Details

Category: Current Issue

POMFRET — Pomfret School will present Junot Díaz as the 2018 Schwartz Visiting Fellow. He is the author of the critically acclaimed Drown; The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; and This Is How You Lose Her, a New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist.
Díaz is scheduled to visit the Pomfret campus Jan. 25 and 26. During his two-day stay, he is expected to share his unique perspective on literature and the craft of writing with students, faculty, and the community.
At 7 p.m. on Jan. 26 Díaz will deliver a community lecture in Hard Auditorium on the Pomfret campus. This event is free and open to the public, but an RSVP is required. To reserve a seat, visit www.pomfret.org/diaz.
“We are very excited to have someone of his stature and writing talent visit Pomfret,” said Librarian David Ring, who is coordinating the visit. “It is a wonderful opportunity for students and faculty alike.”
Junot Díaz was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New Jersey. Díaz is the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, PEN/Malamud Award, Dayton Literary Peace Prize, Guggenheim Fellowship, and PEN/O. Henry Award. A graduate of Rutgers College, Díaz is currently the fiction editor at Boston Review and the Rudge and Nancy Allen Professor of Writing at MIT. Since 1989, world renowned experts have visited Pomfret School under the Schwartz Visiting Fellow Program. This speaker series is the result of the vision and generosity of Michael Schwartz ’66 and Eric Schwartz ’69. Past fellows include playwright Cheryl West, marine archaeologist Robert Ballard, author Frank McCourt, and historian David McCullough, & others.

Details

Category: Current Issue

Wrestling
tourney
to honor
Jacob Bowen
The Woodstock Academy wrestling team will dedicate its invitational tournament on Feb. 3 to the memory of former wrestler, Jacob Bowen.
The 2013 graduate of Woodstock Academy died last week.
The tournament, which involves several Eastern Connecticut Conference wrestling squads and others from around the state, will now be known as the Jacob Bowen Invitational.
The wrestling team also decided to sell bracelets to honor Bowen’s memory. The proceeds from those bracelet sales will be given to the Bowen family.
On the mat, the Centaurs (1-8,0-2 ECC Division II) lost to Bacon Academy, 40-30, Jan. 10.
Patrick Barrows and Daniel Ntamwemezi recorded pins in the last two matches, but it was too little, too late for the Centaurs who lost to the Bobcats in Colchester.
Barrows needed just 1 minute, 29 seconds to pin Zach Tupper at 195 pounds and Ntamwemezi put Eli Vonn to the mat in 1:14 at 220 pounds,
Ben Holden also recorded a pin for the Centaurs.
The Academy also participated in the Griswold Invitational against some stellar wrestling programs including Killingly, Norwich Free Academy and the host, Wolverines.
Aeden Noel, Ben Holden and Kellen Horst all made it to the consolation semifinals for the Centaurs who finished with 30 points.
Gymnastics
Centaurs win third straight
Ali Crescimanno is clearly starting to feel more like herself.
Injured in a car accident during the offseason, the junior had to heal and then shake off the rust.
She has been successful in doing so.
Crescimanno led The Woodstock Centaurs gymnastics team to a pair of victories over Stonington and South Windsor on Wednesday at Deary’s Gymnastics in Danielson.
Crescimanno won the all-around with a 35.15 total to help the Centaurs to a 132.6 total as a team. Stonington finished with a 124.2 while South Windsor recorded a 123.85.
Crescimanno took first in both the bars (9.55) and vault (9.2) competitions.
Jenna Davidson was third in the bars with an 8.4 score.
The Centaurs raised their record to 4-0, 1-0 in the Eastern Connecticut Conference with the win.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director

Details

Category: Current Issue

caption: page 7:


Land Donated
Left to right: Ed Waldron (with his daughter Zoey), Flo Waldron, Susan Waldron, Mike St. Lawrence (land trust president), Andy Rzeznikiewicz (land trust land manager). Courtesy photo.

