The Suffield Observer (https://thesuffieldobserver.com/2019/04/page/11/)
Do you like to write? Do you enjoy finding out what’s happening in Suffield? The Observer is looking for people who would like to write articles for the paper. We can help you with ideas and mentor anyone who is interested. The articles are typically between 350 and 500 words and due by the 15th of each month.
One Saturday evening this past March, I sang with the other 80 members of the Springfield Symphony Chorus (SSC) in Springfield’s beautiful Symphony Hall. It was a concert filled with well-known music from 16 Broadway classics including Oklahoma, Guys and Dolls, West Side Story, Chorus Line, and Phantom of the Opera. The hall was filled with appreciative Broadway music fans entertained by Springfield Symphony’s (SSO) amazingly talented orchestra directed by Maestro Keven Rhodes and the SSC. The SSC tends to sing primarily classical music (our Mahler concert is in the spring), but the Chorus has been invited to sing in a variety of non-classical concerts over the past few years, which, as a diverse music lover, has been a hoot! In 2017, I was lucky enough to be part of a group of 30 SSC singers who got to work with the SSO to sing “background music” as part of a Video Games Live concert, which is dedicated solely to music from video games.
My family and I moved to Suffield in late 1984. By the time we arrived in town, residents had attended many town meetings and participated in many discussions regarding installing sewer lines on the East side of town. At one time, the federal government would have paid 80% of the installation costs. Ultimately the taxpayers had to pay 80% of the costs rather than the Feds. This decision cost the town considerable dollars and prevented us from being able to afford future bonding.
What can be going through someone’s mind who will put a dog on a leash and tie it in the woods in cold and wet weather or in any weather? And even worse to have obviously been abusing him for a long time. A couple who were hiking in Stony Brooke Park on Route 75 saw him and called the police, who sent Dog Warden Ryan Selig there. What he found was so cruel on someone’s part. Not only was the dog trapped, but his leash was caught around his leg which was painful, his fur was so matted on his feet that it made it difficult to walk, his toenails were severely overgrown and the mats of fur all over him were covered with frozen water.
Jamie Deenihan was a teacher and has always loved children and writing. She babysat for my grandchildren, and they loved her. A few years ago she decided to put those loves to work. She did not just start to write though, but did her homework. First she took a free course taught by Dawn Mitchell who gave her some good advice.