Thank you!
Your support is sustaining the future of local news in our communities.

Regional middle school sports wraps winter season

FALLS VILLAGE — The Regional Middle School Athletics and Activities Winter Program finished up on Thursday, Feb. 17.

Fifty students from the district participated in girls and boys basketball and artgarage. Basketball was held at Cornwall Consolidated and Salisbury Central Schools.  And artgarage was held at Housatonic Valley Regional High School.

The biggest challenge continued to be transportation, with some practices and games canceled due to lack of buses and/or drivers.

Despite the large number of participants, all 23 boys basketball players saw playing time during the eight game season. Over 90% scored at least once, with Wiley Fails sinking a three point basket at the buzzer to win the last game of the season versus Kent Center School (KCS). The team compiled a 4-4 record facing out of district teams such as Mt. Everett, Indian Mountain, Gilbert and Shepaug, and an in-district team, KCS. The team was coached by Bobby Chatfield, Ronnie Reid and Heather Kearns.

Coached by Kiera Bisenius and Emily Egan, the girls basketball team finished 4-3 and saw the 17 girls bond as a team both on and off the court.  Like the boys team, nearly every member of the team scored during the season.  By the last game, the team stepped up and put all the skills they had been working on to the test claiming a second victory against KCS.  While the team will graduate ten players, coaches Bisenius and Egan look forward to an exciting next season.

Started as an after school creative open space for high school students and staffed by local artists, nine middle school students participated in artgarage.  This once a week activity was under the direction of John Brett.  Students were given the freedom to focus on their passion instead of being directed or assigned.  When the middle school students were in attendance, Brett said “the atmosphere was almost electric.”

The spring sports season will begin on Tuesday, April 5, with students participating in baseball, softball, track and field and artgarage.

Anne MacNeil

Latest News

Slow fashion takes the runway at Stone Ridge Orchard

Slow fashion takes the runway at Stone Ridge Orchard

The organic runway at HVSFW puts sustainable style among the apple trees at Stone Ridge Orchard.

Jay Ballesteros

Fast fashion has made it possible to buy the latest trend almost as quickly as it appears on social media. The environmental cost, however, is anything but fleeting. Fashion production accounts for about 10% of global carbon emissions, consumes enormous quantities of water and energy, and an estimated 85% of textiles end up in landfills each year. Synthetic fabrics also shed microplastics when washed.

So what would happen if we slowed things down?

Keep ReadingShow less
fashion

Susan Schneider and the magic of marbling

Susan Schneider and the magic of marbling
Susan Schneider, owner of Shandell’s in Ashley Falls, in her studio.
Susan Schneider, owner of Shandell’s in Ashley Falls, in her studio.
It’s a joyful process. —Susan Schneider

A beautiful September morning found Susan Schneider of Shandell’s working in her Ashley Falls home studio, while linen cocktail napkins she had marbled the day before hung on a line outside her back door. Her helpers, dogs Daisy and Stubbs, are never far from her.

“Marbling,” Schneider explained, “the art of floating paint on a liquid and printing it on a medium, has been around for hundreds of years.”

Keep ReadingShow less
our community

Through the lens of war

Through the lens of war

“Omaha Beach Rescue, D-Day +1, Normandy, June 7, 1944.” one of the best-known photographs of D-Day.

Walter Rosenblum

Longtime Norfolk resident Nina Rosenblum will present her award-winning documentary, “They Fight With Cameras,” on Saturday, Sept. 26, at 6:30 p.m. at the Norfolk Library.

The film tells the story of her father, decorated U.S. Army Signal Corps combat cameraman Walter Rosenblum.

Keep ReadingShow less
film
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

Brian Gersten finds the story in the overlooked

Brian Gersten finds the story in the overlooked

Filmmaker Brian Gersten

D.H. Callahan

At 6 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 26, award-winning filmmaker Brian Gersten will screen four short documentaries at the David M. Hunt Library in Falls Village, exploring obscure topics such as a lingering territorial dispute between the United States and Canada, a nationwide toilet paper panic sparked by a late-night joke, the infamous “Balloon Boy” saga and the history of bowling in America.

The Chicago-raised, Millerton-based filmmaker has worked as an editor on feature-length documentaries like the cycling film “Enter the Slipstream” and Netflix’s profile on author Tom Wolfe, “Radical Wolfe.” In 2025, “Why We Dream,” a film he edited about bringing D-Day veterans back to the beaches of Normandy, premiered aboard the U.S.S. Intrepid in New York City. When it comes to directing, Gersten’s own interests focus more on the underappreciated and unremembered, as the four short films he directed will demonstrate.

Keep ReadingShow less
film

Sharon artist takes top prize at Lime Rock art show

Sharon artist takes top prize at Lime Rock art show
Muriel Stockdale, left, and judge Roger McKee during the awards announcement at the juried art show at Trinity Episcopal Church. Stockdale\u2019s \u201cKevin\u201d was the second place winner.
Patrick L. Sullivan

The annual juried art show at Trinity Episcopal Church in Lime Rock was won by Mi-Kyung Hwang of Sharon for “Wild Hazelnut from Eggleston.”

The winners were announced at the show’s opening reception at the church Friday evening, Sept. 18.

Keep ReadingShow less
art show

From Woodstock to the Warner, Graham Nash is still singing for peace

From Woodstock to the Warner, Graham Nash is still singing for peace

Graham Nash brings a career-spanning retrospective to the Warner Theatre in Torrington on Sept. 30, joined by Todd Caldwell, Adam Minkoff and Zack Djanikian.

Misti Layne

Imagine stepping out onto a stage in front of hundreds of thousands of tired, wet and weary strangers with a lineup of songs they’ve never heard before. If you’re Graham Nash, who will perform with his current band at the Warner Theatre in Torrington on Sept. 30, you don’t have to imagine. You only have to remember.

The legendary Woodstock music festival was only the second concert Nash played with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Nash had already formed Crosby, Stills & Nash, releasing their debut album earlier that year. Theirs was a sound both new and nostalgic when it hit the scene in the late 1960s, and, thanks in part to the success all three members had had with previous bands, they instantly found a wide and willing audience.

Keep ReadingShow less
concerts
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.