March 21, 2013 PDF Edition - The Sentinel

Vernon Lodge hosting
community breakfast
BELCHERTOWN - Vernon Lodge will hold a community
breakfast on Saturday, March 23 from 8 a.m. to 12
p.m. with an Easter egg hunt from 12 to 1 p.m. on the town
common. Breakfast is $5, no charge for Easter egg hunt.
All proceeds will benefit the Vernon Lodge Angel Fund
Masons helping children in there community. Eggs, pancakes,
and sausage will be served.
Also coming up on April 6 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Vernon
Lodge will be open to the public anyone interested in
information on becoming a Mason is encouraged to come.
Lodge members will be there to give tours and answer
questions. The lodge is located at 1 Main St., Belchertown.
Firefighters hold
pancake breakfast
BELCHERTOWN – The Belchertown Firefighters
Association is holding a pancake breakfast on Sunday,
March 24 from 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. at Fire Department
Headquarters, 10 North Main St., Belchertown. Cost is $6
for adults, $4 for children from 4 to 12 years old, free for
children 3 years and under when accompanied by an adult.
Please park at McCarthy’s Pub or Bell & Hudson Ins.
THE SENTINEL • THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 2013 PAGE 9
11th Annual
Thank You!
Thank you for voting in the 11th Annual Customers’ Choice Community Grants
Program! To date, we have donated $575,000 to local non-profits. Last year, a
record number 9,574 of our customers voted for their favorite local non-profit
organization to receive a grant! Voting for the 2013 Customers’ Choice Community
Grants Program has already begun, so vote at any of our offices or online at
florencesavings.com before December 31, 2013.
FILES | from Page 6
of Mrs. Beverly Giordano and her six children on River
Street, Sunday.
Fire Chief Louis Fuller said the state fire marshal’s
office was investigating the blaze this week. Until the
report is received, the cause will remain a probable one he
said.
The Fire Department was called at 3:55 a.m. Sunday.
Chief Fuller said Mrs. Giordano and five children were
sleeping on the second floor when the fire broke out. Two
others, one of them a friend of the Giordanos, were on the
first floor.
The six persons on the first floor escaped through a window.
The Giordano children upstairs, awakened by their
mother screams, got out through a window onto a porch
roof. One youth jumped to the ground and put up a ladder
for the others, the chief said. No one was injured.
Firefighters from Belchertown and Bondsville responded
to the alarm. Three men, Lt. Pat Menard, John Ribeiro
and Ted Fuller, went inside with air packs and dragged in
a hose to extinguish the blaze. The home’s interior was
destroyed.”
SMILING YOUNGSTERS COMPETE FOR CROWN
“What may be the happiest contest ever held in town is
under way in the elementary schools.
Involving 81 youngsters in kindergarten through Grade
6, the “smile contest” is designed to put some happy
expressions in print and get them into the April 10 Photo-
Musicale production.
Each homeroom teacher chose three top smilers, who
were photographed with their best grins forward. Semifinalists
will represent the best smiles in each grade, A top
boy and girl smiler eventually will be chosen.
High School Photography Club members, acting as
judges in the contest they helped initiate, photographed
the children this week. Photo-Musicale co-producer Les
Campbell took slides, and plans to use them in one segment
of the production.
After the contest, all photos will be made available to
parents. Top winners will get large color prints.”
From 15 Years Ago (March 26, 1998):
NEW MCAS TESTING BEGINS IN MAY
“The Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System
(MCAS) standard ized tests will be administered for the
first time to grades 4, 8, and 10 this May to all public
schools in the state. The test, which has high academic
standards in written and comprehensive skills, will eventually
be mandatory for tenth graders to pass to receive a
high school diploma.
The new test will be administered over two class periods
a day for approximately three weeks. One third of the test
consists of multiple-choice questions, and the rest are short
and long answer questions which require students to communicate
not only their knowledge of the sub ject material,
but their ability to reason and write effectively.
The MCAS tests were designed by the Massachusetts
Department of Education to gauge the effectiveness with
which teachers teach, and students retain, the new state
mandated subject curricula, the Massachusetts Curriculum
Frameworks. The Frameworks outline core subject requirements
expected for students and have been available to
Belchertown faculty for approximately two years. Teachers
and administrators are now finalizing revised districtwide
curricula which integrate the Frameworks and ultimately
prepare students for MCAS testing.”
The 2012 Customers’ Choice Community Grants Winners:
Dakin Humane Society, Leverett ..........................................................................................$5,000
Northampton High School PTO, Northampton .......................................................................$4,500
Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, Hatfield.....................................................................$3,700
Friends of Forbes Library, Northampton ...............................................................................$3,500
Northampton Council on Aging/Elder Vision, Inc., Northampton .......................................... $3,000
Amherst Survival Center, Amherst .......................................................................................$3,000
Friends of Williamsburg Libraries, Williamsburg ...................................................................$3,000
Easthampton Elementary Schools PTO, Easthampton ..........................................................$3,000
Lilly Library, Florence..........................................................................................................$3,000
New Hingham Regional Elementary School PTO, Chesterfield ...............................................$2,500
Northampton Survival Center, Northampton .........................................................................$2,500
Chesterfield Fire Department, Chesterfield ..........................................................................$2,500
Cooley Dickinson Hospital, Northampton ..............................................................................$2,500
Hartsbrook School, Hadley...................................................................................................$2,500
Granby High School Athletic Department, Granby ................................................................$2,000
Whole Children, Hadley........................................................................................................$2,000
Granby Free Public Library, Granby .....................................................................................$2,000
Easthampton Dollars for Scholars, Easthampton..................................................................$2,000
Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School, Hadley ...................................................$1,800
Easthampton Senior Enrichment Center, Easthampton ........................................................$1,800
Friends of Hilltown Cooperative Charter School, Haydenville ...............................................$1,800
Grow Food Northampton, Inc., Northampton ........................................................................$1,800
Northampton Community Music Center, Northampton ..........................................................$1,800
J.F.K. Middle School PTO, Florence .......................................................................................$1,800
Cancer Connection, Inc., Northampton .................................................................................$1,800
Granby Senior Center, Granby..............................................................................................$1,500
Jackson Street School PTO, Northampton ............................................................................$1,500
R.K. Finn Ryan Road School PTO, Florence ..........................................................................$1,500
R.H. Conwell Community Education Center, Worthington .....................................................$1,500
Williamsburg Firefighters Association, Williamsburg ............................................................$1,200
Friends of the Hampshire County Homeless Individuals, Inc., Florence....................................$500
First Congregational Church of Hadley, Hadley ........................................................................$500
Palmer Public Library, Palmer.................................................................................................$500
Boy Scouts of America –Western Massachusetts Council, Hampshire County..........................$500
Hilltown Community Health Center, Worthington .....................................................................$500
Jewish Community of Amherst, Amherst .................................................................................$500
ƒor
$75,000
CHINESE CULTURE DAY
“On Saturday, April 18, 1998, Belchertown Girl Scouts
will host a Chinese Culture Day from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
at the Congregational Church. This day will be the first
opportunity to earn the new Chinese American Culture
Patch, designed by Alexandra Coombs as part of her Gold
Award project. It will include Chinese food, crafts, music,
stories, and a dragon parade. All registered Girl Scouts
will receive information and registration forms by mail.
Volunteers are welcome!”
413-586-1300 or 800-644-8261
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