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Thursday, May 7, 2015
ANDOVER
KIDSINSIDE
CLOWN TOWN RETURNS
Also, Award-winners, Scout news and more
FINAL-1 Tue, May 5, 2015 8:49:30 PM
For some, it’s the lure of carnival rides. Others can’t wait to test their luck — and skill — at some games and win some prizes. And then there’s the oh-so-hard-to-resist fair food tempting at every turn.
Plus, you’re never quite sure when you’ll run into someone with big loppy shoes.
Just try not having some fun at Clown Town.
The immensely popular family event — with rides that range from toddler-friendly to scream-illed — is set to take over The Park at Chestnut and Bartlet streets again next weekend.
And the two-day event hosted by The Andona Society of Andover promises to deliver all the amuse-ment that’s made it a crowd favorite for nearly six decades.
Like all good traditions, Clown Town is staying true to its main intent — to provide an old-fashioned carnival experience for local families while raising money for programs beneiting the town’s young people.
There are typically generations of families in attendance, as grand-parents treat their grandchildren to the same experiences their children once enjoyed.
“It’s the biggest outdoor event of
the year in the Andovers,” Heather K. Belson of Gould Road, who is handling publicity for Andona, wrote in an email.
Clown Town is and has always been the pride of The Andona Society, a charitable organization formed in 1952 when a group of ive Andover women were drawn together by the spirit of giving to varied causes. The name was cho-sen to relect “Andover” combined
with the Latin verb “to give.”Back then, the organization
allowed women, many of whom were stay-at-home mothers, a chance to socialize with other women around town. One of the group’s irst charitable donations was to the Andover Home for Aged
People. Andona members visited its residents, remembered them with cards on their birthdays and pur-chased equipment for the home.
Early fundraisers included dances, fashion shows, bake sales and plays. By 1956, Andona estab-lished a calendar of fundraisers — a
fall dance, mid-winter event, after-noon Bridge in the Spring and the organization favorite Clown Town.
Clown Town has endured. This year, the fun opens Friday, May 15, from 6 to 10 p.m. with the carnival rides, a DJ and pizza. The Wacky
Send in the CLOWNS
BY JUDY WAKEFIELD
[email protected] IF YOU GO
CLOWN TOWN 2015What: Annual carnival for kids and fami-lies, presented by The Andona Society of AndoverWhen: Friday, May 15, 6 to 10 p.m.; Satur-day, May 16, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. (Heavy rain postponement date Sunday, May 17, noon to 6 p.m.)Where: The Park, Chestnut and Bartlet streets, downtown AndoverTips: Avoid the lines for the amusement rides as carnival ride tickets may be purchased in advance; credit cards will be accepted. Bring some extra spending money for the yard sale taking place Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Join the clowns: Volunteers are needed. Middle and high school students are being recruited for two-hour shifts to help staff the rides on Saturday, May 16.More information: Visit www.andona.org
Evie O’Brien, right, enjoys a ride with her dad, Jim, on the Sizzler during last year’s Clown Town.
File photos
When the weather cooperates, The Andona Society’s annual Clown Town is one of the more popular events of the year in Andover. The fundraiser to benefit local youth programs often brings out the entire community.
See CLOWN TOWN, Page S3
Andona Society’s popular spring carnival ready to bring back the fun
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33 Bartlett StreetLowell, MA 01852978.452.2200Fax: 978.441.2550
506 Groton RoadWestford, MA 01886
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FINAL-1 Tue, May 5, 2015 8:49:34 PM
Candy Shack — the 20-foot mobile candy shop — will return and promises to be very fun for kids as they go in one door and out another with arms illed with the sweet stuff.
On Saturday, May 16, things really get rolling with a day of face painting, sand art, games, hair glitter, Mad Mag-gie’s slush, Papa Gino’s pizza, Ultimate Perk coffee and doughnuts, and, of course, the carnival rides and clowns. Activities go from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. There will be a yard sale, too, on Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
This year’s key “Big Top” sponsors are Stop & Shop and Lannan Mazda, with many more businesses offer-ing their support in inancial ways and otherwise.
“Andona relies heavily on support from local busi-nesses, and they don’t ever disappoint, even when times
are tough,” Belson wrote.The event typically raises
nearly $35,000 and all that money gets pumped back
into town through programs for kids, including school and community offerings, thou-sands of dollars in high school
scholarships and camper-ships to youngsters whose families need help paying for summer activities.
In addition to its member-ship, Andona relies on a number of youth volunteers to help stage the event, with youngsters who have beneited from a grant, high-schoolers and children of members often eager to help. This year, with the Andover High School prom also scheduled for the Satur-day of Clown Town, Andona
is looking more toward local middle-schoolers for support.
