Donald A. “Donny” Campbell, III

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Donald A. “Donny” Campbell, III, 60, of Rochester, died April 5, 2013 at home after an illness. He was the husband of Susan J. (Mannion) Campbell and the son of the late Donald A. Campbell, Jr. and Doris M. (Robinson) Campbell.

He was born in Toledo, OH and lived in Freetown before moving to Rochester in 2000.

He served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.

Mr. Campbell was a Sergeant at Bridgewater State Hospital for 26 years. He retired in 2009.

He was a member of the American Legion Post in Plymouth. He enjoyed scuba diving.

Survivors include his widow, Susan J. Campbell; his son, Donald A. Campbell, IV of Rochester; his stepchildren, Matthew Burke of Bridgewater, Michael Burke of VA, Molly Burke of New Bedford and Mikayla Burke of Rochester; his step grandson, Trevor Burke of New Bedford; a brother, Dennis Campbell of FL; a sister, Debra Salminen of Carver.

His funeral will be held at 4 p.m. on Monday, April 8, 2013 in the Chapman, Cole & Gleason Funeral Home, 2599 Cranberry Hwy., Wareham. Visiting hours are from 2 to 4 on Monday at the funeral home.

Burial at the Massachusetts National Cemetery will be held at a later date.

RMS Budget Under Discussion

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The Rochester School Committee held a public hearing Thursday to discuss the proposed budget of Rochester Memorial School for fiscal year 2014.

The proposal, which is for $5,526,343, shows a decrease of $46,771 from fiscal year 2013, which was $5,573,114.

It includes the elimination of two teacher positions at RMS and the addition of an administrative position at the school. Superintendent Douglas White noted that the decrease is a result from changes in staffing, a decrease in students attending Bristol County Agricultural High School, and a decrease in special education services for students in the district, among several other factors.

“I just tried to capture the overall the budget and let you know how the budget has gone up and down,” White said. He noted several areas where spending had gone up, as well, but overall, spending is projected to be decreased.

“There’s a need for administration within the building,” said White, citing an overall decrease in enrollment by about 50 as justification for eliminating two teaching positions. He said that the staff will still be “well equipped” to handle the amount of students that are enrolled.

Assistant Superintendent Dr. Elise Frangos also supported the change, citing recent tragedies at schools as one example of a need for more administration within the school.

“Part and parcel of the administrator is to ensure that everyone is safe and serves as another set of eyes.”

She also added that the part of the point of hiring an experienced administrator is for them to assist and make an impression on the teachers themselves.

“Invariably, when you hire an administrator, that person comes with an area of expertise,” Frangos said.

The budget still needs to be approved at the Rochester Town Meeting on May 20 before it can be implemented.

By Nick Walecka

Mary “Bonnie” (Walsh) Davidson

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Mary “Bonnie” (Walsh) Davidson, 57, of Marion died April 4, 2013 at home after a courageous battle with breast cancer.

She was the wife of Paul D. Davidson, with whom she shared 35 years of marriage.

Born in Cambridge, MA, the daughter of the late John and Mary (Breslin) Walsh, she was raised in Arlington, MA and lived in Holyoke, MA and Maryville, TN before moving to Marion 15 years ago.

Bonnie was a communicant of St. Anthony’s Church in Mattapoisett.

She was employed by the American Cancer Society of Brockton and formerly was a real estate agent with Jack Conway in Mattapoisett and was an instructor at Bristol Community College in Fall River.

Bonnie was one of the original organizers of the Tri-Town Relay for Life and was an author of several “Chicken Soup for the Soul” stories.

Survivors include her husband; a son, John Davidson of Marion; 2 daughters, Robyn Galbreath and her husband Bertrand of Southbridge, MA and Lisa Lockhead and her husband Christopher of Stoughton, MA; a sister, Maureen Dunn of North Chelmsford, MA; and a grandson, Sean Galbreath.

Her Funeral Mass will be celebrated on Thursday at 10 AM in St. Anthony’s Church, Mattapoisett. Visiting hours will be on Wednesday from 4-8 PM at the Saunders-Dwyer Mattapoisett Home for Funerals, 50 County Rd., Route 6, Mattapoisett. In lieu of flowers, remembrances may be made to the American Cancer Society, 5 Manley St., Bridgewater, MA 02379. For directions and guestbook, please visit www.saundersdwyer.com.

Bee is the Buzz in Mattapoisett

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In order to earn the title of Town’s Best Orthographer, you had better know how to spell that word and many more. Orthography is the standardization of writing systems, including the rules of spelling, and it will be on serious display April 26 during the Second Annual Mattapoisett Community Spelling Bee at the Old Rochester Regional High School Auditorium.

