#b#International Peace Day#/b#
West Windsor Township Human Relations Council presented International Day Peace Day on September 21. This year’s theme was “Partnership for Peace — Dignity for All.”
There were close to 75 attendees including parents, youth, elected officials, civic leaders, educators, school board members, and faith leaders. Nearly 30 students from WW-P schools participated in the essay contest. The topic was “What does peace mean to you?”
All participants received certificates, and the winners read their essays at the awards presentation.
Students from High School North include Akshay A Badade, Abhik Menon, and Humayd Humayun. Students from High School South include Akshay Bapat, Srishti Gadodia, Joice Kim, Prathisha Shyamsu, and Sammy Liao.
Students from Community Middle School include Aasth Gupta, Adhit Menon, Ankita Samal, Neha Badade, Pranav Mahableshwarkar, Raymond Jin, Renuka Ravinder, Rohit Kundu, Shreya Ashok Kumar, Sanya Mehra, and Sravani Kotapati. Students from Grover Middle School include Ayra Kalish Sasne, Fenil Gala, Hassan Malik, Varum Prabhala, Kaylin Ku, Ruhi Sakrikar, and Ansh Gadodia.
Judges for the contest included Rina Banerjee, the branch manager of the West Windsor Library; Erik Daniels, a teacher of social studies at High School South; and Dana B. Lichtstrahl, an author, communications strategist, and training facilitator.
#b#Famed Musician#/b#
Hannah Perron, right, of West Windsor dreams of playing her big double bass on big stages someday, so the high school sophomore would like to know what it takes to be a top performer. She will get her chance when she interviews David Kim, Philadelphia Orchestra’s concertmaster, on Saturday, November 14. Perron, 15, a sophomore at Notre Dame High School, won a contest as a member of the Youth Orchestra of Central Jersey for the chance to meet Kim.
She submitted three questions for the violinist and was then selected to interview him. “I wanted to know how much someone who has a career in orchestra likes it and to see what steps you have to take to get to that level,” Perron said. “Mr. Kim is very talented. He’s amazing. It’s insane to be able to play that well.”
Perron began learning the double bass when she was in fourth grade at Village School. “I fell in love with it. My teachers were encouraging and enthusiastic,” she said. “The bass is a very versatile instrument. You can play orchestra, and you can do jazz, rock-and-roll, everything. I love the deep sound.”
Perron also plays the piano, guitar, and ukulele. She is thinking about majoring in music and marketing in college. She is the daughter of Michael and Kelly Perron.
Kim started playing violin at age three, and later received his bachelor’s and master’s from the Juilliard School. He will be performing with YOCJ on Sunday, January 24, at 7 p.m. at the Richardson Auditorium at Princeton University. He will then teach a master class in March for all of YOCJ’s musicians.
YOCJ provides performance and educational opportunities for talented youth in Plainsboro, West Windsor, Princeton, and the surrounding area. The youth practice once a week, but all must also be active in their school programs. YOCJ includes string, percussion, woodwind, and brass players.
Concert tickets can be purchased through the organization or on the day of the concert. YOCJ’s first performance will be its Winter Small Ensembles Concert, at Mayo Hall at the College of New Jersey, on Sunday, December 13, at 3 p.m. Visit YOCJ.org for information.
#b#The Longest Ride#/b#
Silvia Ascarelli of West Windsor was among three dozen cyclists from various states who in October bicycled the 325-mile Week a Year Tour in support of the East Coast Greenway, a 2,900-mile trail route that stretches from the Canadian border at Calais, Maine, to Key West, Florida. A linear park that passes through 15 states, the ECG connects 25 major cities along the Eastern Seaboard, creating a safer environment for active-transportation users of all ages and abilities. This includes walkers, runners, cyclists, wheelchair users, and in some areas skiers, equestrians, and snowmobilers.
