The Suffield Observer (https://thesuffieldobserver.com/category/peoplebusiness/page/36/)
May 4 is quickly approaching. It will be 13 years since CPL Stephen R. Bixler gave his life for our country. Even after 13 years, it is still so very hard to realize Steve will not be coming home. The community of Suffield is coming together once again to honor and remember Stephen, at his Annual Memorial Picnic.
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.
Suffield’s Kate Butler taught in Manchester briefly after her studies at Eastern Connecticut State University (Class of 2017) focused on education and history, but she decided to follow in the family footsteps and is now a “fourth generation crime fighter.” That’s the inscription in the nice shadow box her father, Matt Butler, presented to her shortly after her graduation from the Hartford Police Academy as a new hire of the Hartford Police Department. The centerpiece of her father’s shadow box was his own badge as a Special Agent of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, from which he had retired as Agent in Charge of the NCIS Training Academy in Georgia after a long career in responsible NCIS positions all over the world. Kate’s paternal uncle, Dan Butler, spent seven years as deputy assistant director of the NCIS, then became executive director of the USAF Office of Special Investigation. And their father was also in law enforcement, as was Kate’s great-grandfather. Her maternal grandfather, Dr. James Pattillo, served five years as the Suffield health officer.
The Doyon family and Kyle Englander are hosting a 5K and 10K Memorial Road Race in memory of ET2 Dustin L. Doyon of the United States Navy, who lost his life while serving on the USS John S. McCain on August 21, 2017.
When I hear the term “a life well lived,” I often wonder what the speaker means by those words. When I think of Mary Anne Zak, who turned 90 a few days ago, I don’t have to wonder; all who know her can attest to her life, well lived—and it’s not over yet! This is no eulogy. Mary Anne may be best known today for her column in the Observer, but long-time residents of Suffield will remember that she was for many years, a teacher of English at Suffield High School. A long and happy teaching career such as Mary Anne’s often defines a life—and although she had other equally important careers, such as mother and wife and community leader, she remains an educator at heart.
Hits & Kicks, a Suffield physical fitness studio that specializes in boxing and kick-boxing, has moved to a new, more visible, location in the old CVS plaza between Zantos and Hair Unlimited. The vigorous training is provided by skilled instructors in scheduled, unisex classes. In two early morning visits, this reporter observed widely different activities: One session, called Pound, had the students following a leader in rhythmic full-body motions paced by music, including pairs of short batons tapped on the floor or clacked together along with the beat. On another morning the training was boxing – whacking vigorously on long, heavy punching bags dangling from a steel framework, – and sometimes kickboxing the bag as well, all to the shouted instructions and encouragement of the trainer. The boxing sessions were alternated with periods of high intensity interval training, like fast pushups and sit-ups but more complicated, again all to the demanding commands of the trainer.
As Martin Copenhaver DIV ’80 steps down as president of Andover Newton Seminary — an affiliate of the Yale Divinity School — Sarah Birmingham Drummond ’93 will take the helm, the first major leadership transition since the seminary formally joined the Divinity School in 2017. Drummond is a graduate of Suffield High School and daughter of Jackie and Ron Birmingham. Drummond — the Divinity School’s assistant dean and a current visiting professor of ministerial leadership — will assume her duties as the seminary’s president following Copenhaver’s retirement. She will also take the position of founding dean of Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity School simultaneously. Drummond will be the first woman to lead the seminary in its two-century-long history.
For the last year, Emily Sweeney, age 25, who grew up in Suffield, has been slowly recovering from injuries sustained at the last Olympic Games during her last run on the Pyeongchang, South Korea, luge track. It has been a long road to recovery, but an impressive one.
For the first six months after her accident, she was unable to do much more than light walking as exercise, and then it took another six months for the ligaments to heal around a broken bone in her back and one in her neck. Emily is still in the Army with the rank of Sergeant and is part of the Army’s World Class Athlete Program (WCAP). According to the Army’s website, WCAP allows top-ranked soldier-athletes to perform at the international level while also serving their nation in the military. WCAP Soldiers come from the Active, Reserve and National Guard components and are selected for their ability to perform at the highest level of their sports.
Her training began in earnest in October, 2018.
“I’m very proud of Gabriella and her horse. This is such a prestigious show and it’s an honor to qualify, much less to attend with your own horse and achieve so much together,” said trainer Danielle Barrasso, referring to her student, Gabriella Santaniello, a junior at Suffield High School who added the Premier Equestrian Award to her list of achievements at the 2018 International Friesian Show Horse Association World Show, October 2-7, in Springfield, Ohio. Trainer Barrasso worked with Gabriella at the Sunny Hill Farm on North Street. In their very first IFSHA World Show appearance together, the Suffield teenager and her five year-old purebred Friesian mare, Rajasahara (Steffan-S x Senko Zon D), earned nine World Championships, 12 reserve championships, and a Top 5 in classes including costume, halter, (hunter and western) dressage, (hunter and western) equitation and pleasure, and showmanship. “She started riding at age five, and became my student when she was seven. She started out doing hunter/jumpers on my ponies before her parents bought Raja and waited for her to grow into her new horse.”
The wait, this Premier Equestrian Award winner has certainly proven, has been worth it.
It’s not every day that you get to see yourself in a national movie, especially when Dean Cain (remember he was Superman and Teri Hatcher was Lois Lane?) gets to play you! Scott Seabury will tell you how it happened in a Kent Memorial Library program held at the Suffield Senior Center on Wednesday, March 27 at 6:30 p.m. Accompanying Scott will be Agawam resident Michael Tourville, the author of the book, A Promise to Astrid which set the stage for the movie. Both Scott and Michael attended the final days of filming the movie also called A Promise to Astrid in West Virginia last October. The phone call from Michael Tourville informing Scott about the movie and his part in it, was a total surprise to Scott. He knew that Michael had written the book.