volunteer Archives - Inside Chappaqua and Inside Armonk: The Magazines for New and North Castle

How “Habititis is Spreading” Since Habitat for Humanity Arrived in Chappaqua

March 5, 2017 by Janine Crowley Haynes

HHW CEO Jim Killoran holding hat N.M.U. 30 to 30–standing for No More Ugly, transforming 30 neighborhoods in celebration of Habitat’s 30th anniversary.

We all know Habitat for Humanity for the wonderful things they do around the globe to provide housing for those in need, but Habitat for Humanity of Westchester (HHW) has also been busy working closer to home–at 300 King Street in Chappaqua to be exact. The structure was originally the Orthodox (Quaker) Friends’ Meeting House built in 1885.

I visited the site and was received with a warm, enthusiastic welcome from HHW CEO Jim Killoran. His fervor and passion for what he does is infectious. “New York is the most exited state in the country,” says Killoran, a longtime New Rochelle resident. “We want to create ownership….In-town, affordable homeownership is a vital component in keeping our communities thriving,” he notes.

Killoran has been working with HHW for 30 years in various capacities. He’s a specialist in disaster relief and was involved in mobilizing approximately 9,000 volunteers to help with the vast cleanup after Hurricane Sandy, particularly in the Rockaways and Breezy Point where entire communities were basically submerged. He is also involved in projects providing housing for veterans.

“My assistant is a wounded warrior, my uncles were all in WWII…and my cousin was killed in Vietnam. So, it’s a cause very near and dear to my heart,” says Killoran.

In scale, 300 King Street is a small project.Upon completion, it will be a two-unit condominium, each approximately 1,800 square feet with three bedrooms and two baths. Westchester County purchased 300 King Street via HUD from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer for approximately $300,000, and each unit will sell around $250,000 to $280,000.

Applications are submitted to the Housing Action Council. Applicants must qualify “with incomes at or below 80 percent of the Westchester County’s Area Median Income….” The qualified applicants are then put into a lottery.

Architect Bill Spade of Sasaki + Spade, who has donated his time and talent, notes that 300 King Street will be HHW’s most energy–efficient structure built to date.

Like most construction projects, 300 King Street has not been met without its challenges. They discovered the foundation was unstable and needed to be shored up.

In terms of the design, “Habitat’s acceptance of the Town Historic Designation committed to restore the exterior to its original appearance,” says Spade. “The style, Stick Victorian, is to match the original structure when it was reconstructed on this site in 1885,” he adds. The exterior design will match the original building, and the front porch will remain with all of the original materials. The exterior siding and trim around the remainder of the building will be new but will replicate the original look. The interior will be all new. There will also be green space created in the front of the building for a garden.

The target date of completion is September 2017, but a lot depends on fundraising and volunteerism. HHW is kicking off a Buy-a-Brick campaign where donors’ names will be engraved in a brick and incorporated in the structure as well as walkways. Donors can also purchase energy-efficient windows with their names etched in the glass.

Although Westchester County purchased the building for $300,000, it’s HHW’s responsibility, as developer, to raise additional funds for supplies, materials, and volunteer staff to donate their time and professional skills for painting, landscaping, etc. “We ultimately would like to raise an additional $300,000 for the completion,” says Killoran.

Aside from monetary donations, fundraising can also come in the form of companies donating materials. “Franzoso Contracting has donated all the roofing materials, Silverstein Properties donated lumber, and Dow donated insulation,” Killoran notes.

Volunteerism is Habitat’s signature. “We are committed to every youth, from GED to PhD, we teach them to build, to make things, to use their hands….Horace Greeley kids volunteer through the Habitat Club,” says Killoran. “Also, football teams, 50 high schools, 14,000 college students…when kids volunteer, they realize they’ve changed the trajectory of families’ lives by getting involved. It’s an amazing thing!”

The project is not just for the young.

People of all ages offer their time and expertise, like longtime Chappaqua resident David Kellogg. “I kept driving by the site, and the sign would always catch my eye.

I had to check it out,” says Kellogg.

Now retired, Kellogg was the publisher for Foreign Affairs Magazine and an adjunct professor for the Columbia School of Journalism. However, woodworking happens to be his hobby. He now donates his time and woodworking skills, helping with gutting, framing, and, eventually, interior trim work. “I’ve met some incredible people volunteering on this project,” says Kellogg. “Retirees are our heart. They now volunteer on Tuesdays and Thursdays. From 8 to 84 and more, everyone is a youth with Habitat….Habititis is spreading!” says Killoran.

Chappaqua/Pleasantville resident and volunteer Sue Halper commented on how much she has learned about energy efficiency and has implemented many of the energy-saving techniques in her own home. “We’ve reduced our energy consumption by 20 percent,” says Halper.