Numerous middle-school-ers, many of whom have com-pleted Andona’s baby-sitting course, have stepped forward to run face painting and hair braiding and glitter booths as well as to lend a hand with set-up and clean-up for the event. Belson said Andona is grateful for their support.
CLOWN TOWN � Continued from Page S2
Christina Feuz and her 19-month-old daughter, Marie, watch people enjoy the dizzy dragon ride at a past Clown Town event.
File photos
Passing showers, some heavy at times, didn’t dampen the spirits or the crowd during the first night of Clown Town last year.
A family whirls around in the dragon ride during the annual Clown Town weekend.
A girl flips upside down above the crowd on a vertical reality ride during a past Clown Town weekend.
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FINAL-1 Tue, May 5, 2015 8:49:36 PM
After three-hour gym-nastics team practices, you might expect to ind 13-year-old Anna Living-stone chilling out on the couch or resting in her room.
But that’s not how this eighth-grade high honors student at West Middle School rolls.
At home, she can be found walking on her hands or doing handstands on the narrow, 12-foot-long beam that’s about 6 inches high, which is set up in her fam-ily’s living room.
“She inds it hard to stay off her hands ...,” her father, Rick Livingstone, said. “Gymnastics really is a passion for her. She truly is living and breathing gymnastics all the time.”
That focus and discipline has paid off for Livingstone. Earlier this year, she won the coveted irst-place tro-phy for overall performance in the Girls Gymnastic State Championship, held at Holyoke Community Col-lege in Holyoke. The overall award goes to the gymnast with the highest marks combined on the balance beam, parallel bars, pom-mel horse and loor.
While she excels at all of the disciplines, Living-stone said her favorite apparatus is the parallel bars because she said she feels free as she moves from the higher bar to the lower bar.
Wholly comfortable in front of an audience of peers and adults and the watchful eye of judges, she has proven she doesn’t wilt under pressure. She was the inal contestant among a group of seven gymnasts at her level to compete at the states, but the wait didn’t bother her.
“No, I was not nervous. ... I just had to stay focused on what I was going to do,” said Livingstone, whose favorite subjects in school are math and science.
Livingstone, who trains at Wilkey’s Gymnastics in Tewksbury, started gym-nastics at 4 years old. Over the years, she’s been a big fan of Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci, who won her Olympic gold medals well before the teen was born. Comaneci was the irst female gymnast to be awarded a perfect score of 10 on a routine.
“I like her because she was different. ... I watch her videos all the time ... she’s fun to watch,” Livingstone said.
Rick Livingstone said he is not surprised about his daughter’s afinity for gym-nastics as she has “Czech blood in her from her mom, Zuzana,” he said.
“Anna has watched and studied Nadia Comaneci and has a goal of
representing the USA in the Olympics,” he said.
Now, with her irst-place trophy, she’s on her way.
All-around champBY JUDY WAKEFIELD
COURTESY PHOTOS
Gymnast Anna Livingstone
Rising gymnast dreams of being the next Nadia
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FINAL-1 Tue, May 5, 2015 8:49:37 PM
For his Eagle Scout project, 16-year-old Henry Duerr of Andover wanted to work on a project that was personally meaning-ful to him and beneicial to local kids. The result: a new traverse rock climbing wall at the Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence.
“My little brother donated a bunch of basketballs to the club for his bar mitzvah project a year ago. I had to one-up him,” joked Duerr, a junior at Andover High School, in a press release.
After receiving approval in December, Duerr planned the scope of the project, solicited donated materials, raised $600 and oversaw his fellow Scouts and other vol-unteers in building the wall over four work days.
The 16-foot-long by 8-foot-high wall was completed
with rock-climbing holds donated by Boston Rock Gym.
“When we were putting up the wall, a lot of kids were asking if they could try it,” said Duerr, a member of Venturing Crew 7 of Chelms-ford, a co-ed program for Scouts ages 14 to 20.
“The fact they immediately took to it and thought it looks fun made me feel good.”
Duerr said he has become passionate about rock climbing since learning the sport three years ago. He got the idea for his Eagle Scout project last summer at Camp Aleksey in Plymouth, N.H., where his coach built a climbing wall for the camp-ers’ use when they couldn’t make it to the crag.
He said constructing a similar wall at the Boys & Girls Club appealed to him for several reasons. He said club members, who range
in age from 7 to 18, are a good age for a climbing wall. Plus, the club’s emphasis on healthy living made the wall a natural it. He said the life skills that can come from climbing, including patience, discipline and cre-ative problem solving, make the wall a beneicial addi-tion to the club.
