The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

Cover Stories

Getting to Know Fire Chief & Local AUTHOR, Thomas Dunne

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Fire Chief Thomas Dunne

With a scone in one hand and the morning’s paper in the other, Thomas Dunne sat in the corner of Starbucks observing the walks of life that came in and out of the doors. The commuters in a hurried state, businessmen with their briefcases and mothers with their young children were all unaware that 24 hours before Dunne had been fighting fires and saving lives. It’s that exact contrast that Dunne struggled with as a FDNY Deputy Chief and Chappaqua resident.

“The dichotomy of living in a place that is attractive with deer walking around and working in run down communities with a lot of issues and drug activity always struck me,” Dunne said. “Separated merely by a 45-minute drive, it seemed like one world was totally oblivious to the other world. And yet, I got a window into each one.”

Growing up in Brooklyn and working for a government employment agency, Dunne’s initial interest in joining the FDNY was sparked from the urge to do something different just for a year. Well, 33 years, four rank promotions and roughly 3,200 fires fought later, he became consumed by the fire-fighting feeling and all that came with it.

Whether it was the adrenaline rush, the camaraderie in the firehouse, or a chance to gain new insight on life, serving the greater New York City area for three decades was an honor he never planned on having. But, with one foot in suburbia and one boot in the fire house he couldn’t fully express exactly what it was like for him to be in both worlds–neither of which he felt totally comfortable being in.

After all, how is one supposed to explain what it was like to be a part of the response and recovery team during 9/11 and for months after? It’s not exactly a cocktail party conversation, which is what it became at a neighbor’s New Year’s Eve party he went to after showering off the dust that was still in Lower Manhattan’s air even months later.

Once he retired, Dunne decided to convey his feelings as a firefighter in words and in a work that was easy for readers to understand–and so, Notes From The Fireground: Memoir of a New York Firefighter was born. His second book A Moment in Time is a novel based on his own life and work-related struggles.

One chapter in his first book is dedicated to his very first fire, something he hasn’t forgotten 40 years later. He will also never forget the horror of the Happy Land Social Club fire and all the support his family has given him. On the morning of September 12th, 2001, his wife met him in the driveway after Dunne had been gone for 36 hours straight. She was wearing socks on the wet morning ground and cried in his arms. Between his absence at family holidays and the nervous anticipation that he left them with every time he walked out the door, his family made sacrifices that he will forever be grateful for.

But most of all, he is grateful for the opportunity this line of work provided him with to see how other people live and help them the best that he can. “Every day truly is a gift.”

Visit chieftomdunne.com to learn more about his experiences and to purchase his books.

Force of Nature Comes to Pleasantville & Her Name Is Joanna VanTrees

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Joanna VanTrees Photo by Victoria VanTrees

Joanna VanTrees is a force of nature who showers Pleasantville with energy, verve, warmth, and community spirit. She seems to be everywhere all at once.

President of the board of Pleasantville Community Television (PCTV), host of her own TV show, What’s Up Pleasantville? and regular participant in ARC Stages shows, often with her children, VanTrees has become an important part of the community.

Arriving from southern California with her two children, two cats and a service dog, VanTrees purchased a house in Pleasantville in 2018. Her mother grew up in Chappaqua and went to Greeley High School. VanTrees has a large, extended family living on the East Coast, and she had a friend who suggested that VanTrees settle in Pleasantville.

To meet people, she took her pug, Hamlet, to the town’s Starbucks, and sat down. VanTrees’ open, welcoming manner and easy smile, plus Hamlet’s natural charisma achieved her goal of making tons of new friends.

From there, VanTrees and her children, Julia, 24, and Will, 19, auditioned for ARC Stages shows. Mother and daughter landed parts in Avenue Q in the community stage wing of ARC in 2019. Will, reluctant at first to audition, won a part in Urinetown, and got bit by the acting bug. He has appeared in six ARC Stages shows and three Pleasantville High School productions.

2019, Ave Q at Arc Stages with Joanna’s daughter Julia VanTrees Cowitt Photo by Liza Margulies

VanTrees joined the PCTV board and started her own talk show in 2021, called What’s Up Pleasantville?