The East Coast Greenway currently uses a mix of roads and trails, including D&R Canal from New Brunswick to Trenton. The goal of the East Coast Greenway Alliance, the organization spearheading the development of the trail, is to complete the trail to the point that it is almost entirely on traffic-separated greenways and trails. The annual fundraising ride explores a different section of the East Coast Greenway each year. In 2011 the WAY began in Maine, and in 2019 it will be completed in Key West.
This year’s ride began in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and ended six days later in Raleigh, North Carolina. Ascarelli biked past Virginia’s Civil War battlefields in Fredericksburg and Petersburg, through Richmond on the wheels of the World Cycling Championships, stopped for some North Carolina barbecue, and finished on the Rocky Branch Greenway in Raleigh.
This is the second year Ascarelli has taken part in this week-long event. This year’s ride raised more than $50,000 for the ECGA. Riders cover their own expenses. “Many people want to bike but are scared to mix with traffic,” says Ascarelli. “The East Coast Greenway is about connecting trails and quiet roads so you don’t have to — even in cities.”
Ascarelli learned to bike just before she was five years old and has owned a bike ever since. She rode her bike to school from third grade through high school and has been doing multi-day rides since the late 1980s, when she spent a decade living in Germany.
“In Germany people biked to get around instead of driving,” says Ascarelli. “And there were long-distance routes. So a group of friends and I started going on them, using trains to get there and get back home. It was a great way to explore the country. I learned to stop for quirky things and mix more with the locals.”
Her long rides include Philadelphia to Fredericksburg with the East Coast Greenway last year (another 325-mile ride) and the 500-mile Anchor House for Runaways ride from Burlington, Vermont, to Quakerbridge Mall the year before. She also rode 4,345 miles from Anacortes, Washington, to Assateague Island, Maryland in 2000.
“I believe bikes give us freedom to truly see the country, rather than hurtling along the interstate at 65 or 70 mph,” says Ascarelli. “And I believe in the ECG mission to create an urban version of the Appalachian Trail.”
Ascarelli, who commutes to New York City for work, bikes to the train station most of the time. She moved to West Windsor in 2005 and was involved for several years with the West Windsor Bicycle and Pedestrian Alliance but gave that up when the New York commute got to be too much. “Bike lanes are great,” she says. “Protected bike lanes and trails are even more appealing.”
#b#Triple Victory#/b#
Attitudes In Reverse, a Plainsboro based organization achieved three awards last month. AIR was established by Tricia, Kurt, and Katelyn Baker soon after their son/brother Kenny died by suicide following a long battle against severe depression and anxiety. Their mission is to save lives by educating students about mental health, related disorders, and suicide prevention.
Tricia, named the 37th New Jersey Hero, received the award during a reception in conjunction with “Inspire: Everyday People Changing New Jersey,” a fine art photography exhibit. “I am so grateful to all of the AIR supporters throughout New Jersey and the U.S., and some outside of the country, who voted for me to receive this award, which is a tremendous honor,” says Tricia. “It means so much to me, as well as my family and other AIR volunteers, to receive support that enables us to educate more students and potentially save more lives.”
Tricia and Kurt were honored by the Princeton Family YMCA with a Centennial Award for Responsibility on October 22. The award recognizes the Bakers’ commitment to serving through community service.
“The Bakers are heroes,” says Tracy Sipprelle, a member of AIR’s board of trustees and a health coach. “I choose to help AIR by supporting their efforts to build physically and emotionally stronger teens through exercise and nutrition.”
“Tracy has been a proponent of AIR for a long time,” says Kurt. “She is a strong believer in taking care of our bodies to also take care of our minds, and her expertise has been an invaluable addition to our educational program. We are very grateful to Tracy for nominating us for this award and for her generous support over the years.”
AIR has also been selected by Microsoft to receive a $50,000 grant through its Upgrade Your World USA program. “We are grateful to Microsoft for a program that recognizes people whose life’s purpose is to help others, and receiving the Microsoft Upgrade Your World USA grant is an unbelievable honor,” says Tricia.
