The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

Armonk Cover Stories

Lasting Legacies

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Four young women share what they learned or inherited from their mothers and grandmothers.

KRISHNA PATEL

Krishna Patel

A Horace Greeley High School junior, Krishna Patel realizes that she has a very different reality than her grandmother’s experience at 16-years-old. “My life consists of scurrying from one extracurricular to the next, staying up late to get my homework done, and spending the weekends with my friends. My grandmother dropped out of 10th grade to get married and start a family of her own, as was common in the 1950s in rural India.

I will never forget when she presented me with two thick silver anklets.  I was 14 and she was visiting from San Francisco.  She called me into the kitchen of our house in Millwood.  She said she had something for me.  “The same ones I wore on my wedding day, 60 years ago,” she said.

“I wasn’t much older than you.”

Krishna’s grandmother

Krishna appreciates how her grandmother found the courage to break from tradition to become a strong, outgoing, powerful woman, and set the precedent for the other women in the family to do the same. “When my grandfather, a prominent Assemblyman, was imprisoned due to his political views, my grandmother continued to be an activist for reform, against his wishes due to concerns for her safety. My grandmother was very brave when, at 40, she had the chance to join her brother in the United States.

She taught herself English and took up a job at a perfume factory to finance a new life here.”

MADDY CHEN

Maddy Chen

Similar to Krishna’s grandmother, Maddy Chen’s grandmother also had little to say about her marriage. Both her grandmother and her grandmother’s identical twin sister, who was born first in 1938, had arranged marriages in Hainan, China.  The firstborn was promised to a village boy who became a rice farmer. Maddy’s grandmother, was also betrothed in 1940 to a village boy, but he later immigrated to America and became a doctor. “This two minute difference between my grandmother and her twin has extended across the generations.” Maddy, a senior at Centennial High School in Maryland, reflects.

“My grandmother’s twin had a son who became the local village butcher. Every day, he wakes up at 4 a.m. to slaughter a pig. He spends the rest of his day selling pieces of meat in a hot, crowded, smelly, open air market.  My mother is a dermatologist who uses her hands only to perform delicate skin surgeries. I often ponder what would have happened to my grandmother, my mother, and me if the second born twin married the rice farmer.”

Maddy Chen and her family

HANNAH FENLON

Our author, Hannah Fenlon and her Great Grandmother, Yuan Lau Chan Man

It is possible be both the same and wildly different from the women in one’s family. In Hannah Fenlon’s family, Hannah learned cultural traditions by cooking with her great grandmother and grandmother, just as her mother and aunts did. “Whatever the size or shape or “mistakes” my little hands made when we gathered to make dumplings, I also saw my great-grandmother’s expert, lovely hands pinching the dough just so, plopping them in boiling water and then, scooping the delicious dumplings as they floated to the top of the pot.”

Hannah, a junior at Horace Greeley High School, also inherited creative abilities and attention to detail from her grandmother and great-grandmother who were talented seamstresses. “Ever since I was a little kid, I liked arts and crafts.” says Hannah. “And I loved learning to quilt.”

ALEXIS DRAPER

Alexi Draper

Teaching yoga, sharing a laugh and traveling are among the many things that connect Alexis Draper and her mother, Susan, of Armonk. Alexis, now a freshman at Texas Christian University, recalls a special summer in Todi, a small village in the hills of Umbria, Italy.

This trip was in preparation for Alexis’s first year of Italian study at Byram Hills High School.  Each morning, Alexis said, she and her mom “left their little apartment and walked down the cobble stone steps to the pastry shop in town, and then went to our classroom to learn Italian. Though we lived there for only two weeks, we progressed from just waving “hello” to having small conversations with the lady who would feed the stray cats, with the woman from our favorite boutique, and with the servers in the restaurants.”

She and her mom took the afternoons to drive to different ancient towns, exploring places like the grandiose Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi, hiking up the mountain at Cascata della Marmore (waterfalls), and riding a birdcage-like funicular to the top of Gubbio. “All the sites were spectacular, but the magic of the trip was really in Todi itself because my mom and I learned something new together every day.”  On one of their last evenings in town, Alexis and her mom participated in a cooking lesson at a local woman’s home. “We stumbled a bit through our recipes in our new found language but we enjoyed the fruits of our labor, dining under the stars with other travelers from around the world.”

