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Navigating a Pandemic & Advocating for Families at the Mount Kisco Child Care Center

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Ruth Goodman with son, Adam, and niece, Sarah, who are both long-time MKCCC volunteers.

Established as a non-profit in 1971, Mount Kisco Child Care Center has served more than 6,500 children over the past 50 years. The Center serves nearly 200 children each year and is committed to its successful model of service–balancing families who can pay the full fee for care, with families who require need-based scholarship support to attend. Each year MKCCC raises more than $600,000 for its scholarship program. Approximately half of our families receive some level of scholarship support. MKCCC provides year-round child care and early education programs for children beginning at three months until elementary school. The Center offers before- and after-school care to children in Kindergarten through 5th grade and a full-time, eight-week summer enrichment camp for elementary students through 5th grade.

The pandemic has posed many predictable hardships for our neediest families. We are lucky to live in a community with a tremendously generous spirit. From the very beginning of this long and unprecedented time of need, we have been able to utilize community resources and services to assure that our families have food, clothing, diapers, and all basic necessities. We are very thankful to have such devoted community partners.

As the pandemic wears on, a less easily solved problem has arisen. It is safe to say that remote learning has posed a challenge for all families. Supervising and assisting our children with remote learning has been a bemoaned task and burden; much validated by countless comedians and commercials. 

There is nothing funny about it, however, if you are a parent who must go to work, in person, every day, in order to provide for your family. These mothers and fathers cannot work from home and provide that imperfect, yet safe model of learning known as remote, or hybrid.  

From the very first day that schools initiated remote learning, Mount Kisco Child Care Center transformed our K-5th grade afterschool program into a full day remote learning program. Serving 30 students from seven different school districts, we set out to provide an option for those parents who had no choice regarding their return to work.

Advocating for Our Students

What we found is that some students had very little trouble adapting to online learning and were able to thrive academically. Others, however, have struggled. We knew that just as we became an online learning setting for families in need, we had to also become advocates for our students, just as a parent or in-home caregiver would. Our teachers and I began collaborating frequently with teachers at children’s schools. In sharing our observations about what a student was challenged by, we were able to formulate strategies to meet goals varying from increased engagement and focus regarding the online learning itself, to increased comprehension of the material, and greater success with assignments.

This intervention served to bridge the gap between “home” and school in many instances. We were thrilled to see happier kids, and parents who were less anxious about their need to work during this unprecedented time. There were, however, some students who needed more support than was possible through our collaborations with the school districts.

One such student is Janet. Janet is a friendly, bright and extroverted 10-year-old. She has been a part of our afterschool program for many years. Historically, Janet was an excellent student with no identified barriers to learning. Soon after the implementation of remote learning, her academic performance declined. Accustomed to academic success, this shift quickly affected her confidence, and thus her engagement with her online classes. A negative pattern became evident to our teachers. Accustomed to positive feedback from her teachers for both attitude and achievement, she felt embarrassed when she was unsure or wrong in class and ceased to participate only serving to cause her to fall further behind. Our MKCCC teachers came to me with their concerns. In meeting with Janet’s teachers, I learned that they too were alarmed by the changes that they were seeing in Janet. 

Janet’s parents were distressed about this development. They felt helpless. Sadly, in many ways they were. Janet’s mother is a store cashier and her father is a handyman. English is their second language. They couldn’t give her the academic assistance that she needed, nor were they able to afford a tutor.

Once again looking to resources in our community made a solution possible. I reached out to a local college student who was living at home during the pandemic, as her classes were online and her campus was closed. As an Education major, Emma jumped at the opportunity to become involved. With input from our teachers, and Janet herself, Emma familiarized herself with Janet’s areas of challenge and confusion. Janet was immediately excited about the prospect of having her own tutor. When she learned it was a college student, she was even more enthusiastic, revealing her hope to go to college one day. Emma has shared with me how disconnected and isolated she has felt since her own remote learning began. Having a connection with Janet and seeing the positive impact of her assistance has given her an unexpected but very welcome sense of purpose during this turbulent time.

