The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

Ella Ilan

A Treasured Friendship Circle over Canasta & Mah-Jongg – the Games Being Played Across Living Rooms & Generations

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(L-R): Aimee Marcus, Lisa Deitelzweig, Courtney Gordon, Debra Tillinger, Elizabeth Zimmerman and Cindy Rosenblatt   Photo by Donna Mueller

Chances are that if you live in the suburbs, you play or know someone who plays either mah-jongg or canasta. Though vastly different, the games are similar in the most important of ways; they are sources of socialization, entertainment, and cognitive stimulation. For many women who left the workforce to care for their children, these games are a lifeline where they can participate in adult conversation and share the experience of motherhood with other women in the suburbs. For some, these games are a passed down ritual from their mothers and grandmothers. For the elderly, it can ease loneliness and isolation.

What is Mah-jongg?

Mah-jongg is played by four people using domino-like tiles engraved with Chinese symbols and characters. The players draw and discard tiles to assemble a winning hand. Joan Rosenbaum, who teaches mah-jongg classes at North Castle Recreation Center, says “mah-jongg is a game of skill, strategy, socialization, and luck.”

Mah-jongg originated in China in the mid-1800’s primarily as a male gambling game. It began spreading throughout the world as a result of increased trade along ports of travel. In the 1920s it gained popularity in America. Naturally, with such widespread play across continents and cultures, various adaptations of the game developed and groups each had their own table rules. Many Chinese Americans played as a way of connecting to their heritage, but the game also became a popular pastime amongst Jewish women in the suburbs and in bungalow colonies in the Catskills. In 1937, a group of Jewish American women in New York City decided to standardize the rules of the game and formed the National Mah-jongg League. The league issues a card every year listing winning combinations of tile which change every year.

Rosenbaum eagerly awaits the new card’s release every Spring. After its release, her telephone always begins to ring with her friends calling to discuss the new hands. Rosenbaum remembers sitting by her mother and watching her play and wanting to be “just like her.”

“On game day in my house, I would put on a new tablecloth, put the racks out, mix the tiles, and sit down,” recalls Rosenbaum fondly. “The chattering would begin – what the women ate for dinner the night before, what they bought in the store, etc. Then the music of the clicking of the tiles began, a sound only a mah-jongg set can make. You cannot duplicate that wonderful sound.”

Armonk and Bedford residents Lisa Deitelzweig, Courtney Gordon, Aimee Marcus, Cindy Rosenblatt, Debra Tillinger, and Elizabeth Zimmerman have been playing together every Thursday for over 14 years. Both Tillinger and Zimmerman play with sets passed down from their grandmothers. They started playing when their children were in preschool and have kept Thursdays as their sacred mah-jongg day ever since. The women rotate houses weekly, serve lunch, and share lots of laughs.

“We went through the trenches together raising our children,” says Deitelzweig. “We support each other, and we have fun together. Our cardinal rule is ‘what is said at mah-jongg stays at mah-jongg.”

Besides playing and discussing everything ranging from politics, family, books, recipes, and tv shows, this group celebrates birthdays together and plans theatre and movie outings. Mah-jongg has been a jumping off point for many enriching activities in their lives.

What is Canasta?

Canasta, which means “basket” in Spanish, is a rummy-type game generally played by four players in two partnerships using two decks of cards. Players attempt to make melds of seven cards of the same rank and accrue as many points as possible. Canasta was invented in Uruguay in 1939 by two bridge players who wanted to create a quicker game than bridge but one with less of a luck factor than rummy. It spread throughout South America in the 1940’s, was introduced in America in 1949 and surged in popularity in the 1950’s. The Canasta League of America was founded to standardize the rules of the game.

Armonk resident Susan Cott, a private canasta instructor, says her whole life changed when she learned to play canasta.

“As a stay-at-home mom, I was always running errands and never made time for myself,” says Cott. “When I finally learned to play, it forced me to have at least one get-together a week with some friends. Additionally, I made so many new friends when my game would need a substitute player or when I would sub in someone else’s game.”

“Teaching canasta is such a joy for me,” she says. “There are two aspects that I love. Everyone is so confused at the first lesson, but then I start seeing the lightbulbs go off and that’s the best feeling for me. Secondly, I feel like I’m a matchmaker. When people walk away from my lessons having formed canasta groups and new friendships, that’s an amazing feeling. It’s very rewarding.”

