Schools/Sports

Building Skills at Summer Camp

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The sound of almost two dozen basketballs being dribbled at once is something like quiet thunder. That’s what was going on in Suffield Academy’s parking lot off Mountain Road near the end of July, when Basketball World’s summer day camp was in session. Four sturdy portable hoops were set up on the lot, and Coach Scott Wissel was training a batch of enthusiastic boys of various sizes – generally 8 to 12 years old. Other campers were elsewhere on campus, being trained by Coach Paul Wissel, Scott’s brother, and several athlete counselors. Scott and Paul are the co-directors of the camp.

Schools/Sports

SMS Welcomes New Principal

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In early August, Mr. Ken Smith was hired as the new principal at Suffield Middle School. Smith, a graduate of UConn with a Masters in Secondary English, went on to teach seventh grade English in Portland, Conn., for eight years.

Schools/Sports

Local Coach Heading for Hall of Fame

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The Connecticut Field Hockey Hall of Fame is proud to announce Heather (Waters) Casinghino, head field hockey coach at Suffield High School, is among those who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame at the Aqua-Turf Club in Southington on Sunday, September 16.

Schools/Sports

Welcome Back to the 2018-2019 School Year

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Welcome to the 2018-2019 school year! I hope our students and their families had a relaxing and enjoyable summer. I am looking forward to an exciting year and I am thrilled to be part of the Suffield Public Schools as your Interim Superintendent. I believe that students learn best when they are encouraged to take thoughtful risks, engage in experiential learning opportunities, persist in problem-solving and make connections with their teachers. I will continue to work with our very talented teachers, leaders and faculty to provide each child with a challenging, purposeful and relevant educational experience.

Government/Town

First Responders Offer Family Fun

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The Family Fun Day & Fireworks on August 4 was presented by Suffield’s first responders: Fire, Police, Ambulance, and Highway, coordinated by the Department of Emergency Management. The event was a new mix of the National Night Out observed here for the last three years and the traditional Firemen’s Carnival. 

On the Spaulding School parking lot were the various interesting machines of the first responders: fire trucks, ambulances, off-road rescue vehicles, and more. Kids also enjoyed playing “patient” in the Ambulance Association’s power-elevated gurney or trying to manage that hefty nozzle firing a major stream of water into the Fire Department’s portable pond. On the grass field, there was an abundance of bounce houses, a dunking tank, the challenging climbing tower, and the Roaming Railroad, along with face painting and balloon sculpting and plenty of food trucks. And the helicopter rides introduced with the National Nights Out were back again, and still popular.

Library

Leonard Bernstein’s 100th Year

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Leonard Bernstein was widely known as a flamboyant and intuitive conductor although he considered himself a composer first. He left us with many enduring compositions, well-known musicals such as West Side Story, Candide and On the Town but also sacred music, Chichester Psalms and his Mass. With the use of television, he was able to widely promote classical music appreciation in his Young People’s Concerts. The critics loved the series. It, along with being the handsome, stylish conductor of the New York Philharmonic, elevated Bernstein to star status.

Library

Library Book Sale

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The Friends of Kent Memorial Library are putting the finishing touches on this year’s book sale. Happily, it will once again be held in Father Ted Hall at Sacred Heart Church at 446 Mountain Road. Ample free parking will be available adjacent to the air-conditioned, handicapped-accessible big room in which the sale will take place. The book sale will take place on the weekend of September 7-9, beginning with a preview sale from 6-8 p.m. on Friday. For that event only, there is an admission fee of $5, but Friends of KML members get in free.

Library

Correction

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In the Observer’s July-August issue, the knowledgeable enthusiast who was to lead the baseball trivia contest on August 9 was misidentified. He was Karl Cicitto, not Karl Cicotte. (Demonstrating his expertise, Mr. Cicitto advises that Ed Cicotte was one of the eight Chicago White Sox ballplayers banned permanently from Major League Baseball for throwing the 1919 World Series.)

Director’s Corner

Racists

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Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote, “The only good Indian is a dead Indian” and other unpalatably racist comments. For this, the American Library Association dropped her name from their children’s award, which was begun in 1954. Theodor Geisel, known as Dr. Seuss, depicted a Chinese man in a derogatory stereotypical fashion in, I Heard It on Mulberry Street. For this, the Springfield Museum removed a mural with the image from its wall. There are countless authors who have written and said offensive things.

Organizations

An Evening with Edgar Allen Poe

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The Suffield Historical Society will meet on Wednesday, September 19 at 7 p.m. at the Suffield Senior Center. 

Guest speaker, Campbell Harmon, will perform in character The Tell-Tale Heart and The Raven. 

He will also talk about Edgar Allen Poe’s life and the profound influences his work had on American literature. 

Join us to learn about Poe’s life. Come and be enthralled!