Thames River Times

Reading On, for Mrs. Cannon: Preston schools carry on read-in tradition

Interactive Desk — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:43:45 GMT

By Megan Bard, Staff Writer:

It's been a tradition in the elementary school for nearly 15 years.

On one day each year, politicians, business professionals, parents, retired teachers, and just about any community member dedicated to children’s literacy have a chance to read to wide-eyed students.

The Ann-Etta Cannon Read-In normally marks the coming of spring. The read-a-thon was renamed in Cannon’s honor several years ago when she retired from the school board, of which she was a member for 27 years, 22 of those as chairwoman.

This year, the event was postponed until June 12 to allow Cannon time to recover from heart surgery.

Then the unthinkable happened. Cannon, a lifelong educator and children’s advocate, died. For several weeks it was not known if the event, which started in 1994 in two classrooms at the old Poquetanuck School, would be held.

Yet, for the dozens of people who take part in the annual event and those who help to coordinate it, there was no doubt that the read-in would take place, particularly to honor Cannon’s life work.

Normally, Cannon would dress as Mother Goose and carry a basket of her favorite books and her pretend pet bird. This year, the bird was accompanied by Mrs. Goose’s widower, the Rev. David Cannon, according to teacher and coordinator Anna Sobanski.

Rev. Cannon was one of 16 men and women—armed with a selection of six or seven age-appropriate books—who read to students from preschool through fifth grade in 15-minute increments starting at 9:15 in the morning until 2:45 in the afternoon.

Sobanski said while the day was joyous, it was marked with a bit of sadness for those who remember Cannon.

“We are aware that not all of the children had a connection with Mrs. Cannon, so for many of them it was a typical read-in. But for the adults who can appreciate it, there were a few moments for tears,” she said.

The books are donated from the local library—some are new and not in general circulation yet. Some of the readers bring in their own books to share.

Sobanski said she and fellow teacher Cecile Gerber, now retired, started the program as a way to “bring the community into the schools.”

“We wanted to show what we did, and the other piece was for the children to see different role models—people in the community reading,” Sobanski said.

The readers have included resident state police troopers, librarians, the first selectman, people from various parishes, and other professionals.

“It’s always important to have a different voice reading to the children to get across that reading is important,” Sobanski said.

Long-time readers Tony and Ann Stefanski each made sure to attend the read-in, despite the new date. Ann, a retired Preston school employee, read to five classes while Tony, a retired Groton school teacher, had four.

“We realize now how very, very important it is. I was telling the children how we get up in the morning and the first thing we do is we read. They were amazed,” Ann said recently.

When Ann’s father came to the United States from Poland in 1911, he could not read or write. He had a strong work ethic and was a focused farm worker. Ann recalled that when her brother was killed in World War II, her father had to sign his checks with an X witnessed by two people. Ann uses this personal example to try to emphasize the importantance of reading, she said.

Ann said she’s happy that the school continued the read-in in tribute to Cannon.

“She lived for the children in Preston and their well being,” Stefanski said. “She was very, very rare. We’re not apt to see the likes of her again.”

Gales Ferry Collegian Joins Swim Across America: Bowles, 22, joins charity in brother’s honor

Interactive Desk — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:39:48 GMT

By Larry Kelley, Special to the Times:

Cara Bowles of Gales Ferry is a member of the Eastern Connecticut State University women’s swimming team. The 22-year-old’s most memorable collegiate swims, however, won’t happen in a pool.

Bowles has joined Swim Across America to make a splash for pediatric cancer survivorship programs at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. She will participate in the 14th annual Boston Harbor 22-mile relay swim on Friday, July 17, and the 11th annual Nantasket Beach one-and-a-half-mile swims on Saturday, July 18.

Bowles considered joining the cause when a friend’s father passed away from cancer. She was convinced to contribute after her 16-year-old brother, Eric, was diagnosed and later treated for tongue cancer in March.

“I want to do everything I can,” Bowles said. “You really feel helpless when you hear your younger brother, who is a runner, singer, and great all-around kid, has cancer. It was completely unforeseen and very strange. Doctors said 60-year-olds usually are diagnosed with this type of cancer.”

Eric is recovering after radiation removed all the cancer, Cara said.

“He’s doing very well,” Cara said. “He’s handling it a lot better than me.”

Swimming teams must contribute $1,500 in pledges to participate in the Boston Harbor Relay. Individual swimmers must have $150 in pledges to swim at Nantasket Beach.

Bowles had secured about $500 as of June 25. She will join other ECSU swimmers and friends on a relay team in Boston Harbor.

“It’s a mile swim at Nantasket Beach,” Bowles said. “People hear a mile and say, ‘That’s it?’ But that’s 20 minutes of straight swimming in the ocean. It’s not easy, even for a strong swimmer, but it will be a very rewarding day.”

Swim Across America is a non-profit corporation that organizes events from Boston to San Francisco to support cancer research at the country’s finest hospitals and institutions. Proceeds from the Boston-area swims go directly to the David B. Perini, Jr. Quality of Life Program at Dana-Farber, where experts help pediatric cancer survivors with an array of issues, including long-term effects of treatment, social and psychological concerns, and the risk of second cancers.

Bowles has a link on the Swim Across America Web site (click on “Donate” and follow the prompts). For more information, to register, or to give a gift, visit www.swimacrossamerica.org.

