Schools/Sports

Agriscience News

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The SHS Agriscience Department held their Chapter Speaking Day in January, where students participated in a variety of public speaking competitions. These competitions included Creed, Extemporaneous Speaking, and Prepared Speaking. The Creed Speaking competition was held for freshman only. It required students to recite the FFA creed accurately and passionately. Afterward, each student answered questions about the creed posed by the judges.

Schools/Sports

SHS Goes to Congress

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Last week five students of Suffield High School participated in the 79th session of Model Congress held at American International College. Suffield High School’s delegation, Tabitha Hinkle and Marc Cox, along with our observer delegates Benjamin Grigoriou, Catherine Murphy and Veronica Partain made an excellent showing for our first year in attendance! Our team, along with students from ten other schools from within New England, developed mock legislation, held mock committees and debated fiercely to pass bills that would be appropriate for the United States today. While real legislation can take months –if not years–to pass, students who attended only had three days to debate what should become law! Our Model Congress team put in a lot of hard work prior to attending by developing legislation, completing many hours of research on why our legislation should be passed, conducting mock committee sessions and reviewing committee procedures. On top of all of this, they only had about two weeks to review legislation from all of the other schools.

Schools/Sports

Sports Equipment Collected for Reuse

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In November, I attended the first ever Student Athlete Advisory Board meeting hosted by the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC). As one of three representatives for our area, I was tasked with sharing what we are doing in Suffield to promote sportsmanship and community involvement and bringing home new ideas. At the conference, students got together into small groups to discuss possible community service initiatives for our Class Act Councils. My group came up with the idea of a used sports equipment drive. I thought this would work well at Suffield High School because most students play sports throughout their whole lives, so I took the idea back to SHS, and we decided to offer the incentive for students to bring in used gear for free admission to any home basketball game.

Schools/Sports

Aces High Prepares

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In mid-February, the enthusiastic team members of Aces High were spending most evenings in the Windsor Locks High School shop rooms, manufacturing and assembling the parts they have designed (and often redesigned) for the robot they plan to enter in FIRST Robotics Competition this year. As reported in last month’s Observer, they learned the details of this year’s game, called Deep Space, on January 5 and immediately began to plan their strategy and design their machine and its programming. In the Observer’s visit on February 14, team members were active in four rooms of WLHS’s great shop facilities, working with several adult coaches including head coach Peter Davis, who knows the Windsor Locks shop well, as he teaches there. There was activity in the wood shop, the machine shop, the computer room, and the “arena.”

The team’s stage of readiness for their first planned event, in Waterbury on the weekend of March 8-10, was not what they had wished for by mid-February, but they believe they will be able to roll out in March with full capabilities working. 

Schools/Sports

Save The Date! Mamma Mia

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The Suffield High School Drama Club is presenting the Broadway smash Mamma Mia on March 14, 15, and 16. The house opens at 6:30 p.m. and the show starts at 7 p.m. in the high school auditorium. Tickets can be bought at the door or from a cast member.  This fun musical features the 70’s pop-rock band Abba and their hit songs such as “Dancing Queen,” “Mamma Mia,” and “Take a Chance on Me.” The show is about a wedding taking place in the Greek islands.

Schools/Sports

As Schools Match Wits

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We have television personalities in our midst! Both Suffield High School and Suffield Academy participate in multiple “quiz bowls” every year, but only one of them – “As Schools Match Wits” – is televised; it can be viewed on WGBY most Saturdays at 7 p.m.

Schools/Sports

Rotary Student

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Congratulations to Hannah Stack, who was chosen as the Rotary Student of the Month for January. Hannah is a senior at Suffield High School and is an Honors student. Hannah was chosen to be a student representative to our Board of Education. She has been a volunteer coach at the Special Olympics, where she met with students and encouraged children with developmental delays. Hannah was also responsible for teaching golf to children with disabilities.

Schools/Sports

World Language Students

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Both Katherine Davis and Savannah Price have earned the February award for World Language Student of the Month. Katherine and Savannah are juniors at Suffield High School and classmates currently enrolled in Spanish V Honors. As classmates, Savannah and Katherine have demonstrated a commitment to communicating in the Spanish language from the beginning of the year. Together they engage in spontaneous conversation, take risks and create opportunities for growth. Individually, each has consistently demonstrated dedication to furthering their proficiency by extensively examining the language, exploring the content and making cultural connections.

People/Business

Emily Sweeney is Back on Track!

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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.

Organizations

What’s Happening at SCA this Month?

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Are You Grieving the Loss of a Loved One? Suffield Community Aid’s Bereavement Support Group Can Help. The group will meet at SCA located at 450 South Street, Suffield on Friday mornings from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. beginning March 22 and ending on May 17. (There is no class on April 19.) 

The program is offered at no cost and a light lunch will be provided. The Suffield Mini-Bus will be available to assist with transport, but residents must call and reserve in advance. 

Registration is required and space is limited – please call Linda Huff at 860-290-6771 to register. 

For more details, call SCA at 860-668-1986. Are Meals-on-Wheels an Option for You?

People/Business

Suffield Native Leads Prominent Seminary

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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.

Government/Town

Valentine Couple Crowned

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Suffield’s new Valentine King and Queen smile to their subjects. Bill Brennan and Margaret Matuck won the draw and held their royal audience on February 9 following a generous mid-day dinner presented at the Senior Center by the Friends of Suffield and served by student volunteers to approximately 80 celebrants.

Churches

News and Events at Second Baptist Church

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On Sunday, February 10, the Second Baptist Church received a “Green House of Worship” award from the Interreligious Eco-Justice Network (IREJN) as a Level Two Green Congregation. Second Baptist has been encouraging its members and others to be more consciously aware of our life choices and the positive and negative effects these have on the human and other-than-human world. The church has been advocating practices and life-style choices that will be mutually enhancing to people and planet, such as, eliminating the use of bottled water, Styrofoam, plastics (in whatever way is possible); eliminating the use of toxic chemicals in our lawn-care; replacing all lighting with LED bulbs; making our building and one’s home more energy efficient while conducting an energy audit on our building; putting in a water bottle re-fill drinking fountain in the church building, and advocating for state and federal policies that put the health of humans and the planet as a top priority. We are always looking for ways to live more consistently with our faith for the health and well-being of all people and all creation. On Sunday, March 3 at 3 p.m., Second Baptist will join with The Friends of the Farm at Hilltop and the Suffield Land Conservancy to host a workshop about the importance of bees.