As Alexis, Hannah, Maddy and Krishna shared these formative experiences with me and what they learned from the women in their families, I was reminded of a trip I took in 1995 with my grandmother to Weihai, China. It was the first time I met my great grandmother and my great aunt, who had been sent to a re-education labor camp during the Cultural Revolution.

My grandmother left behind her family at age 20 when she fled Communist China with my mother and her infant son. Her life journey took her from China, to Hong Kong, then Brazil and finally the United States.  When we were returning to New York, my great aunt gave us bundles of seaweed to take home.  She had roamed the shores surrounding Weihai, a city on a peninsula, to collect the seaweed. She dried the pieces in the sun and then wrapped them in scraps of cloth. She didn’t  have much money but arduously gathered these fragments culled from the sea of their hometown. Somehow, we made it through customs with those pungent bundles the size of pillows.

That seaweed connected three generations of women. That gift to my grandmother from her sister’s gnarled hands was my inheritance of courage, love, and hope.

Up Close with Jean Sheff: Westchester Family’s Beloved Editor

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When Westchester Family editor Jean Sheff took over the helm of the magazine in 2006, the print media industry was on the brink of its most tumultuous period in generations. Publications and newspapers across the country were folding or laying off staff, as the financial downtown hit a sector already facing challenges to its business model.

Jean Sheff  PHOTO BY GRACE BENNETT

“Everyone was afraid print would die. Print is not dead, but you have to do multiple things,” says Sheff, who is also the magazine’s co-publisher. “People need their information in a different format.”

Sheff has certainly overseen significant changes during her decade as editor of the monthly publication geared towards parents across the county; it now has a dynamic website, a presence on social media, and increasingly finds ways to engage readers. Articles are geared as much towards parents checking their smartphone on the go as those reading the print edition at the kitchen table.

“You write smaller bits. People don’t have as much time,” Sheff notes. “You have to meet the parent where they are.”

Westchester Family was launched in 1989 by Susan Ross and Felice Shapiro, and this past year, was purchased by Brooklyn-based CNG publishing. This has had little impact editorially, Sheff says, as the new owners stayed the course in taking over a successful product whcih aims to provide support to area parents with columns from experts, features on family-friendly activities and a calendar of events. “You don’t get a degree to be a parent. You’re kind of thrown into it,” Sheff explains. “You need somebody on your side, you need a little coaching, and you need a little support.”

After 18 years in New York City, Sheff moved here “kicking and screaming” in 1992; she was pregnant, and saw Westchester County as a natural middle ground between Manhattan and the country. “I wasn’t a big nature girl,” Sheff admits. “I was coming from the city,       and I did not want to be on a dirt road with no lights.” Sheff first moved to White Plains, but then settled in Chappaqua two years later. When looking for a home, Sheff remembers that the first thing she did in each prospective community was visit the local library. “If I liked the library it had a chance,” she recalls. “I went into the Chappaqua Library, and I fell in love. And then I got really serious about looking into Chappaqua.”

Sheff had been working for UNICEF, but left in 1997 to work as a freelance writer for several publications (including Inside Chappaqua!). In 2004, she began freelancing for Westchester Family and two years later she became the magazine’s editor. “All my life, I’ve always been interested in children and families,” says Sheff. “It was just what I was passionate about, right to this day.”

Sheff lived in Chappaqua for two decades, moving to neighboring Briarcliff Manor in 2013. Her daughter, Juliana, now an account manager for the clothing company PVH, went through the Chappaqua school district, graduating from Horace Greeley High School in 2010.

At Westchester Family, Sheff and a small team of two sales managers, editors and mostly freelance writers have built on the magazine’s initial success, staying true to what made the magazine successful. But along with incorporating changes to the medium, the coverage has also evolved. While many of the articles feature local activities or destinations–one of its most popular stories, Sheff notes, tells readers where to go for the best apple picking–the magazine doesn’t shy away from topics like domestic violence.

