
Kindergartener Samuel Johnson, 5, made his experiment about crystals; his brother, first grader Emmett, 7, was into volcanoes.
Judith O’Hara Balfe
Kindergartener Samuel Johnson, 5, made his experiment about crystals; his brother, first grader Emmett, 7, was into volcanoes.
AMENIA — The 10th annual STEAM Fair from the Webutuck Teachers’ Association took place Saturday, Feb. 24, in the gym of Webutuck’s Eugene Brooks Intermediate School (EBIS).
The STEAM Fair — STEAM stands for “Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math” — featured presentations, research projects, and experiments by about 50 participants, all Webutuck students from across the district, grades K-12).
Several round tables held two exhibits, and while there were two or three scenarios involving volcanoes, the projects were varied and creative.
The student participants came up with their concepts, constructed them, and then stood with them throughout the fair, capably presenting their work to the Listeners, Judges and other visitors.
Many parents, grandparents and siblings there to cheer them on.
Co-chairs Danielle Fridstrom and Christine Gillette were helped by Judges and a team of Listeners, which included seven students in addition to teachers and staff.
The Listeners visited each project, and listened as each student explained what part or parts of STEAM their project dealt with, why they chose that particular project, and how they created the exhibit, as well as how something worked and what the expected result would be.
The STEAM Fair is a teaching tool, but it is also fun, according to most of the students. There was a competitive spirit; awards and prizes given out after the judging concluded.
Fridstrom said, at the conclusion of the fair: “Thank you to all who helped make our 10th annual Webutuck STEAM Fair possible. We had almost 50 participants show up today, seven student listeners, and over 20 volunteer staff members.”
Special awards for grades K-4
Visual Communications Award: Caroline Eschbach, fourth grade — water purification; Lilliana Nelson, third grade — coral reefs; and Nolan Veach, third grade — lava lamps.
Innovation Award: Cassidy Brennan, fourth grade — dog treats; Carlos Lopez Giron, fourth grade, and Cody Deister, first grade — volcanic eruption.
MacGyver Award: Caleb Dennis, third grade — popsicle catapult; Henry Eschbach, second grade — lemon battery; and Emmett Johnson, second grade — volcanoes.
DaVinci Award: Kyra Whalen, fourth grade — wiggle bot; Connor Deister, first grade — busy bees; Samual Johnson, kindergarten — crystal growth.
EBIS (grades 5-8)
First place: Ryan Morrissey, seventh grade — aerodynamics; second place: Riley Whalen, sixth grade — wind tunnel aerodynamics; third place: Noah Veach, fifth grade — oobleck walkway; honorable mention: Nolan Howard, seventh grade — strength of magnetic crane.
Webutuck High School (grades 9-12 winners)
First place: Hailey Brennan, ninth grade — “Great Stain Showdown”; second place: Kaelea Murphy, 11th grade, and Corbn Shambo, 12th grade — “Werms”; third place: Jayden Avery, ninth grade — “How Much Sugar in Drinks?”; Honorable mention: Andres Dionicio, Brendan Dean and Emily Howarth, ninth grade — “Taste the Rainbow of Science”
Judith O’Hara Balfe
Fourth grader Caroline Eschbach demonstrates her water filtration system. She just turned 10, and lives in Amenia.
SHARON — Angela Derrick Carabine, 74, died May 17, 2025, at Vasser Hospital in Poughkeepsie, New York. She was the wife of Michael Carabine and mother of Caitlin Carabine McLean.
A funeral Mass will be celebrated on June 6 at 11:00 a.m. at Saint Katri (St Bernards Church) Church. Burial will follow at St. Bernards Cemetery. A complete obituary can be found on the website of the Kenny Funeral home kennyfuneralhomes.com.
Sam Waterston
On June 7 at 3 p.m., the Triplex Cinema in Great Barrington will host a benefit screening of “The Killing Fields,” Roland Joffé’s 1984 drama about the Khmer Rouge and the two journalists, Cambodian Dith Pran and New York Times correspondent Sydney Schanberg, whose story carried the weight of a nation’s tragedy.
The film, which earned three Academy Awards and seven nominations — including one for Best Actor for Sam Waterston — will be followed by a rare conversation between Waterston and his longtime collaborator and acclaimed television and theater director Matthew Penn.
“This came out of the blue,” Waterston said of the Triplex invitation, “but I love the town, I love this area. We raised our kids here in the Northwest Corner and it’s been good for them and good for us.”
Waterston hasn’t seen the film in decades but its impact has always remained present.
“It was a major event in my life at the time,” Waterston said of filming “The Killing Fields,” “and it had a big influence on me and my life ever after.” He remembers the shoot vividly. “My adrenaline was running high and the part of Sydney Schanberg was so complicated, so interesting.”
