Safety is top priority for one Windham resident - By Elizabeth Richards

Suzanne Grace has a passion for protection, particularly when it comes to child passenger safety. In fact, Grace’s interest in preventing unintentional injuries and deaths prompted her to form a nonprofit organization, Tall Pine Safety Resource Center, in 2010.  
 

The formation of Tall Pine Safety Resource Center allowed Grace to bring the Safe Kids program, an international program dedicated to preventing unintentional childhood injuries and deaths, back to Maine. “This is a passion of mine, and no matter how much I try to move away from it, it just calls me back,” she said. 

Most of the work Grace does for the nonprofit is volunteer time. A partnership with Chevrolet funds the car seat inspection events, and volunteer technicians are offered a stipend to attend those, but the nonprofit does not have funding to pay for the behind the scenes work. Grace said she is supported by Maine Medical Center, as their injury prevention coordinator, to sit on the national child passenger safety board, which helps create the curriculum to train car seat technicians around the country.  But the behind the scenes work, like maintaining a website and promotion of events, does not have funding. The nonprofit would like to find a corporate sponsor to build the program, as well as promote the programs they currently offer. 

Attendance at the events can vary widely, said Grace, and promotion can at least let people know they are happening, as well as encouraging people to stop in even if they think they have installed their seats properly. “Our challenge is that we have over 90 percent of families who do it wrong, yet probably 90 percent of families think they’re doing it right,” she said. There are many nuances to proper installation and use of child safety seats, so Grace adds that one of their goals is to get people to understand that even if they think they are doing it properly, it’s a good idea to have a trained technician double check.

Grace said that often, once people have stopped in, they find out that there was something that wasn’t being done correctly. On the surveys people often say that they learned a great deal and are happy they stopped, said Grace.

The program in Windham has close to 50 car seats available for training purposes, and in addition to the monthly inspections, the organization offers certification classes to individuals interested in becoming a certified car seat technician. The class teaches the foundation of what to look for, such as recalls, identifying and correcting misuse, and knowing the resources available.

 Because there are so many car seats on the market, Grace said, nobody can know everything about all of them. That is why written resources are so important. “The vehicle’s owner manual and the car seat manual are two critical tools that a lot of people overlook,” she said, adding that she feels if people took the time to read the manuals, the misuse rate could be cut in half. 

Knowing a seat’s history is also crucial, said Grace. “What we warn families about is if you’re taking a car seat that you don’t know the history of, you’re taking a chance, hoping it’s going to withstand a crash, but you’re not really sure,” she said. 

As for using a car seat that has been involved in an accident, Grace said that they recommend contacting the car seat manufacturer to ask their advice. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has a definition for a minor crash, in which case they say it is okay to continue using the car seat.  Some manufacturers recommend replacing the seat after any crash. Car insurance will often pay for the replacement of a car seat involved in an accident. 

The car seat safety events are free and open to the public, and go far beyond a quick inspection.  The technicians work with the families to teach them how to properly install and check their seats. “It’s all educational, hands on,” said Grace. “The people we interact with are happy to spend the time doing it, and our technicians are happy to help, so it’s a win-win for everybody all around.”

In Windham, car seat inspections have been happening since 2002 at the Windham Fire/Rescue building at 718 Roosevelt Trail. The event is held on the third Saturday of every month, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Windham site is the third most active site among the regular inspection locations, Grace said, with an average of 15-20 inspections each month.   Grace said that they also recommend that families return annually, or any time something changes – a new seat, change in the position of the seat, or a change in vehicles. Typically, she said, the ones that they see come in correctly are the repeat customers.

Child passenger safety is the biggest program of Tall Pine, but they also offer a variety of other services including workshops with parents, preschools, child care staff, a cub scout automotive safety patch, bicycle safety, water safety and playground safety.  While Safe targets children under the age of 14, the larger organization also covers injury prevention topics for all ages.

Safe Kids Maine offers free car seat inspections and education in eleven locations on a regular basis, as well as offering other quarterly and annual events in additional locations. The full schedule of events can be found on www.maineseatcheck.org.  Information on Tall Pine Safety Resource Center can be found at www.tallpinesafety.org.

Aladdin Jr. took to the stage and impressed - By Michelle Libby

Last weekend, after months of preparation the Windham Middle School drama club performed Aladdin, Jr. at Windham Performing Arts Center to large crowds. The show took place Friday night and twice during the snowy weather on Saturday. The snow didn’t seem to hamper the ability to get to the show and between 200 and 300 people attended each seating, according to one cast parent. The final show was for the entire Windham Primary School second grade class on Tuesday. 

“Success of a show is often measured by the number of seats you sell or what reviewers say of your show and while both of these would be an added bonus, the success of a show for me is how excited these students are before, during and after the show,” said director Mary Wassick in her director’s letter to the audience. 

Aladdin was played by eighth-grader Logan Cropper. His comedic timing and dry wit kept the audience laughing throughout the play. Jasmine was played by Beth Olsen who is also an eighth-grader. Her clear voice and sassy attitude was great casting for the princess role. As far as secondary characters, they all did a tremendous job making the show come to life before our eyes. Genie played by Mikayla Malloy added her own twist on a role made iconic by Robin Williams. Jafar played by Julia Egna was evil well-done and her side kick Iago the parrot was fun to watch and laugh at his one-liners. Razoul, the head of the guards played by Wyatt Yost, the Sultan played by Ethan Leech and the magic carpet played by Corinne Ulmer, added lighter moments to the play. 

