Amy Kelley

Making Holiday Memories: Inspiring Ideas for Families

December 1, 2019 by Amy Kelley

The holiday season is upon us and it’s time to shop, plan celebrations and also enjoy all our communities have to offer at this special time. Here are a few ideas to help celebrate and enjoy the season all while having fun locally:

1. From Friday, Dec. 13, to Sunday, Dec. 15, in Chappaqua, shop artists’ special pop-ups between the King Street Studio and The Art Closet Gallery in the loft at Family Britches. The kickoff will take place in conjunction with the downtown Chappaqua Wine Around Town event on Dec. 13 from 5-8 p.m.

2. For a break from all the preparations the holidays entail, check out the Jane Condon Holiday Comedy Show at Armonk’s Whippoorwill Theater on Saturday, Dec. 7 at 7:30 p.m. Rabbi Josh Strom of Congregation B’nai Yisrael will emcee the evening, which will also include a performance by Boston-based comic Kathe Farris. Tickets are available at eventbrite.com.

3. Westchester’s Winter Wonderland returns this year to Kensico Dam Plaza in Valhalla. Hours and days vary now through Jan. 4, winterwonderland.com for more info. There’s a circus, ice skating, rides and more. Tickets are $20 for ages 3 and up.

4. While the menorah lighting as well as a tree lighting already took place in Armonk on Frosty Day, before this issue went to press, the details of Chappaqua’s menorah lighting ceremony had not yet been firmed up. Ike Kuzio, superintendent of New Castle Recreation and Parks, said residents can keep abreast of this important annual event at Chappaqua’s community center by checking in on the town’s website.

5. Enjoy a screening of a Big Band Holiday program from Jazz at Lincoln Center in the New Castle Town Hall Assembly Room. The program runs from 6:30-9, p.m. Friday, Dec. 6 starting with refreshments provided by the Friends of the Chappaqua Library and will feature songs both “sacred and secular.”

6. Or attend The Movies’ Greatest Christmas Songs on Sunday Dec. 8 at 2 p.m. at the New Castle Community Center on Senter Street. Jon Reichman will use film clips, photos and piano performance to explore the history of famous holiday tunes White Christmas, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas and Silver Bells.

7. Have yourself a historic Christmas. Visit the Horace Greeley House on Saturday Dec. 7, where a crafts workshop will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. and a tree lighting at 5 p.m. will be accompanied by the Horace Greeley High School Madrigal Choir leading carols, and a visit from Santa.

8. Why not spend some time in early December learning about the traditions of various cultures, communities and religions? Besides boasting many resources for learning about Christmas and Chanukah, the North Castle Public Library has several books about Kwanzaa (Dec. 26-Jan. 1) and a CD of Kwanzaa music for loan. The Chappaqua Library also offers a book about the Hindu festival of Diwali (this year, celebrated already in October), titles about Chinese New Year, and more.

9. To offset the effects of kugel and cookies, give snowshoeing a try. Skip Beitzel, owner of Hickory & Tweed in Armonk, said “Snowshoeing is great. My adage for snowshoeing is, ‘snow and they will go.’” Beitzel, whose shop sells snowshoes for all ages, said his customers snowshoe on local golf courses or on the bike path that runs through Millwood. Those seeking a more arduous experience may even take their snowshoes to ski areas to use them when climbing uphill. “Why not snowshoe as a family?” Beitzel said, since after all many families ski together, and snowshoeing can be done easily and locally–providing there’s snow.

10. Or plan a family hike to The Eugene and Agnes Meyer Preserve, a 247-acre spot with more than six miles of color-coded trails. Spanning New Castle and North Castle, the preserve has kiosks at each entrance to help visitors plan their hikes. For more outdoor appreciation, make the Christmas Bird Count a part of your family’s December traditions (find dates and locations on audubon.org) – or even closer to home, join Cornell’s Project Feeder Watch (join.birds.cornell.edu) and find out how families can contribute meaningfully to important statistics on birds and migration patterns. It’s not too late to join this information-collecting effort, which will get you through the winter and into spring.

