Bettina Prober

The Great Chappaqua Bake Sale Passes the Rolling Pin to a New Generation

August 29, 2018 by Bettina Prober

The new Great Chappaqua Bake Sale Co-Chairs.
(L -R) Rebecca Blum, Charlotte Spiegel, Sophia Spiegel
PHOTO COURTESY OF ALLISON SPIEGEL

The Great Chappaqua Bake Sale, a delicious annual tradition since 2010, has announced that incoming Horace Greeley freshmen Rebecca Blum, 13, and Charlotte and Sophia Spiegel, both 14, will take over leadership roles in 2018.

“We’ve all been involved since the very beginning,” said Rebecca. “It’s a very rewarding feeling to know that we are making a difference in so many kids’ lives.” Since its inception in 2010, the bake sale has raised $146,000 for the No Kid Hungry program of Share Our Strength, which is a leading national organization dedicated to fighting childhood hunger. The Chappaqua sale has also received $50,000 in matching donations from Domino Sugar, making the total raised for the organization almost $200,000.

Founded by Chappaqua residents Holly Blum, Allison Spiegel and Jessica Reinmann, the Great Chappaqua Bake Sale has always had a two-fold mission: to raise money for kids in need, and to impart social responsibility to the organizers’ own children and the community at large.

“We started The Great Chappaqua Bake Sale as a way to teach our kids the true meaning of charity,” said Blum. “As our daughters have grown up with the bake sale in their lives, they’ve been taking on more and more responsibility each year.”

Share Our Strength and the Bake Sale for No Kid Hungry program were always the driving force behind the Chappaqua effort, noted Blum. The program encourages local communities to host bake sales to support the organization’s mission of ending childhood hunger. After hearing about the program from an infomercial, the founders contacted the organization.

“After learning some very sobering statistics about childhood hunger, such as how one in six children face hunger in this country, we were more determined than ever” to start our Chappaqua version, said Spiegel. “Over the past eight years, we’ve seen the incredible impact No Kid Hungry has had on the childhood hunger crisis in America.”

The bake sale serves as a concrete reminder for the kids that not all children are lucky enough to be able to grab a treat when they are hungry; so many kids do not have that privilege.

“We started this endeavor to show our children what charity is all about,” said Spiegel. “Yes, it’s wonderful to donate money to good causes, but getting involved and creating something bigger than yourself to help others is so rewarding.”

While Rebecca, Charlotte and Sophia have always been involved with the event, 2018 will mark the first year they are truly in charge.

“Holly and I are working closely with them this year to show them the ins and outs of leading such a large-scale event,” said Spiegel. “They are learning the ropes quickly and have already come up with some great ideas.”

The girls are particularly excited about getting more kids involved, and spreading the word that philanthropy is an important activity.

“Trying to get other teens involved is a huge goal for us,” said Sophia. “If we can do this with only three of us, imagine if 1,000 teens get involved.” To that end, they have also started a new social media campaign, with Facebook and Instagram accounts for the bake sale.

“Every Friday we post ‘Hunger Fact Friday’ on our Instagram feed so kids get a real-world picture of what’s going on” said Charlotte. “So far, we have 150 followers and we are definitely aiming for more!” The girls have also been busy soliciting raffle prizes, organizing bakers, and scheduling volunteers for the day of the event.

The Great Chappaqua Bake Sale has been hosted in conjunction with the Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival since 2012, when the festival organizers asked the Bake Sale to be its exclusive dessert providers.

“We were thrilled at the possibility of reaching exponentially more people,” says Blum. In the past, the sale has attracted thousands of visitors. In order to supply enough baked goods, the organizers recruit between 80 and 100 individual volunteer bakers, plus local businesses, to make and donate the treats.

“One of the best things about the bake sale has been the ongoing support from Chappaqua and from all our surrounding communities,” said Blum. “So many businesses and individuals volunteer their time, donate goods and services to our raffle, and support the event year after year. Our goal is to continue to nourish this community support and have our kids uncover new ways of bringing the community together.”

“It’s always such a special day for our town and a great way to celebrate children,” added Spiegel.

The Great Chappaqua Bake Sale will take place at the Children’s Book Festival in Chappaqua on September 29 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Inside Chappaqua asked Rebecca, Sophia and Charlotte to share a favorite recipe. Here’s one for peanut butter balls, which are so popular they often sell out!