PARENT'S EYE VIEW ~ ‘Boyology’ Gives Girls a Roadmap to Opposite Sex

Interactive Desk — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:28:32 GMT

By Amy J. Barry:

If you’re a ‘tween or teen girl looking for a definitive guide to the male species—or if you’re a parent that wants to get up to speed on girl-boy relationships in this new age of technology, “Boyology: a teen girl’s crash course in all things boy” by Sarah O’Leary Burningham fits the bill.

Author of “How to Raise Your Parents,” Burningham’s new book covers everything from first dates to break ups and all the important in-between stuff like understanding the various “breeds” (classifications) of boys, techniques for asking a boy out, setting boundaries, introducing boyfriends to parents, and more.

Burningham lives in New York City with her husband Grant, a contributor to the book, who adds his perspective on a variety of topics from shopping to love.

The author gave a talk to teens and parents on June 24 at R.J. Julia Booksellers in Madison and plans to visit area schools in the fall.

The following is an interview with Burningham about her new book.

Q. What was your impetus for writing
“Boyology”?

A. I realized that even with all the technology and media out there, girls still have a lot of questions—still don’t have great examples of healthy relationships—and I wanted this to be a guide. I believe the [relationship] patterns you start setting as a teenager are the patterns that stay with you.

Q. How did you do your research?

A. I interviewed 2,000 teenagers, both girls and boys—a lot online and cell phone calls—from all over the country and Canada. I have really active MySpace and Facebook profiles. Once I started to talk to teenagers, other teenagers found me.

Q. How are you able to relate so well to teenage girls? Obviously, they wouldn’t read the book if it came off like an out-of-touch adult had written it.

A. I’m 29 and I remember what it was like to be a teenager and to have those feelings—I’m also far enough away [in age] to have experience and perspective. Teenagers treat me like an older sister.

Q. What are some ways dating is very different for this generation?

A. Technology is the biggest change. Even when I was dating, we had landlines, and my parents knew who was on the phone. Cell phones are a great tool [for everyone], but parents may not know who’s calling and have to make extra effort. Kids aren’t [verbally] communicating, they’re just texting. We still have to find a way to show healthy interpersonal skills. Besides technology, teenagers are going through the same things [as previous generations] like that first heartbreak.

Q. What are the most important points you’d like to get across to girls in this book?

A. A message of self-respect, which I [address] in the “You Wear the Pants: Setting Your Boundaries” chapter. “You wear the pants,” meaning knowing what you want and defining that, and making sure people you’re with respect you as much as you deserve and that you respect yourself. Teenage years are full of the unknown and insecurities. To be grounded and have a good sense of self is the most important thing.

Q. How did you come up with the different Boy Breeds?

A. I got them from interviewing boys and girls. For example, for “The Athleticus Greatius,” I asked boys in sports who they would want to be and almost every one said LeBron James.

Q. Besides defining good and bad flirting, the “Get your Flirt on” section even discusses text flirting!

A. Text flirting is great, but at some point you’ve got to pick up the phone—or see him and have real conversation or it’s not a real relationship. These are good skills to learn as a teenager—how to talk to someone and say what you’re thinking.

Q. You made choices in the book to talk about kissing, setting boundaries, what to do if you’re violated, but you avoid the safe sex/using contraception discussion. Why?

A. I think every teenager is different, is raised differently with a different set of rules and values. The most important thing is to know what you want and where your line is so that you know where you stand before you get into an uncomfortable situation—so you don’t freeze up in the moment. It’s important that teenagers make those decisions for themselves because they’re the ones that ultimately deal with the consequences.

Q. Is there anything you’d like to add?

A. If our future lies in the hands of this generation, I think we’re in good hands. They’re much smarter and more thoughtful than they’re given credit for sometimes. Even though they’re not perfect, they’re good kids.

“Boyology” by Sarah O’Leary Burningham (Chronicle Books) is $12.99, softcover, and is available in local bookstores and at Amazon.com.

E-mail Amy Barry at aimwrite@snet.net.

A Look at Local Homes and Gardens: Join the Ledyard House and Garden Tour this weekend

Interactive Desk — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:23:17 GMT

By Kira Goldenberg, Staff Writer:

The Ledyard House and Garden Tour, co-organized by the Ledyard Garden Club and the Ledyard Historical Society, is June 26 and 27 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

There will be four houses and four gardens on the tour, with locations revealed in a guidebook that will be available at its two starting points, the Nathan Lester House at 153 Vinegar Hill Road, or the Maugle Sierra Winery on 825 Colonel Ledyard Highway. The houses are a mix of old and new, and the gardens are a mix of styles.

A preview tour last week gave a taste of what attendees can expect: Paul and Betty Maugle’s 1744 farmstead at their Maugle Sierra Winery, filled with varied antiques from their decades as antique dealers, and Joan Hausmann’s meandering gardens, full of landscaped nooks and whimsical statues.

The first floor of the Maugles’ farmhouse will be open for touring. The winery, entering its second year, as well as the vineyards, also will be open during the house and garden tour. The house has low chestnut ceiling beams from the 1740s, a wall dedicated to Abraham Lincoln, including a newspaper reporting his assassination, and a flag commemorating Norwich’s 250th anniversary, a century ago. The Maugles also collect clocks, pottery, and furniture.

“It beats putting your money in a 401(k), right? And you get to live in it,” Paul Maugle said.

In Hausmann’s gardens a short drive away, there are wandering paths and tiered areas that offer views of her lush property from all angles.

“I like to have little areas that I can play with,” she said.

She has a rock-filled faux pond full of gray rocks, a small vegetable garden, and a variety of trees, shrubs, and flowers.

Tickets the day of the event are $20. Advance $15 tickets are being sold Wednesday at the Gales Ferry Library from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Thursday at Bill Library from 12:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tour proceeds will be donated to both groups’ scholarship funds.

