Fern Apfel: ‘Letters Home’ at Troutbeck
“A Magician Tells His Secrets” by Fern Apfel.
Photo by Jeff Barnett-Winsby
“Minor Scales” by Fern Apfel.Photo by Jeff Barnett-Winsby
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At the back of HVRHS sits the ag-ed wing, where chocolate milk sells and holiday spirit flourishes every year thanks to the FFA’s Holiday Store.
The greenhouse transforms into a storefront selling over a dozen products, some locally sourced. Notable among the selection are the blue spruce and fir trees from Canada, poinsettias, Cabot dairy products — including cheese, eggs and the popular chocolate milk — and homemade wreaths.
“The Holiday Store has been around since the 1940s,” said David Moran, one of the ag-ed teachers and coordinators for the event. “It was created to align with common standards that students need, that they’re able to practice in a way that is connected to the community.”
Ag-ed students make up most of the staff at the store, and they must go through extensive training before participating in the event, said Housatonic Valley FFA President Riley Mahaffey. “Training starts roughly two weeks in advance for our students,” Mahaffey said. The four ag-ed educators — Ms. Boardman, Mrs. Lloyd, Mr. Moran and Mrs. Melino — lead the training. “They go through five stations of training. Knowing what to expect from the unit, identifying the plants, running the register, working with customers outside,” Moran said.
The Holiday Store is a true group effort. Every student in an ag-ed class participates, as the event takes up a majority of class time in the winter. “Class time is definitely devoting 95% of our time towards the Holidays Sales and Marketing because of how much we actually get out of it,” Mahaffey said. “You’re learning the aspects of your class through Holiday Store.”
Students are expected to spend at least eight hours working in the store during the month it operates. How serious they take that time commitment is up to the student. “It’s open until 4:30 after school, so I know some students do it after school before sports, during flex blocks, and during their class time they can use as well,” Mahaffey said. Students can also work in the store on weekends. “On the weekends we’re open all day,” she said.
While students are required to spend at least eight hours in the store, there’s no cap for those that want to contribute more time. “The average student spends 8 hours, but you have those excelled students that go for 16, 20 hours, and then some of them it’ll be three or four,” Mahaffey said.
Moran said students build a multitude of skills staffing the Holiday Store. “Mainly communication, problem solving — that’s constant — a lot of times the students have to encounter all kinds of problem solving,” Moran said. “When they meet with customers and serve people, they gain a lot of confidence, and you can just see the confidence grow as they work through the unit.”
There are also specific professional and business skills incorporated. “They learn the business aspect of it while getting a grasp of everybody in our program and working as a team,” Mahaffey said. Mahaffey explained students track their time using a digital system. “Responsibility and accountability with our clock in system, making sure that you’re being accountable for your time and honest with your time.”
After the Holiday Store closes, students are graded on their performance and knowledge. “Their summative is based on how well they produce, how well they sell, their work ethic, and the time that they invest,” Moran said.
Profits from the Holiday Store are donated to area food banks and a nonprofit chosen by a vote of the student body. “The five food banks come in at the end of the unit in January, and we present them significant funds and also a nonprofit,” Moran said. “It’s been the Jane Lloyd Fund … a fund for women that are living with cancer and want to stay in their homes. It covers some of their everyday expenses.” The amount given differs, but it usually stays within a certain range. “The last couple years they’ve given $4,000 to $6,000 away,” Moran said.
Reception of the Holiday Store is generally positive — among student participants and customers. “It has a very good reputation, and for some people, it’s their only interaction with the high school from the community,” Moran said. “We have celebrities come in, and they really connect with those students in front of them and do something to serve the community.”
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These skills that are developed with animal care transfer to owning personal animals or a career that works with animals.
— Madison Melino, 2025-26 Housatonic Valley FFA Historian
HVRHS’s agriculture education program is abundant with unique experiences and opportunities for students, one of which is the barn. This barn, located next to the Science and Technology Center, has seen a wide variety of animals; from the typical sheep and goats, to the occasional heifer, alpacas and miniature ponies.
This barn looks a little different, however, when the grass dies and the wind turns frigid.
Care for these animals during the more ideal seasons is split between a couple of the ag-ed classes. “Students in agriculture classes learn about all aspects of animal care in the classroom and take shared responsibility over weekends and breaks for the care of the animals,” said Madison Melino, the 2025-26 Housatonic Valley FFA Historian. While both the teachers and the students are involved in the animals’ care, students lead in most of the work. “Teachers buy the supplies for the animals, but I would say it’s mostly students feeding and caring for them all year round, not just in the winter,” said Hannah Johnson, the 2025-26 Housatonic Valley FFA Vice President. “These chores are delegated mostly to students in the Vet Science class.”
Students even organize who does what chores among themselves. “They take care of the animals and everyday they volunteer to do the different tasks necessary.”