Peanut Butter Balls

Ingredients:

1 Cup of Chunky Peanut Butter
1 Cup of Confectioners’ Sugar
1/2 Cup of instant non-fat dry milk
3 Tablespoons of water
1 Cup of chocolate chips
Graham Cracker Crumbs

Directions:

Mix the first five ingredients together in a bowl. Shape them into 1 inch round balls. Coat with graham cracker crumbs. Let chill in the refrigerator for at least 1/2 hour.

Suffer from Migraines? Patient Advocate Lisa Jacobson & her Site Offer Hope & Resources

April 21, 2018 by Bettina Prober

Chappaqua resident Lisa Jacobson knows migraines. As a chronic sufferer for the past 30 years, she has endured more than 9,000 migraines, tried more than 120 treatments and seen countless doctors. But she is also an entrepreneur who decided years ago that she wanted to use her business skills to help solve a formidable health issue that is often stigmatized.

“I wanted to help people somehow, and I realized the one thing that I was really expert at was migraines,” she said. And so began The Daily Migraine, a website (www.thedailymigraine.com) and community forum dedicated to helping other migraine sufferers. Founded in 2014, The Daily Migraine now has more than half a million followers on its website, Facebook and Instagram pages.

Jacobson was not new to entrepreneurship. In 1983, when she was 24, she founded Inspirica, a test preparation and academic tutoring company that now has more than 100 employees worldwide. She used the skills she honed there to build The Daily Migraine. She now devotes 40 hours a week to researching, creating content and monitoring the site and another 40 hours a week at Inspirica.

Creating Community for Migraineurs

The Daily Migraine is chock-full of information and tools for migraineurs (people who suffer from migraines) to use to help navigate their disease. Visitors to the site can download forms to help track their migraines, speak to their doctors, and write down any treatment ideas they think of. But most importantly, it offers a community that migraine sufferers can connect with.

“People who suffer from migraines don’t feel alone anymore,” she said. “When I first started getting daily migraines after neck surgery, I only found one other person in Chappaqua who also suffered from them.” Since this was before the onset of social media, it was very difficult to find a support system. Now, the website brings migraineurs together from all corners of the world, including Iraq, Nepal and of course the United States. This sense of community is a comfort to many people.”

A Stigmatized Illness

Additionally, there is often a stigma associated with migraines, as many people think that having migraines is just like having a bad headache. But according to Jacobson, migraines are actually one of the most debilitating diseases in the world.

“I’ve heard from a lot of people that their bosses or spouses think they are just shirking their responsibilities when they have migraines,” she said. But migraine sufferers experience much more than head pain. Extreme sensitivity to light and sound, throbbing headaches and nausea are also common symptoms. Others experience stroke-like symptoms and are not able to function for days.

Providing a Patient Perspective

Since founding the site, Jacobson has become the top migraine patient advocate in the world. She has spoken at conferences internationally, including the American Migraine Foundation and the International Headache Symposium, providing doctors with a much-needed patient’s perspective.

“Some of these organizations have been around a long time but never had patients involved before,” she said. “I recognized a need for more information for the migraine community,” which the website provides.

There is no cure for migraines, and figuring out what treatment works best can often take years. Most migraine sufferers try different preventive medicines for three months at a time. But there is not one migraine medication that works for everyone. In fact, according to Jacobson, most medications are ‘borrowed’ from other diseases. For instance, many people found that Botox relieved their migraine symptoms, but Botox was not created for this specific use. It is also an undertreated illness; there is only one accredited migraine specialist for every 40,000 migraine sufferers.

Raising Funds for Migraine Research

Jacobson’s goal now is to raise money and awareness for migraine research. She has partnered with Chappaqua resident Scott Boilen, President of Allstar Products Group, to create the Migraine Hat. The hat, which costs $29 and can be ordered directly from the site, contains an ice pack to help soothe the pain. All of Jacobson’s profits from the hat will fund migraine research.

“People have said that the Migraine Hat is revolutionary,” said Jacobson. Since cold soothes the pain, “if you have the hat on, you can function. It takes a migraine that has a pain scale of 8 down to a 6, which can be the difference between lying in bed all day or putting your kids on the bus.”

Luckily for Jacobson, she has finally found a treatment plan that works for her. “I started The Daily Migraine when my migraines were at their worst,” she said. But after trying many different combinations of traditional medicine, stress-release tactics, and lifestyle changes, her migraines started to dissipate. Being pain-free has enabled her to focus on the site and help others.

