The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

Ronni Diamondstein

When There’s A Dog in Your Life

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BY MAGGIE MAE with RONNI DIAMONDSTEIN

“I’m a dog – a very special dog. I’m a black-and-white, Toy Parti Poodle. My name is Maggie Mae, and I am the Inside Chappaqua Roving Pup Reporter. With a nose for news, I will give you the dog’s eye view of Chappaqua and beyond.” This is how it all began in May 2010 when I started my very first column for Inside Chappaqua magazine. I am honored to be back writing again for the 20th anniversary issue.

Dogs can make a difference in your life in so many ways. My owner tells people that I am the dog that changed her life, and that makes me very happy because I feel so lucky to live with her for the past fifteen years.

“Nobody will ever love you as much as your dog does.” Jean Craighead George

George wrote that in her book “How to Talk to Your Dog.” She was one of my favorite interviews. And truer words were never written. My unconditional love for my owner warms her heart. I am always happy to be around her, and I think she feels the same way. She often takes me with her in the car for company especially when the ride is long. I like to ride in the car. I’m a great travelling companion, and I love when she takes me to a hotel on vacation with her.

“My little dog – a heartbeat at my feet.” Edith Wharton

I know that during the pandemic lockdown my owner appreciated my company a lot. We already were used to being together most of the time since she retired from teaching nine years ago and now works from home as a writer. I know that I have enhanced her life because she thinks about me more than she thinks about herself. And she talks to me all the time. She calls me a “lovebug” and I show her my love with cuddles and kisses.

“I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me, they are the role model for being alive.” Gilda Radner

And even though she’s lived alone most of her life and was never really lonely, I know that she never feels alone because I’m always here for her. I make my owner laugh a lot. She is more relaxed when she’s with me, especially when I stick my head under her hand so she will pat me or when I curl up next to her feet and give her my version of a hug.

“Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.” Rodger A. Caras

In our home there is a coffee mug with the saying, “dogs are the best people.” I know I am more than a pet to my owner. I am her family. She is my person. She takes good care of me–I even have pet medical insurance–and she cooks for me. And in return, I know when she needs me by her side. The more she loves me, the more I love her.

Ronni with Maggie Mae PHOTO BY RANDI CHILDS

“Dogs are better than human beings because they know but do not tell.” Emily Dickinson

She meets a lot of people because of me. The funniest thing is that when we take our walks–and we walk quite a bit–people often say, “Hi Maggie Mae,” to me, and she thinks they don’t know her name. She doesn’t really mind that at all. I’m her child after all, so this pleases her when I’m acknowledged.

“Dogs are our link to paradise.” Milan Kundera

I’ve become her muse of sorts. She has had more writing opportunities because of me. She started the Maggie Mae Pup Reporter blog and has written several stories with me as the main character that are posted on it. I also think she is amused that I act like her. She is very curious, and I am too. And we both like to know what’s going on in the neighborhood.

“Dogs have a way of finding the people who need them.” Thom Jones

My owner says we have a powerful connection, so I asked her to say a few words. “Life is so much better when there’s a dog in your life. One of my friends says that the chance to be loved by a dog is one of the true gifts of life. I couldn’t agree more,” she said. “Maggie Mae, you’re my girl and you bring out the very best in me!”

Naava Katz: Creating Love Letters of Art

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Naava’s drawing of her daughters, Talya and Shira

In Hebrew the name Naava means lovely and Naava Katz truly lives up to her name. The expression of love is a theme for Katz who has a passion for creating emotional and inspiring art about children and motherhood.

Katz has been drawing since she was a child. After attending art school, she spent a decade as a graphic designer. Katz went back to graduate school with a goal to work in media for children. She then worked as a website producer for Scholastic and one day had an epiphany and became an art teacher.

“Never in a million years did I think I would stay home,” says Katz. The entire time she was pregnant and after the birth of her children, she found she was more creative than ever. “I had always drawn things in the moment I’m in. When I was a teen, I drew a lot of cartoons about teens. When I became a mother, I drew about being a mother.” Katz took photographs of herself with her daughters and then drew them. “It helped me process the experience in a much better way,” says Katz. She then posted those drawings on Instagram and people started noticing and she received requests for commissions.