Get Ready to Run...or Walk: Cannonball Runrace is June 25

Interactive Desk — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:11:33 GMT

By Megan Bard, Staff Writer:

Preston – It’s an annual tradition that brings about 200 runners, walkers, and strollers to Poquetanuck Village. And it starts with cannon fire.

The Liz Harris Memorial Cannonball Run Road Race is in its 18th year. The race started with 40 diehard runners and has grown to include a mix of focused racers and families out for a leisurely walk for a good cause. The benefit run, hosted by the St. James Episcopal Church, is only one mile—the length of Schoolhouse Road—but the distance of the race doesn’t matter to some as much as honoring the memory of its namesake.

Liz Harris, a devoted parishioner, died 19 years ago from a massive brain tumor, according to Phillip Ludlow, a warden of the church and high school classmate of Harris. Ludlow described Harris as a kind woman who focused her efforts on helping children.Money raised from the race, an average of $3,200 annually, is deposited into the church’s Kids for Kamp program, a scholarship that helps offset the costs of a variety of camps.

This year, 14 children have applied and were granted some financial assistance for camps including 4H, scouts, and municipal summer programs, Ludlow said.

But why the black powder cannon and the cannonball name? Rev. David Cannon was pastor of the church when the race was created, Ludlow explained. Another devoted community member, the church decided to recognize him for his contributions by including at least a reference to the pastor in the race’s name.

As of June 19, 119 people had preregistered for the race. The total peaked two years ago with 212, but Ludlow said the race averages about 180 participants. He said race coordinators Kris and Tim Kane have organized the event again this year.

The race begins at the corner of Schoolhouse and Brickyard roads and ends where Schoolhouse Road meets Route 2A. At the center of the course, on the property that formally housed the old Poquetanuck School, the church will erect tents and portable restroom facilities for runners and walkers.

After the race, an award ceremony will be held on the grounds with more than 100 prizes donated by local businesses and sponsors. The most serious runners take off first—the fastest time was clocked at 4 minutes and 16 seconds, Ludlow said. Participants are not required to be serious runners, though.

Families and walkers step off next. “It’s a nice community race. There is a lot of camaraderie at the end,” Ludlow said.

Registration begins at 6:30 p.m. and the fee is $14. The race begins at 7 p.m. For more information, call the church at 889-0150.

Liz Harris/Cannonball Run Road Race

When: Thursday, June 25, at 7 p.m. with registration at 6:30 p.m.

Where: Schoolhouse Road

Why: To benefit the St. James Episcopal Church’s Kids to Kamp program

From Screen to Lathe: Local computer pro turns to lo-tech hobby

Interactive Desk — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:21:06 GMT

By Kira Goldenberg, Staff Writer:

Donald Hart works on computers at his job all day, and the screen hours made his hands itch for a tactile hobby.

So about eight years ago, the Ledyard resident returned to the material he knew best from growing up with parents who worked in construction: wood.

“It’s really not that unusual for people in the computer industry to have hobbies outside that area,” Hart said. “It’s something completely different from what you do every day at work.”

Hart uses a lathe, which spins pieces of wood at various speeds, to turn pens, pencils, kaleidoscopes, keychains, and whistles in his garage, which is full of tools, work tables, and boxes of wood from all over the world. He also works with acrylics, corn husks, and deer antlers.

Hart gives pens as gifts and donated a batch to the Freedom Pen Project, a volunteer initiative run by a Virginia company that sends hand-made pens to American soldiers serving in the Middle East.

Hart said he finally began selling his handicrafts “so I could afford to keep doing it, and so I wouldn’t have 6,000 pens in the house,” he said.

He vends his creations throughout the region at craft fairs and online at hartwoodcrafts.com. He especially enjoys participating in smaller, cause-related shows, like the yearly craft shows Fitch and East Lyme high schools host to help fund their drug-free graduation parties.

He is commissioned to make others as keepsakes out of antlers captured in a hunt or wood with sentimental value. Many of the pens he makes out of antler have clips shaped like guns. He speaks with informed authority about pen styles and materials. He seeks interesting woods, such as the American chestnut he recovered from an 1830s barn torn down in Mystic. American chestnut trees were hit by a blight brought over from Asia in the early 1900s.

“There’s a reason I don’t just turn pens out of oak,” Hart said, displaying woods of all colors and weights from far-flung locales such as Indonesia. “I can get oak all day, every day.”

Hart demonstrated how he turns a pen using two pieces of Amboyna, a hardwood burl, or tree-trunk growth, from southeast Asia. Burls have more unpredictable and interesting grain patterns than standard tree-trunk rings. (His wife, Patti Hart, jokingly summarized his hobby as, “Once upon a time there was a piece of wood, and it ran into a lathe.”)

He attached two rectangular chunks of wood with metal tubes drilled into their centers to the lathe and donned a face shield.

“The first step is to go from square to round, obviously,” he said, his words muffled by the shield. He skimmed a tool horizontally across the rotating lengths of wood and peeled layers with a fluid ease, as though he was grating cheese instead of shaping hardwood. The pieces quickly curved.

Hart then hardened the wood with a watery layer of super glue before thinning it more with another tool, a skew chisel. He used boiled linseed oil to help the wood grain’s color contrasts emerge and then used a variety of sandpapers to smooth the surface. He ended by applying a homemade polish that combined shellac, linseed oil, and wax, and then added a final layer of renaissance wax, which was originally developed to protect antiques. The wood pieces on the lathe transformed from two indistinguishable chunks into two shiny cylinders with swirled grain patterns in dark, light, and reddish hues.

