NewsCommunityMultimediaSlideshows Community snapshots By mycitizensnews - May 3, 2014 0 58 Helen Dow Thomas (third from the left in the front row) of Naugatuck celebrated her 100th birthday March 14, 2014 with family and friends at Jesse Camille’s Restaurant in Naugatuck. Thomas was born march 14, 1914 in Dover-Foxcroft, Maine and has lived in the borough for almost 30 years. –CONTRIBUTED Sgt. George Kochera, a Naugatuck native, enters Hop Brook Elementary School in Naugatuck April 23 to students cheering and waving American flags. Kochera, 27, visited the school to speak to Debbie Langdon’s first-grade class. Langdon told the students about how long the trip was, what his job as a military police officer entails, and what it was like to be home. Kochera said he visited Langdon’s class because she was his first-grade teacher at Prospect Street Elementary School 20 years ago.-LUKE MARSHALL The Trumbull-Porter Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution honored its Good Citizen Award winners in April. The award is intended to encourage and reward the qualities of good citizenship. Each senior class student selected as the school’s DAR Good Citizen must have the qualities of dependability, service, leadership and patriotism to an outstanding degree. Pictured, front row from left, Chapter Regent Katharine Gabrielson, Rachel Lynn Fox of Naugatuck High School, Sasha Biagiarelli of Kennedy High School, Kaitlyn M. Quirke of Thomaston High School, Chapter Chair DAR Good Citizens Daryl Masone, back row from left, Tyler Mark DiFelice of Watertown High School, Pamela Robles of Kaynor Technical High School Rebecca Dupre of Waterbury Arts Magnet and AujaniqueMone Nichols of Crosby High School. –CONTRIBUTED The Naugatuck YMCA preschool class held a spring celebration April 11. The celebration included an Easter egg hunt, a pinata made by the children and a visit from the Easter Bunny. The children also learned all of the letters in the alphabet by having an alphabet soup station and letter sound games. –CONTRIBUTED Naugatuck High senior Ryne Griesenauer formally announced last Thursday his plans to attend Southern Connecticut State University on a football scholarship. Griesenauer said he had several options but decided to join the Owls because of ‘the campus, and I felt comfortable there.’ The wide receiver posted one of the top seasons in school history last fall, leading the Greyhounds to a 9-2 record with his 1,044 yards and 14 touchdowns. ‘I thought maybe I’d get lucky to play D3,’ Griesenauer said, ‘but I never imagined going D2 after having such a successful season.’ Griesenauer (second from left) was joined by his mother, Joan, as well as Naugatuck head coach Craig Bruno, Naugatuck athletic director Tom Pompei and Naugatuck assistant coach Tom Tousignant.-KYLE BRENNAN Fourth-grade students from St. Bridget School in Cheshire made and donated over 200 bracelet craft kits for the patients at the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford. The students included Prospect residents, from left, Ethan Michaud, Samantha Strell and Nicholas Ribeiro. –CONTRIBUTED Emmett O’Brien Technical School student Gabriel Jeannin, 16, of Naugatuck won the technical drafting competition March 28 at the State Leadership Conference and Connecticut Skill Championships. Jeannin will be going to Kansas City, Mo., in June to participate in the national competition. Jeannin will be competing against students from the other 49 states, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands and Guam. A bus trip to Mohegan Sun casino will be held on June 7 to help raise money to defray the cost of the trip. Tickets are $50 and include bus transportation, a $15 food voucher and a $15 bet voucher. The bus will leave from the Naugatuck train station, 195 Water St., at 3:30 p.m. and return at 12:45 a.m. For tickets or information, email para54@sbcglobal.net. –CONTRIBUTED