cheshirecitizen.com
Volume 14, Number 15
Thursday, April 13, 2023
BALL & SOCKET FACTORY
Local resident recognized for restoration By Christian Metzger Record-Journal staff
CHESHIRE — For the past decade town resident Ilona Somogyi has dedicated herself to bringing arts into the community and preserving a valuable piece of Cheshire’s history.
Somogyi is the current president of the Ball & Socket Arts facility, a restoration project that seeks to revitalize the old factory building at 493 W. Main St. The building served the community as a button factory for over a hundred years, 1850 to 1994. However, after the business closed the facto-
ry was left abandoned and deteriorating. When Somogyi and several others saw the property for sale in 2014, they decided to purchase the building, seeing its potential as a community arts center. Somogyi has been involved in the arts and theater for many years
and is currently an instructor at the Yale School of Drama, where she went to school. Having traveled across the world for theater, she’s seen the good that large art centers can bring to the local area, and wanted to enSee Ball & Socket Factory, A8
Somogyi
Holocaust survivors’ daughter shares Elim Park podium with granddaughter of Nazis residents reflect on over 105 years of life
By Nicole Zappone Record-Journal staff
CHESHIRE — Judy Kopman-Fried has often shared the story of her parents’ experience during the darkest of times so that people can better understand the human toll of the Nazi genocide and the challenges Holocaust survivors faced as immigrants.
By Christian Metzger Record-Journal staff
CHESHIRE — Fern Parks and Dolly Peabody are not only longtime residents of the Elim Park retirement community, Parks living there for 10 years and Peabody for 28, but they are also the community’s oldest members. Both were born in Maine in 1917, only months apart, Parks being age 105, and Peabody 106.
On Sunday, April 2, KopmanFried was joined for a talk at Temple Beth David in Cheshire by someone who shares a similar goal of increasing awareness of the Holocaust and anti-semitism, but with a deeply divergent background.
Judy Kopman-Fried of Cheshire, left, and German born New Yorker Claudia Kiesinger wait to be introduced on Sunday, April 2, at the Temple Beth David in Cheshire during an anti-semitism panel discussion featuring descendants of both Nazis and Holocaust Photos by Bill Shettle, Special to the Record-Journal See Talk, A2 survivors.
GRAND OPENING
Magnificent Retirement Care
See Elim Park, A20
Luxury Retirement Living • One Bedroom Apts and Luxury Suites w/ Kitchenettes
• Fully furnished accommodations, if desired.
• Five-star dining, professionally prepared and presented
• Complimentary cable, wireless, and telephone.
• Housekeeping and laundry services daily
• All-inclusive rates- care packages available.
• 24 hour Security
• Respite/vacation stays available
• On-site staff available
• Memory and Supportive Care available
Magnificent studios and one-bedroom suites. New amenities: Beauty salon, movie theatre, exercise center.
R257375v9
203.272.2902 www.marbridgeweb.com • Cheshire
They are the oldest of eight residents at Elim Park over 100, all of whom the community plans to recognize at its