The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

Greeley

New Castle Holocaust Memorial Dedication: Wednesday, November 6th

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Planting daffodils: Alexandra Rosenberg (left) and Stacey Saiontz, co-chairs of the recently established New Castle Holocaust & Human Rights Committee.

Residents of the New Castle community will gather on Wednesday, November 6, at 6pm, to dedicate the New Castle Holocaust Memorial located by the Gazebo in the town of Chappaqua near 200 South Greeley Avenue. The opening of the Memorial will coincide with and commemorate Kristallnacht. The project is the fruit of the efforts initiated by New Castle residents Alexandra Rosenberg & Stacey Saiontz, the recently appointed chairs of the New Castle Holocaust & Human Rights Committee.

The New Castle Holocaust Memorial will serve as a place where individuals and families can come together to learn, to remember and to reflect on lessons from the Holocaust.

Last week 750 daffodil bulbs were planted at the memorial as part of the Daffodil Project, a worldwide project to commemorate the lives of the children lost during the Holocaust. The goal is to plant 1.5 million flowers across the world – one daffodil for every child killed. https://www.daffodilproject.net. As the daffodils begin to blossom in the spring the community will hold an annual event that coincides with Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, a day commemorating the six million Jews and other victims who lost their lives during the Holocaust.

The dedication of the New Castle Holocaust Memorial follows the creation of the New Castle Holocaust & Human Rights Committee and the Horace Greeley High School Club E.N.O.U.G.H. – Educate Now On Understanding Genocide and Hate.  The New Castle Holocaust & Human Rights Committee will work to educate our children and create community awareness about the Holocaust, other genocides and human rights violations.  The mission of E.N.O.U.G.H. is to empower students to stand up to hate and to develop a community of tolerance through education and the understanding of people’s differences.

Alexandra Rosenberg commented, “I proposed the idea for the New Castle Holocaust Memorial, the New Castle Holocaust & Human Rights Committee and the student run organization E.N.O.U.G.H. as a way to combat the significant rise in hate that is permeating our world, our children’s world and more specifically our schools.  The New Castle Holocaust Memorial will serve as a tangible reminder of the impact that each human being can have in creating positive change. Together, the residents of New Castle and the students of Horace Greeley will work to make sure that the horrors of the past never happen again.”

Stacey Saiontz commented “As Elie Wiesel stated, ‘the opposite of love is not hate. It is indifference.’ I am so happy that New Castle is taking action. The creation of the Memorial, the Committee and E.N.O.U.G.H. will serve as a platform to educate the community and future generations about the lessons of the Holocaust. The Holocaust did not start with the gas chambers and killing, it started with indifference to hate. We need to teach people to stand up to hate wherever it may fester. Never Again.”

New Castle Town Supervisor Rob Greenstein stated “This is one of the most meaningful projects that I’ve worked on over the last six years. It’s crucial that we remember the lessons of history and provide future generations with the tools to combat hate and bigotry. The idea for these projects started in the heart of New Castle resident, Alexandra Rosenberg, who along with fellow resident, Stacey Saiontz, have led these incredibly important initiatives. I want to thank them for their efforts.”

The materials for the memorial as well as the landscaping, were generously donated by Manzer Landscape Design & Development.

 

News Courtesy of the Town of New Castle

A Need for Speed: Greeley Student’s Path to Professional Racecar Driver

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When Josh Green was five-years-old, he wrote down at school that when he grew up, he wanted to be a professional racecar driver.

Green’s love of cars and racing came from his father and two uncles whom have always been into cars, which is how it caught Green’s eye as a little kid. The family would trek to NASCAR races and cars shows; by the time Green was five, he could name every car.

“I don’t think I actually thought I could do racing, but I always loved cars and wanted to be near them,” Green said.

While not quite an adult yet, the 16-year-old Chappaqua resident is already on the fast track to realizing his dream as a racecar driver traveling throughout the country most weekends to compete against peers that started years earlier. While many young drivers start soon after they can walk, Green only began racing a few years ago, yet has excelled at a breakneck pace.

