Three Keene State College students, an eighth grader from Monadnock Regional High School, and a storyteller from Shelburne Falls, Mass., received awards at the 12th Annual Hildebrandt Holocaust Studies Awards Program on Monday, April 20.

Hannah Bush, eighth grader at Monadnock Regional Middle School, received the $300 Community School Award for her original song, “Be a Witness.”

David Arfa, from Shelburne Falls, Mass., received the $300 Community Member Award for his storytelling entry, “The Jar of Tears,” based on the life of Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapiro, the Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto.

Meagan Blais, a KSC Junior enrolled in Keene State’s new Holocaust and Genocide Studies major, received a $500 award for her personal essay, “Inheriting the Holocaust.”

KSC students Jessica Howard and Becky Midler shared a $500 award for “Unearthed Sense,” an original dance that they choreographed and performed.

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Were you on campus, or near campus, or even on Rt. 9 between Keene and Concord on Weds., April 15th? If so, you probably saw something of the big splash we made as just part of our Centennial celebration. Early that morning in Concord, NH, Gov. Lynch signed a special KSC Centennial proclamation and handed it off to the first in a long line of relay runners and walkers who hand carried the document all the way back to campus for a big birthday celebration that included fireworks and a giant (and I mean giant) cake!

If you were driving from Keene to Concord during the day, you might have seen the relay runners along Rt. 9. Maybe you even showed up on campus that evening and got a piece of the delicious cake and thrilled to the fireworks and all the enthusiasm. Even if you were just somewhere near campus, you probably saw the fireworks and heard the cheers.

Our intrepid Lucy Webb, who spent the entire day manning Centennial Command Central, kept a rolling blog going that tracked the doings each step of the way. Visit it to see the day’s events and some of the great photos and video coverage (including the fireworks!), and let us know what you think.

Members of the Keene and campus communities gathered in front of Parker Hall on April 22 to honor Frederick “Chris” Feiker with the dedication of the garden in front of Parker Hall. Chris was Keene State’s gardener from 1976–2004, and created many wonderful gardens on campus. Friends and colleagues shared memories and paid tribute his legacy, beauty that renews itself each year.

Do you remember Chris? Use the “Comments” link below to share your special memories of this gentle man.

You gotta love the stirring marches of John Philip Sousa. And did you know that the March King brought his band to Keene on six occasions? Well, he’ll be back in the (re-enacted) flesh at the Redfern’s Main Theatre on Tuesday, April 7, at 7:30 p.m. Dr. Keith Brion, who portrays the band leader and is considered the greatest living authority on Sousa, will conduct the KSC Concert Band in an historically accurate recreation of a Sousa Band concert, just as you would have heard it 100 years ago, in honor of KSC’s Centennial Celebration.

Brion will be at the College for a week, speaking to classes on music history, conducting, and the theatre craft involved in depicting the on-stage persona.

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Kristine Trutor swam her way into the Keene State College record book last week by becoming the first Owl women’s swimmer to score at the NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships. She competed in three events at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center, qualifying for the finals in the 100 butterfly, placing 14th with a school-record time of 57.09. She set another a school-record time (57.88) in the 100 back, placing 17th, and wrapped up her trip by finishing 35th in the 200 backstroke.

Use the “Comments” link below to congragulate Krissy on a most impressive record. She’ll be back at it again next season!

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Were you one of the many who participated in the “Keene is Reading” program and read Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma? As part of that program, journalist, author, food-policy expert, and activist Dr. Raj Patel will speak on the growing international food crisis and what can be done to stop it. Come to the Mabel Brown Room in the Student Center at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 25, for an important and engaging discussion. This event is free and open to the public.

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Sophomore Craig MacPherson and senior Peter Najem, both from Derry, N.H., added their names to the long list of Keene State All-Americans at the NCAA Division III Track and Field Championships at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana, on Saturday, March 14, 2009.

MacPherson earned his second All-American in the mile, while Najem, competing in the 800-meter race, claimed his first honor. For the second year in a row, MacPherson finished third in the mile, while Najem held on for a fourth-place finish.

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One of the world’s outstanding chamber orchestras, I Musici de Montréal, will appear at the Redfern in a special multimedia performance of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition on Wednesday, April 1, at 7:30 p.m. I Musici will perform Pictures choreographed with large-screen projections of paintings inspired by the original Victor Hartmann paintings that themselves inspired Mussorgsky’s timeless music.

La Presse Montreal described the concert as “an uninterrupted suite of delight, with the movement, effects, space, and depth always successfully achieved.”

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