When both girls were in school Katz had the time to learn more about women in business and the world of licensing. She started submitting art to Minted.com and sold a greeting card to Target. She now has a line of greeting cards at Trader Joe’s.

Then she started taking commissions from families. “I fall in love with every family that I get to draw. The stories these families tell me are so profound,” says Katz.

Social media helped Katz spread her art. Instagram posts of her portraits have caught the attention of people like Rachel Zoe, Mena Suvari and Nancy Pelosi as well as countless others. “Someone said this is the best time to be an artist because of social media. I have been drawing my entire life and in the past you would put it on your refrigerator or under your bed. Now within seconds you can share it with the entire world,” says Katz.

Naava’s self portrait

Katz has started taking commissions for holiday cards. “It was a way for me to do something I love,” says Katz. “It’s not something they just keep in their homes.  They send them out to their friends and family and now all those people get to hold my art in their hands in a very personal, sentimental way. It’s always about deep emotional connections and relationships.”  From the experience of putting the cards together, this led her to a new avenue she’s pursuing of custom stationery that includes portraits of people. Katz has already done this as gifts for her children’s friends and new babies. “Handwritten notes are so personal. I especially love the idea of putting a portrait of the child on the stationery.”

Katz’s father, a professional artist and photographer who worked in the fashion district had a great influence on her creative life. After he passed away, Katz imagined what it would be like if he were alive now and how he would interact with her girls, Talya and Shira. She drew it and that gave birth to her idea for “In Memoriam Portraits,” another commission option.

Katz has learned a lot from her experience on her creative journey and has advice for artists of all types. “The most important thing to do is to find your voice and it’s also the hardest thing. Just be yourself so deeply with your art so there is no denying who you are. Trust what you are here to say.”

“I can’t believe that I have created a job where I get to draw every day–that was my childhood dream–and for my daughters to see their mother doing this,” says Katz. She is grateful for the support of her husband Ariel Simon, a teacher. “Artists are inherently insecure and second guess ourselves. I owe a tremendous amount to him.”

Katz isn’t sure of what comes next, but she is excited about taking on larger projects in the future.

It comes as no surprise that “love” is Katz’s favorite word. “I put the word love in the name of my business,” says Katz. “I felt that all the art that I do now are love letters to people from me and for people to give to other people.”

For more information and to view her work go to her website lovenaava.com.

Making (Up) a Difference: The Horace Greeley Scholarship Fund

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The HGSF team inside Horace Greeley High School
Photo by Carolyn Simpson

Every Horace Greeley Scholarship Fund Board meeting begins with the reading aloud of a note of thanks from a scholarship recipient or the parent of one. The notes that are scrubbed of identity are heartfelt: “Without you, the Horace Greeley Scholarship Fund, I don’t know what I would have done. I am GRATEFUL, and words will never tell you how much your contribution is doing for me” and “Please know that I will someday achieve my dreams. I will always look back and be GRATEFUL to the Horace Greeley Scholarship Fund forever.” Board President Peggy Macchetto says, “It’s a way of focusing on the Horace Greeley Scholarship Fund’s mission of neighbors helping neighbors.”

The Horace Greeley Scholarship Fund (HGSF)’s objective is to “make up the difference” between the actual costs of college and all other financial resources available to students and their families. The goal is to make college a reality for all Greeley students. Megan Conroy is one of the recipients who will be eternally grateful to HGSF. The 2017 Greeley grad graduated from Adelphi University’s nursing school program in 2021 and is working as a medical surgical nurse at NYU Langone in Mineola. “I probably wouldn’t have been able to graduate if I didn’t get the money,” says Conroy. “I was touched that every year I got some grant.”

HGSF Scholarship Recipient Megan Conroy

There’s no question that there is a very high cost of a college education these days. Tuitions are rising yearly for both private and public schools. Macchetto is not surprised about the need in the community. “The cost of education and raising kids has grown exponentially. Families are facing things like that and having the disposable income to pay for college has become more of a challenge.”

