Woodland Regional High School senior Mike Classy, 18 of Beacon Falls, put up 26 birdhouses around the school’s campus in Beacon Falls May 17 for his senior project. For his project, Classy assembled, painted and put up the birdhouses as a tribute to the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Each birdhouse had the initials of a victim painted on it. Classy explained he was struggling trying to think of a senior project, then the events at Sandy Hook occurred in December. He said Woodland teacher Joelle Kilcourse suggested he do a project in honor of the victims and tie it in with the 26 Acts of Kindness campaign. Classy said the idea behind the birdhouses is to bring new life to all the victims of the shooting and around campus. ‘I hope it can be seen for years to come as a tribute to Sandy Hook and brings wildlife and nature to our campus,’ he said. Fellow senior Kirk Chamenko and security guard Fred Smith assisted Classy with putting the birdhouses up. –ELIO GUGLIOTTI
Woodland Regional High School senior Mike Classy, 18 of Beacon Falls, put up 26 birdhouses around the school’s campus in Beacon Falls May 17 for his senior project. For his project, Classy assembled, painted and put up the birdhouses as a tribute to the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Each birdhouse had the initials of a victim painted on it. Classy explained he was struggling trying to think of a senior project, then the events at Sandy Hook occurred in December. He said Woodland teacher Joelle Kilcourse suggested he do a project in honor of the victims and tie it in with the 26 Acts of Kindness campaign. Classy said the idea behind the birdhouses is to bring new life to all the victims of the shooting and around campus. ‘I hope it can be seen for years to come as a tribute to Sandy Hook and brings wildlife and nature to our campus,’ he said. Fellow senior Kirk Chamenko and security guard Fred Smith assisted Classy with putting the birdhouses up. –ELIO GUGLIOTTI
The Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, N.Y., put on an educational wolf presentation May 20 at Cross Street Intermediate School in Naugatuck. Students in Kathy Mucha’s fifth-grade language arts classes studied wolves as part of their unit on nature. The students adopted two wolves through the center as their culminating activity. In order to raise the $25 to adopt the wolves, each student performed two acts of kindness at home to earn a dollar from their parents. One class adopted Atka and the other class adopted Zepher, a Canadian-Rocky Mountain gray wolf. To bring Atka, one of the center’s three ambassador wolves, to the school for a visit fifth-graders Ayanna Bencosme, Alysha Cacace, Adrianna Moreno, Sydney O’Donnell, Sarah Sookram and Autumn Travis created a power point presentation on how the visit would benefit students at the school and presented it to the school’s Parent Faculty Group, which paid the $650 for the visit. Maggie Howell, executive director of the center, led Monday’s program and taught the students about what the center does and the important role wolves play in nature. –CONTRIBUTED
Boy Scouts from Naugatuck Troop 138 recently put up 10 bluebird houses at Toby’s Pond in Beacon Falls as part of Charles Fogie’s Life project. –CONTRIBUTED
Sandra Schieffer, a registered nurse from Prospect, received the Nightingale Award for Excellence in Nursing at the 10th annual Hartford Regional Nightingale Awards for Excellence in Nursing Gala at the Hartford Marriott Downtown on May 9. The award is given to nurses in a variety of settings for going above and beyond the call of duty and who demonstrate excellence in nursing practice. Schieffer is a care transition nurse for Connecticut Community Care, Inc.’s community-based care transitions program Community Passport to Care. Schieffer can be found at Bristol Hospital working with individuals who have been admitted due to complications from their chronic illnesses. Schieffer meets with them in the hospital before discharge, and then completes a home visit where personal goals, medication lists, physician follow-up appointments and other health issues are discussed. –CONTRIBUTED
Ryan Livolsi of Naugatuck, left, and Daniel Tatun of Shelton seniors at Emmett O’Brien Technical High School work to de-bug a Ford Focus during the recent AAA/Ford Student Auto Skills Competition at The Holiday Inn in North Haven. The pair won third place in the competition. –CONTRIBUTED