Armonk resident Lori Cohen appreciates the game for its welcome diversion to her everyday life. “It’s my time to shut everything else out,” she says. “We’re often having so much fun chatting that we forget where we were in the game.”

During the pandemic, canasta and mah-jongg groups alike desperately missed their games. Determined to play, Rosenbaum and her friends took turns playing in each other’s garages dressed in coats and hats. One of her friend’s coats almost caught fire one day from one of the heaters. Zimmerman and her group played outside or on Facetime with iPad. To really spice things up, Bedford resident Darielle Cohen even invited her group over for “pool canasta” with an inflatable floating card table in her swimming pool. Clearly, no one was willing to relinquish these meaningful moments of fun and camaraderie.

Besides all the fun, both games demand some serious mental gymnastics to stay engaged in conversation while simultaneously paying attention to the game and formulating a strategy. One thing is undeniable; bits of conversation between hands, while shuffling tiles or cards over the years has led to beautiful friendships.

For more information on mah-jongg lessons through the Town of North Castle recreation department, go to northcastleny.com.

To reach Susan Cott for your own canasta lessons, you can email her at canastamastasusan@gmail.com.

Lessons are available by private instruction or via the Town of North Castle Recreation Department.

Spring Gardening: What to Plant & When

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PHOTO BY WENDY ROSEN

With spring around the corner, we reached out to some local gardening experts for guidance on what you can plant in your garden that will bloom this spring and summer. Whether you naturally have a “green thumb,” or you are newly interested in growing vegetables or flowers, we have you covered!

Lisa Eichler, a talented garden designer in Westchester County and proprietor of Legarden Designs, recommends using a “sequence of blooms” to keep your garden blooming beautifully all season long. When designing and installing gardens for her clients, Eichler likes to use a mix of evergreens, flowering shrubs, perennials, and annuals to ensure the garden stays aesthetic throughout the season. Annuals need to be planted every year, while perennials are planted once and last for multiple years.

Photo by Lisa EichLer

Planting Before the Frost Date

According to Eichler, any planting done before the “frost date” of May 10th is called spring planting and is subject to freezing. Thus, it is best to choose hardy, cool weather flowers, which can be found at your local nursery in late March. In a spring container, Eichler may include pansies, which she loves for their “colorful and happy little faces,” as well as sweet alyssum and hyacinth, both of which have a lovely fragrance. She also recommends nemesia, which come in a wide range of colors, and ranunculus, which has both annual and perennial varieties. If one wants to add daffodils or tulips to an early spring container, these can be purchased already sprouting from the nursery. When these cool weather flowers start to wither by mid-June, they can be pulled from the garden and replaced with summer flowers.

Early flowering perennials, such as phlox, can also be purchased from the nursery and planted in early spring, but they have a limited flowering time, as is the case with most perennials. Some favorite perennials that Eichler loves to use are “creeping Jenny” (botanical name: Lysimachia nummularia), which is a yellow vine that lasts the whole season, and hellebores, known for their rose-like blossoms and green foliage.

Photo by Wendy Rosen

Planting After the Frost Date

After May 10th, gardeners can begin their summer planting. Some deer-resistant summer annuals include ageratum and begonias. Eichler also likes to include colorful grasses, commonly known as fountain grass, to add dimension. One of her favorite plants is coleus, which offers lovely foliage.

Trees, Shrubs, and Perennials

Tom Roth of family-owned Roth Nursery, which has been in Armonk since 1948, supplied us with helpful information on flowering bushes and evergreens that can be planted in early spring. Roth has worked at his family business since he was a young man and works alongside his brothers, Carl and Walter, and his son, Tommy Jr.

Some deer-resistant, flowering evergreen shrubs that Roth recommends planting after the ground thaws in early spring include broadleaf evergreens like andromeda, which produce white flowers, P.J.M, which sprout purple flowers, and certain species of holly, like American holly and Dragon Lady Holly, which produce red berries. His recommendations for deciduous flowering shrubs include viburnum and spirea. Boxwoods, while they do not flower, are also a great choice for deer-resistant evergreen shrubs. As for bigger evergreens, Roth suggests Norway spruces, Green Giants, and white spruces.

Perennials that Roth suggests planting in early spring include bleeding hearts, ferns, Russian sage, catmint flowers, and any herbs. He recommends keeping things moist while they get established, which usually takes a season.

