The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

changemaker

Greenlight Award comes to Greeley!

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Greenlight Award Challenges Greeley Students to Make a Difference

Bedford 2020’s 2017-2018 Greenlight Award competition, Changemaker 2020, challenges local high school students to become activists and motivate at least 20 people to change their behavior 20 times to benefit the environment.

Horace Greeley High School students are invited to join the contest this year along with students from Fox Lane High, John Jay, Harvey School and Rippowam Cisqua students.  Student teams present proposals for meeting this challenge before a Round One “Shark Tank” panel of judges and the best proposals receive up to $1,000 to implement their projects.

Joseph Montuori, Horace Greeley High School Social Studies Teacher, Instructional Technology Coach, and advisor to the Greeley STOP Club (Students and Teachers for Our Planet) participated as a judge at the Greenlight Award Finals last year where the finalists who implemented their projects presented their results, and the winning team received $500 and the Greenlight Award.

“We are excited to involve Greeley students join this year’s challenge. Getting people to change their habits is critical in the struggle to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and students have great ideas!” says Midge Iorio, Bedford 2020’s Executive Director.

In the third year of a three-year pilot, the Greenlight Award will focus on measurable action and a positive experience for students. “We are training future environmental leaders and want to make sure that they are set up for success,” says Olivia Farr, Greenlight Award Chair. “Student participants will receive information on behavior change strategies, support from community experts, opportunities for public speaking, and finalists will engage in collecting data, reporting results, teamwork, leadership, and a chance to make a real difference.”

The sign up deadline is approaching on October 16th. Interested students submit names of team member and a faculty advisor along with a general idea of the project they intend to propose in December.

How the contest works:

  • Students sign up online at Bedford2020.org/greenlight and check out the Greenlight Award Toolkit to get started on their proposal.
  • Bedford 2020 hosts an Incubator Workshop on November 1st where community experts advise all participating students on their proposed projects.
  • On December 9th, students present their proposal before a panel of judges and the highest scoring projects receive up to $1,000 funding and a “green light” to carry out their project.
  • Finalists work with community experts to implement their project and ultimately present their results at a community-wide event in early May 2018. The winning team receives a cash prize of $500 and the Greenlight Award.

For more information about the Greenlight Award visit bedford2020.org/greenlight

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Bedford 2020 is a non-profit organization leading a community-wide effort in the Town of Bedford, NY, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 20% by 2020 and to create a sustainable community that conserves natural resources. More information is available at www.Bedford2020.org.

Choosing on November 8: The Only Logical and GREAT Choice is Hillary Clinton

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By Grace Bennett

There has never been more at stake over who we grant power to over our futures, and whose words we allow to wield power over us, too.

Do we want to hand the world’s most critical mantel of power to as volatile an individual as Donald Trump?  In our hearts most of us know the honest answer at this point.

Trump has spewed so many hateful, demeaning words at minorities, at people with disabilities; they will have their own special place in the history books.  And of course, the now infamous ‘sex tapes’ and practically daily reports  (no need to rehash in this particular forum) have proved the final straw into a mindset that demeans women and offers a brutish high five, and wink, wink that it’s ok to sexually assault women. That’s what “real men” do, right?  It’s just too bad that at no point in his life, did anyone think to Grab him by his Gilded Collar and tell him–on behalf of his daughters, at least–to please, grow up.

Photo Grace Bennett/Inside Press
Photo Grace Bennett/Inside Press

Eventually, a candidate’s words will segue into an expectation that he or she take action that impact lives. If you haven’t yet, please do ponder the potential consequences of Donald Trump’s angry, impulsive finger resting anywhere near the nuclear code–as so many four star generals who emphatically support Hillary Clinton have done, along with the ever growing list of Republicans (of still sound mind) who are jumping off the runaway Trump Train.

Hillary Clinton–the historical and indomitable first woman candidate nominated by her party for POTUS–consistently projects a positive, inclusive outlook.

She offers intelligent, well researched ideas on how to address a multitude of issues affecting us, nationally and internationally. There isn’t a topic that she and her staff have shared with the Inside Press that hasn’t gone through considerable research with relevant experts. At a hyperlocal level, it has been overwhelming to manage the flow of information, and even at the national level, the press can barely keep up with her thoughts, ideas, vision, etc.

