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Hope

Relay Reflections…

May 26, 2017 by Inside Press

… and Hope Following the 10th Annual Relay for Life of Chappaqua     

Article and Photo by Gillian Hand

On May 20th, the field in front of Bell Middle School was transformed. Tents and tables sprung up across the property as Greeley students prepared to spend the night at one of the most anticipated fundraising events of the year: the 10th Annual Relay for Life of Chappaqua. All night long, these participants would walk in support of cancer patients, raising money for research and fostering hope for a world without cancer.

The dedication to finding a cure runs strong in this American Cancer Society event, bringing communities together across the globe and right here in Chappaqua. Although no words can do it justice, this Relay for Life slogan is a true testament to the nature and goals of this inspiring event: “Celebrate. Remember. Fight back.”

2017 marked the tenth year of Chappaqua’s participation in Relay for Life. For one decade, students at Horace Greeley High School have come together to raise money for cancer research and have walked the track throughout the night in support of all those who have been touched by cancer. This year, the reconstruction of the Greeley track and field facilities prompted the event’s move to downtown Chappaqua.

While this would mark the first year that the fundraiser would be held anywhere but the Greeley property, the new location of Bell Middle School enhanced community involvement and inspired increased participation of local merchants and residents. Although the Bell facilities do not include a track, committee members from the Greeley club worked throughout the day to prepare the grounds for the fundraiser and mimic the setup of past years. While it was certainly a change from the previous events held at Greeley, the Chappaqua administration partnered with the Relay for Life of Chappaqua executive board to help ease the transition and make the event the great success it has been in the past.

I served on the Relay planning committee and executive board throughout my four years at Greeley. Behind the scenes, this dedicated Greeley club prepares for the event throughout the year, organizes the setup and cleanup of the event grounds, and works tirelessly to ensure that the night runs smoothly. It has been an honor to not only take part in such an inspiring and worthy event, but to also lend a personal hand in the successful planning and execution of the fundraiser. Each year, I have been privileged to watch the event grow and develop at every stage, present for everything from the early months of planning to the sun rising over the field after a night of walking.

Relay for Life is extraordinary. By rallying behind friends or family members touched by the disease or simply staying the night despite heavy rain or cold temperatures, these students prove themselves year after year as true supporters of the cause. It is incredible to see students, families, Greeley faculty members, and other Chappaqua residents coming together in hope and support; Relay for Life of Chappaqua has shown me how successful we can be when we unite behind a common goal. Nearly everyone has been touched by cancer in some way, and with an event like Relay, the entire community can work together to foster change and progress in cancer research. While I am looking forward to continuing my participation in college, I am excited to watch Relay for Life of Chappaqua continue to grow and succeed. 

At the time of the writing of this article, the 2017 Relay for Life of Chappaqua had raised over $170,000 for the American Cancer Society, and this number will only go up. Relay for Life is something that both Greeley and Chappaqua as a whole can be proud of.

To donate to Relay for Life of Chappaqua, visit http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLCY17EA?pg=entry&fr_id=79440.

 

Inside Press Intern Gillian Hand is a senior at Greeley.

Filed Under: Inside Thoughts Tagged With: American Cancer Society, cancer, cancer research, Chappaqua, Hope, Horace Greeley High School, Relay for Life, Relay for Life of Chappaqua, theinsidepress.com

Hope, Not Hate

May 25, 2015 by The Inside Press

Betty Knoop and her work with the Holocaust & 
Human Rights Education Center’s Speakers Bureau

Large photo: Abraham and Clara Knoop. Smaller photos: also Betty’s mother, Clara Knoop
Large photo: Abraham and Clara Knoop. Smaller photos: also Betty’s mother, Clara Knoop

Article and Photos by Marianne A. Campolongo

Anne Frank has always been one of my heroines. Armonk resident Betty Knoop, who survived the unspeakable horrors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp where Anne Frank and 50,000 others met their death, has now joined that heroine list.

Knoop, originally a Dutch citizen, grew up in Amsterdam. Though the two never met, like Frank, her childhood was cut short by the Nazis and she eventually was taken to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Unlike Frank, she survived.

