When will the ospreys return to nest at Rocky Neck State Park?

This morning, Sunday, April 14, from 9 to 11 a.m. in Rocky Neck State Park in East Lyme, a naturalist from the Roger Tory Peterson Estuary Center located in Old Lyme will lead a group looking for early spring migrants and welcoming back Ospreys to their breeding grounds. Rocky Neck State Park in East Lyme is an ideal habitat for a wide variety of bird species.

Join this group to explore these habitats and their occupants.

This program is free, but you are requested to register here

An interview with Michael Phelps is featured in ‘Angst,’ which will be shown at Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School tomorrow evening. Admission is free and the public is welcome.

Lyme’s Youth Service Bureau (LYSB) is sparking a community conversation about anxiety through a screening of a brand-new documentary, Angst: Raising Awareness Around Anxiety.  On Tuesday, April 9, at 6:30 p.m., LYSB will host a special screening of the documentary at the Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School auditorium to open up a dialogue between local families, community leaders and experts.

The event will feature a viewing of the 56-minute film, followed by an informative panel discussion.

Indieflix producers Scilla Andreen and Karin Gornick have one goal: to start a global conversation and raise awareness around anxiety. Through candid interviews, they utilize the power of film to tell the stories of many kids and teens who discuss their anxiety and its impacts on their lives and relationships, as well as how they’ve found solutions and hope.

The film also includes a special interview with Olympian Michael Phelps, a mental health advocate and one of the greatest athletes of all-time.

In addition, the documentary provides discussions with mental health experts about the causes of anxiety and its sociological effects, along with the help, resources and tools available to address the condition.

Part of the beauty of this film is the openness of the children and young adults featured; for some of them, the Angst project marks the first time they are publicly sharing their experiences with anxiety. Our hope is that their candidness and bravery will inspire our community to do the same.

While Angst documents the struggles some people have with anxiety, it also reveals their hope for the future. Noah, a teenager in the film, describes it this way: “Anxiety doesn’t define me. It’s not just a curse; it also gives me strength.”

“Everybody needs to know that anxiety disorders are real, common and treatable instead of viewing them as a personal choice or something to be ashamed of,” said Dr. Jerry Bubrick, Senior Director of Anxiety Disorders Center, Child Mind Institute. “Getting help early is crucial in giving people the tools they need to feel better. We just need to start the conversation.”

“We felt it was important to make a movie that could raise awareness to open up the conversation and provide hope,” said Andreen, IndieFlix CEO and Angst Producer. “So many people struggle with anxiety and have trouble talking about it. We want to change that.”

Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health challenge in the U.S., impacting 54 percent of females and 46 percent of males, with age seven being the median age of onset, according to the World Health Organization. While anxiety disorders are highly treatable, only one-third of those suffering receive treatment. Everyone involved in the development of Angst has a personal experience with anxiety – from the producers to the interviewees.

“The conversation surrounding mental health really hits home for me,” said Michael Phelps. “Many people don’t understand how debilitating mental illness truly can be, and even more than that, how common it is, yet people are afraid to have the serious discussions about it. I welcomed the opportunity to be a part of Angst to further the dialogue around mental health and to help people understand the impact anxiety has on our mental state and encourage people, especially kids, to ask for help.”

Lymes’ Youth Service Bureau Director Mary Seidner commented, “We have seen a steady increase in the number of inquiries from parents whose children are experiencing issues with anxiety.  We hope the Angst documentary will open a discussion in our community and give parents tools to help their children manage anxiety.”  In addition to the community screening on April 9, LYSB is sponsoring a screening during the school day for Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School on April 11 as part of the school’s Wellness Day.

 Angst can be viewed in screenings held in schools and communities and is not available online.  This program is free and open to the public, and sponsored by LYSB’s Timothy P. Buckley Memorial Fund.

For more information contact Lymes’ Youth Service Bureau at 860-434-7208 or www.lysb.org

Tom McDermott

The First Congregational Church of Old Lyme (FCCOL) has announced that News Orleans musicians Tom McDermott and Ned Sublette will perform a free public concert at 6 p.m., Saturday, April 6, in the FCCOL Meetinghouse, to benefit the church’s Immigration Assistance Fund. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m.; seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis.

The concert will be followed by a free pizza dinner held in the Fellowship Hall supplied by the Pizza Corner restaurant in New Britain, which is owned and operated by Malik Naveed bin Rehman and Zahida Altaf, two local residents who sought sanctuary at FCCOL and later received a temporary stay of deportation allowing them to pursue their efforts to obtain legal status in the U.S.

Admission to both the concert and dinner is free, but donations will be welcomed during a free will offering. All proceeds from the evening will go towards funding the church’s efforts to help immigrants like Malik and Zahida, and the Torres family from Waterbury.