Green already has plenty of accolades to his name, including the 2017 North East Super Series Champion, the 2018 New York State Champion, the 2018 Oakland Valley Race Park Club Champion 2018 and the WKA Manufacturers Cup IAME Junior Champion. He can also call himself a top rookie of the year, according to eKartingNews.

He’s a finalist for a USA scholarship shootout hosted by Lucas Oil School of racing and Cooper Tires where he could travel overseas to compete. And through it all, he’s remained modest and hard working.

A Natural Talent

Green only started racing in summer 2015, but his rise has been precipitous. He began going to Grand Prix New York in Mount Kisco and it was apparent quite quickly he had a tremendous amount of talent and upside. For Green, going fast came naturally.

Green began outdoor racing the next year, spending the entirety of 2016 taking part in club races and learning as much as he could at Oakland Valley in upstate New York.  In 2017, he joined a new team and raced at bigger courses, including regional events like the Northeast Super Series and last year he began racing nationally

It’s been one steady step at time for Green, who has soaked up as much information as possible, all the way to his current open-wheel racing, in which the wheels are on the outside of the car’s main body with only one seat for the driver.

“Everyone wants to go race go-karts, like it’s fun, it’s just a fun pastime to do,” Green said. “But when you start taking it seriously, it’s a much different beast.”

Green, who also has a youth black belt in karate, has proven to be a quick learner. One of the most important things he’s learned in his nascent career is perseverance. “When something goes wrong, it’s important to push through it and refocus,” Green said. “Transitioning from indoor to outdoor courses can be very technical,” he added.

Currently, Green is racing with Team Pelfrey, which is an American racing team in the Indy Lights series.

Balancing Racing with Schoolwork

Off the track has been an adjustment for Green, but it’s been nothing but beneficial. As someone who struggled with school, Green has handled classwork better despite missing 30 to 50 school days a year due to extensive travelling. His teachers are generally accommodating as long as his grades remain high.

As much as Green would love to be a professional racecar driver, he’s level headed enough to know a career in engineering or another profession connected to driving could be his path, which requires education.

Green’s parents have always been supportive. They weren’t sure where his racing career was going, but people in the field continue to be impressed enough with Green that the only option was to move forward.

Father Eric Green said it’s flattering when people around the racetrack talk about his son and how they all want their kids around him as a role model.

He’s humble, Eric Green said, which is refreshing for a parent to see. “His talent speaks for itself,” he said.

Mother Lindsey Green said his focus on learning about the sport and attention to detail is unparalleled. “He’s grown up within racing,” Lindsey Green said. “If you compare him to other kids, I’d say he’s much more mature. I don’t know what he would’ve been like if he hadn’t been racing.”

Remaining humble and hungry has been a perfect combination for Green. Next season, he will likely move on to the USF 2000 series, which is another step closer to IndyCar racing.

“The ultimate goal is IndyCar,” Green said. “I think that’s 100 percent the ultimate goal and that’s sort of the trajectory I’m on.”

Editor’s Note: As we went to press, we learned that Green won a Team USA scholarship. Congratulations!

Spotlight on Community Day 2018: A Yearly Tradition Courtesy of the Rotary Club Filled with Fun for All

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Greeley senior Andrew Kassin said the event was a great opportunity to fundraise and raise awareness for the Matthew Larson Foundation, as he and other students sold T-shirts and sweatshirts in remembrance of their classmate, Casey Taub.

The aroma of roasted hot dogs and cotton candy competed with the sounds of guitar strums and cheering children at the 2018 Community Day. The Rotary Club-sponsored event brought more than 70 organizations to the heart of Chappaqua. Kids sporting butterfly face paint and their parents interested in various local groups lined the train station parking lot. The September 15th  event served not only as a community gathering but also as a chance for organizations to network and fundraise.

“We are here to support the community of Chappaqua,” attendee and Chappaqua resident Dara Dubs said. “It is also great to see old and new friends and our kids love going on the rides.”