Applicants may apply all through their college years and the grants are based on need. It is open to any Greeley grad who is pursuing a four-year degree any of those years and they must apply each year as their financial situations may change. “We are looking for kids to get the degree. We want them to get through and to facilitate that as much as we can,” says Macchetto. The process is objective and extremely confidential. Their newly launched updated website makes it very easy to apply with a very high level of security. An outside consultant reviews the financial situation of each applicant and recommends the distribution to the Board’s Grants Committee. The only member of the Board who knows the identity of the recipients is the Board Treasurer who cuts the checks. It’s entirely a need-based system. “Everyone who qualifies gets something. Based on their gap, we look through how much we can cover that is meaningful enough to get to where they need to go,” says Macchetto. “The current cap per applicant is $20,000 per year. The average grant in 2022 was just over $8,000.” In 2021 they were able to grant $403K of $883K that was demonstrated as need.

“Our donor base is helping the same kid who is on the same sports team as your kid or the kid you’re on line next to at Lange’s. Even though it is anonymous, it’s all about the community, we have a lot to be proud of,” says Macchetto. “And it’s another example of our community prioritizing and valuing education,” says Julianne Cohn Metzger, Vice President of the HGSF Board. “We’re assisting our neighbors, our neighbors’ children and friends to continue the education they’ve been lucky to have here in Chappaqua.”

The seeds for the HGSF were planted in 1945 when the senior class of Horace Greeley High School gave $300 to start a fund for students who needed help paying for college. That spirit of students helping students has continued with the Greeley PTA Senior Musical that is a fundraiser for the HGSF as well as the very popular fall Spelling Bee that is run by the Greeley S.H.A.R.E club. “Another great way of students helping students,” says Macchetto. “The Bee is open to a wide variety of the community. While it’s academic, it’s about having a good time.”

The fall annual appeal mailing and the spring event are the two major fundraising vehicles. “The spring benefit is a nice way of getting everyone together and will be in person this year,” says Macchetto. Another fundraising tool is Senior Signs currently priced at $20.23 for the class of 2023. “It’s a fundraiser but it’s also teambuilding and getting our logo out,” says Macchetto. On the horizon is a Pickleball Tournament, and people may also make donations in honor of or in memory of someone.

Each year two members of the Chappaqua Central School District Community are honored at the benefit. This past spring Rita Santelia received the Taylor Family Award of Distinction for student and community support that goes above and beyond. Santelia, the mother of five, has been a parent volunteer over many years including PTA Chair of both Bell School and Horace Greeley High School. “I was so humbled to receive this award,” says Santelia. “I wondered how this could just be for me since I wasn’t doing each volunteer experience alone.” She was very involved with the Senior Musical, and it means a lot to her to know that her work on the Senior Musicals would be another way to help seniors and the HGSF. “All proceeds from the show are donated. In years prior to Covid, Senior Musical has been a huge benefactor to the Horace Greeley Scholarship Fund through the help of the community that comes out to watch the shows,” says Santelia. “We look forward to many more to come, as they will be great benefactors of the Horace Greeley Scholarship again and again.”

Joe Kearns, recipient of the Ed Habermann Award, and Rita Santelia, recipient of the Taylor Award of Distinction.
Photo courtesy of HGSF

Joe Kearns, a Chappaqua physical education teacher and the varsity football coach who was the winner of the Ed Habermann Award last spring, grew up in Millwood and was a recipient of HGSF scholarships. Bridging the financial gap with scholarships from the HGSF made a difference for the 1996 Greeley grad and his three younger sisters who also received grants for their four years of school. Kearns attended New England College in New Hampshire and studied Kinesiology. The award made Kearns appreciate where he came from and how willing people were to help. “It was really cool that a place that’s known for its wealth would have a scholarship set up for people in its own town that don’t have much money,” says Kearns. “It gives you a sense of pride and appreciation to the point where I wanted to come back. When you teach and coach here and you know that it’s a community where the only reason you got to go to college and got to be a teacher was because of the generosity of the people here.”

Winning the Habermann Award that honors a member of the community for their dedication to students was very meaningful for Kearns. “It’s the biggest honor you could get. You’re being recognized for the whole reason you got into education,” says Kearns.

Kearns has thoughts on why it’s important to support the HGSF. “They say charity starts at home. There’s an assumption that nobody needs it. We have a community that’s overall wealthy, but we have people in need, I think it’s important to support them.”

Cohn Metzger sums up the importance of supporting the HGSF. “For many families in our community it makes a difference between enrolling and not enrolling, and for their child to pursue their dreams. Your contributions enable them to do so.”