COVID-19 has changed our world significantly. What hasn’t changed is our mission of providing high-quality child care and early education for all of our families. We pride ourselves on our commitment to maintaining a diverse student community , both socio-economically and culturally. The children enrolled at MKCCC continue to learn, grow, and thrive, through our innovative and award-winning curriculum, including the intergenerational Joining Elders With Early Learners (JEWEL) program and Feed Me Fresh (FMF) nutrition education program. Mount Kisco Child Care Center looks forward to our next 50 years, pledging to continue our service to our community with optimism and dedication to excellence in child care.

Families Working Together Against Pancreatic Cancer

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Zabeen Mirza as a young girl with her dad Dr. Zobair Ahmed

Efforts Geared Toward Goals of Earlier Detection and Better Survival Odds

Chappaqua resident Zabeen Mirza was in middle school when she first heard the words “pancreatic cancer”.  It was a dramatic discovery–her healthy, active father, an anesthesiologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering, had suddenly keeled over in pain and was found lying on the floor. Less than six months later, and only 40 years old, he had succumbed to the devastating disease. 

“It was awful–just incomprehensible to know that my father was literally surrounded by the best and the brightest minds in oncology–and they were all helpless, with no answers or treatment,” said Mirza. “We felt such powerlessness, despite all the brilliance and access we had. And there was nowhere to turn for support.”

Ironically, the same year her father passed away, 1999, was the year the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN) was established. With a vision to create a world in which all patients with pancreatic cancer will thrive, the organization focuses on improving the lives of everyone impacted by pancreatic cancer by advancing scientific research, building community, sharing knowledge, and advocating for patients.

“If PanCAN existed while we were going through this with my dad I can’t imagine how the trajectory of my life would be different,” said Mirza, who is now an Event Experience Chair for PanCAN’s annual Purple Stride event, which will be held virtually this April with a goal or raising $290,000. “This organization is truly a lifeline to those battling this unrelenting disease and their families, right from the point of diagnosis. Even if your loved one is no longer with you, PanCAN is there for support.”

A pancreatic cancer diagnosis is devastating, with limited treatment options and a five year survival rate of only 10 percent. There are no early detection tests, no effective long-term treatments and, unless the cancer is surgically removed in its earliest stages, no chance for cure. 

The American Cancer Society’s estimates that, in 2021 alone, over 60,000 people will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and nearly 50,000 will die of the disease. Accounting for about 3% of all cancers in the US and 7% of all cancer deaths, the biggest obstacles continue to be early detection and treatment.

Often referred to as a silent killer, symptoms are rarely noticeable in its early stages if they are present at all. They are often vague and can be easy to ignore, making it a challenge to recognize and diagnose. The pancreas is located deep in the abdomen, so tumors are rarely felt or found during a physical exam. Doctors may use a barrage of generalized tests to make a diagnosis but there is STILL no standard test to specifically diagnose pancreatic cancer, complicating matters even more. It is often diagnosed at an advanced stage because its symptoms (back or stomach pain, bloating, gas, new-onset diabetes) mimic other conditions. Some people carry genetic mutations, including BRCA, that put them at higher risk of developing this disease. There are also some lifestyle risk factors, such as smoking and obesity. 

For Rye resident Tara Shanes-Knebel, it took many months, countless hospital stays, and a litany of frustrating tests to reach her mother’s diagnosis in 2008. 

Tara Shanes-Knebel with her mom Gigi Shanes-Hernandez

“While pancreatic cancer has some common risk factors, my mom did not have ANY–no family history of the disease, she did not smoke, she did not drink, and was a vegetarian- pancreatic cancer was a total shock to our family,” she says. 

 Like many, her mother’s symptoms were not obvious and developed over time–abdominal pain, loss of appetite, unexplained weight loss, change in stool, and jaundice. By the time she was diagnosed, and after a formidable battle, she died just 11 months later at age 51.

“I was only 25 years old when my mom was taken away from me by pancreatic cancer. She was an amazing mom, wife, friend, daughter, and dedicated her life to helping others. She was taken from us too soon,” she says. Fueled by her mother’s drive and devotion, she continues her fight. “The night before my mom died, she told me she was going to ‘bring a victory flag to Washington, D.C.’ by fighting and surviving this horrible disease. I am now dedicated, in her memory, to awareness and advocacy for pancreatic cancer, as well fundraising to advance research and patient support to help others.”

