The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

Deborah Raider Notis

Innovation Takes on a New Light

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In July 2018, Amy Barone brought a new, innovative health and skincare clinic to Chappaqua when she opened Red Light Life. With Red Light Life, Barone is introducing Red Light Therapy to help people treat acne, reduce inflammations, rejuvenate skin, and manage chronic joint pain, musculoskeletal and arthritic pain.

“Our bodies crave sunlight,” says Barone. “Red light therapy provides the deepest penetrating red and near infrared wavelengths to give people all of the benefits of sunlight without any UVA and UVB damage.” A licensed esthetician, Barone opened her clinic after working for manufacturers and venture capital groups involved with the development of skin, wound, and oral care. She spent a year researching manufacturers and equipment and studying the science and proper power levels to achieve the best results with red light and she uses only FDA approved, medical-grade quality LED systems.

Barone implements painless, natural treatments using red and near infrared lights. “They are actually good for your entire body at the location of the treatment and systematically by traveling through our blood all over without side effects. Red light feels good to receive as it’s warm and comforting, never burning,” says Barone.

Red Light therapy is designed to help people look and feel younger. It has been proven to help people with everything from arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome, and Lyme Disease to tighten flaccid skin on the stomach, arms and neck from aging and pregnancy to reducing pigmentation from sun and age spot and scarring from acne.

“My eighth-grade son was having typical acne breakouts, so I brought him into Red Light Life,” says local Chappaqua resident, Laura Tainsky. “After two short treatments, we saw a notable difference.” Tainsky appreciates that Red Light Life is local and convenient. Seeing positive results for her son, Tainsky went in for a treatment to ameliorate foot pain. She was amazed at the results. “I definitely felt relief afterwards. And they are not putting chemicals on your face or into your body.”

Barone uses only pure, cruelty-free skincare products at her clinic. Everything is high quality medical grade and the ingredients are formulated to produce powerful results with no artificial dyes, fragrances, parabens and sodium lauryl sulfates. Her goals are to heal, protect, and ultimately transform skin. Moreover, none of her products are tested on animals.

Barone is constantly uncovering new, innovative treatments to help the community. Red Light Life now offers a series of six neck treatments to tighten the skin and reduce the “double chin effect.” She is also offering abdomen tightening treatments that can be done in conjunction with facials. And, she is planning to offer “Smoking Cessation” using red light in a low-level laser pen to mimic the effects of acupuncture with a painless treatment. Barone notes, “I’m hoping that young people, who have become addicted to vaping, will recognize the dangers of vaping and actively end their addiction in one to three sessions.” She also intends to develop an online retail store, selling innovative red-light therapy devices for home use.

Ultimately, Barone’s “mission” is to make red-light therapy a go to health solution for our community. She hopes everyone can acclimate to these new treatments and leave Red Light Life feeling rejuvenated, younger, and healthier.

Red Light Life

(located at the Chappaqua Wellness Center)

400 King Street, Suite 4

(914) 494-9009

redlightlife.com

Publisher’s Note: Opinions and information presented in all Inside Press articles, particularly in the arena of health and medicine, reflect the experiences, expertise and/or views of the author or those interviewed. Please consult your own doctor or health care professional for diagnosis and/or treatment.

Armonk Indoor Sports Center: A Great Place to Brush Up Your Tennis Skills & Other Athletic Pursuits

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On any given day, carloads, even busloads, of people, young and old, are arriving at Armonk Indoor Sports Center. Because at Armonk Indoor Sports Center, the sports season never ends. With two bubbles, Armonk Indoor Sports gives baseball, field hockey, football, lacrosse, and soccer players a year-round turf field to compete and hone their skills all under one roof.

“This is one of the most versatile facilities around,” notes Stuart Smith, the Director of Sports Programs at the Center. “We cater to everyone, from birthday parties for two and three-year-olds to activities for senior citizens. This is a great place to come in and get active, whether you’re playing on the turf or on the tennis courts.”

On the other side, in the second bubble, Armonk Indoor Sports Center’s premier tennis facility affords players their own space on which to perfect their game. Since the early 2000’s, Armonk Indoor Sports Center has been training tennis players and giving them a competitive edge. Offering everything from development programs for juniors and adults to competitive league play, Armonk Indoor Sports Center caters to every potential tennis player. Additionally, Armonk Indoor’s tennis boasts five of the most effective tennis pros around, including Kevin Anderson, who is ranked as the fifth best tennis player in the world.

Armonk Indoor Sports Center, along with its sister facility a few miles down the road, Armonk Tennis, offers players a total of eight indoor and 10 outdoor tennis courts at the two locations. Armonk Tennis, one of the oldest tennis facilities in Westchester County, employs five additional tennis pros.