“We are very appreciative of our AIR Heroes, from across the globe, who understand AIR’s mission of saving young lives, and showed their support by voting daily. The recognition AIR receives from the Microsoft Upgrade Your World USA honor, validates our mission and will help us realize our vision, coast to coast, by talking to more students with the message that no one should ever be afraid of seeking treatment for a biological brain based illness.”
Visit www.attitudesinreverse.org or call 609-945-3200.
#b#Gold Awards#/b#
Alexandra Burke, right, a senior at High School North; and Anusha Chintalapati, a senior at High School South, earned their Girl Scout Gold Awards. Both members of Troop 71847, their leaders include Latha Chintalapati, Stacy Burke, and Cathy Plakoris.
Alexandra Burke has been a Girl Scout for 11 years. Her project, Reaching for Reading Readiness, addressed the word gap between underprivileged kids and those in more affluent communities.
“Word gap” refers to children who grow up in poorer communities learning fewer words, and as a result having more trouble reading than those in more affluent communities. Burke worked with kids at the Homefront Shelter in Ewing, to help them not only develop an excitement for reading, but also an interest in school in general. She worked with the children one-on-one after school and helped them with their homework and read to them. Her advisor was Latha Chintalapati and her mentor was Liza Peck at Homefront.
Burke also helped plan two reading parties for the families in the shelter. She distributed free books and did crafts with the children. Current and future residents of Homefront will benefit from the collection of books and reading materials that Burke purchased for the library.
“It was very rewarding to work with the children at Homefront, especially when one of them reached a milestone with their reading and looked so excited about it,” says Burke.
Anusha Chintalapati has been a Girl Scout for 10 years. Her project, a Junior First Lego League Expo in Central Jersey, helped students in kindergarten to third grade learn STEM concepts in a fun, hands-on way in an engaging environment. “In addition to building basic STEM skills, the kids also learned public speaking and teamwork skills during their presentations with the reviewers,” says Chintalapati.
“The expo helped more young children in the local community get involved and stay involved with robotics as well as STEM in general.” More than 50 kids attended the expo. Chintalapati created different experiments to keep the young kids interested while they were waiting to present their posters and models to a group of qualified reviewers. She also did a series of robotics workshops where the kids learned about simple machines, sensors, and how to build basic models.
Chintalapati has been a part of FIRST Robotics for the past three years as a part of the First Tech Challenge team 6037, WAGS. WAGS is an all-girls Girl Scout team that advanced to the world championship last year in St. Louis. The team also won second place Inspire at the New Jersey state competition. This team is coached by Jan Cardinale, Helen Rancan, and Andrea Mandel. Chintalapati, who used her knowledge and understanding of the program and STEM concepts needed to build and program robots, was able to create an expo that encouraged kids to learn more about the way the world works and operates.
“The judging was particularly well done,” says Louisa Ho, a veteran coach. “Having the judging done in a quiet separate room was a vast improvement over the judging at the two Jr. FLL expos that we attended last year. And the hands-on science activities were particularly appreciated by the kids, as well as the parents”.
Contact Louisa Ho at 609-371-2119 or E-mail girlscoutswwp@verizon.net for information about joining Girl Scouts as a scout or adult volunteer.
#b#In College#/b#
Columbia University: Benjamin Chevlin of West Windsor was accepted into the Columbia chapter of TAMID, an organization founded in 2008 that integrates the next generation of entrepreneurs and business professionals with Israel through a comprehensive education curriculum, pro-bono consulting for Israeli startups, capital market investment research, and a summer internship program in Israel.
A freshman, he attended private high school in the Philadelphia area. Chevlin spent the last year in Israel, studying at Yeshiva Ashreinu and working as an intern with Yalostar Holdings, a technology and business incubator that helps entrepreneurs in startups go from idea to innovation. He currently serves as Yalostar’s northeast operations manager.
Philadelphia College of Pharmacy at University of the Sciences: Rasagnya Kota and Karin Sugeno of Plainsboro received their white coats at a ceremony on September 19, marking their first professional year in the six-year pharmacy program. These students are on track to receive their doctor of pharmacy degree in 2019.