Tara holding a banner for the Westchester Pancreatic Research Walk she founded.

To honor her mother, Shanes-Knebel created and organized the Westchester Pancreatic Cancer Research Walk in 2010, and the annual walk continues today. She partnered with the Lustgarten Foundation, the world’s largest private funder of pancreatic cancer research. Since its inception, the event has raised over $4,000,000 in Westchester alone for pancreatic cancer research. 

Let’s Win! Pancreatic Cancer annual event from 2019.
(L-R) Mike Greenstein, Jackie Greenstein, Rob Greenstein

The Lustgarten Foundation is also affiliated with Let’s Win! Pancreatic Cancer which helps educate patients about treatment options and provides hope for patients and families. This particular organization is close to the heart of Rob Greenstein, a Chappaqua resident who lost his sister Jackie to Stage IV pancreatic cancer last year. She was only 56 years old.

“Let’s Win! was co-founded by Jackie’s oncologist Dr. Allyson Ocean with a goal to get the latest science to doctors and patients in real time,” says Greenstein. “Pancreatic cancer that is diagnosed earlier is more treatable, so there is research focused on earlier detection, through blood tests, or monitoring of people that carry the genetic mutations or have a family history of the disease. There are clinical trials becoming more and more available–patients should not be afraid to get second opinions and look for trials that may help them.”

Currently, radiation and chemotherapy are used to prolong life, but low quality of life and high morbidity rates show that there is so much more to do. Research has made small but important  gains in recent years, drawing more attention, and subsequently more funding with high profile cases such as Alex Trebek and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. 

Advances such as immunotherapy, blood tests for early detection, genetic testing and molecular profiling of tumors and a slightly increased survival rate give families, patients, doctors and researchers hope. Funding alone has increased by over 900% in the past 10 years.

“Things are getting better, but the statistics are still grim,” says Mirza. “At PanCAN we often say we ‘wage hope’. This hope needs to be continuously kindled until we have beaten this deadly disease.”

UNDERSTAND YOUR DIAGNOSIS. ASK YOUR DOCTOR:

  • What type of pancreatic cancer do I have?
  • What tests and scans will you use to confirm a pancreatic cancer diagnosis?
  • Where in the pancreas is it located?
  • What is the stage?
  • Has it spread to other organs?
  • What treatments do you recommend? What choices do I have?
  • How many people with pancreatic cancer do you diagnose each year?
  • Can my tumor be removed through surgery? Why or why not?
  • Should my family and I be tested for hereditary pancreatic cancer?

GET A SECOND OPINION:

Always ask for a copy of your medical records and lab results, including:

  • CT scan
  • CA 19-9
  • MRI
  • EUS
  • ERCP
  • Biopsy results

RESOURCES:

Let’s Win! Pancreatic Cancer: letswinpc.org

Lustgarten Foundation: lustgarten.org

PanCAN: pancan.org

American Cancer Society: cancer.org

New ‘Community Build Back’ Program Aims “to Enable Families to Stay in their Homes”

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Program will Assist Westchester Residents Facing Homelessness Due To The Covid-19 Pandemic

In an effort to stabilize communities and families in the County impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Westchester County Executive George Latimer is announcing the Community Build Back Program.  The four pronged umbrella Program has four programs under it.  Two utilize HUD money, the RED STOP Eviction Project and the RED Rent HELP Project, and two separate ones utilize $10 million dollars in CARES ACT money the Blue Priority Homeowners Initiative and the Blue Small Business Landlord Initiative.

Latimer said: “As a result of COVID-19 and the impact on the economy, both the federal government and New York State issued moratoriums on tenant evictions.  Those moratoriums are coming to an end and unemployment benefits have been greatly diminished.  The Community Build Back Program will enable families to stay in their homes as we head into the fall/winter season.”  

