caption:
Praying
Daughters of the Holy Spirit Sisters, left to right: Jacqueline Robillard, Gertrude Lanouette and Marian St. Marie prayed during the final Mass celebrated in the chapel of the former DHS United States Provincial House in Putnam. The April 6 Mass was celebrated to decommission the chapel and to formally end more than a century in the building by the DHS. The sisters recently sold it to the Putnam Science Academy. Photo by John D. Ryan.
By John Ryan
Special to the Town Crier
PUTNAM — For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.
Those words from the third chapter of the Book of Ecclesiastes set the tone April 6, at the final Mass celebrated in the chapel of what was until recently the United States Provincial House of the Daughters of the Holy Spirit. After more than a century living and working there, and with the remaining sisters aging, the Daughters recently sold their circa 1868 Victorian Italianate mansion on Church Street to the Putnam Science Academy.
For over a year, about 60 retired sisters have been moving out, with many going to live at the St. Joseph Living Center in Windham, with the rest heading for new homes located from Putnam to California. About 15 sisters still live nearby.
The Mass was celebrated to decommission the chapel and to formally end more than a century in the building by the DHS. It was also a chance for the sisters and their friends to remember what they were leaving behind.
“When I was a young child, in the time before day care, sometimes my mother would leave me with the sisters for a few hours when she was working,” said the Very Reverend Laurence A. LaPointe during his homily. LaPointe gave the homily and assisted the main celebrant of the Mass, Rev. Edward Dempsey, of Woodstock, a retired priest in the Diocese of Norwich and a long-time friend of the sisters.
LaPointe, 74, a Putnam native, has been deeply involved with the Daughters of the Holy Spirit throughout his life. Today he’s the pastor of the Corpus Christi Catholic Community in Windham. He told the crowd of more than 150 people filling the chapel that the time has finally come to move.
“When the Israelites left Egypt, they settled into the trip just fine when God gave them manna and quail to eat,” LaPointe said. “But after awhile the missed their onions in Egypt, and we’ll miss this place. But we’ll take the spirit of it with us.”
Founded in Brittany, France, more than three centuries ago, in 1706, the Daughters of the Holy Spirit first sent a group of sisters to Hartford in 1902, invited by the Bishop of Hartford, Michael Tierney. The bishop wanted the French-speaking sisters to help Connecticut’s many newly arrived French-Canadian immigrants, serving primarily as teachers, laundresses and seamstresses. They soon branched out into Vermont and Massachusetts, and in 1916, they bought the Morse Mansion in Putnam. They moved in a year later, turning it into the headquarters of their United States province.
Locally, the Daughters are best known as teachers, founding and operating a high school, the former Putnam Catholic Academy, from 1928 until it closed in 1977.
Florence Parker, 84, of Putnam, graduated in 1952. She was Florence Ostiguy at the time. It was then a girls-only school, run at the mansion. The retired certified public accountant remembers her time there fondly.
“I started in the fall of 1948,” Parker said. “I was practical. I wanted to make sure I could get a job when I graduated, so I wanted to learn something useful. Sister Albert Celine had worked on Wall Street before she took her vows, and she taught me bookkeeping. I never learned a better bookkeeping method than what she taught me; I still use it now. The accounting school I attended later was easy, but Sister Albert Celine was hard. She helped me to have a successful career.”
Although most of the Daughters are retired, the order still has sisters working in various ministries throughout the country.
At the end of the Mass, the head of the Daughters of the Holy Spirit in the U. S., Sister Gertrude Lanouette, extinguished the candles on the altar and then lit a new candle to carry away, symbolizing the new, upcoming chapter in the history of the province.
The last of the office staff will move out of the building by next week, relocating the sisters’ American headquarters to newly-rented office space in Putnam.
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Legal Notice
Town of Pomfret
Board of Finance
PUBLIC HEARING
MONDAY,
APRIL 29, 2019
7:00 PM
POMFRET
COMMUNITY
SCHOOL
CAFETERIA
The Board of Finance of the Town of Pomfret will be holding a Public Hearing on Monday, April 29, 2019, at 7:00 PM at the Pomfret Community School Cafeteria in accordance with Section 7-344 of the Connecticut General Statutes.
Itemized estimates of expenditures of the Town for the ensuing fiscal year of 2019-2020 will be presented and the Board of Finance will hear all persons who wish to be heard in regards to any appropriations which they are desirous the Board will recommend. Copies of the proposed budgets are available at the Town Clerk’s Office, Town of Pomfret, Five Haven Road, Pomfret Center, Connecticut.
Dated at Pomfret,
Connecticut
This 18th Day
of April, 2019
Margaret Huoppi,
Chairman
Pomfret Board of Finance
April 18, 2019
.
The Woodstock Academy boys’ lacrosse team jumped out quickly against the Norwich Tech-Windham Tech cooperative program April 11.
That was a good thing because it didn’t happen in a loss to the St. Bernard-Wheeler cooperative just two days before.
“That was the key message that I wanted to send to these guys. This is a team that we beat last year, we need to beat them again this year and from the get-go, you have to come out, play them strong, communicate and move the ball,” said Woodstock Academy coach Mike Noel.
The Centaurs did that, getting five goals in the first quarter and rolling from there to a 14-0 win over the Warriors to raise their record to 3-2.