While the delegation of these chores remains the same throughout the year, the supplies and care plans used differ. There is one main priority in the winter; keep the animals warm. “In the winter we have to really make sure that [the animals] water is not frozen, so they always have something to drink. We also have to make sure that they have enough hay to keep them warm,” Johnson said.
Winter care also requires additional supplies — leading to higher costs through the season. “Additional costs include bedding material like shavings and straw,” Melino said. “They go through more hay in the winter which is an additional cost,” Johnson said. In addition to extra straw and shavings, Melino said barn animals can require heat lamps, water heaters, blankets and extra bedding to stay warm in the cold.
For the sheep specifically, it’s important that they go into winter with extra weight to keep warm. “In the winter we check the body condition of the animals every week to ensure a healthy weight,” Melino said. “It is always a good idea to go into winter with a few extra pounds on the sheep.”
“The number one priority … ensuring that they don’t get frostbite,” Johnson said. Blankets and extra bedding can help, but snow gets in the way of animal care in more ways than one may think. “The biggest struggle in the winter is the weather if it gets extremely cold or a lot of snow is on the ground preventing the opening of the stalls,” Melino said. “Closed stalls are hard for humans because it takes additional work to keep the area clean inside.”
Winter brings some benefits along with the challenges, FFA members said. “One benefit during the winter is that there’s little to no mosquitos and bugs which creates less worry about disease transmission,” Melino said. There is also little impact on the animals’ general lifestyle. “For the animals we have at the school they are pretty acclimated to the winter from past seasons so we don’t really notice a change in behavior,” said Melino.
Students learn valuable lessons and skills while taking care of these animals. “Students learn about nutrition, health, vaccination schedules, behavior, breeding, and more,” Melino said. “These skills that are developed with animal care transfer to owning personal animals or a career that works with animals.”
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Peter Vermilyea, right, teamed up with sophomore Logan Miller in a game of dodgeball during the Turkey Olympics on Friday, Nov. 21.
Simon Markow
The senior class at HVRHS won the Turkey Olympics on Friday, Nov. 21, the week before thanksgiving. Unlike previous years, the competition against the seniors was minimal as the three other grades all had fewer than 10 representative students each. The teachers had about the same attendance as usual, while also adopting the single sophomore that came to represent his entire grade.
The Turkey Olympics is made up of a collection of games from dodgeball, tug-of-war, knockout, and more. All of the games took place after school and the grades competed against each other in each game, trying to win the most points. First place wins five points, and last place wins one point. At the end of the afternoon, the student government tallied up the points and declared an overall winner.
Even with the senior population dominating the event, the other classes represented to the best of their ability.
The biggest competition this year was between the juniors and seniors. Representatives from those classes dominated the competition, with either a junior or senior winning every challenge. Back and forth they went, until eventually it was clear that the seniors would be the ones to take the glory.
Seniors Hannah Johnson and Celeste Trubucco wrap up Katherine Crane with toiler paper in the mummy contest. Simon Markow
HVRHS students offered some explanation for the lackluster participation from underclassmen.
“I think that the underclassmen did not show up because there was some lack of advertising and the upperclassmen had already been involved previously,” said Celeste Trubucco, a member of student government. “Next year they should work towards advertising more in advance so that people, specifically the underclassmen, can plan.”
The student government made fliers, instagram posts, and school announcements. But the efforts didn’t seem to drive more underclassmen to the event.
Senior Anthony Labbadia makes a dunk in a game of knockout.Peter Austin
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After reading Ken Kesey’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” the AP English literature class agreed to get together at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 4, and watch the movie. Fueled by Goshen Pizza supplied by Mr. Osora, blankets, and a newly finished novel, the 12 students settled in and watched the film in room 133.
“The premise of ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ teaches students ideas of conformity and compliance to people of power,” Osora said. “These messages are more important today as ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’ can reveal to people the importance of not being a silent witness when power is abused.”
Watching the movie is important to understand the messages. The students compared the film to the novel by looking at what they left out and why the movie deemed it unimportant. This way, a comparison can be made between the ideas and messages either discarded or highlighted in the movie. “They can look at whether the movie preserved the most important ideas and themes,” Osora said.
Some of the students stuck around after school to watch the girls’ soccer team play, and didn’t have time to go home before watching the film.The movie, being 2 hours and 18 minutes long, did not provide for a short night as the students got home roughly around 7:30 p.m.
But the academic and social experience it provided the students negated the cons of their thirteen-hour day.
Watching the movie outside of school meant that the students did not need to waste multiple class periods watching and dissecting the movie. Instead, they took two hours out of their night to watch it all together.
“I liked being able to compare and contrast the movie, especially because there were so many changes, and that we got to discuss these changes after the movie,” Sara Ireland said.
At the end of the night, the class agreed they would like to do it again with other books the class reads together.
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