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Halloween in Chappaqua, Then and Now… with Covid Safety Measures Planned

October 6, 2020 by Megan Klein

Megan Klein in her: ‘Best.Costume.Ever’

October 30th update:  Erring on the side of caution, merchant trick or treat plans reported here earlier in the month have been cancelled in New Castle due to concerns with an uptick of cases being reported throughout the county.

Our author reminisces…

Oh, Halloween. What a concept. It’s the one day out of the year where it is acceptable to knock on a stranger’s door and willingly accept whatever they give us, with no questions asked. Hey, I was all for it when I was younger. Whether I was dressed as a puzzle piece, a hotdog, or sat home in my mustard costume on the couch all sad and mopey because I was sick, it was definitely never a bore.

Now that I’m older, I will say that I am over the whole scene. I can drive to go get candy whenever I want and I don’t need to be dressed up as barbequed meat to do it! Crazy what money can buy you.

I do, however, have great memories (and photos) from Halloween when I was a kid. My mom was a huge advocate of the Ragamuffin parade and some of my earliest trick-or-treating memories are from going around to each store after school. I was Minnie Mouse one year, and a cute one at that. Oh, and we can’t forget the time I was a clown. I had the clown shoes, the wig, the nose, the whole sha-bang. My mom still talks about it to this day. We will literally be watching TV, and she will be like, “Remember when you were a clown? Best. Costume. Ever.” 

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Unfortunately, what with the pandemic and all, Halloween is going to look a little different this year. It’s likely that a lot of people won’t be doing their normal Halloween traditions due to the pandemic and its safety concerns. While the parade is no longer on the schedule, there are other things in the works to make up for it!

For starters, thanks to Tara Mikolay of Desires by Mikolay, who spoke with board members of the town, PTA and others to make this a safe event, there WILL in fact be a merchant trick or treat this year. It will be over the span of three days, from 2-5 pm on Oct. 28, 29 and 30, with preschoolers first, followed by elementary school and middle school kids.

There will be tables outside of the stores with individually wrapped, grab-and-go candies along with a police presence aimed at preventing any traffic jam of little vampires and princesses, or whatever the kids dress up as these days. And of course, masks will be required.

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In terms of other Halloween activities, the PTA approved the annual window painting that happens around town every year, where students get to decorate a store-front window with season designs. And don’t worry, even though there won’t be a Ragamuffin parade this year, you will still have the chance to strut your stuff in town while being represented by your very own…scarecrow! Families will be able to make their own spooky, straw friend and place it around town to contribute to the Scarecrow Fest that is taking the parade’s place.

Although the spookiest season of the year will look a little different this fall, the town is doing their very best to put on a Halloween that will definitely be one for the books…

Editor’s Note: With the town plans underway, Westchester County in general is taking steps to help make residents and guests feel safe and secure as they venture into various communities to celebrate fall and Halloween via an initiative called ‘Westchester with Care’. An initiative of Westchester County Tourism & Film, “it is enlisting area businesses and nonprofits to help fight COVID-19 and safeguard the health and wellbeing of all who live, work and play in our beautiful destination just north of New York City. All participating organizations are required to take an online pledge. You can learn more and take the pledge at https://www.visitwestchesterny.com/westchesterwithcare

Filed Under: Stay Connected Tagged With: candy, Chappaqua PTA, clown, costume, halloween, Halloween Ragamuffin Parade, Shop Local, Westchester with Care

Opportunity to Support ‘Backpacks to School,’ an Annual Initiative of The Sharing Shelf

August 3, 2020 by Inside Press

The Sharing Shelf plans to fill at least 1,500 backpacks and seeks to raise $45,000 for this project.

Each summer, The Sharing Shelf organizes its “Backpacks to School” initiative to buy new backpacks and fill them with grade appropriate school supplies for low-income children in Westchester County. The program works with individuals and businesses County-wide to raise the funds needed to purchase everything needed for this initiative, from new backpacks to binders, notebooks, folders, crayons, pencils, pens and paper.