“It’s like I have my life back again,” she said. Her success with alleviating migraine symptoms after so many years is also inspiring to The Daily Migraine’s many followers. As she said, “Now, I can also offer hope.”

It’s a…Yummy’s Jessica Meyrowitz Takes Knitting to the Extreme

April 21, 2018 by Bettina Prober

The first thing you notice when you walk into Chappaqua resident Jessica Meyrowitz’ home office are the plastic bins. Big bins, stacked high, lining almost every inch of wall space. And all of them are filled to the rim with colorful handmade knits that call out to be held and touched. They look cozy. They look warm. They look delicious. They look, well, yummy.

Meyrowitz is the founder of It’s a…Yummy, a company devoted to the creation of handmade throws, pillows, baby blankets, hats, scarves, wraps and belts. But these are not your ordinary knit products. They are made with a specially sourced, 100 percent merino wool yarn called core spun yarn, and they are knit using a technique called extreme knitting. The result is a product that not only looks and feels good, but is durable too.

“I wanted the yarn to feel like a cloud,” she said. “When people feel (the products) I want them to say it’s so yummy … so soft.”

Meyrowitz’ path to launching It’s a …Yummy is as interesting as her products. After graduating from Boston University, she pursued acting in New York City, landing roles in Off-Broadway productions, commercials and television. Though she achieved enough success to support herself, she decided to switch gears when her husband was transferred to Maryland. While there, she worked in radio sales and advertising, eventually opening her own ad agency, called JSM Media, in Washington, D.C. In 2011, her husband Eric accepted a New York City-based job, and her family, which now included sons Jake and Alec, moved to Chappaqua.

“The agency was very successful, but it became more and more of a challenge to go back and forth to D.C. with young kids,” she said. As such, in 2016, she closed the agency and decided to take a break from the working world. To fill her time, she signed up for two classes: a pottery class at the Chappaqua Arts Center and a knitting class at Katonah Yoga.

“I wanted to expand my horizons and do something creative,” she remembered. During class, her pottery teacher encouraged all of the students to look online for project ideas. Deciding to search for knitting projects too, Meyrowitz came across a blanket she wanted to make for her family room. The only catch was the blanket was made with extreme knitting, a method Meyrowitz was not familiar with.

As Meyrowitz discovered, extreme knitting is knitting with very large yarn and large needles. The result is chunkier stitches that are looser than conventional knitting stitches, giving the pieces a distinctive look. Most extreme knitting projects use roving, which is basically what yarn is before it is spun. Though roving is very soft, it is not as durable as traditional spun yarn.

“I wanted to make my blanket with yarn that wouldn’t fall apart,” she said. After calling several yarn stores, she realized that the type of yarn she wanted to use for her blanket was not readily available. She then began calling mills directly to find what she wanted. As she searched, she realized she had happened upon a business opportunity.

“I didn’t start this to make a business,” she laughed. “I started it to make a blanket. But I said to myself, there must be other people who want this big, soft durable yarn.” After doing more research, including visiting local farms to learn more about sheep, shearing and yarn creation, she had developed a plan to source her specialized yarn.

Soon, It’s a…Yummy was off and running. Meyrowitz launched the company in October 2016 on Facebook with three products in 13 different colors. The response was immediately positive.

“The outpouring of support from the Chappaqua and Armonk communities was really special,” Meyrowitz said. By February 2017, Meyrowitz had added several more products and colors to the line. Currently, It’s a…Yummy offers more than 25 products in 38 colors, as well as limitless amounts of custom options.

Once the orders started coming in, Meyrowitz hired a knitting team to keep up with the demand. The knitting force, as she refers to it, is composed of eight moms, all from Chappaqua and Armonk. Though some already knew knitting basics, she taught all of them the extreme knitting technique. This sparked another idea: offering do-it-yourself knitting kits and knitting parties. Both have been extremely successful; the kits were featured on the Today show’s holiday gift episode, and the parties have morphed into knitting workshops and seminars held all over the tristate area and beyond.

“Knitting is so mindful and meditative; it really gives me joy to teach people because it is so relaxing and easy,” she said. “After an hour knitting workshop or party, you leave with a skill and a scarf. And you will have both forever.”

A Mindful Chat with Jodi Baretz

March 8, 2018 by Bettina Prober

Walking into Millwood resident Jodi Baretz’ office is like walking into a sanctuary. The atmosphere is hushed, shoes are left at the door, voices are kept to a whisper. The effect is immediately relaxing.

