The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

Hillary's Run

Election 2016: If Our Neighbor Becomes President: Shouldn’t Local Businesses Contribute Too?

by

chappaqua-summer-writing-program-for-girls-photo-three

By Letitia

With Hillary Clinton in the upcoming presidential election, Chappaqua has gained a lot of attention. Local residents are excited to have a political icon in their town, and many have been eager to share their support for Hillary.

On the other hand, local businesses were less than willing to speak about this subject. I called a few stores to find out their opinion of Hillary Clinton as well as the influence she has on the daily activities of the village. After I stated my agenda, many employees refused to say anything else besides telling me I needed to speak to the owner or manager of the store. As luck would have had it, the person in charge was unavailable for the next few days at each of these stores.  

As a 15-year-old new to journalism, receiving this type of reaction was disheartening. But the common reaction from each business sparked a question: Why were workers so hesitant to share their opinion on Hillary Clinton? When they picked up the phone, they were cheerful and welcoming. As soon as I stated my business, their demeanor completely changed and they became extremely guarded.

This type of response, of course, isn’t unusual. It’s basic etiquette: When making small talk, you shouldn’t discuss income, religion, and politics. Evidently, it becomes even more complicated within a company, as the opinions of employees may not accurately represent the business. It would be more fitting for the employer, manager, or owner to define the views of the company.

But the fact that Hillary Clinton is a resident of Chappaqua should change some of these policies. The majority of Chappaqua residents support Hillary, so why can’t local businesses? Having local businesses openly support Hillary would show pride for their village as well as honor the presence of a well-known political figure. Besides running in the upcoming election, Hillary has been the First Lady, a senator, and the Secretary of State. Since her husband’s presidency ended, she has been living in Chappaqua and has been accomplishing great things. Hillary has become a source of pride for Chappaqua, so local businesses should be displaying their pride for her.

There are also selfish motives for why local Chappaqua businesses should support Hillary. Considering how many residents are Democrats, supporting Hillary would attract her followers. If a business’s support for Hillary is strong, they may be able to secure a dedicated following of regular customers for themselves. Furthermore, Hillary’s fame can be extrapolated and used to advertise to the rest of America as well. Theoretically, local restaurants could claim that Hillary ate there and complimented them. With today’s age of social media, the publicity would spread quickly and attract curious tourists or fervent Hillary supporters. And then there’s the possibility that she wins the presidency. Supporting Hillary would also mean allying with a potential record-breaker; if she’s elected, she’ll be the first woman president of America.

It’s a rare opportunity to have a resident of Chappaqua run for president, and local businesses have no reason to hide their pride for Hillary. Chappaqua’s businesses and residents can be united in their support for their neighbor.

Letitia is not an American citizen so she can’t contribute to the presidential election in any way other than by writing articles. She has never done anything journalistic or political before, but she thinks that fifteen isn’t too late to start.

Will She Have Chappaqua’s Support?

by

chappaqua-summer-writing-program-for-girls-photo-three

By Lucy Kaminsky

Chappaqua residents see her shopping on King Street, taking a walk with her husband by the First Congregational Church, and eating at Le Jardin Du Roi. She’s marched in the Memorial Day parade for years, and she’s a neighbor to dozens of Chappaqua families. On top of all that, she is the Democratic Nominee for president of the United States. Hillary Clinton has been a resident of Chappaqua for almost two decades, and, this month, Chappaqua can choose to support her in her biggest political endeavor yet.

She has an unwavering group of supporters, lovingly named “Chappaqua Friends of Hillary,” and an even larger group of supporters with Hillary for America shirts, bumper stickers, lawn signs and of course, votes in the New York primary.

Despite her pronounced following, she also faces a small but vocal opposition.That her popularity is questionable is especially when driving by a, for lack of a better word, monstrous, Trump sign on the way into downtown Chappaqua.

Kathy Thorsberg, a local mother, discussed that she sees a group of Republican women who, no matter the candidate, won’t go blue on election day, and she “thought more women would be on the [Hillary] bandwagon.”

