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“My husband always loved to furniture (shop). I love the clothing,” Diana Henry said. “We love thrift shopping. We go all over the place. There’s always a treasure somewhere.”

Garrett Henry said he’s always looking for a deal and wants to be able to pass on good deals to his customers.

“I know a lot of people collect antiques and rare stuff. I love doing that myself,” he said.

There’s a lot of fascination among young people with vinyl records and old stereo equipment. Garrett Henry said he tries to keep those things available at Hidden Treasures.

“Now it’s different, technology, everything now is touch a button,” he said. “I go more old school rather than regular stuff … Especially the younger generation, they come in and say, ‘Wow, that’s so cool.’”

Diana Henry loves it when someone comes into the shop and walks out with ex- actly what they’ve been looking for. She directed a woman recently to a cashmere scarf.

“It was something that she was specifically looking for,” Diana Henry said. “It fills my heart.”

Former pet location

The Meriden-Waterbury Turnpike storefront had been a pet food and supplies shop. It’s in the Milldale Center Plaza.

The Henrys live in Waterbury and had looked in that city for a location but didn’t find the right one. Someone told them about the open storefront in Southington and they realized it was only seven minutes from where they live.

Diana Henry said they had the place with their first call.

“When something is meant for you, it’s meant for you,” she said.

The couple had a soft opening earlier this year and officially opened in March. Hidden Treasures is open Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.

jbuchanan@record-journal.com 203-317-2230

Wesley Colebrook

MALONEY VOLLEYBALL

Maloney’s Wesley Colebrook is bona fide Athlete of the Week material. Don’t take just our word for it. Colebrook was also named Player of the Week in the Northeast Region by the American Volleyball Coaches Association. Only a freshman, Colebrook recorded 20 or more kills in seven of his first eight varsity matches. That included 38 kills against Windsor and 37 against Wolcott Tech.

Dylan Bouteiller

SOUTHINGTON VOLLEYBALL

As Wesley Colebrook and the Maloney Spartans were reminded Friday, Southington volleyball has a major standout, too. At 6-foot10, junior Dylan Bouteiller literally plays heads and shoulders above the opposition. Against Maloney, the middle blocker put down 14 kills hitting at a .684 percentage rate. Bouteiller also chalked up five blocks as Big Blue swept and improved to 6-1.

Ryan Grove

CHESHIRE LACROSSE

When it comes to CHS lax, there is no lack of firepower. The Rams average nearly 16 goals a game behind the likes of Charles Kurtz, Matt Jeffery, Adam Vernon and Sean Grevelding. It all starts, however, in the face-off circle, and that is where Ryan Grove is dominating. The junior won all but one of 25 draws in Saturday’s 19-6 victory over Simsbury and is 135-for-168 on the season.

Emily Hart Platt Softball

And to think Emily Hart almost didn’t come back for her senior season. Platt’s veteran ace, fully recovered from a thumb injury that had her toying with “retirement” this winter, threw back-to-back no-hitters in mercy-rule wins to open the year and threw another in a full 7 innings Saturday against Wilcox Tech. Not only that, Hart struck out 20 Wilcox batters. That gave her 73K’s in 38 innings.

Samantha Ralston

LYMAN HALL LACROSSE

Hats off to Sam Ralston, who made program history with four goals last Wednesday vs. Mercy. Those goals, combined with the 12 she scored in the previous four games (including five vs. Hamden), gave the senior 100 for her career. She’s the first LH girls lax player to reach the milestone. And consider: She lost her freshman campaign to the COVID-cancelled season of 2020.

Ashley Stimpson Wilcox Tech Softball

It seems like only yesterday Ashley Stimpson was tearing up the South Meriden Youth Baseball League. She’s now tearing up the Connecticut Technical Conference. The sophomore raised her batting average to .484 over the past week by going 8-for-13, driving in seven runs and scoring 10. Stimpson also hits for power. With three home runs last week, she’s now got four on the season.

Winners will be posted here as well as your next group of nominees.

In tradition, Sikhs are initiated into the order through the “Amrit pahul,” a rite that involves drinking nectar called Amrit. This is prepared using a mixture of sugar and water that has been stirred with a doubleedged sword.

At the festival, traditional Amrit was served and could be seen being made under one of the tents. In addition to the festive drink, traditional vegetarian food, ice cream, and other snacks were served. There was no cost for any food, and the lines were long with children, families, and friends.

“This is a significant day for us and is something we celebrate yearly,” said Happy Kaur of Branford.

Kaur was there with her husband and young child.

The Sikh community in Connecticut has grown over the past few decades. In May 1986, a handful of Sikh families got together to recite “Keertan” (Sikh hymns) as a congregation.

Enjoying this get-together, the families decided to continue their Keertan programs monthly within their homes and hosted each month in the Naugatuck Valley area. In 1989, the same group of families decided to rent a hall in Ansonia to celebrate the holiday of “Vaisakhi,” the day of the first Sikh baptism.

