Stuyniski
garners ECC
Athlete of the
Month honor
By Ron P. Coderre
Paige Stuyniski, Woodstock Academy’s sensational sophomore gymnast was named the Eastern Connecticut Conference Female Athlete of the Month for March. The award comes after Stuyniski led her mates through this season’s gymnastics season capturing just about every team title along the way.
The dedicated gymnast helped lead the Centaurs of coach Robin Deary Fillmore to their 5th consecutive CIAC State Class Championship and their 4th straight CIAC State Open Championship. During these competitions she won three gold medals at each event. Her score of 9.875 in the Floor Exercise at the Open competition set a new record. She’s the existing state record holder in the Beam competition, which she set last year.
The two-time All – Eastern Connecticut Conference and All- State performer also led the Centaur gymnasts to their 6th consecutive ECC regular season and tournament titles. At the New England Championships, where Woodstock finished second, Stuyniski won four gold medals capturing the top spot in the Bars, Beam, Floor Exercise and All Around.
The Brooklyn resident is already drawing considerable interest from numerous NCAA Division I colleges.
The Male Athlete of the Month was Fitch High School swimmer Dakota Williams. The senior plans on continuing his swimming career in college and has narrowed his choices to Seton Hall and Providence College.
captions: Top: Marcy Dawley of The Last Green Valley was counting nip bottles. Above: The crowd at the bandstand at the Putnam's Rotary Park May 9. Left: The Putnam Elementary School teams heaves bags into a DPW dump truck.
Pulling
together
to beautify
Putnam
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM --- With lots of hard work by lots of local teams the Putnam Business Association's annual Putnam Beautification event turned the streets and parks of Putnam into a sparkling clean gem.
The winner of the Most Spirited award was Ethan Hall. The winner of the Most Unique find was the Green Valley Black Hawks from Putnam Chiropractor with a find of a fender. The Putnam High School team won the "Most Gross" award with a used pair of boxer shorts and the Purple Unicorn Robots won the Most Nips award with 118 nips picked up by the two team members. Most of the nips were found in the South Main Street area.
The total number of nip bottles found this year was 950, according to Karen Osbrey of the PBA.
Besides shopping cards, workers also found a 20 dollar bill, tampons, a boom box, a tarp, hub caps, a tire rim, a syringe, a bike tire, a Christmas wreath and a license plate bracket for a Mercedes Benz.
Woodstock public schools
Monday: Cheeseburgers, baked beans, fruit. Tuesday: Meatball grinders, carrots, fruit. Wednesday: Popcorn chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, fruit. Thursday: Chef salad, fruit. Friday: Pizza, zucchini, fruit.
Pomfret Community
Monday: Meatball grinders, green beans, celery sticks/dip, applesauce cups. Tuesday: Chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes, peas, veggie cups, pineapple cups. Wednesday: Deli turkey or ham sandwiches, carrot sticks, fruit. Thursday: Mr. Fox's Pizza, broccoli, sliced apples, raisins. Friday: Hot dogs, baked beans, pear cups.
Putnam Elementary/Middle
Monday: Melted ham and cheese on WG pretzel bun, apple wedges, three-bean salad, peas. Tuesday: Cheese lasagna rollups, corn. Wednesday: Sloppy Joes, cole slaw. Thursday: Zesty orange popcorn chicken bites, Cranraisins, broccoli. Friday: Putnam Special Pizza, sherbet.
Putnam High
Monday: Santa Fe steak wraps, vegetable salad. Tuesday: Cheese lasagna. Wednesday: Sloppy Joes, green bans, fruit. Thursday: General Tsos Chicken, stir fried vegetables, spring rolls. Friday: Pizza, three-bean salad.
Mentoring
grants
As a part of the history of Northeast Communities Against Substance Abuse’s (NECASA) efforts in educating and preventing substance use and abuse in northeastern Connecticut over the past 25 years, the organization mentored the Town of Putnam and the Town of Windham to assist them in getting their own Drug Free Community Support grants. NECASA used a Drug Free Communities Mentoring grant for the planning and technical assistance.
Approximately eight years ago, NECASA used a federal Drug Free Communities Support Mentoring Grant to provide technical assistance, strategic planning and to identify an experienced grant writer for Putnam when they first convened the PRIDE coalition. Thanks in large part to the technical assistance; the Town of Putnam was successful in getting their first five-year cycle of DFC grant funding. NECASA continued to provide technical assistance to the coalition as the town applied for the STOP ACT underage drinking prevention grant and also has provided local prevention council funding to Putnam annually. LPC funding proved critical when PRIDE experienced a funding gap between their first and second funding cycles, helping the group to continue meeting and to push forward with as many initiatives as possible.
In Windham, seven years ago, NECASA used the second year of its mentoring grant to assist the Town’s “Weed and Seed” Coalition, providing the same structure and links to strategic planning, organization and a grant writing professional and Windham received its own Federal Drug Free grant that fall.
Both Putnam and Windham are now in their second five-year cycle of Drug Free grants and NECASA is still providing assistance as they move forward with their own programs and initiatives.