WINSTED — Extracurricular programs for students at Pearson Middle School and Hinsdale Elementary School are keeping children excited about learning and are a testament to the dedication of parents in the system, principals of the schools said this week.The two programs were saluted April 12 at Town Hall during the Winchester Board of Education’s monthly meeting.Pearson Principal Clay Krevolin announced that PTO members Caroline Christensen and Julie Rego teamed up to obtain a $7,000 grant from AT&T this year to support an extracurricular team-building program for seventh-graders, held recently at Northwestern Connecticut Community College (NCCC).“The seventh grade was divided into four groups and they each spent a morning working down at NCCC in the gym at Greenwoods Hall,” Krevolin said. “The activities focused on teaming, character building and problem-solving.”Students Mikayla Benvenuti, C.J. Barber and Greg Akerly were among the students to participate in the program and presented brief reports of their experiences to the Board of Education.For Hinsdale Elementary School, Principal Matthew O’Connell said it was Rego once again who spearheaded a grant to launch the Laurel City Learning Center Collaborative, an after-school program at Hinsdale that teaches young students arts and crafts. “They started with a winter session, with a sewing club, card making, ceramics, a Lego club and floral design,” O’Connell said. “They have also recently added a cheerleading club.”Students involved in the program included Rego’s sons Hunter and Connor, along with Victoria and Sky Johnson, Alexandra Cassaday and Beth Christensen. The students proudly presented several of their creations to the Board of Education.“It’s a very positive program,” O’Connell said of the Laurel City Learning Center. “The kids are excited about it, and we’ve had parents and teachers teaching the classes. We’re hoping to grow it this year and next and offer more classes. I like it because it gives the students something positive to do after school, it allows them to explore an interest area and gives them a chance to form different friendships that they might not develop in the classroom.” O’Connell praised Rego for her involvement as a parent and organizer and noted that the program is already funded with grant money for the upcoming school year.
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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