Since I first spoke with event organizer Mary Congoran about the race, she has been telling me the Contoocook Carry brings out the best in Hopkinton residents.

I figured she was right, but until I rode my bicycle into a ditch on the side of the road, I never really completely understood.

On Sunday, Sept. 21, what seemed like the entire town of Hopkinton was either racing, setting up the race, handing out Gatorade and water – or, in the case of Peter Sorel, helping a stranded reporter pop his chain back into place.

The race got started with a 2-mile run. I found myself in the middle of the pack when I arrived with my red kayak, a piece of equipment I hope to never see again.

I hopped in, pushed off and started paddling my way down the Contoocook River, starting the 5-mile voyage down the calm river (Believe me, I wish there had been a current).

It took me a while to realize that I was taking on a bit of water, and by a bit, I mean about half of my kayak was filled with the Contoocook River. But hey, I’m not one to make excuses.

Getting my kayak out of the river was nearly as difficult as the 5 miles of paddling, and carrying it to the second half of the river wasn’t that easy either.

By the time I slowly paddled by selectmen Chairman Scott Flood, who was floating on a metal boat on the river, I considered paddling over to him and seeing if I could find a way to finagle the motor off and attach it to my kayak.

Eventually, I made it to my bicycle and thought I had finally made it to the point where I could cruise the final 14 miles to the finish line, but as I took my first left onto Dustin Road, I heard a pop – never a good sign when you’re on anything attached to wheels.

No longer able to pedal, I tried to pull off the road, which turned out to be a bad decision. While my bike came flying up at me, I landed square on my feet. I did, however, have a severely bruised ego, and wasn’t sure I’d be able to finish the race I had been looking forward to for the past few months.

Then, along came Peter Sorel.

“Come on over to my barn, let’s see what we can do for you,” he said.

A complete stranger who happened to live nearby, Sorel walked with me toward his home, and jokingly asked me if I knew who Rosie Ruiz was, and if I was interested in performing a similar feat. (In 1980, Ruiz registered for the Boston Marathon and got a ride close to the finish line before running the rest of the way.)

After Sorel finished repairing my bicycle, I hit the road, and as I peddled I had one question: When did Hopkinton get so many hills?

A little over three hours after I started, I returned to Hopkinton High School, extremely exhausted but happy to have been able to take part in an event that both raised money and brought a community together.

This year, the event raised about $9,000 from event-day participants and donations from numerous people, according to Congoran. The event brought 82 teams, with more than 200 participants, ranging in age from 3 months to 88.

All of the proceeds go toward fuel assistance, a cause that will be crucial this winter with the rising costs of oil.

My time certainly was nothing to brag about in this challenging event, but on the bright side, I lived to tell about it.

Despite a disappointing season for the Concord American Legion baseball team, Post 21 manager Averill Cate wanted to conclude the summer on a positive note.

In fact, he said he wants to end every Legion season like he’s done this year. On Thursday, Aug. 14, Concord Post 21 and the Forty-and- Eight Club congratulated four athletes and one coach on fine performances and awarded them a total of $4,750 in college scholarships.

The players, Daniel Solomon of Concord, Matt French of Hooksett, Mitch Philibert and Nick Comtois each received $1,000 in education funds, and Brian Drew, who coached Concord’s junior American legion team this season, took $750. Drew a standout at Concord High School, currently attends Keene State College.

French, an outfielder, played his high school ball at Trinity in Manchester. Cate said the third-year Legion player has been a huge asset for the team.

Nick Comtois, another three-year player, pitched and played the outfield. He attended Coe-Brown High School in Northwood and now heads to the State University of New York Cobbleskill this fall. Longevity is not necessarily a prerequisite for the award, however.

Solomon, an outfielder who recently graduated St. Paul’s School in Concord, plans to attend the University of New Hampshire, and Hillsboro-Deering’s Philibert, a pitcher and third baseman, completed their first season with the Concord squad, yet both are reaping the benefit of a generous college scholarship.

“If you play for our program, and you stick with it through the summer, and you’re going to college, we’re going to try and help you with $1,000,” he said. “If you go to college and you still have another year of eligibility and come back, we’ll try and get you another $1,000.”

Garde Burgess had an early idea how Concord Post 21’s American Legion baseball season was going to play out.

During one of the team’s first practices, he pulled his nine pitchers aside and asked each one how many high school innings they’d pitched. Aside from ace Mitch Philibert, the answer was five – total.

“I thought that was a pretty telling statistic,” said Burgess. “I pretty much had spring training with my players during the district season. I was out there working on mechanics with them before, during and after games.”