When asked about the Trump sign, Thorsberg stated that she “wishes it were gone” and she “can’t believe” the local support for Trump.Thorsberg is a longtime Clinton supporter who once had the former secretary of state hold her then-infant, now nearly seventeen-year-old daughter, Katie, at her church.

What Thorsberg feels most Chappaqua residents who are voting for Trump criticize Clinton for her is her infamous email scandal, though she thinks it was “not that issue” that swayed them to vote Republican. Thorsberg estimates that around 60 percent of Chappaqua will vote for Clinton, and further says she doesn’t feel that is unique to Chappaqua, but that surrounding towns like Armonk and Briarcliff will have a similar turnout.

Rob Shepardson, local father and businessman, who was also named by Barack Obama to the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition, spoke about how he feels Clinton is perceived in Chappaqua. Shepardson explained that he thinks “that people really, really like Hillary, and really, really like Bill.” He also thinks that people in Chappaqua see Hillary as their neighbor, and even with the Trump Golf Course a few miles away, feel little allegiance to Trump.

An enthusiastic supporter of Hillary, Shepardson says there’s an “enormous pride”, towards Hillary in Chappaqua residents and particularly women residents. He estimates that eighty-five percent of Chappaqua will vote for her.

Shepardson and Thorsberg are not alone- Hillary may have a few loud opposers, but she seems to have the majority of her neighbors’ votes.

Lucy is a senior at Briarcliff High School, where she is co-editor of the Briarcliff Bulletin. She is passionate about various issues, including environmentalism, feminism, and political awareness in teens.

Editor’s Note: One of Seven Girls’ Essays featured in the November “If Our Neighbor Becomes President” Cover Story.  The girls were directed by Keri Walsh, Ph.D., who heads the Chappaqua Summer Writing Program for Girls at the Greeley House.

Hillary Clinton Cites Media Findings of Multiple Lies by Trump During the Debate

by

The Hillary for America press campaign has unveiled a virtual laundry list of falsehoods from Donald Trump Monday night.  The campaign is citing the following corrections from independent fact checkers from a host of media outlets including AP, CBS News, Factcheck.org, the New York Times, The Washington Post, Voluntary Fact Check,  Bloomberg News and Politifact. — Grace

hillary-logoIndependent Fact Checkers Debunk Trump’s False Statements During Monday’s Debate

After the first presidential debate it’s clear there is only one candidate who is ready to be commander-in-chief: Hillary Clinton. On Monday night, Trump lied repeatedly, showing once again he lacks the knowledge, values and temperament to be president. There was so much inaccurate information during the debate that we decided to compile all the fact checks in one place.  There are quite a few.