Hart detached the wood from the lathe and attached all the pen hardware to it, and then disappeared into the house to photograph it for his Web site before it got lost among the mountains of pens waiting for craft show attendees to fall in love with them.

“When we sell pens, the people leaving the booth are tickled,” Patti Hart said.

School’s Out, Camp’s In: Preston Parks and Rec. kicks off the summer camp season

Interactive Desk — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:13:39 GMT

By Megan Bard, Staff Writer:

Preston – It’s summertime, which means many families will take part in the annual tradition of day camp.

As parents and children mull over their options, the staff of the town’s Parks and Recreation Department are busying themselves with the last-minute details of the town’s six-week summer camp program.

A relatively small camp, in the past about 45 children a day took part in the camp held at the Preston Community Park, according to director Gail Rigney.

The program is open to non-Preston residents in an effort to give the camp “a good mix” of campers, Rigney said.

This year, special “tween” days—the fourth-grade set and older—have been established. Campers will spend their Fridays at Hopeville Pond in Griswold, and every Wednesday representatives from Mad Science will present various experiments.

Rigney said there will be typical summer camp themes, such as animal and crazy camp weeks, and special guests, including people from the state Department of Environmental Protection. Rigney said the events will be catered to the campers’ interests.

The camp, which is open to children from those entering kindergarten and up, starts July 6 and runs weekly for six weeks from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m.

The full-time cost for the entire session is $400. Weekly, daily, and half-day rates are also available at $70, $15, and $7.50, respectively. For families who need to drop off or pick up their camper a bit earlier or later, the day can be extended by one or two hours for an additional fee of $5. Registration is ongoing.

Scholarships are available to help offset the costs of camp through the St. James Episcopal Church.

For more information, contact the Parks and Recreation Department at 887-5581 or visit www.prestonparksandrec.com.

A Tale of Two Dads: A Father’s Day Tribute

Interactive Desk — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:11:40 GMT

By Amy J. Barry:

Dads come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. This is a tribute to a dad who is an unsung hero—an adoptive dad.

This dad came into the lives of two young grief-stricken boys when he married their mother. He took over where their loving young dad, who died well before his time, had left off. After a few years as their step-dad, he legally adopted them as added reassurance that he planned to be there for the long haul.

The boys’ biological dad was quite a guy. He often took his sons—the baby in a snuggly, the toddler in a stroller—to the mall to give his overwhelmed wife a break and would come home indignant at the way women fawned over him, “patronizing” him for being such an incredible father.

“Why?” he would ask his wife, “do they think it’s such a big deal that I’m capable and willing to take my own sons to the mall? They would never compliment a mom for doing the same thing!”

Bio Dad took care of the two sons on his day off, while his wife was at work. He did the fun stuff like tricycle wheelies in the driveway (that luckily his wife didn’t see) and not-so-fun stuff like short-circuiting temper tantrums and breaking up fights over toys. And he also cooked and baked so that his wife could come home to happy kids and dinner on the table after a long day.

Bio Dad had big shoes to fill, but Adopto Dad had big feet. Here he was with two traumatized boys who tested him at every turn, afraid to get close, afraid if they did that he would leave, too.

But he never left and he never gave up. And he never tried to replace their dad. And he never felt (or let on that he felt) threatened by memories of their larger-than-life deceased dad, and even did whatever he could to keep his memories alive.

And he did his best to ignore ignorant people who say dumb, insensitive stuff to adoptive parents like, “Oh, so you’re not their real father.”

Like the tortoise, Adopto Dad stayed consistently on course, plodding along, showing up, and always showing his love—even though, in addition to the fun stuff like inventing bizarre games like walking on the ceiling, pillow boxing, and broccoli-eating races, he also inherited all the not-so-fun stuff like enforcing time-outs and calming down a hysterical 7-year-old, as he gently liberated the fingers the boy had somehow stapled together, while his helpless mom stood frozen at the foot of the stairs.

Slowly but surely the two little boys realized they were not only unlucky but lucky because they had two dads that loved them with all their hearts—just at different times and now in different places.

Adopto Dad now had a history of attending his sons’ games and graduations and art shows, having the requisite sex and drugs talks, playing rock ‘n roll together, and teaching them to varnish a boat and sheetrock a room.

And many years later, the two boys are young men, who show their love and appreciation to their earthbound dad with cards and calls on Father’s Day and, I would like to imagine, look to the heavens and give their Bio Dad a big thumbs up, too.

And this mother of those young men says thank you to both of these exceptional fathers for being there for the fun stuff and the not-so-fun stuff and everything in-between and to her husband of almost 18 years for continuing to be a devoted partner in this profound journey we call parenthood.

E-mail Amy Barry at aimwrite@snet.net.

A New Beginning: NFA student relishes second chance at life after crash

Interactive Desk — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 20:24:23 GMT

By Claire Bessette, Staff Writer:

Justin Ryan is making the most of his “second life.”

Ryan, 18, will graduate June 19 from the Norwich Free Academy and is headed to the University of Connecticut to study accounting. That sounds like a normal outcome for a high school senior with a knack for math, a girlfriend, devoted family and friends.

But Ryan wasn’t expected to make it this far.

On Dec. 27, 2008, Ryan was a passenger in a 1995 Ford Probe driven by his foster brother, Patrick Fernald, 19. Ryan remembers nothing of the crash but was told that it was a rainy, foggy night and the car was on a curved section of Route 85 when Fernald thought the oncoming car was in his lane and made a panicked swerve. The car, a 2005 Volvo, slammed into Ryan’s passenger-side door.

