Photo by David Rockwell
The Suffield Academy Grade 9 Leadership class is pictured under an Academy magnolia. From the left, seated: Sarah Longhi, Ben Bonavire, Abby James, Anna Wilcox. Standing: Olivia Alfano, Gavin Mastella, Michael Sattan, Mike Giugliano, Jack Bullato, Tom Killam, Wil Hunnewell, Thunder Furongkapitaya.
We have had countless fundraisers, class fun and academic challenges. The athletic teams have had great victories and there have been fabulous visual arts performances.
Each year the school chooses a charity to benefit from all of our fundraisers throughout the year. This year the charity was “Circle of Care”, a local Connecticut charity supporting children with recently diagnosed cancer across the state. When children are first diagnosed with cancer, there is a care package full of toiletries and necessities waiting for them in the hospital room. After a while, the squad of Circle of Care comes in and redoes the child’s room at their house. We have had a Color Course with a rave, a telethon, and soon to come other fundraisers to make money for the charity.
“The Amazing Race”, modeled after a popular reality show, was created for Suffield students last year by a senior. It is now led by another senior, Dan Bennett. The race began with 12 teams that had to conquer difficult physical and mental challenges all across campus. It is currently in the middle of the competition and will end with two winners who have proven themselves against the other teams.
Last fall, the football team made it to the New England Class A championship game. Unfortunately the team lost, but had a very good run during the fall season. They will be back at it again next fall. The ski team had two Class A New England Championship skiers: Maggy Skaugen and Zack Mooney. The swim team saw both girls and boys coming in third place in New England. The Boy’s basketball team competed in the Class A New England tournament, falling in the second round. The Spring sports have just come into full swing; we are excited to see where all of the varsity sports go into the championships and how much improvement the JV teams have shown.
The fall musical, Spring Awakening, was a great success with Katherine Kalill as the female lead and David Gingold as the male lead. This was a fairly risqué show, thoroughly enjoyed by the audience. Suffield was one of only four schools to perform this particular musical. It sold out all three nights of showing. The spring play, One Man, Two Guvnors, was also a very popular performance among the school community. This plot featured a male lead, Jim Krueger, trying to balance two jobs with two separate bosses. This was a great comedy that involved the audience and kept them laughing. The winter dance show was also a huge hit in the Suffield community with many performances to popular songs and many different styles of music and dance. The show featured everything from lyrical to African dancing.
The center of focus on campus this year has been the recently finished student union. Students are thoroughly enjoying this large addition to campus and the renovated dining hall in Brewster Hall. The snack bar has a much greater variety, there is a private working area with TVs and a new spacious day student locker area.
We are all excited for the end of the year festivities and ready to welcome the new members of Suffield Academy next year.