Organizations

Suffield Rotary Champions Global Effort: End Polio Now International Day

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Each year on October 24, communities around the world unite for End Polio Now International Day, raising awareness and support for the ongoing effort to eradicate polio.Polio, a highly infectious disease that once claimed hundreds of thousands of lives annually, has been brought to the brink of extinction through decades of international cooperation, scientific ingenuity, and unwavering community engagement. Yet, until polio is eradicated everywhere, no child is truly safe. The Suffield Rotary Club joins Rotary International and partners worldwide in the historic mission to end polio forever.Polio eradication became Rotary’s flagship cause in 1985 with the launch of the PolioPlus program. At the time, polio paralyzed 350,000 children each year. Rotary envisioned a world where every child would be safe from this crippling disease and began a campaign to immunize children everywhere.Today, thanks to Rotary and its partners—including the World Health Organization, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and UNICEF—polio cases have been reduced by 99.9%.

History

The Suffield Border Wars

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One of the things I have most enjoyed about living in Suffield is the people who live here. My neighbors are always quick to lend a helping hand, whether it’s letting someone borrow a tool, helping haul brush to the dump or calling one another to get kids and pets indoors when a bear is spotted in the neighborhood. Beyond that, there’s a shared sense of courtesy. When someone is planning work near a property line, we check in with one another, consult, and make sure everyone is comfortable before moving forward. It reminds me of that old expression, “good fences make good neighbors.” But what happens when those fences—or more accurately, those boundaries—are not clear at all?

Columns

Food For Thought

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Homemade Cookies Day – October 1 “OCD- Obsessive Cookie Disorder” – Cookie Monster “A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.” – Barbara Johnson “I love watching keep-fit videos while munching chocolate chip cookies.” – Dolly Parton International Day of Non-Violence – October 2 “Non-violence is the summit of bravery.” – Mahatma Gandhi “In spite of temporary victories, violence never brings permanent peace” – Martin Luther King, Jr. “Nonviolence doesn’t always work – but violence never does.” – Madge Micheels-Cyrus World Teacher Day – October 5 “It’s the teacher that makes the difference, not the classroom.” – Michael Morpurgo “The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you.” – B.B. King “Good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers.” – Josef Albers “Teaching is the greatest act of optimism.” – Colleen Wilcox Eleanor Roosevelt born – October 11, 1884 “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss event; small minds discuss people.” – E. Roosevelt “I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity.” – ER “In all our contacts it is probably the sense of being really needed and wanted which gives us the greatest satisfaction and creates the most lasting bond.” – ER Farmer’s Day – October 12 “Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower “My grandfather used to say that once in your life you need a doctor, a lawyer, a policeman, and a preacher. But every day, three times a day, you need a farmer.” – Brenda Schoepp “Bailing twine turns every farmer into MacGyver.”

Schools/Sports

A Vision for Place-Based Learning

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In an ideal world, education would be linked to where we live. Educators would be tapped into local parks, industry, culture, and museums. They would know where the local streams, forests, and fields are, and have the appropriate contacts, resources, and support to bring those experiences into the school day. In so doing, learning would be immersed in the community, both the built and the natural. By the time students graduate, they would feel a deep connection to the place that enriched their lives and laid the groundwork for a future of inspired citizenship, deeply rooted stewardship values, and in more ways than can be explained with words, a strong connection to home. Place-based learning is what we want for Suffield students, and we are building the platform to make it happen.

Churches

New Director of Music Welcomed

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Copper Hill United Methodist Church of East Granby is pleased to announce that Juliana Hall has been named as our Director of Music as of June 2025. Juli Hall began studying the piano with her mother when she was six years old and has played in churches from the Midwest to the east coast for more than 50 years, including the past 30 years in the Farmington Valley. During that time, she has been a regular at churches in Avon, Rocky Hill, Simsbury, and Waterbury and most recently served as pianist and music director of the East Granby Congregational Church. Juli is also a well-known composer of classical art songs, having received a master’s degree in composition from the Yale School of Music and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her music has been performed by more than 800 singers and pianists in three dozen countries on six continents, including concerts at Carnegie Hall and the Library of Congress, and abroad at St.

Book Reviews

Book Review

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Bridge of SighsRichard Russo2007, Alfred Knophpub., 528 pgsRichard Russo has written many books in many genres– fiction, essays, a memoir, short stories–but since Empire Falls won the Pulitzer Prize in 2002, his name and reputation have been in a bit of a shadow, as younger writers have risen to occupy the limelight. Bridge of Sighs is not new; in fact, it’s nearly 20 years old, but it is not out of date. Its themes, handled subtly, include violence, alcohol and drug addiction, adultery, gang-related issues, bullying, racism, poverty. There is very little direct reference to some of them, and often the reader senses from delicate clues that there is something going on behind the scenes. In that way great suspense is built, something only an experienced, gifted writer can manage.The complex plot centers around a boy named Louis Lynch, nicknamed Lucy, to his chagrin.

Organizations

Rain Didn’t Dampen Suffield On The Green

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This year’s Suffield on the Green had the feel of a typical fall weekend, however there was some rain on both Saturday and Sunday that closed the SOTG early at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, although, the sun did eventually come out on Sunday. The crowds, crafters, musicians, local charities and food booths were resilient!!! The 54th “Suffield on the Green” continued to bring smiles, give fairgoers a chance to meet with family and friends, as well as the opportunity to purchase unique items and enjoy some of the BEST food around! Photo provided by the author The friendly-faced train brought young and old to their destinations on the Green. The “Suffield on the Green,” brought to you by the Suffield Knights of Columbus and the Suffield dough, pulled-pork and of course, the Rotary Chicken BBQ – are YOU looking forward to next year already???Walking the Green, the fairgoers savored the opportunity to visit numerous booths filled with handmade arts and crafts plus local organizations sharing their information, services and food!

History

100 Years Ago in Suffield

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October 2 Spaulding gardens is increasing the capacity of their output by erecting a new greenhouse about 300 feet long. This, added to the present plant, will make one of the largest plants of this kind in this section October 9 The house owned and occupied by Joe Smith was burned to the ground Wednesday night, with its contents. The fire started about 10.45[p.m.] and in a short time was blazing fiercely. Fortunately, Mrs. Smith had not gone to bed as she was waiting for Mr. Smith, who is employed in a paper mill at Windsor Locks and returns home on the 11 o’clock bus. Mrs. Smith smelled smoke and aroused the children sleeping upstairs and they had just time to get outside with what clothing they were wearing.

Schools/Sports

The Votes Are In!

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Suffield Girl Scouts were once again collecting votes at Suffield on the Green. The previous two years Suffield Girl Scouts accepted votes for the ever important Suffield’s Favorite Girl Scout Cookie (Thin Mint, of course). On the “ballot” this year: Suffield’s Favorite Spot. Photo by Erica BoucherL to R: Ella Kettles, Annalise Boucher

In the running: A. Ward Spaulding School, McAlister Intermediate School, Suffield Middle School, Suffield High School, Kent Memorial Library, Sunrise Park, Hilltop Farm (NOT the Creamery!) and Town Hall/Green.And the honor goes to … A. Ward Spaulding School (117 votes)! Second place goes to Kent Memorial Library (92 votes), which was closely followed by Hilltop Farm (85 votes) and Sunrise Park (83 votes).