  1. AP: “Trump, denying Clinton’s accusation that he supported the Iraq war: ‘Wrong. Wrong.’ Later: ‘I was against the war in Iraq.’ […] THE FACTS: There is no evidence Trump expressed public opposition to the war before the U.S. invaded”
  2. AP: “TRUMP, when Clinton accused him of calling climate change a hoax invented by the Chinese: ‘I did not say that.’[…] THE FACTS: Yes he did, in the form of a 2012 tweet: “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”
  3. AP: “TRUMP: ‘I’ve been under audit for almost 15 years.’ […] THE FACTS: Trump hasnever provided evidence to the public that he is actually under audit. A letter released by his tax attorneys never used the word, merely describing his tax returns under continuous examination. Trump has declined to provide the IRS’ formal notice of audit to The Associated Press and other news outlets..”
  4. AP: “TRUMP to Clinton: ‘You’ve been fighting ISIS your entire adult life.’ […] THE FACTS: Hillary Clinton was born in 1947 and is 68 years old. She reached adulthood in 1965. The Islamic State group grew out of an al-Qaida spinoff, al-Qaida in Iraq in 2013, the year Clinton left the State Department.”
  5. AP:“TRUMP: ‘My father gave me a small loan in 1975.’ […] THE FACTS: Trump got a whole lot more than a small loan. Aside from $1 million in financing from his father, Trump received loan guarantees, bailouts and a drawdown from his future inheritance.”
  6. AP:“TRUMP: ‘You don’t learn a lot from tax returns.’ […] THE FACTS: Americans stand to learn plentyif he releases his tax returns like other presidential candidates have done.”
  7. AP: “TRUMP: ‘Our jobs are fleeing the country. They’re going to Mexico. They’re going to many other countries. … Ford is leaving, thousands of jobs leaving Michigan, leaving Ohio.” […] THE FACTS: There are no official data on job flows between countries.” However, the U.S. economy has added nearly 14.9 million jobs since 2010, when the economy bottomed out after the recession.
  8. AP: “TRUMP: President Barack Obama ‘has doubled (the national debt) in almost eight years.’ […] THE FACTS: Trump’s expressed concern about the national debt obscures that his own policies would increase it by much more than Clinton’s,according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.”
  9. AP: “TRUMP: ‘Had we taken the oil (in Iraq) — and we should have taken the oil — ISIS would not have been able to form.’ […] THE FACTS: Donald Trump’s assertion that the U.S. should have seized Iraq’s natural resources would have required that it also seize control of the country and at no point was the U.S. in a position to do so.”
  10. AP:“TRUMP: ‘The Fed, by keeping interest rates at this level, the Fed is doing political things. … The Fed is being more political than Secretary Clinton.’ […] THE FACTS: This is a recurrent claim by Trump with no evidence to back it up.”
  11. AP: “TRUMP on hacking of the Democratic National Committee: ‘I don’t think anybody knows it was Russia that broke into the DNC… I mean it could be Russia. But it could also be China. It could be lots of other people.’ […] Trump’s refusal to point the finger at Moscow is at odds with the prevailing position of the U.S. intelligence community.”
  12. AP: “TRUMP said a 1970s racial discrimination case against his real estate business was settled ‘with no admission of guilt’ and that the case was “brought against many real estate developers.” […] THE FACTS: The first claim is technically correct; the second is ”
  13. AP:“TRUMP: ‘Stop-and-frisk had a tremendous impact on the safety of New York City. Tremendous beyond belief.’ […] THE FACTS: Trump is correct that the murder rate has plummeted in New York in the last two decades. But the same could be said for many other large American cities during the same period, and there’s certainly no way to credit stop-and-frisk for the decline.”
  14. Bloomberg: On Trump denying Clinton’s accusation that he supported the Iraq war: Fact check: “When asked whether he supported going to war in Iraq in a 2002 appearance on Howard Stern’s radio show, Trump said, “Yeah, I guess so.”
  15. Bloomberg: “Trump: ‘So Ford is leaving. You see that, their small-car division leaving. Thousands of jobs leaving Michigan, leaving Ohio, they are all leaving.'” Fact check:”[T]he company is cutting ‘zero’ jobs in the U.S.”
  16. Bloomberg:When Clinton accused Trump of calling climate change a hoax created by the Chinese, Trump claimed: “I did not. I do not say that.” Fact check: “Trump has a history of questioning climate change.”
  17. CBS News: “TRUMP:  ISIS has ‘oil all over the place, including the oil, a lot of the oil, in Libya.’ [..] FACT CHECK: Claudia Gazzini, a Tripoli-based senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, told the Washington Post that it was simply not true that the Islamic State has control of any Libyan oil.”
  18. CBS News:“Donald Trump claims ‘stop and frisk’ policies in New York City worked well and brought the crime rate ‘way down.’ […] FACT CHECK: Trump said murder is up in New York City, but murder is actually down 4.3 percent this year-to-date.”
  19. CBS News: “Donald Trump claims that Hillary Clinton started the ‘birther’ movement. […] FACT CHECK: This has been Trump’s line since the ‘birther’ issue resurfaced this fall, but Clinton’s campaign has repeatedly denied being involved.”
  20. CBS News: “Donald Trump claims that his lawyers have told him not to release his tax returns. […] FACT CHECK: In the letter from Trump’s lawyers released by his campaign, they do NOT say the taxes should not be released.”
