Archives for February 2018

story and photo
by Lisa M. Luck

Lighthouse Bakery, East Main Street, Mystic, sits back from the street. It’s housed in a barn-shaped two-story building with a loose-gravel parking lot, and a blinking neon open sign. Metal chairs, marble counter tops and a TV set to news inhabits the restaurant. Cream puffs, cookies, and baklava adorn the display cases. The bakery belongs to Massoud Kalkhoran, an immigrant from Iran, now a U.S. citizen since October 25, 2017. He makes everything from scratch.

Massoud Kalkhoran states, “Honesty is the only thing that helps you….”

In Iran, he owned an import business and he was an electrician but when an “immigrant moves to another country, you’re not able to do what you were doing,” he said. “It’s not you to choose what you’ll work at because the rules are different.” He never thought about being a baker but it supports his family.
Massoud came here from Iran with his wife, Mercedes and his six week old son, Kameal in 1998. The “U.S. has more opportunities” he states. He came to the U.S. because, “I had no other choice. My wife’s family was here and after the Revolution in Iran (from 1978-1979) the culture was different and my wife was unhappy.” He started the process in Istanbul, Turkey to move to the United States a full year beforehand which involved filling out numerous forms, paying fees, and answering questions about why he wanted to come to the U.S. Back in 1998, he received his Green Card at JF Kennedy airport.
Another reason Massoud came to the U.S. was for the education for his children, Kameal, now 19 and Kamal, 16. The U.S. culture touts education, he notes. “Starting a new life as an adult is tough. There’s a better future with education. There’s a chance to get educated in Iran but not necessarily a chance to use it.” Kameal, who took a year off to help his father at the bakery, will attend college next year to pursue being a lawyer. Kamel, a junior at Fitch High School, loves to read books and study will attend right after graduation.
The process for citizenship, he describes, required applying by filling out forms. Then Immigration interviewed him by asking questions about U.S. History, the Constitution, Amendments and the U.S. Government. They also asked, “Have you ever used guns? Have you been in Mexico or Canada? They know what countries you’ve been to. Once when my passport expired, they asked me what countries I had been to and they knew where I’ve been” by the ones he omitted. “Honesty is the only thing that helps you, not just for citizenship, or a green card but everywhere.” In three weeks, he received a letter about the swearing-in ceremony.
Massoud well remembers that day of his swearing-in ceremony; there were fifty-five people of “all different colors, nationalities, African, Asian, Hispanic, and I was the only Iranian.” Massoud talked to the judge after the ceremony and said, “I was the luckiest one.” Massoud became a citizen so that he wouldn’t be separated from his sons.
He still misses Iran though. “There’s so many things that you’d have to write a book about it,” he jokes. He talks to his mom everyday as well as his brothers. He misses the culture and the food especially the food. “Nobody cooks like my mother,” he says as he reminisces about her gourmet dishes such as sabzi, a vegetable dish, and bademjan, an eggplant and tomato stew. He then mentions how good the caviar tastes from the Caspian Sea.
Massoud wishes “good luck to all the immigrant people out there.” He knows how hard the process is not just for citizenship but learning the language too. When he first arrived, he heard others speaking English so fast and said, “God, I’m not gonna survive.” But survive he did. “I started with nothing and ended up here.” And he has flourished.

The former Fitch Middle School in Groton will be home to the town’s new, soon-to-be-named, community center.

