Anna Young

Local Residents Help with the Refugee Crisis & Resettlement Needs

April 18, 2019 by Anna Young

Four years ago, a photo of a Syrian boy’s lifeless body washed up along the Turkish shore went viral and enlightened so many to the plight refugees succumb just to have freedom, peace and safety.

The three-year-old boy, who was one of 12 Syrians who drowned in the Mediterranean Sea attempting to reach the Greek Island of Kos, encapsulated the determination and desperation refugees experience trying to escape the horror and danger they were born into.

That photo served as a catalyst for several residents and organizations throughout Westchester County to work together to support refugees overseas and aid in integrating and assimilating them as they sought refuge in the United States.

Armonk resident Jackie Tarascio said she was shocked by the image and felt an urgency to help refugees in anyway.

“When I saw it, I just felt like I had to do something. It was an awful image of these refugees seeking freedom,” Tarascio said. “It’s easy to go to dinner with your friends and have a day-to-day life, and then you become aware of what’s going on and you feel guilty for spending $5 on coffee, having a home, wearing a jacket or travelling through a border. These people can’t even cross a border to get to safety.”

Wanting to help those in need, Tarascio searched through social media for groups devoted to connecting refugees and volunteers, eventually joining several private groups on Facebook that serve both local families and those overseas. It’s a networking team that has been built up over the years and you learn the people you can trust, she said.

Tarascio noted many instances where her volunteerism assisted someone resettle locally, find a job, or acquire a doctor to perform an essential surgery overseas, adding that each individual and family is grateful to receive support. But while Tarascio is fortunate to help so many, she said it’s a highly emotional circumstance where some cases simply can’t be solved.

“Sometimes you need to come to terms with a family being unable to get out of their situation,” Tarascio said. “It’s a burden you expect, and it’s a weight on your shoulders and an awareness of what is happening. It took me seeing a news report to want to know more but if I can help get someone a stroller it’s heartwarming.”

Chappaqua resident Mary Refling, who started the Westchester Refugee Task Force in 2015, said she became aware of the violence in Syria after seeing the graphic photo in church one day. After learning there wasn’t a resettlement agency in Westchester, she said it was time to step up to the plate and help those seeking asylum.

“Most of the people in our group feel this real strong connection to this sense of civic responsibility that we are here and the privileges we enjoy as American citizens are due in part to our grandparents and our parents,” Refling said, noting how difficult it is for people to leave their life, and sometimes families behind, to emigrate to the United States with almost nothing. “We just feel like someone did this for us so it’s our turn to make it possible for the new generation of immigrants.”

Kathie O’Callaghan, president and founder of Hearts & Homes For Refugees (HHFR), felt similar discouragement after she launched her non-profit grassroots humanitarian group in 2015. O’Callaghan collaborated with several civic groups and faith-based coalitions to create the Westchester Refugee Initiative to broaden the scope of work they could do to resettle refugees. In the last two years, she said her organization has resettled 12 cases, or 100 individuals.

While O’Callaghan and Refling are proud of the work they are doing, both noted that the Trump Administration has made every effort to prevent refugees from seeking asylum in the United States. According to statistics from the U.S. Department of State, the number of new refugees in New York decreased from a high of 5,026 in 2016 to 1,281 in 2018.

With the number of refugees decreasing, O’Callaghan said her organization is focused on supporting recently resettled immigrants, citing that many of them have particular needs and run into obstacles as they integrate into the community. “The US has always been the country people look up to, and we’re not going to model the current behavior that this country has shown,” O’Callaghan said. “We’re not going to save the world by resettling refugees but it’s important that we make sure that we do our part. We’re not going to disappear.”

Residents Find Friendship and Intellectual Stimulation at Local Book Clubs

December 2, 2018 by Anna Young

When Chappaqua resident Kate Feher moved into the area four months ago she quickly missed the bonds she had made back home.

As a first-time mom adjusting to her new life in Chappaqua, Feher said she struggled to meet people and make friends. Her longing for friendship led her on a search to joining a group she had never been apart of before; a book club. But for Feher, her search for a friendly neighborhood book club turned into a grand effort to start her own group.

“I posted on the Chappaqua Moms Facebook page if anyone was part of a book club that needed new members. I thought I’d be meeting 10 to 12 ladies when I made that post,” Feher said. “I got over 100 responses and realized there was a clear and untasked need and excitement around joining a book club.”

As Feher began organizing her newest venture, she said it was imperative the club have equal ambition and wine. “People are looking for intellectual stimulation, but also social connection and book clubs have a good balance of both,” she said. “Reading is good down time and if you have a book club forcing you to take some down time hopefully it helps people take time for themselves.”

On Nov. 1, Feher kicked off the first meeting of the Chappaqua Moms Book Club, a group comprised of roughly 75 women from Chappaqua, Bedford, Briarcliff, Pound Ridge and other neighboring towns.