Planting Your Own Vegetables

Armonk resident Wendy Rosen of Homegrown Gardens, Inc. designs and builds beautiful vegetable gardens for her clients. Rosen had been in film production for many years when the pandemic hit, slowing the industry significantly. Rosen had her own vegetable garden for 20 years, so curating beautiful gardens for others was a natural next step.

“I needed a new creative outlet and Homegrown Gardens was born,” she said. “Producing a garden is similar to producing a TV commercial; it’s all problem-solving and finding solutions.”

Photo by Wendy Rosen

Rosen teams up with carpenters and masons to build enclosures and sets her clients’ gardens up from soup to nuts. She finds it especially rewarding when clients text her pictures of their harvests throughout the year.

“One thing I’ve always loved most about having a garden is sharing our harvest. Most people bring a bottle of red to a dinner party, I bring a squash!” she says.

For spring gardening, Rosen recommends planting cucumber seeds outdoors in mid to late March, carrot seeds in late March, and beans in mid to late April.

For summer gardening, she advises planting peas outdoors in early May and tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, zucchini, and basil all on Mother’s Day.

For fall gardening, Rosen says fennel seeds can be planted outdoors in late July, radishes and peas in early August, carrots and kale in mid to late August, lettuce in early September, and spinach in mid-September.

Replacing and replanting new vegetable plants ensures a long growing season. Each season, Rosen recommends rotating everything in your garden as each variety takes different nutrients from the soil.

Each of our experts was a treasure trove of information and had plenty more to share. To contact Lisa Eichler, visit her website at legardendesigns.com. Roth Nursery is open to the public and is located at 42 N Greenwich Road in Armonk, phone # (914) 273-8399. To contact Wendy Rosen, visit her website at homegrowngardensinc.com.

Armonk Teen Develops Spanish Language App

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… to Facilitate Wider Access to Healthcare for Spanish-Speaking Immigrants

Jennifer DiCapua, a 17-year-old high school senior at Sacred Heart Greenwich from Armonk, NY, saw a problem and sought an innovative solution when she was merely 14 years old. Jennifer designed and developed a mobile app, Salud por Todos, which translates to Health for All.

The app, which targets the Spanish speaking immigrant community, can be accessed anonymously by users to search for doctors using an array of customized filters, including payment options, language spoken, and whether patients require government ID. This easy-to-use app makes it possible for a Spanish-speaking immigrant without health insurance, for example, to quickly identify a doctor from the safety of their phone who speaks Spanish and has a sliding scale payment plan available. Jennifer started this project as a high school freshman as part of her school’s science research program.

To compile the database on Salud por Todos of over 6,000 providers across the Bronx, Westchester and Fairfield counties, Jennifer used a variety of publicly available online sources. She further contacted community programs for marginalized populations to direct her to providers, and reviewed providers’ websites to verify their information.

Inspired by Family and a Passion for Community Service

Jenny with her grandmother

Jennifer was inspired by her father, who immigrated to the U.S. as a child from South America and grew up facing healthcare challenges but eventually broke through barriers to find success and become a doctor himself. Her father’s interest in medicine was partly fueled by his experience being quarantined by the Department of Health for six weeks as a child with whooping cough. Jennifer’s passion for this subject was further guided by her childhood experiences visiting her grandmother weekly and befriending other children in her grandmother’s building in a predominantly Spanish speaking immigrant community in New Rochelle.

“Visiting my grandmother, I would interface with members of the Latinx community and observed the struggles they were facing while accessing healthcare. The barriers they faced included language, fear of deportation, lack of insurance, and government ID requirements,” explains Jennifer. “I compared that to my own life where my parents were able to easily book and pay for my healthcare appointments. That disparity really spoke to me.”

Believing healthcare is a human right but observing some of her childhood friends struggle to access proper healthcare while dealing with teen pregnancy and mental health issues, Jennifer wanted to do something about it.

“Seeing how my life has gone one way and their lives have gone another way has deeply impacted me,” says Jennifer. “I am so grateful for those friends that I grew up with because I remember so fondly the innocence of childhood, playing games and having dinner together, watching tv and having sleepovers. There were underlying things beneath the surface that, as a child, I didn’t understand. Now, I realize they taught me something that I didn’t know I was learning at the time. I now understand the different ways that life can take you.”

Jennifer’s father, Dr. John DiCapua says, “It’s very humbling to have your daughter reach back into your family history and bring that into what they want to do in the future. I lived that life, and we figured out a way to prosper the American dream but so many of the people I call my friends and family struggled and the fact that she’s latched onto that community to help them and figure out ways to provide value, it’s more than proud – it reaches to my history, so yes, I’m very proud of her.”

