Eastern Rensselaer County's Community Newspaper
submitted by Sherry Bowman-Kluck
On August 20, 2013, Petersburgh’s Alissa Babcock and her family received word that she was recommended and accepted by peers, instructors and community leaders to participate in the People to People Student Ambassador Program. Acceptance into the program was based on a demonstration of leadership and citizenship, a desire to learn about diverse cultures and a willingness to venture into the world in the name of peace, friendship and understanding.
In celebration of Earth Day 2014, the Hoosick Falls High School Earth Club is sponsoring a community viewing of the award winning documentary Gasland Part II on Tuesday, April 22, at 6:30 pm in the High School Auditorium. Admission is free, and the community is invited to attend.
Gasland Part II, which premiered at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival, takes a broader look at the dangers of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the controversial method of extracting natural gas and oil, now occurring on a global level in 32 countries worldwide. Fracking is one of the most important environmental issues facing our nation today.
Hoosick Falls High School is located at 21187 New York 22, Hoosick. For more information, please contact Deborah Mabey at 518-686-7321 x 2221.
On Friday, May 2, the Berlin FCCLA will join the Berlin Bears Relay for Life Team as they Paint the Town Purple! The festivities will be held at the Berlin Town Complex and are open to the public. There will be pulled pork and chili, a bake sale and purple ice cream floats, donated by Stewart’s. There will be a coffee can auction which will offer gift certificates and other nice prizes for children and adults. Food, music and raffles will occur from 6 to 9 pm. Drawing for the auction will begin at 8:30 pm. Donations are welcome.
Area residents are asked to show their support for the Relay for Life Team and for all those who have or are battling cancer. Fly a purple flag, hang some purple balloons or tie a purple bow on your mailbox! Purple bows are available from Tammy Osterhout, Dianne Mosher or at Berlin High School.
New members are always welcome on the Berlin Bears Relay Team. Sign up sheets for walkers will be available May 2. Luminaria bags will also be available at the Paint the Town Purple celebration. For $5 people may add names of cancer survivors or memorials to those who have lost their cancer battle. The bags can be decorated with photos, stickers, etc. Bring photos (or pictures on a flash drive) if you would like to add a photo to a luminaria bag.
Students are invited to “rock the night away.” From 9 pm Friday until 6 am Saturday, youth will rock in rocking chairs. They will be raising money for the American Cancer Society. Students are asked to pick up a permission form and then get sponsors for their hours of rocking. Students may qualify for special prizes depending on the amount of money they raise. The hours rocking can be used for community service. Interested students should pick up forms from Mrs. Mosher at Berlin HS or email nymoo@yahoo.com and forms can be emailed to you.
If anyone has questions or needs more information, email nymoo@yahoo.com – put RELAY in the subject line or call 658-2453.
Barbara Chepaitis will be the guest speaker at the April 21 meeting of the Taconic Valley Historical Society. She will present her book, Saving Eagle Mitch, a story about an eagle wounded in Afghanistan, rescued by Navy SEALs and the difficulties encountered finding it a safe home in the United States. Mitch now lives at the Berkshire Bird Paradise in Grafton.
Our meetings are held at the Methodist Church, South Main Street, Berlin, on the third Monday of each month at 7:30 pm. The programs are free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.
The Stephentown Volunteer Fire Department will hold an all you can eat Roast Beef Dinner on Saturday, April 26, in the Stephentown Fire Hall, 35 Grange Hall Road in Stephentown from 4 to 7 pm.
Adult all you can eat dinners cost $12, children age 6-10 dinners cost $7 and youth ages 5 and under eat free. Take-out dinners will be available for $10 each. Advance registration is not required.
Spring Foraging
The Vanishing Skills series of the Petersburgh Public Library kicks off with its first installment, “Spring Foraging,” on Saturday, May 3, at 10 am. The new series will offer instruction and knowledge sharing from local residents on country skills and self sufficiency that have been neglected in our fast moving digital age. However, more people are seeing that keeping the knowledge current will prove even more valuable in an uncertain future.
On May 3 from 10 am to noon Danny Schnoop and Mary Lou Walters will lead a spring foraging workshop. They will lead a group to places where baby dandelion greens, fiddlehead ferns and other spring plants can be foraged. Afterward, the group will return to the PVMCC for some pointers in preparing and preserving its finds. Please sign up at the Library if you will be attending since space in the kitchen is limited.
Book Discussion Group
The next book discussion will take place on Wednesday, May 14, at 7 pm. The book to be discussed is Savage Beauty: the life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford. Copies of the book are available at the Library for everyone who would like to join in the book discussion.
Plant, Bake, Book And Tag Sale
The annual Plant, Bake, Book and Tag Sale will be held on Saturday, May 17, from 9 am to 1 pm. Donations of plants and baked goods would be greatly appreciated.
The Grafton Community Library announces its programs for the month of April. All programs are free and open to the public. For more information contact the Library at 518-279-0580 or email director@graftoncommunitylibrary.org. Stay up to date with everything that is happening at the library by visiting our online events calendar at www.graftoncommunitylibrary.org/whats-happening-at-your-library, and signing up for our email newsletter on our website www.graftoncommunitylibrary.org.