At Byram Hills High School, Scholars Think Globally

August 24, 2019 by Amy Kelley

Global Scholar students attend We Day for youth leaders at the Barclays Center –attendance by invite only

While STEM pursuits are enthusiastically encouraged these days, there are still students who love – and wish to find rigorous academic challenges – in the humanities. To better serve those students, a team of educators at Byram Hills High School has developed a three-year humanities track called Global Scholars. It’s research-based, and each year is “completely different,” according to program co-founder Duane Smith, chair of the English department for Byram Hills high school and middle school–grades 6 through 12. Smith designed and implements the Global Scholars program with Jennifer Laden, social studies chair, and Melissa Stahl, world languages chair.

This school year, 150 students will be involved with the Global Scholars program which is generously supported by the Byram Hills Education Foundation. “It really took off so quickly, and it said to us that this is something that is meeting a need,” Laden said. The three-year program starts with a seminar year that provides an overview of global issues. This first year is the most teacher-led while still emphasizing student-led learning, and most often taken by sophomores.

There are multiple entry points, though, so students can still join if they do a year or two of the program, although all first-year students in the program start at the beginning, with the seminar year. “We think year one is a great course for anybody,” Laden said, explaining that juniors and seniors are welcome to take the course.

(L-R): Isabelle Levy, Madison Gummer and
Ellie Margolin led a workshop on how
climate change affects human rights at
Iona College

A Focus on Global Competency Skills

From the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, Smith and his colleagues developed three units for the first year of the program, in poverty, the environment and human rights. Students in the Global Scholars program find an area to explore more deeply within one of these three categories. “Within these units, we work on global competency skills,” Laden said, such as analyzing multiple perspectives, studying global issues and communicating ideas well.

“We want to expose the students to the problems facing this 21st century world and give them the preparation to do research, take action and communicate their ideas,” Smith said.

“The students are charged with choosing a topic that they are interested in,” Smith said, such as air pollution or sex trafficking in the U.S. The second year is the “action research” year. Much of this year is self-guided work by the students, and they learn time management while doing much work on their own in order to meet due dates. Students do independent research and “start to develop and implement an action plan,” Laden said.

Isabelle Levy’s area of interest is the lack of school supplies in Costa Rica, an area she said is considered to otherwise have a strong educational system. “I like that I can explore topics I wouldn’t get to explore in my other classes.” Levy, a senior at BHHS, said. Levy also enjoys the opportunity to do independent research. She has had a bake sale to raise funds and is currently selling bracelets and expects to assist La Escuela Balsaville in Costa Rica with a donation of hundreds of dollars so that school supplies can be purchased.

Student artwork exploring human rights
issues in Yemen

The Birth of the Program

Smith said the naissance of the Global Scholars program came from a conference at Harvard on global competency that he and some colleagues attended in the spring of 2016.

“Our mission was purposeful in that it was basically a charge from the former superintendent – he said the humanities were basically on the dark side of the moon and he wanted us to focus on the humanities. He wanted us to think big,” Smith said, adding that the current superintendent, Jen Lamia, has also been supportive of the endeavor.

Besides utilizing UN ideas, the teachers have drawn on sources such as the Asia Society, which offers a framework to guide those seeking to “understand the world through disciplinary and interdisciplinary study.” The Global Scholars program uses this framework to “guide the learning.” It has four parts: investigating the world, recognizing perspectives, taking action and communicating ideas. The third year of the program, that’s part of what students do: communicate their ideas to other students in the program, in part by leading workshops.

Creating Global Leaders

“The big goal is to develop leadership qualities, capacities and skills,” Laden said. Third-year students work as mentors for first- and second-year students to “put their leadership skills in action. Additionally, they will continue the action plan and see it through to fruition.”

“I really like it because it’s really different from the other classes,” Ellie Margolin, a senior at BHHS in her third year of the program, said. Margolin is focusing on water conservation issues in the U.S., originally inspired by an interest in the water issues in Flint, Michigan. But besides her personal area of study, Margolin said she has enjoyed the focus on discussion in the Global Scholars program, and also a trip she took with fellow students during her sophomore year to the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center at Iona College in New Rochelle, where they attended a variety of seminars on human rights issues.

The following year, as a junior, Margolin returned and with two other students, led a seminar on climate change. Margolin also said she enjoys the unconventional assessments employed in the Global Scholars program. “There’s always an audience that’s not just the teacher,” Laden said. Students have shown their work in a public art exhibition and entered podcasts in a contest sponsored by NPR. This way, it’s clear that work is being created for a broader impact – not just done for a teacher.

