New Castle News Archives - Inside Chappaqua and Inside Armonk: The Magazines for New and North Castle

Whole Foods Opens to Chappaqua’s Delight

December 15, 2018 by Inside Press

All Chappaqua wanted for Christmas is finally here. Hundreds packed a sparkling Whole Foods Market this morning following an 8:40 a.m. grand opening ceremony. When the doors officially opened at 9, a group of employees cheered as the ‘first customers’ filed in.

Photos by Grace Bennett/Inside Press

Building Connections with the New ‘Chappaqua Reads-Chappaqua Includes’

November 29, 2018 by Inside Press

In the 1970s a little girl contracted meningitis. After a long recovery she began to feel better, but something was clearly wrong. While much of her health returned, she was profoundly deaf. Advances in science brought this girl a hearing device called the Phonic Ear which helped her hear! But the Phonic Ear was far from the small, discreet cochlear implant many people today are familiar with. It was a heavy, bulky box strapped to her body, with wires that ended in earpieces inserted into the ear. And it was far from seamless in its operation. Consistency, volume and the ability to separate out background noise were still being refined. Thus armed, this little girl was sent into the wilds of public education.

This is El Deafo, a graphic memoir written by Cece Bell and it’s the springboard from which Chappaqua Reads -Chappaqua Includes was launched.

Chappaqua Reads – Chappaqua Includes is a joint partnership between the Chappaqua PTA and the Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival. Its goal is a year-long conversation about empathy and inclusion which celebrates a love of reading and a desire to build connections through a community read. To date, Chappaqua Reads – Chappaqua Includes has given 2,000 copies of El Deafo to teachers, administrators, community members and families within the Chappaqua Central School District.

While it’s fun and exciting to get a free book, the question remains — what’s the point?

It is hard to read the news today and not feel sad. Division is everywhere. Community values feel like something out of Our Town, quaint and distant, like hand-churned butter. Solipsism and selfishness are on the rise. In the face of all this, the creators of Chappaqua Reads – Chappaqua Includes asked, what if you could turn the conversation. Use the platform of the Chappaqua PTA (with well over 80 percent of Chappaqua Central School District families in membership) and the Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival (in its seventh year welcoming over 7,000 visitors and growing), to talk about community, empathy, inclusion and to foster a love reading at every age.

Empathy. Inclusion. Community.

Three simple words. Easy to look up in the dictionary. Easy to believe that they are part of a shared and agreed upon lexicon. Chappaqua Reads – Chappaqua Includes seeks to challenge that easy assumption. Like most things worthwhile, putting the concepts of empathy and inclusion in action and building community around them is hard work, full of second guesses and disagreements. It is only together, talking about these values, how they work in our home, our schools and in our community and, yes,about how they sometimes fail, that we can find a way forward to a greater community, that values empathy and is always expanding inclusion.

Photo of Maggie Mae by Ronni Diamondstein

Stepping beyond the pages of El Deafo, Chappaqua Reads-Chappaqua Includes has teamed up with the Chappaqua Library, the Chappaqua Central School District, Scattered Books Bookstore and the Town of New Castle Recreation Department to create programming throughout the community to enhance and deepen that conversation. After a kick-off at the Chappaqua Rotary Club’s Community Day, programs have included: the Chappaqua Library and Town Rec Department’s StoryWalk® in Gedney Park; the Chappaqua PTA’s guest lecturer Michele Borba author of UnSelfie, who discussed the importance of raising empathetic children in a self-obsessed world, the PTA’s follow-up book discussion group, and a community- wide “Find Cece” scavenger hunt for middle and elementary school students hosted by Scattered Books Bookstore.

In December, the Chappaqua PTA will welcome Addy and Uno, a family musical about disability, The TSA Youth Ambassador program, where kids talk to kids about tics and tourette’s syndrome, a screening of Intelligent Lives hosted by Horace Greeley High School’s Ambassador’s Club, and classes to introduce kids to American Sign Language. The Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival will host a skype conversation with author Cece Bell. Across classrooms throughout the Chappaqua School District teachers at every level will discuss themes in El Deafo and highlight values of inclusion and empathy. In late winter or early spring the Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival will host a create your own graphic novel program. The Chappaqua Library will lead third and fourth grade students in book club discussion featuring El Deafo and lead younger kids in a “What’s your Superpower” arts and crafts activity where kids are asked to dig deep and find the superhero within themselves. Finally, in the spring, any books families would like to donate back to Chappaqua Reads – Chappaqua Includes will be shared with neighboring schools to inspire their own reading programs.