Although her story is not as well known as Frank’s, hundreds of area students, civic group members, synagogue and church-goers have heard Knoop speak about her experiences over the past 45 years, most recently as part of the Speakers Bureau at the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center in White Plains. She is one of 20 survivors and liberators who share their message of hope and determination. Said Millie Jasper, the Center’s Executive Director, “You must be an ‘upstander’ not a bystander. When you see something, you need to speak up.” That is their message.

“Betty is a brilliant woman and she has a full life,” said Jasper. “Almost all of our survivors have full lives, families and no room in their lives for hate,” she adds.

This past April marked 70 years since Knoop, her parents and brother were liberated from Bergen-Belsen. Then, 14 years-old, 5’ 7” tall and weighing only 54 pounds, she has since grown into a strong, cheerful, lovely woman who still does yoga twice a week, is quick to offer a visitor coffee and hospitality, and who drives herself all over the region to share her story and a message of hope with her audience. “I should thank God on my knees every day,” she said.

She first spoke in public about her experiences 25 years after her liberation. Having asked her Rabbi at the Rye Community Synagogue to say Kaddish for her family, he asked that she speak to his confirmation class that night in return.

“How do you want me to do this?” she asked.

“Go back to your very first memories,” he told her.

Betty Knoop
Betty Knoop

“I still speak like that,” she said, recalling her childhood fears as she picked up on the anxiety of the adults around her when the Germans arrived, but then headed out to play the next minute, forgetting the anxiety as children are wont to do. “When I talk, I’m there again,” she said.

Knoop attended the Wilhelmina Catharina School in Amsterdam. Her eyes light up as she describes the “huge wooden front doors and beautiful vestibule. I thought it was chic,” she said. Although the Netherlands was neutral, nevertheless the Germans invaded, occupying the country in May 1940, when Knoop was nine. Jewish pupils were forbidden to attend school, but “my school didn’t want to give up their children.” No longer safe for them to enter through those front doors, they arrived surreptitiously via a back alley. “Classes got smaller daily because children had gone into hiding, left the country, or been picked up. We lost teachers too,” she sighed.

Three years later, Knoop’s family was taken to Westerbork in January 1943 and on to Bergen-Belsen in February 1944. As the forced evacuations of camps closer to the front began in late 1944, a barracks that held 50 people when she arrived suddenly held 1,000 people, and scarce food became nearly non-existent, she said. The crematorium there was small, so the bodies of those who starved to death were left for long periods. Records show the camp’s population went from 7,300 in July 1943 to 60,000 in April 1945. Prisoners went for days without food. When the British arrived to free them, “I looked like Olive Oyl with my head shaven. I was all arms and legs,” she said. Her mother, age 36, died just three days after they were freed. 
“I’m happy that I had my mother with me,” she said, though she is saddened that “the time I remember her best unfortunately were the war years.”

After graduating from high school at 19, her father wanted her to visit family in South Africa. “I had come from Apartheid. I didn’t want to go there,” she said. When her stepmother’s cousin invited her to New York, she jumped at the chance, vowing she would only return to Holland on vacation once she left. Coming to the U.S. in 1950, she stayed, meeting and marrying her soon after. Though surprised and distressed by race relations in the U.S., she was happy in America.

Knoop has been back to Holland many times, visiting family and friends, but even now she finds walking through the city “painful.”

Early on in the war, she told her father that she hated the Germans. Her father replied, “Hate is a word that has to go out of your vocabulary,” a lesson she took to heart.

Most of those in the Speaker’s Bureau are now in their 80s and 90s, so the Holocaust Center has a group of about 75 children and grandchildren of survivors, called Generation Forward, whom they are training to carry on their work.

Now widowed, Knoop raised her three children in Rye, but has lived in Armonk for eight years. Her son Gregg, who intends to take up his mother’s mantle and join Generation Forward, also lives in town with his wife and two sons, Zachary and Jason. Her son Henri lives in White Plains and her daughter Clara, named for her grandmother, lives in Florida.

Although she was only 12 when she was taken to the camps, and even younger when the German occupation began, Knoop says she doesn’t like to speak of her experiences to young children, believing 15 or 16 is a better age. When asked to sum up her message in a few sentences, she said, “That racism is evil. It’s always evil and it debases men.”

Marianne A. Campolongo is a freelance writer and photographer from Chappaqua, New York. Her website is www.campyphotos.com

Filed Under: Armonk Cover Stories Tagged With: holocaust, Hope, Inside Press, remembrance, theinsidepress.com

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