NEW BRITAIN — Anthony Labbadia soared to 9th place in the triple jump at the 2025 New England track and field championships Saturday, June 14.
On his first attempt of the event he leaped 44 feet and one inch, qualifying for the finals and setting the new Housatonic Valley Regional High School record. The previous school record of 43 feet eight inches was set by Don Hurlbutt in 1967.
The HVRHS junior was pleased with the result of his first triple jump of the day June 14.Photo by Riley Klein
Conditions were rainy for the meet with the grounds crew utilizing a leaf blower to dry the track between events. Labbadia said he had experienced similar weather at the Berkshire League championships in May, and he won the triple jump there, so he was confident.
“It doesn’t bother me,” said Labbadia of the rain, noting he was excited to be back at Willow Brook Park. “Being here makes me jump farther... I just have to make sure I’m thinking about everything without overthinking.”
Labbadia, a rising senior at HVRHS, wrote his capstone on the triple jump. In his research, his mother explained, he studied and broke down the biomechanics of the event.
Labbadia was injured during track season his freshman year. His sophomore year, he took up triple jumping. He ended his junior year with a 9th-place finish against the top competition in New England.Photo by Riley Klein
Two days before the championships, he made a bold change to his jumping approach — switching from a “right, right, left” sequence to “left, left, right” — and it paid off.
“I’m glad I switched my feet,” he said after the result. “I’m happy with my performance.”
Once all the jumpers from Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont had finished, Labbadia’s distance held for 9th place.
The triple jump gold medal winner was Amar Skeete, sophomore from Catholic Memorial High School in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, who jumped 48 feet two inches. The 2nd place finisher was Mitch Krasco of Mahar Regional High School in Orange, Massachusetts, with a distance of 46 feet two and a half inches. Jessie Singleton Jr., junior at Bloomfield High School in Connecticut, placed 3rd with a distance of 45 feet ten inches.
Labbadia was the first HVRHS athlete to compete at the New England meet since Sydney Segalla in 2022. Track coach Alan Lovejoy said he cannot recall another HVRHS male athlete qualifying since he became coach in 2009.
Hosted at Willow Brook Park in New Britain, the 2025 New England track and field championship was held in Connecticut for the first time in three years. Events took place all day Saturday, June 14. Full results are available at nestiming.comPhoto by Riley Klein
Rain came down heavy in the morning June 14, but conditions improved as the day went on. The crew used leaf blowers to dry the track between events.Photo by Riley Klein
A Life Star helicopter lands on the front lawn of Housatonic Valley Regional High School on Saturday, May 16, to transport a motorcycle crash victim to a hospital.
Life Star arrived at the high school at approximately 2 p.m., where a crowd gathered to watch the helicopter land as the Lakeville-based Blue Studio dance recital was about to begin. The crash victim was transferred from an ambulance to the helicopter shortly after it landed before being transported to Hartford Hospital, according to a member of the Lakeville Hose Company who assisted with the landing.
Fire departments, police and EMS personnel remained on scene during the response.
Connecticut State Police said the crash occurred around 1 p.m. and involved a car and motorcycle, but did not release additional details. A state police spokesperson said the roads reopened quickly and described the injury as minor.
However, Chris Ohmen, a volunteer firefighter with the Lakeville Hose Company who was at the scene, said the “injuries warranted a Life Star transport” and that he was directed to “clear the area and set up a landing zone.”
The incident marks the second serious crash in two days in the area. A van crashed into a utility pole on Route 112 less than 24 hours earlier, causing road closures and traffic delays. The driver of that crash was transported to a hospital with serious injuries.
A motorcycle crash victim was transferred from an ambulance to a Life Star helicopter shortly after 2 p.m. Saturday, May 16, before being transported to Hartford Hospital, according to an emergency responder. lakevillejournal.com
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Heavy stone garden ornaments, a specialty of Judy Milne Antiques from Kingston, at Trade Secrets 2025.
Van Ginhoven points to towers of boxes containing event programs, various ribbons, elegant decor and stacks of magazines, all in preparation for the event.
Project SAGE will celebrate its 26th year hosting Trade Secrets, but it’s so much more than a garden event.
“It’s a fundraiser for domestic violence prevention and intervention,” van Ginhoven said. “Anybody who attends knows they’re supporting a really meaningful and important cause.”
The fundraiser accounts for at least 30 percent of the organization’s overall budget, she said, and attracts around 3,000 people from across the region each year, creating an unmatched opportunity for Project SAGE to share its mission and generate support.
The event, though expensive to produce, generates enough income to significantly support Project SAGE’s direct services and prevention services.
Officials said a wave of new underwriters have emerged this year.
“We’re very grateful, because we live in a time when funding is uncertain,” van Ginhoven said.
Hundreds of copies of the annual Trade Secrets guide sat at Project SAGE headquarters, ready for distribution at the event. The book doubles as a domestic violence resource, complete with warning signs, myth-busting information and scripts for difficult conversations.
Volunteers will be present throughout the event to connect with community members. Each volunteer must be certified as a domestic violence counselor in order to work with Project SAGE.
“It means they can help us drive clients, move clients, take them to appointments or the grocery store,” van Ginhoven said.