191-acre
donation
largest to
land trust
THOMPSON — The Sherman and Susan Waldron family recently donated 191 acres of forested land on Bull Hill in Thompson to the Wyndham Land Trust—the largest single donation in the 42-year history of the land trust.
“We do what we can to influence our little corner of the planet,” said Susan Waldron. “Donating the land was a seamless, straightforward process, and anybody with land should consider it. It wasn’t complicated; you just have to make the decision. Our family had a vision for the land, and I feel the land trust shared that vision—we have a like mind. Now I feel like we’re part of the future and not stuck in the past.”
Susan’s husband, Sherman “Doc” Waldron, was a fixture in the life of N. Grosvenordale for almost half a century. He was raised on a large farm in South Windsor where he learned to love and respect the land. After a brief spell in the Navy, he graduated from Tufts University Medical School in 1950 and joined Dr. Walter Rowson’s established family practice in N. Grosvenordale. Sherman planned to train as an orthopedic surgeon, but his plans were thwarted when Dr. Rowson died suddenly, and Sherman found himself running the practice.
Sherman tended to the community for the next 35 years. “He knew the children, the parents, and the grandparents,” said Susan, who worked as a registered nurse in his office. “These were his people, and he became embroidered into the fabric of the town.”
The region went through some tough times in those 35 years, and some patients struggled to pay their medical bills. Susan remembers the first time Sherman came home with a chicken that he had accepted in lieu of payment. Historically, families in Thompson owned small, landlocked woodlots on Bull Hill, and Sherman found himself accepting these lots to cover medical expenses. By the time he retired in 1986, Sherman owned 16 lots on Bull Hill totaling 191 acres. After his death in 1999, at age 76, the properties sat as a silent monument to his work in the community.
In January of 2017, the Wyndham Land Trust announced they had acquired 254 acres on Bull Hill and were hoping to expand their holdings in this rare, unbroken forest. Susan’s interest was piqued.  She made some discreet inquiries about the land trust, and the seeds for a donation were planted. In her heart, Susan knew that Sherman would approve of her plans to keep the land protected in perpetuity through the land trust.
“There’s a lot of ledge up there, and it’s too rocky for farming,” said Susan. “It supports trees and wildlife, and Sherman wanted it to stay natural. It was a joy for him to walk up there. It’s God’s natural habitat. The Wyndham Land Trust is doing important work on Bull Hill, and it made me feel good to support their mission.”
Sherman loved to hunt on the properties and introduced his son, Ed, to hunting. Ed inherited his father’s love of the land, and today he oversees the fire suppression operations at Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. Ed and his sister, Flo, a writer and blogger based in rural Pennsylvania, supported their mother’s decision to donate the land.
“Growing up my dad always told me while we out in the woods hunting or cutting fire wood that they will never make more land, and that if you have land you should keep it and protect it,” said Ed. “That has stuck with me over the years.
“I know as a family we never wanted to develop the land on Bull Hill. When my mom told me about donating the properties to the land trust, it sounded like a great idea. The land trust is protecting other lots in the same area, and it’s much easier for them to manage continuous parcels of land than a checkerboard of separate pieces.”
“Dad was an old-fashioned Connecticut Yankee through and through, that’s for sure,” said Flo. “Paradoxically, that made him look to the future when it came to land preservation. He wanted my brother and me to learn to love the land like he did, so we would also want to protect it for future generations. I know he had faith that Ed and I would pass on these same values to our own children. He would be so happy to know that this gift to the Wyndham Land Trust has helped preserve this land for future generations.”
“The generosity and thoughtfulness of Susan Waldron tremendously expanded the scope of our flagship preserve just months after its establishment,” said Steve Adams, a board member of the land trust. “Because of this donation, our Bull Hill preserve now extends from the southernmost end of the ridge near Rt. 171 on the Woodstock/Thompson/Putnam line to the northernmost end up by Auger Pond.  This in itself has been a catalyst for other landowners to enter into conversations with us to fill in the blanks. Our goal is to create one of the largest blocks of preserved and protected forest land in all of Windham County.”
Jeff Stefanik, also a member of the board of the land trust, has spent much of this winter surveying the 568 acres that the land trust now owns on Bull Hill and is intimately familiar with the property.  “It’s all upland mature forest and wetlands. There are very few stone walls; the soil is rocky and poor for farming, and the land was used for wood lots and fire wood for generations. This ridge was never really populated and has very few cellar holes. The Indians called it Pomponagang Hill.”
The Wyndham Land Trust now protects more than 3,000 acres in 10 towns in northeastern Connecticut. The land trust can be reached by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by calling (860) 963-2090. More information can be found at www.wyndhamlandtrust.org or on their Facebook page.
The Waldron family and the Wyndham Land Trust held an informal dedication on the day after Christmas.
 

Details

Category: Current Issue

WILLIMANTIC —  Forty-three psychology students at Eastern Connecticut State University presented their research in a poster session on Nov. 27 at the department’s annual Psychological Science Afternoon.
Elizabeth Navarro ’18 of Woodstock was one of the students who presented their research.
Navarro majors in psychology and was mentored by Psychology Professor Jennifer Laney during the course of their research.
Navarro’s research project is titled “Gender and Personality Differences in Academic Performance.”
Jessica Perreault ’18 of Danielson was one of the students who presented their research. Perreault majors in Psychology and was mentored by Psychology Professor Kristalyn Salters-Pedneault during the course of their research.
Perreault’s research project is titled “The Relationship between Financial Difficulties, Social Support and Stress.”
Perrault was one of two students selected for a poster award.