These facilities are home to the Armonk International Tennis Academy, run by Kevin’s brother, Greg Anderson. Their program, the Armonk International Tennis Academy Pathway offers a Beginners course at Armonk Tennis. Players graduate to Armonk Indoor Sports Center’s more competitive program. “Throughout the program, we are not only teaching tennis, we are building athletes,” notes Facility Manager Lisa Marie Bastardi. “We take our youngest players and foster their athletic growth, giving them a home throughout their junior tennis career and often times preparing them to play in college.”

The adult program includes high intensity clinics, a variety of USTA teams, and ample court time for open play. “We encourage tennis to be a family sport, helping everyone to achieve their individual tennis goals,” says Bastardi.

Tennis Pro, Webster Munyenyembe, who has worked as a High Performance and Ten & Under Tennis Professional for the past four years, believes that Armonk Indoor and Armonk Tennis’s program is an ideal environment for tennis lovers to achieve their goals. He has several suggestions to players who want to brush up on their tennis skills.

1. Work on your backhand.

Backhand strokes can be key in competitive match situations. Whether you use a one-handed or two-handed backhand, technique is the secret to mastering the backhand. The most powerful backhand strokes are most effective when the player’s body does more of the work than the racket. There is almost no swinging in a powerful backhand, and to master this technique, improve accuracy, and generate topspin, players should do repetitive drills.

2. Work on your serve.

To practice serving, try playing an extended game in which one person serves for the entire game. The “server” only gets one serve or loses the point. This is a great way to build up serving stamina, and after playing a few games this way, serving will become second nature.

3. Work on your footwork and line drills.

The most effective way to improve your footwork is to jump rope. Jumping rope helps people to improve balance and build stamina. Munyenyembe believes that this activity is essential to improving concentration.

4. Work on volleys and doubles skills.

If you are interested in playing high school tennis, playing an effective doubles game is essential. Learning how to move efficiently and effectively on the court prepares players to be on the attack. Skilled doubles teams are in the right place at the right time and can readily intercept a shot to back up a partner. If players practice moving forwards, backwards, and side to side together on the court, they will be more in sync.

5. Join a group lesson.

Munyenyembe feels that this activity has multiple benefits for junior players. From building social skills to competing with peers, group lessons also give players a chance to observe others’ techniques.

Ultimately, enjoying the game is essential to a great tennis match. And Munyenyembe thinks Armonk Indoor and Armonk Tennis both “strive to maintain a fun atmosphere,” making these facilities ideal for a competitive yet fun experience.

#TaubStrong Movement Keeps Casey Taub’s Memory Alive & Raises Funds for Pediatric Brain Cancer

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Casey Taub was one of a kind. He was a funny, often opinionated, old soul with a love of Marvel movies and sports. He was the kid who could engage adults as easily as he could rally his friends. But in January 2016, Casey needed his friends and loved ones to rally around him. Diagnosed with a brain tumor, he put up the fight of his life until he passed away in July 2017.

Throughout Casey’s 17-month battle with brain cancer, the Matthew Larson Foundation for Pediatric Brain Tumors was a consistent, reliable source of support for the Taub family. Founded in 2007 in memory of seven-year-old Matthew Larson, the Foundation has funded almost $3 million in grants for pediatric brain tumor research and has helped families cope with the emotional and financial struggles of caring for a child with brain cancer.

After Casey’s death, his father, who dedicated himself to finding a positive way to cope with this devastating tragedy, joined the board of the Matthew Larson Foundation. “I wanted to help the foundation that helped us,” states Taub. “Everything I’m doing is to try to eradicate pediatric brain cancer, and I want Casey’s name to be associated with eliminating the disease that did him in.”

To that end, Taub established the #taubstrong Movement as a component of the Matthew Larson Foundation.

#TaubStrong was a slogan created by Casey’s closest sleep away camp friends at Chipinaw, who designed and sold t-shirts to support Casey while he was sick. When Casey came up to visit camp, everyone was wearing the t-shirt. “It was extremely meaningful to him,” says his father.

Taub credits the Chappaqua and Greeley community, “especially Casey’s closest friends, who have been unbelievable,” with helping to keep Casey’s memory alive. “The fact that Casey will always be part of this community is extremely important to me,” stresses Taub.

Casey was an avid soccer fan and player; he was a valued member of the Greeley soccer team. On August 22nd, Greeley Boys’ Varsity Soccer hosted its first annual Casey Taub Memorial 22:22 Soccer Jamboree benefiting the #taubstrong Movement for the Matthew Larson Foundation for Pediatric Brain Tumors.