“It is a good combination of information for parents and features and articles that parents want to read and know about,” says Susan Goldberg, a Chappaqua resident who has worked for the magazine as the calendar editor since 2011. “My kids are adults now, but I think when I was a young mother I would have loved this kind of resource.”

Sheff’s coverage has allowed her to meet and interview some notable sources, from then-Yankees manager Joe Torre to, most recently, Dateline NBC correspondent Andrea Canning. For a profile on Sesame Street, Sheff toured the show’s studios in Astoria, Queens.

But just as important to Sheff are her conversations with the magazine’s readers, which she uses as an “informal focus group” to gauge the publication’s impact.

“Even people who don’t have kids anymore will say, ‘I used to read that all the time. I raised my kids with that magazine,’” she says. “It’s very endearing. They’re very appreciative.”

And it hasn’t just been local parents who have recognized the magazine’s contributions. The publication has won a number of awards, including several from the Parenting Publications of America and the Parenting Media Association. When it comes to finding activities to write about, Sheff says, there is never a shortage. With everything from the Westchester Children’s Museum in Rye to the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville and with New York City a short drive away, neither parents nor the magazine risk running out of ideas.

“Westchester is just a great place to grow up,” Sheff says.

 

Resident Geri Mariano’s Trying Experiences with Medicaid Managed Care

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By Grace Bennett and Janie Rosman

Geri Mariano
PHOTO BY RICHARD CAPLAN

Geri Mariano (also known as Geralyn Pinciaro), a much beloved Armonk resident with a myriad of health care needs, has hit too many brick walls in her odyssey through the health care morass. Inside Armonk contacted local and state officials with the goal of spotlighting her situation…in the hopes that Geri can receive the care she deserves and within her means.

“Geri Mariano imbues the spirit of the community and pride in her hometown, and it in her,” State Assemblyman David Buchwald stated when contacted to discuss Geri’s recent issue with obtaining optimal health care to address her unique medical needs. “What saddens me so much is that health care policy hasn’t done right by her, most recently in June 2016.”

Background

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s Executive Order No. 42 regarding Medicaid redesign was to cover recipients who have long-term disabilities and chronic health problems such as diabetes, heart disease, substance abuse and mental illness. Some constituents like Geri Mariano found their coverage changed as a result of the Governor’s April 12, 2012, directive, which established a state-based health benefit exchange per the Affordable Care Act.

Born at White Plains Hospital in October, 1967 with Diastrophic Dysplasia/Dwarfism, Geri was abandoned at birth by the biological parents. It wasn’t until she was 18 months that then Geralyn Pinciaro was taken in by William and Doris Mariano after her story appeared in the Gannet Newspaper. She was raised in a loving home; yet never legally adopted, Mariano was an official “Ward of the State” and remained under Department of Social Services’ protection until she turned age 18. Afterwards she went years without needing re-approval for Medicaid coverage.

Approximately 10 years ago, she would be re-certified every other year or so. When she received a letter stating she would be moved from Straight Medicaid in January. 2013, she asked NYS Assemblyman David Buchwald (93rd A.D.) to intervene on her behalf. After a few calls, the Assemblyman’s Office found there had been a mistake and Mariano’s status was not supposed to change; her status was changed back.

A letter last summer mandated Mariano to enroll in a managed care plan by July 31, 2016. As no exemptions for Medicaid enrollees applied to her situation, she was automatically enrolled in MVP Medicaid Managed Care. As a result of the change, Mariano can’t see her PCP whose office is in downtown Armonk and has been accommodating and an advocate for her for over 20 years. Additionally, her aides took an unexpected pay cut due to the coverage switch. And the prosthetist who got Mariano up and walking again after several years is not covered. After making much progress regaining the ability to walk, Mariano has not been upright since November, 2016.

