Lyman Memorial High School

Greetings and Happy Holidays!

May your time off be beneficial to you and your family.

Mark your calendars:

Homework Club - every Monday and Thursday until 3:45

Casey Yates Wrestling Tournament - January 4th

Early Dismissal for students - Friday, January 10th

Eastern Regional Music Festival - January 10 & 11

Midterm Exams - Thursday, January 16th - Wednesday, January 22nd

Start of semester 2 - Thursday, January 23rd!

Have an enjoyable and relaxing holiday break!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Mike & Mr. Apicelli

Floral design students have been busy designing and assembling holiday centerpieces.

The Ag department had a successful fundraiser of handmade wreaths, kissing balls, cemetery boxes and wooden decor including trees, Santa and snowmen.

Sophomore Ag lab and floral students worked with Lyman alumni, Taylor, from McKenna's Flower Shop in Norwich to make holiday mugs. This is a tradition that McKenna's started several years ago and started with 200 mugs dispersed to local conveslant homes and has grown to over 1000 mugs servicing from Norwich/Colchester to Groton. These holiday mugs are to help spread holiday cheer to individuals that can't have a tree in their room or aren't able to see and celebrate the holidays with family.

On Thursday December 12th, the class of 2027 officers hosted the seventeenth annual Miss Lyman! There were six contestants who participated with their escorts; Junior Adamina Glidden escorted by Piper Walker, Senior Christina Pineault escorted by Brody Raymond, Senior Hannah Gonzalez escorted by Olivia Wilmo-Lozada, Senior Olivia Wilmo-Lozada escorted by Hannah Gonzalez, Senior Rowan LaFleur escorted by Sara Bunnell, and Senior Megan Geier escorted by Bacon Academy Student Julian Rodegher.

The event was emceed by Quincy Fusco and Luke Spellman. All contestants gave a great performance and had a lot of fun on stage. In the end, our runner-up Olivia Wilmo-Lozada won Miss Congeniality and our 2024-2025 Miss Lyman is Rowan Lafleur! Congrats to all!

A special thanks to Mr Apicelli, Mrs. Mike, Mrs. Michele, Katie Macht, Kadyn Landry and Class of 2027 officers for making this event possible. Thank you to our judges Miss Ricard, Mr. Berlin, and Mr. Kuczynski for volunteering their time and their judging expertise!

On December 17th Kiersten Kulman was awarded the American Legion Oratorical Contest Winner. She gave two speeches related to the United States of America Constitution: one prepared and one spontaneous. Congratulations Kiersten!

Through a piloted short term grant, a voluntary group of students has been trained to implement student-led programs and activities to promote the well-being of their peers.

The program's goal is to eliminate the stigma around mental health, and encourage students and staff to feel comfortable having conversations with students surrounding mental health issues. Through a student’s point of view, these peers will create “campaigns” throughout the school year, to address specific mental health stigmas and to create a stronger school climate. Students are aware that they are not treating the mental health issues of the student body, but rather, students connected to this program are simply being trained to best manage conversations around mental health. Our slogan is “Shatter the Silence, Mental Health Matters!”

Our Spirit Week will be Monday, December 13th and starts with Ugly Holiday Sweater Day!! The week of awareness will conclude with an activity period on Friday!

Below are the students who represented Lyman at the Winter ECC Athletics Leadership Conference at NFA. The students discussed pertinent issues facing teen athletes, including changing/enhancing certain team cultures, goal setting as leaders of their respective teams, and learned about different leadership styles, principles, and behaviors. The students also networked with other athletes from across the ECC and shared some of their own experiences and perspectives.

Students:
Jenny Lopez - Girls’ Basketball
Kevin Botticello - Boys’ Basketball
Lucas Judd - Wrestling
Marissa Litwin - Girls’ Indoor Track
Nick Zaprianov - Boys’ Indoor Track

Attention all seniors and senior families! The State site for filing FAFSA is now open. Please follow the link below. If you have questions, contact your school counselor.

https://studentaid.gov/h/apply-for-aid/fafsa

While the holidays are a time of joy, celebration and togetherness with friends and family, many children are also impacted by feelings of anxiety, stress, sadness and fear of being left out. Thoughts of having to be perfect, not being able to get through planned celebrations within a large or small setting and missing family members that have passed recently, can impact thoughts and feelings. Oftentimes, additional resources to support your child can be helpful. Please feel free to access any of the articles below to further enjoy the holiday season together.

Connecting with Teens Over the Holidays

Simple Strategies to Help Children Cope with Holiday Stress

Parenting Teens Through the Holiday Season

How Holidays Can be Stressful for Children

Tips for Handling Holiday Stress and Grief

Managing Parenting Stress Over the Holidays

Tips to Manage Stress over the Holidays

Holiday Self Care Images at a Glance

College bound seniors should be completing the FAFSA, which opened up on December 1st. To apply for most financial aid including federal and state student grants, work-study, and loans, families need to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Please see the attached document for a more detailed description and reach out to your child's counselor with any questions.

