The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

Stacey Pfeffer

Friends of Karen School Supply Drive Helps Families With Children Battling Cancer

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Friends of Karen volunteers packing school supplies for the back to school PHOTO BY Barbara Wilkov
While back to school shopping is in full swing for most families this time of year, it is a difficult time of year for families with children battling cancer, or another life-threatening illness. Friends of Karen, a Westchester-based non-profit helps support these families with their annual Back to School Program which collects new backpacks, notebooks, markers, pencils and gift cards and distributes them to more than 850 Friends of Karen children in the tri-state area so they can begin the new year happily and successfully.

Friends of Karen parents say how shattering it is to go into a store and see healthy children, so excited about the new year, choosing their school supplies while their own child is in the hospital, uncertain about what the next day will bring. Parents often agonize between buying new school supplies for their “well” child or paying their ill child’s mounting medical expenses.
New backpacks (for all ages) and $25 gift cards (to Target, Forever 21, Macy’s, The Gap, Old Navy, Visa/MasterCard) are in high demand for Friends of Karen families. Other school supply items such as three- ring binders, filler paper, composition books and Crayola washable markers are also needed. Donations are being accepted until September 15 and can be mailed to office headquarters at 118 Titicus Road in North Salem or dropped off there.

Friends of Karen helps families throughout N.Y., N.J .and CT. The organization is unique in that it customizes the assistance they provide. Realizing that a life-threatening illness of a child impacts the entire family, Friends of Karen social workers work with each family member offering an individualized program of emotional, financial and day-to-day practical support. For more information, visit www.friendsofkaren.org.

Thanks to CELF: A New Generation of Students and Teachers Go Green

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Katie Ginsberg, the Founder of CELF, addresses attendees at CELF’s Annual Summer Institute
A group of more than 60 teachers from across the U.S. were huddled around tables tackling the issue of climate change in small groups in a simulation exercise. Divided into groups representing the governments of China, India and the U.S. among others and the fossil fuel industry, the teachers were tasked with convincing their governments and negotiating with industry for a way for them to work collaboratively to reduce climate change. The exercise was part of an intensive four-day workshop at Manhattanville College in Purchase called the Children’s Environmental Literacy Foundation (CELF) Summer Institute in Education for Sustainability, which enables teachers to integrate the concepts of sustainability into their existing curricula. Exercises like these at the CELF Institute can serve as a model for teachers to use with their students when they bring sustainability education back to their own classrooms.

Founded in 2003 by Chappaqua resident Katie Ginsberg, the CELF Institute’s mission is to make Education for Sustainability (EfS) an integral part of every school’s curricula and culture. The non-profit has worked with students and teachers from kindergarten through high school and in all types of public and private schools in urban, suburban and rural settings. Since its inception, CELF has worked with more than 8,000 teachers and school leaders and more than 800,000 students from 2,800 schools.

A former advertising executive, Ginsberg never thought that she would one day lead an award-winning sustainability education non-profit. Working on consumer campaigns for global clients such as Unilever, Ginsberg had first-hand exposure to product manufacturing and the research and development process. It was motherhood that ultimately spurred her though to become a dedicated environmentalist. “Having three children, I began to really pay attention to ingredients and what I was feeding them, washing them with and putting on their skin.”

Ginsberg’s ‘aha moment’ that inspired a career change came after her son came home excited from celebrating Earth Day at Grafflin Elementary School many years ago. They had interactive sessions and he went around investigating dripping faucets.

A climate change simulation exercise
“It was very empowering for him to see that he can make a change.” Ginsberg realized then that environmental education should be weaved into the curriculum throughout the year and starting in the formative years of kindergarten. She felt that sustainability education should be integrated into various subjects so that students could develop holistic thinking and an age-appropriate understanding of the intersection of social, economic, and ecological systems.

Ginsberg spent two years researching other environmental non-profits in other countries such as the U.K.,  Australia and Japan before starting CELF. The first CELF Summer Institute was held in 2005 with approximately 30 attendees. Ginsberg finds it very gratifying that the CELF Summer Institute has doubled in the number of attendees and now several teachers are coming with their administrators in groups so that they can truly embody the theme of the conference–“activating change” on a school-wide basis.

This year’s CELF Summer Institute had notable presenters such as former New York Times science reporter Andrew Revkin and Steve Kaagan of Climate Interactive, a Washington D.C.-based company that addresses climate change and related issues like energy, water, food, and disaster risk reduction.

Joseph Montouri, a CELF Institute attendee and a Social Studies teacher at Horace Greeley High School always considered himself an environmentalist. “I wanted to integrate environmental learning into my social studies teaching so I developed a public policy course at Greeley through the lens of sustainability. So much of what we do as social studies teachers is focus on the past without any connection to the present,” he commented.