Mariano was the first special needs student with a physical disability to be enrolled in Byram Hills School District in 1972 without the Federal Mandate to do so; she graduated in 1985. Mariano graduated from Smith College n 1989, one of its first matriculated students with congenital disabilities. In 2013, she received the Spirit of Independence Award from Westchester Disabled on the Move in Yonkers. “We all want to assist Geri, whom I have known for many years growing up in Armonk,” said Westchester County Legislator Margaret A. Cunzio, representing District 3 (Mount Pleasant, Pleasantville and parts of North Castle) “Anything we can do to bring this issue to the forefront and seek assistance from New York State is imperative.”

Her two Fair Hearing appeals (when no  representatives from DSS or Medicaid Choice showed up) were denied last fall. Mariano was informed by the Hearing Judge that his decision could be overturned but that she would not be made aware if in fact it was. Mariano is frustrated to not know if the Hearing Judge ruled in her favor and the decision was overturned by Albany. Mariano reached out to friends for advice with her predicament, one of whom posted her situation in the Facebook group, Armonk Moms. At press time, discussions have started whether a letter writing campaign and rally would help bring wider attention to this matter.

The Inside Press has since reached out to the Governor’s press office, the New York Department State of Health, Representative Nita Lowey (D-NY17) and State Senator George Latimer (37th S.D.). As this is a State matter specifically, Roy Loewenstein of Lowey’s office, suggested the State could provide the most comprehensive answers.

A letter was being drafted by Andrew Ferris in State Senator Latimer’s office, and awaits signatures by the senator and Assemblyman Buchwald. “There’s no hardship exemption, where someone says, ‘What’s best for Geri given her situation?’” Buchwald said. “My role is to try to cut through the bureaucracy as the system is not designed for folks like Geri.”

At press time we are awaiting a response from the state. Mariano wants an opportunity to share her story with Gov. Cuomo’s administration representatives and relate that the present exemptions DO NOT fit every situation of those who have had coverage throughout their entire lives. States Geri: “There are others in the same boat. I need to be their voice, too.”

Grace Bennett is publisher and editor of the Inside Press, which she founded in 2003. Janie Rosman is a freelance writer and editor whose work appears in local and regional publications. She chronicles the Tappan Zee Bridge replacement project at Kaleidoscope Eyes.

BREEZEMONT – at the Crossroads of Happy and Camper

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Owner and Director,
Gordon Josey

Summer time, and the living is easy. Actually, make that easy-breezy. Because, as Breezemont Owner and Director, Gordon Josey, tells it: “Great weather, great staff and great activities make for a perfect summer.”

And he should know. This will be Josey’s fourth summer at Breezemont, but he also owns, and for many years ran, a prestigious sleep-away camp. In fact, sleep-away camp was his introduction to this rather unique and, as Josey describes, mostly east coast American phenomenon.

Indeed, when Josey came to the U.S. from Scotland to work as a sleep-away camp counselor 20 years ago, he was immediately bitten by the camp bug, and has worked in the industry ever since. He shares that his work is a calling and a true labor of love.

Off-season he is busy hiring staff, running workshops, attending conferences, working on infrastructure and, of course, meeting with families and giving tours of Breezemont. It’s a fulltime, six-to-seven days-a-week job; but, as Josey is quick to point out, the long hours do not mean drudgery to him. Rather, he loves what he does, loves talking camp with people on and off the job (as an aside, he notes that he’s a popular dinner guest as people love hearing and sharing camp stories) and, finally, come summer with the hard work done, he enjoys the eas(ier) life alongside his staff and campers. “Come summer, I’m a glorified camp counselor-me and my four to five full time staff members,” says Josey with a laugh.

Turning serious for a moment, he goes on to point out that if he wanted to be tucked away in an office, he’d be doing something else. According to Josey, his being out and about is what helps make Breezemont a special place. He’s there greeting the campers as they come off the bus in the morning, and he’s there waving goodbye at the end of the day.

What else distinguishes Breezemont from other day camps? For starters, there’s the lake. Typical of many sleep-away camps but less common amongst day camps, the lake is a beautiful focal point as well as a place where campers can learn boating skills. Add the mature woods and lush fields, and Breezemont stands out for its natural beauty. The facilities are top-notch and regularly updated; when Josey took over, he also took the camp to the next level.

