nobody had to say, “Smile for the camera!” to Team Truwit.
Truwit said she knew some of the competitors in the Paris Olympics — and after cheering them on, she knows they’ll be rooting for her as she competes in the same venue for the Paralympics.
One of a few Truwit head signs.
Truwit was on the Yale swim team and graduated in 2023, not long before the shark attack. (No Oxford comma before the “and” in that sign. Come to think of it, it’s also called the “Harvard comma,” so …)
One young woman held up a sign referring to Truwit’s alma mater: “For God, For Country and for Yale.” The phrase comes from “Bright College Years” a Yale fight song written in 1881.
The last stanza reads:
In after years should trouble rise
To cloud the blue of sunny skies
How bright will seem through mem’ry’s haze
Those happy golden bygone days
O let us strive that ever we
May let these words our watch cry be
Where e’er upon life’s sea we sail:
“For God, for country, and for Yale!”
A flag almost as big and high as Team Truwit’s support.
We couldn’t decide on the caption for this scene in front of Dunkin Donuts. Maybe, “What could possibly go wrong?” or “When it positively, absolutely must get painted on time.” or “Neither parade nor crowds nor heat nor cries of delight stays this painter from the swift completion of his appointed rounds.” Something like that. (The clock is broken.)
Just before the official procession arrived, this snazzy truck slowly drove by. The lavender color and (doggie?) hood ornament seemed to hint that it just might be a spiffy vehicle (from “Mother Trucker LLC”) meant to escort the procession, but no. The beefy driver wasn’t waving or smiling, just making sure nobody in the crowd got hit. We’re including this picture because, really, when have you seen a lavender Mack truck before?