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Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

Inside Press

Acts of Kindness “AOK DAY” Campaign Underway

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By Molly Alexander

Get ready to get kind, Chappaqua!  Monday, October 23rd is a county-wide Act of Kindness Day! This means get out and do something nice for someone–hold open a door, pay for someone’s coffee, compliment someone, etc. You’ve probably noticed signs up and around town with kind phrases on them; those were put up by the director behind this whole event, Evy Rosen.

Evy Rosen with her daughter, Nat

After becoming certified in positive psychology, she had to do a project surrounding the idea of what made her happy, and being kind was just the thing! She decided to spread the act of being kind in spite of all of the negative news we both hear and expect in our daily lives. “Due to negative news, most people are anxious all of the time,” Evy explained. “Performing a kind act actually causes a psychological and emotional shift in your body. Feel good hormones also come out when you do a kind act, similar to those you feel after working out.”

These positive hormones don’t only affect the person doing the kind act, but receiving and seeing it as well. “It’s like when you’re watching a movie and somebody does something really nice or romantic – you feel happy just watching it,” Evy said.

 Keep the Kindness Coming

The day doesn’t need to end once midnight strikes. The goal of AOK Day is to cause a positive ripple effect, encouraging people to continue to be kind every day to change society’s negative perception.

A recent AOK Day in Pittsburgh led to positive results, such as the community feeling closer than ever and overall good responses. Evy’s goal is to not just spread kindness throughout Chappaqua, but to eventually have an AOK Day in Pleasantville, Mount Kisco, etc. “I am hoping to engage the entire community; schools, stores, places of worship, etc.” Evy added.

With the stress of the new school year and everyday life activities like work and sports, spreading kindness is really important to our mental health since it will only create positive change within us. Once the positivity begins, our negative feelings about change and anxiety will only follow. In Evy’s words, “Kindness can have a ripple effect and we can all benefit from kindness.”

Share your acts of kindness with the official Facebook page and coming soon Instagram account to be featured!

Molly Alexander, a senior in the LIFE School at Horace Greeley High School, is an intern for Inside Chappaqua and Inside Armonk Magazines.

 

‘Choosing A Health Plan’ – a Free Guide About Healthcare Coverage Published by White Plains Hospital

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Avoid Unexpected Costs Just in Time For Open Enrollment

Newly Updated Health Insurance Guide Helps Consumers Navigate Choices to Make Informed Decisions

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — The world of personal health insurance is complicated, and these days, it’s not getting any easier to navigate. As open enrollment time approaches and federal policies continue to be in flux, millions of consumers will be overwhelmed with complex information on coverage that can have dramatic financial implications down the road.

To clear confusion and help with decision-making, White Plains Hospital is once again offering a free, updated, and downloadable guide for consumers to help them make informed decisions. The guide is available through the Hospital’s website here.

“Choosing A Health Plan: It Pays to Know Your Options” offers the following information:

  • Tips for estimating how much coverage you will need
  • Financial strategies for funding expected healthcare costs
  • The risks and benefits of choosing a High-Deductible Health Plan
  • A glossary of key health insurance terms
  • How provider networks work and what they cover                                                                                                                                                                                             

The health insurance guidewas written to help consumers make more informed health plan choices, whether they purchase coverage through their employer or on the New York State of Health marketplace. “There are many things to consider when selecting a health insurance policy during open enrollment,” says Joseph J. Guarracino, CFO of White Plains Hospital. “It’s important to assess how you typically access healthcare to determine how much coverage you might need. It’s also essential to understand how much your monthly premium will cover, and what you may be responsible for if you have a significant health event. Our goal continues to be to help people in the community avoid unexpected healthcare costs.”

It can be downloaded through the White Plains Hospital website, www.wphospital.org, and will be available in waiting rooms at the Hospital, and through its outpatient medical facilities through the end of January 2018.

 

Harvey Presents: An Afternoon with Actress Glenn Close on November 5

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KATONAH, NY– Stage, screen and TV actress Glenn Close will appear at The Harvey School on Sunday, November 5 at 4 p.m. as part of the community program series Harvey Presents. Close, a six time Academy Award nominee and winner of three Tonys and three Emmys, will appear at Harvey’s Walker Center for the Arts. The event will be moderated by special guest host, acclaimed film and theater critic Pat Collins.