At this moment the last days of being in a school are a distant blur and back to school is filled with uncertainty, whether our children will return to school as we know it, shift into a hybrid system, or continue with home-based schooling.

The Sharing Shelf, in consultation with educators, has decided to proceed with its annual program. These educators have told us that regardless of what form school will be, children still need to learn. They will not only need the usual supplies but also resources to keep them mentally engaged and enriched. It is The Sharing Shelf’s plan to provide not just the basics, but enhanced materials such as age-appropriate educational magazines, puzzles, activity sets and books.

Even before the pandemic and economic downturn, Westchester County was a community with a mix of great wealth yet home to nearly 60,000 low-income children. In some of our communities, 8 in 10 public school students qualify for free or reduced lunch. We believe that number, given the current environment, is probably much higher. In April 2020, unemployment in Westchester county skyrocketed to over 14% from 4% in January 2020.  Meanwhile, the average family spends $122 on school supplies, a sum out of reach for families struggling financially.  

The Sharing Shelf plans to fill at least 1,500 backpacks and seeks to raise $45,000 for this project. Volunteers will help assemble the backpacks, using social distancing in a special area at The Sharing Shelf’s Port Chester warehouse during the month of August. The backpacks and supplies are critical to the academic success of low-income children and will allow them to return to school prepared, confident, and ready to learn.

To find out more about how to help or to donate, please contact The Sharing Shelf Program Director, Deborah Blatt at dblatt@sharingshelf.org or (914) 305-5950. You may also visit www.sharingshelf.org and click on Backpacks to School

About The Sharing Shelf

Founded in 2009, The Sharing Shelf is Westchester’s Clothing Bank for Children. The program collects new and gently used clothing for infants, children and teens. The clothing is distributed to local, low-income children through area social service agencies, schools, hospitals and other non-profits at no cost. The children receive a week’s worth of seasonally appropriate clothing matched to their sizing needs. Since 2011, The Sharing Shelf has been filling new backpacks with fresh supplies for back to school. For more information, visit www.sharingshelf.org

This story is courtesy of The Sharing Shelf.

Filed Under: Stay Connected Tagged With: Back to School, Backpacks, Learn, Resources, School Supplies, schools, The Sharing Shelf, Westchester

Excitement Building for the Chappaqua Summer Sidewalk Sale, July 22-25

July 8, 2020 by Megan Klein

‘Shop Local Shop Safe’ Campaign Theme Launching too in Time for the Chappaqua Summer Sidewalk Sale

For me, the song “It’s the most wonderful time of the year” is synonymous to the holidays and Ellen’s 12 Days of Giveaways. Well, it’s not December, it’s July and we’re not on the Ellen Show, we’re in Chappaqua. But, it’s still the most wonderful time of the year because the annual Chappaqua Summer Sidewalk Sale is back and better than ever! 

After four months of quarantining and social distancing, many people have yet to enter back into the retail therapy aspect of their lives due to the discomfort that comes with entering stores. Well, no need to fear. From Wednesday July 22nd through Saturday July 25th, townies and shoppers from afar can come and browse from over 25 Chappaqua merchants with discounts up to 75%.  Masks will be required, hand sanitizer stations will be available widely and Greeley Avenue will have additional pedestrian walkway with police delineators bordering the parking spots. The New Castle Police Department will be present to enforce all of the above; in short, everyone has been working together to ensure the safety and health of all. 

Many of the stores have implemented a virtual shopping experience by participating in Zoom Around Town or creating text and Facetime services. But more than anything, our merchants are truly eager to see some familiar faces, get that customer interaction that they’ve been missing out on and clear out their spring and summer inventory that hasn’t moved due to the pandemic. 