In the end, after all the celebrating, reading and fun, we hope that everyone comes away knowing that empathy is a superpower that can combat loneliness. It’s the strength to see beyond the surface and make a connection. While it is so easy to ruin someone’s day with a snide remark or a mean word, with empathy and sincerity, we each have the power to truly see other people, recognize their humanity and extend empathy, kindness and inclusion.

The StoryWalk® Project was created by Anne Ferguson of Montpelier, VT and developed in collaboration with the Kellogg-Hubbard Library. Storywalk® is a registered service mark owned by Ms. Ferguson.

Cece figures are hidden throughout town as part of a scavenger hunt. Photo courtesy of Whispering Pines.

News about Chappaqua Reads-Chappaqua Includes was provided as a courtesy to The Inside Press by the program’s founders and collaborators: The Chappaqua PTA and The Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival.

Elisha Wiesel to Deliver Keynote Address at the 2018 Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center Benefit

August 22, 2018 by Inside Press

The Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center proudly honors Joseph E. Nyre, Ph.D., President of Iona College and Mitchell Wm. Ostrove, Founder and CEO of The Ostrove Group at their annual dinner. Elisha Wiesel, son of Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel, will be the keynote speaker.

Joseph E. Nyre, Ph.D. serves as the eighth president of Iona College, a vital economic, educational, religious, and cultural institution in New Rochelle. Pres. Nyre is a U.S. Naval Veteran and a first-generation college graduate who obtained three advanced degrees and completed pre and postdoctoral studies at the University of Missouri, University of Kansas, and Harvard Medical School. He has been nationally recognized for this program of research, for attaining a stunning $44 million in academic and service grants, and for authoring vital state and national legislation. Under his leadership over the past seven years, Iona College has realized remarkable successes, including record levels of scholarships, launching new academic programs, centers and institutes, tripling the College endowment to $150 million, and launching Iona Forever, the largest campaign in Iona’s history.

Mitchell Wm. Ostrove is a 50 year member of the Million Dollar Round Table and has served as its Foundation President from 2002-2003. Long active in this community, Mitch served as Chairman of the Men’s Division of Albert Einstein College of Medicine, a Trustee of Temple Israel of New Rochelle, Commissioner of the New Rochelle Youth Bureau, director of the New Rochelle Police Foundation, and past Co-chair of the Westchester Business & Professional Division of UJA-Federation. He also serves on the boards of Hillel’s of Westchester, the Westchester Jewish Council, and the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center. He has received Humanitarian Awards from Einstein College of Medicine, the Ameritas prestigious Lester Rosen Award, the Spencer McCarty Award, and the UJA-Federation Insurance Man of the Year Award, among others.

Elisha Wiesel is the Chief Information Officer at Goldman Sachs. Mr. Wiesel has been active in local non-profits serving at-risk youth in New York City since 2002 when he joined the board of Groundwork, and continued on to Good Shepherd Services in 2010. He stepped down from the board in 2016 after having rebooted the Midnight Madness all-night urban puzzle-solving experience into a multi-million dollar fundraising platform for local communities and a signature creative experience for the broader financial community. Since Elie Wiesel’s passing in 2016, Elisha speaks at events and for causes where he feels he can be helpful in remembering his father’s messages and values.

This annual dinner will take place on Thursday, October 25 at 6:30 p.m, at the Mamaroneck Beach & Yacht Club, 555 South Barry Avenue, Mamaroneck, NY 10543.

For more information, please contact Millie Jasper (914)696-0738 or benefit@hhrecny.org

Tickets:

https://hhrecny.z2systems.com/np/clients/hhrecny/event.jsp?event=95

In Remembrance of Deborah Shimer

July 30, 2018 by Inside Press

In Loving Memoriam

By David Shimer

Remembered as insightful, selfless and supportive, Deborah Shimer—a professional life coach and a decades-long Chappaqua resident—died of cancer on June 29, 2018. She was 54 years old.

Deborah was born in London to Geoffrey and Barbara Nelson on October 2, 1963. In 1979, she moved to New Jersey with her mother and sisters, Margaret and Hilary, eventually becoming a United States citizen.

After graduating from West Windsor High School in 1981, Deborah attended the Katherine Gibbs School in New York and went on to work for Tishman Brothers, a Manhattan-based real estate company, first as executive secretary and then as an assistant project manager.