General admission is $50. Seating is limited.

To order tickets go to www.harveyschool.org/harveypresents or call (914) 232-3161 ext. 161 for more information.

 

 

More on Glenn Close and Pat Collins

A six-time Academy Award nominee, Close stars in the title role of the film adaptation of Meg Wolitzer’s bestselling novel, The Wife, with Jonathan Pryce and Christian Slater for Swedish director Bjorn Runge. The film had its world debut at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival premiering to rave reviews for her performance. Close is also in Julian Fellow’s adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Crooked House alongside an all-star cast that included Max Irons, Christina Hendricks, Gillian Anderson and Terence Stamp.

Close reprised her Tony Award-winning role in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Sunset Boulevard in a new production at the London Coliseum in the Spring of 2016.  For that performance she won a London Evening Standard Award and was nominated for an Olivier Award. The full production, starring Close, opened on Broadway this February, for an exclusive limited engagement.

Close made her feature film debut in George Roy Hill’s The World According to Garp, earning her awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the National Board of Review as well as her first Academy Award nomination. She was subsequently Oscar-nominated for The Big Chill, The Natural, Fatal Attraction and Stephen Frears’ Dangerous Liaisons (for which she was also a BAFTA Award nominee).

Close received her sixth Academy Award nomination in 2012, along with Golden Globe and SAG nominations, for Albert Nobbs. She wrote the screenplay with (Man Booker prize-winning novelist) John Banville. Close was also a producer on the film and composed the lyrics for the Golden Globe and World Soundtrack-nominated song, “Lay Your Head Down.” For Albert Nobbs, she received the Irish Film and Television Award (IFTA) as “Best Foreign Actress,” was voted “Best Actress” at the 2011 Tokyo International Film Festival, and was honored for her performance by the San Sebastian Film Festival (Donostia Award), Hollywood Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival and the Palm Springs Film Festival.

Her recent film appearances include What Happened to Monday, The Girl With All the Gifts, Wilde Wedding and the upcoming comedy Bastards. Her film credits include Richard Marquand’s Jagged Edge, Barbet Schroeder’s Reversal of Fortune, Franco Zeffirelli’s Hamlet, István Szabó’s Meeting Venus, Ron Howard’s The Paper, Stephen Herek’s 101 Dalmatians, Kevin Lima’s 102 Dalmatians, Wolfgang Petersen’s Air Force One, Robert Altman’s Cookie’s Fortune, Rose Troche’s The Safety of Objects, Merchant Ivory’s Le Divorce, Chris Terrio’s Heights, Rodrigo García’s Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her and Nine Lives, Evening, Low Down, 5 to 7, Anesthesia, The Great Gilly Hopkins and Guardians of the Galaxy.

In 2012, Close headlined the fifth and final season of the critically-acclaimed original legal thriller, Damages. For her riveting portrayal of high-stakes litigator ‘Patty Hewes’, Close won two consecutive Emmys as “Best Actress in a Drama Series” and two subsequent Emmy nominations, along with a Golden Globe Award and three SAG Award nominations.

Close’s twelve Golden Globe nominations include a Best Actress win for Andrei Konchalovsky’s adaptation of The Lion in Winter (which also earned her a SAG Award). Among the television projects that have brought her twelve Emmy nominations, is an Emmy Award for her performance as Margarethe Cammermeyer in Serving in Silence: the Margarethe Cammermeyer Story (for which she also received a Peabody Award as executive producer).

Other television credits include The Shield, The Elephant Man, Something About Amelia, Stones for Ibarra, The Ballad of Lucy Whipple and In the Gloaming, for which she won a CableACE Award. She executive produced and starred in Richard Pearce’s musical remake of South Pacific for ABC TV. She also executive produced the Sarah, Plain and Tall trilogy for the Hallmark Hall of Fame, starring in all three opposite Christopher Walken.

