Making Ukrainian dolls
Ira Buch, Ukrainian national and current junior at The Hotchkiss School, led a traditional doll-making workshop Wednesday, May 8.
Patrick L. Sullivan
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Harlem Line Band concert to benefit Jane Lloyd Fund
Aly Morrissey
Mar 18, 2026
Ram Miles and Donna Lloyd Stoetzner.
Aly Morrissey
Donna Lloyd Stoetzner and Ram Miles have been friends since kindergarten. With decades of shared memories stretching from grade school through high school, the two have spent a lifetime in each other’s orbit. Today, they both work at Indian Mountain School, just a short distance from where they grew up.
On Saturday, March 28, Miles and his band, The Harlem Line Band, will perform their seventh semi-annual concert at the White Hart Inn in support of the Jane Lloyd Fund, a grassroots organization that helps local families facing cancer-related financial hardship. The night promises live music, dancing and friends gathering for a cause deeply personal to Stoetzner.
Miles and Stoetzner grew up attending the same local schools. Their families knew one another, and music was always in the background.
“We’ve known each other since kindergarten,” Miles said. “I knew the whole Lloyd clan.”
In high school in the late 1970s, Miles was already playing rock and roll in local bands, performing at house parties across the tri-state region. “We’d show up and there’d be 100 kids at a house party,” he recalled. “Once the homeowner came out with a shotgun and everybody ran for the cars. The drums were rolling down the hill.”
Stoetzner remembers those days well, especially the dancing. Her sister, Jane Lloyd, whose memory now inspires the fund, was a regular at Miles’ shows. “Jane was always up for something — moonlight walks up the mountain, skating on a pond, music festivals. She loved it all,” Stoetzner said.
When Jane was diagnosed with breast cancer at 34, the community rallied around her. One of the first fundraisers was held at the White Hart Inn, with Miles’ band performing for a packed crowd. More than 300 people attended, raising roughly $6,000 to help cover Jane’s medical bills. After her death, the community’s support inspired Stoetzner and others to create the Jane Lloyd Fund, formally established in 2006.
Since then, the organization has quietly helped hundreds of local families, providing financial assistance for medical bills, utilities, gas and other basic needs during treatment. Stoetzner estimates the fund has distributed more than $1.3 million in grants. “It’s bittersweet,” she said. “It’s so gratifying that we have it — but you wish people didn’t need it.” Applications are submitted anonymously through social workers and reviewed by a volunteer advisory board.
That same spirit keeps the Harlem Line Band concerts going. The band formed 16 years ago when Miles assembled a group of Indian Mountain School parents for a school auction and stuck together long after their children graduated.
“Every one of the band members has been touched by cancer in some way,” Stoetzner said. “They could be making big money playing somewhere else, but they do this for us for free.”
For Miles, the night is more than music. “It’s like a reunion,” he said. “Everyone’s there because they want to be — to dance, listen to great music and support a great cause.”
During the set, the band always performs “Sweet Jane,” a tribute that brings the crowd together on the dance floor.
The event will take place Saturday, March 28, at the White Hart Inn in Salisbury. Music begins at 8 p.m., with $20 donations accepted at the door benefiting the Jane Lloyd Fund.
“It’s just a beautiful night,” Stoetzner said. “Great music, great people, and a lot of love in the room.”
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“Once and Again”
Lakeville Journal
Mar 18, 2026
Natalia Zukerman
Rebecca Serle (right) and novelist Jessica Anya Blau shared laughs and literary secrets during a lively conversation about Serle’s new novel “Once and Again” at the The White Hart Inn in Salisbury on Wednesday, March 11. Serle is the bestselling author of “In Five Years,” “One Italian Summer” and several other novels beloved for their emotional twists and reflections on fate and second chances. The talk was part of the White Hart Speaker Series presented with Oblong Books and the Scoville Memorial Library.
Salisbury ski jumping team competes in Lake Placid
C.E. Tripler
Mar 18, 2026
SWSA 2026 Ski Jumping Team in Lake Placid for the Lion’s Club Ski Jump Competition.
C.E. Tripler
The Salisbury Winter Sports Association’s ski jumping team travelled to Lake Placid,NY, the weekend of Saturday, March 8, in a multi-club jump competition.
Ten athletes from SWSA joined a field of 20 other ski jumpers from across New York, New England and Canada.
Competitors jumped in one of two heights, the 10-meter and 20-meter jumps. Additionally, athletes competed in a cross-country ski racing event, in which competitors skied a half-kilometer course at the bottom of the ski jumps.
Athletes completed two to six laps covering a distance from one to three kilometers in distance depending on their specific competition group.
Ski jumpers competed in their age classes with the youngest jumpers in the 10 years and younger group jumping first.
SWSA’s Bodhi Thomas of Falls Village jumped to a gold medal in the U10 boys with a distance of 26 feet.
In the U12 division, Charlotte Milner of Lakeville jumped to a silver medal with a distance of 44 feet for the girls.
