QUChronicle.com March 5, 2014 Volume 83 Issue 21 Proud recipient of the New England Society of Newspaper Editors' award for 2012 & 2013 College Newspaper of the Year
SPORTS Tourney time, page 16
OPINION Make more time for sleep, page 7
ARTS & LIFE Radiating release, pages 9
Dancing for those who can’t
New app warns noisy neighbors By REBECCA CASTAGNA Staff Writer
Three seniors have teamed up to improve relations between Quinnipiac students and families living in Hamden. Connor Croteau, Stanley Martone and Thomas Nassr are the co-founders of Kricket, a new web application which allows neighbors to notify students that they are being too loud through an anonymous text message. They launched the app for beta testing on Saturday, March 1. Those who are registered on the site can send an automated message to noisy neighbors that reads, “Please quiet down,” and is followed up by a “Thank you.” Sending a Kricket is an intermediate step people can take before calling a resident assistant on campus, or the Hamden Police Department off campus. With these courtesy texts, the co-founders aim to avoid police involvement and improve relations between university students and families in the area. “It alleviates a lot of stress from the neighbor if they have this good relationship with their neighbor, with Quinnipiac students or even if it’s on campus, with fellow peers,” Martone said. Since the product launch, the Kricket team has recruited 60 houses See KRICKET Page 3
MATT EISENBERG/CHRONICLE
Nearly 600 people attended QTHON Saturday evening where the event raised $31,174.29 for the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center.
QTHON raises more than $31,000 ‘for the kids’ By ADEILA COUSER Staff Writer
When junior Ryan Laguna, president of Delta Tau Delta, attended Quinnipiac’s first QTHON in February 2012, he viewed it as “just another philanthropy event.” “I didn’t really get it at first,” Laguna said. “But what makes QTHON different is that you actually see what you’re changing and who you’re helping. You meet the families with young kids who come
to the event and share their stories, and that’s when it really hits home.” QTHON is a six-hour dance marathon organized by Delta Tau Delta. It is part of a nationwide student-run movement involving more than 150 schools who support Children’s Miracle Network hospitals. This year, 583 people attended Quinnipiac’s third QTHON event, raising $31,174.29 for the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in
Hartford. “I think QTHON 2014 was hands down the best QTHON yet,” Laguna said. “We more than doubled our participants from last year and we exceeded our goal of $30,000.” The last QTHON was in December 2012 and had 250 participants, Laguna said. The organization raised $20,100 for Connecticut Children’s Medical Center that year. “The way I always try to de-
scribe this event to people is ‘it’s not an event, it’s a feeling,’” Laguna said. “It’s something you really have to experience in order to get the full impact of what it does.” The event raises money for “miracle families” at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center who cannot afford treatment for their children. Eleven families were present at this See QTHON Page 8
Aspen Glen residents recover from fire By JULIA PERKINS News Editor
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J.P. Maguire Property Damage Cleanup and Reconstruction is restoring damaged apartments in the Aspen Glen apartment complex after a fire last week. The fire was caused by a cigarette.
Patti Floum was asleep at 11:30 p.m. last Monday when her phone rang. It was a maintenance worker at the Aspen Glen Apartments, telling her Building 3 in the complex was on fire. Not bothering to change out of her pajamas, Floum, the Regional Property Manager at Aspen Glen, threw on her snow boots and rushed in her car to the apartment complex. She stayed on the phone with the maintenance worker, and learned the building had been evacuated within minutes and no one was injured. “My biggest concern was the students and the rest of the occupants, that they were OK,” Floum said. The fire started because a resident dropped a cigarette near the building,
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Floum said. Police told Floum the resident was intoxicated, she said. “Instead of putting [the cigarette] out, he kicked it and it went against the building,” she said. “It caught on fire and the fire went up, outside of the building and once it got into the top, then the roof caught on fire and that’s when it got really bad.” The experience was “horrific,” Floum said. “As you can imagine, it’s devastating,” she said. “I never experienced a fire like that on our property.” The building was evacuated within minutes and the fire safety systems worked properly, Floum said. “All the fire equipment responded perfectly,” she said. “The sprinklers went off, the alarms went off, the fire See RECOVERY Page 5
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