“Our sophomore class coming in is roughly 200 students and we have roughly 60 students who have signed up for the program,” Smith said. “That’s a huge testament to the need for a global competency program – and it’s a testament to the kids in the school who really want to make a difference. We’re thrilled that we’re tapping into something that’s an important part of the development of our students.”

“We’re continuing to work on it and reflect on what we do,” Smith said, with input from students as well as colleague-to-colleague. “We have to rely on a feedback circle.” “It’s a great collaboration between professionals and we’re collaborating with the kids in developing the program,” Laden said. “They’re really creating the program as much as we are.” “I love the program,” Margolin said. “It’s absolutely amazing.”

Global Scholar students attending a Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center conference

In Armonk, Re-thinking College Admissions Success

August 24, 2019 by Amy Kelley

Bruni’s book will be part of the first community
book read event on October 17th

Armonk–and surrounding communities–is filled with residents who live there often because of the high quality of the school system. Parents and community members believe that Byram HIlls High School students are well-prepared in general for a competitive college application process. And they are right.

Last year, 68 percent of the Byram Hills graduating class was accepted into the top 11 percent of colleges in the country, according to the district website. These are schools identified by Barron’s Profiles of American Colleges as Tier 1, which is also called ‘most competitive,’ and Tier 2, referred to as ‘highly competitive.’ Yale, the Georgia Institute of Technology and Tulane are examples of schools recently ranked Tier 1, while schools that earned the Tier 2 designation recently include SUNY Stony Brook, the United States Coast Guard Academy and Baylor.

Partnering with Challenge Success

Yet, Byram Hills High School Principal Christopher Walsh does not think a student’s future is solely determined by his or her college acceptances–and he is not alone. That’s why the district entered into a partnership with Challenge Success, a nonprofit that partners with schools to “create a more balanced and academically fulfilling life for their kids.” Challenge Success seeks to help communities “embrace a broad definition of success,” and also help students engage with learning more. The program was generously funded by the Byram Hills Education Foundation (BHEF) and the Debra Leipman Yale Memorial Fund. The Debra Leipman Yale Memorial Fund is a fund within the BHEF that honors the life and memory of Debra Leipman Yale, and supports initiatives that are consistent with her values.

“Byram Hills is part of this little cluster of schools in the Westchester area that all partnered with us last year,” Jon Kleinman of Challenge Success said. “When schools do this in concert with their peers, it’s easier to make changes.” Kleinman said that Challenge Success works with schools to “identify where they want to make progress and help connect them to research, tools and ideas.”

Walsh, who attended the United States Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA), said the district is proud of its success in placing students in many competitive colleges, but he also thinks that there are many ways to become successful and start a fulfilling life without attending a top-tier school. For Walsh, attending USMMA “really came down to a financial choice,” he said, adding that “The more I looked into USMMA the more I realized I’d have great opportunities there. After I graduated I was commissioned as an officer in the Navy, I received a B.S. in marine transportation.” It was while traveling around the world that Walsh began seeing and thinking about the educational opportunities in different places, which eventually led him to graduate school at Harvard, he said.

Different Pathways to Success

“We’re trying to look at the overall student experience,” Walsh said. “We want to make sure we have everyone involved in the conversation about moving away from this idea about a single path to success” and “the idea that you need to have everything nailed down by December of senior year.”

Another way to go is to take a gap year after college, Walsh pointed out. “Some students have decided to take gap years and they report feeling much more prepared and not caught in the current of stress and anxiety,” Walsh said. Others decide to attend schools that may not be the most competitive institutions that have accepted them – an example, Walsh said, is a soccer player who was being recruited by Yale but chose to attend Ithaca. “I just heard from her,” Walsh said in early July. “She has an on-air internship with Fox Sports and she’ll be covering the World Cup.”

Part of choosing the right college is looking beyond name recognition, Walsh said, and to that end, college counselors at Byram Hills are expected to “know the students and know the best choices for them. There’s really an expectation that the college counselors should have an idea where the students should apply.”

Community Book Read Event on October 17

Students, parents and others who wish to be part of this conversation can participate in the first Byram Hills Community Book Read. The book is Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be, by New York Times columnist Frank Bruni. Bruni describes many high-achievers who flourished at less competitive colleges–and in many cases attribute their success to those institutions.