  21. CBS News: “Donald Trump says Ford is ‘thousands of jobs’ are leaving Michigan and Ohio. […] FACT CHECK: “Their small car division is leaving” – This part is true, but Ford says it will affect “zero” U.S. jobs.”
  22. CNN: “Trump claimed that New York City’s stop-and-frisk policy was not ruled unconstitutional — but it was.”
  23. CNN: “Trump claimed that a false conspiracy theory about President Barack Obama’s birthplace began with Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign.”  Rating: “FALSE”
  24. CNN: “Trump: “Murders are up” in NYC” Rating: “FALSE”
  25. CNN: “Trump: Stop-and-frisk wasn’t ruled unconstitutional” Rating: “FALSE”
  26. CNN: “Trump: ‘She was involved’ in spreading birtherism’ REALITY CHECK: FALSE”
  27. CNN: “Trump: ‘I did not support the war in Iraq.’ REALITY CHECK: FALSE”
  28. CNN: “Trump: ‘I am going to cut taxes big league and you are going to raise taxes big league. End of story.’ REALITY CHECK: MOSTLY FALSE”
  29. CNN: “Trump: ‘You’ve been fighting ISIS your entire adult life’ REALITY CHECK: FALSE”
  30. CNN: “Trump: ‘Ford is leaving. Their small car division — thousands of jobs, leaving Michigan, leaving Ohio.’ REALITY CHECK: FALSE”
  31. CNN: “Trump denies calling pregnancy ‘an inconvenience’ to employers REALITY CHECK: FALSE”
  32. org: “Trump was right in saying that Ford is moving its small-car division overseas, but wrong in claiming that as a result, thousands of jobs are leaving Michigan and Ohio. Ford’s CEO insists not a single job will be lost in the U.S.”
  33. org: “Trump left the false impression that the Obama administration failed to disclose the full amount paid to Iran in January to settle a long outstanding claim.”
  34. org: “Clinton said Trump thinks ‘climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese.’ Trump denied it. In 2012, he tweeted that the Chinese had created global warming but later said he was joking.”
  35. org:  “Trump claimed without evidence that the Clinton campaign in 2008 was pushing ‘very hard’ the false story that President Obama was born in Kenya, not in Hawaii.”
  36. org: “Trump claimed ‘the record shows’ he was opposed to the Iraq War before it started… but there is no record of that.”
  37. org: “Clinton said Trump’s businesses had filed for bankruptcy six times; he said it was four. Clinton is right.”
  38. org: “Trump on Father’s Loan — Trump claimed his father gave him a ‘very small loan in 1975’ of $1 million, from which he built his real estate company. But Clinton claimed it was $14 million. Clinton was right and Trump was wrong.”
  39. org: “Trump on Trade Deficit — Trump said the U.S. has ‘a trade deficit with all of the countries that we do business with, of almost $800 billion a year.’ Trump has made this claim over and over again, but it’s not true.”
  40. org: “Trump claimed that ‘you don’t learn that much from tax returns.’ But experts disagree. As we’ve written, tax returns could provide information on overseas income, foreign bank accounts, effective tax rates and charitable giving habits. Conflicts of interest could also be exposed, as well as how Trump’s individual tax policy squares with his proposals.”
  41. org: “Trump said that President Bill Clinton ‘approved NAFTA, which is the single worst trade deal ever approved in this country.’ Actually, the North American Free Trade Agreement was negotiated and signed by President George H.W. Bush.”
  42. org: “Trump on ISIS and Oil in Libya — Trump said that ISIS has ‘oil all over the place, including … a lot of the oil in Libya, which was another one of [Clinton’s] disasters.’ That’s wrong.”
  43. org: “Trump on Chicago Murders — Trump claimed that ‘almost 4,000 have been killed [in Chicago] since Barack Obama became president.’  That’s missing context. Like the nation overall, Chicago has seen a drop over the last several decades in the number of homicides, as we wrote in July.”
  44. New York Times: “Donald J. Trump attacked the Federal Reserve on Monday night, telling the millions of people watching the first presidential debate that the nation’s central bank is acting as an arm of the Democratic Party at the expense of the economy. It is an extraordinary accusation, backed by no evidence, that plows across a bipartisan line.”
  45. New York Times: “Mr. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, said that Janet L. Yellen, the Fed’s chairwoman, was ‘doing political things’ by holding interest rates at low levels.” […] This accusation, which Mr. Trump has leveled several times in recent weeks, is roundly rejected by Fed officials — including those who agree it is time to raise interest rates. It is also rejected by a wide range of independent observers.”
  46. New York Times: “On Mr. Trump saying Mrs. Clinton had been ‘fighting ISIS your entire adult life.’ In reality, the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, began as an Al Qaeda affiliate that sprang up in Iraq as the Sunni insurgency amid the power vacuum created by the American invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein’s government in 2003.”
  47. New York Times: “On Mr. Trump saying the Islamic State would never have come into power if the United States had stayed in Iraq. The assertion is impossible to disprove, but it’s unlikely that 10,000 troops remaining in Iraq would have made much of a difference — especially in Syria and Libya, where the United States never had troops.”