Duerr said he believes there are club members like himself who prefer a challenging yet supportive activity as opposed to the competitive nature of other team sports. With rock climbing, he said there are no limits to the boundaries that can be pushed.
“The Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence does good work, and this is something differ-ent for the kids to do with a little lavor of Henry,” Duerr said. “My goal is to have an impact on the sport of climb-ing, whether it’s discovering
a new route or new crag, or spawning a whole genera-tion of little climbers.
“If I hear a famous climber interviewed some-day who says they started climbing at the Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence, that would make me happier than anything.”
The Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence provides a safe, after-school haven for more than 3,800 young people to come for hot meals, homework help, itness and nutrition programs, college and career plan-ning, and lasting personal relationships.
The club offers programs focusing on academic suc-cess, healthy lifestyles, and community involvement at two locations — the Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence at 136 Water St., and the Bea-con Boys & Girls Club at 71 Duckett Ave.
Scaling new heightsCourtesy photo
Sixteen-year-old Henry Duerr of Andover poses with members of the Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence at the traverse rock-climbing wall that he saw constructed at the club for his Eagle Scout project.
Eagle Scout candidate brings rock-climbing passion to Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence
STAFF REPORTS
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FINAL-1 Tue, May 5, 2015 8:49:40 PM
The science honors continue to come for a West Middle School eighth-grader. And now his younger brother is getting into the act, too.
Floyd Greenwood, 14, recently topped the com-petition at the Northeast Regional Science Fair for his project involving selec-tively breeding algae.
His 11-year-old brother, Kyle, wasn’t far behind, placing third with his self-balancing robot.
The brothers will now advance to the statewide science competition on June 6 at Worcester Techni-cal High School.
Floyd Greenwood’s project, which was also a inalist in a national sci-ence fair in recent months, is based on global warm-ing, which he said is his passion. He has created a device to measure carbon dioxide levels in the hopes
of breeding algae that can absorb it, helping with the problem.
In working on the project, he said he has developed several skills, “from grow-ing, maintaining and selec-tively breeding the algae, to cleaning lab equipment, to the electrical engineering and programming skills I needed to build the CO2 sen-sor.” He credits the support and encouragement of his parents and his mentor, sev-enth-grade science teacher Sheila Harrington, for his success.
Kyle Greenwood, mean-while, worked to create a different type of balancing robot using a sensor that can anticipate when it is beginning to tip and level it off. He appropriately named it “Tippy.”
“Most people create bal-ancing robots the way a Segway works. ... The bot-tom moves to stay under the center of gravity,” he said. “My robot shifts its weight back and forth to balance more like a person.”
The boys inherited their love of science from their parents, Floyd and Een, as well as their paternal grandfather.
“We’re obviously proud of them,” father Floyd Gren-wood said. “But the most important thing to my wife and I is that they’re taking on a project and pursuing it. We are pleased that they have made such a big invest-ment in time and energy into their projects. We like that they’re curious about the world.”
Young scientists: Brothers excel at regional fair
BY TIM LIMA
Courtesy photo
Floyd Greenwood, right, and his younger brother, Kyle, placed first and third, respectively, at the recent Northeast Regional Science Fair.
TO THE TEST
Other West Middle School students who competed at the Northeast Regional Science Fair, and their featured proj-ects, include:Jaswin Hargun: The effect that quarantines have on infectious diseasesPhillip Ko: Food Energy 8Alice Yu: Is Massachusetts ready for electric vehicles?
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FINAL-1 Tue, May 5, 2015 8:49:41 PM
SHED Children’s Campus, 65 Phillips St., Andover, is holding open houses for its day programs next week.
The open house for the Springboard to Kindergar-ten program will be held on Tuesday, May 12, and pro-spective Monarch Preschool and Minds in Motion students may visit on Wednesday, May 13. The open houses go from 7 to 8 p.m., but families are wel-come to arrive at 6:30 p.m. to explore the campus grounds.
Springboard to Kinder-garten is for children turn-ing 5 by Dec. 31. Monarch Preschool is for ages 3 to 4. Minds in Motion is a half-day enrichment program that compliments half-day public kindergarten. The campus currently serves 450 families, with programs for children and youths ages 2.9 to 15 offered throughout the school year and summer.
Since 2011, under the lead-ership of Executive Director Linda Shottes-Bouchard, the organization has been seek-ing inspiration from the Ital-ian Reggio Emilia Approach, which stresses mindfulness and community partner-ships. Programs incorporate outdoor exploration, mindful practices and community engagement.