It came as no coincidence, then, that Philibert notched three of Concord’s four wins. He would have had six had it not been for three blown leads by the bullpen, said Burgess. Still, the coach is quick to point out the team is young, and most of the players return in 2009, many the season after that as well.

“They’ll do a lot better next year, that’s for sure, but there’s no doubt any extra pitching experience we can get will help. That was definitely our weakness,” he said.

The bats, on the other hand, boomed.

Post 21 averaged double-digit hits per game.

“A lot of games we’d have 16 hits, but we lost the game because we had given up 12 walks,” said Burgess. “Of course, you know if you give up those kind of base runners, you’re going to lose a lot of games.”

Still, Concord put runs on the board in all but one game, though Burgess noted the players often got into trouble on the base paths.

Mark Sullivan of Concord and Hooksett’s Matt French, said the coach, led the team in hitting.

French, in fact, went 16- for-19 his last four games, and would have produced even more throughout the season had it not been for a hamstring injury that caused him to miss several games.

Others contributing include Hopkinton’s Thomas Johnson and Evan Levy; Bow’s Dan Yvars; Pembroke Academy’s Zachary Cogswell, Connor Moroney and Doug Turnbull; Goffstown’s Matthew O’Brien; Daniel Solomon, Benjamin Thurston, Ryan Wakefield, Tucker White, Nicholas Comtois and John Boudrais.

“They all got along really well, which is kind of unusual with a team compiled of kids from so many different areas of New Hampshire,” said Burgess.”This was a very good bunch of guys, probably one of the most delightful bunch of guys with some of the most unique personalities I’ve ever coached.”

Dave Dustin has never been a big fan of reading – not music, anyway.

The Hopkinton Town Band member also plays the trombone in the Tall Granite Jazz Band, a group he founded that is dedicated to Chicago-style jazz and swing.

“I’ve always liked jazz because of the energy and the expression that’s possible in it. Part of it also is that it also seems more suited to my talent,” said Dustin. “I’m not the greatest reader of music in the world. I can always close my eyes and imagine the music, so improvisation has always come fairly easy to me.”

By day, Dustin works in Concord at Nobis Engineering, where he negotiates and administers contracts to the federal government, but upon leaving the office he turns to his trombone.

“I think that they’re probably not all that similar. Maybe they are in that they are fairly detailoriented,” he said. “I’ve always looked at music as a therapy and a refuge from the burdens, toil and strive of the day job and making a living. Music is my therapy, and it’s a very helpful one to have.”

Dustin said he enjoys the ability to rely on his other band members in order to put on a successful show.

“(The night of a concert) is a lot of excitement and anticipation, and you’re always glad when you look to either side of you and see a great group of musicians, sometimes with skills that exceed your own,” said Dustin. “You know you can rely on them.”

The jazz influence for Dustin came from his parents, who lived during the age of jazz and swing in the 1930s and 1940s. Dustin’s parents continued to listen to the music after he was born, and he was constantly exposed to it.

“When I was growing up, there was a lot of big band music in my house,” he said. “It just became something that was a real habit for me, and something I loved to listen to. I would fantasize about being a musician in those bands.”

Although Dustin said it can be harder to find venues to play at in New Hampshire, he said when you find the right spot there is no feeling like it.

“I really love it when we’re bringing some great music and great musicians together to make a joyful noise. I like it when the band is just cooking along and you can see that people are really enjoying the music,” he said. “It’s a bond between musicians, and a bond between the band members and the audience.”

You can listen to Dustin and The Tall Granite Jazz Band play at the Bow gazebo as part of the Bow Rotary Club’s summer concert series on Sunday, July 27, beginning at 6 p.m.

The Tall Granite Band is also scheduled to play Thursday, July 31, at Nonni’s Open House at the Concord Holiday Inn. The ballroom doors open at 4:30 p.m. and the band kicks off at 6:30 p.m.; and at the Beech Hill Farm and Ice Cream Barn in Hopkinton for the Hopkinton Congregational Church Rally Sunday picnic on Sept. 14, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The band will also play at the Eastern States Exposition, “The Big E,” in West Springfield, Mass., on New Hampshire Day, Friday, Sept. 19, at 5:30 p.m.

With high temperatures and little rain, Contoocook Village precinct residents and businesses have to limit their water usage as town officials have put an emergency water ban into effect.

Though Steve Clough, assistant director of Public Works, said the town’s water supply is not running short, a lack of rain and a bottleneck in the filtration system led to the ban, which was put into place June 1.

