Lights of Hope: Volunteering and Dancing

As many Cheshire residents know, Lights of Hope is just around the corner.  The whole town comes together to support the Pettit family, whose house was set on fire, and took the mother and two daughters along with it.  Neighborhoods make luminaries made up of white paper bags with a candle inside.  It is quite a beautiful sight to drive around town and see the rows of lights on the curbs.  When November comes around I get really excited. My church, the First Congregational Church, places the luminaries all around the green, and I volunteer to set up the luminaries and place them on the walkways and sidewalks.  I also help set up packages of luminaries to send to neighborhoods for them to set up.  You can do this too!

The thing that I am most excited about for this upcoming Lights of Hope is the performance by Rhythm Dance Academy.  I will be performing, and I am very excited.  Between 1 and 3 at the high school, you can see dances performed in the styles of jazz, modern, hip-hop and lyric.  We have been working on our performances since the beginning of September, so we are more than prepared.  The performances will give publicity to the studio, and perhaps we will get new students. Most of the dances will be done by the competition team, and will be fully performed at competitions next spring.  This is the first time that Rhythm will be performing in Cheshire for more than just our parents, so that is especially exciting.  So, as November 9th rolls around, try to see if there is any volunteer work that can be done for Lights of Hope.  Also, make sure you come to Cheshire High on the 9th to watch Rhythm Dance Academy perform.  You won’t regret it!

~Ali

Justice Served?

On December 9th 2011, justice was received to William Petit, the only survivor of the Petit family murders. Joshua Komisarjevsky was given the death penalty after being convicted of murder, kidnapping, burglary, and many other charges. He along with his partner in crime Steven Hayes, killed Dr. Petit’s wife and two daughters in this tragic murder. Hayes had already received the death penalty and will now be joined by another evil Komisarjevsky.

In my opinion I don’t think Komisarjevsky should have received a death sentence. This is definitely not because I thought it was too harsh of a punishment, but because it was too easy. Instead of just killing him, don’t you think he should have to suffer for the rest of his life? If he’s dead everything ends. He should have to endure some sort of pain for the rest of his life. Not like any of these punishments would do justice for Dr. Petit though. He still has to live his life upset, without his family and wondering why him and his innocent family had to be effected by these two horrible men.

~Skylar Ardito