“Jennifer has persevered through challenges along the way with energy and positivity and a commitment to serving others. It’s that aspect of her personality that I’m most proud of,” says her mom, Christine DiCapua.

On Accessing Healthcare

Jenny with her dad and her grandmother (who passed away) both of whom inspired her to come up with the idea for Salud por Todos

Jennifer’s research led her to one of Westchester’s treasured resources, Open Door Family Medical Centers, which has been providing healthcare in Westchester for over fifty years. Open Door is one of over 60 federally qualified community health centers that receive government funds to provide care to anyone in the community regardless of their ability to pay. They treat over 60,000 patients at six different care sites in Westchester and Putnam Counties, and one dedicated dental site in Ulster County.

Dr. Daren Wu, Chief Medical Officer of Open Door, explains that he and his fellow clinicians manage many chronic conditions for patients who often do not want to go to a specialist because of whatever challenges they have in their lives, whether transportation, finances, or language. “Here, at Open Door, we take care of all the cardiac issues, diabetes, etc. so we get to help out a patient population that is well-deserving and we get to practice a lot of medicine.”

If patients ultimately do require specialists, Open Door has advocates that work with patients in their language to help navigate our very complex medical system.

“When patients delay their care because of a perceived access issue, this delay directly translates into higher complexity costs, morbidity and mortality,” says Dr. Wu. “If we can use Jennifer’s good work to get patients into the care they need earlier rather than later, that actually is transformative.”

Jennifer’s future goals are to continue verifying provider information for the app and eventually expanding the database so she could help different populations. She is currently applying to college and is interested in universities where she can focus on this type of research, community outreach and continuing to develop innovations to help minority populations.

Despite being very busy working on her app, Jennifer still finds time to be a normal teenager. She particularly loves to cook and try out traditional family recipes, like her grandmother’s empanadas.

For more information on Salud por Todos, go to saludportodos.org. For information on Open Door, go to opendoormedical.org.

Eye Designs Delivers Precision and High Style in Eyewear

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My first impression upon walking into Eye Designs in Armonk Town Center is that I have walked into a carefully curated museum with display cases exhibiting eyeglass frames as beautiful as works of art. However, far from the austere feel of a museum, this boutique optical shop is warm and inviting. Combining a natural instinct for choosing the right frames for every customer and 40 years of experience, store manager and optician Jaime Herman exudes a sense of warmth and competence.

Jaime (right) and Alex Herman
PHOTO BY CAROLYN SIMPSON

Exceptional Customer Service

Eye Designs has been in Armonk for 23 years and has developed a reputation for great customer service. A Westchester Magazine “Best of Westchester” winner, with another location in Scarsdale, the business focuses on meeting customers’ needs. When choosing frames for someone, Herman strives to get to know them, find out what they have worn in the past, and see if they are looking for a change.

“There is a certain trust there and I take that seriously,” says Herman. “It’s a big part of someone’s appearance and they’re allowing me to help them with this. If someone doesn’t know what works for their face shape, I can guide them. I know within a second of putting a pair of frames on you, if it’s right and if it will work.”

It is precisely this personal touch that differentiates Eye Designs from chain stores and online retailers of eyeglasses.

“For me, the excitement of the business is buying frames and then putting them on a customer’s face and then having them walk out in public and be noticed,” says Herman. “I’ve been doing it close to 40 years and it still keeps me invigorated.”

Meeting all your Eyewear Needs

From eye health to eyewear fashion, Eye Designs has you covered. With optometrist Dr. Janet Woo on staff, the store is a full-service optical shop. They administer eye exams, fit contact lenses, and do free repairs for glasses bought there or elsewhere. They also carry an extensive collection of children’s frames.

A typical visit to the store might start with an eye exam by Dr. Woo to check the health of your eyes and to determine the visual correction required. Upon obtaining a prescription, the fun begins working with Herman and the staff to choose the frame and figure out the best lens. Whether needing progressive lenses, transition lenses, anti-glare coatings, or computer lenses, customers are expertly guided to the right lens for them.

Of course, with summer approaching, Eye Designs is fully stocked with great sunglass frames to get you ready for the beach. Whether with or without prescription lenses, Eye Designs can fit you with stylish sunglasses that will keep your eyes protected.