SHED (Shawsheen Extended Day) originated in September 1984 in collabora-tion with the Department of Community Services. The original program included 18 kindergarten-aged children. The next year, SHED was incorporated as a nonproit organization overseen by a board of directors.
In 1988, SHED purchased a portable structure to be placed on the premises of the Shawsheen School, which allowed enrollment to increase to 76 kindergarten-aged children.
In 1991, SHED opened Kid’s Club, a program for irst- through ifth-graders, with an opening enrollment of 38. Enrollment reached 80
by the following year. The fol-lowing year, the organization began operating before-school programs in all of Andover’s elementary schools.
In 1995, Kid’s Club relo-cated to the Korean Church on Route 133 in Andover. Enrollment was at 120, with 80 on a waiting list.
In October 1997, SHED began a renovation/building project on the campus of Phil-lips Academy for its kinder-garten program and a new Kid’s Club site. The project was completed by May 1998. That June, SHED opened its irst summer camp for 50 children.
In March 2002, SHED was accredited by the National School Age Care Alliance, making it one of only nine in Massachusetts and one of 325 nationally to achieve the top school-age programming
accreditation.In September 2003, SHED
piloted a new readiness program called Spring-board to Kindergarten for children who turned 5 in July or August and who needed “another year to grow” before entering kindergarten.
In August 2011, Little Adventures at Play, offered in ive- to six-week sessions, was launched as an enrich-ment program for children ages 2 1/2 to 5.
That fall, the organization adopted the name SHED Children’s Campus to relect the diverse range of pro-grams offered to children, young people and families in the area. In addition, SHED Children’s Campus began seeking inspiration for the Italian Reggio Emilia Approach.
Open houses at SHED Children’s Campus
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FINAL-1 Tue, May 5, 2015 8:49:42 PM
ANA Synchro athletes won every team routine competition they entered as well as 12 irst-place rib-bons and eight second-place ribbons at the New England Synchronized Swimming Association Intermediate Championships and Novice Invitational in Beverly last month.
“This is the fun part of the season, when the hard work from earlier in the year comes together in strong routine swims,” head coach Leah Pinette said in a release. “Many of these girls are just in their irst or second year of swimming synchro. I’m so proud of how far they’ve come in such a short time, and I look forward to con-tinuing to work with them to keep getting better and better.”
The meet drew more than 110 athletes from six teams across Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
ANA Synchro is the competitive synchronized swimming team of the Andover/North Andover YMCA. Girls ages 6 to 19
wishing to join the team or try the sport for the irst time should contact Pinette at 978-685-3541 or by email at [email protected]. Introductory “Synchro Splash” sessions meet twice a week and are held regularly throughout the year.
The team hosts its annual show on Sunday, May 17, with performances at 1 and 4 p.m. at the Andover/North Andover YMCA. For more information on the show or ANA Synchro, visit www.anasynchro.org.
RESULTS
10 & Under IntermediateTeam: First place — Lily
Brown, Hannah Chen, Rachel Cordio, Mara Duran-Clark, Annabel Tu and Sophia Xu, Andover; Eleanor Kahn and Erika Wojcik, North Andover
Solo: Wojcik, irstDuet: Brown and Cordio,
irst; Chen and Tu, secondFigures (technical ele-
ments): Brown, irst; Tu, second; Wojcik, third; Cordio, fourth; Chen, ifth;
Duran-Clark, sixth; Kahn, seventh; Xu, eighth
11-12 IntermediateTeam: First place — Mariana
Boullie, Bridget Mahoney,
Soia Sampedro and Aisling Stack, Andover; Anye Kachu-lis-Moriarty, North Andover; Madeline Koenig, North Reading; Isabella Hesselton, Pelham, N.H.
Solo: B. Mahoney, irstDuet: Sampedro and Stack,
secondTrio: Hesselton, Kachulis-
Moriarty and Koenig, irstFigures: B. Mahoney, third;
Stack, fourth; Kachulis-Moriarty, ifth; Koenig, sev-enth; Hesselton, eighth
13 & Over IntermediateTeam: First —Mia Hayes
and Ysabella Ouyang, Andover; Caitlin Robinson, North Andover; Anusha Tandon, Acton; Alexandra Zvagelsky, Derry, N.H.