The RED STOP Eviction Project utilizes federal HUD funds and will provide up to 4 months of rental or utility arrears for tenants facing eviction or shut off as long as they can demonstrate that their financial hardship is due to COVID.  Tenants must be within 21 days of eviction, must demonstrate ability to pay their rent going forward, and must live in a Westchester Urban County Consortium municipality.  Assistance is available through select non-profits including: Westchester Residential Opportunities, Community Housing Innovations, Washingtonville Housing Alliance and Choice of New Rochelle. 

RED Rent HELP Project – “moving forward” also utilizes federal HUD funds and will provide up to 12 months of rental assistance for families impacted by COVID but focus on households where the tenants worked in industries closed until Phase 4, or who worked for a business that no longer exists. RED Rent HELP Project will be run by the County’s Planning Department.

The Blue Priority Homeowners Initiative, uses $2.5 million dollars and focuses on homeowners facing foreclosure.  That part of the Program, which is estimated to help 325 households in the County, and assist them with up to 4 months of mortgage / cooperative arrears.  Homeowners must show that COVID has negatively impacted their ability to pay their mortgage.  The homeowner will also have to show that they were up to date on payments as of March 2020.  This part of the Program also runs until the end of the year and will be administered through select nonprofits including: Westchester Residential Opportunities, Community Housing Innovations, Washingtonville Housing Alliance, HDSW (Human Development Services of Westchester) and the Bridge Fund.

Westchester Residential Opportunities, Inc. Executive Director Marlene Zarfes said: “This eviction prevention program will be a lifesaver for so many County residents at risk of becoming homeless.  Westchester Residential Opportunities is proud to partner with the County to help keep people safely in their homes and keep families together.”

For the Blue Small Business Landlord Initiative, $7.5 million dollars has been earmarked to assist approximately 2,400 households in the County by working directly with their landlords and bringing their rent up to date. The Program runs from now until the end of 2020, and can cover up to 75% of back rent for up to 4 months of rent for landlords who can show that their tenants were up to date in March, but have since not been able to pay their rent due to COVID.  This program, to be done by lottery, will assist landlords who own between 4 and 20 units.  Blue Small Business Landlord Initiative will be run by the County’s Planning Department.

Building & Realty Institute (BRI) of Westchester and the Mid-Hudson Region Executive Director Tim Foley said: “We’re thankful for the creative leadership shown by Westchester County’s Community Build Back Program, and the focus on supplying urgently-needed aid to struggling tenants, landlords, and property owners alike. The landlords and property owners of the Building & Realty Institute have been checking in on our at-risk tenants, offering flexibility and payment plans on their rent, and trying to be as accommodating as possible to good tenants who lost their jobs or lost income due to the COVID pandemic. But as the public health and economic emergency stretches on with no end-date in sight, we need government to step up to stabilize our housing situation. With this four-prong approach, Westchester County is clearly doing so.”

Latimer said: “Landlords, many times, are small business owners who depend on the rent from their properties to support their own families.  We realize the chaos that nonpayment can put into their lives and their communities.  The last thing we want to see is a landlord lose their property over nonpayment.  That benefits no one.”

Board of Directors of the Apartment Owners Advisory Council Member Carol Danziger said: “I am thankful to Westchester County for setting up these programs aimed at helping tenants and landlords during this crisis. I’m a second-generation owner of a family-run small apartment building, like so many small business owners, COVID-19 took any financial problems we had and made them that much worse. After the financial hardships and unimaginable personal losses we’ve experienced, we are still here for our tenants if the needs arise, especially if anyone is struggling. But since we do basically everything ourselves and have no staff, there was no relief for us under the CARES Act previously, and we were quickly running out of options and flexibility. These subsidies and stabilization funds will help us remain steady while the public health emergency continues this fall.”

Fact Sheets and Applications (English and Spanish) for the programs are available on the County’s website at:  www.westchestergov.com/HousingHelp.

News courtesy of the Westchester County Executive Office

At Albany Medical College, Greeley Grads in a Student ‘Compassion Coalition’ Connect Patients to Families during Pandemic

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When we “move up” from elementary school to middle school, we are asked what we want to be when we grow up. The responses range from professional sports players, zookeeper, chef, singer, etc.  And when we graduate high school, we normally have a better idea in our head of what life will look like five years down the road. For two Greeley grads, their fourth grade career goals and five year plans definitely did not include being essential workers in a hospital during a time of a national pandemic, but life throws curve balls at us like that sometimes.