  48. New York Times: “On Mr. Trump’s assertion that many NATO countries do not contribute their full share to NATO. […] [H]e was wrongabout NATO failing to fight terrorism. NATO was in Afghanistan starting in 2003 — part of the battle against Al Qaeda.”
  49. New York Times: “ Mr. Trump said he opposed the war in Iraq before it began. But during the buildup to the war, he expressed his support in an interview with Howard Stern, according to audio unearthed by BuzzFeed.”
  50. New York Times: “On Mr. Trump’s claim that the United States is “not updating” its nuclear arsenal and the Iran nuclear deal. Mr. Trump is wrong.”
  51. New York Times: “On Mr. Trump’s claim that Ford is leaving the United States and taking ‘thousands of jobs’ with it. […] [T]he move will not result in job losses in the United States.”
  52. New York Times: “Mr. Trump said that the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, ‘is the worst trade deal’ in American history, and possibly in world history. […] [T]he Congressional Research Service concluded in 2015 that the ‘net overall effect of NAFTA on the U.S. economy appears to have been relatively modest.’”
  53. New York Times: “On Mr. Trump’s claim that ‘we have a trade deficit of almost $800 billion a year,’ blaming trade deals for this. He has the number wrong.”
  54. New York Times: “Mr. Trump said the Federal Reserve is ‘doing political things’ by holding interest rates at a low level. He charged that the Fed would raise rates as soon as Mr. Obama left office. This is a baseless accusation.”
  55. New York Times: “On Mr. Trump’s loan from his father. […] Mr. Trump owed his father and his father’s company about $14 million.”
  56. New York Times: “On Mr. Trump’s claims that murders are up in New York City. Mrs. Clinton said they are down. Mrs. Clinton is correct.”
  57. Politifact: “Trump told Clinton, ‘You heard what I said about (the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal), and all of a sudden you were against it.” Ruling: “FALSE”
  58. Politifact: “Trump said, ‘NATO is opening up a major terror division. … I’m sure I’m not going to get credit for it, but that was largely because of what I was saying and my criticism of NATO.” Ruling: “FALSE”
  59. Politifact: “Trump says Clinton’s energy agenda ‘will cost the U.S. economy over $5 trillion.'” Ruling: “FALSE”
  60. Politifact: Trump “[s]ays top Clinton advisers ‘were pressing’ birther movement stories ‘very hard.'” Ruling: “FALSE”
  61. Politifact: Trump: “‘I did not — I did not — I do not say that. I do not say that’ climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese.’” Ruling: “MOSTLY FALSE”
  62. Politifact: Trump: “‘You will learn more about Donald Trump by going down to the Federal Elections’ to see the financial disclosure form than by looking at tax returns.” Ruling: “FALSE”
  63. Vox: “Trump touted [stop and frisk’s] effectiveness in reducing murders and other crime in the nation’s most populated city…. [But] stop and frisk didn’t have much, if any, of an effect on crime, despite Trump’s claims.”
  64. Washington Post Fact Checker: “When Hillary Clinton raised a 1973 racial discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Justice Department against Trump’s company, Trump dismissed it as a run-of-the-mill action.” Ruling: “Four Pinocchios”
  65. Washington Post Fact Checker:Trump: “On November 1 … new [Obamacare premium] numbers are coming out which will show 40, 50, 60 percent increases. They want to delay it until after the election.” Ruling: “Four Pinocchios”
  66. Washington Post Fact Checker: Trump: “‘Under my plan I will be reducing taxes tremendously.’ […] Trump’s tax plan would raise federal income taxes on more than half of America’s single parents and one-fifth of families with children.”
  67. Washington Post Fact Checker: “Trump cites an Internal Revenue Service audit as his justification for not releasing his federal income tax returns, but the audit does not prohibit from releasing the returns.
  68. Washington Post Fact Checker: Trump: “‘As far as tax return, you don’t learn that much’ from tax returns. […]Trump is being misleading.Tax experts say that tax returns provide insight about a person’s finances in several key areas.”
  69. Washington Post Fact Checker:Trump: “‘In Chicago, they’ve had thousands of shootings. … Stop and frisk worked very well … it brought the crime way down [in New York City].’ […] While Trump says stop-and-frisk policies should be enacted in Chicago as it was implemented in New York City, those policies have not been correlated with crime.”
  70. Washington Post Fact Checker: Trump: “‘I did not support the war in Iraq.’ […] This is just totally false.We have found no evidence of his early opposition to the invasion.”
  71. Washington Post Fact Checker: Trump: “‘In addition, I was just endorsed by ICE.’ […] Trump is actually referring to the National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council, which is the union representing ICE officers.”
  72. Washington Post Fact Checker: Trump: “‘President Obama and Secretary Clinton created a vacuum the way they got out of Iraq…’ […] As Clinton noted in her response, the terms of departure from Iraq were set by the George W. Bush administration.”
  73. Washington Post Fact Checker: Trump: “‘I said it to you once, had we taken the oil — and we should have taken the oil — ISIS would not have been able to form either, because the oil was their primary source of income.’ […] Trump has been called out before on this point, but he keeps saying this false claim.“

