Lights of Hope Takes Action

 

Since 2005, Cheshire’s neighbors have turned to each other to find hope in the midst of darkness.  All while raising more than $310,000 for local charities that are important to our neighbors including Cheshire’s Food Pantry, Cheshire Youth and Social Services, Petit Family Foundation,  American Cancer Society and Multiple Sclerosis Society.   The now-annual Cheshire’s Lights of Hope event has brought together neighbors to help neighbors all with the simple act of lighting a single candle in a bag and illuminating our wonderful town. Upwards of 100 volunteers turn out every year to bring the event to fruition.  From street captains to clean up crew, the town has made this event its own and has helped hundreds of area families with donations to local charities. 100% of proceeds raised go directly to charities.

I feel like this is a very good activity for everyone is Cheshire and its helping and making Cheshire look nice at the same time. My family helps and we put them on the edge of our driveway to make a difference.  I think every family in Cheshire should do this because then we could show that Cheshire cares and we can make a difference. This goes out to tons of people and organizations. Questions I still have for this, is, how can our town make even a bigger difference and show that we care while still keeping the same subject, The Lights of Hope. Another Question that I have is what are some other things that our town is already doing to help and is there any openings for volunteers?

~Vicki Palmer

Doing the Impossible

On Sunday October 14th the impossible was done.  Felix Baumgartner jumped from 120,000 feet above the earth and rushed down at turbo speed. Felix’s goal was to break the speed of sound, freefall from highest altitude, and have the longest freefall time. In order to do it, he had put in 7 years of hardship, persistence, and dedication devoted to achieving his ambition. Although he had to go through a lot, Felix Baumgartner accomplished his dream and showed true bravery.

During the experiment, he had to go through stages in order to be successful; without completing all of these, he could have died. In the launch phase, he used a pressurized capsule and a 12 pound chest pack containing monitoring technology to reach the 120,000 feet. During the ascent phase, the temperature decreased as the balloon rocketed up. Once he got the final okay, he had to jump off the capsule or face extreme complications. He also had to pay careful attention to his step off the capsule so he didn’t lose consciousness. When he was in the stratosphere, the multiplying air molecules served as a gentle cushion or break when he flew down from the sky. As he descended, he had to wait until he’s was going a speed of 172 mph or slower in order to open his parachute. Why does it take so much work to breaking a few records?

Now I don’t know about you, but diving from 120,000 ft in the air isn’t on my list of things to do, so I don’t think Baumgartner should be attempting it. However, he did have years of testing and preparing, so I suppose he should be able to do it. Plus, I’m not one to tell him what he should and shouldn’t do. But, as you can see, this process is very dangerous and life threatening, for if you make one mistake you could die. However Felix pulled if off and this moment will be remembered as the time the impossible was done.

~Emma Takizawa

Falling into Fame

As you may have known, Felix Baumgartner recently broke the barrier of sound, by skydiving 128,100 feet!  After spending 3 hours in a balloon flying 24 miles up, he then jumped at speeds of 833.9 miles per hour! After free-falling (skydiving without a parachute) for about 7 minutes, he then opened his parachute and was able to land on his feet! You can watch the youtube footage, here. However, before he was even able to leave the balloon, Baumgartner was required to complete a 40-step checklist rehearsing what he would be doing from stepping off the plane, to landing on the ground. Although the jump was assumed to be live, it was actually under a 20 second delay in the small chance Baumgartner’s head exploded!

Although Baumgartner broke the barrier of sound, he did not actually break the worlds free falling record! He was going to attempt to, but when there was confusion about his visor fogging up, he was instructed to jump from his current location. So, what do you think about the crazy jump? Would you ever try skydiving? I think it would be really fun, but 24 miles up?! That’s too much for me!

~Alle Marino

James Patterson has written over 50 books within ten years.  He and his wife currently live in Palm Beach, Florida with their son Jack. He was an advertising executive up until 1985 when he quit to become a novelist. He published his first book The Thomas Berryman Number, in 1976. His best selling detective novel Along Came A spider, introduced Alex Cross, a psychologist detective, from Washington DC. The series is 18 books long in counting. Two of the Alex Cross books were turned into movies starring Morgan Freeman; Along Came a Spider and Kiss the Girls. Cross, another Alex Cross book is also being made a movie. It will come out on October 19th.

I have read five of the Alex Cross books and they’re amazing. They keep on the edge of your seating and guessing page after page. You might think you know what’s going to happen, but you will change your mind again and again. His books have short chapters, but don’t let that discourage you. I personally like short chapters. They make you feel like you are moving along in the book faster. If you only have a short period of time to read, the books are perfect so you dont lose your place in the middle of a chapter too.

~Emily Bodurtha