The event, organized by Casey’s friends and teammates on Greeley Boys’ Varsity Soccer, as well as Camp Shropshire, Casey’s beloved soccer coach, began with a dedication ceremony. His father, Jonathan Taub spoke, and Casey’s number 22 jersey was retired. The Byram Hills Boys’ Varsity Soccer Team retired Casey’s number for what would have been his final high school soccer season. Soccer boosters sold CT22 merchandise and food, all of the participating teams made donations, and the event raised over $2300 to the #taubstrong Movement at the Matthew Larson Foundation. Taub hopes that this event will grow and become an annual kickoff to the soccer season in Casey’s memory.

Casey’s classmates in the 2019 Greeley Senior Class also donated proceeds from the Senior Carwash to the #taubstrong Movement. Greeley juniors, Emma Rosh and Charlotte Templeton, contacted Taub to start a club in Casey’s name. With Casey’s treasured Spanish teacher, Senor Warren, as the faculty advisor, they launched the CT22 Club. This year, the CT22 Club raised over $2000 from CT22 merchandise at Chappaqua’s Community Day.

Looking ahead, Taub hopes to extend the #TaubStrong movement beyond Chappaqua. “It would be great to get CT22 clubs in all Westchester high schools,” notes Taub, who plans to develop a full line of #taubstrong CT22 merchandise. Most importantly, Taub, who recently spoke at the Matthew Larson Foundation’s annual fundraising dinner, said that he is looking forward to the day that fundraising dinners are replaced by “celebratory dinners because there is no longer any cancers killing kids.” One day, he hopes, “Casey’s name will be associated with a cure for this horrible disease.”

For more information about the Matthew Larson Foundation, please visit www.ironmatt.org. To donate to this foundation in memory of Casey, please use #TaubStrong when you make your donation.

New Castle United for Youth: Educating the Community on Substance Abuse Issues

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Uniting the community and making our younger residents feel that they have a safe place to turn can be challenging, even in our welcoming town. Enter New Castle United for Youth (NCUFY). Formed in 2016 as an outgrowth of the Coalition for Youth (CFY), NCUFY is a supportive, encouraging resource that uses youth-focused strategies to promote a safe and healthy community.

The committee’s founding members, Steering Committee Chairperson Lea Barth and Steering Committee members Leslie Kuhn and Victoria Goodman, were originally members of the Chappaqua Central School District’s R21K PTA Committee. They started attending the monthly meetings of the Westchester Coalition for Drug and Alcohol Free Youth and soon realized they could re-invent the Town of New Castle’s drug prevention committees following this model. Working with members of the community, CFY applied for the federal Drug Free Communities grant which was awarded to CFY in 2016. This grant gives the Coalition $125,000 a year, renewable annually for up to ten years, to fund prevention work in the Town of New Castle.

“Our goal is to promote a positive message and help students and teens feel empowered to make positive choices. We want them to feel confident making social choices that are right for them,” says Barth. To achieve this, NCUFY brings together parents, youth, the Chappaqua School District, the Town of New Castle, police, local businesses, medical professionals, local media, religious organizations, and others to work together to apply data-based approaches to influence the way kids make social decisions.

“We are fortunate to live in an open and accepting community. Our kids have the capacity to accept the choices of others,” states Kuhn, who has helped to spearhead several initiatives to engage local teens. Last October, NCUFY partnered with the school district to bring the motivational speaker, Ty Sells, to Horace Greeley High School. Sells discussed the importance of developing positive relationships, and the value of open conversations between parents and children about drugs and alcohol. Dr. Steven Dewey, a NYU Medical School neuroscientist and researcher was another guest that NCUFY invited to speak at Greeley’s iLab and science research classes this spring. He helped elucidate the science behind the impact of drugs and alcohol on a teenager’s brain.

In addition to participating in Community Day, with a hard-to-miss, enormous “blow up” brain, and hosting a booth at the summer concerts, NCUFY funds a prevention specialist who splits time between Bell Middle School and Seven Bridges Middle School and hosts after school clubs and presentations. Goodman hopes this specialist will promote a “good culture shift and great prevention programs.”

Summer Interns Guide Future Programming

This summer, NCUFY hired two young professionals, a social worker and a counselor to run a summer teen internship program. With over 20 students participating, this group was charged with researching potential initiatives and information, as well as developing positive prevention messages that appeal to an audience of their peers. Barth enthusiastically notes that the “kids have been great.” Kuhn adds, “We have smart kids in this community, when you give them the information, they can process it and draw their own conclusions.”

The NCUFY Steering Committee lauds the efforts of the Town of New Castle, which they find to be exceptionally helpful to and supportive of NCUFY’s initiatives. The town raised age restrictions for buying vaping equipment and cigarettes to 21; smoking is prohibited in town parks; and the town has prevented vaping stores from renting space near Chappaqua schools. “Rob Greenstein is a doer. He is consistently supportive and responsive. So is Jill Shapiro,” notes Kuhn.