Top 10 Reasons (+2) to Vote for Hillary

by

By Ann Styles Brochstein and Cynthia Metcalf

So now that the GOP convention is over, we can focus on why America needs to elect Hillary Clinton for POTUS.  Here goes…we’ve compiled our Top 10 reasons (+2) to vote for Hillary:

hill and ann in h

 

  1. She’ll appoint Supreme Court justices who will keep the court from jumping off the right wing cliff.cynthia
  2. Utopia not Dystopia: Her vision for our country isn’t Mad Max based, like He Who Must Not Be Named.
  3. She’s not afraid to take on the NRA to enact sensible gun laws while preserving the 2d amendment just like our Founding Fathers intended.
  4. She will create jobs for the growing pantsuit manufacturing industry in the US!
  5. Governing with a vagina… yes she has one. Finally someone who knows what women’s issues are really all about–preserving and expanding women’s healthcare & reproductive rights.
  6. She will make college affordable for everyone!
  7. She will give EVERY child a chance to succeed with early childhood education programs
  8. It’s about time a man got a chance to become First Spouse!
  9. She’s sane and enormously respected around the world. Her foreign policy experience is second to none and what we need in an increasingly unstable and complicated world.
  10. She will help the US move away from a Red & Blue culture to one where “We are all in this together” #LoveAndKindness.
  11. Electing Hillary will give Chappaqua two Presidents to march in our Memorial Day Parade, something no other town in the U.S. can claim.
  12. Will change HIStory to HERstory! (Mic drop)

Okay, we couldn’t whittle the list down to just 10! There are even more reasons we wanted to add, like protecting the environment and insuring LGBTQ rights which are equally important. She’s obviously the smartest & most experienced candidate to run for POTUS in our lifetime, so let’s do the right thing and elect Hillary! Not voting is not an option!