Close made her theatre, and Broadway, debut in Harold Prince’s revival of Love for Love. Her theater credits include The Crucifer of Blood, The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs (Obie Award), Barnum (Tony nomination) and Tony Awards for her performances in The Real Thing and Death and the Maiden, both directed by Mike Nichols. In London, she reteamed with the director of the original Sunset Boulevard stage production, Trevor Nunn, in his Royal National Theatre revival of A Streetcar Named Desire. She returned to Broadway for the 2014 revival production of Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance.

In 2009, Glenn Close co-founded Bring Change 2 Mind, a charity dedicated to confronting, head-on, the stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness by empowering people to start the conversation. The idea for the organization came about following Close’s first-hand observation of battles with mental illness within her family. For more information, please visit www.Bringchange2mind.org.

Close actively supports Puppies Behind Bars and their program Dog Tags: Service Dogs for Those Who’ve Served Us. Close is a Founding Member and current Co-Chair of the Conservation Council for Panthera.  Panthera is an international nonprofit whose sole mission is conservation of the world’s 36 species of wild cats. She is a trustee emeritus of The Sundance Institute, having served as a board member for 16 years.

 

Pat Collins

Pat Collins, an Emmy Award-winning critic, has enjoyed a long professional relationship with Glenn Close from the actress’s early roles on screen and on Broadway. Collins won Emmys for “The Pat Collins Show” and as a member of the news team at WCBS TV where she served as its film and theater critic. Subsequently, she covered entertainment news for “Good Morning America” and “The CBS Morning News.” At WWOR-TV, Collins hosted a number of behind-the-scenes-Broadway specials in addition to reviewing film and theater for the “10 O’ Clock News.” Collins has hosted several specials for CUNY TV including “Kinky Boots: The Road To Broadway,” a three-part series on independent films, and a special marking the 50th anniversary of “Fiddler On The Roof.” 

Collins serves as the president of The Joe Raposo Music Group which administers the catalogue of compositions of her late husband Joe Raposo, a co-creator of “Sesame Street” and its longtime musical director. Pat and her husband William Sarnoff live in Bedford.

 

 

A Talk on Finding Common Ground: Muslim-Jewish Relations

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Mehnaz Afridi, the author of “The Shoah Through Muslim Eyes.”

An HHREC and AJC Distinguished Lecture

Join us for a look at the state of Muslim-Jewish relations today with Dr. Mehnaz Afridi, the author of “The Shoah Through Muslim Eyes.”  Dr. Afridi, a Muslim woman, heads an academic center at Manhattan College, dedicated to learning the lessons of the Holocaust.  She is a true bridge builder who deeply understands both the Muslim and Jewish communities.

The lecture will take place on November 1 at 7:30 p.m., Bet Torah Synagogue, 60 Smith Avenue, Mount Kisco,

For more information and RSVP, please contract American Jewish Committee (914)948-5585 or visit westchester@ajc.org

 

https://hhrecny.z2systems.com/np/clients/hhrecny/event.jsp?event=52

 

 

Distinguished Lecturer Suzanne Brown-Fleming at Kristallnacht Commemoration

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Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center and Iona College Annual Kristallnacht Commemoration:

November 1938: Perspectives from the Vatican Archives with Distinguished Lecturer, Suzanne Brown-Fleming

Suzanne Brown-Fleming is Director of Visiting Scholar Programs at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies and a former Mandel Center Fellow (2000).  Her most recent book, Nazi Persecution and Postwar Repercussions: The International Tracing Service Archive and Holocaust Research (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016) is part of the Museum’s Documenting Life and Destruction: Holocaust Sources in Context series (Jürgen Matthaus, series editor).  Her first book, The Holocaust & Catholic Conscience: Cardinal Aloisius Muench and the Guilt Question in Germany, was published in 2006 by the University of Notre Dame Press in association with the Museum.

This distinguished lecture will be held on November 13 from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Iona College, 715 North Avenue, Spellman Hall, Thomas J. Burke Lounge, New Rochelle, NY  10801.

For RSVP and more information, please contact Julie Scallero (914)696-0738 or jscallero@hhrecny.org

There is no charge and open to all.

https://hhrecny.z2systems.com/np/clients/hhrecny/event.jsp?event=49

Release courtesy of the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center, hhrecny.org