Hopkinton News : Health & Fitness

From the heart – Family donates 2 defibrillators to high school

Bow Editor — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 20:25:00 GMT

Timothy Carroll was only 22 when he died of sudden cardiac arrest.

The 1996 Hopkinton High School graduate was alone on Dec. 13, 2000, when he ran up two flights of stairs, then suddenly collapsed and died. His girlfriend found him four hours later, but it was too late.

Carroll led a healthy lifestyle, and along with pursing a career in film making, he played basketball, baseball and golf – staying in shape with athletics.

Carroll’s parents, Khristin and John, made a commitment to save as many lives as possible from that moment on.

“Most people don’t think sudden cardiac arrest can affect their children when, in fact, it affects thousands each year. And not just high school or college-age students, even young children as well,” said Khristen Carroll. “Our mission is to educate people and let them know it does happen and how to be prepared if it does.”

It should come as no surprise, then, that the Carrolls recently donated two automated external defibrillators (AEDs) to Hopkinton High School.

“Having an AED around means all the difference in the world,” said Carroll.

“Lives. It means lives,” said Hopkinton Middle/High School Principal Steve Chamberlin, who held a ceremony at the school on May 29 to accept the gift, which he said sports teams carry during both home and away games.

“All the coaches and I, we feel better having one travel with our teams,” Chamberlin continued. “We all hope we never use them, but if we do we’ll be ready. What a wonderful gift to receive from the Carrolls.”
Nate Mosseau, a senior lacrosse player at Hopkinton High School, was one of two student/athletes to accept a defibrillator on behalf of the school.

“Obviously, it’s great. I think we’ve been lucky that nothing like that has happened here, but it’s great that we’ve taken the steps necessary to prevent a future tragedy.”

The Carrolls challenged the Hopkinton School District to make all its facilities heart safe, and officials accepted.

Now the district has at least one AED at each of its schools, has many CPR and AED certified staff and faculty members and is promoting constant awareness among its students.

Hopkinton Fire Chief Rick Schaefer has also accepted the mission to have and maintain an AED at all Hopkinton schools.

But one doesn’t need to be AED certified to work one, said Khristin Carroll.

In fact, the Good Samaritan law allows anyone to do anything in their means to save a life, she said, adding that AEDs are easy to use and provide the operator with simple, concise instruction that allows it to be used at a moment’s notice.

The Carrolls have also been major proponents of House Bill 911, which was sponsored by state Rep. Christine Hamm, and passed in the Senate on May 11.

“This bill represents to me how something good can come from a tragedy,” said Hamm.

The bill established an AED Advisory Commission and “encourages all schools to obtain and maintain automated external defibrillators at appropriate school locations for the safety and protection of students and others participating in or attending school athletic and related activities.”

The message is getting across.

The 2007 senior class at Hopkinton High School just donated another AED to the school.

For more information on Carroll, others like him, how you can help or for more information on SCA, visit www.parentheartwatch.org.

Keep it clean: Schools enforce dance rules

Bow Editor — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 17:06:00 GMT

By Ryan O’Connor
Staff Writer

Students who participated in the annual Homecoming festivities at Hopkinton Middle/High School experienced an evolution in dance the face-to-face variety.

Banning “grinding” and other types of “dirty dancing” has become a recent trend at New Hampshire middle and high schools and Hopkinton Principal Steve Chamberlin said school officials are just looking for the easiest solution to an ever-growing problem.

“Some schools have gone to no contact or slow dances only, but we didn’t want to do that,” Chamberlin said. “Our goal is to improve the climate and culture of dances and make them increasingly appropriate, while still allowing students to have fun.

“At first we didn’t really know what to do, but then decided that face-to-face is easily enforceable and easily obtainable,” he said.

Along with sending letters home to parents, Chamberlin met with students several days prior to the semester’s first dance to explain the reasons for the changes.

“We just wanted to inform parents that we are going to require students to dance face-to-face and hopefully that will eliminate the pelvis-to-backside dancing and some of that kind of stuff that’s been going on,” said Chamberlin. “Last year, it got pretty close to over-the-top, but we’ve found it’s difficult to change regulations during the school year. So, we are just getting the kids and parents on board before there are any issues this year.”

Following the Sept. 30 dance, students from Hopkinton gave the rule change mixed reviews.

“I’m pretty neutral toward it,” said Will Merrow, Hopkinton Student Council president. “I don’t really care a whole lot either way, but I think it’s unfortunate that there wasn’t any student input involved in the decision.”

Kate Scheffey, student representative to the school board, said there has been a lot of griping among students, but no challenge to authority. In fact, she said, students have encouraged her to talk to the board about student reaction.

“I think it has kind of been blown out of proportion, but I agree with the notion that 50 years ago, people didn’t agree with the dancing either,” she said. “It’s just kids having fun. It’s not leading to anything and it’s nothing that inappropriate.”

Goffstown High School Principal Frank McBride said his school has not had to adjust its dance rules because no major issues with inappropriate dancing have surfaced.