Solo: Robinson, irstDuet: Ouyang and Hayes,
irstFigures: Robinson, irst;
Ouyang, ifth; Tandon, eighth
9-10 Novice Team: First — Caroline
Bedard, Isabella Falco, Julie Mahoney, Kate McCready and Athena Zhang, Andover; Mercy Rule, North Andover; Genesis Nunez, Lawrence; Ashley Morin, Dracut
Duet: J. Mahoney and McCready, second
Figures: J. Mahoney,
fourth; McCready, ifth; Falco, sixth; Morin, seventh; Bedard, eighth
11-12 NoviceFigures: Jill Shechter,
Andover, second
13 & Over NoviceSolo: Clara Dambach,
North Andover, secondDuet: Dambach and Shech-
ter, secondFigures: Dambach, secondJust before the Beverly
meet, Pinette was in Mor-aga, Calif., with six ANA Synchro athletes at the U.S. National Synchronized Swimming Championships.
Grace Alwan of Andover and Maxie Zimmerman of North Andover placed ninth in the Senior Duet, an event that primarily featured college-age athletes and one Olympian.
Alwan and Sophia Ju of Andover also placed 12th in the 13-15 Age Group Duet.
Next up for ANA Synchro are the early May qualify-ing rounds for Junior Olym-pics, which will be held in late June in Greensboro, N.C.
ANA Synchro sweeps team events at New England meet
Several ANA Synchro athletes took home top prizes in the 2015 East Zone Age Group Synchronized Swimming Invitational held recently in Yonkers, N.Y.
The team, based out of the Andover/North Andover YMCA, is open to girls ages 6 to 19. Head coach Leah Pinette said she was proud of her squad’s performance in the pool, saying the meet had a “very strong” showing from her team.
Most notably, Caitlin Robinson and Erika Wojcik, both of North Andover, took home gold medals. While Robinson inished tops in Solo and Figures for the 13-15 age group, Wojcik bested the competition in Solo for the 10 and under class.
Team Results10 and Under Team: Silver
Medal — Lily Brown, Han-nah Chen, Rachel Cordio, Mara Duran-Clark, Annabel Tu and Sophia Xu, Andover; and Eleanor Kahn and Erika Wojcik, North Andover.
11-12 Team: Silver Medal — Mariana Boullie, Bridget Mahoney, Soia Sampedro and Aisling Stack, Andover; Anye Kachulis-Moriarty, North Andover; Madeline Koenig, North Reading; and Isabella Hesselton, Pelham, N.H.
13-Plus Team: Sixth Place — Mia Hayes and Ysabella Ouyang, Andover, Caitlin Robinson, North Andover; Alexandra Zvagelsky, Derry, N.H.
Individual ResultsSolo: Under 10, Wojcik,
gold; 11-12, Mahoney, fourth; 13-plus, Robinson, gold
Duet: Under 10, Brown and Cordio, silver; Chen and Tu, fourth; 11-12, Sampedro and Stack, seventh
Trio: 11-12, Hesselton, Kachulis-Moriarty and Koe-nig, bronze
Figure: Under 10, Wojcik, fourth; Brown, ifth; and Cordio, ninth; 13-plus, Rob-inson, gold; Ouyang, 12th
Age Group Team ResultsSolo: Under 12, Noa Mar-
golin, Andover, ifthDuet: Under 12, Olivia
Liera, Andover, and Maitri Naik, Methuen, seventh; Over 16, Naomi Turner, Andover, and Laila Cross, North Andover, silver
Figures: Under 12, Margo-lin, 11th
Strong showing for ANA Synchro at East Zone Invitational
Courtesy photo
ANA Synchro Intermediate Team athletes competing at the New England Synchronized Swimming Association Intermediate Championships and Novice Invitational in Beverly, are, bottom row, from left, Lily Brown, Eleanor Kahn, Erika Wojcik, Annabel Tu, Hannah Chen and Sofia Sampedro; middle row, from left, Rachel Cordio, Mara Duran-Clark, Sophia Xu, Aisling Stack, Mia Hayes and Bridget Mahoney; and top row, from left, head coach Leah Pinette, coach Zsu Zsa Belhazy-Kovacs, Anusha Tandon, Alexandra Zvagelsky, Ysabella Ouyang, Caitlin Robinson, Mariana Boullie, Anye Kachulis-Moriarty, Madeline Koenig, Isabella Hesselton and coach Kelly Mahoney.
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(978) 475-5919 | www.andoverschoolofballet.comlocated at 14 Park St. - P.O. Box 5070 - Andover MA 01810
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FINAL-1 Tue, May 5, 2015 8:49:43 PM
Two Optima Synchro teammates from Andover have been appointed to the USA Synchro National Team.
Lindi Schroeder and Caitlin Klauer recently com-peted in Phase 2 of The USA National Team Trials in Moraga, Calif. Phase 2 con-sisted of the athletes com-pleting both an individual and group swim as well as igures. These scores were combined with their score from Phase 1 to determine the top 12 athletes chosen for the 2015 National Team.