by Eva Bunnell

The care of human life and happiness…is the first, and only object of good government,” so said Thomas Jefferson. As a town that boasts a beautiful Senior Center, the “Central Bark” Dog Park, an award-winning public library, a public golf course, and a myriad of outstanding park and recreational program offerings, town officials in Groton clearly takes this credo to heart.
As the town continues its efforts to create relevant, state-of the-art programs, the Groton Town Council, the Parks and Recreation and Public Works staff are currently amid retro-fitting the former Fitch Middle School to become the new community center. However, there’s one thing missing; the new center needs a name.
After conducting a needs assessment in 2009 that helped create the “Groton Parks and Recreation Master Plan,” town officials found that “residents ranked a community center as a top park and recreation facility need.”
The town has operated its Parks and Recreation programs at the former Williams Seely School for the last 15 years. The move to Fitch, allows the town to make “the Seely property available for development,” while at the same time, “saves the town money on operating expenditures.”
According to Mark Berry, Director, Groton Parks and Recreation, “our staff is very excited to move our programs to the new location at the former Fitch Middle School, the physical center of town, right next door to Groton Town Hall.” He shared that, “the new space and location will allow Groton Parks and Recreation to better serve the community through more programming opportunities and the increased proximity to facilities and town services.”
Mark and town staff are hoping the opening of the new center will take place by mid- to- late summer with most programming to begin in February of 2019.
All work completed will, of course, follow ADA requirements, thus ensuring that the center will be accessible and enjoyed by individuals at all levels of ability.
At this point in time, a survey of residents that asked their ideas for the center’s name has been closed. However, it’s not too late to have a say! Groton residents will soon be asked to rank the three-to-four top choice names that came out of the survey for final consideration by Town Council members. For further information please go to: www.GrotonRec.com/CommunityCenterName Be a part of this “new beginning!”

Pyrotechnicians and Stonington residents Jeff Schneider (l) and Ed Adams (r), pose with the World’s Largest Aerial Firework Shell before its Guinness World Record-breaking detonation off Al Marjan Island, UAE, on New Year’s Eve 2017.

by Anna Trusky

Local residents Ed Adams owns Adams Garden of Eden garden center and Jeff Schneider is VP of Marketing and Sales for ASA Environmental Products, both located in Stonington. But little do many know that the mild-mannered duo have pretty flashy side careers as pyrotechnicians for the internationally famous Grucci Fireworks family! Recently they broke their third Guinness Record for World’s Largest Aerial Firework Shell by helping to build and launch a one-ton-plus firecracker on New Year’s Eve off Al Marjan Island, UAE.
More than 100,000 spectators came to see the fantastic display which, at 2,397 pounds, more than doubled the previous record of 1,024 pounds. The shell contained 390 comet stars that burst into the colors of the UAE flag—red, white, and green. It took Phil Grucci, CEO and Creative Director of Fireworks by Grucci, more than 600 hours to design the show and it required another 70,000 man-hours to build the fireworks, with a team of programmers, producers, pyrotechnicians, and documentarians all working on the project.

“I’ve been working for the Gruccis for almost 40 years and helped originate the annual fireworks over the Thames River for the Fourth of July,” Jeff explains. “Ed and I are given the shows on paper and we take it from the schematics and make it happen on the ground. We build everything on site, get the shells and equipment set up, and load the shells according to the schematics so the fireworks get in the air safely, on time, and coordinated to the music.”
Watching the shell go up on New Year’s Eve was quite an experience, Ed and Jeff said. “When the shell went up, it roared! It was phenomenal,” Jeff recalled. “None of us had ever seen anything so large being fired! The shell was so big our safety zone was one mile but we actually fired it from beyond the safety zone so everything was fine.”
“It was amazing and a fantastic experience,” said Ed. “To see it up in the sky, there is nothing I can compare it to. It was just so magnificent—not just to see it but to feel it in your body! It was fun to be part of the whole thing. I’ve been doing this for more than 20 years and every experience is different!”
After the record was confirmed, Phil Grucci said, “Our brief was to deliver a ‘beyond a journey’ design and to fabricate and display this amazing marvel in fireworks. The inspiration of the design was the unique natural resources of Ras Al Khaimah and the natural beauty and expansive space of the Al Marjan Island with a sense of celebration to welcome in the New Year 2018. We pushed the boundary to clinch the Guinness World Records title for the Largest Aerial Fireworks Shell that contributes to the civic pride of Al Marjan Island, Ras Al Khaimah and the UAE.”
Ed and Jeff have gone all over the world helping to delight millions of appreciative viewers with dazzling fireworks displays and they look forward to bringing the Grucci magic back to Southeastern Connecticut this July!
To see a video of the incredible New Year’s Eve display, go to: www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/commercial/2018/1/2018-welcomed-with-a-bang-as-firework-shell-record-is-shattered-in-dazzling-displ-509210.