“It hasn’t happened to the extent that other principals around the area are reporting,” he said. “Whenever you put three, four, five hundred kids together in one place isssues are going to come up every once in awhile, but overall our students have been very well behaved.”

McBride said there were no noteworthy problems at Goffstown’s Homecoming dance on Saturday, Sept. 30.

Salem Superintendent Michael Delahanty disagrees.

“When you talk about this conflict of ‘grinding,’ it’s not the same as Elvis gyrating his hips,” he said. “This is the actual physical demonstration of a sexual act, which isn’t appropriate of any public setting.”

Some students say the rules go beyond “grinding” though.

Senior Sarah Warner, who said she was one of the few kicked out of the Hopkinton Homecoming dance, claimed a friend picked her up so she could see over the crowd and she was asked to leave because chaperones thought it was inappropriate.

“It wasn’t a hard rule to enforce, but I don’t think it was really necessary,” said Warner. “We all know it’s school grounds and we know what people want to see and what they don’t.”

Still, Hopkinton officials aren’t the only ones who are making changes.

Concord, for instance, had more than 150 students walk out of a Sept. 18 dance after officials repeatedly asked several to improve their behavior.

Now, the school is threatening to cancel the rest of its dances unless students comply with rules of proper conduct.

Not all schools have to make drastic changes, however.

According to headmaster Michael Reardon of Pembroke Academy, which educates students from Allenstown, Chichester, Deerfield, Epsom and Pembroke, the institution does not have a written policy about dances, but rather an institutional framework and attitude about what is appropriate in school.

“The whole issue here is a failure of kids or sometimes community members and even faculty members, to discern what we’re talking about here is school,” Reardon said. “It’s not the beach. It’s not the mall and it’s not their bedroom. It’s school and part of what we need to make kids aware of is there are different expectations and norms depending on where you are. At the very least, we want to make sure we counteract negative stuff they are exposed to elsewhere in the community.”

Reardon said Pembroke hosted its Homecoming dance Friday, Sept. 29, and only three students had to be spoken to about appropriate attire or behavior.

“It’s just kids being kids. They are always going to push the envelope and try to see what they can get away with,” he said. “It’s really our obligation and duty to make sure when they are within these four walls students understand what is appropriate and what isn’t.”

Senior center costs curbed

Bow Editor — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 19:28:00 GMT

By Ryan O’Connor
Staff Writer

A $1 million donation Eugene and Anne Slusser to build a new senior center in Hopkinton may not be enough after the initial bid on the project came in nearly 50 percent higher than expected.

Milstone Engineering and Construction of Concord, the company handpicked by the town for the project, submitted a $1.45 million estimate to build the center, which will be placed at Houston Fields next to the Hopkinton Library.

Don Lane, the selectmen’s representative and chairman of the Slusser Center Committee, said the estimate is not reasonable from his and other officials’ perspectives, but the two sides are re-evaluating the cost of the project.

“We’ve been working on it and we’ve chopped about $250,000 so far. We’re not finished yet,” Lane said. “We’re bringing it more and more into line every day.”

Among the items the town may be looking to cut are some energy-efficient options discussed at two public hearings during the summer, including spray-in insulation, a modern heating and air-conditioning system, low-energy glass, light sensors and a dimming feature to automatically adjust indoor lighting with natural light from outside.

According to Town Administrator Ed Wojnowski, those items will cost 3 percent more up front, but may save the town a one-third of the building’s energy costs down the road.

Still, Lane said, the town will make cuts where appropriate to make the cost reasonable.

“We’ll still look at those types of (energy-efficient) things, but we have to be responsible about it. If it’s going to cost considerably more than we have to spend, then we won’t,” Lane said. “We may pick and choose between some of those things and we certainly want to build as green a building as we can, but still use common sense because we don’t have the money to experiment.”

Should the cost still exceed $1 million, officials will not ask the town for extra money, said Lane.

“We’re going to start fundraising in November to try to make up the difference and also encourage people to donate various items that can be used at the center,” Lane said. “I’m pretty confident we will be able to get it done. This town has been very supportive of practically everything like this in the past.”

The only cost to Hopkinton, once the senior center is open, will be for maintenance and operations, which will run about $28,000 to $35,000 per year, Lane said.

“We aren’t adding any key personnel, which would impact that cost considerably,” he said. “We’re moving people around, like the social services director and recreation director, who will both be operating out of that building, which eliminates the need to add another person.”

Robert Mattes, the town recreation director, has been in charge of the facility since Columbia Hall was closed as a community center last month.

In addition, the two-story Slusser Center will house the town’s human services office, food pantry and Dial-a-Ride desk, among other services.

The town recreation offices will remain at Columbia Hall.

Construction on the new 7,344-sqaure-foot building is set to begin this month and, although slightly delayed, Lane expects the timetable will be close to the original plan.

“We’re still moving ahead and still planning on an April opening for it,” he said. “That’s our target and were not going to miss it by much.”