Native American Animal Spirits
Storyteller Gil Payette will present Native American Animal Spirits (all ages program) on Friday, April 18, at 6:30 pm. In this fun and informative program Payette will weave together his teaching and storytelling skills to give us a glimpse of how Native Americans understand spiritual and sacred animal power. Some Native American languages had no word for “animal.” These life forms were considered extended family – brothers, sisters, cousins – each one unique unto itself, a symbol of power, of the soul, a creative element with a spiritual purpose. Special prizes will be given!
Facts About Lyme Disease
The Facts about Lyme Disease will be presented by Jennifer Mahoney, Rensselaer County Health Department, on Tuesday, April 22, at 6:30 pm. Get ready to enjoy the great outdoors in a safe way this spring by finding out everything you need to know about Lyme disease in our area.This program will cover:
• information about the tick’s life cycle;
• awareness of Lyme disease and other tick borne diseases;
• recognizing basic signs and symptoms;
• knowing to seek early diagnosis and treatment;
• knowing if you live, work or play in an area that has infected ticks;
• practicing preventive actions, and
• knowing who to contact for more information.
Book Discussion Group
The Book Discussion Group will discuss The Secret History by Donna Tartt on Wednesday, April 30, at 12:30 pm. The Grafton Community Library’s book discussion group meets monthly. New participants are always welcome. Donna Tartt’s The Secret History is the darkly engrossing debut by the author of last year’s acclaimed novel The Goldfinch. This tale of murder and intrigue at a small Vermont college was inspired by Tartt’s years in Bennington. Copies are available now at the Library.
Storytime
Weekly Storytime for Preschool Aged Children will take place on Wednesday, April 23, at 10:30 am and Wednesday, April 30, at 10:30 am.
Coupon Clippers
The Grafton Clippers Coupon Group will meet on Monday, April 21, at 6 pm. Be part of a new social group where people gather to share knowledge of clipping coupons and finding ways to cut shopping trips by 90%. The Grafton Clippers will meet at the Library every other Monday at 6 pm. New members are always welcome. For more information email Donna atmoreoutoflife@gmail.com or Erin at Erin_469@yahoo.com.
Game Day At The Library
Game day is every Tuesday starting at 3:30 pm. Come to the Library to play your favorite board games with friends – Scrabble, Bananagrams, Scattergories and more. Use the Library’s games or bring your own.
Sit And Knit Needle Arts Group
Sit and Knit Needle Arts Group will meet Saturdays at 10 am. Come share your love of all the Needle Arts! Knitting, stitching, crocheting and more. All skill levels and abilities welcome.
Maggi Randall is a Bennington artist who works in a wide variety of mediums, including ceramics, wood, fabric, oil paint and pastels. She describes her work as “darkly humorous… an expression of how strange it feels to live in such tumultuous times.”
In exploring ideas like climate change, surveillance and the global arms market, she searches for the “balance between angst and humor.” Much of her work is in clay. She says it “connects me to one of the oldest artistic mediums.” In her figurative work, she creates both tension and harmony between believable anatomy and distortion to evoke a sense of “the forces tugging us through the universe without our volition.” She finds her imagery in her subconscious and childhood dreams. In all of her art, Randall visualizes a response to the world that is both critical and optimistic.
Maggi’s work has been exhibited in both group and one-woman shows in a number of galleries in and around New York City, including the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in Manhattan. Her artwork can be found in private collections as well, including a wooden alter piece commissioned by an Episcopal Church in New York and a fabric creation purchased for the Fermi Labs Art Gallery in Chicago.
Hoosick Artist Guild Exhibiting “The Metamorphosis Of Seven Chairs”
Members of the Hoosick Artist Guild have taken seven matching chairs and transformed them in imaginative and creative ways. The artists have painted them and added things to them, deconstructed them and used the parts to create works of art unrelated to chairs or made a different kind of furniture out of it. Some hang from the ceiling or the wall, or sit on the floor or a pedestal. The show is a creative exploration of form and function, definitely a different kind of artistic experience.
The opening reception for both of these exhibitions is Friday, April 25, from 6 to 8 pm. Both the art show and the musical performance are free and open to the public.
At The Owls Nest
Performing live downstairs in The Owls Nest from 7 to 8 pm that same evening will be members of the Hoosick Falls High School Senior Chorus. Bill Brown will accompany them on keyboard and Martha von Schilgen will play the violin. HFCS Chorus Director, Ambigay Yudkoff, will conduct the group.
The Dyken Pond Environmental Education Center is celebrating Earth Day on April 27 from 1 to 4 pm. Help us give back to the earth by doing trail maintenance and other outdoor work. Snacks and drinks will be provided to all volunteers. Pre-registration is encouraged to help with planning and can be done by contacting the Center at dykenpond@fairpoint.net or 518-658-2055. A complete list of programs can be found at www.dykenpond.org.
Dyken Pond Environmental Education Center, located at 475 Dyken Pond Road, Cropseyville, is a Rensselaer County Park open daily during daylight hours for hiking, fishing and non-motor boating. Canoes and kayaks are available for rent each day from 9 am until 3 pm after May 15. Call for more information and a complete schedule of our events.