University of the Sciences: Dana Lee of Plainsboro is on the summer dean’s list. She is a doctor of pharmacy student.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: Diego Cuitino of Plainsboro is a member of the football team. A sophomore, he is majoring in mechanical engineering.
#b#Water on Mars#/b#
James Wray, a 2002 graduate of High School South, is a professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at Georgia Tech and an investigator on several NASA research grants involving analysis of data from Mars. He recently led a research team that confirmed that there is water — and possibly life — on Mars.
Wray, who always wanted to be an astronaut and walk on Mars, graduated from Princeton University in 2006 and earned his PhD from Cornell.
“I still want to go to space someday,” he said in a story in Town Topics by Donald Gilpin, former teacher of English and drama at High School South. “Maybe just as a space tourist. But if humans are going to Mars and back in my lifetime, then I would like to be a part of that, whether as an astronaut myself or as one of the scientists back on Earth supporting their mission.”
#b#Wedding#/b#
Norma Angelica Lopez Campos and David Samuel Freeland were married October 25 at Nassau Inn in Princeton. Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky officiated. The couple met on datemyschool.com.
The bride is the daughter of Norma A. Lopez and Gerardo Lopez Haro of West Windsor. A graduate of Princeton University, she is a third-year law student at Columbia. Bridal attendants included Marieugenia Cardenas, Maribel Flores, Ismini Christina Flouda, Rachel Freeland, and Sarah Pearlstein.
The groom is the son of Claire A.B. Freeland and Dr. Howard S. Freeland of Pikesville, Maryland. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, he received an MBA from NYU. He is a finance manager at American Express. Groomsmen included Jeremy Epstein, Lawrence Hellman, Andrew Janet, Alejandro Lopez Campos, and Tyler Morgan-Wall.
Their dog, The Honorable Learned Paw, was the ring bearer. The couple lives in the Morningside Heights section of New York City.
#b#Golden Anniversary#/b#
Florence and Harvey Cohen of Plainsboro recently celebrated their 50th anniversary. They were both raised in Philadelphia and met a few days after Florence graduated from high school. The couple dated throughout their college years. Florence graduated from Temple University with a bachelor’s degree in American History and Harvey graduated from Drexel Institute of Technology with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. They were married in Philadelphia on September 5, 1965.
Harvey was an industrial engineer at Inland Steel Company in East Chicago, Indiana, and received an MBA from Illinois Institute of Technology. Florence earned a master’s in social sciences from the University of Chicago while working at the university’s law library. Their sons were born in 1969 and 1974.
They returned to the Philadelphia area to continue their careers in 1972. Harvey worked in industrial engineering for International Mill Service for 22 years, and then as a financial advisor with Dean Witter. He retired in 2003.
Florence worked with Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company in Philadelphia before being recruited by Prudential Insurance Company in Newark. They moved to West Windsor in 1978. It afforded Florence access to the train station — though it took several years to get a parking permit — and Harvey was able to commute to Philadelphia.
After taking a buyout offer in 1994, she worked with Welcome Wagon in West Windsor and then ran Welcoming Services until 2004, when she retired.
Florence has been involved with the Rotary Club of the Princeton Corridor, was a member of Project Freedom’s board of trustees for 19 years, and served as chairman of the Affordable Housing Committee in West Windsor.
She has also been active at First Presbyterian Church of Dutch Neck as a deacon, an organizer of church dinners, and is now involved in the church’s 200-year anniversary (see story, page 1).
The couple moved from West Windsor to Plainsboro in 2012, when they chose to sell their five-bedroom house in exchange for a home in a retirement community.
They took a 25-day tour to Australia and New Zealand to celebrate the anniversary. The couple renewed their vows at Dutch Neck Church on October 17. Officiants included both the current pastor, Reverend Jan Willem van der Werff; and the pastor emeritus, Reverend Floyd Churn, who had been the minister at Dutch Neck for 26 years before his retirement.
