The Stonington Lodge #26 Independent Order of Odd Fellows recently provided $1,000.00 scholarships to three students, (l-r) Sarah Holman, Stonington High School, Jennifer Rogers, Grasso Technical High School, and Ahmed Mansour, Fitch High School.  The Lodge  provides these scholarships for the past several years.

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story & photo
by Christopher Annino

A few years ago, well loved Cutler Middle School coach and English teacher Terry Purcell passed away unexpectedly from cancer. He made a great impact on the students he taught, and his spirit lives on through them. Terry was best known for incorporating dramatic arts in his curriculum to make the material more appealing to the kids. Former students Jason and Peter Filardi,  TV and movie screenwriters, and Pete Stone, literary agent, were devastated by the news of Terry’s passing. As a tribute to Terry, they joined with Peter’s wife, Claudia Grazioso, screenwriter, and took the initiative to do a student film festival. The festival evolved into the Cutler Academy Awards, with its “Terry” awards, and is now incorporated into the curriculum.

“Betsy Iiams and I take care of the writing part. Judi Karp gave a lot of help with the technology part of it, and many staff members starred in the movies. Staff members include Betsy Iiams, Neil Solar, Jon Woodman, Kim Grundy, Mark Sullivan, Craig Moody and Carol Wainwright, to name a few. Everyone in the building from faculty to administration to custodial staff are more than supportive,” said English teacher Linda Cady.

This year there was a great deal of help from New London filmmaker and screenwriter Nick Checker. He assisted with teaching the kids the proper way to write a script. Some sound equipment was donated by the Filardi brothers. Ben Berryman, Alec Asten, and Bill Hamell, members of the SECT Film Makers Association, taught the students how to take a script and adapt it to film.

“I think the event was a huge success this year.  We had more movie and script submissions than ever.  And the generosity of Bill Dougherty to allow us to show the movies at the Mystic Village Art Cinemas was incredible. I think the students gain a lot from writing and making films; writing a screenplay is not easy.  It takes patience, planning, and of course execution.  They learn how to write a character, and how that character starts and finishes.  They also learn that making a film is a group effort.  It takes a village.  So collaboration with others is a skill they learn.  And one of our big hopes is that new friends are made,” said Jason

“It’s an honor and joy to encourage the creative arts at Cutler Middle School in Terry Purcell’s name.  We’re grateful to the administrators and teachers who support the program.  They’re the ones who really make it happen.  The festival sponsors and directors can inspire, but we can’t teach from three thousand miles away,” said Peter.

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The Mystic Woman’s Club, a member of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs of CT, awarded scholarships to graduating seniors from three area high schools. Chosen by their high school’s guidance departments,  the recipients are Samantha Berthod, Grasso Southeastern Technical High School; Chelsea Fogarty, Fitch High School and Erin Lee,  Stonington High School.

Samantha will be attending Bay Path College in the fall to study Forensic Science. Chelsea is planning to attend Worcester Polytechnic Institute majoring in Chemical Engineering with dual MBA degree. Erin is going to Stetson University to study accounting.

Also, each year a $1,000 Phelps Scholarship is given to a member’s child, grandchild or great-grandchild and is funded by contributions from club members and by fundraisers.  The scholarship is in memory of Clyde and Shirley Phelps.

This year it is awarded to Virginia Venuto, daughter of Gail and Michael Venuto, Washington, and granddaughter of Mystic Woman’s Club member Jan Carreau.

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On Saturday, June 13, ten new Hospice SECT volunteers graduated from a training series where they learned about hospice care and their role as volunteers for Hospice SECT.

Hospice SECT has over 110 active volunteers.  Volunteers visit patients in their homes and in skilled nursing facilities, and run errands, pick up medications, deliver equipment and offer respite for caregivers. Volunteers also help in the Hospice SECT office in Norwich and at various fundraising events throughout the year.

Volunteer pet therapists, Reiki and Reflexology specialists, Healing Touch and massage therapists also play an important role in the care Hospice SECT provides to those in need of quality end of life care.

Graduating volunteers are:  Mary deYoung, Pawcatuck, Coleen Fontaine, Jewett City, Tom Gilbert, North Stonington,  Sheri King, Norwich, Karen Leif, Norwich, Suzanne Lozado, Norwich, Helen Lynch, Norwich, Rachel Perry, Waterford, Cecelia Sullivan, Oakdale, and Joan Wiles, New London.

For more information on the volunteer program at Hospice SECT, please call Denise Hawk at 860.848.5699 or email dhawk@hospicesect.org.  The next volunteer training series will take place in September 2009.

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by Roger Zotti

“ITP: Future Hope” (Ruffian Press) is Dr. David Gelber’s first novel, and he defines it as “a work of speculative fiction.” Dr. Gelber adds that the novel is Christian-themed and “about what the earth is going to be like 150 years from now. Then it [offers a contrast] with what the world may have been like if man had never fallen in the Garden of Eden.” He found “speculating about what the Garden of Eden would have been like if man had never fallen and what would have happened if Adam and Eve had children”  challenging.

Here’s what Dr. Gelber, a vascular surgeon, expects readers to take away from his novel: “I hope they’re entertained” and “also think about where mankind is going and what price we are going to pay to get to that point.” He notes that though “we have solved many problems,” new ones keeping occurring and “The question is: cCan humankind find solutions before it destroys itself?”

Revising is something with which all writers are concerned. For instance, Patricia T. O’Conner in “Words Fail Me” says it’s more than fixing what’s wrong; it’s making what’s passable better…Revising your work isn’t just an afterthought. If you haven’t revised, you’re not finished.”

For John Moore, author of such marvelous fairy tale parodies as “A Fate Worse Than Dragons,”  “The creative stuff is fun but revising isn’t.” As for Dr. Gelber, he finished his first manuscript a year ago. “But I probably revised it…at least twenty times,” he says. “The original writing of my book went well and getting it from my head on paper wasn’t too difficult. Once it’s on paper, though, revising can be tedious. You have to keep reading it to see if it makes sense.”

One of Dr. Gelber’s main characters, Major David Sanders, undergoes the novel’s biggest change. Near the end, in his testimony to the Senate committee, he admits, “I was…living a life of wanton hedonism, filled with self-indulgence…second to none.” As a result of his International Transport Protocol odyssey – which crash landed him in the Garden of Eden – David returns to earth humbled, shamed and converted. To the committee, he talks about “the cruel joke” of which human beings are victims. It involves not thinking we need God “when we have our government and benevolent industries giving us everything that they decide we need….I beg of you to start to change the evil ways of the world…”

I don’t think all politicians are like the book’s major antagonist, Senator Leavitt, a believably despicable and conniving opportunist. I think, too, that sometimes big government does the right thing. But agree or disagree with Dr. Gelber’s views, “ITP: Future Hope” is a cracking good yarn, filled with interesting characters. It’s an imaginative, informative, and entertaining read, and let’s hope it’s the start of a long writing career for Dr. Gelber.

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