#b#Literati Honors#/b#
Oliver Li and Serena Sethi, above, both fifth grade students at Village School, created letters to an author as their literary essay pieces for New Jersey Center for the Book’s Library of Congress Letters about Literature contest. The letters were submitted to the national contest and to the actual authors. More than 2,000 letters were submitted in the same category for students in grades four to six. Both Li and Sethi were selected to receive distinguished honor awards. Their teacher is Kelley Coyne.
Li wrote about the book, “Where the Red Fern Grows” by Wilson Rawls; Sethi wrote about the book “Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life” by Wendy Mass. A statewide reception for the award winners, their families, teachers, and administrators will be held in New Brunswick on May 19.
“We were keenly impressed with the thoughtfulness, insight, and understanding demonstrated by the entries from students of our state’s schools,” read letters they received. “Your essay was especially perceptive of the author’s theme and intentions, and it described well the relevance of the book to your own experience. Your composition is a clearly written, effective expression of your interaction with a book that had a pivotal influence.”
#b#Musical Notes#/b#
Isabella Zodel, a seventh grade student at Community Middle School, has been accepted as a junior finalist in the 2016 Carnegie Hall Middle School Honors Choir. Zodel will travel to New York in June to work with Sally Albrecht, a renowned choral conductor, for five days. She will perform on stage at Carnegie Hall at the conclusion of the program.
“This is a truly wonderful honor for her, our school, and our district,” says Patricia Conover, her teacher at Community Middle School who prepared her for the audition.
#b#In College#/b#
Bard College at Simon’s Rock: Roop Pal of Plainsboro is on the dean’s list. A freshman, he completed tenth grade at High School North before beginning college early.
Colgate University: Erica Borsack of West Windsor earned a dean’s award. A political science major in the Class of 2016, she is a graduate of High School South.
University of Delaware: Samantha Paley of West Windsor helped raise money for pediatric cancer research. She was among 250 participants in one of the nation’s largest university dance marathon fundraisers on Sunday, March 13. Students raised a total of $1,701,667.81, for the Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation based in Wilmington, Delaware. Visit www.UDanceDelaware.org for information.
#b#Good Cause#/b#
WW-P was represented by Team Wage Hope at the benefit for St. Baldrick’s Foundation on March 12 in Lawrenceville. The nonprofit group funds research to cure childhood cancer and the annual head-shaving event is its signature fundraiser.
Team Wage Hope included Bryan Fisher, coach of High School South’s varsity soccer team; Brian Paulson, coach of South’s swim team; Jeff Reilly, the varsity football coach at High School North; and Tim Stevens, coach for North’s varsity basketball team. Juan Pena Velasquez, a 2015 graduate of High School South and a cancer survivor, was also on their team.
#b#A New Book#/b#
Henry Henkel of West Windsor presents his second book, a collection of short stories titled “Of Cypress and Sunflowers,” at a book signing on Sunday, April 3, at 2 p.m., at West Windsor Library.
“Henkel’s stories are metaphors for the fundamental struggles of all humanity: the search for true love; the hope of reprieve from loneliness and alienation; the thirst for a place in the community; the desire to understand one’s true nature,” according to the statement on his Amazon page. “Henkel places these struggles within the greater context of free will and the choices his characters make between good and evil, trust and deception, empathy and selfishness.”
“Bald Spots & Blue Suits: Modern Fables,” a collection of 10 short stories about the human struggle with alienation and loneliness, was released in 2011. It is still available through Amazon.
“I am one of the class clowns, and when people pick up the book they expect comedy,” Henkel told the News (May 13, 2011). “They are surprised and say that’s not the guy who I hang out with at parties.” Some of his stories come from news items, but loneliness and despair are highlighted. “The book is not filled with happy endings,” he says.
Born in 1955 in Seaford, New York, on the South shore of Long Island, Henkel began writing during college at the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he graduated with a degree in English and education.
After receiving his master’s degree in literature from New York University, he was the chairman of the English department at a private school in New York. He now works in the financial services industry.
He and his wife, Kathryn, have four children — Kate, Danielle, Anna, and Joe. The family moved to West Windsor from northern Virginia 19 years ago when Met Life transferred him to the New York office.
Henkel’s new book was published by Other Islands Press based in West Windsor and operated by Joe Gonnella and Allegra D’Adamo. Gonnella is a bookseller, poet, and lifelong bibliophile. D’Adamo has more than 20 years’ experience in the publishing industry, including director of marketing and subsidiary rights for Ecco Press and the New Press, and associate publisher for Aperture and publicity director for Warner Books. They moved have lived in West Windsor since 1985. Their sons are Joseph and Christopher.
#b#A History Lesson#/b#
Alex Magoun of Plainsboro, former director of the David Sarnoff Library, is now working at the IEEE History Center, which moved from Rutgers to Stevens. Magoun has a bachelor’s degree in history from Trinity College, a master’s degree in history from the University of East Anglia, and his PhD in American history from the University of Maryland.
An expert on the history of television, he is the author of “David Sarnoff Research Center: RCA Labs to Sarnoff Corporation” and “Television: The Life Story of a Technology.” Magoun shared a history lesson with the News.
“On October 30, 1946, exactly eight years after the infamous War of the Worlds radio show that roused the residents of Grovers Mill and neighboring villages, Penns Neck Community Center was the site of West Windsor’s other memorable broadcast. RCA first demonstrated electronic color television there on the only television set capable of receiving the transmission from the Empire State Building. CBS had been campaigning for a national color TV standard that involved oversized, spinning color wheels; RCA wanted to show that a more compact system would be worth waiting for, after it realized some profit off its huge investment in monochrome, or black and white, TV.”
“The auditorium in the school/center provided space for nearly 100 journalists to see the demo, hosted by RCA president David Sarnoff and RCA Laboratories director Elmer Engstrom. The Labs, now known as SRI International Princeton, did not construct its auditorium until 1956. Penns Neck’s resident now use it for polling on election days,
“The RCA Labs staff went on to develop the color TV system used in North America for more than 50 years, and history buffs can swing by the front entrance of SRI International to see the IEEE Milestone plaque honoring that accomplishment. Now approaching its centenary in 2017, the community center has no such recognition and molders at the end of Mather Avenue as a geocaching site until the township tears it down. You can see it through the trees to your left as you drive south on Route 1, just before the Dinky railroad bridge.”
