Princess Olga Update

(Photo by Bob Luckey Jr., Greenwich Time, 8/1/07)

Thankfully, the Local Rag (aka the Yellowwich Time) is not the only news publication in our fair Town. The Greenwich Citizen, heir to a string of weekly papers that goes back several decades, is a welcome counterpoise for those of us who would like to know what's really going on, as opposed to the slanted and jaundiced (pun intended) output of the LR.

Case in point: the Citizen also recently ran an article on Olga Litvinenko, Miss Connecticut Teen USA who will be going to Pasadena for the finals on August 24. And this article actually told us much more of the full story on who this remarkable young woman is.

Your scribe found it sufficiently interesting that he thought he would do an update for his gentle readership. Olga's family emigrated from Kiev, in order to escape the toxic aftereffects of the Chernobyl disaster. Here in Greenwich, her list of activities and accomplishments already reads like a Who's Who listing - and she's only 17!

Here's what the Citizen mentioned: "student government, concert choir [see your scribe's earlier reviews of this outstanding choral group], track, cheerleading, basketball, yearbook staff, honors student, and LINK - a service club that raises money for the community."

But wait - there's more! Olga recently returned from Mexico where she helped to build a house under the auspices of Habitat for Humanity. In her "spare" time (ha, ha) she does volunteer work for the Red Cross, Make-a-Wish Foundation, and the Boys & Girls Club.

And in what the Citizen calls her "free time", she "enjoys tennis, reading, writing, horseback riding, dancing and singing." Kinda leaves one breathless, doesn't it?

So let's all tune in to NBC at 9 pm on August 24 to cheer for Olga. Clearly this young lady is a winner, and one can only hope that the judges have the wit and wisdom to recognize this fact.