And NCUFY is growing. “When we applied for our initial grant, our objective was to change people’s perceptions about teen alcohol use, hopefully reducing the amount of teenage drinking,” notes Barth. Now, they are working to increase their social media traffic, to continue increasing partnerships within the community, and to get across their consistent, positive message of preventing substance use and abuse. Long-term, the Steering Committee hopes to build something that is sustainable; they want to build something that can be passed down to a new generation of New Castle’s parents, administrators, and influencers who can support this community’s youth.

While the Coalition has yet to determine whether they have encouraged a substantive behavioral change in New Castle’s youth, Goodman says, “All of this started a great conversation.” Hopefully, this conversation will resonate throughout the community.

Northern Westchester: A Kayaker’s Paradise

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PHOTO BY ROSS EAGLE
aquilinestudios.net
Wampus Pond is popular with kayakers.

Looking for a way to relax, reconnect with nature, soak in the sun, and get some exercise, all at the same time? Try kayaking. Northern Westchester, with its beautiful ponds, lakes, and river, offers various kayaking experiences, ranging from easy outings to more challenging adventures.

Where to Go

Kayakers can look no further than Wampus Pond in Armonk for an easy, serene adventure. Wampus Pond, part of the 102-acre Wampus Pond Park, is open to kayakers throughout the summer. The natural water pond was once a reservoir that fed the New York City water supply. The park surrounding the lake is particularly peaceful and filled with history, including early 20th century rock shelters.

For beautiful, endless views of blue, and a chance to experience the more challenging Hudson River waters, head west to Ossining Beach. In 2011, a kayak launch was opened at the Louis Engel Waterfront Park. This launch enables kayakers to launch off the beach rather than off a dock. Head west for a view of the Sing Sing Correctional Facility.

Travel about four miles north to Croton Point Park and kayak on the Croton River, which ardent kayaker Paul Okura calls “a local gem…so clean and beautiful.” The Croton River is crystal clear, peaceful, and scenic, and it offers exquisite views of the Palisades. Croton Point Park is one of the oldest parks in the Westchester County system. According to Mary Kaye Koch, Director of Marketing for the Westchester County Parks Department, “Croton Point is a beautiful spot for bird-watching while you are kayaking down the river. On the clearest of days, you can even see all the way down to New York City.” Visitors can plan to picnic or camp out at the park as well.

Franklin D. Roosevelt State Park, right off of Crompound Road in Yorktown Heights, offers two lakes for kayaking. Bring your own kayak to Crom Pond or Mohansic Lake, the two freshwater ponds in the park. The park itself, known for its spacious picnic areas, pool, hiking trails, basketball courts, and playgrounds, offers a chance to enjoy a range of other activities as well.

George’s Island Park, located off of Dutch Street in Montrose, offers another easy, scenic launch spot in Westchester County. “If you’re looking for a tranquil spot for kayaking, George’s Island is perfect,” according to Koch.” With a boat launch for boats up to 21 feet long, George’s Island gives kayakers an opportunity to connect with nature and observe the diverse wildlife. Boat fees vary by park. Check out parks.westchestergov.com for more information.

Touring Options

Throughout Northern Westchester, kayakers can go at it alone or sign up with a service for a more guided kayaking experience. Between May and October, Hudson River Recreation offers two to three hour expeditions on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. Tours meet at Croton Point Park or the Echo Canoe and Kayak Launch in Croton on Hudson. Kayak along the Croton River, passing historical sites like Van Cortlandt Manor.

Hudson River Recreation tours are geared towards adults, but if you are looking for a family kayaking experience, try Hudson River Expeditions. Hudson River Expeditions takes you a little farther north to Peekskill and the Bear Mountain area. Kayakers can either navigate their way through the Peekskill Bay and see the city from a new perspective or travel through the Bear Mountain region, visiting the historical site of Fort Montgomery. They offer both family tours with single and tandem kayaks in the Peekskill region and custom tours that can be booked for six or more participants.

Safety Precautions

John Clark, program director of Hudson River Recreation, suggests that kayakers “expect the unexpected and plan for it.” He suggests that kayakers always wear a US Coast Guard approved life jacket, take lessons, and learn rescue techniques. “You have to know what to do if you fall out!” Clark warns. Paying careful attention to the weather and tide conditions is also extremely important. Dress for the water, not the air. Finally, for a successful trip, Clark says to make sure that someone else knows where you are and where you are going.

Okura has one final suggestion to ensure that everyone on the water enjoys their experience. “People should respect the no noise zone and bring headphones if they want to listen to music.” This way people can serenely connect with their natural surroundings and enjoy the ride.