Newtown Rotary Honors Middle School Students

Three Newtown Middle School students were honored by Newtown Rotary for their outstanding contributions to community service in Newtown. The students were introduced by Rotarian Tony Salvatore, assistant principal of the middle school, and certificates of appreciation were given out by Newtown Rotary President Scott Senete to Heather Wilson, grade eight, Caitlin Kimball, grade seven, and Alex Hennessey, grade six.

Heather Wilson has volunteered her free time to many charitable organizations that depend on volunteers. However, the one dearest to her heart is HORSES, in Washington, Conn., which rehabilitates horses and finds homes for them. She is also part of the Governor’s Horse Guard in Newtown and every Saturday introduces autistic children to horseback riding as therapy. Heather plans to attend Nonnewaug High School to study horse breeding further and to continue to work with people and horses in positive ways.

Caitlin Kimball is an extremely dedicated and dynamic student involved in many extracurricular actives, including the school play, singing in the chorus, and volunteering her time to share her family’s invention, called “Family Table Time,” in which all proceeds are donated to charity. “Family Table Time” is a kit that includes a tablecloth and markers which are used at meal time to record family activities for the week as a way to touch base as a family. It has been written up in The Chicago Tribune, The Newtown Bee, and may even make it to The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Alex Hennessey wrote an essay on community service and serves food at ASHLAR House for Thanksgiving and Christmas. He also reads poetry to ASHLAR residents with his family. Alex sums up his experience by saying that “it feels pretty good to make people happy.”

The Newtown Rotary Club meets at the Fireside Inn every Monday at 6:15 pm. For more information call Ed Osterman at 426-0530.