The show “kind of took off,” the peppy VanTrees said. She’s hosted about 40 shows. VanTrees’ shows have focused on a variety of topics, including what kids want for Christmas, the shows ARC Stages is putting on, honoring our armed forces’ veterans, residents’ comments about new developments in the village, the impact of the war in Ukraine, and promoting many local businesses. She has interviewed boy scouts, American Legion members, restaurant managers, fish store owners, pizza chefs, jazz singers and actors of all ages.

“I feel like I’ve got a little following now,” she said. “People shout out to me on the street, saying, ‘What’s Up Pleasantville?’ I’m gregarious and goofy.”

Building Connections

VanTrees’ goal as PCTV board president is to expand the connections between the station and the community. She’s helped set up a video production class for children, 9 to 11 years old, and is in the midst of creating “a hang out spot” for the kids at the station, where they can create their own videos. The station is putting on a studio clean-up day as a first step toward making a classroom for the kids.

“My fantasy is that we become an information highway for residents to create, educate, communicate and collaborate, so people can develop their own programming and build a tighter community,” VanTrees explained.

“We want people to do their own shows. We want to film local bands. My dream is to make a space for free speech. We welcome everyone. We’re collaborating with Pace University’s film department to do a young director’s series. Pace students can show their films and talk about how they made it, their process. My role at PCTV is highlighting all the things that are amazing and beautiful in the village.”

To help achieve her goal, VanTrees is organizing fund raising events to increase the amount of money the station has available, for general operating costs, video production and promotion. In October 2022, the station held a fund raiser at Lucy’s Bar in Pleasantville, to generate funds for both the station and Break the Hold, a local nonprofit that helps shed light on depression and suicide.

The next fundraiser will be at the station itself.

“We want to do a fundraiser for PCTV, on the grounds of the station, to let people see what we can do, how PCTV is connecting the community,” VanTrees said.

“How can we connect with each other on a human level? Especially after the pandemic, we got isolated. What is there out there in the world and in the village?”

VanTrees, who was a therapist for several years in L.A., started a women-only group called “Chick Chat” at her house, which meets once a month.

“We talk about family, friends, work, relationships,” she explained. “I’m a mother of all this. I love caring for people and connecting.”

VanTrees, who seems to hum and vibrate with energy, is one of the biggest boosters of life in Pleasantville.

“Two days after I moved in, my cat got lost. The neighbors went looking for the cat. They brought me brownies. I love having a porch that I can wave hello to people. On Halloween, a million kids come to the porch.

“People are authentic here, as opposed to L.A. Pleasantville is an amazing place. It’s a fun place to shop and go see live music. As a newcomer to Pleasantville, I didn’t know all of the resources we have here.”

The Magic of Mary Pope Osborne: The Beginning of Our Love of Reading

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“The tree house started to spin. It spun faster and faster. Then everything was still. Absolutely still.”

Mary Pope Osborne’s timeless words are the start of a thrilling adventure. For countless children – including the two of us – these words were the entryway to the wonders of literature and a lifelong love of reading. And this year, book lovers of all ages will have the opportunity to meet Osborne herself at the Tenth Annual Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival on September 30, 2023.

The Magic Tree House books were a staple of our childhoods. We eagerly awaited the release of the latest book in the series and the thrill of exploring the Osborne display at the Roaring Brook School Scholastic Book Fair every year. Osborne’s stories not only took us on incredible adventures – from a 19th century twister in the United States to ancient Greece and beyond – but showed us what was possible in the world of books.

Words As a Window to the World

The Magic Tree House series launched our journey towards becoming voracious readers. For our young minds, it was incredible to travel to far-off places and times with our friends Annie and Jack–and learn a few things along the way. As noted by The New York Times in 2008, Osborne’s writing is simple and direct – modeled after Ernest Hemingway – and allows readers to lose themselves in a captivating exploration of time and space. With the intrepid siblings leading the way, young readers like us could travel to the ends of the earth, meet historical figures, and expand our minds and imaginations with each turn of a page.

Osborne’s work is as undeniably magical as Jack and Annie’s tree house, and its power grows from the author’s own philosophy that “writing is a miracle.” Her enduring success has been driven by her deep love for the craft and fundamental understanding of the magic that words can hold, especially for children. As her remarkable storytelling ability makes reading accessible for new readers, Osborne’s stories continue to touch the imaginations of so many, generation after generation.