Baretz, 49, is a psychotherapist specializing in mindfulness and health coaching at The Center for Health and Healing, located on Smith Avenue in Mt. Kisco. She is also the author of the new book, Mindful is the New Skinny: 10 Transformational Steps to a Lighter You Inside and Out, due out this spring. Inside Chappaqua sat down to talk to her about the book as well as her own journey to mindfulness.

An Emory and Columbia University-educated therapist, Baretz has more than 20 years of clinical experience. She has spent the last five years focusing her practice on using mindfulness to overcome stress, weight loss issues and family conflicts. Mindful is the New Skinny started out as a six-week boot camp designed to introduce her patients to the practice of mindfulness.

“I wanted to create a program that would teach people how to reduce stress,” she said. “We need to change our mindset from our weight to our well-being, which is more sustainable and will help us live happier, healthier, more peaceful lives.”

Her message is geared toward helping women who are not only struggling with weight issues, but also with any family and work-related anxiety.

“As a health coach and psychotherapist, it made sense to me to write a book that encompassed the mind and body,” she said. While the book does address eating issues, it is not a weight-loss book. Rather, it looks at all aspects of life that cause stress with the goal of reducing that stress, and getting people to realize that perfection should not be a goal.

But what exactly is mindfulness? And how is mindfulness different from meditation?

As Baretz explains it, mindfulness is the awareness of your thoughts, feelings and environment. Once you acknowledge the source of what you are feeling–whether it’s hunger, anxiety, or stress–you use meditation to calm and center yourself. In effect, you are striving to create a space between a stimulus and the response.

Baretz’ own path to mindfulness began after she was diagnosed with celiac disease in her mid-thirties. Initially devastated by the diagnosis, she enrolled in a holistic nutrition program at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York City to help her understand and control the disease. While there, she was introduced to the concepts of mindfulness and spirituality.

“It was a life-changing experience for me,” she said. “I started to see positive changes flow into my life, and I let go of a lot of worry and anxiety.” Since then, she has continued to study mindfulness and meditation as a way to help her patients deal with the stresses of everyday life.

Though weight issues are addressed in the book, her message is more about self-compassion and self-care, and Baretz teaches mindfulness as a way of life. As anyone who has been on a diet and failed can attest, maintaining a strict diet regimen is often impossible and almost always self-defeating.

“The book is all about nourishing yourself from the inside, so you can flourish on the outside,” she said. While many women focus on trying to be the perfect size (in our society, that means skinny), Baretz stresses that mindfulness can help switch our priority from what we look like to the acceptance of ourselves as we are, which is very empowering.

Mindfulness can also help with all aspects and relationships in your life, Baretz notes. “Mindfulness increases your capacity to deal with stress and overwhelming situations because you are learning how to calm your body and your mind,” she said. “It’s not shutting off your thoughts; rather, it’s pressing a ‘stop’ button on them so you can change your relationship toward them.” After all, we all face adversity in one way or another, and there are many things in life that are beyond our control. While we can’t control the challenges we face, mindfulness and meditation help us “struggle well,” she said. “By taming our minds and focusing on the present, we can decrease our anxiety.”

The book brings mindfulness and meditation to people who wouldn’t normally seek out a practice that does have some negative stereotypes–something only for the yoga and Zen set. But Baretz hopes that the book will open people’s minds to the power of the practice. And that, she says, is her goal.

“I love watching people transform,” she said. “When they change the way they think, their whole world changes.”

Each chapter of Mindful is the New Skinny, which is Baretz’ first book, features a meditation session that can be downloaded. The book will be available this spring/summer on Amazon in print and kindle versions, and Baretz will conduct a free book talk at the Chappaqua library upon the book’s release. Visit www.jodibaretz.com for more information on her practice, upcoming talks, as well as a sneak peek free chapter of her book.

Tzahal Shalom Visits Northern Westchester: IDF Soldiers Share Their Stories

December 1, 2017 by Bettina Prober

The Israeli soldiers from the Tzahal Shalom program
PHOTO COURTESTY OF ROBIN GOLDSTEIN

Each October for the past 11 years, Northern Westchester has had some very special visitors, and not just those of the trick-or-treating variety. A delegation of active duty soldiers from the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) arrives to share their experiences with residents in a variety of formats. The 10-day visit is sponsored by Tzahal Shalom of Northern Westchester, an organization dedicated to creating lasting bonds between many local residents and Israel.