Deborah moved to Chappaqua in 1989 with her first husband, Robert Fischman. Together, they raised three children: Josh, Zachary and Leandra.

“She always encouraged me and my siblings to do what felt right for us, without judgment, and we were so lucky for that,” Zachary said. “Above all, she taught us to keep an open mind and to do what made us happy.”

Deborah and Robert later divorced, and, in 2013, she married Sam Shimer, also a Chappaqua resident. The couple moved to St. Petersburg, Florida last year.

“She was the kindest, most caring and most loving person I have ever known,” Sam said. “She never compromised—not in our relationship, or in any of her relationships. She always worked to make her life, and our life, better, and she truly wanted everyone she cared about to be happy and fulfilled.”

Friends say Deborah always prioritized the feelings, interests and desires of others above her own.

A few years ago, when Deborah found out that one of her friends, Rosie Battista, planned to spend her birthday alone, Deborah “dropped everything,” Rosie recalled, and drove two hours to meet her for dinner in New Jersey.

“She was the epitome of what a friend should be,” Rosie said. “She always wanted to be happy and to make sure people around her were doing the things that would make them happy. Even as her illness progressed, she kept asking how I was doing. It was just who she was.”

Throughout her life, Deborah found ways to direct her personal passions toward entrepreneurial endeavors.

First, Deborah turned her attention to nutrition. She attended the Institute of Integrative Nutrition in New York City in 1999 and then started her own business, Food & Balance, to help people adopt healthier eating habits.

But as time progressed, Deborah came to see her mission in broader terms, and to view food as just one component of guiding clients toward more fulfilling lives.

In 2013, Deborah rebranded her business “Desire on Fire” and formally broadened her focus to life coaching. “Her aim was to help her clients lead their best lives, from relationships to parenting to work,” Sam explained. “It was all encompassing for her.”

Through Desire on Fire, Deborah led small support groups—referred to as “Desire on Fire Circles”—consisting of a half dozen women each. Under Deborah’s leadership, participants pushed each other to pursue their passions.

“She spoke her truth during these circles. She was able to tell people what they wouldn’t or couldn’t see for themselves, always in a loving way, but not stopping until she was heard,” said Joy Perlow, one of Deborah’s’ closest friends and a Circle participant. “That was a key part of the Circles: being heard.”

In recent weeks, Joy said that Desire on Fire clients have discussed ways to honor Deborah’s memory, first and foremost by leading their lives as she led hers. “Deborah lived and breathed her business: It’s what she tried to do in her life, find happiness and help other people do the same,” Rosie added.

Deborah Shimer at the Green Olive Children’s Home, Mombasa, Kenya – November 2017

Deborah’s giving nature extended beyond her business: over the past decade, she supported a school for orphans in Kenya called the Green Olive Children’s Home, raising tens of thousands of dollars for the organization and bringing supplies when she visited it each year.

On July 22, family and friends gathered in Naples, Florida to celebrate Deborah. Speakers included her sister, stepbrother, and husband Sam.

“Honey, you were amazingly impactful, powerful beyond words, and most certainly successful in ways that cannot be measured,” Sam said in the closing remarks of the service. “You will be missed, remembered and quoted by so many people, which is the truest measure of what you accomplished both in your work, and in how you lived your life.”

Deborah is survived by her father, Geoffrey Nelson of Mombasa, Kenya; her mother, Barbara Cohen of Naples, Florida; her sister, Margaret Islin of Essex, England; her children, Joshua of New York City, Zachary of Asheville, North Carolina and Leandra of South Salem, New York; and her husband, Sam Shimer of St. Petersburg, Florida.

David Shimer is one of Deborah’s three stepchildren.

Deborah’s Top Ten Wisdoms

Deborah’s husband Sam gave a loving tribute at her memorial service on July 22^nd in Naples, FL. A highlight for those who knew Deborah is excerpted below:

Based on my years of conversations with Deborah, what I heard her say to others countless times, as well as my perspective about what she might want me to say, I am going to share the Top Ten things that Deborah would want conveyed to you on her behalf as we are here to remember her today. Of course, it will be without her beautiful accent, which you can imagine as I go through the list. I am sure that you heard many of these from her over the years.