Chappaqua’s own Cynthia Metcalf (bottom photo) & Ann Styles Brochstein have well over 3,000 twitter followers (from all over the world) for their frequently irreverent and witty tweets in support of their hometown candidate for POTUS.  Metcalf and Brochstein are also long time Chappaqua residents, 18 & 24 years respectively, and moms with six great kids between them. When they’re not tweeting & posting, Cynthia is a soccer mom of one and college-tuition paying mom to three & empty nester Ann is a doggie mom. You can follow them on Facebook at: Chappaqua & US 4 Hillary NOW, and on Twitter@Neighbors4Hill.

Hillapalooza Weekend to Highlight Hometown Support for Hillary Clinton

by

Chappaqua, NY – A first time and upcoming “Hillapalooza Weekend,” created by Chappaqua Friends of Hill (CFOH) and scheduled for August 6 and 7, is intended to be a “town-wide celebration of Hillary,” states CFOH founder and president Dawn Evans Greenberg.

“We decided to create Hillapalooza as a way to involve the community, especially families with children, in celebrating a historic and monumental day in our town’s history. Hillary is our second presidential nominee from Chappaqua–Horace Greeley was the first–and the first women ever, of course, so we think a town-wide celebration is in order to share the excitement, “ noted Dawn Evans Greenberg, the President of CFOH.

Members of Chappaqua Friends of Hill during a meeting at Chappaqua Station
Members of Chappaqua Friends of Hill during a meeting at Chappaqua Station

In just days, a group of ten CFOH supporters will in fact be representing the more than 540 CFOH members by attending the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Philadelphia.  Recognizing that not everyone can go to the DNC, Hillapalooza weekend was formed as a way to involve all CFOH members and also help any Hillary Clinton supporter in town find ways to get involved or simply come out and show hometown support for Hillary Clinton in a friendly, welcoming environment. The event kicks off on August 6th with a barbeque hosted by CFOH at a private residence in Chappaqua. To RSVP for this event, contact Hillapalooza16@gmail.com

The event will feature lawn games, music and food for the whole family organized by local party planner Monique Banks.

“We are a team of Chappaqua moms and dads who are truly honored to celebrate this history making accomplishment of one of our own,” said Banks. “That being said, we know how to throw a party…and it will be a celebration to remember.”hillapalloza

“One hundred years from now, historians will be talking about this election and we want our town to have a place in that conversation,” Greenberg added. “While the day is 99% celebration, we do hope we can get more folks involved locally as well as let the world know just how proud Chappaqua is to be home to our first female presidential candidate.“

The Hillapalooza weekend continues with a special event on August 7th geared to local college students. Several college students home on summer break have been active CFOH volunteers. They wanted to increase their support for Hillary when they return to their college campuses this fall, noted Greenberg.

 

“WHAM” Training for College Students

The free event on Sunday will also offer training for college students, provided by Carol Evans, who co-founded Executive Women for Hillary and is a Hillary campaign professional. Evans created a dynamic training model called WHAM (Winning Hearts and Minds for Hillary).  The training session will feature skill-building to empower students to develop their Hillary commitment story–why they believe Hillary is the most qualified, intelligent and moral choice for President.

“This training session will look at what a Trump presidency might do to America,” commented Tracy Stein, a local Clinton supporter and campaign fundraiser who is helping to organize the training session.

“Our hope is that, armed with new confidence to speak about Hillary, students will make calls, canvas, and most importantly, go back to colleges throughout the country to act as Hillary ambassadors,” continued Stein. “These student ambassadors can have enormous power in the GOTV effort.  As the demographics play out, reaching college students could make a huge difference in this election.”

Students interested in attending the training session can RSVP to Tracy Stein at tastein1@gmail.com.