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Receives $10,000
Jewett City Savings Bank awarded NOW a $10,000 grant. From left: Kevin Merchant, president and CEO; Mike Alberts, vice president; Amanda Heibel, Putnam branch manager; Tayler Shea, NOW executive director; Pamela Brown, volunteer grant writer; and Valentine Iamartino, board member and Grants Committee member. Courtesy photo.
PUTNAM — Jewett City Savings Bank last week awarded Northeast Opportunities for Wellness, Inc. (NOW) a $10,000 grant through the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston’s Jobs for New England Recovery Grant Program.
Throughout the year, NOW partners with local youth-serving organizations focused on sports and wellness activities. These partnerships include scholarship support, with NOW offering scholarships to qualifying youth of the community with up to 95 percent of the cost being subsidized by the non-profit. NOW has provided just under $93,000 in youth sports scholarships since 2015. In addition to scholarships, NOW promotes wellness education to all children participating in partner organization activities throughout each season of sports as well as with community partners and other local non-profit organizations.
NOW Executive Director Tayler Shea said: “NOW is very grateful to the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston and Jewett City Savings Bank for this grant. To say that 2020 was an unpredictable year would be quite an understatement. Like so many other organizations, NOW felt the deep impact of COVID-19 on our programs and events.”
Most of the 2020 fund-raisers had to be cancelled and left a loss of crucial funds to help support scholarships and youth wellness outreach programs.
The Jobs for New England Recovery Grant Program was offered by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston.
to member financial institutions to assist small businesses and non-profit organizations that have experienced significant losses due to the pandemic.
As a member, Jewett City Savings Bank was able to reserve grant funds for eligible organizations in the Bank’s service area. Jewett City Savings Bank focused its support to those organizations that had limited opportunities to participate in other funding sources that became available through the CARES Act and other government programs.
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Firearm
discharged
PUTNAM — Putnam Police said they seized a firearm inside a building on South Main Street May 27.
Shortly before 10 PM police responded to a 911 call about a firearm being discharged at 106 South Main St.
Police said they investigated and seized a firearm.
Putnam Police Captain Justin Lussier said “Currently this incident appears to be an isolated incident with no ongoing threat to the public and no injuries were reported.”
This investigation remains open and active, he added.
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Before the Rains
Spring was perfectly reflected in the river before the rains hit. Linda Lemmon photo.
After the Rains
Cargill Falls was running high after 5 inches of rain hit the area over three days. Photo by Cindy Curry.
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Celebrates
The Woodstock Academy girls’ golf team celebrates at Quinnatisset Country Club after winning their seventh championship in 10 years. Photo by Sean Saucier.
It has been a pretty good year for the Woodstock Academy girls’ golf team.
The Centaurs ended the regular season with a 14-0 record after wins over NFA and Suffield and then captured their second consecutive ECC tournament championship with a 175-221 victory over E. Lyme last week.
It was the seventh time in the 10 years that the postseason tournament has been held that the Centaurs have won the title.
Add to that a No. 2 ranking in the Div. II in the state and having the 10th-ranked individual golfer in the state in junior Mia Dang and it has been a pretty successful season.
“It’s been pretty good,” said coach Earl Semmelrock.
The goal was to make the Division II state tournament which they did.
“Now, the proof will be in the pudding. We have to show up and compete at that level. Frankly, I will be surprised if we aren’t competitive, but, when the bright lights come on, you don’t know what will happen until you put yourself in that situation,” Semmelrock said.
The Centaurs, the second-ranked team in the state behind Berlin in Division II, will play in the Division II state championship tournament at Farmington Woods Country Club June 7.
The “bright lights”, the pressure situations, began with the ECC tournament and the team responded well.
Dang was the medalist with a five-over par 41.
Semmelrock agreed that Dang has been struggling a bit with the short stick but added that “41 is still a pretty good score.”
“It, obviously, helps us to have Mia because she is a great player and the other girls strive to keep up with her. When she has a bad or mediocre day, there is someone there to tie her for medalist. That’s a good thing. It gives the other team members something to shoot for,” Semmelrock said. “She’s a pleasure to coach. She wants to do better all the time and is tough on herself. The real test will be how she does when we play 18 holes at the state team tournament and at the State Open against the best players in the state. That will be the bench mark.”
Dang qualified for the State Open with a 5.8 average. Players have to be under 8 to qualify. Kaily LaChapelle finished second to Dang in the ECC tournament with a 44.
LaChapelle was 1-over par through the first four holes.
Both Alex Vaida and Ciara MacKinnon finished one stroke back of LaChapelle and all four earned ECC All-Star status.
“They all wanted to say they were ECC All-Stars and now they can say that,” Semmelrock said. “Hats off to them. They have done a great job and as I told them at Senior Night, the season is not over. We still have work to do so let’s keep going.”
The four scores under 50 led the Centaurs to the 175-point total which Semmelrock believed to be an ECC girls’ tournament record low for a team.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
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