Ryan suffered a broken pelvis, head trauma, and lacerations. He fell into a coma and was transported first to Lawrence & Memorial Hospital and then to Yale-New Haven Hospital. On Jan. 27, he emerged from the coma and eventually was moved to Gaylord Rehabilitation Center in New Haven.

“My first memory was Feb. 1 at Gaylord,” Ryan recalled. “I remember waking up and thinking, ‘Why am I here?’ and trying to figure out myself.”

Ryan and his younger sister, Margaret, now 14, are the adopted children of foster parents Stephen and Patricia McDonough of Norwich. His biological mother, Tammie Claar, lives in Torrington and keeps in touch with the children. As the family fretted over whether Ryan would be able to walk or talk again and braced themselves that he never would be able to return to NFA, the letters came in the mail.

First, while Ryan was still in a coma, UConn congratulated Ryan on being accepted as an accounting student. He was also accepted at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Patricia McDonough framed the UConn acceptance letter and brought it to his bedside.

His father constructed a ramp at their Norwich home, and Ryan got a wheelchair.

“When he came home, he walked right up the ramp,” Stephen McDonough said.

Ryan shrugs off the residual effects from the accident. He has a bright red scar on the front of his neck, another on the back of his head and two on his abdomen. He was too weak for surgery on his pelvis, but it healed itself.

Ryan returned to NFA in mid-March to the cheers of classmates. He reads slower, but was relieved to find his quick math skills are still intact. He’s not afraid of driving, but because of the head trauma, he has to retake his driver’s test.

He credited his guidance counselor, Suzanne LaFlamme, for getting him back on track. LaFlamme said Ryan had fallen too far behind in his six Advanced Placement classes to make up the work, so LaFlamme arranged for him to complete two classes: English, which he needed to graduate, and accounting, his chosen field of study. He audits the rest of his classes.

LaFlamme served as the school’s liaison to Ryan’s family during his recovery. She hesitated to make calls to the hospital at first, afraid of the answer. Then the questions grew more cheerful. Could he take phone calls? Could he have visitors?

“It is just a marvel that he is where he is today based on everything that had gone on,” LaFlamme said.

But Ryan is changed.

He rarely spoke to girls before and didn’t hang out with friends. He would tell his parents, “I’m a loner, I’m just going to stay home and do my homework,” his father said. Now, Ryan gets up and speaks at the Community Baptist Church in Groton, where the family attends services.

The church sponsored a youth laser tag outing April 10 with youths from other towns. Ryan met Kellie Burke of Waterbury at the event. They hit it off well, and he asked her to the NFA prom. She accepted.

“I’m more outgoing now,” he said. “I used to be really shy before. Now, I just say stuff, smart-mouthed sometimes. I used to say it in my mind, but now I’m just saying it out loud … I’m definitely more outgoing. I asked a girl out one day, and she said ‘yes!’”

Cupcakes and Causes: Making serious conversation a little sweeter

Interactive Desk — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 20:19:54 GMT

By Kira Goldenberg, Staff Writer:

One of the newest student clubs at Ledyard High School may also be the sweetest. At Cupcakes (and Causes), students meet monthly to discuss international issues over cupcakes.

The club formed organically, when a video screened in February by the school’s Amnesty International group spurred a discussion, and then the students decided the dialogue should continue.

Members have met monthly throughout the spring in the high school library at 8 p.m. to discuss issues such as Tibet, sexual assault as a war crime, human trafficking, and Somalian piracy.

The club was profiled in the May issue of the student magazine “The Colonel” and had its final meeting for the school year on Wednesday.

The club’s Web page on the school system’s site describes it as “A think-tank, of sorts, in which we discuss causes of worldwide concern and eat delicious cupcakes.” About 25 members organize meeting dates and discussion topics on a Facebook group page created for the club.

“They talk for two hours about a topic, and they pick a different topic each meeting. They were originally going to meet once a month, but they meet every two weeks because it’s so popular,” said club advisor Kurt Jannke, the World Languages Department chairman. He said they start discussions by watching issue-based video clips and then he helps facilitate a conversation that emphasizes critical thinking.

“They’re really thinking and learning as a group in a seminar-type form,” Jannke said.

Junior Angela Maloney said the club was originally conceived just to focus on causes but Jannke suggested she sell cupcakes there to help raise money for her upcoming service trip to Paraguay. She baked some Funfetti cupcakes with pink frosting, and a new tradition began.

Since that first sugary batch, members have brought flavors like vanilla with chocolate frosting and strawberry with chocolate frosting.

“Someone brought brownies one time, and someone brought cookies, which we frowned upon, because it is Cupcakes (and Causes),” Maloney said.

Since the majority of the club’s members are currently juniors, the discussions will continue in the coming school year. Current members will make efforts to entice new recruits to the table. Maloney has confidence that it won’t be a hard sell.

“All you have to tell them is, ‘Come to the school at 8 o’clock. We have cupcakes,’” she said.

LIFE IN LEDYARD ~ What’s in a Name?

Interactive Desk — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 20:17:52 GMT

By Kerri Charette:

Thomas, James, John, Mark, Kevin, Peter, Conor, Patrick, Kelly, Amy, Leo, Brett, Shane, Luke, Andrew, Matthew, Christopher, Summer, and Joy are the names of my parents’ 19 grandchildren.