While the event — postponed from April 5 because of a scheduling conflict — is a spectator sport open to everyone for a $5 per person/$20 per family admission, those brave souls interested in competing must register their three-member teams by April 19. But space is filling up fast.

“We can only have 20 teams, so if we reach 20 teams prior to April 19,  then we will not be accepting more applications,” said organizer Kris Higgins. “Currently, we only have 10 teams, however, we know from last year that teams were finalized closer to the deadline. There has to be an even number of teams by fours, so we potentially may increase the number of teams to 24 if there is a need.”

All proceeds from the popular event will benefit the Mattapoisett PTA.

“We work hard all year fundraising so that we can add to our children’s learning with arts and humanity programs,” Higgins said. “Thanks to [the Mattapoisett PTA’s] Debra Nettles, we have amazing programs such as the Museum of Science Boston Traveling Program with the Star Lab for the sixth-graders and Electromagnetism for K through third graders, and the New England Percussion Ensemble came to both Center and Old Hammondtown. Also, by fundraising, we are able to allow the students to attend field trips at a lesser cost to the families, or in some cases nothing at all. Next week, the first-grade students will be attending ‘Charlotte’s Web’ at the Zeiterion in New Bedford with no cost at all to the families.”

The words for the single-elimination Community Spelling Bee are drawn from the National Spelling Bee. There will be five rounds with 20 teams and six rounds if there are 24, plus a Final Round of high-stakes wordiness until only one team remains. OHS fourth-grade teacher Kevin Tavares will have the all-important job of announcing, while Center School Principal Rose Bowman, OHS Principal Matt D’Andrea, and Center School teacher Jen Aguiar will judge. To keep things light amid heavy competition, Mike Rock from Fun107 will emcee, with music provided from deejay Mike Bowman. There will be raffles, refreshments, face painting and kids’ games, as well.

“It was a great event last year,” Higgins said. “Everyone was excited and talking about their team names, outfits they were going to wear and who would win. We even had some teams studying from the dictionary.”

That’s just the kind of dedication it will take to be climb to the top of the orthography mountain. But time is running out; for registration, admission, and sponsorship info, email khiggins43@verizon.net or amywiggin@verizon.net.

By Shawn Badgley

ORR Alumnus Goes to Nationals

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Nicole Pruchnik said that she was five or six years old when she first started flipping.

“I was a kamikaze — I just went,” said the 18-year-old Southern Connecticut State University freshman and graduate of Old Rochester Regional High School. “They would put me in the gym and I would just go. You just kind of fit. When you’re a gymnast, it just feels right. It doesn’t scare you, because it’s just what you do.”

Pruchnik recently earned Rookie of the Year commendation for the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference for gymnastics after last weekend’s finals, where she and eight other teammates also earned the right to compete in the USA Gymnastics Women’s Collegiate National Championships from April 12-14 in Shreveport, Louisiana.

She said that she started gymnastics when she was about four years old, but that her experience this year has been a “challenge” compared to all the years she spent practicing and competing locally.

“It was fun, if you want to sum it up in one word,” Pruchnik said. “It was kind of unexpected. Going into college gymnastics, it’s very, very different. You go from not having any team at all to having 20 other girls that have the same skills as me — cheering me on and trying to make me do better — everything is for the team now. It’s not all about you anymore. Everything you do affects the other 20 girls and all the coaches. And you have your school’s name written on you.”

Pruchnik also said that the experience has been “nerve-wracking, but worth it.”

At SCSU, Pruchnik said that she has a 3.3 GPA so far and that she has applied to the Athletic Training Program there.

At the ECAC finals last weekend, SCSU came in second place, and they broke the school record for the floor routine, as well as the school record for team total, which they had already broken at the previous meet.

Pruchnik, who won ECAC Rookie of the Week three times and won ECAC Gymnast of the Week once this year, regularly competes in three events out of a total of four: beam, floor and vault. She has qualified to compete in both floor and vault at Nationals. Out of seven freshmen on the team, three will be at Nationals, which she calls “huge.” She says that, of the three, the floor routine is her favorite.

“I have the most fun on floor. It’s not so much that you’re telling a story when you’re on floor, but you’re trying to engage everyone,” she said. “You’re trying to get the audience in and the judges into it. It’s more of the entertainment aspect of gymnastics.

Pruchnik said that she ran track freshman year at ORR, but couldn’t continue because she was too involved with gymnastics. She also said she really enjoys watching football.

“If I was a boy, and a little bigger, I’d play football.”

As far as the Nationals go, the event finals will be on Sunday night, which she hopes to be involved in. All-American commendations will be selected from this event. She also added that competing in Nationals is something she’d like to make a habit.