Over the years, more and more families joined from the greater Connecticut area, and the community decided to officially register as a nonprofit organization. They would begin to hold “Gurdwara Diwan,” or prayer service. This prompted the birth of the Connecticut Sikh Association Inc. in November 1993.

Disaster struck one day after Diwali in 1998, when fire broke out in the basement of the Gurdwara building caused by a heating system malfunction. It took 36 hours and 1.5 million gallons of water to extinguish the fire.

The building was completely destroyed by the fire except the small room where the Guru Granth Sahib was kept. In the community, people came together to assist the Sikh families to recover from this tragic accident. For many years, a building in Ansonia was used as a temporary location until the perfect place was founded in Southington.

In 1999, the Nishan Sahib was erected, and Gurdwara was established.

With this permanent location, the Gurdawa property expanded to include a house for the Granthi Sahib and some additional room for the Khalsa School classes to be held.

Over time, the Sangat was able to gather funds to create a whole new building on the property.

In February 2011, the new Gurdwara building of Guru Nanak Darbar was fully up and functioning on West Street.

nzappone@record-journal.com

203-317-2212

The Nature Day Festival will feature several wildlife and nature shows including two live animal presenters Christine’s Critters and Riverside Reptiles.

Winterberry Garden, Quinnipiac Audubon Society and the land trust will provide educational information at the gathering.

The Southington Conservation Land Trust plans to make the free event both en- tertaining and educational to commemorate the work the group has done over the past 50 years.

The land trust has been dedicated to buying parcels of land around Southington to preserve and maintain critical natural areas, preventing development, and making them open to the public with walking trails and other facilities.

“Events that are kind of educational in nature and theme make people realize how important nature is and the importance of conservation and preservation of open space, whether that’s in your backyard or across town,” said Al Fiorillo, a land trust board member and one of the chief organizers of the Nature Day Festival.

Having already seen around 300 respondents expressing interest in the event, the land trust expects a full turnout at the celebration in May, primarily families and children.

The land trust currently oversees seven properties across Southington, encompassing over 135 acres between all the plots, along with the Great Unconformity a unique geological feature located in Southington, which the group was founded to protect in 1973. After protecting the Great Uncon-

In order to continue delivery to your home or business, we need to have each resident or business let us know that, by filling out our on-line requester form at myrecordjournal. com/southington-plainville-requester formity, the organization fell into a period of inactivity, for around 30 years, until Southington resident Bonnie Sica took over leadership in 2006 after looking for a way to better preserve the town’s natural spaces after new developments disrupted the local wildlife in her area.

Or, you can call us at 203-634-3933 and we can mail you a postage paid postcard to fill out and return. Without the necessary requester information, delivery of your Southington & Plainville Citizen to your home or business, will end.

Under Sica’s leadership, the organization has purchased several properties and works actively to maintain them.

For Sica, teaching children and families about conservation is important, not just for the environment but also for preserving the character of Southington’s past which is what has brought many older members of the community into the leadership of the land trust.

“I think people were very interested in it because everyone in Southington who’s lived here a long time remembers what it used to be, what it used to look like when it wasn’t so built up,” Sica said.

“I understand the need for development. I'm not antidevelopment, but we also need to preserve some of the beauty and the character that makes Southington what it is. And I think we’ve been able to do that throughout the years.”

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Land Trust President Val Guarino said, “I'm feeling that people are getting more attuned to nature and learning about nature nowadays. Maybe they just didn’t have a source, so we act as the source of information for them this Nature Day thing is to invite the public to celebrate with us and learn a little bit about nature again as part of our mission to educate people. So it's exciting to me.”

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The Nature Day event will be held from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. at Mount Southington, 396 Mount Vernon Road.

To register for the May 13 gathering, visit southingtonlandtrust.org

50th Reunion

The Southington High School Class of 1973 will celebrate its 50th reunion Oct. 7 at the Back Nine Tavern. Tickets are $50. RSVP to Shs73_50threunion@ aol.com. Send checks payable to Maureen Cassidy to: 46 Dunham St., Southington, CT 06489.

Class of 1973

The 50th reunion planning committee for the Plainville High School Class of 1973 is looking for classmates. If you are a 1973 PHS graduate, or know of one, email contact information to crczellecz@comcast.net.

Reading challenge

The Hartford Yard Goats Baseball Club, in partnership with Eversource, has

Energy

From A5

Hamden. Studies are underway looking at various installations along Right of Way areas and at hundreds of additional CTDOT facilities.

Community connectivity.

The Community Connectivity Grant Program provides construction funding for local initiatives to improve safety and accessibility for bicyclists and pedestrians in and around community centers. More than 100 grants totaling $38 million have been awarded across the state. An additional $12 million is available in grants this year. The deadline to apply is July 21.

Through operational changes, service improvements, grant programs, and infrastructure investments, CTDOT works daily to create a cleaner, safer transportation network.