Not to be forgotten, the students who controlled the set changes, lighting and sound, they did a fabulous job.

The singing was amazing for a middle school cast or any age cast, and Windham has little to worry about for years to come with the talent moving into the high school. If you’ve been hesitant to see a middle school play, don’t wait any longer. The next show should be the one you attend.

Cub Scouts go to the derby...the Pinewood Derby

On Saturday Windham 46 Cub Scouts gathered at the Windham Middle School café to participate in a long standing tradition – the Pinewood Derby. The boys in grades one through five are given a block of pine wood, four nails and four tires and are told to create a car. The car has to weigh approximately five ounces when it is done. 

Designs of the cars are limited only by the boy’s imagination. This year cars ranged from the Tardis (of Dr. Who fame) and a mountain to a turtle and a Minecraft car. No two are the same. 

The competition is for speed. The tracks are hooked to a digital timing system that sends the times to a laptop where they are compiled and ranked. Each car has multiple races.

The winners for this year’s derby are: First place – Rogan Deptula, second place – Joseph Lopes, third place - Jon Loft, fourth place – Landon Schmuck and fifth place – Zachary Day. 

Each den chose a car as most creative and the overall most creative car, chosen by adults in attendance, was Lucas Cormier with his Lego car.  

Windham girl achieves cheering dream - By Elizabeth Richards

Making the varsity cheerleading squad can be a tough feat for anyone. For Becca Keenan, it might have seemed like an impossible dream, but with support from the team captain, coach and other students at Windham High School, Keenan’s dream came true in her senior year.

Keenan, who was diagnosed with Autism at the age of 23 months, had talked about wanting to be a cheerleader since ninth grade, when she had friends who were on the cheerleading squad, said her father, Randy Keenan. “She’s always said she wanted to be a cheerleader, but she’s not one to follow through,” said Randy, adding that he and his wife also didn’t follow through because they didn’t know how serious she was. But the topic kept coming up, and this winter, Becca received the encouragement she needed to go for it.

Coach Jamie Gaudreau said that Becca told her last year that wanted to cheer. She was friends with a senior on the squad, but was fearful of trying out, afraid she wouldn’t be able to do the routines. This fall Becca again told Gaudreau that she wanted to be a “cheer girl.” At that time, Gaudreau said, she told Becca that she’d love to have her and encouraged her to try out.

 

Allyson Tibbitts, captain of the squad, said that she was in the cafeteria in the fall when Becca approached her and said she wanted to cheer in the winter. Tibbitts remembered that, and wanted to be sure Becca knew when tryouts were, so she left her a note inviting her to be at the tryouts. 

“It was the push she needed to move forward,” said Randy, adding that Tibbitts also picks up Becca and drops her off after practice. “She’s been a great peer. It’s been unreal,” he said.    

     

This type of group activity is a new experience for Becca, said her mother Kim Keenan. “Being a part of a team and being accepted by her peers is huge,” said Kim. “She’s never participated in a sport before, and never been part of a group with her typical peers before. That’s what makes it special.” 

While the Keenans said Becca has always been social and felt accepted by her peers, she didn’t socialize outside of school time until becoming a cheerleader. Now, she has attended a Christmas party and goes out with the other kids. “For the past few years she didn’t socialize out of school, it just wasn’t there. Now it seems to be coming to the forefront, and it’s a good thing for her,” said Randy.

Kim said cheering has helped Becca’s self-confidence, among other things. Gaudreau has also noticed a change in Becca’s confidence. “She’s been a total inspiration for myself as a coach and I think for a lot of the kids,” she said. Initially, Becca was reluctant to try things like jumps and tumbling, but now she will try it all, and doesn’t need to be asked twice to do something, said Gaudreau. 

 She even helps the coach base a stunt with Tibbitts. While Becca cheers at the games, she doesn’t typically compete. But during a charitable competition for Cheers from the Heart, she will be on the competition floor with her team. The score in that competition isn’t important to Gaudreau. “To me it doesn’t matter if you’re going to lose. To me winning is being able to have her there on the competition floor,” said Gaudreau. “I will take the zero in jumps just to have the ten for myself as a coach, for her, for Allyson, for everybody else just to have her on that mat. That means more to me and I think it’s going to be a nice reward for her as well,” she added. 

Tibbitts agreed. “It’s not like we only have one competition. We have other ones, and I’d rather have her on there than not,” she said.

Gaudreau said she doesn’t treat Becca any differently than anyone else. She expects the same work out of Becca as the rest of the team, and though sometimes she needs some encouragement, she said, Becca steps up and does what she needs to do. “She is the core of the team,” said Gaudreau. “She is what a cheerleader truly represents to me.” Gaudreau added that Becca brings new light to the program, and she wishes she’d had her on the team for more than just this one season. 

Tibbits said, “She’s like our own team’s cheerleader.” When the team is practicing stunts, she said, Becca is there with encouraging words. Her personality and determination to get out there and do it has inspired the team. “She’s truly made us better,” said Tibbits. “Everyone loves her.”

Randy said, “To us, the kids in this community are just unbelievable.” They have helped Becca have an experience she might otherwise never have had, and one that is the highlight of her senior year. “She was just so excited that she was actually going to be a Windham cheerleader,” Randy said. 

Becca, though reluctant to talk, said enthusiastically, “I love being a cheerleader a lot.”