Says Josey, “As with any industry, we need to keep relevant. We’re always reinvesting, adding new activities, staying involved and accessible to make sure our campers have fun and our campers’ families are happy.” A typical week is far from typical. Kids have an abundance of regular activities to be sure, but also look forward to special events and dress up days at least twice each week. Extra hot weather brings extra swims, and campus sprinklers.

And rainy days do not mean screen-time; in fact, Breezemont is electronics-free, a place “where everyone disconnects.”  Josey believes camp is a place to “relax and have fun, to try new things, to take safe risks and even make mistakes.”

Remember cold cuts and bug juice? Today’s kids probably think that’s so much exaggeration. After all, their experience of camp food is a far cry from the old ‘my bologna has a first name’ daily standards some parents remember all too well. Breezemont has a full-time staff specialist hired to make sure every child’s food needs are met to exacting standards. “It’s important to embrace all the diet needs because that is the world we live in,” explains Josey. When allergies, intolerances, religious dietary laws or simple preferences are noted, options are made available. And the options are socially and emotionally friendly too; for example, if a given day’s snack is pizza, then gluten-free pizza is an alternative snack as well.

Children come to Breezemont from Westchester and nearby Connecticut communities; Josey suggests a 30-minute ride as something of a demarcation marker, “As a parent, why would you want your child on a bus for much longer?” The youngest campers are three to four years old; at this age, it’s a co-ed experience and the ratio of counselors to campers is considerable. As they age-up, the groups become single-sex and the staff to camper ratio decreases.

However, there are always general counselors with every group and specialist counselors at activities. The counselors are often former Breezemont (or other camp) campers and/or teachers who bring their own love and enthusiasm for camping and children to the job. Breezemont campers typically move on to sleep-away camps or specialty camps, and parents appreciate that their children are well-prepared for the transition from happy day camper to overall happy camper.

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF BREEZEMONT DAY CAMP

How Our Libraries Stack Up in Today’s Digital World

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Periodicals inside the Chappaqua Library. Photo by Gary Sapolin

It’s been said that “a book is a present you open again and again.” If we can agree that this is in fact so, then may I suggest we further the idea and consider our public libraries as proverbial Santa sacks full of goodies galore!

Remember Melvil Dewey, of the eponymous Dewey Decimal system? Coining “the best reading for the largest number at the least cost” as his slogan, Dewey was elected president of the American Library Association in 1890. His vision/standardization process is largely responsible for the look and feel of today’s modern U.S. library.

And yet, while all libraries gift us with classic and new hardcover, trade and paperback books, today’s newspapers or the latest magazine, music, movies and more, each also offers unique and special programs. Indeed, a public library is a veritable treasure trove of events, classes, workshops and resources, tailored to the community it serves.

The Chappaqua Library anchors one end of the town. Conveniently adjacent to one of the middle schools, the library is very student-centric, welcoming all grades every day and with extended hours during midterms, finals and regents. As Library Director Pam Thornton points out, “a large percentage of students use the library after school, especially on Friday afternoon. They mainly come to use the computers and for afterschool programs and to hang out. We are chartered as a school district public library serving the Chappaqua Central School District community. Our community has a strong focus on education and advanced degrees.”

With its bright and welcoming children’s room and 16 pre-school story hours each week (including a monthly special-needs group), the Chappaqua Library helps grow an early love of books and reading. From there, it’s an easy move to either the dedicated teen area or main room where reading and learning continue to be of paramount importance to so many. In fact, Adult-Ed programs are another source of pride for the Chappaqua library. Residents enjoy film series, book discussion groups, author programs, writing workshops, even one-on-one computer lessons. Currently, a Foreign Policy Discussion group attracts close to 100 attendees every Monday morning. The CCSD recently passed a bond which included $1.7 million for a library renovation/expansion project. Thornton expects to see “a greater emphasis on the library as a community space and not just a resource for the printed word.”