Upcoming Events:

The guidance department will be hosting a virtual College Night for parents on February 27th. This is a good opportunity for parents to learn more about the college application process and to speak with representatives from Eastern, UCONN, Mitchell College, CT State Community College and the University of New Haven. While this event is geared towards the parents of juniors, all are welcome to attend. More information, including the google link will be available in the coming weeks. Please reach out to your student's counselor with any questions.

Attendance at school is crucial to success. We are proud to share that we are celebrating monthly perfect attendance. In September students were treated to ice cream. October we celebrated with cookies! A survey was sent to collect student input regarding incentives to encourage perfect attendance. Students voiced their opinions and based on popular demand the month of November was celebrated with "Homework Passes" with consent of the teacher, of course. Congratulations to all that achieved this accomplishment!

Lebanon Public Schools will be implementing a new policy for tickets to Lyman Memorial home athletic contests this winter. All Lebanon Public School students with a school ID will get into games for free!!! Along with LPS students getting in for free, all faculty, staff and Board of Education members will be allowed into athletic contests free of charge. It is very important for Board of Education members, faculty/staff and students to bring their LPS school ID to the games in order to be let in free. We are also very excited to be offering season passes for purchase this winter sports season. Purchasing a pass offers spectators a discount for attending games throughout the entire season. Tickets will be purchased digitally on GoFan.co and will be available beginning today. The schedule of games is already loaded into GoFan, however, if you still want to purchase tickets when arriving at Lyman Memorial, GoFan can be accessed via their web address or a QR code posted outside the gym. There is also a card reader available for those wishing to pay with a debit/credit card. Tickets can be purchased by sport (girls basketball, boys basketball or wrestling) or for the whole winter season for all sports.

Prices for the season passes are as follows:

Girls Basketball - $40 for 12 games

Boys Basketball - $25 for 9 games

Wrestling - $15 for 4 matches

All Sports Pass - $60 for 25 contests/games

Tickets for single game admission are also available for the following fee:

Adults - $5.00

Senior Citizens - $3.00

Non LPS Students - $3.00

Bulldog Booster Club Members - $3.00

Instructions for purchasing tickets

Go to Gofan.co

Search Lyman Memorial High School

Select Lyman Memorial

Select ticket option single ticket or Special Pass

Pay with credit card

Player of the Year – Chase Gilbert (Old Lyme)

Karina Chan (NFA)
Hazel DeLucia (Lyman Memorial)
Lauren Fulcher (East Lyme)
Kate Littler (Ledyard)
Maggie Littler (Ledyard)
Avery Maiese (Waterford)
Molly Musselman (Stonington)
Elisabeth Person (Lyman Memorial)

In biology, we have been learning about how cells maintain homeostasis by transporting materials into and out of cells. In environmental science we created holiday ornaments of marine animals. We researched their habitat and special adaptations and included that in our ornaments. In physical science class we're learning about energy and how energy transforms.

The photos are of an osmosis lab we did with Orbeez. We placed the orbeez in different solutions and calculated the change in mass to see how much water moved in or out of a cell.

This past weekend, students participated in a two-day Model United Nations Conference at the University of Hartford run by the CT World Affairs Council. Our students represented the country of Ireland in four different committees including two crisis committees. They debated and discussed major global issues including the illicit trade of conventional arms, the safety of journalists reporting in regions of conflict, the prevention of chemical weapons re-emerging, and a theoretical crisis of nuclear weapons in space in the year 2099. Piper Walker and Samuel Barnes earned Honorable Mention for their work writing and passing a resolution in their crisis committee.

Students Left to Right (Samual Barnes and Piper Walker) (William Blakeslee) (Jenny Lopez and Rita Cremaschi) (Sara Bunnell and Hannah Barnes) (Back: Oliver Gatti, Holden LeMay, William Blakeslee, and Rhiannon Dixon; Front: Samuel Barnes, Jenny Lopez, Piper Walker, and Rita Cremaschi)

Our Model UN Co-Advisors are Amber Van Dyne and Baird Collins.

The Global Studies classes had the opportunity to hear from a guest speaker. Ms. Ronna Stuller came to present about her time living in Israel on a kibbutz from 1969 to 1974. She spoke to students with first-hand experience about the ongoing conflict in the region and what life was like on a Jewish kibbutz in northern Israel.

Mr. Morello's Civic students submitted 3-D displays that compare the CT state government with the federal government.

The 2025 yearbook is coming along nicely. We have hit every deadline so far and have sold almost three-quarters of them already. Members of the staff include co-editors Megan Geier and Christina Pineault, and staff members Brayden Powadiuk-Minas, Connor Hawkins, Trent Goins, Emily McKelvey, Juliana Haynes, Jenny Lopez, Breannah Zimnoch, Christan Johnson, and Mallory Pehowdy.