Halloween spirits prevail, despite freak snowstorm

WINSTED — Due to the massive power outage in town caused by Winter Storm Alfred, there was no real trick-or-treating on Halloween night. However, children still had fun at two separate events held days earlier, both sponsored by Friends of Main Street. On Saturday, Oct. 22, the organization sponsored a Halloween window painting contest. Little artisans painted spooky ghosts, goblins, pumpkins and other frightful delights on storefront windows throughout Main Street. And on Saturday, Oct. 29, trick-or-treaters headed out in the early afternoon with their parents for a jaunt down Main Street, where they collected candy from local merchants. Getting out just in time before the snowstorm started, children visited more than 25 local businesses, which handed out treats to the ghoulish little creatures.This week, Friends of Main Street announced the winners of the annual Halloween window painting contest, noting that about150 children participated in the event. Friends of Main Street member Amy Gifford-Knapp thanked participating merchants and building owners, the Rotary Club, Friends of Main Street staff and volunteers, seniors from The Gilbert School, the Winsted Fire Department and participating children who made the event a success.Teams were awarded prizes at every grade level. This year’s winners are as follows:Kindergarten: Tristan DiMartino and Isabella CardozaGrade 1: Mikayla DiLeo and Christopher KoloskyGrade 2: Laylin Phair and Jacob Phair (grade 1)Grade 3: Jackson DiMartino and Devon DevanneyGrade 4: Kyle Valickis and Dudley VaillGrade 5: Anna King and Sam King (grade 3)Grade 6: Devon Juliano and Olivia DelougheryGrade 7: Vanessa Gagnon and Amaya DeolmoGrade 8: Thomas Norton and Patrick Cavanaugh

Latest News

South Kent School’s unofficial March reunion

Elmarko Jackson was named a 2023 McDonald’s All American in his senior year at South Kent School. He helped lead the Cardinals to a New England Prep School Athletic Conference (NEPSAC) AAA title victory and was recruited to play at the University of Kansas. This March he will play point guard for the Jayhawks when they enter the tournament as a No. 4 seed against (13) Samford University.

Riley Klein

SOUTH KENT — March Madness will feature seven former South Kent Cardinals who now play on Division 1 NCAA teams.

The top-tier high school basketball program will be well represented with graduates from each of the past three years heading to “The Big Dance.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Hotchkiss grads dancing with Yale

Nick Townsend helped Yale win the Ivy League.

Screenshot from ESPN+ Broadcast

LAKEVILLE — Yale University advanced to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament after a buzzer-beater win over Brown University in the Ivy League championship game Sunday, March 17.

On Yale’s roster this year are two graduates of The Hotchkiss School: Nick Townsend, class of ‘22, and Jack Molloy, class of ‘21. Townsend wears No. 42 and Molloy wears No. 33.

Keep ReadingShow less
Handbells of St. Andrew’s to ring out Easter morning

Anne Everett and Bonnie Rosborough wait their turn to sound notes as bell ringers practicing to take part in the Easter morning service at St. Andrew’s Church.

Kathryn Boughton

KENT—There will be a joyful noise in St. Andrew’s Church Easter morning when a set of handbells donated to the church some 40 years ago are used for the first time by a choir currently rehearsing with music director Susan Guse.

Guse said that the church got the valuable three-octave set when Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center closed in the late 1980s and the bells were donated to the church. “The center used the bells for music therapy for younger patients. Our priest then was chaplain there and when the center closed, he brought the bells here,” she explained.

Keep ReadingShow less
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Penguin Random House

‘Picasso’s War” by Foreign Affairs senior editor Hugh Eakin, who has written about the art world for publications like The New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and The New York Times, is not about Pablo Picasso’s time in Nazi-occupied Paris and being harassed by the Gestapo, nor about his 1937 oil painting “Guernica,” in response to the aerial bombing of civilians in the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War.

Instead, the Penguin Random House book’s subtitle makes a clearer statement of intent: “How Modern Art Came To America.” This war was not between military forces but a cultural war combating America’s distaste for the emerging modernism that had flourished in Europe in the early decades of the 20th century.

Keep ReadingShow less