Project SAGE officials said education about domestic violence should start early. The organization has developed a comprehensive curriculum spanning early childhood through grade 12 and visits schools throughout the region. The class of 2026 will be the first graduating class at Housatonic Valley Regional High School to have received all four years of training from Project SAGE.
Martha Stewart signing her new book at Trade Secrets 2025.Christine Bates
The organization’s partnerships extend throughout the region and include on-site training in schools and nonprofit organizations, including the Sharon Playhouse. Community support also goes directly to Project SAGE, including a recently donated array of colorful gift bags bearing positing affirmations and filled with toiletries and basic necessities from students at the Frederick Gunn School in Washington, Connecticut.
The people who visit Project SAGE have often left uncomfortable or dangerous situations and leave without any belongings.
“Some of them have nothing,” van Ginhoven said. “They just show up because they had the courage to leave.”
Project SAGE staff say many referrals come through local hospitals, police and sister agencies.
The organization serves people in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York.
With the stress of event planning mounting, van Ginhoven spent a “previous life” preparing for this exact moment. She spent 30 working at the intersection of arts and activism, having co-founded WAM Theatre, a Lenox-based organization focused on stories and issues affecting those who self-identify as women and girls. During her tenure, WAM donated $100,000 to 25 local and global organizations working toward gender equity in areas such as girls’ education, teen pregnancy prevention, gender-based violence, sexual trafficking awareness and midwife training.
“I love the adrenaline of putting on a show,” van Ginhoven said with a laugh. With the help of volunteers and organizers, she said she isn’t bothered by the stress.
“The show will go on,” she said.
Caroline Kinsolving and Gary Capozzielo at home in Salisbury with their dogs, Petruchio and Beatrice
“We met during the pandemic, a bleak time,” Kinsolving said. “On our first date, we met at The Hickory Stick Bookshop and walked outside six feet apart. We fell in love.”
They lived in a tiny studio near Averill Farm in Washington, Connecticut.
“He played his violin, I worked on my lines, we walked the dog, and suddenly we were circling each other perfectly,” Capozziello said with a laugh. “When I told her I was a violinist, she mentioned ‘Appalachian Spring’ by Aaron Copland. I sent her a recording of me playing it, and it became our song.”
“For our wedding, we wanted all our friends and family out in the field listening to that music,” Kinsolving said. Capozziello’s friends from Orchestra New England performed the piece at their wedding.
“Circus Fire,” written by Connecticut’s own Jacques Lamarre and directed by Jared Mezzocchi, is a multimedia world-premiere tribute to the Hartford Circus Fire. On July 6, 1944, the big top of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus caught fire, killing 167 and injuring 700 in Connecticut’s worst fire disaster.
Capozziello, who grew up in Fairfield, began: “I came from very limited means, though my parents gave me the kind of support that mattered most. I had a hard time in school. My music teachers, noticing my knack for music, kept me in school.” As he became a teenager, he realized how demanding classical violin truly is. “I had the honor of playing in a master class for Isaac Stern when I was 18,” he said. “That was the wake-up call. He was relentless with my intonation, telling me I must ‘feel the fire in my belly.’”
At SUNY Purchase, he “met a wonderful violin teacher who taught me to play, study and practice five hours a day.” After studying at the New England Conservatory, Capozziello earned his doctorate from The Hartt School in 2018. He now teaches at The Hotchkiss School and performs with the Hartford Symphony.
He explained that his role as assistant concertmaster is the direct line between conductor and musicians, and that the orchestra is “a family dynamic, a democratic unit, truly a living, breathing organism.”
Caroline Kinsolving and Gary Capozzielo Jennifer Almquist
On May 2, Capozziello was soloist with Orchestra New England, performing the world premiere of Neely Bruce’s “Concerto for Violin,” along with “The River” by Jan Swafford and Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” at Battell Chapel at Yale.
“I care about bringing classical music into communities and spaces where people may not expect it,” said Capozziello.“Music is most powerful to me when it feels alive, humanand accessible, not distant or formal.”
For 20 years, Kinsolving has acted in film, television and theater in London, New York and Los Angeles. “I was first onstage at Washington Montessori School playing Peter Pan,” she said. “I improvised a line, got a laugh and liked the feeling.”
She enjoys performing Shakespeare. “I love Titania’s monologue because it speaks to our current climate crisis. Lady Macbeth surprised me. I fell in love with her while I was doing it. I could play those scenes forever; so much range and depth to explore,” she said.
Kinsolving added, “I love Shakespeare’s comedies for the fun and rhythm. I have loved Rosalind, Viola, Olivia, Helena and Kate, yet the top of my bucket list is Beatrice. Each character reflects a shade of my soul. Shakespeare had the brilliance to illuminate them. If I ever get a tattoo, it will be a list of their names.”
Kinsolving, whose parents, poet Susan Kinsolving and author William Kinsolving, live in Lakeville, studied at Milton Academy, universities in China, and Vassar College. Her theater training includes Stella Adler Studio of Acting, Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, Yale Drama Intensive and she is currently studying online through Juilliard.. She founded Theatre for Good, which donates its proceeds to charity.
Both artists are looking forward to June, when they will have more time to spend with their dogs.
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