Elizabeth Carlson, a Naugatuck native, was one of the 14 people selected for the 2013 Fellows of the Drama League Directors Project for exceptional stage direction. The recipients will spend the next year as part of the program. Carlson, a 2003 graduate of Chase Collegiate in Waterbury, has taken on a new role as artistic director for Naked Angels, a New York theater company that recently partnered with the New School for Drama. In an online article for Broadwayworld.com, Carlson said ‘I look forward to continuing the developmental programming and invigorating productions that have long been a part of Naked Angels’ rich history, and to articulate its new role as the professional partner for The New School for Drama. As a New School alum, I am confident that this partnership will prove to be most significant for both organizations and the New York theater community.’ –CONTRIBUTED
In honor of Memorial Day Paradigm Healthcare Center of Prospect hosted a ceremony for residents of the center who are veterans May 20. The ceremony featured a proclamation by Mayor Robert Chatfield, the retiring of an American flag, patriotic songs sung by the Prospect Senior Center Song Birds and the unveiling of a Wall of Honor. The Wall of Honor was designed to show the health center’s appreciation of those who have served their country. –LUKE MARSHALL
Twenty-seven Naugatuck High School Air Force Junior ROTC cadets recently cleaned the east riverbank of the Naugatuck River in Linden Park in Naugatuck lead by Master Sgt. Gary Morrone, USAF (ret) and Lt. Col. Valerie Lofland, USAF. The project was organized by Joe Savarese and Bob Gregorski of the Naugatuck River Watershed Association and sponsored by the borough of Naugatuck. The cleanup was the eighth time the NHS ROTC has completed conservation projects along the Naugatuck River. More than a dozen bags of light debris, a bike, a truck tire, pieces of board and several lengths of plastic and metal pipes were removed. In addition, five bird-nesting houses, built by the cadets, were placed in trees along the river and Greenway. The following cadets participated in the cleanup: Blake Bevilaque, Anthony Brill, Kiana Carignan, Patricia Carvalho, Zachary Colangelo, Chad Cole, Skyler Crabtree, Kevin Crouse, Noah Desantis, Stephanie Flores, Julian Jiminez, Kevin Johnson, Jerry Kuchyt, Serena Mam, Saleena Na, Kevin Pimpinelli, Brandon Pomerenk, Jessica Rodriguez, Anthony Sandri, Steven Santos, Austin Scatena, Daniel Solberg, Parthe Soni, Colby Storm, Aliyah Tripp, Alex Triscritti, Enid Velez, Julia Vermenych, Lofland and Morrone. –JOE SAVARESE
The Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, N.Y., put on an educational wolf presentation May 20 at Cross Street Intermediate School in Naugatuck. Students in Kathy Mucha’s fifth-grade language arts classes studied wolves as part of their unit on nature. The students adopted two wolves through the center as their culminating activity. In order to raise the $25 to adopt the wolves, each student performed two acts of kindness at home to earn a dollar from their parents. One class adopted Atka and the other class adopted Zepher, a Canadian-Rocky Mountain gray wolf. To bring Atka, one of the center’s three ambassador wolves, to the school for a visit fifth-graders Ayanna Bencosme, Alysha Cacace, Adrianna Moreno, Sydney O’Donnell, Sarah Sookram and Autumn Travis created a power point presentation on how the visit would benefit students at the school and presented it to the school’s Parent Faculty Group, which paid the $650 for the visit. Maggie Howell, executive director of the center, led Monday’s program and taught the students about what the center does and the important role wolves play in nature. –CONTRIBUTED
In honor of Memorial Day Paradigm Healthcare Center of Prospect hosted a ceremony for residents of the center who are veterans May 20. The ceremony featured a proclamation by Mayor Robert Chatfield, the retiring of an American flag, patriotic songs sung by the Prospect Senior Center Song Birds and the unveiling of a Wall of Honor. The Wall of Honor was designed to show the health center’s appreciation of those who have served their country. –LUKE MARSHALL
Cromwell Middle School teacher Shannon Baldino of Naugatuck was among 80 teachers selected from across the country to participate in the “Living on the Edge of Empire” week-long workshop in July in Deerfield, Mass. Participants at the workshop, held by the National Endowment for the Humanities Landmarks, will study the French and Indian raid on the frontier outpost at Deerfield, Mass. on Feb. 29, 1704. Each day of the workshop will include lectures, discussions, site visits and classroom integration strategies. Participants were chosen through a competitive application process that included a review of teachers’ qualifications and their plans to implement what they will learn in their classrooms. –CONTRIBUTED
Boy Scouts from Naugatuck Troop 138 recently put up 10 bluebird houses at Toby’s Pond in Beacon Falls as part of Charles Fogie’s Life project. –CONTRIBUTED