“It’s a book that’s really accessible to the community and it’s a great jumping-off point,” Walsh said. The book is recommended for students as an independent reading selection on the Byram Hills High School summer reading list this summer, and Walsh said, “We have had a number of students who have chosen to read it.”

On Thursday, Oct. 17 at 6 p.m., members of the steering committee that worked with Challenge Success will lead a discussion in the Byram Hills High School library. All community members are welcome to attend the free event.

The Making of the 45th Annual Fol-De-Rol: A Fun-Filled Event for All

May 31, 2019 by Amy Kelley

Lea, a puppy sponsored by the Armonk Lions who partcipates in Puppies Behind Bars
PHOTO COURTESY OF ARMONK LIONS CLUB

This year will be the 45th of that beloved Armonk tradition, the annual Fol-De-Rol. From June 6-9, residents and visitors will flood Wampus Community Park to enjoy rides, food, vendors, entertainment and more – there will even be a pig race–all arranged for and run by the Armonk Lions Club, to raise funds for their many charitable endeavors.

“It takes you back,” North Castle Town Supervisor Michael J. Schiliro, a longtime Armonk resident, said of the Fol-De-Rol. “It’s a throwback–a simple country fair.”

Schiliro said preparation for the event isn’t too demanding for the town. They plan for police presence, and ready the park. The volunteer firefighters make sure a truck is there. The advance work is really done, he said, by the Lions.

“We plan all year,” said Douglas Martino, president of the Armonk Lions Club. “In January we kick into high gear.” Members of the Lions get permits and insurance and get vendors–an extremely time-consuming process, Martino said. “We don’t like to have two of the same type of vendor.”

Categories such as jewelry may have duplicates, because attendees appreciate choice in certain categories, but overall there’s a three-person committee that seeks to find a diverse and interesting group of vendors who sell everything from pet food to local honey.

“During the event itself we man the ticket booths, set up for the vendors and help them, help set up the tables and so on,” Martino said, adding that the Lions also arrange for lavatories. They bring doughnuts and coffee to the vendors early in the morning to show appreciation as well. “We sell raffle tickets throughout the event,” Martino said. First prize will be $1,000.

A Way to Mark the Years…

Stacy Wilder has lived in Armonk for 25 years. And over time, her experience at the Fol-De-Rol has changed. For a while, she took her children to the rides. “It’s nice to have something so local, without having to go to Playland or Great Adventure,” Wilder said.

As Wilder’s children got older, they wanted to go to the Fol-De-Rol with their friends. “It’s like a rite of passage in Armonk, to go at night with your buddies,” Wilder said. Now, Wilder attends by herself. She enjoys seeing the many people she knows in town, and perusing the vendor’s wares.

And Bring in New Faces

Neal Schwartz, owner of Armonk-based College Planning of Westchester and president of the Armonk Chamber of Commerce, always set up as a vendor at the Fol-De-Rol when his business was new and he was looking to get to know people in town and spread the word about his services in a friendly way, without a hard sell. “That was how I connected to the community,” he said.

Schwartz said besides benefitting good causes, “the biggest benefit (of the Fol-De-Rol) is that some people may not have been familiar with Armonk and might never have been here before. It certainly brings people to town and keeps them in town for that particular weekend and there’s natural overflow.” Attendees often seek out local restaurants for a meal before or after, Schwartz said.

The Fol-De-Rol has even caused interest in living in Armonk, Schwartz said. “The hope is–and it’s happened–that they’ll come and then they’ll say, ‘This is where I want to live.’”

“The Armonk Lions Club gets all the credit in the world for putting this thing on–and then they put the money back into the community,” Schiliro said. “It’s a win-win-win-win-win.”

The Armonk Lions Club helps fund scholarships every year, built a gazebo in Wampus Park, and underwrote the North Castle Citizen’s Council Disaster Relief Trailer, among many other local contributions, Martino said, adding that they’re always looking for new people to join the Lions. The Lions also donate to Open Door medical centers, Meals on Wheels, Guiding Eyes for the Blind, and many more, especially sight-related charities. The Armonk Lions is sponsoring Lea, a puppy who is part of the program Puppies Behind Bars. Lea will be trained by an inmate at the Bedford Correctional Facility and hopefully one day will become a service dog for an injured veteran or first responder.

