Reed/Applebaum Families Need Your Help as Fire Destroys Home of Former MCS Teacher

GoFundMe Page to Help the Reed/Applebaum Family Recover from House Fire

By David Avitabile

MIDDLEBURGH - A GoFundMe page has been established to help a former Middleburgh Central School teacher and her family after a devastating fire destroyed their home in Canajoharie Monday.

"We are reaching out with heavy hearts to share the news that a devastating house fire struck the home of Mark Reed and Linda Reed, along with their granddaughter Aaliyah Applebaum and Linda’s son Aaron Applebaum. Thankfully, everyone is safe and unharmed, but the fire completely destroyed their home and all of their belongings," it was announced on Facebook Tuesday morning.

"Mark, Linda, Aaliyah, and Aaron are now facing the overwhelming task of rebuilding their lives from scratch. They have lost not only their home but also their clothing, food, and essential items. While we are incredibly grateful that they are all okay, they urgently need support to get back on their feet. They do have a house to live in for the time being."

Ms. Reed (aka Mrs. Applebaum) was a popular middle school teacher for many years at MCS. 

"We are asking for any help you can provide—whether it's a donation for food, clothes, or other essentials. Every little bit counts and will go a long way in helping them start anew. We also want to extend our deepest gratitude to the brave firefighters who worked tirelessly to keep everyone safe.

"Thank you for your generosity, compassion, and support during this difficult time. Together, we can help Mark, Linda, Aaliyah, and Aaron rebuild their lives."

As of early Tuesday afternoon, $3,095 was raised from 36 donations. The goal is $10,000.

"Today, a devastating fire destroyed my father-in-law Mark's home," Kelly Reed wrote on Facebook. "Thankfully, everyone, including Mark, his wife Linda, their granddaughter Aaliyah, and Linda’s son Aaron, is safe and unharmed. While we are deeply grateful for their safety, they have lost everything in the fire.

Here is the link to the GoFundMe:

https://gofund.me/35776561

They also wanted to extend their heartfelt thanks to the firefighters who worked tirelessly to ensure everyone’s safety.

"Please keep Mark, Linda, Aaliyah, and Aaron in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time. Thank you for your kindness, generosity, and support," Kelly Reed added.

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Schoharie County Arts Announces Grant Awards and a Reopened Application Period

Schoharie County Arts (SCA) is pleased to award $500 each to The Gilboa Historical Society and Panther Creek Arts.  The Gilboa Historical Society will bring The FisherCats to Gilboa for a concert and ice cream social on August 21.  Panther Creek Arts will bring the Fenimore Chamber Orchestra to West Fulton on October 9. 

SCA also announces it is reopening the application process for a $500 grant to arts organizations in Schoharie County bringing art to the county in 2024.  Organizations must be located in Schoharie County.  Artists participating in the event may be from within or outside Schoharie County.  The deadline to submit an application is August 15, 2024. Awards will be announced at the end of August.  If you would like to apply for funds, please complete and submit the on-line form on our website at www.schohariecountyarts.org  or print the PDF that is available and return it to:

Schoharie County Arts, Inc.

P.O. Box 812

Cobleskill, NY  12043

Schoharie County Arts seeks to broaden and enrich the quality of life in Schoharie County by developing and strengthening the arts through promoting cultural and arts-related activities.

For more information contact schohariecountyarts@gmail.com; www.schohariecountyarts.org; www.facebook.SchoharieCountyArtsNow

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The Faux Silent Newsreel of Gilboa

By Jesse Angelino

GILBOA — Prior to the 1920’s, the village of Gilboa was considered the largest town in Schoharie County, located at the halfway point between Albany and Cooperstown. It was a thriving community of close to 70 buildings that comprised schools, churches, farmsteads, shops, and businesses like blacksmiths, cotton mills, and tanneries. To the dismay of the locals however, eminent domain was declared over this land on October 1st of 1925, that they may erect a dam at the Schoharie Creek and repurpose the site of their former homes and jobs as a reservoir for clean drinking water that would serve the city of New York some 151 miles away. So it was that the people of Gilboa were forced from the settlement they had built and cultivated for generations and forced to reestablish the Gilboa that we know today, just a few miles north of their original position. After the locals were evicted, the village was burned down in a controlled fire that would remove all the standing structures and make room for the reservoir that swept old Gilboa from the Earth as its ruins disappeared beneath the waves for good, its memory poised to endure mostly as speculation if it were not for two very ambitious cameramen.