Over 30 years after the first installment in the series, Dinosaurs Before Dark, was published, her astoundingly prolific career–as author of over 100 children’s and young adult books–continues to be bolstered by her deep commitment to literacy, getting books in the hands of underserved students, and speaking and meeting with her readers.

An Eagerly Awaited CCBF Debut

This year will mark the first time that Osborne joins thousands of readers and fans at the beloved Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival – ccbfestival.org – celebrating its tenth anniversary.

“I am so thrilled to be participating in the Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival this year,” Osborne shared. “Books play such an important part in a child’s development, and the festival’s mission to connect kids with authors will do wonders for helping them develop a lifelong love for reading.”

We know that we are not the only ones who are excited for Osborne to be a part of this year’s CCBF, which did not exist when we were discovering the world of books. We have no doubt that we would have spent the entire day hitting every table, meeting our favorite authors – our heroes – and begging our parents to buy every book available for our shelves that had long since run out of room. CCBF is a Town gem, made all the more special by the participation of authors like Osborne whose work has been transformative for so many young readers. We are thrilled to witness Chappaqua’s commitment to fostering imagination in the next generation.

Though we 20-something sisters have grown up, graduated from college, and moved away to start our adult lives, we will remember and cherish Osborne’s world for the rest of our lives. It was a privilege to grow up alongside Annie and Jack, exploring the many faces of the world and its history through the worn, re-read pages of the Magic Tree House books. Though we may never journey through the Egyptian pyramids, walk on the moon, or fight alongside Washington in the Revolutionary War, the Magic Tree House will always be home to us.

At Pleasantville Community Synagogue with Rabbi Shoshana Leis & Rabbi Ben Newman

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Pleasantville Community Synagogue’s Rabbi Shosh and Rabbi Ben

A Focus on Spirituality, Social Activism, Community–and Music!

When I moved from NYC to Westchester over a decade ago, I began searching for a new spiritual home. After attending services at five different synagogues, the place I connected with the most was Pleasantville Community Synagogue, more commonly known as PCS.

There I was warmly greeted by the congregants. Smiles and handshakes abounded, and I was even asked to read a poem as part of the service. The rabbi applied the lessons found in ancient texts to our current times with deep psychological insight. People seemed genuinely engaged in the proceedings.

As I got to know more about PCS, I discovered that its members lived all over the county and included traditional and non-traditional Jews, interfaith couples, those from the LGBTQ community, and multi-racial individuals and families. They came from many traditions: Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, Reconstructionist and Jewish Renewal.

Wow, I thought. This sure is different. It seemed that the shul’s tagline, “Joyful Judaism,” was more than just a slogan. And so I decided to join, along with my husband and twin sons, both of whom attended PCS’s Hebrew school, accurately billed as one “your kids can love.” My boys recently became Bar Mitzvahs there.

These days I am not only a member of PCS but serve on the board with others who are devoted to the health, welfare and mission of the synagogue and its congregants. Recently, our biggest decision was the hiring of Rabbi Shoshana Leis and Rabbi Ben Newman as co-rabbis.

Rabbi Shosh and Rabbi Ben, a married couple, have brought new energy to the synagogue, with a heavy emphasis on music (Rabbi Ben is rarely seen without a guitar slung over his shoulder). They actively focus on “tikkun olam,” one of the main tenets of Judaism, which means “repairing the world.” Our once-a-month musical Friday night Shabbat service has become a not-to-be-missed event–it includes a musical Shabbat program for young children, dinner for all, and prayer service where the rabbis and their musician friends, usually a trumpet player, bassist, percussionist and clarinetist, turn the sanctuary into musical celebration.

“We welcome everyone to our Jewish spiritual community,” said Rabbi Shosh. “There’s a lot we’ve all been faced with, both personally and politically, and we are trying to create a restorative space.”

At a Pleasantville Community Synagogue Hanukkah event

Recent events have included an interfaith gathering on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in conjunction with a local church and mosque, a talk by an Afghani refugee, and an ongoing Adult Education series called Modern Dilemmas, Ancient Wisdom run by Rabbi Ben, who also conducts a weekly Zoom meditation session on Thursday mornings.