“We have plenty in our source, but we can only filter about 200 gallons a minute,” Clough said. “(The weekend of June 1), we were using a couple gallons a minute at night and during the day as high as 500 a minute. We couldn’t get our storage levels up enough. We have to keep drinking water and fire protection levels up.”

The ban means residents in the area, which includes Hopkinton High School and the town’s commercial area, will not be allowed outside water use until further notice.

“This means there will be no outside watering and no outside usage,” Clough said. “If you have plants you can bring watering cans outside.”

Clough said because of the hot weather, even with the ban the town is having a difficult time getting its tanks filled.

“If we do get our tanks back up and want to move forward, it’ll still be hard,” he said. “If we remove the ban now, it’ll be a short period of time before our tanks are back down again. What we really need is a steady rain, and that just isn’t coming.”

Town officials were scheduled to meet Tuesday, June 10, to decide how long to keep the ban, as well as address short and long-term plans.

Among the options for short-term solutions is the possibility of limited use, including a potential alternate-day usage system. Regardless of the solution for this summer, Clough said officials will also need to think of a long-term answer to the problem.

The water filtration plant used by the town was built in 1993, with increased storage built in 2002. Although the plant is scheduled for another upgrade within a few years, Clough said officials may need to look at moving up the date of the next phase.

“Within the last year or two, it’s been a mini-explosion of sprinkler systems, some of them larger ones,” said Clough. “The combination of all that is straining the system and we can’t keep up with it.”

Frustrated at the way his watercolor paintings were turning out, Byron Carr was ready to throw away his paints.

“I started with watercolors and did lousy with it. I essentially gave up and went back to acrylics,” said Carr, of Contoocook.

“I thought I might as well use up the paint, and then it dried and came out great.”

Years before his watercolor discovery, Carr was sitting in his apartment at the Vespar George School of Art in Boston, when he came up with the idea for children’s book that developed around a simple illustration.

He worked on the idea, found financial backers and, in 1988, he published “Doodles,” which took the basic shape of a mushroom and adapted it into illustrations for basic words.

Carr will now be sharing his illustrating experiences with Hopkinton families, as he will be running a “Meet the Author Drawing Class,” hosted by the Recreation Department, on Saturday, May 10, at Columbia Hall.

The class is for children ages 4 through 8, and their parents. Carr’s books will be on sale for $5, with 50 percent of proceeds going to the food pantry. The presentation costs $5 for parent and one child, and $1 for each additional child. All supplies are included. There will be two sessions, 1 to 2 p.m. and 2 to 3 p.m. Call 746-2915 to register.

During the class, Carr will tell children and their parents how he became interested in creating his children’s book, and help them get started creating their own doodles.

“It’s a lot of fun. You can see (the children’s) brains working, thinking about the problem of creating the illustration. It’s a challenge for them,” said Carr, will run his first class since 1994. “They succeed in their own small way, each and every one of them, and that’s a reward to get people thinking and drawing.”

Part of the theme of the class is getting families drawing together, as Carr requires each child who attends the class to do so with a parent.

“That’s important to have them working with the kids, spending time drawing with them. That’s a big aspect of it,” he said.

Carr said no matter how many years he’s spent as an artist, he still has a hard time being satisfied with the final product.

“Having it come out as good as you want, it never does. You have to say, ‘I want to do better,’ but that’s the best I can do at this point,” Carr said.

One obstacle for young artists is becoming frustrated, said Carr. He hopes to teach children based on his experience that the next painting could be the best.

“Usually the problem is people quit when it gets difficult, and it does get difficult. People get frustrated,” said Carr. “Don’t quit before the magic happens. I almost did one painting before that magic happened.”

By MATT SCHOOLEY
 

When the curtains close at the Capitol Center for the Arts following the mid-February performance of “Wrecked,” the show is far from over.

The Canadian-produced show coming to Concord on Tuesday, Feb. 12, and Wednesday, Feb. 13, is far more than an entertainment experience, as it aims to teach teenagers and adults how to deal with drug and alcohol abuse.

“We work from an art-first basis, and try to create artful and meaningful work. In this case, we found a piece that was really relevant to teens,” said Tim Jennings, the play’s managing director. “We’re not telling them anything new, but giving them a chance to reflect on the difficulties drugs and alcohol can create.”

Jennings works with the Canadian group Roseneath Theatre, a nonprofit organization, which is Ontario’s largest professional touring theater, he said.