One of those two cameramen was Alan Brick. Brick would later receive national recognition by capturing footage (the only footage we have) of the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941 and was an employee and cameraman of William Fox, owner of the Fox Film Company. As a cinematographer, it was Alan's job to scout for excellent footage material, which is exactly what brought him to the Gilboa area in 1923 while gathering moving images of the locale. He would again return to Gilboa in 1925 to shoot the construction of the dam for the new Schoharie reservoir alongside his daredevil colleague Jack Painter, whose signature camera angles and use of depth of field were taken from vantages so intense, one might use a modern  camera drone to reenact them today.  Together, they collected footage that included the building of the dam, the excavation of fossilized plants already famously known to this region, as well as the original village of Gilboa to be used in silent newsreels that would air before a film or cartoon was shown at the local cinema. If you were lucky, a piano player would be present and use appropriate music to help narrate the images you saw on the big screen.

Alas, the legacy of this old village would once again succumb to misfortune when a major fire broke out at the 20th century Fox films storage facility in Little Ferry, NJ where the Gilboa reels along with countless others were said to be stored. The flames took everything and sadly it seemed this part of history had been lost forever. Until a chance donation from 20th Century Fox to the University of South Carolina’s Moving Image Research collection in 1980 revealed nitrocellulose negatives of the lost Gilboa reels among the articles that were gifted to the institute. Through all odds,a part of Alan and Jack’s footage had survived after all!                               The Production Manager at the Moving Image Research Collection Mr. Singleton, reached out to the Gilboa Historical Society in an attempt to get these reels home to their rightful place. 

“Returning lost history to people has been my purpose.” Mr Singelton begins. “The Gilboa history is a perfect example of what motivated me to spend three decades preserving the precious nitrocellulose negatives' '. 

As of 2017, the Gilboa Museum maintains licensure over the found footage with tentative plans to digitally touch the reels up and prepare them for official screenings on site by the end of this month! I reached out to the Gilboa Historical Society’s Lee Hudson for more information on the footage’s current status. 

“We have six different clips that amount to roughly twenty minutes of footage and from that material I have decided that we can’t know if there ever really was a silent newsreel that came from these negatives.” The University of South Carolina called these negatives “outtakes”, so we took that literally and thought it was material that some editor chose not to use in the proposed newsreel, when it was in fact just unpublished material.” 

Perhaps these negatives are all there ever was to Alan and Jacks recorded material at Gilboa. 

To begin revitalization of the reels they decided to bring on local audio engineer Brett Barry.

Brett teaches a Podcast and Audio Production class for the Digital Media & Journalism Department at SUNY New Paltz, is the host and producer for the Kaatcast podcast from Silver Hollow Audio, and does voice work with Access Talent in New York City for television, radio commercials, audiobooks, promos, and narrations. Some of Brett’s recent work however has landed him at the Zadock Pratt Museum as well as the Gilboa Museum assisting on upcoming projects. One of which was the Gilboa newsreel. Brett was reached for a quote on the project stating  “We whittled down that outtake footage into something that we thought would approximate the right amount of time it needed to be since it was shown before a movie and you don't want it taking up too much time, organized the footage into categories that were compiled in the edit so it would make sense as a story, created vintage looking title cards to explain the footage which would have been the practice then, and then introduced all kinds of scratches and jitter on the title cards to give them a more authentic feel.” “Afterwards we paired them with music, we hired  a local pianist and composer Tony Coretto, out of Woodstock since he had a passionate talent for that 1920’s rag type music.” “Finally we produced a short companion documentary which is meant to be an introduction to understanding this whole process which will be available at a kiosk in the museum.”