For more information about the Horace Greeley Scholarship Fund, or to apply or donate, go to their new and improved site hgsf.org

Victoria Bayard Tipp’s Inspiring Journey to Public Service

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A Passionate Voice for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Town of New Castle

PHOTO BY CAROLYN SIMPSON

Town of New Castle Deputy Supervisor Victoria Bayard Tipp is the first person of color to be elected and to serve on the town board. Tipp has lived in Chappaqua with her husband Robert for 22 years. They have four grown children. Tipp shares her thoughts on diversity, equity and inclusion, her aspirations for the town, and her inspiring personal journey.

Born in Port au Prince, Haiti, Vicky Tipp immigrated to the United States in 1963 when she was almost two years old. As she and her mother were boarding the plane, Haitian military police pointed guns at them. Tipp was terrified and did not want to walk. Fortunately, an American flight attendant saw this and took the toddler from her mother. She carried Tipp onto the plane preventing the police from shooting the child and her mother because an American was present. When they arrived in the states they first lived in New York with her grandmother, an award-winning educational leader in Haiti, who had fled the country earlier. They were later joined by her father who was an attorney.

Tipp, whose first language was French, entered Kindergarten in a public school in Jackson Heights, Queens where they had no program for non-English speakers. When her mother took a job at the United Nations, they moved to Manhattan and Tipp was enrolled in first grade at the United Nations International School, a multicultural school with students from over 100 countries. She then went on to earn degrees from Barnard College and Harvard Law School.

Education was very important to Tipp and her family, so it is no surprise that she began her public service work on the Chappaqua Board of Education. “The most important aspect of education was my family’s attitude about it as the way to live a fulfilling life and gain independence and stability,” says Tipp. “That was a big influence for my running for the Board of Ed.”

Equity, diversity, and inclusion have been important issues for Tipp. When she was elected to the Chappaqua Board of Education in 2011, she had discussions with the then superintendent about equity and inclusion and what they could do in Chappaqua to expose students to more diversity. “At the time people were not focused on issues of equity like they are now,” says Tipp. “However, when Christine Ackerman became superintendent, she was very responsive to those concerns and willing to open up our professional development to work with Ossining and other school districts, which provided a good perspective for our faculty.”

Then with the Black Lives Matter movement, the school board started to hear from alumni whom they then invited to a meeting to share their stories as they began an equity audit. “We wanted to open that up to our alumni and our community, so people could understand the extent of the inequities that had taken place,” says Tipp. Christine Ackerman, Superintendent of Schools, acknowledges Tipp’s significant role in this work. “As a member of the Board of Education and past president, Vicky’s leadership, insights, and advocacy for action were instrumental in shifting our practices to respond to the needs identified by our students and community in our equity audit,” says Ackerman. “Her unwavering commitment to ensuring all students are seen and valued for who they are in our school community resulted in revising several Board of Education policies, forming the CARES committee, and selecting Insight to support professional learning for all staff.”

Tipp did a considerable amount of equity advocacy work on the Westchester Putnam School Boards Association where she was chair of the advocacy committee for three years and president for three years. She also served on the steering committee for the Lower Hudson Education Coalition, an organization that does legislative advocacy. “I was able to do a lot more equity work through those regional organizations than I was able to do just being on the local board level,” says Tipp. “That made school board work for me a very rich and rewarding experience. It gave me a perspective into what other school districts were experiencing including children who are not as fortunate as children in Chappaqua.”

New Castle Supervisor Lisa Katz says that Tipp’s diverse background gives her the perfect perspective to address diversity, equity, and inclusion issues in the town as the board liaison to the Committee on Race, Equity and Inclusion (CREI.) “Vicky is an incredibly thoughtful and intelligent woman who is singularly focused on doing what’s right for our community. Having served as the non-partisan president of the school board, she understands the importance of listening to all viewpoints and treating our neighbors with genuine respect.”