Earlier this year, the church announced it was working with immigration experts to return Glenda Cardena Caballero to her husband Miguel Torres while her deportation case winds its way through the immigration appeals process. Last August, Miguel and their two children Nathaly (11) and Keneth (7) – all of whom are U.S. citizens – watched helplessly as Glenda was taken from them by ICE, placed on an airplane and deported to Honduras.

Glenda had been in the US since 2005; she had complied with all of ICE’s directives; and her case was under appeal in the court system. Despite following immigration rules and regulations, ICE agents deported her suddenly and arbitrarily, leaving her family bereft and heartbroken.

The church’s goal is to bring Glenda home to her family in the U.S. while her case continues to wind its way through the appeals process.

McDermott is an internationally recognized pianist and composer, and a fixture in the world of New Orleans music. His work was featured in the HBO series “Treme” – where he played himself several times throughout the series. He has released 17 albums, including 90 original songs – in styles ranging from jazz to Brazilian choro, to ragtime, to swing, to classical compositions.

Mcdermott has played Carnegie Hall, the 92nd Street Y, most states in America and a couple dozen countries abroad. He’s been reviewed a half-dozen times by the “New York Times,” as well as the “Wall Street Journal,” “Rolling Stone” and other media; and has lectured at Harvard on New Orleans, American music and his unique house.

Sublette is an American composer, musician, record producer and author. His books include “The Year Before the Flood: A Story of New Orleans” and “The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square.” His most recent book, published with his wife Constance, is “The American Slave Coast,” which documents the slave-breeding industry that flourished in the 19th century US. Musically, he is known for fusing country-western and afro-Caribbean styles in his albums “Cowboy Rumba” (which reached Number 1 on the World Music Charts Europe) and “Kiss You Down South.”

His music label, Qbadisc, releases Cuban music in the US. In 2006, Willie Nelson released Sublette’s song “Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly Fond of Each Other” in the wake of the success of “Brokeback Mountain.” For the past several years, Sublette has organized and led “Postmambo” tours of Cuba and Haiti, exploring the intersections of music, dance and ritual, and how those expressions have shaped our world.

Lyme-Old Lyme High School hosts an ‘Open House for Prospective Students,’ Friday, March 29.

On Friday, March 29, Lyme-Old Lyme High School (LOLHS) welcomes prospective students who do not currently attend a Lyme-Old Lyme School and/or their parents to visit the high school during its Spring Open House for Prospective Students. 

In order to offer a customized experience for each prospective student and/or their parents, interviews are being offered throughout the day to accommodate varying schedules.  Each meeting with a school counselor will be preceded by a student-led tour of the high school. This format is intended to allow all attendees an opportunity to gain a general overview of the school and interact with current students, as well as to obtain answers to individual questions and information on curriculum, student opportunities and more.

In terms of the type of students and/or families the District is aiming to attract, Lyme-Old Lyme Schools Superintendent Ian Neviaser explains, “This event is offered for students in a variety of situations such as students whose families are looking to move to the area, students who reside here but attend private, parochial, or magnet schools, and tuition-paying students who live in other towns.”

Last year, LOLHS was named to the College Board’s US and Canada AP® District Honor Roll and consistently places in the top 10 percent in Connecticut SAT and SBAC scores.  Year after year, LOLHS graduates are accepted into a wide range of diverse and highly selective schools across the US and in some cases, internationally. The Lyme-Old Lyme School system has become a pipeline to the Ivy League schools and the “Little-Ivies” including such schools as Duke, MIT and Stanford.

Students hard at work in a Chinese class at Lyme-Old Lyme High School, where it is a popular elective subject.

Facilities at the high school are exceptional with state-of-the-art technology implemented throughout the building thanks to a $49 million renovation project completed in 2014. The math, science, language, and technology and engineering areas along with the art, music, drama and athletic facilities are of a quality and sophistication that resembles a college environment, rather than a high school.   

Current enrollment at LOLHS is 462 students across Grades 9 through 12 and the average class size is between 15 and 18. The school offers a full spectrum of core subjects taught in-house, including 17 Advanced Placement subjects, and also an extensive range of online classes taken through the Virtual High School program. Students also have the option to pursue the acclaimed Techno-Ticks robotics program along with more than 35 other extra-curricular clubs. 

The Lyme-Old Lyme High School Band has an exceptional reputation..

Lyme-Old Lyme High School enjoys exceptionally strong music, drama and art programs, which have been recognized with numerous awards both at the state level and nationally. The school’s athletic program has similarly received innumerable honors over the years and is proud to have several past, present and future Olympians among its alumni.

If you would like to attend this informative event, call Glynis Houde at 860-434-2255 to schedule your appointment. For further information, contact Tracy Lenz, Director of Guidance, at 860-434-2255 or lenzt@region18.org or James Wygonik, LOLHS Principal, at 860-434-1651 or wygonikj@region18.org.