The program, which translates literally to “Welcome IDF to our Northern Westchester community,” was founded by Armonk resident Anita Greenwald and Chappaqua resident Michele Kraushaar in 2006. Its mission is to engage citizens here in the active support of Israel. Given frequent headlines about terrorist attacks and unstable relations with their Palestinian neighbors, many people in the United States are fearful of traveling there, and may have misconceptions about what life is like in Israel. Tzahal Shalom is trying to change that.

Through an assortment of programming aimed at every sector of the community, Tzahal Shalom creates opportunities to meet, interact, and get to know the soldiers. After all, said Anita, “When you care about a person, you care about where they are from. Creating those bonds is what our program is about.”

This year, seven soldiers arrived on October 15 to share their stories and experiences with a diverse set of audiences in Chappaqua and Millwood. They spoke to more than 1,500 people of all ages and religions, as well as local politicians and clergy. The soldiers are all active duty combat officers who have served their required time in the Israeli army and have re-enlisted to further serve their country. Each soldier is recruited and interviewed by the IDF, and, because many of them have never spoken to civilian groups before, prepared for their time here. Though they are not allowed to speak about politics, they are free to speak about anything else. For security reasons, their full identities cannot be disclosed in this article.

Each soldier has a unique perspective they like to share with their audiences. Michal, 21, is an instructions officer in the IDF’s combat engineering corp. Born and raised in Holland by Israeli parents, she is a lone soldier, which means her parents are not currently living in Israel. She decided to enlist in the IDF as a way to reconnect to her Israeli roots. For her, speaking to younger generations has been very meaningful. One of her speaking engagements was at Horace Greeley High School, where she spoke to a senior class.

“[The high schoolers] are at an age where they are old enough to understand what’s going on in the world, and are still developing what they believe in, so they ask very interesting questions,” she said. “I didn’t come to change minds, just to tell my story. They learn something different about another place.”

Omer, 24, is a company lieutenant in the IDF’s reconnaissance unit. Having grandparents who are Holocaust survivors has taught him that “Israel is not something that we can take for granted, so we need to protect it physically … [and we] need support from allies around the world,” he said. “Seventy years ago [many of us] had relatives who were in concentration camps. We have to remember it so we never let that happen again.”

Captain G., a 28-year-old F-16 pilot, is one of the first openly gay pilots in the IDF. “The IDF is inclusive of all different groups of society–LGBT, women, everybody,” he said. Moreover, the IDF is not only tasked with protecting Israel. “Our job is not to make war,” he said, “but to prevent the next war and allow people to prosper.”

The soldiers also spoke of Israel’s many humanitarian missions, which they said, are just as important to the IDF as protecting the country. “People are focused on the military [aspect], but we want people to see all sides and the full complexity of what we do,” Captain G. said. For example, the IDF started a program called Good Neighborhood, which treats injured Syrian refugees. The program was started after an Israeli soldier threw his bandages over a border fence so as to help wounded refugees. The IDF soldiers ensure their safe transportation to and from Israeli hospitals. Since its inception, more than 3,000 Syrian refugees have been treated by both IDF medics and Israeli doctors.

In fact, noted the soldiers, the Israeli government has made a concerted effort to not only aid in disaster relief around the world, but also to, as Omer said, be “the first feet on the ground” after tragedies. After the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010, the IDF was able to get one of the first temporary hospitals up and running. Similarly, Israeli troops were deployed to Mexico after the earthquake there this year. “Israel stands for certain values–human rights, women’s rights, and equality,” noted Omer.

During their time here, each soldier is matched with a host family, usually with teenage children at home. During their stay, the families and the soldier often create lasting relationships. The kids in the family usually bond with the soldier like a sister or brother, and the host parents start to view them as one of their own children. It’s not uncommon for soldiers to stay in touch with their host families for years to come. Many families even end up visiting their soldier in Israel. These bonds are paramount to the program, noted co-founder Michele Kraushaar.

That sentiment is echoed by Jackie Moskow, a Millwood resident who hosted a soldier this year. “The best part of this whole experience,” she said, “is watching this relationship develop between our soldier and our kids.” The Moskows are already planning to visit the soldier and his family in Israel this year, and invite him back to the United States for their son’s bar mitzvah next year.

The soldiers also appreciate the warmth and interest they receive from the community. Though many have been to the United States as tourists, coming as part of the Tzahal Shalom program gives them a deeper understanding of American lives and sentiments toward Israel. “The soldiers leave us with renewed pride and enthusiasm for their service due to the support they feel from us while they are here,” Michele said.