Tara Mikolay, owner of Desires by Mikolay said, “The sad reality is that this pandemic is going to force approximately 40% of small businesses to eventually close because of it…”

“The world might be feeling heavy right now,” Mikolay added, “but I think the shop local movement and shop small business movement is huge and people especially in this community really, really care about it. It’s a great time to come out, even to shop for Christmas gifts, because you’ll really be helping out small businesses who need that turnover.” 

While thinking about Christmas is a fast-forward, distracting but fun thought, one of Town Councilwoman Lauren Levin’s favorite things about the sale is the season it’s in. 

“What’s great about the timing of the sale is that summer is still not over, and in fact a lot of the products that they sell can easily go through the end of September (pool floats, beach boards, etc.) I just really enjoy that aspect of it because that’s what’s so fun. That’s the ultimate goal, to bring more fun back into the community after months of devastating news and challenging events.” 

The other part of the ultimate goal? To make our town safe enough so that people will want to come shop. The campaign Shop Local Shop Safe is being kicked off with the sale, focusing on getting people to come to our town to shop and support our merchants while doing so in a way that follows health and safety guidelines. Another main aspect that wants to be implemented is simply being social. 

“The challenge with this pandemic is we are not connecting as human beings and I think humans are just naturally social people and it’s really unfortunate that we haven’t been able to do that. With this, I get to see people and get an item like a really cute handbag that is 70% off!” Levin said. 

As a 20 year-old college student who has been at home since March, I have definitely been missing out on that social aspect that comes hand in hand with going to school. I can only imagine that parents, like Levin, are itching to get out and see some lovely new faces – besides their children, of course. 

And, guilty as charged, I have never actually been to the sidewalk sale. I am sure that there are many who join me in the guilty party, and Levin even touched upon the fact there are people who live in this town who had never “stepped foot” in some of our stores prior to Zoom Around Town. So, this sidewalk sale is the perfect opportunity for all of us to get out there, shop and support our local businesses.

Be on the lookout for signs advertising the sale in the coming weeks, as well as maps in town signaling where to park during the sale. You can also get regular town information by signing up for the town e-newsletter! 

Like Mikolay said, “…it’s a great time to maybe treat yourself to a little retail therapy!”

Filed Under: New Castle News, Stay Connected Tagged With: Chappaqua, Chappaqua Summer Sidewalk Sale, New Castle, sale, Shop Local Shop Safe, Shopping, Summer Sidewalk Sale, Wonderful Time

Field Hall Announces Summer Grants with Focus on Helping Vulnerable Seniors and their Caregivers

July 7, 2020 by Inside Press

The Field Hall Foundation announces $240,000 in new grants.  $190,000 has been awarded through its Summer 2020 grant cycle, and will be used to pilot, support and/or expand programs focused on the most basic needs of vulnerable seniors and their caregivers. 

Three full grants have been awarded to:

Family Services, Inc.                                                       

$45,000 – To pilot an Elder Abuse Intervention program which will provide prevention and intervention services for victims of elder abuse

Hudson River Housing, Inc.                                                              

$50,000 – To pilot an Elder Care Services Program that will help homeless and low-income seniors obtain and sustain stable housing

The Osborne Association                                                      

$50,000 – To support and expand their Elder Reentry Initiative in Dutchess County, which helps older, incarcerated adults successfully transition back into the community                             

Five smaller grants were awarded to:

Hillside Food Outreach, Inc.

$10,000 – To increase the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables they purchase and deliver, at no cost, to low-income seniors in Putnam and Westchester counties

Meals on Wheels of Poughkeepsie

$5,000 – To purchase new kitchen equipment that will allow them to meet the increased demand for home delivered meals

North East Community Council, Inc.

$10,000 – To expand their home-delivered food pantry services to older adults in the rural north east section of Dutchess County

Putnam County Office for Senior Resources

$15,000 – To provide free respite services to eligible spouses or relatives caring for older adults at home

WestFair Rides, Inc.

$5,000 – To provide older adults with free livery transportation to/from medical appointments when volunteer drivers are not available.

