The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

New Castle News

Honored for Dedicated Volunteerism

by

At the United Way’s Volunteer Center’s 32nd Annual Volunteer Spirit Awards, capping off National Volunteer Week, nearly 400 people at the Hilton Rye Town honored eight outstanding award recipients to support the work of the organization as the central resource to support nonprofits and engage more New Yorkers in acts of volunteerism throughout our community.

(L-R) The Volunteer Center Executive Director Alisa Kesten, Volunteer Spirit Award for Quality of Life recipient Louis Thomason of Chappaqua, for work at Richmond Community Services; Volunteer Spirit Awards Event Chairperson Jean Glassman of Briarcliff Manor; and award presenter Naomi Adler, CEO of United Way of Westchester and Putnam.
(L-R) VSA presenter Carolin Arno of New York Life with Horace Greeley students Rebecca Passman, Divya Talwar, Zak Krooks, Cara Goldfarb, and Samantha Auerbach – representing the Neighbors Link High School Volunteers ESL Tutors Group, winners of the New York Life Youth in Action Volunteer Spirit Award – and The Volunteer Center’s Chairman of the Board Doug Rogers, of New York Life

Louis Thomason of Chappaqua received the Volunteer Spirit Award for Quality of Life, presented by United Way of Westchester and Putnam CEO Naomi Adler. Thomason uses the professional skills as a retired IBM engineer to help the staff and developmentally disabled clients of Richmond Community Services. In accepting the award Thomason said, “This vision of how technology could enrich lives and enhance the efficiency of the agency has been the driving motivation of the work I have been involved in.”

A group of teens from many local high schools who volunteer regularly for Neighbors Link in Mount Kisco received the New York Life Youth Group in Action Award. Students from Horace Greeley accepted on behalf of the entire Neighbors Link High School ESL Tutors Program. Every Tuesday night during the academic year students come together with adult Latino immigrants to study English and bridge the gap between two distinct cultures.

Bet Torah Nursery School Reading Buddies

by

“Reading Buddies” is the new read-aloud initiative at the Nursery School started this year through PROJECT SEED.  Joanna Segal, a long time member of Bet Torah whose three children attended Bet Torah Nursery School, is helping pilot the program along with Jo Kellman, early childhood specialist and Project SEED coordinator.   Joanna  reads in two classrooms, a threes class and a fours class for approximately one half hour in each room.

Research tells us that reading to young children is an extremely fruitful way to introduce them to the world of books.  During “center time”, Joanna is seated in the “library area” of the classroom.  Two or three empty, children’s chairs await the children who will choose that center.  Children select the books they hope Joanna will read.  As the book is completed, a chair is emptied and ready for the next Buddy.

Joanna Segal reads with Jack Bender and Gabe Goldman

As Joanne and Jo pass parents and children at entrance and dismissal times, there are warm “hellos” and smiling faces as folks greet Joanna in the hallways.  Joanna worships at Shabbat services and is familiar to parents and children who are also attendees.  Reading Buddies provides another opportunity to strengthen extended family bonds.

If you are interested in becoming a Project SEED Reading Buddy this year or in the fall, please see Director  Mindy Citera to make plans to become part of this new initiative at Bet Torah Nursery School.

Project SEED (Supporting Children’s Early Emotional Development) is a collaboration between Westchester Jewish Community Services and the Jewish Education Project with additional funding from private donor families.

Holocaust Center’s Survivor Legacy Education Project

by

A New Program of the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center

First-hand, personal testimony from Holocaust survivors and liberators–the victims of and witnesses to the Nazi brutality–is one of the most critical and impactful educational tools available to educate students, teachers and the community-at-large about the dangers of bigotry and hatred.

Now, 67 years after the end of World War II, these eyewitnesses are aging and declining in health and numbers. The opportunity to personally hear and witness their stories ultimately will come to an end. Today’s students and teachers will be the last generation privileged to meet and interact with a survivor in their classrooms.