While groups including the Chappaqua School Foundation and Chappaqua First Responders return to Community Day each year, Tea Town, and the Matthew Larson Foundation for Pediatric Brain Tumors were a few of several organizations who participated in the event for the first time. This year’s Community Day also featured new activities for children, including a pony ride and a scavenger hunt.

But not only did little kids take advantage of what the 2018 event had to offer, Greeley students also attended, performed and volunteered at Community Day. Executives from Greeley’s largest community service organization, S.H.A.R.E, distributed T-shirts for A Kids’ Brain Tumor Cure, adding to the bracelets, pins and flying discs that various non-profits and local businesses also circulated.

(L-R): Barbara Klein, George Furman, Donald Roane, Peter Davidson PHOTO BY MADELINE ROSENBERG

Greeley senior Andrew Kassin said the event was a great opportunity to fundraise and raise awareness for the Matthew Larson Foundation, as he and other students sold T-shirts and sweatshirts in remembrance of their classmate, Casey Taub.

“Jonathan Taub’s message has been to keep Casey in everyone’s mind, to keep honoring him and to never forget him,” Kassin said. “Being here is a great way to carry that on.”

As community members of all ages enjoyed the activities that local groups sponsored, Rotary Club of Chappaqua president Eileen Gallagher said Community Day also serves as a natural way to bring attention to the Rotary Club itself.   

“We look forward to more and more people coming each year,” Gallagher said. “We really want people to know we are here for them.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF DAWN GREENBERG
(L-R): Sarah Platkin, Catherine Zhu, Jordan Rattner, volunteers from S.H.A.R.E.
PHOTO BY MADELINE ROSENBERG

Greeley Alum Shapes a New Era of Theatre

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Carly Brooke Feinman, a Chappaqua native and Greeley alum, is making a splash in the theatre world just two years after graduating Wesleyan University. This past summer, her original musical co-written with Cassie Wilson, If Sand Were Stone, made its Off-Broadway debut as part of the New York Music Festival. As if that wasn’t enough, her play Reflux was selected to premier Off-Broadway a few weeks later as part of the Broadway-Bound Theatre Festival.

Feinman loved growing up in Chappaqua.  She always enjoyed poetry and writing and assumed that would lead her to a career in journalism or poetry.  Her favorite teacher at Greeley was her creative writing teacher, Mrs. Chadwick. She “was the first teacher to really take interest in me and encouraged me to continue writing. I’m so grateful for her,” Feinman says.

Feinman’s road to musical theatre began when she took a class in college with the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes, who wrote In the Heights with Lin Manuel Miranda. “She changed everything for me… She is an epic human and one of my dearest friends and mentors. She showed me that the things I love about poetry and the fun language gymnastics I get to do really do lend themselves to theatre.  She pushed me to dig deeper and take more classes and I found that I loved it,” recalls Feinman.

If Sand Were Stone Actors (L-R): Mari Uchida, Jhardon DiShon Milton, Jennifer Reed , Alexis Floyd and Tabatha Gayle PHOTO BY HAYIM HERON

It was in Hudes’ musical theatre class where Feinman was paired together with Wilson for an assignment. They immediately clicked and became great friends and collaborators. “To find someone that you want to work with for the rest of your career is such a gift to receive at a young age.  We’ve been working on the musical for two and a half years. There will be future iterations of it and it’s more fulfilling every time we touch it,” says Feinman.

If Sand Were Stone is a musical that follows a poet as she and her family grapple with her early onset Alzheimer’s Disease at the peak of her career. It’s based on a true story about Wilson’s grandmother. Despite the sad subject, there is joy to be found in the moments on stage between family members. In preparation for writing this musical, Feinman and Wilson volunteered at an assisted living facility for memory care. “Just as many times as we would leave crying, we would leave laughing.  Where there’s sadness, there’s joy. That’s a fundamental belief of ours,” says Feinman.

Feinman is proud of the fact that the musical’s creative team was all female, under 25, and included women of color. “Cassie and I are from very lucky backgrounds, we are hyper aware of the advantages we’ve had, and we have no interest in doing anything besides trying our best to be inclusive and to use what we’ve been given and share,” she explains.