Rabbi Shosh grew up in Framingham, Massachusetts, with a strong commitment to community engagement and activism. She found her Jewish spiritual path in 1996 several years after graduating from Dartmouth College with a degree in Russian Studies, attending the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. Rabbi Shosh co-creates a weekly podcast called Four Worlds Torah with Rabbi Charna Rosenholtz

Rabbi Ben grew up in Scarsdale and studied Religion and Culture at Skidmore College, followed by the Academy for Jewish Religion. He is passionate about creating Jewish spiritual tools for human thriving. He administers a Facebook group of 4,000 people called “The Zohar,” where he posts interviews with Kabbalah scholars through his weekly podcast, The Neshamah Project (neshamah means “soul” in Hebrew).

“Ben and I met at Elat Chayyim, a Jewish retreat center, in 2002 and we were married in 2006,” said Rabbi Shosh. “Music brought us together, kept us together through Covid, and is the center of our Jewish spiritual practice as a married rabbi team.” They have two children, ages 12 and 15–their older son and a niece are music assistants the Hebrew school.

They served as rabbis in Ft. Collins, Colorado for seven years before moving back to New York in 2016. Upon their return, Rabbi Shosh was recruited to work at Romemu in Manhattan as their first Director of Youth and Family Education, and Rabbi Ben started Shtiebel, an innovative community that draws together people from the Rivertowns.

“PCS has been a great fit for us,” said Rabbi Ben. “We feel at home. The warmth, peacefulness, and spiritual depth lines up squarely with our approach to Judaism.”

PCS is often compared to a large tent with room for all. With our new spiritual leaders at the helm, that tent will continue to welcome everyone who seeks meaningful and sacred connections to community, Jewish values and social justice.

914 Cares Panelists Delved into the Reality of ‘Clothing Insecurity’ & More… Toward Ending Poverty

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Jessica Reinmann, head of 914 Cares, leading a morning panel of the organization’s annual Westchester Poverty Symposium

There’s an assumption of affluence when you tell people you grew up in Westchester, posited David Heath, Co-Founder and CEO of Bombas, and keynote speaker for the 914 Cares 4th Annual Westchester Poverty Symposium which brought together non-profit leaders in March to discuss strategies and solutions toward ending poverty. “But when you peel back the onion, we see different layers–and not all affluent.”   

And, for many, far from.

In introducing Heath at the White Plains event, Jessica Reinmann, 914 Cares CEO and chairman, Reinmann opined that she considers Heath ‘the Derek Jeter’ in the business of giving, noting that Bombas was “just a few months away from donating its 100th million items of clothing” since its inception, its greatest focus… socks, the most requested item in homeless shelters, said Heath, who described his lightbulb moment as an executive: “that Bombas could donate a pair of socks for every pair of socks sold.” Today, the company works with over 3500 ‘giving partners’ such as 914 Cares across 50 states to achieve its astounding success.

And like the people behind 914 Cares and other service organizations represented at the White Plains March event addressing this lesser known aspect of poverty –  ‘clothing insecurity’ and its negative impact on the self esteem of children — Heath said the quality of the product is critical too, and that Bombas takes special measures toward that end.  “We want the person to experience the same level of quality and joy that we were delivering to our paying customers.” Reinmann later reenforced a similar concept, one central to the 914 Cares mission, focusing “on the dignity of the recipient.”

914 Cares described the Symposium as “an annual opportunity for thought leaders… to share innovative ideas about community-driven partnerships.”  “The event is all about connection, and learning how we can work together to share ideas and resources to improve the lives of our neighbors in need,” said Reinmann.

Along with Heath and Reinmann, the other panelists were Lynn Margherio, Founder/CEO, Cradles to Crayons; Nichole Culotta, Program Manager, 914 Cares; Ana Maria Fritsch, Bedford Central School District; and Matthew Fasciano, President & CEO, Delivering Goods. Later in the program, a final panel focused on Food Insecurity. Faith Butcher, Chief Impact Officer of United Way of Westchester shared highlights of that organization’s annual ALICE report. The panel also featured Daniel Bonnet, Chief Program Officer, Carver Center; Rick Rakow, founder of Rakow Commercial Realty & Board Member, Feeding Westchester; Erica Youngren, Full Plates Coalition Chair, County Harvest; and Chris Dapolito, Store Manager of DeCicco and Sons.

As Margherio noted in the first half of the panel: “It’s comforting to know there are so many kindred spirits in the fight to end clothing insecurity in children.”

For more information visit 914Cares.org