Montouri is hoping to create a “sustainability house” in the newly redesigned L-building at Greeley, which is currently undergoing renovation and reconfiguration. “This would be a school within a school taught by a team of teachers emphasizing sustainability and the three Es– economy, ecology and equity.”

The concept of the “sustainability house” has been presented to faculty, students and parents and it was accepted as one of the uses of the new space. By attending the CELF Institute, Montouri felt that he was equipped with ideas about how to move the project forward.

“Our goal is to prepare these educators who are with these students five days a week for most of the year to have the skills, knowledge and tools to not only teach about sustainability but ultimately enable their students to do something about it and that the situation is not hopeless. The good news is that there’s much more interest and demand from schools for this type of learning than ever before,” explained Ginsberg.

A Catering Option, too, at Armonk’s La Mer Seafood

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Ed Wechsler, owner, La Mer Seafood, also actively caters for diffferent events.

Almost three decades ago, Ed Wechsler opened La Mer Seafood on Main Street in Armonk. At the time he was 22-years-old, already armed with a wealth of experience from working in top epicurean stores in surrounding towns. Back then, he focused mostly on fish but as lifestyles changed and consumer demand for organic foods skyrocketed, La Mer Seafood evolved and today it offers full service catering and mostly wild caught organic, locally-sourced fish.

Being in business for so long, Wechsler knows his customers and his fish. While Inside Armonk was in the Cape Cod nautically-inspired store, a customer walked in for lunch and asked for “the usual.” A few minutes later, he walked out with a homemade soup and lobster roll featuring fresh Maine lobster caught daily.

The store focuses on offering healthful and wholesomely prepared dishes. Wechsler believes fish works best with herbs and he avoids using butter, salt, flour and wheat. He can offer suggestions on how to prepare the fish and if you are a reluctant chef, his team can provide a homemade rub, marinade or dipping sauce to ensure a succulent dinner. “As in any five star establishment, our recipes are our own. We’ve been perfecting them for almost 30 years!”

With summer approaching, Wechsler and his team are at the ready preparing clambakes, lobster bakes and elegant hors d’ouvres, buffets and barbeques for pool parties, graduation celebrations and even weddings. Wechsler prides himself on choosing only the most friendly and courteous staff for set up, serving and preparing the food and clean up. In the past few years, La Mer Seafood has expanded its catering services and he now is busy year round with holiday parties and corporate catering events.

“We do a lot of cocktail parties, office parties communions and Bar Mitzvahs mostly in people’s homes. We supply the staff, the rentals, bartenders and everything is prepared from scratch and as healthful as possible.” La Mer Seafood also has partnerships with area caterers by providing seafood for En Vious Events and Culinary Angels, among other endeavors.

In addition to lunch and dinner specials, the “take and bake” option is also very popular with customers these days who are short on time. The staff will season the fish for you, place it in a small tin and then all the customer has to do is bake it in the oven. Wechsler is all about making the customer’s life easy and provides one-stop shopping with breads and other produce available at the store to round out a complete dinner.

It’s no coincidence that Wechsler is known as a “fishmonger extraordinaire.” He has intimate knowledge of every fish that is sold in his store. The fish is bought at the Fulton Fish Market (now located at Hunts Point in the Bronx) and his buyers get there early to get the very best selection. He is also a veritable wealth of nutrition information on virtually every fish in his store.

Wechsler prides himself on knowing where it was caught and how it was caught (wild versus farmed). He knows about fish farming techniques, mercury counts and use of pesticides in farmed products. Fish that is farmed outside of the US, Canada or Central America has different safety regulations and is often laden with pesticides and antibiotics. That’s why Wechsler prefers wild caught, and if he is going to purchase farmed fish, he prefers to buy organic.

Besides knowing his fish backwards and forwards, he knows his customers very well too. Being a mainstay of downtown Armonk for almost 30 years, he has a good rapport with many of his customers. “It’s not uncommon for someone to walk in and say I’ll have the same thing I had last week or my son wants to try something new what would you suggest and I already know her son doesn’t like salmon so I can come up with suggestions. I’m like the local bartender.”

Visit www.lamerseafood.net

 

Keeping Your Pearly Whites Healthy

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The waiting room of Dr. Aki Shirakura’s dental office in a historic home in Armonk is warm and welcoming with cozy armchairs and sunlight peeking through the windows. On top of the coffee table is a binder with patient testimonials and as you peruse through it, you’ll see many comments on his friendliness, professionalism, patience and gentle touch.

Dr. Shirakura has been practicing in Armonk since 2008 and is currently a faculty member at NYU Lutheran in Brooklyn.