Among the names are the four Gospel writers (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), some of the Apostles (Andrew, James, Peter, Thomas), a child named for my father (Leo), and names which are also things: Summer and Joy. Little did Brian and I realize when we named our daughters that they would hear the same songs and jokes over and over as they grew.

Growing up a Kerri, I was called Scary Kerri and Hairy Kerri, but that’s the only teasing my family and friends could come up with. Occasionally I heard Kerri Fairy, but that never bothered me as much as Hairy Kerri. Something about being called Hairy doesn’t sit well with me still.

Summer Jeanne Charette is so named for two reasons. First, she was born in the summertime. The two Charettes born before her were winter babies and were hospitalized with RSV (bronchitis in babies). Brian and I decided that if Child No. 4, due in July, were a girl, she would be called Summer.

Jeanne is the name of my older sister who was blessed with four boys. Aunt Jeanne is also Summer’s godmother. Summer, the season, begins next week. Guess who will hear many summer and winter, spring and fall jokes in the coming days? Our wonderful pediatrician is guaranteed to call Summer “Princess Summer-Fall-Winter-Spring” during her annual physical. Do you remember that character from Howdy Doody? I don’t, and Summer will never see a Howdy Doody episode, but she has been called “Princess Summer-Fall-Winter-Spring” many times. Summer is often serenaded with the following songs: “Summertime, Summertime, sum-sum-summertime,” “All Summer Long” by Kid Rock, and “Summer Breeze/Jeanne Makes Me Feel Fine” (sung by one of my brothers every time he sees Summer).

Summer could have it worse—she could be named Joy! Joy Anne Charette is named for her birth mother’s sister. Hope, Joy’s birth mother, was thrilled that we gave her daughter the name of her sister. Brian and I chose Anne for Joy’s middle name. Anne is my middle name and is the name of the mother of the Blessed Mother Mary. Turns out, Hope’s middle name is also Anne.

Joy is aptly named; she is full of joy and brings much joy to everyone around her. The month of December, however, can try her limited patience. People sing, “Joy to the World” to her and then ask if she has ever heard that one before. If she had a nickel for every time she heard that song, she’d have at least $50. “I’ve got that Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy Down in my Heart…Where?” is another song Joy hears repeatedly. Once I hear that melody, it’s stuck in my head. I can’t imagine how deeply embedded those lyrics are in my daughter’s head.

Behind every name, history is either being made or being carried on. What’s the story behind the names in your family?

Kerri Charette lives in Ledyard.

Share the story of your name or your family’s name on Zip06.com, the Times’ community Web site.

Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut News June 11

Interactive Desk — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 20:16:31 GMT

Metro Chamber Symposium in Washington, DC

The Connecticut Metro Chambers of Commerce, which includes the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce, the Bridgeport Regional Business Council, the Business Council of Fairfield County, the MetroHartford Alliance, the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce, the Central Connecticut Chamber of Commerce, the Waterbury Regional Chamber of Commerce, and the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut, participated in a two-day symposium in Washington, D.C. in April with the state’s federal delegation.

The goal of the discussions was to begin collaborations with our elected officials and to initiate the dialogue necessary to ensure a clear understanding of the needs of the state’s business community. Meetings with Senators Christopher Dodd and Joseph Lieberman and House members John Larson, Christopher Murphy, Rosa DeLauro, Joseph Courtney, and Jim Himes dominated the trip.

Conversations were tailored to each person’s specific role or area of expertise in Congress. Main topics of conversation covered the financial markets and economic recovery, housing and transportation, education, healthcare reform, and food safety. An area of concern is the high number of commercial real estate loans with balloon payments that will begin to come due in 2010. Federal regulatory personnel are working with the banking industry to encourage an early renegotiation of these mortgages to avoid a similar catastrophic collapse as occurred with the consumer mortgage market. Congressmen Larson, Himes, and Murphy addressed the developing concepts surrounding housing and transportation, and the benefits of improvements to and/or the reinstitution of mass transit. A focus of repair and infrastructure improvement to the existing highway system will be a priority.

Rep. DeLauro discussed food supply safety and the current actions and reviews of the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Agriculture (USDA). The FDA is working to improve and expand the inspection of imports as well as working to avoid domestic problems. Our delegation is very engaged and eager to discuss these important topics, as well as health care reform and education. The Metro Chamber presidents left with the knowledge that a constructive dialogue with our federal delegates with an eye toward supporting job growth and protecting the interests of our business community will continue and expand.

Tony Sheridan

President, Eastern Connecticut Chamber of Commerce

SCORE Counselor: Nazzareno E. (Nazz) Paciotti

Nazzareno (Nazz) Paciotti joined the Southeastern CT Chapter of SCORE in 2008 after a 36-year career including positions in finance, operations, and executive management. With experiences as varied as manufacturing, consulting, and product distribution, his objective with SCORE is to use that experience to assist companies ranging in the business cycle from the start-ups to the established. Having experience dealing with both large to smaller companies, he believes he is uniquely qualified to provide assistance to the business community.

Graduating with a B.S. in Accounting and Finance, Nazz began his career in New York with a large public accounting firm in their small business unit. His assignments included financial audits of a variety of industrial and service related companies. After a career of four years which included all aspects of accounting and auditing he decided he was more interested in being where the business decisions were made versus auditing the result.

Over the next 16 years his career would include key financial positions in a large chemical and petroleum processing company as well as the restructuring of a major railroad products, transportation, and foundry company into a major aerospace contractor. After leaving the manufacturing business area, he worked for 10 years in building up and later taking a family owned private investigations business public in 1998. This was the first successful transition of a historically private investigative type business to the public ownership market. After this, Nazz was recruited to run the Pinkerton Investigative business, a business tracing its roots back to Alan Pinkerton and the first U.S. Secret Service operation providing services to President Abraham Lincoln.