Her other production this past summer, Reflux, is an absurdist comedy in a dystopian world where a man and woman are paired together randomly, and sent by boat to navigate the ocean to the honeymoon island where they must have sex. They try to figure out what sex and marriage is and how it fits into society’s expectations spoonfed to them since birth. 

In Reflux, the couple is played by two gender non-conforming people of color. “We have all seen the man-woman romantic comedy and I was really interested in disrupting that whole Adam and Eve archetype… I’m interested in centering historically marginalized places and including people who have historically been disenfranchised by the institution of theatre. That’s not something that I’m looking for applause for. I just think it needs to be more of the norm,” says Feinman. Generally, she is drawn to art that disrupts and is different than anything she has seen previously. She was greatly inspired by the musicals Hamilton, In the Heights and Fun Home.

PHOTO BY HAYIM HERON

Feinman is not afraid of laying bare her creative work.  “I don’t think you could fail if you try. This summer, if both of the shows were flops, that wouldn’t have been a failure to me. The failure would’ve been chickening out and saying that it would be too much to do in one summer,” she contends.

Feinman is living her dream career. “I’ve only ever wanted to be a writer. To be a songwriter was one of my early goals as a young girl but I don’t know how to play any instruments. In writing musicals, I’ve been able to call myself a songwriter. I’ve always wanted to be a poet and in writing plays, I’ve been able to do that.  I’ve always wanted to collaborate with artists I admire and I’m getting to do that now. I’m so happy,” she concludes.

3rd Annual Bedford 2020 Greenlight Award Finals

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Will Showcase Students’ Big Green Accomplishments

The third annual Bedford 2020 Greenlight Award Finals on May 1st will feature high school contestants with big green ideas at the newly restored Bedford Playhouse in Bedford Village. “This is an exciting opportunity to see our future environmental leaders in action,” said Midge Iorio, Executive Director of Bedford 2020.

The theme of the Greenlight Award contest this year, Changemaker, challenged participants to not only come up with a big green idea, but also to prove that it could change behavior. “Behavior change is an important theme because causing people to do things differently is critical to the success of many environmental challenges,” Iorio explained. “The Finalists have caused people to change their behavior to address a variety of environmental problems – from greenhouse gas emissions to water pollution and waste.”

Several teams from Horace Greeley High School have advanced to the Finals and will present their projects before the judges and audience. The Greeley STOP Club worked on an anti-idling campaign, another student installed a kiosk where people can take or leave reusable bags, and a third team tapped into people’s interest in donating to charity to improve recycling habits.

Community members are encouraged to attend. “Our hope for the future will be elevated by these students who have taken on this challenge,” said Sarah Douglis, Bedford 2020 Board member and Pound Ridge resident. “I bring my kids, who are in elementary school, to the Greenlight  Finals so that they are inspired first hand by these high school role models and become part of this important movement of their generation of environmental leaders”

The eight teams of Finalists were selected from 19 initial teams from Fox Lane, Horace Greeley, Somers, Harvey, John Jay, and Rye Country Day high schools. Finalists received up to $1000 in seed funding and worked with community experts to develop and carry out their big green ideas. At the Finals, the teams will show how they worked with stakeholders, created and carried out a strategy, catalyzed behavior change, and measured their results. The most impactful project will win the Greenlight Award and a $500 cash prize.

The presentations will be scored by judges Kitley Covill, Westchester County Legislator, Dale Akinla of Morgan Stanley, and Caela Murphy of the Endeavor Foundation.

The 2017-2018 Greenlight Award is sponsored by PepsiCo.

The Greenlight Award Finals will take place on Tuesday, May 1st at 6:30pm at the Bedford Playhouse, 633 Old Post Rd, Bedford, NY.

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

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Bedford 2020 is a non-profit organization leading a community-wide effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to create a sustainable community that conserves natural resources. More information is available at www.Bedford2020.org.