Visiting Ghana

For the 20th year, students at Pomfret Community School  spent a week studying the geography, history, art, politics and culture of another country.  This year students “went” to Ghana --- despite two delays and one closure due to weather.  More than 80 presentations were scheduled in individual classes over the course of the week. Parents, community members, people from Ghana, people who have visited Ghana, and people who would like to visit Ghana offered a rich and varied list of information about the country.  Once again the marketplace set up on the stage by a volunteer cadre of parents was a major highlight of the week.   A  mural created by the art club welcomed everyone to Ghana as they entered the marketplace stage.  Students sampled jallof rice, made their own adinkra cloth, chief’s gold medallions  and endangered Roloway monkey masks. Traditional clothing was available for students to try on, musical instruments to play and wood carvings, dolls and educational information boards  added to the ambiance and student’s knowledge about the country.   Photo courtesy of PCS.

 

 

named 

Dartmouth

rowing coach

By Ron P. Coderre

Linda Muri, a 1981 graduate of Killingly High School, has been named the head coach of the Dartmouth College varsity women’s rowing team.  Muri, who is a 1986 graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering, also earned a master’s degree in education from Harvard University in 1997.

Muri’s rise to her current position all started as an athlete at Killingly High School, although she never had any experience with rowing in high school.  She had a varied athletic career with the Redgals, where she captained the field hockey team and was named an Eastern Connecticut Conference all star.  Muri was also a four-year member of the basketball team and was on the softball team in her freshman and sophomore years.

When Muri attended Killingly the school didn’t offer cross country for the girls so she ran with the boys’ team for four years.  She also was a member of the track and field team her junior and senior years, serving as the captain in her final season.

In assuming her role with the Big Green at Dartmouth, Muri brings a background filled with solid experience as a rower and coach on the collegiate and international levels.  She spent the past 13 years in Cambridge, Mass., as the assistant coach of the Harvard men’s lightweight crew team.  While at Harvard, Muri led the Crimson freshmen lightweights to seven Eastern Sprints medals and five IRA medals.  In addition she was the program’s head recruiter, developed and implemented training and injury-prevention programs and coordinated team travel.  She also held similar positions at Cornell University for three years.

On the international level she coached former Harvard rower Andrew Campbell, who earned significant recognition in World Rowing U23 Championships.  In 2004-2005 she served as an assistant coach on the U.S. Junior Women’s team and in 2006 guided the U23 men’s lightweight-4 to a seventh place finish in the world championships.

In addition to her coaching responsibilities, Muri has held numerous leadership positions.  She served as president and director of the World Rowing Championships from 2007 through 2013.  She was a director of the Cambridge Boat Club, Boston Athletic Association and US Rowing Board.  In 2009, Radcliffe and MIT women’s lightweight crew renamed their annual race the Linda Muri Cup in her honor.

As a rower, Muri was a nine-time U.S. national team member and three-time world champion.  In 1994, she was a semifinalist for the James E. Sullivan Award that recognizes the top amateur athlete in the country.  She is also an 18-time U.S. national champion and has earned five Head of the Charles championships.

Linda Muri is the daughter of the late Frank Muri and Mari Muri, a former first grade teacher at Killingly Memorial School, who currently lives in Cromwell.

 

 

caption, page 2:

 

Presentation

Eversource Energy’s Community Relations Specialist, Shawn Johnston,  presents  a check to the nonprofit Chamberlin Mill, Inc., represented by board members Evelyn Cole Smith, Ayla Kardestuncer, and Jean McClellan in the office of Allan Walker, Woodstock First Selectman.  Left to right: Smith, McClellan, Kardestuncer, Johnston, and Walker. Courtesy photo.

 

Sawmill

gets grant

WOODSTOCK — Shawn Johnston, community relations specialist, representing Eversource Energy, recently awarded a grant to the nonprofit Chamberlin Mill, Inc., toward its effort to revitalize the historic sawmill as an educational and cultural resource for the region.  

According to Jean McClellan, president of Chamberlin Mill, Inc., the $1,000 grant will support phase two of the restoration — work on wood structural elements. The group has been building a pool of local funding, to be matched by grant funding. He said Phase One, foundation repair has already received full grant funding.

 “We’re proud to support the restoration of Chamberlin Mill, a key piece of Connecticut’s history,” said Bill Herdegen, President of Eversource’s Connecticut Electric Operations. “Revitalizing one of New England’s only historic sawmills ensures this important agricultural resource will be around for years to come as an educational tool for our communities and customers.”

 “We are very grateful to Eversource for this grant, the community support it represents, and the work it will enable us to do,” said McClellan. “To date, we have been lucky in the support we have received from individual donors and from funding agencies.  The grant from Eversource represents a significant addition to our current effort to engage area corporations and businesses in our work.  With support of this kind, we are confident we will succeed in restoring this rare sawmill as a resource for future generations to enjoy.”

Progress at the Mill continues at a good pace.  Just this past week, volunteers from Mystic Seaport, who have been reviving the Mill’s 1928 Studebaker engine, heard it turn over for the first time in almost half a century.  With continued good luck, the engine, which drove the Mill’s 19th century circular saw after The Great Flood of 1936 until the lumber operation ceased in the late 1960s, will return to Woodstock later this year. 

Chamberlin Mill, Inc. is poised this spring to engage contractors for necessary fieldstone foundation repair and hopes to begin work as early in the season as this winter’s melting snow will allow.  Funding for this first phase of the restoration has been provided by a grant from the Summer Hill Foundation. 

Community donations will be critical to the next, most involved phase of the restoration, stabilization of sills, posts and other structural timbers.  Community funds not only help in and of themselves, but are critical in matching other grants, and in demonstrating local support to funding agencies.  As Chamberlin Mill, Inc. engages the business community in its effort to revitalize this rare Woodstock mill, it is grateful to its earliest corporate supporters who, beyond Eversource, include the Byrnes Insurance Agency, Citizens National Bank, and CME Associates, and to well more than 100 individual donors and many volunteers.

Further information about the Mill is available at www.chamberlinmill.org.

Anyone interested in volunteering with the Chamberlin Mill effort, in making a tax-deductible donation, or who has replacement parts for a Lane # 1 saw is invited to contact Chamberlin Mill, Inc., P.O. Box 2, Woodstock, CT This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Woodstock First Selectman Allan Walker, said, “I was thrilled to be part of bringing Eversource and Chamberlin Mill, Inc. together to move this project forward,” First Selectman Walker stated.  The fine work being done to restore Chamberlin Mill is not only an important community endeavor, but a meaningful enhancement to the Last Green Valley.  Being able to support historic and cultural resources in the local area is one of the most enjoyable parts of my job as First Selectman.  Work that creates educational and recreational activities for all citizens to enjoy strengthens our community.”

Chamberlin Mill, an active sawmill site since the 18th century, produced lumber for local use through the 1960s.  The surviving structure dates from the latter part of the 19th century, when a Lane #1 circular saw and water turbine replaced an earlier up and down saw and undershot wheel.  Chamberlin Mill, Inc. intends to operate the mill on a demonstration basis, using its latest power source, the Studebaker engine.  Chamberlin is the last historic mill structure still standing in Woodstock, and one of only a handful of historic sawmills in New England. Its longevity makes it an important teaching tool about a vital agriculturally related industry and the value of technology.