HHW is also busy building another two-unit home at 437 Saw Mill River Road in Millwood. “We’ve had wonderful support from the surrounding communities….After all, homeownership really is the American Dream,” says Killoran.

To learn more, donate or volunteer, please visit www.habitatwc.org.

Janine Crowley Haynes is a Chappaqua resident and author of My Kind of Crazy: Living in a Bipolar World.

Volunteer Opportunities Galore Presented at Youth Fair

December 1, 2016 by The Inside Press

During the second annual New Castle Youth Volunteer Opportunities Fair inside Chappaqua’s First Congregational Church in October, area families enjoyed a buffet lunch and a chance to explore a great number of volunteer opportunities in and around town. According to Rev. Dr. Martha Jacobson, the word of mouth since last year’s event helped grow the number of organizations represented. And as noted by the Youth Fair Planning Committee, “One of our young members mentioned that he was surprised that helping others makes him feel good…What surprises many youth is realizing that you are never too young to make a difference.”

PHOTOS BY GRACE BENNETT

Flood Sisters Kidney Foundation of America — The Flood Sisters and The Flood Sisters Foundation

‘Empty Bowls Westchester:’ Raising Funds and Awareness

December 1, 2016 by Kelly Leonard

The signed Hillary Bowl: presented as a gift to Dawn Greenberg; here, together with Jessica Reinmann (left) and News 12 emcee, Lisa Salvadorini (right) PHOTO BY GRACE BENNETT

The second annual Empty Bowls Westchester fundraising event raised $87,500 in one evening on Sunday, November 13, at the Whippoorwill Club in Armonk to support local food pantries in Northern Westchester including The Mount Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry, The Community Center of Northern Westchester and the Pleasantville Interfaith Emergency Food Pantry. Award-winning anchor for New 12 Westchester and News 12 Hudson Valley, Lisa Salvadorini, served as the evening fundraiser emcee.

Hosted by Chappaqua Cares, an organization dedicated to connecting local residents with philanthropic opportunities for volunteering, fundraising and donating, the event included a celebrity bowl silent auction with bowls signed by Chappaqua’s own Hillary Clinton, Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda, singer/songwriter James Taylor, country music star Carrie Underwood, New York Mets players and other notables.

Co-founders and organizers Dawn Evans Greenberg and Jessica Stern Reinmann welcomed guests as they made their way into the club. The event was attended by hundreds who came out to support the cause in casual dress and dined on a simple meal of soup and bread.

The bowl signed by Hillary Clinton helped raise $3,000 in the silent auction. The bowl was presented as a gift to Greenberg who had worked tirelessly during the election season on behalf of Hillary for America.

Why the need for an event to help end hunger in affluent Westchester County? According to USDA’s 2014 report on hunger in America, Household Food Insecurity in the United States, 13.5 % of New York residents are food insecure, meaning they lack consistent access to a nutritious well-balanced diet. The Food Bank for Westchester estimates that approximately 200,000 Westchester County residents are hungry or at risk of hunger. More than half of them are seniors; one-third are children under the age of 18.

Empty Bowls Westchester is part of the Empty Bowls project, an international grassroots effort to raise money and awareness in the fight against hunger. Empty Bowls communities work together to create hand painted bowls for guests to take home at the end of the event to serve as a reminder of all of the people in the world whose bowls are empty on a daily basis.

For more information contact Empty Bowls Westchester at chappaquacares@gmail.comor find them on Facebook at EmptyBowlsWestchester and Twitter @chappaquacares.

Kelly Leonard is the Founder and Principal Consultant of KLO Associates, LLC, a digital marketing boutique specializing in custom content strategy and influencer engagement for authors, publishers, local businesses and nonprofits. Previously she held senior management positions at Time Warner Book Group and Hachette Book Group.

Hundreds enjoyed the Chappaqua Cares event that helps food pantries fight their battle against hunger.

Serving up some half dozen delicious soups.

Plastic Surgeon & Chappaqua Native Dr. Elan Singer Heals Soldiers and Helps Beautify New Yorkers

December 1, 2016 by Stacey Pfeffer

Listening to Dr. Elan Singer reminisce about his childhood growing up in Chappaqua, it is easy to appreciate how idyllic this town is. There were soccer games, bike rides into town to visit his mother’s store ICD Contemporary Jewelry and practices with the Greeley ski team. But more than anything he credits his time volunteering during his teenage years with the Chappaqua Volunteer Ambulance Corps (CVAC) as setting him on his chosen career path as a preeminent plastic surgeon with an office in Manhattan and a recently opened practice at Radiance MedSpa on North Bedford Road in Mount Kisco.