“If it’s a nice day–and that’s the risk factor in all this–you’re outside,” Schwartz said of the Fol-De-Rol. “What’s not to like?”

The San Miguel Academy: Why Many Residents Rally Behind This Independent & Successful School for Boys in Newburgh

May 31, 2019 by Amy Kelley

Vanessa Williams and Frank Shiner
Photo by Simon Feldman

It’s an alliance that makes sense: residents of Chappaqua, a town known for the excellence of its school system, support a small independent school called San Miguel Academy, about an hour away in Newburgh, NY. The academy aims to help boys in Newburgh– a city with an average annual income of about $33,000 compared to upwards of $105,000 in Chappaqua– “break the cycle of poverty through education.”

“We’re so lucky to have the support system we do in the Chappaqua area,” said Melissa Paul, Senior Development Officer at the academy. “They play a major role in our existence and in our ability to continue to exist.”

She attributes the connection to Father Mark Connell, a Roman Catholic priest who worked for a time at the Church of St. John and St. Mary in Chappaqua. Connell taught for many years at John F. Kennedy High School in Somers (now known as Kennedy Catholic), but he was eventually transferred to Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh. Still, he came down on Sundays to celebrate Mass in Chappaqua.

“That was my first exposure to Newburgh and I got to see the depth of the poverty,” Connell said. “I would tell stories about it from the pulpit, and people at Mass would ask, ‘What can we do to help?’” “He gave his community a call to action,” Paul said.

Creating the School

“We all know that education can snap the back of poverty,” Connell recalled telling the congregation in Chappaqua. “The response after Mass was immediate.” A dinner followed; the beginnings of a board resulted; a fundraising dinner on the heels of that raised $1 million.

Connell started a boys’ middle school after learning that research showed intervention in middle school is much more effective than in high school. (He had intended to start a co-ed school, but a group of nuns already had a vision for an all-girls school, Connell said.) Significant financial support from Chappaqua residents continues to this day. “We don’t receive any money from the archdiocese or the government,” Paul noted.

ChappPAC Concert with Frank Shiner & Vanessa Williams: A Fundraising Hit

Last December, Chappaqua residents Frank Shiner and Vanessa Williams performed a fundraising concert for the school, and filled every seat in the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center, Shiner said. “It was so much fun; we had a blast,” Shiner said, adding that a tongue-in-cheek duet of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” was a big hit. “We came together and rallied the troops and the community stepped up.”

San Miguel Academy opened in 2006 with a fifth-grade class, adding another every year until the school stabilized at providing an education to boys in grades five through eight. Boys attend the school at no cost.

Once A San Miguel Boy, Always a San Miguel Boy

Either way, the graduates of San Miguel do not leave the school community behind after graduation. “We say you’re a San Miguel boy forever,’” Paul said. “We have a 12-year commitment to our boys.” This means that well after graduation, graduates get help securing internships, looking for jobs, or help with family support.

“When we take them in fifth grade, we make a pledge that we will take them as far in their education as they want to go,” Connell said. After graduation, most of the youngsters go on to attend high school at private day schools or boarding schools. A small percentage attend the local public schools.

As for the application process, “it’s kind of word of mouth,” Paul said. “We do prefer families that meet the criteria to qualify for free lunch.” San Miguel students stay at school until 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday at the school’s Step-Up After School Enrichment Program, and they attend school in the summer as well. The Summer Scholars Program is a six-week program during July and August designed to prevent San Miguel students from suffering what Paul referred to as the “summer slide.”

It’s a faith-based school, not a Catholic school, Connell said, with a focus on values and character education. “We really try to get across that we’re a human services center that offers middle school, a summer program, family support services” and more, Paul said, adding that the school has paid doctor’s bills for the boys, helped with special needs therapy costs, arranged for transportation to high school and more. “There are a lot of things that we cover.”

Program Breeds Success

Last year, some of the first 5th graders to enter San Miguel graduated college. “All of our boys graduate high school and 86 percent go on to college, trade school, or the military,” Paul said. One of the young men now manages a minor league baseball team. Another is an accountant at a local firm. Others are finishing up college. “We’re so proud of our boys and what they have been able to accomplish,” Paul said.