Outside the North Castle Public Library. Photo by Gary Sapolin

 

Unlike Chappaqua, the North Castle Public Library is not a school district library, but a municipal library. Programming is funded by Friends of the North Castle Public Library, grants and public service providers. Therefore, as Director Edie Martimucci explains, her database need not replicate the schools’ libraries and she is able to focus entirely on community interest. In fact, her first programming question is a simple “what does the general public want?” Martimucci repeats that question in multiple venues, direct and indirect conversations. She listens closely, watches what works, counts numbers of attendees and then tailors her programming and acquisitions accordingly. Martimucci proudly shares that “our programming has skyrocketed this last year with 36,000 people attending youth and adult programming and our theatres’ productions. We shot up through the ranks of the Westchester Library system!”

Martimucci likes to tell people that North Castle is really a three-library system; Armonk, North White Plains and “our virtual branch.” ESL is a steady popular program in North White Plains while Friday Night Films pack the house in Armonk, and users like students and travelers are logging in at all hours to download information they need right then and there. “It’s an exciting time to be a librarian,” says Martimucci, “the days of the “ssshhing” librarian are over! In the digital age, libraries need to look at themselves as culture, information and recreation hubs. My goal is to make the North Castle Library the go-to place for our community.”

Homegrown and still living in Ossining, Programming and Events Coordinator James Trapasso is ideally situated to keep his finger on the pulse of his multi-cultural and economically diverse community. He notes that, with a large and ever-growing Hispanic population, the library has built up its multicultural collections while simultaneously offering assistance in many ways, including ESL and English conversation classes, a Spanish Film and many events celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. Additionally, he points out, the Ossining Public Library is a proud partner with the Ossining School District and therefore partners with the schools on certain initiatives. “Right now, we conduct a Spanish class for teachers and other professionals in the school district to learn the language. The library sees many kids after school and also for our Math Tutoring program on Wednesday evenings. For the month of May, ever year, the library’s art gallery has hosted the School District Art Show for grades K-12. It is a show not to be missed.”

Trapasso explains that voters overwhelming approved a $15.8 million project to build the current library, which, having opened its doors in March 2007, will soon celebrate its tenth anniversary. Ossining has some pretty dramatic waterfront, and beautiful Hudson River views are as much a part of the library’s appeal as are the modern design, friendly staff and extensive collections. Trapasso notes that the library “has space for everyone. From our 200-seat theater to our café space and our meeting rooms; there’s even a reading room equipped with a double-sided fireplace–the perfect spot to read on those cold winter days.” The spectacular 44,000 square-foot “new” Ossining Public Library has won numerous awards and is LEED Certified from the U.S. Green Building Council.

The Mount Kisco Public Library also serves a very diverse community. However, according to Library Director Kathryn Feeley, one interest/activity that spans the many backgrounds and connects across the ages of this heterogeneous population is crafting. As she explains, the act of crafting is creative and inclusive, encouraging people to engage with each other in real time and real life.

For example, during the December holiday season, the library partnered with the Chamber of Commerce to draw the community together during a crafting and tree-lighting event. Feeley remarks that children, teens, adults and seniors all attended and took part in activities targeted to their age and interest. The partnership and program were an overwhelming success.

Another craft-focused activity is adult coloring. Adult coloring has recently garnered serious attention as a way to center one’s mind and emotions. Indeed, Feeley shares that the Mount Kisco Library needed to replace a regular mediation program for a few months and tried adult coloring as a stop-gap alternative. It has proven immensely popular, again drawing in various demographics including a large number of Latino seasonal workers whose employment options are more limited during the cold weather months.

Clearly, our community libraries are here to stay, and we must count ourselves quite lucky to have enthusiastic, engaged and dedicated professionals at the helms. Further, we should applaud ourselves and our neighbors for continuing to recognize the need for communal learning and information.

Please note that we’ve profiled but four of our area’s libraries, and highlight various programming at these along with an additional two in a related post. http://theinsidepress.com/highlights-from-area-library-programs/ As times and needs change, libraries, rather than becoming relics of the past, remain and grow as vital and vibrantly as ever. Do make sure you/your family have a library card and enjoy all that the Westchester Library System has to offer!

Beth Besen is a past editor and continuing contributor to the Inside Press. Although a Chappaqua resident for over 20 years, she has lived in many places, and always found the public library to be a true home away from home.

Chappaqua Library. Photo by Gary Sapolin