Schroeder placed irst overall among the 13-15 age group and Klauer placed irst in her swims for a spot on the Junior National Team for ages 15-18. It represents Klauer’s third appoint-ment to the National Team and Schroeder’s fourth.
Optima head coach Svet-lana Malinovskaya has been selected to be the head coach of the 13-15 National Team.
Schroeder and Klauer will be training six to eight hours a day in California
and Las Vegas this summer before traveling to Calgary, Canada, to represent the USA in The UANA Pan American Synchronized Swimming Championships Aug. 16 to 22. The event is presented every summer in a different country.
During the six days of
competition in Calgary, swimmers from the 12 and under, 13-15, Junior and Senior age groups will be competing in four events — Solo, Duet, Team and Free Combination. In all, 200-plus athletes from more than 15 countries are expected to compete with their teams.
Optima pair score repeat National Team appointments
Andover’s Optima Syn-chronized swimming team came home big winners from the 2015 U.S. National Synchronized Swimming Championship in Moraga, Calif., this spring, claim-ing the junior combination event national title.
Head coach Svetlana Malinovskaya credited hard work and dedication for the team’s continuing success.
Here are the full results:
Junior TeamOPTIMA’s Junior Team
finished with the gold medal in the Combo Free Event category. The team was comprised of Nicole Carzo, Kimberly Feng, Sachiko Hagiya, Georgina Hutchison, Caitlin Klauer and Melissa Zhang, all of Andover; Jillian Bohrer of North Andover, and Lily Zemelko of Derry, N.H.
Junior Figures: Klauer, fourth, junior figures; also, fifth, junior solos
Team: Bohrer, Carzo, Feng, Hagiya, Hutchison, Klauer, Zemelko and Zhang, eighth
13-15 Age GroupFree Routine: Aleah
Davidsen, Sydney Ho, Anna Lang, Emily Ma, Katie MacDonald, Reverie Nedde, Rebecca Page, Lindi Schroeder, Riley Spring, all of Andover; and Jennifer Li, Concord, silver
Solo: Schroeder, silver, solo; also, silver, figures
Team: Ho, Lang, Li, Ma, Nedde, Page, Schroeder and Spring, fourth
Duet: Schroeder and Li, fourth
For more information on Optima Synchro, visit www.optimasynchro.com.
National win for Optima Synchro junior combo
Courtesy photo
Optima Synchro’s Caitlin Klauer, left, and Lindi Schroeder, right, were both selected for the national synchro teams in their respective age groups. They pose with Optima coach Svetlana Malinovskaya, who will coach Schroeder on the 13-15 National Team. All three are from Andover.
Courtesy photo
Members of the Optima Synchro Junior Team, who won the gold medal in the Junior Combo Event during the National Competition this spring, include, from left, Sachiko Hagiya, Lily Zemelko, Caitlin Klauer, Melissa Zhang, Nicole Carzo, Georgina Hutchison, Jillian Bohrer, Kimberly Feng and coach Yuhong Zhang.
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Summer Junior Tennis Programs at the Willows
The Willows Racquet Club815 Turnpike Street • Route 114
978-687-0505
* Weekly sessions run throughout thesummer. F irstWeekly session startsJune 22nd.
* Our junior tennis programs welcomeboys and girls, ages 4 to 17 of all levels(from beginners through tournamentplayers).
* Our programs are open to members andnon-members of the Willows.
Camp DirectorsIgor Korik • 603-502-3480
Domenick Iacovo • 361-834-7808
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Courtesy Photo
Eissa Albinali, 9, of Andover, shows off the Angry Bird design that he chose for his face painting during Simon Kidgits Club’s Carnival Fun at Northshore Mall in Peabody. Sponsored by the YMCA of Metro North, the event celebrated the start of April School Vacation Week and included a variety of carnival-themed games, face painting and more.
Face painting fun
Registration is now open for Northern Essex Commu-nity College’s STEM College for Kids summer program — a four-week series of workshops for children ages 9 to 14. The program, which will run from July 6 through July 31 on the Haverhill campus, 100 Elliott St., will feature a variety of science, technology, engineering, math (STEM) and arts courses.
New this year are sev-eral STEM-music hybrid courses that combine the artistry of songwriting with technical elements. Music Technology will teach stu-dents how to make songs from the elements of music through the use of modern music technology software tools. Students will learn about the fundamentals of chords and progressions on their instruments of choice and be introduced to basic and intermediate music notation.