After Ric Waldman of the Capitol Center for the Arts saw a reading of the play at a conference, he knew it would be perfect for New Hampshire.

“We were so moved by the impact of the play that we felt it would be a great value to our community if we could present it,” he said. “We knew right away it would be a challenge to sell tickets. We don’t do a lot of drama presentations because they don’t always sell too well.”

To fill seats for the play, the Capitol Center became involved with other groups around the state, receiving a $10,000 grant from New Futures, the Endowment for Health and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.

Thanks to the grant, Waldman didn’t have to worry about selling tickets. The money purchased 600 tickets, which could be given away to schools and families in the area.

Combined with regular ticket sales, the school-time presentation of the play is sold out with a waiting list of about 300, and Waldman expects a large crowd at the second showing as well.

Other organizations have become involved in the play as well, as groups like the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Hampshire will be on hand before the event to give out information.

State legislators will also be attending a reception before the play to discuss different aspects of drugs and alcohol with the sponsors.

“This is a wonderful offering from the Capitol Center in spreading awareness about drug and alcohol issues while reaching a large audience of youth, adults, educators and professionals,” said Nancy Jackson-Reno of the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Hampshire. “It offers the chance to open a dialogue between students, their peers, parents and educators.”

The dialogue will continue after the play, as the actors will come out on stage and field questions from the audience.

“The thing it does best is showing about the whole family. What it doesn’t do is talk down to teenagers,” said Waldman. “It’s realistic and the portrayal of things that go down are vivid. We expect teenagers to be moved.”

Jennings said he takes pride in being able to perform a play that benefits the community.

“The ability to take art and perform it in a way that affects peoples’ lives is a 1,000-year-old practice, but it’s very important to create that work,” he said. “Our work is to create the art and put it out there to be seen. Those groups are how it can be put out in the community and really taken to the next level.”

If the cliche, “Practice makes perfect,” retains even a bit of truth, foes of Concord High’s girls ice hockey beware.

When CHS took the ice on Tuesday, Jan. 8, it marked the Crimson Tide’s first practice session in roughly one month, said coach Tom Ackerson, who acknowledged persistent snows and consistent scheduling conflicts as roadblocks to the usual Tuesday and Thursday practices at St. Paul’s School.

Yet the Concord girls are 3-1- 0 heading into a matchup with another strong Division I crew – St. Thomas Aquinas of Dover – on Saturday, Jan. 12, at Everett Arena in Concord.

“Their effort,” said Ackerson, “has been awesome, but they don’t have the experience yet.”

Still, Concord produced a 3-1 win over a solid Lebanon team in New Hampshire’s first varsity girls ice hockey match, then followed that Dec. 8 victory with an 8-0 shutout of host Exeter three days later.

The team’s most recent contest, a 5-0 triumph against visiting Bishop Guertin on Jan. 2, showcased the Crimson Tide’s exceptional goaltending and team depth.

Julia Coffin, a senior, turned aside each of the 13 shots she faced in net, and Ackerson said Concord is blessed with a feeder program that should ensure a continued supply of stingy backstops. Meanwhile, five different players scored, and four others earned assists.

Senior Grace Hirshon tallied first, taking a pass from sophomore Melissa Lehtinen 1 minute, 14 seconds into the contest. Senior Erica Simpson extended the lead 5:45 into the second period, depositing a short-handed goal on an assist from sophomore Paige Hansen. Nineteen seconds later, Lehtinen’s short-handed score, assisted by classmate Meridith Foote and junior Hilary Kane, made it 3-0.

Two more tallies in the third – one from sophomore Jackolyn Haydon, off a feed from freshman Brittany Premo, and another from sophomore Ashley Liotti, assisted by Foote – capped the scoring. That’s at least one point from every class – the vast majority from underclassmen.

“I think we can compete (this year),” said Ackerson, who added Hanover, an 8-1 winner over Concord on Dec. 18, has played against and beaten Vermont challengers for years and is clearly the class of New Hampshire’s Division I girls hockey scene. “We want to do well this year, but we’re also looking to set ourselves up for the future.”

Ackerson pointed to those to-date elusive practices as an opportunity to improve in certain areas, including proper positional hockey, consistency and conditioning; though Concord outshot BG in the final period, 11-1, Ackerson said his team suffered too many defensive breakdowns.

“Right now they’re mostly good athletes,” said Ackerson, who expects to witness the program’s transformation from largely a group of fine athletes playing hockey to a group of hockey players who happen to be good athletes.

“Going (to) varsity (status) means so much. It keeps the (middle- school) girls motivated to represent their high school.”