By the time of the newsreel’s exhibition this month, the material will have completed a 99 year journey to finally come home for its debut in Gilboa. The reel itself will be able to give us a glimpse into a past we can no longer witness seeing as unfortunately  there is no one left to contact at this point who would have known the old village as it was back then. However, there are still those in Schoharie County whose relatives worked and lived on those lands before they disappeared for good. One of those individuals is a guide at the Gilboa Museum by the name of Janette Reynolds.

I reached out to Janette to chat a bit about her ancestors.

“My great grandfather Henry Brown, was the old undertaker for the original village of Gilboa, he was the first person to practice embalming there and he had a home in the village where he would stay mostly during the winters with my great grandmother Orpha Brown”. “I also had a great grand uncle who resided there by the name of Ezra Brown with my great grand aunt Haddie”. When asked her perspective on the reel’s near century long exhibition debut at the museum Janette had this to say. “To people who have never seen it before it is great!” “I show it over and over and over at the museum and I am still in awe of it every time I watch.”

The Gilboa Historical Society will be holding an event on July 27th, 2024 at the Gilboa Museum  & Juried History Center at 122 Stryker Road in Gilboa NY, 12076 featuring (Insert additional information here)  

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Tiny Home Project Brings Foundation of Learning to BOCES

SCHOHARIE – Students in the Capital Region BOCES Career & Technical Education Building Trades and Electrical Trades programs created a solid foundation of educational knowledge last school year with the construction of the school’s first-ever tiny home.

Students in Matt Hitchcock’s Building Trades program on the Schoharie Campus were joined during the last five months of the school year by their peers in teacher Curtis Van Steele’s Electrical Trades program in developing the blueprints, framing, roofing, building, plumbing and electrical wiring for a 24-foot, by nearly 12-foot house. 

“This project brings it all together for the students,” said Hitchcock. “They started with the blueprints, developed a materials list, worked on framing and roofing, insulation, flooring – everything that goes into home construction.”

Students concurred. 

“I have learned a lot of different skills and I learned a lot about business at BOCES. These are all skills I will need,” said graduate Carter Iarusso.

The Berne-Knox-Westerlo graduate is launching his own contracting business, Carter’s Contracting.

Meanwhile, Electrical Trades students said the work put a charge in their learning.

“[Wiring the tiny home] is an awesome project. It gives you the opportunity to work in a real-world setting and gain valuable skills,” said class of 2024 Electrical Trades graduate Brandan Cross, who attended the program from the Gilboa-Conesville Central School District.

Before starting construction, Building Trades students created a variety of designs for the project and then voted on the blueprints they wanted to bring to life. Graduate Marc Becker crafted the winning design. 

“It’s a lot of fun to see something you designed come to life,” the Cobleskill-Richmondville High School graduate said. “It’s fun working with my friends and building this and bringing it from paper to reality.”

Offered on the Albany and Schoharie campuses, the Capital Region BOCES Career & Technical Education Electrical Trades program teaches students the fundamental skills in electrical theory through classroom instruction and hands-on shop lessons. Through this training, they can become successful residential, commercial and industrial wiring professionals.

Offered on the Albany and Schoharie campuses, the Building Trades program provides students with valuable construction industry experience through on- and off-campus projects as they prepare for careers in the industry. Past projects include the construction of sheds, furniture, fencing, signs and outbuildings. This is the first house students will construct as part of the program.

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Obituary - Howard Harrison Glaser

Howard Harrison Glaser (aka Howard Harrison) died at his home in Highmount, N.Y., on February 10, 2020, at age 84 from cancer.  He was born on November 30, 1935, in Boston, Mass., to William (Billy) Harrison Glaser and Lillian Rose Riseman. Howard’s father was a family doctor whose practice was on the ground floor of their home on Commonwealth Avenue.