Love each other. All of you. Just love each other and the people who matter to you. And not quietly or stoically. Tell each other how you feel and show it with a fierce hug.
Speak your truth. Holding things in doesn’t help. If you can say it in a gentle and loving way, try to do so. But speak up. No matter what.
Spend time outside, breathe deeply, watch the birds, watch the butterflies. Appreciate nature…without your smart phone!
Don’t settle; settling takes the air out of your life. It might be the easy choice–but don’t do it.
Laugh about good things; laugh bad things off; just laugh. And let go of anger; be forgiving.
Believe in yourself. You are more powerful than you understand; and if you don’t believe it, no one else will either.
Food is your fuel–would you put lousy gas in your car? Eat well and take care of yourself. And, of course, don’t drink diet soda!
Be generous–if you have money be generous with it. And we all can be generous with our time. Help people, listen, and care.
Don’t wait for tomorrow to do something that you want to do today or some time soon. Trust me. Take that trip; launch that business; tell someone how you feel. You can run out of time.
Think about me from time to time. I am still here, in your hearts and minds. If I can help you with a memory or insight, reach out for me. Listen quietly, and I will answer you.

A Transformational Journey

July 17, 2018 by Inside Press

Jodi Baretz, author of the new ‘Mindful is the New Skinny,’ shared her personal growth experiences at the Chappaqua Library

By Amanda Kraus

Earlier this summer, I sat among an excited, eager crowd in the Chappaqua Library’s auditorium to listen to Jodi Baretz, psychotherapist, health coach, and author, speak about her new book, Mindful is the New Skinny: 10 Transformational Steps to a Lighter You Inside and Out. Baretz discussed the book itself as well as her personal experiences that compelled her to write it, in which she transformed “Junkfood Jodi” to “Baretz for carrots.”

Baretz began her talk with silence; she had the audience try a short meditation so that we could understand how she started her own transformational journey with mindfulness, except the first time she meditated at the Omega Institute five years ago, it was for forty-five minutes.

For Baretz, this was a torturous experience, and she wasn’t afraid to vocalize this–in fact, about half of the group felt the same way. However, over the following five days, the meditations became easier the more she practiced. Baretz explained that meditation isn’t effortless and that it requires focus. Meditation is a brain exercise by which one must acknowledge the thoughts that clutter one’s mind, and let them drift away, focusing purely on the breath.

Much like meditation, mindfulness is being able to feel and process one’s emotions in order to let them go, rather than immediately pushing them away. Baretz explained that we need to be able to deal with being uncomfortable rather than avoiding it altogether.

As a child, Baretz was a terrible eater, leading her to acquire the nickname “Junkfood Jodi.” Her diagnosis of celiac disease in 2003 triggered her transformational journey with food and nutrition, as well as mindfulness and well-being. In 2003, Baretz explained, people didn’t really know what celiac disease was, and gluten-free diets weren’t very common.

As a social worker, Baretz tried to help others with their own gluten-free eating, but soon realized that she knew nothing about nutrition. In 2010 she attended the Institute for Integrative Nutrition where she learned about the mind-body connection, and was exposed to spirituality. For Baretz, being spiritual is a holistic approach to healthy living and being while keeping up with our fast-paced lifestyles and society.

In order to portray this philosophy to others, she decided to write her book, Mindful is the New Skinny: 10 Transformational Steps to a Lighter You Inside and Out. Although Baretz discusses healthy eating and nutrition in her book, she uses the word skinny as a metaphor for perfection — external, unsustainable, and never good enough. Instead of striving for skinny, Baretz encourages being mindful, which entails accepting imperfections and the present moment. Even though the manuscript only took three months for her to write, Baretz hit a mental roadblock, dwelling in the very anxiety, stress, and frustration that she was writing about. She took a short break, acknowledged this, and started writing again with a new mindset.

Much like her book-writing process, Baretz helps women on their nutritional journeys by redirecting their focus from losing weight by dieting to mindful eating and living, which is sustainable and effective. In today’s society, social medias omnipresent and overwhelming influence fosters perfection, stress, and anxiety, mindfulness is more important than ever. “Mindfulness,” said Baretz “is the antidote.” And she’s right. Meditation is being extensively studied medically, and has been proven to affect the brain. Meditation and mindfulness make us more productive, as they allow our minds to reboot and recover from our daily stresses and tribulations. In a sentence, Baretz’s book is all about “Nourishing the inside so you can change the outside.”

Jodi is also a psychotherapist at The Center for Health and Healing in Mt. Kisco. Her book is available on Amazon and at Scattered Books in Chapapqua. Visit http://www.jodibaretz.com for more information about her various programs and events, including her mindfulness bootcamp, her meditation sessions, and speaking engagements.

Inside Press summer intern Amanda Kraus is a rising senior at Tulane University.