Tipp has a vision for how she hopes the CREI will do their work with the community. “In my experience, both on the school board and on the town board, when people think about these entities–schools, or governments or organizations–it’s important to understand that these are not static and impersonal, they’re made of people, and they’re living and breathing systems. They are made up of relationships and interactions,” says Tipp who thinks that good communication is key and ground rules should be set. “It’s important to establish environments where there is trust, where we can create safe spaces to have real conversations. People need to feel that they can come forward with their ideas without fear of being stigmatized,” says Tipp. She would like the focus to be on understanding, rather than having to agree, and for people to be willing to talk through differences. “I think that the hardest thing to do is to create common understandings to have constructive conversations to move forward together in a productive way. These are the things we need to do as a community.”

Collaboration is a word that resonates with Tipp. “Diversity, equity and inclusion are paramount to the growth and health of a community,” says Tipp. “There are nine of these committees doing this work in the town.” In addition to the CREI that was appointed in May, the Chappaqua School district has the Board’s CARES committee, plus seven PTA committees–one district-wide and one at each of the six schools. And there is also the DEI work being done by the four other school districts within the Town of New Castle. “It’s important to form partnerships so that we have a community that’s racially, culturally, and socially inclusive and it gets hard to do that if you’re working in different silos.”

In addition to serving as the liaison to the CREI, she is also the liaison to the Beautification Advisory Board. The Town expects to form an LGBTQ committee to which Tipp will be the liaison as well.

Like Supervisor Katz, Tipp would like to see more cultural celebrations in town. “This is something we can do by working with our different town committees, the CREI committee, EPIC, and Holocaust and Human Rights Committee. We have these committees to provide a more inclusive process and to have more input from residents in town. It’s important for all the committees to work together to bring programs, events, presentations and get togethers–formal and informal,” says Tipp.

Tipp sees a way to bring the town together. “In order to do anything from equity work, zoning, revitalization, and bringing vibrancy to the hamlets, we would want to be inclusive with that work as well. There’s so much we can do together. I really believe in the power of collaboration of groups, and I think if we do that, we will create a sense of belonging because we’ll be creating more connections between groups and people.”

Tipp’s experience on the town board has surpassed her expectations. “I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. What’s been wonderful is peoples’ willingness to take on challenging tasks that are important to our community to move the community forward. It’s an honor to serve.” She finds the challenges motivating, and likes that she can help people, and listen to their stories and perspectives. “That’s what makes us a community. We learn about each other, and we learn from each other.”

InterGenerate: Gardens That Give

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Butterfly drinking nectar on Coneflower
Photo by Ronni Diamondstein

In the heart of the Chappaqua hamlet, at a community garden edged with a row of blooming native plants, community members tend their little plots. This community garden on the Chappaqua Volunteer Ambulance Corps (CVAC) property is one of the original InterGenerate community gardens that does so much more than provide a space for neighbors to grow produce.

InterGenerate, a food justice non-profit was founded in 2009 by Rev. Peggy Clarke and Roseann Rutherford who recognized the need for families to have access to both sustainable food and sustainable communities. “Food security is even more precarious today than it was, but luckily more people are aware of our vulnerabilities,” says Rev. Clarke. “When we started, we had to explain what a community garden is and why it would benefit them. Today, the term ‘community garden’ is part of our national and local lexicon, and most people in Westchester have the option to join one, likely near their home.”

Suzi Novak, Vice President of InterGenerate is the Coordinator of Community Gardens and the Food Justice Programs. “Community gardens were our first project, but we always knew there would be giving gardens, and a portion of our food would be given away,” says Novak. Their philosophy was “garden together, we’ll get to know each other.”

Joan Basile tends the giving garden in Chappaqua
Photo by Ronni Diamondstein

InterGenerate began with four gardens: Chappaqua, and three others in Mount Kisco, a teaching garden and Chicken Co-op at the John Hay Homestead in Katonah and then Millwood. The only remaining are Chappaqua and Millwood. The Chicken Co-op is still in existence and operates separately.

Novak plans to retire from InterGenerate at the end of this growing season so the Chappaqua and Millwood gardens will become independent of InterGenerate. Members of the Chappaqua community garden plan to operate under the umbrella of a new not-for-profit being formed by current gardeners and led by Joan Basile, who has been with the Chappaqua garden since 2015. “The garden has thrived under Suzi Novak’s leadership for ten years,” says Basile. “This new not-for-profit will honor her efforts as the garden flourishes.”

