WINSTED — Northwestern Regional High School’s FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) robotics team, the Gearheads, earned the Rookie All-Star award at the National Robotics Competition Championships, which were held April 25 to 28 in St. Louis, Mo.The Gearheads team was formed at the school in November. The group of 17 students, along with their mentors, built a robot to take part in the regional and national competitions.The robot, named Aluminum Penneys for its sponsors, Alcoa Howmet and JC Penney, took part in the Rebound Rumble, a game that is played on a 27-foot by 54-foot field.By the time the national competition ended, the Gearheads were the highest-ranked rookie team in their division of 100 teams, which earned the team the Rookie All-Star award.Teacher-mentor Rachel Vincent said the team members put in long hours and were impressive at the national finals.“These students were wide-eyed and had no expectations,” Vincent said. “They enjoyed every moment and survived a 20-hour bus ride there and another 20-hour ride back home. We socialized and strategized with students from around the world.”Vincent said the Gearheads did more than just bring home the highest rookie ranking in their division.“They experienced a season of hard work, planning, building, editing, revising, competing and fundraising.” Vincent said. “It was a great first year for the team.”School Principal Kenneth Chichester said the robotics program will definitely be back next year.“I am extremely proud and impressed by the accomplishments of our robotics team,” Chichester said. “When you consider that our team started from scratch, and that we originally did not even have a space or the tools in the building to build a robot, the fact that the team earned this award at the national championships is incredible. To accomplish such an extraordinary feat took tremendous dedication, both from our adult mentors and the students on the robotics team.”
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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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