A Fine-Tuned Selection

Eye Designs carries a high-end collection of unique frames. Herman has traveled to optical shows all over the world to assemble the right mix of frames and stay on top of the trends for his clientele. Hailing from France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Denmark, and across the globe, lines they carry include Anne & Valentin, Blake Kuwahara, Dabrach, Face a Face, Mykita, Lindberg, and many more.

Prices for frames generally range from $300 up to $1000. A pair of progressive glasses which adjust for close-up, middle distance, and far vision can range from $1000 to $1500. Herman does have some budget frames available.

“People are spending a nice amount of money on their glasses so they have to feel confident that they’re getting their money’s worth, that they’re getting the right thing, that they’re going to be taken care of, and that once they walk out the door, they’re not alone with their glasses,” says Herman.

Rave Reviews from Happy Customers

Herman is most proud of the fact that people that have been coming to the store for years are almost like family. He has a comfortable and easygoing relationship with many customers. Some will text him to see when he is going to be in the store or just to ask a question. The store has maintained its success because people recommend their friends and relatives.

“There is no reason to go into the city to get your eyewear,” says longtime Armonk resident and Eye Designs customer Lauren Miller Cogan. “Jaime has the unique ability to determine where you are in the fashion spectrum and find a frame that suits you. My family has been going to Eye Designs for 21 years and I just love him. He’s so great.”

Another longtime Armonk resident, Stacy Wilder, says “Ever since they opened 23 years ago, Eye Designs has been my family’s go-to place for eyeglasses. Of course it’s important to see well–and they are masters at getting the prescription right– but when you wear glasses all day, every day, it’s also nice to have many great choices and the latest, best quality frames. Jaime and the staff always go above and beyond, provide honest opinions, and are happy to make any necessary adjustments whenever needed.”

“I want people to know that the knowledge and experience that we have here can pretty much guarantee that they’ll have a great experience coming to the store,” says Herman. “Moreover, the customer service that we provide will assure them that their hard-earned dollars will be spent properly here.”

Eye Designs is located at 575 Main Street in Armonk, NY. They can be reached at (914) 273-7337. eyedesignsofwestchester.com

Armonk Firefighter Julie Gallagher Offers Life-Saving Skills to an Appreciative Community

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Julie Gallagher with local participants of her free CPR Education course. Assisted by Richard Greenwald.  PHOTO BY Donna Mueller

Julie Gallagher has been teaching free CPR classes at the Armonk firehouse for six years. Gallagher is the Byram Hills High School nurse, a local mom of four, and a volunteer firefighter and Emergency Medical Technician (“EMT”) with the Armonk Fire Department. CPR, which stands for cardiopulmonary resuscitation, is an emergency lifesaving procedure performed when the heart stops beating. According to the American Heart Association, immediate CPR can double or triple chances of survival after cardiac arrest.

Gallagher was a hospital nurse for twenty years before she came to Byram Hills as a school nurse. She was inspired to offer free CPR classes six years ago during her firefighter training when trainees were asked to ponder how to make their communities safer. Having taught CPR through the American Heart Association for ten years prior to that, she decided that offering CPR classes was something she could do to make her community safer.

On a recent February evening, Gallagher was surprised to see 20 new emails in her inbox inquiring about her CPR class. Initially confused about the sudden peak in interest, she discovered that a local resident who had just taken the class raved about it in a social media post in the Armonk Parents Facebook group.

The two-hour class, which is offered the first Thursday of every month at the Armonk firehouse, 7-9 p.m., or a maximum of 10 people, quickly booked up into May and felt like it had become the hottest ticket in town after the social media shout-out. 

Gina DeCrescenzo, the local resident who praised the class in her Facebook post said, “I decided to take the class because we have a 9-month-old at home and the idea of not knowing how to save his life if something happened is inconceivable. I saw the class advertised outside of the firehouse and thought “why not?” 

Gallagher teaches “Bystander CPR,” specifically taught for situations where there is no available doctor or nurse or you are not in a healthcare facility. The class is available to anyone over 12 years of age as students must be strong enough to complete the skills. A decent amount of strength is required to successfully complete chest compressions which involves the ability to push down two inches into the chest cavity repeatedly over a sustained period. Students must also have the agility to get down on the floor to do the work.