To preserve their testimony for future classroom use, the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center is partnering with schools in Westchester to create the Survivor Legacy Education Project, a video archive with teachers’ guides centered on the school presentations of local Holocaust survivors and liberators. Each participating school has agreed to host a taping of the survivor with students and teachers and to “adopt” the survivor’s story as the basis of its Holocaust and human rights curriculum.

HHREC would welcome tax deductible donations in support of the Survivor Legacy Education Project (www.hhrecny.org), or by mail HHREC, 4 West Red Oak Lane, Suite 330, White Plains, NY 10604, 914 696-0738.

 

Protecting Our Autistic Children

by

All parents shudder at the thought of a missing child.  For those whose offspring are autistic, the fear is particularly prevalent.  In recognition of the need to protect this segment of the community, the New Castle Police Department has become an active participant in a novel venture entitled:  Kind Find.

Officer James Dumser, program manager for Kind Find in the town of New Castle learned about the program recently when he attended a seminar called “first responders and individuals with autism; averting crises and preventing disastrous consequences” on March 27.  The mission of Kind Find is to have all parents with children on the autistic spectrum register their children with the police department.  This will insure that when the department receives a call regarding a certain child or residence, information will instantly appear on their screen, advising them of where the person falls on the spectrum of autism.  This knowledge will in turn inform the manner in which the department approaches the individual.  “Kind Find will help us out immensely,” Dumser observed.

The program is mutually beneficial for families and the police department.  According to Dumser, the interpretation of responses from an autistic individual are not always self-evident.  Sometimes, “We think the person is trying to harm us when they are not,” he related.  Officers are trained to understand that one-word answers are not always the result of a negative attitude.  Instead, they may be the dominant way in which a person communicates.

Information on triggers; actions that set off an autistic individual such as approaching too closely or touching, are especially helpful.  Additionally, any insight into what the child responds best to such as trains or video games, will facilitate the department’s efforts to assist.

Registration forms are available at the police department and at ncpd.info/forms.  Extensive information on the program is at kind-find.com.  Officer Dumser may be reached at 238-4422 or jdumser@town.new-castle.ny.us.

Eight Girl Scouts Receive Gold Awards

by

Gold Award Winners

Story Walk and Reels and Reads.  Perhaps you know a lucky kid who participated in one of these popular activities at the Chappaqua Library this year; but do you also know that the masterminds behind these projects are Girl Scouts?   A record number of eight girls received their gold awards today at town hall.

“I helped coordinate a story walk with different books for every season,” recipient Lindsey Brosnan related.  The walk was developed to captivate children meandering along the nature trail at Roaring Brook Elementary School.

Aparna Nathan created Reels and Reads to encourage middle schoolers to expand their minds through reading.  She held events at the library to discuss books and cinematic adaptations.

Megan Marie Maher delivered 65 knitted blankets to Blythedale Children’s Hospital and Hope’s Door.  Knitting instructions were accessed via her website by many volunteers.  Katie Duncalf provided assistance for inmates and children at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility and founded “Hope”, a new club at Greeley, whose members  joined in her endeavor.  In Seniors Make a Wish, Megan Elizabeth Enright coordinated visits to the elderly.  Rebecca Fischer was thrilled to see how “the kids expanded their vocabulary,” via her signs at Wagon Road Camp.   Julia Friedland showed the community how to to use recyclables in artistic creations.  Putnam Hospital Center benefited from Neha Gupta’s Making a Kid-Friendlier Hospital.

A bevy of local dignitaries attended the ceremony.  Assemblyman Robert Castelli told the recipients:  “You have reached the pinnacle of girl scouting.”  He presented citations on behalf of the New York State Assembly.  Westchester County Legislator Michael Kaplowitz proclaimed April 29 as Lindsey Brosnan day.  The next 7 days were assigned to the other honored girl scouts. Town Supervisor Susan Carpenter praised the girls and  related her history with scouting.  “I was a girl scout.  My mother led my troop,” she said.