Wyeth Taylor of Somersville, Massachusetts and Salisbury took the gold medal jumping 48 feet and Henry Sheil of Lakeville took the bronze medal with a distance of 44 feet.
In the open category, Augustus Tripler won gold with a jump of 51 feet on the large hill.
Aerin Sheil of Lakeville skied to a bronze medal finish in the U10 girls Nordic combined with a time of 6:15 in the 1K. Mather Eckert of Lakeville took second place for U10 boys with a time of 7:07.
In the longer distance categories Wyeth Taylor grabbed silver with a time of 9:56 and Henry Sheil earned bronze with a time of 12:41 for the 2K distance U12 boys category.
In the open category, Augustus Tripler finished in second earning his second medal of the day.
While conditions were less than ideal with the warm air and strong sun, all the jumpers seemed to be having fun. One of the younger jumpers, Oona Mascavage, 7, from Lakeville said “It was great! I had a lot of distance on my jump” and Francesca McLoughlin was happy with the overall event saying “I had a lot of fun!”
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3-on-3 basketball benefits Housy’s junior class
Riley Klein
Mar 18, 2026
The winners of the 3-on-3 championship game were, from left, Georgie Clayton, Anthony Foley and Peyton Bushnell.
Riley Klein
FALLS VILLAGE — A miniature version of March Madness was held at Housatonic Valley Regional High School Tuesday, March 10.
Seven teams entered the double-elimination basketball tournament to benefit the Class of 2027. The teams of three were co-ed and had to include at least one non-varsity player.
Each squad was given a name of a prominent college basketball program. The team names were UConn, Florida, UNLV, ‘Bama, UCLA, Duke and Syracuse.
Teacher Deron Bayer got things started. “Ready, set, basketball!”
The teams were afforded two losses before being eliminated. The half-court games required rebounds to be taken behind the arc before beginning a new offensive possession.
UNLV, including Anthony Labbadia, Olivia Brooks and Jaxon Visockis, entered the championship game undefeated. The trio knocked out UCLA, including Anthony Foley, Peyton Bushnell and Madeline Mechare, in the semifinal.
UCLA battled back through the losers bracket for a rematch against UNLV in the final.
Mechare had to leave early, so UCLA subbed in Georgie Clayton. The team proceeded to beat UNLV twice in a row and claim the title.
The event raised more than $100 for the junior class.
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Hotchkiss boys win NEPSAC tournament
Riley Klein
Mar 18, 2026
LAKEVILLE — The Hotchkiss School’s boys varsity basketball team claimed the 2026 New England Prep School Athletic Conference Class A title last week.
The Bearcats defeated Phillips Academy Andover 66-54 in the championship game Sunday, March 8. The tournament final was played in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Hotchkiss entered the playoffs as the 5th seed in Class A. The boys defeated Milton Academy 57-54 in the first round Wednesday, March 4, and went on to defeat Phillips Exeter Academy 69-52 in the semifinals Saturday, March 7.
The last time Hotchkiss won the boys Class A tournament was in 2022.
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Kent selectmen present annual spending plan
Alec Linden
Mar 18, 2026
Kent Town Hall
Leila Hawken
KENT — Municipal operating costs were anticipated to increase by nearly 6% after the Board of Selectmen’s first presentation of its budget to the Board of Finance.
The BOS presented its budget draft, which is subject to change as budget season progresses towards the town hearing and vote in May, to the BOF at its regular meeting on March 11. The bottom line total for the next fiscal year was $5,309,163, marking a 5.7% increase from the amount budgeted for this year.
The two town boards discussed the expenditure draft, noting where the most marked increases lay.
As in other towns in the Northwest Corner, insurance costs for hiked, increasing for Town Hall employees under a state plan by close to 13% per person. Treasurer Barbara Herbst noted that the state had announced that premiums would not be hiked as much as anticipated, so that number could end up lower.
The Selectmen’s own budget line is marked at a 22% increase from 2025-2026. First Selectman Eric Epstein explained that the difference is largely due to a proposed new social media specialist position for Town Hall. The new part-time role, if filled, would add $23,400 to the BOS’s expenditures.
Much of the meeting was dedicated to discussing Lake Waramaug, primarily due to a plan to combat the invasive waterweed hydrilla that was recently formulated between the lake’s three governing towns of Washington, Warren and Kent.
Kent is currently set to contribute 20% of the total staffing costs of $100,000 for a new decontamination station at the New Preston firehouse.
BOF member Jason Wright voiced his support for acting quickly against the aggressive plant, but advised that the various commissions and municipal groups in charge of the lake should figure out how to diffuse the costs away from Kent taxpayers, most of whom aren’t putting boats into Lake Waramaug.
During public comment at the meeting’s end, resident Donna Hayes felt that Kent residents were being treated unfairly by being forced to contribute such a sum to a lake many aren’t even able to use due to access restrictions and costs. She voiced her desire to “get something for our money” in future deliberations surrounding expenses for the lake.
The next stage in Kent’s budget proceedings will occur on March 25, when the Board of Education presents its drafted contribution to the yearly municipal budget
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