“I really would love to make Nationals all four years of college,” Pruchnik said. “That would be great. It’s a lot of fun. It is the last meet of the season. You go all out. You do what you know how to do and what you’ve done all year. The rest is up to the judges.”

By Nick Walecka

Relay for Life of Tri-Town

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The American Cancer Society Relay for Life of Tri-Town Planning Committee is holding its next meeting for the 2013 season on Wednesday, April 10 at 6:00 pm at the Old Rochester Regional High School Library located at 135 Marion Road, Mattapoisett.

Relay for Life is the signature event of the American Cancer Society. It is a fun-filled, overnight event that mobilizes communities throughout the country to celebrate survivors (anyone who has ever been diagnosed with cancer), remember loved ones, commit to fight back through healthy lifestyle changes and raise money for the fight against cancer.

Relay for Life is as much an awareness-raiser about the progress against cancer as it is a fundraiser. Individuals who are willing to give their time and energy to this exciting event, as a volunteer or participant, have made a commitment to fight back against this disease and let the community know that you can beat cancer.

Volunteers are needed to organize and recruit teams, seek community support, coordinate logistics, find refreshments and prizes, plan entertainment and lend their support in any way.

To learn more about Relay for Life, visit www.relayforlife.org. For information on the April 10 meeting, or if you would like to volunteer on the Relay for Life Tri-Town Planning Committee, please contact Caryn Hodges Coulombe at 508-989-7805, Pam Houston at 508-922-4024 or Odd Johannessan at 508-971-0176.

Scallop Season Extended

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The Mattapoisett Board of Selectmen have voted to extend the scallop season until the end of April 2013. The inner harbor is closed from Mansfield’s Pier to Ned’s Point.

Tax Relief Fund

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Applications are still available to help qualified Mattapoisett taxpayers with their 2013 property taxes through the Town’s Elderly and Disabled Tax Relief Fund. Applications and eligibility information are available at the COA Office at Center School and online through the “Most Used Town Forms” icon on the Town’s website, www.mattapoisett.net. Annually, the Committee disperses $500 grants to qualified applicants. The Tax Relief Committee members voted to extend the deadline to return applications to the Treasurer’s office to May 1. All information is kept confidential.

Two Fires in Mattapoisett

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“The flames were are high as the house and climbing up to the tops of the trees,” is how one bystander described the scene. Just after 1pm the Mattapoisett Fire Department received a call for an out of control brush fire on Meadowbrook Lane. The fire, which had spread from a small brush pile that was being burned, was pushed by the high winds and spread rapidly. Initially a contractor working on a neighboring house who alerted the homeowner saw the smoke, the smoke could be seen from across the harbor. The MFD was able to rapidly knock down the fire and clean up he scene within an hour.

While working the scene of the brush fire the Department received a call regarding a possible car fire on Acushnet Road. The first police officers on the scene reported a pick up truck with smoke billowing from the engine compartment. The Fairhaven Fire Department was contacted to assist with the vehicle fire on Acushnet Road and arrived on scene at the same time as Mattapoisett’s Engine 4. On arrival firefighters were met with a fully involved vehicle. The vehicle, which was an older model, was a project that the homeowner had been working on for some time to restore.

The National Weather Service reports that South Coast Massachusetts is currently experiencing elevated fire weather potential. This condition is caused by low humidity and high winds, a condition which is common this time of year and persists until the natural vegetation starts to green up in he later spring.

By Paul Lopes

 

Journalism Class Invited to Boston Conference

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ORRHS’s Journalism class was selected to attend a journalism conference in Boston on Thursday, April 4. On the Suffolk University campus, the conference takes applications from high school newspapers to attend the conference and compete to win a number of awards.

ORRHS’s Journalism class, the Paw Prints staff, applied in December. By sending in a few different issues from that year, they are judged on a number of criteria, ranging from layout to the quality of writing to how closely the paper adheres to the journalism code of ethics. While not every paper will win an award, all papers that are thought to be of high quality are invited to join the conference.

The conference will include a dinner, a still unreleased Keynote Speaker, group discussions over numerous topics concerning different areas of journalism and, at the end of the night, an award ceremony. The aim of the conference is to gather young journalists in acknowledgment of their hard work through the year while holding an informative conference for the benefit of each journalist’s writing.

The Paw Prints staff will leave school early on Thursday and carpool to the Middleboro/Lakeville train station. The staff and chaperones will take the train into Boston for the conference, then take the train home that night.

This is the first time ORR has been invited to the conference in two years.

By Jessica Correia


Journalists attending the conference, from left to right:   Evelyn Murdock, Rose Haznar, Isaiah Kidney, Steven McIntyre, Samuel Resendes, Anne Roseman, Mia Resendes, and Cory Miranda