He attended dental school in Buffalo, New York, and also completed three additional intense years in Prosthodontics at Eastman Dental Center at the University of Rochester. He has extensive experience in restoring and replacing teeth through the fabrication of veneers, implants and dentures and has performed full mouth reconstruction. He refers to his dentistry work as an “art”–the teeth must be functional and also improve the patient’s smile. Prior to moving to the United States, he was a dental technician in Tokyo for more than two decades which gives him a unique perspective on what he does and how he helps his patients achieve truly beautiful, healthy smiles.

As a prosthodontist he has worked to restore or replace teeth on patients that have been in accidents, had oral cancer or cleft palates. He also does cosmetic dentistry to help those patients who may have damaged teeth due to age, poor dental maintenance or those who just want to enhance their smiles.

Shirakura and his staff of nine employees provide regular dental check-ups and take care of many Northern Westchester-based patients from young children (even babies) to senior citizens. He recommends that patients follow the American Dental Association guidelines that now suggest that babies be seen as soon as their upper and lower baby teeth erupt so that they are on a good track for preventative care.

Recent scientific research is starting to show a link between oral health and general health. Shirakura urges patients to maintain their oral health with regular check-ups every six months.

Being in the dental field for more than three decades, Shirakura is pleased to see that “implants are becoming more of the gold standard in dental care with some good dental insurances now covering it.”

An implant’s success rate is very high compared to older procedures like a bridge, which can cause tooth decay over time. He also uses a 3-D CT scan on patients, which is safer and more multi-dimensional than traditional X-rays. Shirakura’s office contains an in-house lab, which is a huge bonus if teeth need to be quickly repaired. The practice also offers Invisalign and teeth whitening services. Shirakura is proud to utilize his background in geriatric dentistry to conduct dental check-ups as a volunteer on residents at the Bristal, an assisted living facility in Armonk.

In addition, his practice is an active member of the Armonk Chamber of Commerce. This spring he hopes to teach local Byram Hills kindergarteners and first grade students about the importance of oral health.

Dr. Aki Shirakura and his staff

Aura Salon: The Best Kept Secret on Upper King Street

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The first thing you notice outside the entrance to the Aura Salon on upper King Street is the beautiful flowers in the artfully arranged window boxes.

Once you step inside on the lower floor you’ll be welcomed by four vanities bathed in natural sunlight where make-up artists use the latest Aveda products to enhance your natural beauty. In the mood for beachy waves or a blowout? Check, the stylists can do that too using the high-end Dyson Supersonic blow dryers which have a built-in sensor to protect your luscious locks from any heat damage.

If you need a fabulous cut or color or mani/pedi without all those harsh chemicals, simply walk upstairs and let the magic begin at the salon.

The salon and beauty bar is owned by Leticia Villagran and Chappaqua mom Jenn Filardi. Jenn was actually a client of Leticia’s for many years when Aura Salon focused on hair and nails. Realizing that there was an unmet need for expertly applied make-up and blowouts that won’t break the bank, Leticia teamed up with Jenn to open the Style Bar in February on the first floor of the salon. Having worked in the city at fashion shows and with celebrity stylists, Jenn brings a wealth of knowledge about the latest beauty trends and loves creating updos, braids and signature blowouts, all at an affordable price point.

Both Leticia and Jenn have relatives in the beauty business. Originally from Guatemala, Leticia’s father and grandfather cut hair. She went to cosmetology school there where students learn everything from facials to applying highlights.

Once she came to the U.S., she obtained her license and still takes classes to stay abreast of the latest beauty treatments and trends. She has more than 20 years of experience in the beauty business. Jenn’s grandfather was a barber and says working at the Style Bar is “in her genes. It’s so much fun. It doesn’t feel like work.” She also enjoys educating her clients about the best products to maintain the health of their hair.

With the upcoming prom and wedding season, the salon is ready to pamper clients for special occasions. “We do communions and wedding parties from the bride to the youngest flower girls,” said Villagran. Parties of four or more get a 10% discount and if the client requests it, they can provide at-home services. But Filardi is quick to point out that Aura is also a great destination if you need express services like speedy make-up applications for a night out or a quick blowout on a more regular basis.Villagran and Filardi and their staff have trained with leading beauty experts at Bumble and Bumble, Vidal Sassoon Academy, Wella, the Aveda Institute and Organic Salon Systems. They are passionate about having staff take industry workshops and continuing education so that clients have access to the latest products and styles.

A member of the Chappaqua-Millwood Chamber of Commerce, the salon’s stylists have volunteered at several events at local schools including a new moms event at World Cup Nursery school and creating a Nordic braid bar at Seven Bridges International Day. They also are proud to have a Greeley senior Clara Perlmutter help them with social media through a LIFE School internship program. Many of the local businesses have helped them get off the ground by promoting their services. “The whole community has been very encouraging and helpful–a real communal effort! “ added Filardi.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF WILLIAM LULOW