LEGO MindStorms, mean-while, will test students’ power of logic, creativity and problem-solving skills to construct and program robot models. Students will work in small groups to build real robots using a mix of LEGO parts, motors and sensors.
Other courses include 3D Modeling for the Aspiring Engineer, Bridge Building, Cartooning, Crazy Chemis-try, Green Engineering, Spa Chemistry and more.
The courses run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. Each ive-day morning and mid-day session costs $75 and each ive-day afternoon session is $70. The cost for full-time enrollment, which is three sessions daily for ive days, is $220. Registration includes a non-refundable $40 fee. For more information, visit www.necc.mass.edu/community-engagement/college-for-kids.
STEM College for Kids registering
at NECCFor years, parents of babies
who seem likely to develop a peanut allergy have gone to extremes to keep them away from peanut-based foods. Now a major study suggests that is exactly the wrong thing to do.
Exposing infants like these to peanuts before age 1 actu-ally helped prevent a peanut allergy, lowering that risk by as much as 81 percent, doctors found. Instead of provoking an allergy, early exposure seemed to help build tolerance.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, direc-tor of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, called the results “without precedent” and said in a statement that they “have the potential to trans-form how we approach food allergy prevention.”
His agency helped fund the study, the largest and most rigorous test of this concept. Results were published online last month in the New England Journal of Medicine and discussed at an Ameri-can Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology conference in Houston.
A big warning, though: The babies in the study were checked to make sure they didn’t already have a peanut allergy before they were fed foods that included peanuts, so parents of babies thought to be at risk for an allergy should not try this on their own.
“Before you even start any kind of introduction, these children need to be skin-tested” to prevent life-threatening reactions, said Dr. Rebecca Gruchalla, an allergy specialist at the Uni-versity of Texas Southwest-ern Medical Center in Dallas.
Also, small children can choke on whole peanuts, so smooth peanut butter or other peanut-based foods are
safer, said Gruchalla, who wrote a commentary on the study in the journal.
The main inding — that early exposure to a problem food may keep it from becom-ing a long-term problem — should change food guide-lines quickly, she predicted.
“Isn’t it wild? It’s counterin-tuitive in certain ways and in other ways it’s not,” she said.
Peanut allergies have doubled over the last decade and now affect more than 2 percent of kids in the United States and growing numbers of them in Africa, Asia and elsewhere. Peanuts are the leading cause of food allergy-related severe reactions and deaths. Unlike many other allergies, this one is not out-grown with age.
Food allergies often are inherited, but research sug-gests they also can develop after birth and that age of exposure may affect whether they do. Research-ers at King’s College London started this study after notic-ing far higher rates of peanut allergies among Jewish chil-dren in London who were not given peanut-based foods in infancy compared to others in Israel who were.
The study involved more
than 600 children ages 4 months to 11 months old in England. All were thought to be at risk for a peanut allergy because they were allergic to eggs or had eczema, a skin condition that’s a frequent allergy symptom.
All had been given skin-prick tests to make sure they were not already allergic to peanuts. They were put into two groups — 530 who did not show signs of peanut allergy and 98 others with mild-to-moderate reactions, suggesting an allergy might be developing.
Half of each group was assigned to avoid peanuts and the other half was told to consume them each week, usually as peanut butter or a snack called Bamba, a peanut-lavored puff.
The results at 5 years of age:
� Among children with no sign of allergy on the skin test: Only 2 percent of peanut eaters developed a peanut allergy versus 14 percent of abstainers.
� Among children with some reaction to peanuts on the skin test: Only 11 percent of peanut eaters developed an allergy versus 35 percent of abstainers.
Hospitalizations and seri-ous reactions were about the same in all groups.
Questions remain. How much peanut protein do infants need to consume, how often and for how long, to avoid allergy? If a child stops eating peanuts for a while, will an allergy develop? Would the same approach work for other foods such as milk, eggs and tree nuts?
“These questions must be addressed, but we believe that because the results of this trial are so compel-ling, and the problem of the increasing prevalence of pea-nut allergy so alarming, new guidelines should be forth-coming very soon,” Gruchalla and Dr. Hugh Sampson of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York wrote in the medical journal.
American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines used to recommend against giving children foods with peanuts before age 3, but that advice was dropped in 2008 because there was no evidence it was preventing allergies. Now, most parents introduce pea-nut-based foods as is appro-priate for the child’s age, like other solid foods.
Gruchalla thinks that babies with some signs of a peanut allergy risk, such as parents who are aller-gic, should have a skin test between 4 and 8 months of age. If it’s negative, they should be started on peanut products as the babies in this study were. If they show some sensitivity to peanuts, a “food challenge” monitored by a doctor experienced at this should be tried.