She is the only logical choice this November. And, in truth, a great choice. I have faith along with so many millions more that she will serve our nation well and persevere through the myriad of challenges we face here and abroad.  Hey, even Trump admits that she is a fighter who doesn’t quit, and I thank him for that, anyhow.

I endorsed her in the primary agreeing with Bill Clinton that she is the ultimate ‘changemaker,’ * and it will come as no surprise to anyone at this point to state that with unbridled enthusiasm, I endorse our fully deserving Chappaqua neighbor now, too.

— Grace

*http://theinsidepress.com/why-im-with-the-change-maker/

Why I’m with “the Change Maker”

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bill.women

chelsea

Column and Photos by Grace Bennett

Tilton, NH—Yes, I’m a small publisher in the town where Hillary Clinton lives, in a town where she has plenty of support. Yes, she once empowered me as a woman and a journalist by creating a spot for a 25,000 circulation hometown pub as press on a (successful and truly magical) state Dept. mission to Africa in July of 2012.

But I have a true confession; my leanings as a Democrat are really quite liberal. I am a two-time voter for President Obama on his promise of Change.

I come from very humble beginnings as the child of two Holocaust survivors; my dad drove a school bus while my mom raised two babies first in Detroit, Michigan, later in the Bronx and in Washington Heights. I know what it’s like to be poor, essentially. When the Occupy movement descended on Wall Street to highlight corporate crookedness and ultimately the gross inequities in this country, I publicly embraced the efforts of the men and women, young and old alike, camped out in tents, and their battle cry of “We are the 99 percent.”

I visited, rooted for–and then watched with dismay the movement fade into near oblivion. I have observed our President grapple with and be stymied by Republican controlled houses…the continuous attempts to thwart social progress, social and environmental justice, gun prevention violence initiatives, and those for children and women’s rights in multiple arenas–almost always it seemed in the name of the holy dollar too, and almost always with (and always too, the irony) of being as they are so apt to claim, God-fearing.

So, from “really” knowing me, you’d think I would be a Bernie girl.

And yet…I am not. I have grown wiser.

President Clinton and Chelsea Clinton have been hammering away in New Hampshire this week with messages that I fully embrace, and that I do believe will take Hillary Clinton all the way to the White House. For any substantive change to happen, the reality check is, Bill Clinton insisted, “You have to be a change maker.”

Hillary has proven herself to be, time and again, to be made of “the right stuff“ to effectively institute change…here, and abroad. Bernie has not.

One can’t simply demand change from one’s perch in the Oval Office. We don’t live in a monarchy, where, upon rising to leadership, one can execute one’s vision by fiat. So it boils down, for me, to many of her supporters to this: when you have two candidates who share so many similar goals, it makes little sense to vote for the candidate far less likely to have those goals met.

I’m supporting a candidate who can actually get the job done using her incredible breadth of experience and her proven (time and again) ability to collaborate with those diametrically opposed to so much of what I and so many stand for.

I’m in New Hampshire following her campaign despite an incredibly busy schedule I have with looming deadlines to produce two magazines over the next few weeks. Following Hillary is not necessarily “my job” or my obligation. I took the time here in New Hampshire because so much is at stake.
Thanks to this small, precious window, I had a chance to more quietly listen and think, two precious human centric activities, after hearing President Clinton passionately deliver so many of Hillary’s messages.

He emphasized so much of Hillary Clinton’s platform–building on the progress of Obamacare (rather than disruptively dismantling it and going to Bernie’s single payer system) or of Hillary’s intentions to obtain paid leave for families grappling with caring for parents with Alzheimer’s or children with autism. He talked about the anger millennials feel over their difficulties in buying a car, a house, obtaining a loan the way their parents could…and how Hillary Clinton’s plans will most effectively help young people drowning under college debts. He commended those corporations “that take equal or more responsibility in the communities of which they are a part.”

His main message? To “identify the bad actors,” not eliminate or punish all the players.

Change. Republican or Democrat. Democrat or Socialist.

There are many things any candidate can promise. The real question is later, post inauguration, who can deliver.

So I don’t just “believe that she will win;” I believe that Hillary has the actual people and key “across the political aisle” skills that will bring about so many badly needed changes in this country. And that’s why I’m endorsing Hillary Clinton for first woman president of the U.S. That’s why #Imwiththechangemaker.

Grace