Greeley grads Allison Schachter and Peter Inglis at Albany Medical College.

Allison Schachter and Peter Inglis are both Greeley grads (2013 and 2010 respectively) and are current medical students at Albany Medical College in upstate New York. While Schachter  always had the intention of becoming a doctor, Inglis went to undergrad initially for engineering and later switched into a pre-med program.

At the beginning of the pandemic, the hospital began to limit the amount of medical students who could scrub into the OR, due to the fact that the PPE, or Personal Protective Equipment was needed elsewhere. Shortly after, both students were sent an email stating that they would no longer be able to return to the hospital for rounds, to collect their things and to go home. This was not only disheartening but raised concern for it was almost time for the students to apply and declare what they wanted to specialize in – how were they supposed to truly know what they wanted to do for the rest of their lives if they wouldn’t have the final chances to try it out?

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That’s where the Compassion Coalition comes into play. It was started by Dr. Jackcy Jacob, one of the hospitalists in Albany, and further continued by a group of eight student volunteers, such as Schachter and Inglis, with more students now signing on. It satisfies the need to connect patients with their families outside of the hospital and make those outside feel less helpless by connecting them via iPads. And even though the students weren’t technically allowed in the hospital for their rounds, they could still volunteer to do this.

“We are filling a need that isn’t being fulfilled in the hospital. That’s what kind of made it allowed, is that we are of need, like an essential worker if you want to call it that,” Schachter said.

As time has gone on, they have been able to recruit more and more students to join.

“I think what’s unique about this group specifically is that…we don’t get grades for it, we don’t get extra credit for it…everyone sort of took their own initiative to do it,” Inglis added.

So, how does it work?

Albany Medical College Students participating in the Compassion Coalition

Between the day shifts and the night shifts, there is essentially a list that gets passed on, containing information such as patient credentials, family members who want to be contacted, call time preference and frequency of the calls.

The volunteers, like Schachter and Inglis are not allowed to go into the patient’s room to prevent spread of the disease and outside contact. Their job is to essentially set up the call.

Schachter explains: “When that nurse is putting on their PPE to go into the room, that’s when we coordinate the calls. So we’ll grab the iPad, call the family, have them on Facetime, so we’re the ones who start the conversation.”

And don’t worry, the iPads have their own set of PPE gear (more like a tight plastic bag)  that they “wear” before going into the rooms too. Once the nurses and the iPads have their gear on, that is when they can enter the room to conduct the calls.

These calls are available for all patients, regardless of their condition, it’s just up to the family members.

“Often time in the ICU, the patients are intubated, which means they are not really communicative…Usually we encourage families to nonetheless say what they want to say, having the videochat portion of it definitely gives them a chance to see the patient, which is nice,” Schachter said.

For those who do wish to still have the call, they will just spend the time talking to their loved one. One family even performed a concert for their family member that went on for three hours! Now that, that is love.

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Thankfully, they haven’t seen any shortages of the iPads themselves. They were actually part of a big donation. If anything, it’s the stands that they place them on.

In terms of what Schachter and Inglis would want people to know about COVID-19? It is affecting more age groups than you would think, and perfectly healthy people can be fine one day and pass away the next.

Their main takeaway is that social distancing is extremely important, and that some people are looking at this as if they are part of a demographic that is untouchable.

“People are approaching social distancing not very altruistically…The reality of social distancing isn’t to look out for #1, to lookout for #2, right? Because you as an asymptomatic carrier have the potential to make somebody else who is vulnerable to the virus very very sick,” Inglis explained.

While the Compassion Coalition helps serve the patients, it’s arguably more about the family members who not only can’t be with them to help care for them, but sometimes don’t even know where they are due to the fact that so many patients have been transferred all over the state.

“Most of our patients that we are treating in Albany are not from Albany County. They have been transferred to us from NYC, from Queens, that region because that’s the part of New York that’s been hit hardest by the virus…by us having the ability to settle their ease to show them that their family member is in fact really good care…as they’re on the phone with us they see their surroundings and they can experience how much care we are giving to their family members,” Schachter said.