For children who already have peanut allergies, researchers have been experimenting with small regular amounts of exposure to try to train them to toler-ate those foods. But these are still experimental and must be done with the help of a doctor.
Early peanut exposure helps prevent allergies in kids
BY MARILYNN MARCHIONE
AP chief medical writer
AP PHOTO/Patrick Sison
For years, parents of babies who seem likely to develop a peanut allergy have gone to extremes to keep them away from peanut-based foods. Now, a major study suggests that is exactly the wrong thing to do.
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The PMC Wilmington-Andover Kids Ride to support Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Jimmy Fund will be held Sunday, May 17, from 9 a.m. to noon, rain or shine, from the Boutwell Early Childhood Center at Boutwell Elementary School on Carter Lane in Wilmington.
Now in its 10th year, the ride hopes to attract 200 chil-dren from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade to ride continuous 1-mile loops around the area. The children will ride the course, which will be closed to trafic, as many times as they can in the allotted time. Kindergartners
and irst-graders will ride from 9 to 9:30 a.m., second- and third-graders will ride from 9:45 to 10:30 a.m., and fourth- through sixth-graders will ride from 10:45 to 11:45 a.m.
There will also be a route for “tykes on trikes” set up on the Boutwell School ten-nis courts from 9 to about 10 a.m. The event will also fea-ture free face painting, music and refreshments.
Started by Sue Hendee and Carolyn Priem, the event has raised more than $135,000 to help ight cancer. Hendee is a 25-year Pan-Mass Challenge rider and a physical education
teacher in Wilmington. Priem’s son was treated at the Jimmy Fund Clinic and is now a healthy high school student.
An $18,000 fundraising goal has been set for this year. Riders who turn in their $15 registration fee and raise an additional $25 will receive a PMC Kids T-shirt, water bottle and “goodie” bag. Items from the Pan-Mass Challenge organization will be rafled off and larger prizes will be awarded to those raising addi-tional funds.
For more information or to register, visit www.kids.pmc.org, go to “Rides,” and click on “Wilmington-Andover.”
PMC Wilmington-Andover Ride pedaling off May 17
Andover’s newest young author Citra Tenore will highlight her recently published novel, “Summer with a Twist,” at a book launch on Saturday, May 30, at 2 p.m. at Memorial Hall Library, 2 North Main St., Andover.
The Doherty Middle School student will read excerpts from her novel and discuss how she wrote and published the book as well as her plans for a sequel.
Other May events in the Children’s Room:
Crazy 8’s Math Club, Thurs-days, May 7, 14, 21 and 28, 4 p.m. The recreational after-school club helps kids ages 6 to 7 appreciate the math that’s all around them. Space is limited; registra-tion begins one week before each session.
Alpha-buddies, Thursday, May 14, 1:30 p.m. Celebrate a single letter of the alpha-bet through stories, songs,
games and activities. For ages 4 to 5 with an adult. Register the name of the child attending the program online.
Animal Cracker Club, Thurs-day, May 19, 3:30 p.m. Share a variety of books and activities that center on a particular animal, and enjoy an animal cracker snack. For ages 5 to 6. Reg-ister online.
Literacy Story Time, Fri-day, May 22, 10 a.m. Mas-sachusetts Coordinated Family and Community Engagement will conduct a preschool literacy story time. For ages 3 to 5 with an adult.
STEAM: Caps for Sale, Sat-urday, May 23, 2:30 p.m. Parents and children will participate in a number of activities that center around the book, “Caps for Sale.” After sharing the story, there will be a vari-ety of activities that involve science, engineering,
art and mathematics, all of which are meant to enhance the literary experience.
Around the World in 30 Minutes, Tuesday, May 26, 11 a.m. Explore different languages through songs, rhymes, stories and games. For infants through age 5 and an adult who are native speakers and those who want to expose their child to different lan-guages and cultures at an early age.
Dads and Doughnuts, Sat-urday, May 30, 10 a.m. This story time targets dads and children ages 2 to 5, although all are welcome. After stories, songs, rhymes and a craft, share coffee, juice and doughnuts.
Registration is requested for all events.
Visit www.mhl.org/eventcalendar or call 978-623-8401, ext. 31, to sign up or for more information.
�WHAT’S HAPPENING: MEMORIAL HALL LIBRARY CHILDREN’S ROOM
PAUL BILODEAU/Staff photo
The Fairy Tale Players Educational Theater for Children performs “Three Little Pigs and One Snappy Wolf” during April School Vacation Week at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Andover.
A Fairy Tale S
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