With 75 a large number for a community book club, Feher said the club will be broken down into five separate groups who will meet once a month at a place of their choosing and control their reading choices. While each group will run autonomously, suggestions will be made by Feher based on a survey she issued to members prior to the November meeting.

Suggested books include, Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon, The Power by Naomi Aiderman, and Less by Andrew Sean Greer.

While the entire group will meet once a year to discuss their experiences and reading choices, she added that the club was less about books and more about meeting other people in the community and making new friends. Women like me with new children that really don’t know anyone just want to get to know other people, she said.

“I think a lot of people use social media to connect but it’s a digital connection, it’s not a person-to-person meeting and I think people are missing that,” Feher said. “I think this is a way for people to get to know others and feel more connected to the community. People in the community and so many women are so hungry for it.”

Book Lovers meet monthly at the North Castle Public Library as part of the Current Affairs Book Club. Photo by Grace Bennett/Inside Press

But women aren’t the only one’s hungry for engaging conversation. For Armonk resident Daniel Vock, it was his passion for history and topical news that served as the catalyst to launch his Current Affairs Book Club five years ago at the North Castle Library.

After attending a similar book club in Greenwich, Conn., Vock approached library officials with the idea of starting his own club in Armonk. Since then, he has collaborated with North Castle Library librarian Mary Johnson to obtain non-fiction reading material either listed on The New York Times bestseller list or suggested by the groups five core members.

With the group meeting on the second Tuesday of each month, excluding August, Vock said their 90-minute discussion will revolve around the book, and what’s happening in the news, which Vock said always results in a lively discussion.

“We learn from reading the book and we learn from each other,” Vock said. “If you don’t learn from history, history will repeat itself again. And that’s what we feel we’re seeing now, and we learn from debating.”

Along with reading books, Vock said they will occasionally invite the books author or other historical authors and specialists to join the book club in their discussions.

But while most book clubs are comprised primarily of women, Vock said his group, comprised of all men, struggles to attract female membership. With energetic discussions and debate a core value of the club, he added he also wishes residents who are in support of President Donald Trump would join the group to enable a more well-rounded debate. “We’re missing that component to the club because we can’t build on those opinions,” Vock said.

Despite the occasional controversial topics up for discussion, Vock said his group of “fair-minded” men gives senior citizens, like himself, the opportunity to get together and talk about the many national and international issues facing them. He joked it also gives his wife a break from his political gab.

“The men that are in this group I consider as brilliant and well-informed people who have led a full life, have seen a lot of things and have a lot to contribute,” Vock said. “We want to learn and exchange ideas rather than impose points of view.”

Chappaqua resident Holly Blum, who has been a member of Words with Wine Book Club since 2013, agreed that book clubs provide a night out and enlist members from all different backgrounds, education and upbringing to contribute and provide a more dynamic dialog.

“I’ve met a lot of great people through the book club,” Blum said. “What I really like about it is that it brings together a lot of different women who I would not have had the opportunity to know of otherwise.”

Blum said she appreciates her book club because they allow the reader to reflect on their experience with the book, while also giving room to reexamine the book with the roughly three-hour discussion that erupts during their monthly meetings.

“The women in the book club are not particularly shy about sharing their opinions,” Blum said. “It’s really an opportunity to get together with semi-likeminded people who enjoy a glass of wine, who like to read and hopefully have something interesting to contribute, book related or not.”

The need for stimulating conversation, friendship and community is exactly why Armonk resident Anita Luden Greenwald started Book Club Armonk three years ago.

While her kids were growing up, Greenwald said she was part of an Armonk-based book club for 16 years until it eventually disbanded due to residents retiring or moving out of the area. Some time later when her kids were all grown up and out of the house, Greenwald said she was in search for a new group of people who shared her desire for camaraderie and had a commitment to the community.

When a search on the Armonk Moms Facebook forum led her to a thread about reading and book suggestions, she decided to launch the Armonk Book Club.

“I got this resounding yes from people I didn’t know to join this book club,” Greenwald said. “I reserved a table at Beehive Restaurant and we all came with books we wanted to read. We had 12 to 15 people come and it was incredible.”

Book Club Armonk is comprised of 12 Armonk residents who meet monthly at a members’ home for snacks, wine and conversation. With books chosen a year in advance, the group will provide suggestions on reading material, and the books that share an overlap will ultimately be chosen. The rest is based on reviews, Greenwald said.

“It’s very democratic,” she said. “Somebody inevitably is always organized with questions from a book club guide, but someone will start talking about how they felt about a book and then everyone continues to chime in.”

While most book clubs choose their selection based on the book, Book Club Armonk centers their choice on the author.