Waterston lobbied for the role of the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for years, tracing his early interest to a serendipitous connection while filming in England. Even before Joffé’s production was greenlit, he had his sights set on playing the role. “I knew I wanted the part for years even before it was a movie that was being produced.”
What followed was not just critical acclaim, but also a political awakening. “The film gave all of us an intimate acquaintance with refugees, what it is to be a refugee, how the world forgets them and what a terrible crime that is.”
In Boston, at a press stop for the film, two women asked Waterston a pointed question: now that he knew what he knew, what was he going to do about it? “I said, ‘Well, you know, I’m an actor, so I thought I’d go on acting.’ And they said, ‘No, that’s not what you need to do. You need to join Refugees International.’” And join he did, serving on the organization’s board for 25 years.
Both Schanberg and Dith Pran, whose life the film also chronicles, were “cooperative and helpful … in a million ways,” Waterston said. Upon first meeting Pran, Waterston recalled, “He came up to me, made a fist, and pounded on my chest really hard and said, ‘You must understand that Sydney is very strong here.’ He was trying to plant something in me.”
There were more tender gestures, too. Schanberg used the New York Times wire to relay that Waterston’s wife had just given birth while he was filming in Thailand, adding to the personal and emotional connection to the production.
Though “The Killing Fields” is a historical document, its truths still resonate deeply today. “Corruption is a real thing,” Waterston warned. “Journalism is an absolutely essential part of our democracy that is as under siege today as it was then. It’s different now but it’s the same thing of ‘Don’t tell the stories we don’t want heard.’ Without journalists, we are dust in the wind.” Waterston added, “Democracy is built on the consent of the governed but the other thing it’s built on is participation of the governed and without full participation, democracy really doesn’t stand much of a chance. It’s kind of a dead man walking.”
When asked what he hopes the audience will take away from the screening, Waterston didn’t hesitate. “This is the story that puts the victims of war at the center of the story and breaks your heart. I think that does people a world of good to have their hearts broken about something that’s true. So, I hope that’s what the impact will be now.”
Tickets for the benefit screening are available at www.thetriplex.org. Proceeds support Triplex Cinema, a nonprofit home for film and community programming in the Berkshires.
Scott Reinhard, graphic designer, cartographer, former Graphics Editor at the New York Times, took time out from setting up his show “Here, Here, Here, Here- Maps as Art” to explain his process of working.Here he explains one of the “Heres”, the Hunt Library’s location on earth (the orange dot below his hand).
Map lovers know that as well as providing the vital functions of location and guidance, maps can also be works of art.With an exhibition titled “Here, Here, Here, Here — Maps as Art,” Scott Reinhard, graphic designer and cartographer, shows this to be true. The exhibition opens on June 7 at the David M. Hunt Library at 63 Main St., Falls Village, and will be the first solo exhibition for Reinhard.
Reinhard explained how he came to be a mapmaker. “Mapping as a part of my career was somewhat unexpected.I took an introduction to geographic information systems (GIS), the technological side of mapmaking, when I was in graduate school for graphic design at North Carolina State.GIS opened up a whole new world, new tools, and data as a medium to play with.”
He added, “When I moved to New York City, I continued that exploration of cartography, and my work eventually caught the attention of the New York Times, where I went to work as a Graphics Editor, making maps and data visualizations for a number of years.”At the New York Times, his work contributed to a number of Pulitzer Prize winning efforts.
In his work, Reinhard takes complex data and turns it into intriguing visualizations the viewer can begin to comprehend immediately and will want to continue to look into and explore more deeply.
One method Reinhard uses combines historic United States Geological survey maps with “current elevation data (height above sea level for a point on earth) to create 3-D looking maps, combining old and new,” he explained.
For the show at Hunt Library Reinhard said, “I knew that I wanted to incorporate the place into the show itself. A place can be many things.The exhibition portrays the exact spot visitors are from four vantage points: the solar system, the earth, the Northwest Corner, and the library itself.” Hence the name, “Here, Here, Here, Here.”
He continued, “The largest installation, the Northwest Corner, is a mosaic of high-resolution color prints and hand-printed cyanotypes — one of the earliest forms of photography. They use elevation data to portray the landscape in a variety of ways, from highly abstract to the highly detailed.”
This sixteen-foot-wide installation covers the area of Millerton to Barkhamsted Reservoir and from North Canaan down to Cornwall for a total of about 445 square miles.
For subjects, he chooses places he’s visited and feels deeply connected to, like the Northwest Corner.“This show is a thank you to the community for the richness that it has brought to my life. I love it here,” he said.
The opening reception for the show is on June 7 from 5 to 7 p.m. On Thursday, June 12, Reinhard will give a talk about his work from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the library.“Here, Here, Here, Here” will be on display until July 3.
Scott Reinhard’s 16-foot-wide piece of the Northwest Corner is laid out on the floor prior to being hung for the show. L. Tomaino
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