COVID-19 Emergency Relief grants, totaling $50,000, have also been awarded.  Funding focused primarily on senior food insecurity, personal protection equipment for nursing home staff, and telehealth equipment and services.  Grant recipients include:

Andrus on the Hudson Nursing Home, Bethel Springvale Nursing Home, Cabrini of Westchester Nursing Home, Catholic Charities, Dutchess Responds, EverCare Home Health Agency, Hillside Food Outreach, Maryknoll Sisters, Meals on Wheels of Hyde Park, Neighborhood House, New Jewish Home Sarah Neuman, North East Community Center, Pawling Resource Center, Putnam Community Cares, Putnam COVID-19 Response Fund, Ride Connect, Visiting Nurse Service Westchester, and WestFair Rides.

Going forward, an additional $50,000 has been added to the COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund for programs supporting seniors impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Since its inception in 2019, the Foundation has awarded more than $1 million in grants to improve the lives of older adults and their caregivers in Dutchess, Putnam and Westchester counties.  Letters of Inquiry are accepted on an ongoing basis.  For more information visit the Foundation’s website,  http://www.fieldhallfoundation.org

 

Filed Under: Stay Connected Tagged With: Caregivers, COVID-19, Field Hall Foundation, Grants, Nursing Homes, seniors, Vulnerable

Chappaqua’s David Shimer Explains Why he Wrote “Rigged” and the Potential for Election Interference

June 28, 2020 by Grace Bennett

David Shimer discussing “Rigged” on CNN with Michael Smerconish.

This month, I had the pleasure of catching up with Chappaqua’s David Shimer, the author of the new and much heralded book Rigged: America, Russia, and One Hundred Years of Covert Electoral Interference (Knopf; June 30, 2020), which examines the century-long history of election interference. In glowing reviews, the Washington Post  called Rigged “newsworthy,” “absorbing,” and “damning,” and NPR described Rigged as an “authoritative book” and “fascinating reading.” General David Petraeus, a former CIA director, labeled Rigged “a clear-eyed, highly readable, meticulous history of foreign electoral interference, in which revelations abound.” And Timothy Snyder, the author of On Tyranny, has said that Rigged “should be read by everyone who wants to defend democracy now.” 

Shimer is also a member of the Chappaqua community. He was the valedictorian of his class at Horace Greeley High School (class of 2014), received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history from Yale, and is currently pursuing his doctorate in international relations at the University of Oxford as a Marshall Scholar. Shimer has reported for the New York Times from five countries, and his foreign policy analysis has appeared in the Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, and the New Yorker. With so much at stake ahead of November, Rigged strikes me as an essential and timely book, so I thought I would pick Shimer’s brain about Rigged and the threat of Russian meddling in the 2020 election.  (The link to purchase is here.) – Grace Bennett

What precipitated the writing of Rigged?

The idea for Rigged first emerged in my mind in the summer of 2017. At the time, I was reporting for the New York Times from Berlin, and Russia had just interfered in America’s presidential election. While in Germany, I spent several hours interviewing a former Stasi officer named Horst Kopp. He told me about a covert operation he helped execute in 1972, to interfere in a vote of no confidence in West German Chancellor Willy Brandt. Because of the Stasi’s intervention, the vote failed, and Brandt remained in power. This story fascinated me: A foreign intelligence service had changed the outcome of a democratic vote of succession. I spent the next year researching the Stasi’s operation under the supervision of Timothy Snyder, a professor at Yale.

I then went to Oxford to pursue my doctorate, by which point I was set on studying the evolution of foreign operations to interfere in electoral processes. My research took on a life of its own. I became obsessed with this topic, because I was and remain convinced that studying the past is essential to understanding Russia’s attack in 2016 and to defending our elections moving forward. I ended up traveling across six countries examining KGB, CIA, and Stasi archives and interviewing more than 130 people, including eight former CIA directors and a former KGB general. The result is Rigged, which restores history to the subject of covert electoral interference, examines Barack Obama’s struggle to defend against Russian interference and Donald Trump’s refusal to recognize this threat, and explains what our country should be doing to secure its elections today.