“We choose an author, so you can read whatever book you want by the author and then compare notes and look at similar writing styles,” Greenwald said. “It’s really an interesting way to do a book club. Everybody was willing to try this, and through our Facebook page we poll to see who the author will be.”

Since she pioneered the group, Greenwald said it’s something she looks forward to every month, adding that the group encourages people to talk about more than gossip but share in intellectual discussion and get to know each other on an intimate and personal level. When you run into other members in town, it’s so nice, she said.

But as an avid reader, she said there’s nothing better than getting lost in a book.

“Books take you on a voyage to other locations, other cultures and other time periods,” she said. “There’s nothing like having a cup of tea with your book with the fireplace going. It’s perfect.”

How to Prevent Pet Loss: Local Experts Weigh In

October 24, 2018 by Anna Young

Laura Hill-Sulli, her husband Andre and dog Piper.

When Pleasantville resident Laura Hill-Sulli’s four-legged friend, Piper, went missing nearly four years ago she felt like she was living in her own personal nightmare.

Hill-Sulli’s story is like most who have had the unfortunate and agonizing experience of losing their pet. As Piper was playing in the yard, a neighbor walked by with their new puppy and Piper ran after it. When the neighbor went to grab Piper to bring her home, Piper panicked and ran off.

“We never had the need to have our yard fenced in because Piper always listened to us,” Hill-Sulli said. “I couldn’t understand why she would take off.”

Hill-Sulli immediately took to social media posting photos of Piper, a seven-year-old Merle Shetland Sheepdog, on several forums devoted to finding missing pets. She also left clothing outside her home to entice Piper with a familiar scent, made thousands of fliers and posted them throughout the community, contacted local rescue organizations, shelters and animal hospitals, and enlisted a pet communicator with the hope her family and Piper would be reunited.

“Every day we would receive what we would consider a valid sighting. So, at all hours of the day and night we would go to where the sighting was,” Hill-Sulli said. “The hardest part for me was we would get a phone call from someone who was so positive that they saw Piper. We would scour the area of where they claimed the sighting to be and we came up with nothing. It was like chasing the wind.”

When Piper was discovered in a gated community in Mount Kisco following her two-month adventure, Hill-Sulli took steps to ensure Piper would never go missing again. Along with erecting a metal spindle fence along their property, Piper is now microchipped and is always accompanied outside.

“I always had hope that we would get her back,” Hill-Sulli said. “Piper came running right over to me and I promptly picked her up and burst into tears.”

While Piper was found by someone who saw a posting on Facebook forum, Lost Pets of the Hudson Valley, Lisa Bonanno-Spence, of the SPCA of Westchester in Briarcliff Manor, said Facebook is a great resource to swiftly spread the word when a pet goes missing, but stressed the importance of contacting the police department, animal control and local shelters immediately.

“If no one knows your dog is missing in your neighborhood, they can’t help you,” said SPCA dog trainer Lisa Ricker. “The most important thing is getting the information to your local shelters because you want them to know right away that your dog is missing.”

Ricker added that having your dog microchipped enables shelters and animal control officers to reunite owners with their pets much faster. Off the roughly 200 stray or lost dogs the shelter gets a year, Ricker said many of them aren’t microchipped. It would make the search process go faster if the pet was microchipped and the microchip was registered, she said.

With dogs often running of their leash or out the door, jumping fences, bolting through an invisible fence, or digging holes under fencing, Ricker and Bonanno-Spence suggested pet owners train their dogs and attach a GPS tracker on their collar to pinpoint their exact location if they run off.

“You have to find what works for you,” Ricker said. “It’s an important resource because it can track your dog.”

Candy Higgins, who is on the board of directors for A New Chance Animal Rescue in Bedford Hills, advised pet owners use both a collar and a harness when walking their dog, especially on the Fourth of July or during thunderstorms when loud noises can often startle pets and cause them to run away.

She recommended pet owners not chase after their dog if they do get loose, citing that dogs have a flight instinct and will go into survival mode. Higgins also advised community members to contact their local authorities if they spot a missing dog. She stressed how vital it is to ensure a lost dog stays in an area to increase recovery, adding that approaching an already skittish animal may propel them to run off expanding the search zone.

“Call the number on the poster, call animal control, call the local veterinarian,” Higgins said. “The best possible thing you can do is report the dog, remember everything about the dog and what direction it was going in, and not approach or chase them.”

While there are no foolproof tactics to prevent your dog from getting loose, animal experts emphasized keeping all equipment, including microchips, GPS trackers, fences, and leashes in good working condition.

With the SPCA reuniting at least 120 dogs with their families annually, Ricker said it’s gratifying knowing the pet has a home to return to and the family is happy.

“It’s much nicer to know the dog is sleeping in their home at night instead of a shelter,” Bonanno-Spence added.