Volume 13, Number 40
cheshirecitizen.com
Thursday, October 6, 2022
Lights of Hope to stage its final event on Nov. 12 Citizen staff
Cheshire’s annual Lights of Hope event will call it a night once this year’s luminary lighting is done. The organization provides support for a wide variety of community activities and needs. This year will be the 18th and final year for the local Lights of Hope luminary lighting tradition. The event is set for Saturday, Nov. 12. Organizers are calling it the “Grand Finale” and are seeking community help with the project. In a message from Don Walsh, posted on the organization’s website, the Lights of Hope president wrote about what the tradition has meant to the community and why the LOH board of directors made the decision to end it. He wrote: “The simple act of gathering neighbors and lighting a luminary has had a significant impact on our community. That is why it is with extremely mixed feelings that we have made the difficult decision to announce that this year’s luminary event on November 12, 2022, will be the final one for our organization.
A scene from the 2021 Lights of Hope event. Luminaries light up the Cheshire green.
“We have met with the Board of Directors and explained that the time commitment is incredible, and we feel that we have given as much as we possibly can to the organization. See Lights of Hope, A17
More HS graduates entering workforce By Jessica Simms Record-Journal staff
According to a survey conducted by Intelligent.com, nationally, “48% of non-enrolled young adults joined the When it comes to a future after high workforce instead of going to colschool, graduates have a variety of lege,” with 34% of 18-24 year-olds options including attending a fourwho aren’t enrolled in an institution year university, a two-year university, saying they cannot afford it. Around going straight into the workforce, 29% of young adults “say it’s a waste joining the military or pursuing a of money.” trade. Area high school staff have noMichelle Catucci, chair of the counticed an uptick in students going straight into the workforce, a trade or seling department at Cheshire High vocational school or attending a two- School, said there have been fewer year institution and a slim decline of Cheshire graduates going straight inthose pursuing a four-year college or to a four-year college than in past years. university degree.
Last year, 81% of graduates went directly into a four-year university, while the graduating class before them saw 79% go into a four-year university. In the past, however, the percentage was in the upper 80s. “Usually it’s because students are either going directly to work, they’re taking a gap year and then working while they’re in their gap year, things like that, rather than going directly to the four year college,” Catucci said. See Workforce, A14
Jodi Dutchyshyn, Cheshire’s Para-Educator of the Year. Submitted
Veteran educator honored Citizen staff
At its yearly Convocation Ceremony in late-August, Cheshire Public Schools named Jodi Dutchyshyn Para-educator of the Year. A former CCD teacher, Dutchyshyn, is an instructional assistant at Doolittle School, working with 94 firstgraders in five classrooms. She began her career in the public schools as a substitute in 2012, before moving full-time to her IA position at Doolittle. Dutchyshyn and other instructional assistants help manage and support students with behavorial and academic needs. Dutchyshyn said she draws on her time working at Darcey School, with kindergarteners, to help her current students transition to the elementary school. Also announced at the convocation, Dawn DeMeo, a Cheshire High School English teacher, was named District Teacher of the Year.