If you could choose three takeaway messages you’d like readers to remember from your book, what would they be?

The first is that Russia’s 2016 operation marked the evolution rather than the creation of a practice. For about a century, with brief interruptions, Moscow has been targeting elections all over the world, including in the United States. The KGB sought to interfere in America’s 1960, 1968, 1976, and 1984 elections, as I detail in my book, with tactics eerily reminiscent of Putin’s. Across these operations are patterns that can and should instruct our response to the Russia threat. The most basic one is that covert electoral interference always involves efforts to manipulate voters or to alter actual ballots. To defend an election is to defend against both forms of attack.

Second, the United States was more exposed in 2016 than is publicly understood. I interviewed 26 former advisors to Barack Obama, including John Brennan, Susan Rice, Jim Clapper, Leon Panetta, and David Petraeus. From those conversations I learned that in the summer and fall of 2016, the Obama administration’s foremost concern was that Russian hackers would alter the voter data and even the vote tallies of American citizens. On Election Day itself, a secret crisis team in the White House was bracing for Russian intelligence to manipulate our voting systems. All the while, Russian actors were manipulating American voters across social media and with hacked emails, and Putin suffered no consequences for doing so until after the election.

And finally, it is essential for readers to recognize the purpose behind Russia’s electoral operations: to undermine our democracy and the democracies of the world. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union interfered in elections in order to advance communism, an ideology. Putin has adopted a subtler strategy. He is interfering in elections here and abroad in order to promote divisive and authoritarian-minded candidates, sow chaos, and delegitimize the democratic process of succession. Putin likes candidates like Trump because they degrade their democracies from within.

Can you tell us about the special relevance of your book to the upcoming election?

Reports have already emerged that Russia is interfering in the 2020 election. The sovereignty of our democracy is on the line. What I do in my book is provide a basis to understand operations like Russia’s, to reanalyze 2016 with an eye toward the future, and to elucidate how Americans can help to safeguard their democracy this November and beyond.

What can Russia do to interfere in the 2020 election?

The first question on my mind is how Russia will seek to manipulate public opinion between now and November. In 2016, to sow division and advantage Trump, Russian actors stole and released Democratic Party emails and spread propaganda across social media. Something history reveals is that these types of tactics, to influence voters, are constantly evolving. It remains to be seen what’s next.

The second question is whether Russia will escalate from influencing voters to altering actual votes. In 2016, Russian hackers penetrated election systems across the United States. The day of the election, Obama’s security chiefs believed that Russia could manipulate the ballot box in Trump’s favor. There is no guarantee that Putin will refrain from authorizing such an attack this time around. In fact, he may feel emboldened to act more aggressively, because Barack Obama, who at least tried to defend our elections, is no longer president. In his place is a president who has openly invited Russia and China to take steps that would help him electorally. Some of the Trump administration officials I interviewed acknowledged that Putin must realize that Trump will not punish him for manipulating the 2020 election, so long as he benefits. Putin is the type of leader who pushes as far as he can without provoking much pushback. And with Trump, there is never any pushback when it comes to Russia.

What can we do to protect our elections?

Joseph Stalin and his successors spent decades trying to spread communism, so we contained communism. Today, Putin is working to tear apart democracies from within, so we need to renew our democracy and help our allies do the same. This process starts at home. The United States should be fortifying its electoral infrastructure, to ensure that Russia cannot alter the votes of American citizens, while also reducing the effectiveness of operations to manipulate voters. And abroad, the next president should lead a coalition of democracies against the threat of covert electoral interference. I explain how to achieve both of these aims in Rigged, which I hope my fellow community members will read!

 

Filed Under: Stay Connected Tagged With: author, David Shimer, Democracy, Electoral interference, Rigged

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