Before retiring he was the chief executive of a security products company. Combining his prior experience in the investigative and security consulting business and his financial background, he spent the next two years raising funds from banks and investors to put together a security solutions provider offering photo surveillance, access control, and perimeter security equipment in North and South America.

Nazz and his wife Jennifer reside in East Lyme. In addition to his volunteer work for SCORE, he also volunteers with the Navy Marine Corps Relief Society at the U.S. Navy Submarine Base in Groton as a case worker assisting active and retired military personnel with personal financial budgeting and counseling.

Human resources consultant now available at the Chamber

During these difficult economic times the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut is making every effort to provide value of substance to our members, particularly to our small and medium size companies. To this end, we are pleased to announce the addition of a human resources consultant to our in-house Business Center.

Maria Fisher-Proulx of Future Directives, LLC, a human resources consulting firm, will be available at the Chamber office in Gales Ferry on Thursdays from 1 to 4 p.m. Fisher-Proulx will offer Chamber members the following services at no charge: Complimentary human resource audits, telephone support and guidance on human resource issues, and tips on preventative measures to help avoid costly legal traps.

The following services will be offered to Chamber members at a 10 percent discounted rate: Employee handbooks, supervisor manuals, affirmative action plans, sexual harassment training, supervision training, job description development, job analysis and evaluation, development of performance reviews and training, and outsource services. For any outsource service, a 10 percent discount off the first quarter of the retainer is offered.

Fisher-Proulx is a human resources generalist and the co-founder of Future Directives, LLC. She has developed a wide range of human resource programs and policies and has more than 25 years’ experience in the field, as well as 22 years’ experience in the banking industry. She is a member of the Human Resource Association of Central Connecticut, the Society of Human Resources Management, and the Connecticut Financial Compensation Association.

The Human Resources Consulting Initiative is the newest addition to the Chamber’s Business Center, which includes the Eastern Connecticut Benefit Center, SCORE, and the Small Business Development Center. For more information on these partners or to join the Chamber, call 860-464-7373.

Verses on Youth: Ledyard students meet with R.I. Poet Laureate Lisa Starr

Interactive Desk — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:44:13 GMT

By Kira Goldenberg, Staff Writer:

Sixth-grader Tyler Luke’s poem, “Home Alone,” used repetition and similes to evoke the ambivalence of being allowed to stay home without parental supervision—it’s an exciting part of growing up on one hand, but unnerving on the other, and all a house’s normal creaks and groans sound eerily unfamiliar.

He compared a shaking doorknob to a maraca, an image that impressed Rhode Island Poet Laureate Lisa Starr. She asked him for a copy of his poem, and Luke’s teacher left the classroom to make one.

Starr, a Ledyard native, visited Ledyard Center School on May 21 and 22 for the second consecutive year to discuss poetry with fifth- and sixth-grade students. She was also the keynote speaker at the annual Ledyard Education Advancement Foundation dinner at Lake of Isles on the evening of May 21. LEAF funds one large project in the schools each year and an ongoing series of teacher mini-grants.

Starr, who now lives on Block Island, spent her time at Ledyard Center School talking to the older students as a group and then in each classroom, where a few kids in each class read the poems they wrote as part of their poetry unit at school. She read or recited a few of her own poems, spoke about what spurs and motivates her own work, and offered thoughts on the poems students shared with her.

“My dad got real sick when I was 11 years old and all language went out of our household,” Starr said, explaining her family did not speak much about his illness.

“I needed to get it out of my body, and that’s why I started to write,” she said, her husky voice resounding across the school gym, where students sat in rows on the floor.

Starr asked students why they thought she preferred poetry to stories and essays. Their responses included, “...because poems can be quicker to write,” there are fewer grammar rules, and because writing poems is an effective way to express feelings.

“That’s the big one,” Starr said of the third suggestion. “It kind of catches that start and stop of emotions that we have so much.”

Starr said she also uses poetry as a sort of word-based scrapbook, catching moments and details of her two children as they grow.

“How lucky are her children to have her as a mom?” asked PTO president Michelle Hinton, who graduated from Ledyard High School with Starr in 1984.

“That’s not what they say,” Starr responded. “They say, ‘Oh, Mom!’”

The students were the same ages as Starr’s kids, and she gave them sensitive feedback to their poetry that honed in on something positive about each one while offering advice — try writing from somone, or something, else’s point of view and overcome writer’s block by scribbling lists of what happened that day — along with a deep love of words and language.

“There’s always something that I want to do with those words, and I want to bring them back and share them with people,” she said.

From the Library Desk: Preston Public Library launches unique fundraiser

Interactive Desk — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:41:47 GMT

By Megan Bard, Staff Writer:

It’s an unusual fundraiser, but the silent auction of a 1932 desk made by a renowned manufacturer is helping the local library support its summer reading program.

The Preston Public Library is accepting bids for 1932 Walnut Knee-hole Desk made by the former Standard Manufacturing Company of Herkimer, N.Y., through June 10.

The desk was donated by resident and local author Margaret Gibson. The starting bid was $350 but by last week it had reached $1,000.

Library Director Denise Bachand said the money raised will be used to fund various activities and books associated with the summer reading program, which begins June 6.

For now, resident Roberta Charpentier is the highest bidder for the desk.

“It’s a beautiful piece of furniture. I’ve been drooling over it since I saw it,” said Charpentier, the archaeology lab supervisor at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center and a regular library patron.