“These are the games that we have to take care of if we have any hopes of making the (state) tournament,” Noel said.
Ethan Holcomb (three goals, three assists) got the ball rolling, like normal, for the Centaurs.
The senior, who now has 14 goals and 10 assists on the season, scored just 4 minutes, 39 seconds into the game.
It opened the door for Woodstock Academy as sophomore Guerin Favreau (two goals, three assists) followed with the Centaurs second goal 1 ½ minutes later.
Seth Libby added a pair of goals and Ethan Holcomb added his second to make it 5-0 at the end of the first.
It bolstered the confidence of the Centaurs who liked their chances going into the game.
“We came in here knowing that we were going to win this game,” said senior attack Ethan Haass. Haass has not only been effective at scoring this season, his two goals against the Warriors increased his season total to 11, he has also been effective at getting the ball to his teammates.
With players like Holcomb (24 points) and Favreau (19) to work with, he said the confidence is there that someone will score.
“I’ve always had someone to work with. I didn’t start playing attack until my sophomore year, but I had Holcomb who would feed me and (Ryan Wojciechowski) last year. There has always been someone to feed me from down low. It’s easy when you have people as good as Guerin or Holcomb up top. Just feed them,” Haass said.
But it wasn’t just the trio that was effective against Norwich Tech-Windham Tech.
The Centaurs also got goals from Austen LeDonne, Geoff Vallone, Sean McCusker, Zach Girard and Tyler Green in the win. The practice clearly paid off. But it was necessary after the Centaurs could put just three balls in the net against the Saints in a 7-3 loss just two days before.
Haass had two goals in that loss while Holcomb had the other.
It wasn’t only the lack of scoring that bothered Noel, it was how the St. Bernard-Wheeler team found the net as well. “They got three goals off penalties, two goals in transition and only two on set offensive plays. We have to be better than that.”
The Centaurs did open the week in good fashion. They knocked off an upstart program in Capital Prep, 15-3, April 8. Holcomb had four goals and four assists in the win while Favreau added three goals and six assists.
Haass contributed a hat trick and LeDonne added two goals while Libby, Alex Wojciechowski and Jackson Chambers all added one goal each in the win for Woodstock Academy.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The Woodstock Academy
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The Woodstock Academy boys’ track team got its first taste of what competition will be like in Division I of the Eastern Connecticut Conference last week.
It won’t be easy.
The Centaurs were outnumbered and that means a lot in the sport of outdoor track and field, they lost to the Fitch Falcons, 104-46, in Groton.
“They have a really big team, 75-plus guys on the team, and very well-behaved, wonderful athletes. They doubled up kids, had them running multiple events, and our kids did the best they could,” said Woodstock Academy coach Peter Lusa.
The Centaurs did have a host of personal bests.
“Our training is working, but I just wish we had a few more backups, a few more kids,” Lusa said.
Senior Lucas Couture picked up a pair of first-place finishes for the Centaurs.
Couture cleared the bar at 10 feet in the pole vault on a windy and chilly day down by the shoreline.
His personal best is 10-feet-6 but he has his eyes much higher this season.
The school record, for example, is 14-feet-9.
“It’s there, it’s attainable, but I would have to work very hard. I would be happy if I get 12 or 13 feet this season. It really boosted my confidence starting off 10 feet in the first meet,” Couture said. “The conditions may have affected my performance, so it’s good to know that I can only go up from here.”
Couture didn’t have much competition against the Falcons.
Couture started at 8-6, quickly went up another foot, and then to 10 before fouling out at 10-6.
“He was all by himself at the end,” Lusa said. “It was getting more and more bitter and, as the top guy, you have to wait for everyone else to finish and you know the weather is coming.”
Couture also challenged himself on the track.
He ran the 50-meter hurdles indoors but had never attempted the 110-hurdles outdoors.
His first try produced some pretty nice results as he also garnered a first place in that event.
“I messed my step up on one of them and went over the wrong way, kicked (the hurdle) pretty far so that was pretty funny,” Couture said.
Couture also produced the fastest leg in the 4 x 400m relay for the Centaurs.
The distance guys also scored for the Centaurs.
Sophomore Ethan Aspiras finished first in the 3,200m and second in the 800m just behind senior Kenneth Birlin who won the 800 in 2 minutes, 6 seconds.
“It’s one of the biggest crews we have,” Lusa said of the distance group. “(Assistant coach) Joe Banas seems to like some kids in, but we’re going to pull some back out because they can probably do better in the sprints. It was a good day for them and they ran well.”
Lusa said Birlin’s time in the 800 was a bit of a surprise as no one was pushing him. He had 100 yards on Aspiras at the finish line.
Jackson Dias finished first in the 300m hurdles and was second in the high jump. Eric Phongsa was second in the 200m and Danylo Ntamwemizi was third in the shotput.
“We’re going to be shelved next week,” Lusa said of this week’s spring break at The Academy. “We’re missing half the kids for various reasons. The dorms are emptying so we’re missing those guys. It’s a good chance (for some rest) as we have some kids with sore ankles and sore shoulders. We can get them recuperated and back on training. We come back for a meet (versus Norwich Free Academy on April 24) and the Ledyard Relays before we have another lull,” Lusa said.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The Woodstock Academy
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