Gilbert planning ahead for Homecoming 2011

WINSTED — Gilbert School alumni and their friends are invited to visit the school on Saturday, Oct. 15, for this year’s Distinguished Alumni Awards, as a part of Homecoming Weekend. The day’s events will include a cross-country road race, awards program, lunch, tour of the school’s archives and this year’s Homecoming football game between Gilbert and Avon High School.The road race starts at 9 a.m., followed by the 10 a.m. awards program and lunch at 12:15 p.m. The football game begins at 2:30 p.m.Among the award recipients this year will be James B. Fortuna, who will receive the Gilbert Heritage Award, along with an honorary diploma. Fortuna began teaching business education at Gilbert in 1952, retiring in 1986. He also coached the Gilbert football team from his arrival at the school until 1961. Recognizing the need for a feeder program, he also started the Winsted Midget and Junior Midget football programs in 1969.Magdalena Kruk, class of 1995, will receive the Young Alumni Achievement Award. Kruk arrived in Winsted from her native Poland in 1993. She enrolled as a junior at Gilbert, where her father, Kaz, would start work as a school custodian in 2000. Kruk subsequently graduated from Northwestern Connecticut Community College and Central Connecticut State University, spending a semester in France teaching English as a Second Language. A resident of Winsted, she currently teaches French and Spanish at Suffield High School.Daniel R. Smith, class of 1952, will be the recipient of the Distinguished Professional Achievement Award. Descended from an African-American slave, Smith graduated from Gilbert and entered the U.S. Army, serving in the Korean War as a medic and operating room technician. After returning home from Korea, he performed heroic actions during the Great Flood of 1955 in Winsted, diving into a raging river to save a man’s life. He graduated from Springfield College in 1960 and entered public service, eventually becoming executive director of a federal anti-poverty program and working for several years in the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity. He made his greatest mark in the area of health-care policy, most notably at the National Institute of Health, where he served as a national program director.AIDS educator Arnold A. “Arne” Grandel, class of 1982, will receive the W.L. Gilbert Award for Outstanding Community Service. Grandel has been teaching about HIV/AIDS for almost 10 years and presented a few years ago at the International AIDS conference in Mexico City about educating young audiences on HIV/AIDS prevention, education, funding and treatment. Grandel has also traveled to Washington, D.C., to lobby Congress in support of funding, research and health benefits. He has returned to the Gilbert campus several times to give very popular workshops on AIDS education and prevention.Finally, Daniel R. Jones, class of 1983, will receive the Outstanding Achievement in Athletics Award. Jones played defensive end for Gilbert’s football team and earned a spot on the All-Pequot Conference Team in his senior year. He also played center on the basketball team and defended home plate in baseball. Since graduating, Jones has continued his tireless involvement in athletics as a coach on countless Winsted youth teams and is currently assistant coach in football and basketball at Gilbert.Gilbert School musicians come together each year to form an Alumni Band to entertain guests at Homecoming. If you’re interested in picking up and dusting off your instrument and playing with the band, send an email to gilbertalumni@gilbertschool.org. Alumni interested in attending any of the above events can send an email or call the school at 860-379-8525.

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