While they no longer have the teaching garden in Katonah, gardeners of all ages are educated at the Chappaqua site. Basile runs a Kids Garden Club where the former school psychologist and teacher gives lessons on all aspects of the garden ecosystem and coaches them in garden activities. Basile also shares her knowledge with beginning gardeners, helping them learn how to grow vegetables following the “Seed to Supper” program that she was trained in at the Cornell Cooperative Extension. Basile says, “The model for donating produce has shifted a couple of times over the years as we experimented with how to achieve the best method for maximum donations.”

Four years ago, a more purposeful branch of InterGenerate began. They wanted to build a relationship with people and started a weekly Community Supported Agriculture program with Neighbors Link from mid-June through mid-October. Twenty families signed up the first year. “The idea was a subscription where each family pays $15 a month. “It was lovely, we got to know them, and then the pandemic hit. They asked us if we could now start feeding 50 families,” says Novak.

Bee drinking nectar and transferring pollen on Zinnia
Photo by Ronni Diamondstein

InterGenerate needed produce so Novak called the Westchester Land Trust and asked for more garden space. Two people associated with the Westchester Land Trust offered their private gardens and InterGenerate was able to feed the fifty families. “We delivered those two years,” says Novak. “It was a huge undertaking and we’re proud of what we did. Now we are back to the subscription model hoping to feed 25-30 families.”

Another source of produce for InterGenerate is the Town of New Castle funded garden at Wagon Road Camp in Chappaqua. In 2020 Pat Pollock, joined the town’s Council on Race and Equity and was assigned to the events team with two Greeley graduates, Dylan Marcus and Emily Nobel. The teens wanted to grow food for people who were food insecure. Gardening was not Pollock’s expertise, so she reached out to Suzi Novak for assistance. “Without hesitation, she joined us and taught us,” says Pollock. They teamed up with Vince Canziani at Wagon Road (a Children’s Aid facility in Chappaqua,) built twelve beds and recruited community members to help them. “As we prepare for our third year of distribution, we will again reach out to senior citizens and families in New Castle, as well as the families we distribute to in Mount Kisco,” says Pollock.

InterGenerate has left its mark on the concept of community gardens by creating a model for what they can be by reaching across traditional social boundaries, bringing people together to grow food locally and sharing the work while deepening ties to each other.

Novak reflects on her experience and the work of the community garden: “During the pandemic knowing that I was getting my hands dirty feeding people, it was the only thing that was sane in a world that was crazy. If you asked most of my volunteers, they would say the same thing. There is something so elemental about feeding people. It’s an honor to do it.”

Chappaqua Pollinator Garden

A glorious rainbow of native flowers and plants welcomes you to the Chappaqua InterGenerate Community Garden on the Chappaqua Volunteer Ambulance Corps property on North Greeley Avenue in Chappaqua. This pollinator habitat was started by Chappaqua community gardener, Joan Basile in 2021.

“I’ve wanted to build a pollinator strip on the grass outside the garden fence on the street side,” says Basile. “In addition to providing food and habitat for pollinators and other native critters, I wanted to create a demonstration garden to show home gardeners how to include native plants in a landscape while still enjoying favorite non-native annuals.”

Basile was helped by fellow community gardeners Lisa Johnson and Ajaib Hira. Hira dug out the space and cleared and terraced the back of the garden, where they have established a native shade garden which they will be dedicating to the Chappaqua Volunteer Ambulance Corps. Johnson helped plant the garden and tends it with Basile. A community member also donated peonies and a variety of bulbs including tulips, daffodils, and crocus to bloom in the spring.

They have been able to end the spraying of herbicides on the nearby grass to show how beautiful and pollinator friendly the white clover, dandelions, and creeping Charlie are when they bloom. They also provide food for insects in the spring when there are very few food sources available for native pollinators.

“I wanted to create a place of beauty and discovery for passers-by. Every day there is something new blooming, and we’ve become a neighborhood destination for many who come by on their daily walk,” says Basile. “I hope to eventually get permanent signage–a kids’ version and an adult version–to help explain what we’re doing at the garden and how it restores the land.”

Fun Fact FYI: The Town of New Castle is an affiliate of BEE City USA and encourages residents to create and enhance pollinator habitats.

–Ronni Diamondstein