She also said this which encompasses the entire initiative:

“Families really need to be involved in their loved one’s care. It’s so important to how humanity functions.”

How the Horace Greeley Scholarship Fund Helps Students Attend College

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Upcoming March 20th Fundraiser Plays A Crucial Role 

As college fees continue to grow faster than inflation, it’s no surprise that some families, even in communities like Chappaqua, will struggle to afford the hefty price tags. What sets Chappaqua apart, though, is a beloved community resource that since 1946 has been there to help many students bridge the gap between what their families can afford, aid provided by other sources such as colleges and universities themselves, and the price they actually are required to pay: the Horace Greeley Scholarship Fund.

“I grew up in a single-mom household and my mom didn’t have much money at all,” Horace Greeley grad Andrew Santana said. “I thought college wasn’t even an option for me. (The fund) really gave me more than money–they gave me hope.”

Today, after graduating from SUNY Geneseo and law school at the University of Dayton, Santana practices civil litigation and criminal law in Cincinnati. This spring the benefit for the Horace Greeley Scholarship Fund will be held at Brae Burn Country Club in Purchase on March 20, and Linda and Ed Bosco, as well as Patrick Dougherty, will be honored. The Boscos will receive the Taylor Family Award, and Dougherty will receive, unfortunately posthumously, the Ed Habermann Award.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF HGHS

Raising Funds

Last year, the benefit leadership committee raised more than $140,000. “Every year we have a benefit and we’re expecting over 350 friends and neighbors,” Scottie Guerney, president of the board of the HGSF, said, describing the honorees as having “really stood out in their gifts of service to the community. They are really incredible.”

Last year, the fund awarded more than $300,000 to students who had financial need beyond what financial aid and scholarships supplied. “And there was still need to be met,” Guerney said.

Besides the benefit, the fund has a few other ways it accumulates money. SHARE, the major student community service organization at Horace Greeley High School, runs an annual spelling bee and donates the proceeds. There’s also a game night in the fall. “It’s much smaller but to us everything counts,” Guerney said.

Publicizing the Scholarship to Students

Rebecca Mullen, chair of the counseling department at Horace Greeley High School, said her department makes sure students and families know about the HGSF in a variety of ways, beginning in ninth grade. “Families become aware of it as soon as they get to Greeley,” Mullen said. “The counseling department is very supportive of the scholarship fund and we work very closely with it – we love working with the parents that organize the fund.”

At the annual Night Meetings held for each grade, a representative from the fund will make a 2-3 minute presentation. Additionally, the fund is highlighted in the counseling department’s newsletter, Guide Lines. Then, when juniors and their families come in for meetings to discuss the college process, once again they are told about the fund and when appropriate, encouraged to apply.

Of course, Mullen said she doesn’t know which students become recipients of the HGSF unless they choose to share that information with her. The process and distributions are entirely confidential. “We have as a subset of our fund a small and entirely confidential grants committee,” Guerney said. The committee works with an expert in college financial aid.

Guerney previously served two years as board vice president and several years before that as a member of the 27-person board. Currently, her own children attend Bell and Grafflin. Guerney joined the board after meeting a member of the board of education who suggested it. “He said he thought I’d really connect well and be interested in the scholarship fund,” Guerney said, adding that she has a background in teaching.

“We’d love to meet the need for everyone, so every Greeley grad can obtain a college education,” Guerney said. “We are big proponents of the scholarship fund because we’ve seen it be life-changing for students,” Mullen said. “It really is an amazing resource that makes Greeley very special.”

Guerney notes that the recipients of the fund have said it has really changed their lives. “It’s amazing how generous our community is,” Guerney said. “And the generosity of the community has made them want to pay that forward and that’s a beautiful sentiment.”

Providing Hope

“Given the option to attend college – your future is a world apart what it could have been,” Santana said. “People think of Chappaqua as a place where people have money. They don’t realize that a lot of people, without the Horace Greeley Scholarship Fund, just would not be able to attend college.”