If she is the successful bidder, Charpentier plans to remove items from her office, buy some smaller book shelves, and make the piece the focal point of the room.

If she is outbid, Charpentier looks at it this way: “Either way, I can’t lose. It will benefit the library, and if I get the desk, that’s fine, too.”

“It’s a great library for a small library,” Charpentier added. “They’re very knowledgeable and I’d like to see them get a little bit extra, especially now when it’s tough for everybody.”

For now, Charpentier is continuing her research into the company that manufactured the desk.

The Standard Furniture Company, once considered one of the largest furniture companies and manufacturers of wooden desks in the country, opened in 1886 and survived 92 years before closing in 1978, according to a Herkimer County genealogy Web site.

The company was known for its craftsmanship and hand detailing of its pieces, which graced the boardrooms of many corporations, union offices, and national and international governmental agencies.

Local author Margaret Gibson and her husband David McKain acquired the piece in the mid-1990s from a friend. Gibson used the desk while she wrote four of her nine books, including “One Body,” which received the 2008 Connecticut Book Award in Poetry.

Gibson donated the desk—which has been refinished by Fallon & Wilkinson LLC of Baltic after it sustained minor smoke damage in a fire at her house earlier this year—to the library intended for its use, but said recently that she supports the library’s decision to auction the desk.

“I looked at it and thought ‘Gulp’!” said Gibson describing her last-second hesitation about donating the prized piece. “But I’m pleased that the library could use it. I hope the new owner gets a creative jolt in whatever his or her field of study.”

To bid on the desk, visit the Preston Public Library’s Web site, www.prestonlibrary.org/Silentauction.html.

OPINION: A Case for Decriminalizing Drugs, Starting With Marijuana

Interactive Desk — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:40:48 GMT

By Rosanne Smyle:

It's not just the bad kids who smoke marijuana; it’s our kids and it’s your kids, according to criminologist Susan Pease, and she’d rather see them treated for substance abuse than sentenced to a jail term.

“I’m not saying drugs are good,” Pease said. “I’m saying prison is bad.”

Pease, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Central Connecticut State University, made a case for decriminalizing drugs by detailing a historical pattern of drug legislation that targets and punishes the country’s underclass. She spoke at the annual meeting of the League of Women Voters of Southeastern Connecticut at the Spa at Norwich Inn.

The local league adopted a plan at the meeting to initiate a regional study focusing on the pros and cons of the decriminalization of marijuana by gathering information from a variety of sources, including those in law enforcement, education, and substance abuse treatment.

Pease said 50 percent of federal prisoners are serving time for drug offenses; 46 percent of those people are black.

Some of the nation’s first drug legislation passed in 19th-century San Francisco after Cornelius Vanderbilt hired Chinese migrant workers to do the dirty and dangerous work of building a transcontinental railroad, work few white workers found appealing, Pease said. Along with their work ethic, the Chinese brought their custom of opium smoking. Not readily available to his workers, Vanderbilt supplied them with opium, selling it at inflated prices that kept them forever in debt, not unlike what we’ve seen throughout history with migrant workers at mills or factories renting company housing and buying food at the company store, she said.

With no money to return home after building the railroad, the Chinese settled on the West Coast. At about the same time, the country experienced a recession, and unemployed white workers began to envy their Chinese counterparts for building the grand railroad, thinking they had stolen their jobs. Consequently, they were not welcomed in their communities and, being private people, settled in Chinatowns in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

They also continued their opium habit, because, as Pease said, “People just don’t give up their psychoactive drug of choice. Plus, they’re addicted.”

In 1875, laws made it illegal to sell and smoke opium. This marked Pease’s first instance of otherwise law-abiding people now being treated as criminals.

Civil War soldiers fought the pain of battlefield injuries and dysentery by using a new drug called morphine, derived from opium. At about the same time the hypodermic needle was invented as an efficient delivery system of the drug and many soldiers returned home addicted to morphine.

In the 1900s, smear campaigns started after the American Medical Association wanted to have cocaine removed from patent medicines, Pease said. The southern states, still smarting from the Civil War, resisted the federal legislation and began linking cocaine use with African Americans.

Marijuana smoking was popular among jazz and theater artists in the early 1900s, but Mexican migrant beet workers brought the most attention to the drug, Pease said, because they did the jobs no one wanted until the Great Depression, when those jobs started to look good. One way to get the Mexicans to go home was to fire them by associating them with marijuana smoking, Pease said.

A comprehensive drug act was passed during the Nixon administration in the 1970s, while the ‘80s saw the introduction of crack cocaine, harsher drug laws, and the rise of the Colombian drug cartels and three-strikes-you’re-out laws. Crack cocaine users, more often people of color from inner cities, served longer prison sentences because of tougher laws for crack, while powdered cocaine users, more often suburban whites, served less time under more lenient laws.

With prisons and jails brimming with drug offenders, Pease said, “I’m not sure what society was being protected from.”

If young men and women using drugs are put into treatment programs rather than jail, they have a better chance of being productive members of society.

“There’s no recovery” from imprisonment, she said. “There is no coming back. Your life is ruined.”

As for young drug offenders sentenced to jail, Pease said, “They’re off and running. We’re never going to see them in polite society again.”

Rosanne Smyle of Stonington is a board member of the League of Women Voters of Southeastern Connecticut. The league welcomes memberships from all men and women who are at least 18 years old. Call Marilyn Mackay at 860-535-1192 to become a member of this non-partisan organization that encourages informed and active participation in government.