Dr. Singer, a 1990 Greeley graduate joined CVAC as part of the youth corps when he was 16 and became an EMT when he was 17. “I carried a beeper around high school and my experience at CVAC was integral in helping me choose medicine as a career.”

A medical officer in the Navy Reserves, Dr. Singer spends one weekend a month at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, which is the largest American military hospital in the world. It treats all branches of the US military. “My reserve unit is actually very special because we are the only unit that does surgeries at Walter Reed on the weekends there.” During the month, Dr. Singer communicates with the active duty surgeons at Walter Reed about cases and when he goes down there, Dr. Singer helps offload some of the backload of cases that the active duty plastic surgeons aren’t able to get to. “It’s mostly elective surgeries now, so breast reduction or reconstruction but in years past, we had a lot of wounded warriors.”

All reservists are eligible to be mobilized to war-torn areas such as Iraq or Afghanistan. Most are mobilized for eight months. Some of his medical colleagues in the Reserves have been mobilized but Dr. Singer notes that other specialties such as orthopedics, anesthesia and neurosurgery are in higher demand overseas. “In plastic surgery, most of the work we do is highly specialized and needs a lot of infrastructure so that tends to take place here in the United States. We are dealing a lot with reconstruction so we see the same patients repeatedly for multiple surgeries.”

Dr. Singer likes the large complex surgeries that he performs on Reserve duty. But he’s equally skilled at performing elective cosmetic surgeries such as liposuction, skin rejuvenation services, facelifts and body contouring procedures on his patients in Manhattan and Westchester. He enjoys the diversity of surgeries that he gets to perform at Walter Reed and in his private practice.

Dr. Singer with his wife Dana and son Yonatan at Fleet Week

As a Reservist, Dr. Singer is required to spend two weeks a year performing plastic surgery as part of his commitment. His last two weeks of service was on the USNS Mercy, a large naval ship that went on a humanitarian mission to Asia in July where he performed several surgeries on Vietnamese civilians. He’s also served as a physician on the ships that station in NY Harbor during Fleet Week as part of his two-week commitment on Reserve duty.

In addition to the humanitarian mission that he did with the Reserves, Dr. Singer has also gone on civilian humanitarian missions to Haiti after the earthquake to perform pro-bono plastic surgery. As a chief resident at Mount Sinai Medical Center, he flew to Southern Nigeria to work on burn reconstruction patients. “Each one of these humanitarian medical missions “was unique and very eye-opening to me as a young surgeon.”

Dr. Elan Singer on a Humanitarian Medical Mission in Vietnam Pictured in the “N” Cap

Dr. Singer’s family connection to the military is quite extensive. His father was in the Navy as a doctor in the submarine service in the late 1960s. His mother was in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) as a spokeswoman for the IDF to the foreign press, providing them with details at media briefings during the Six Day War. His grandfather was a physician in the army in France during WWII and landed six days after D-Day. “So I’m actually the third generation in the US Military as a physician in my family.”

Dr. Singer is looking forward to building his new practice in Mount Kisco. Although he currently resides in Manhattan with his wife and three young children, he enjoys coming up to his hometown to spend time with his parents and his children enjoy spending time outdoors in their grandparent’s backyard just as he did as a young boy.

Stacey Pfeffer lives with her husband and three young children in Chappaqua. She has written for New York Family Magazine, Westchester Parent, Westchester Family Magazine, Kveller.com and Inside Armonk.

One Extraordinary Evening On a Call with the Chappaqua Volunteer Ambulance Corps

October 21, 2016 by Audrey Brooks

Editor’s Note: To protect privacy of injured parties, the footage in this video is a simulated call to depict everyday actions of the Chappaqua Volunteer Ambulance Corps.

In the middle of my tour of the Ambulance building, the 911 alarm rings and five on-duty members of the Chappaqua Volunteer Ambulance Corps quietly go into action. The Driver gets behind the wheel, the Crew Chief hops in next to him. Into the belly of the truck go the EMT, the Aider, a member of the Youth Corps and me. I feel very privileged to have been invited to go out on a call.

The crew has been trained to load and leave within five minutes of the sound of an alarm. As usual, 911 has not been able to tell them much. They know that a car has hit a bicyclist at Gedney Park–the dearth of details will be filled in at the scene, often by the Police who usually arrive first.

The Driver turns on the siren and hopes cars pull over to let him pass so that he can get to the scene as fast as possible. (Reader, do you pull over? If not: Note to self!)

As the ambulance races toward Gedney Park, the Crew Chief rapidly prepares the crew. “Put your gloves on. Bring out a backboard and a collar.”

Arriving at the park, the crew goes into action. Every member knows their role and gets right to it. The Crew Chief attends the bicyclist and the EMT heads to the woman slumped over in the car.

