Friday, September 9, 2022
www.towntimes.com
Volume 28, Number 36
Freshmen Finn Healy, Eric Samperi and Alex Augustine pose with Army Freshmen Abigail Francis, Abigail Dunnigan and Ashleynn Pelletier take a National Guard Sergeant First Class Jose Quinones, Staff Sergeant Jeffrey “little” ride during the carnival. Photos by Nicole Zappone Marte and Staff Sergeant Joshua Vinella at the Aug. 31 carnival.
Back-to-school carnival a celebration of normalcy By Nicole Zappone Town Times
day; from contests and games, to karaoke and yoga. The National Guard inflatWednesday, Aug. 31 was a able obstacle course and a hot and humid day, but that dunk tank manned by CRHS didn’t stop local students Principal Deb Stone and from having a blast at Cogin- several teachers were popuchaug Regional High lar stops as well. School’s back-to-school car“I think one of the most imnival. portant points was that the Hosted by the school diskids were coming together trict, and held on the CRHS as a school community with campus, the carnival offered their teachers, support staff, activities throughout the faculty — especially custodi-
al and cafeteria staff, local businesses that donated time and prizes, and parents who donated prizes and volunteered to run events,” English teacher Rebecca Suchy said. “It was a day we really needed after the pandemic and all of the challenges over the last few years.” Suchy, who did her time in the dunk tank, shared her faSee Carnival, A8
Reducing light pollution key to assisting migratory birds By Joy VanderLek Special to Town Times
Each year, nearly 1 billion birds are killed flying into windows. That startling statistic comes from the Audubon Society’s Project Safe Flight initiative, one of
many bird strike tracking programs helping to raise public awareness and create steps to minimize such bird deaths. Getting the word out on a local and regional level is Lights Out CT. The group’s co-chairs are Meredith Barges, Yale Divinity School,
a student researcher with the Yale Bird-Friendly Building Initiative; and Craig Repasz, who is affiliated with the New Haven Bird Club and the Connecticut Ornithological Association. In addition to habitat de-
struction and fragmentation, lighting is a major contributor to bird deaths. “Birds are migrating on routes that are millions of years old,” said Repasz. “They evolved migrating in darkness. It was only the
light of the stars and moon they would use to navigate, as well as barometric pressure and the earth’s magnetic field. So we build cities right underneath them and the light confuses them.” See Birds, A6