“Bystander CPR saves lives because they know what to do, they know what to look for, and they get their hands on people right away and that can actually make the difference regarding whether someone survives or not,” explains Gallagher. “The most important part is doing it before the ambulance comes. When we come, we are going to do everything we need to do but if nothing was done or if it was done improperly, then there’s no circulation to the brain and when that starts going past five minutes, there’s permanent brain damage done that cannot be reversed.”

The Armonk Fire Department is a volunteer fire department so oftentimes, the firefighters are being paged at home. Upon receiving a page, they drive to the firehouse, get on the apparatus, and drive to the scene. “If there’s no CPR done for five to seven minutes,” warns Gallagher, “that person’s chances of survival are very slim.”

According to Armonk Fire Department Second Assistant Chief Terence Carthy, the average response time of the first arriving unit, usually a Chief, from January 1, 2021 to March 5, 2022 was 3:38:57. “The ambulance or fire truck is usually going to be about three to six minutes behind a Chief, depending on the location of the incident,” says Carthy.

“I’m really passionate about teaching this amazing life-saving skill and it can make such a difference as to whether someone survives or not,” says Gallagher.

“I teach a lot of new moms and dads, which I love,” she says. Many new parents are concerned about choking but all students get the full class which includes adult and infant CPR, choking, and how to use an AED (Automated External Defibrillator). This class does not automatically provide an official certification, but Gallagher can help submit paperwork and facilitate certification upon request and payment of required fees for people who need a certification card.

“Julie was extremely impressive and the class taught me CPR in a way that I never understood or appreciated it before,” says DeCrescenzo. “She starts out saying that the emergency response time here in Armonk can be up to 7-10 minutes and there is little to no chance someone would survive if they were unresponsive without proper CPR being done until medics arrive. If that is not a reason to go to this class and learn these skills, nothing is! It would be amazing if all our residents would take this class so that if someone stops breathing at a local park or in DeCiccos, for example, we could have a real chance to help each other, to save a life!” 

Community Outreach

The free CPR class is just one of the amazing community programs provided by the Fire Department. Carthy, who has been part of the department since 2012, organizes firehouse tours for school children and groups like the boy scouts and girl scouts in the community. The biggest annual event takes place in the Spring in partnership with the preschool association. About 150 students cycle through in small groups over the course of two days. This effort requires careful coordination and extra dedication from the fire department as there must be ample members available to respond to emergency calls while the tours are ongoing. The tours include demonstrations, an overview of fire safety, and letting the kids interact closely and familiarize themselves with the firefighters so that they can trust them if they are ever in a fire.

“We let them go into the fire trucks with the lights on, spray a firefighter with a water can, and give them a general overview of how the fire department works,” explains Carthy. “We often try and accomplish a dual objective and show the parents what we are all about as a volunteer agency because so many people think we are a paid department and are expecting a paid service. Ultimately, one of our biggest goals besides education is recruitment because we rely on a lot of people giving a little bit of time.”

Besides these programs, Gallagher also teaches first aid classes to local Scout groups and holds babysitting courses upon request.

The Fire Department Family

Volunteering with the Armonk Fire Department is a great source of pride and very rewarding for its members. They are always looking to recruit new members.

Gallagher decided to join the Fire Department six years ago because she wanted an “empty nest plan” for when her youngest graduated high school. Looking for something to do with the extra time on her hands, she got her EMT certification and then dove in head first and became a firefighter.

“I absolutely love my fire department family; they are right up there with my family,” says Gallagher. “It’s an incredible group of giving people who give tremendous amount of time to making sure that this town stays safe. Any time of the night or day, we drag ourselves out of bed and go to somebody’s house and it’s just amazing that people do that and then get up and go to work the next day. I’m hoping I can do it for a lot longer. Every day is a gift.” 

“Every single one of us has a full-time job, many of us have kids, people have demanding schedules working jobs in downtown Manhattan and still are able to do it because we work with people to find the time in their schedule,” says Carthy. “I think most people who join the department end up loving it.”

“You join to help people but that’s not what gets you going at 3 a.m. when you’re on your third night call,” says Carthy. “At that point, you’re doing it because you care about the Armonk Fire Department as an entity being successful. We take a lot of pride in covering our calls. Other departments in the community will call us because they unfortunately are not always able to cover their calls. We never have that problem.”

Carthy encourages anyone who may be interested to stop by the firehouse to talk more in-depth about joining and to get a realistic sense of the commitment.

For more information about the Fire Department or to join, go to www.armonkfd.com. To register for a CPR class, send an email to cpr@armonkfd.com.