Each exudes calmness and competence as they begin to ask the questions necessary to determine the next steps to take for each patient.

“Did you hit your head?” the Crew Chief asks the bicyclist as she crouches down next to her. “No.” is the response. “Good.” The Crew Chief turns to the Youth Corps volunteer, “She appears alert and oriented.” “Is it to ok if I check you out?” the Crew Chief asks. The bicyclist agrees. “Do you feel pain?” “My arm!” “OK. I’m going to continue checking.” “Does this hurt?,”

she asks as she continues the examination. “On a scale on 1 to 10, what is your pain level–with 10 being the highest?”

“10 for my arm, the rest is ok. Can I call my husband?” “Of course,” the Crew Chief says. She takes out gauze and begins to wrap the arm to restrict movement and reduce the pain in preparation for the move to the ambulance.

The Crew Chief keeps talking, and as she does, the bicyclist becomes visibly calmer. Keeping conversation going is a key component to the assessment because the crew member is doing a couple of things at once. If the patient is talking, she/he often doesn’t realize that the crew member is taking their vital signs and gathering other important information.

With the bicyclist’s arm immobilized and the examination complete, members of the crew bring a “scoop, attach the straps and then lift the bicyclist to the stretcher and head for the ambulance.

“When our son was very young he needed emergency medical attention. I felt helpless and fearful on that day. The CVAC crew who responded to our call were knowledgeable, efficient, and confident but most of all very comforting to us. They knew exactly what to do and assured us that they would take very good care of him. I was so impressed with them that I later decided to join the Corp. CVAC members genuinely care about their community and take great pride in helping others in need. I am proud to be associated with this organization and hope that I am as good at my job as those who responded to my home years ago.” —Marianne Karr

At the same time, the EMT has been dealing with the driver and learned that she has diabetes. The EMT does a blood sugar check–it’s low. She offers a stick of glucose and then brain-protecting oxygen. Next, she begins the body check. No pain, no visible issues. As with the wounded bicyclist, the EMT keeps talking, offering reassurance and letting her know that she will be by her side throughout. The Aider brings the stretcher and the move to the ambulance begins.

This is the kind of call the Chappaqua Volunteer Ambulance Corps (CVAC) answers 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Trained and completely staffed by volunteers, crews routinely rush to homes, traffic accidents, schools, houses of worship, bike paths and businesses.

Last year, CVAC’s 45 members, who range in age from 16 to 75, answered 500 emergency calls. When any one of New Castle’s 18,000 residents dials 911 for a medical emergency, it’s CVAC who responds.

CVAC volunteers are teachers, bus drivers, stay-at-home parents, lawyers, accountants, retired and working professionals.

Working from their headquarters on North Greeley Avenue, donated by the American Legion 80 years ago, this is where CVAC’s two ambulances and one flycar are stored, where training takes place and where volunteers gather during their shifts. Training is ongoing for all members of the corps. Volunteers are taught how to deal with contagions like Ebola, terrorism, flu outbreaks and more. How much does this life-saving service cost us as a community? Zip. CVAC is fully funded through reimbursement from insurance and donations from the community.

What inspires all these extraordinary volunteers to join CVAC? Leslie Jameson, who joined as an Aider and is now an EMT, says, “I drove past a recruitment banner six years ago and decided it would be a good use of my time. I called up and was told that training would be provided and a mentor would be assigned to me. When I went for my first training, everyone was so nice. It felt then–and the feeling has only grown over the years–that I was joining a very special community of men and women.”

CVAC’s Captain Joe Gentilesco was inspired by the crew that came when his father-in-law needed help. “I saw how relieved my family felt when they came and how competently everything was handled. I decided right then that I wanted to be a part of something that was there for people at their most vulnerable moments.”

Reflecting on his five years as a CVAC driver, John Cook said, “I joined to be able to give something to the community. Initially, it was beyond my capabilities but I was trained to do my job first as an Aider and then as a Driver. I find it very interesting and gratifying to be able to help people in their moment of need.”

Be A Lifesaver! The Chappaqua Volunteer Ambulance Corps is always looking for caring committed members of the community who have at least ten hours a week to give. To learn more, call 914-238-3191. Before joining a crew, you will receive training in CPR and first aid. All volunteers begin at the level of Aider and you will always go out on calls with an experienced crew. Call today!

Audrey Brooks feels fortunate to have lived in Chappaqua for 23 years with her three sons and husband Steven Cownie. She is a huge fan of CVAC and grateful for the commitment of its members. A Trustee of the Chappaqua Library and President of the Yoga Teachers Association, professionally, she is a nonprofit consultant, currently working for PowHerNY, a network working toward equal pay for women.