In his early years, during WW II, Howard recalled gathering tinfoil from gum wrappers and cigarette packs to help the war effort. Starting at age 5, he was sent  to camp in New Hampshire for entire summers and considered it a wonderful experience, particularly liking to recount that he was voted the youngest mayor of Camp Kenwood in its history. Also at a young age, he discovered skiing and would strap a couple of boards on his boots and spend happy hours skiing down a little hill in his back yard. As a teenager, Howard rode a 3-speed Schwinn bicycle from Boston to Newfoundland, Canada, with a YMCA youth group, cementing his lifelong love of cycling. 

Howard attended Boston Latin, River Country Day and then Harvard. At Harvard he became the manager of the varsity hockey team and often recounted the positive influence of Coach Ralph Weiland and the thrill of making it to the NCAA hockey championships. It was through his involvement with hockey that he landed a job with the Boston Herald Traveler as a campus correspondent. At Harvard, he also built sets for theater productions, learning carpentry skills that served him well in future renovation projects.

After graduating, Howard left Boston for New York City, where he lived for the next 43 years. Aside from a short stint as an editor and staff writer at Great American Publications, he was self-employed as both a photographer and a writer, publishing his work in magazines such as Sports Illustrated, Art in America, SKI and Popular Photography. For a number of years he was a contributing editor for Camera 35.  Among other projects during this time, he created a rollicking folk/rock film for Elektra Records of Spider John Koerner’s song "Red Palace" (available on YouTube). 

Among the highlights of Howard’s photography career were taking the photo of Bob Dylan announcing his first ever concert, held at Carnegie Hall in 1963, and shooting the Daytona 500’s inaugural high-speed banked track from the precarious perch of a Bell helicopter. In 1963 he founded Studio X, a photographic service catering to the processing needs of advertising agencies, corporations, publications and individual photographers. Though not a professionally trained architect, he designed and renovated several of his own studios and residences. 

In 1960, a photo assignment brought Howard to the Catskills and its ski slopes, which reignited his love of skiing. Soon he was spending weekends skiing at Plattekill Mountain, and joined the ski patrol. Eventually he found a place in Highmount that became his haven from the frenetic pace of city life. In 2000, when commercial digital photography started to surpass film and rents crept up, Howard closed Studio X and moved full-time to Highmount. 

After 33 years as a ski patroller, he began teaching skiing, first at Belleayre and Hunter in the Catskills and finally for 10 years in Aspen, Colo. A natural teacher, he found this career especially rewarding. During this period Howard also rediscovered his passion for creative photography and the freedom to explore whatever captured his eye, whether a flower or an old barn.  He had a number of shows of his work in the area and leaves behind a vast collection of images. His eye for beauty shaped everything Howard did, from the way he set a table, to how he cooked a meal, to how he arranged wildflowers gathered along a roadside. Besides all this, he had a wacky, off-kilter sense of humor. He was a fun guy.    

A celebration of Howard’s life was held in Highmount in the summer of 2023. Howard was predeceased by his sister, Nancy Katz. He is survived by his wife, Blythe Carey, sons  William Harrison Glaser, Duncan Carey Glaser, and Liam Edward Glaser, and three grandchildren.   

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Obituary - Juanita Mae Martin

Juanita Mae Martin, 86, of Bloomville passed away at her home on July 5, 2024 surrounded by her loving family.

Born on April 23, 1938 she was the daughter of the late Kenneth and Esther (Warner) Graig. Mrs. Martin was happily married to the late Donald B. Martin for 62 years, and together they modeled a devoted marriage and a happy home.

Juanita was an avid gardener, a dairy farmer, a designer and artist, a cherished wife, sister and mother, and a friend to many. She ran Prairie Hill Farm with her husband often traveling to Washington DC with him and running The Atlantic Dairymen meetings out of their home. She was a strong advocate and supporter of our local family dairy farms.

She was a talented gardener who could be found tending to flowers and vegetables in her many gardens and has taught numerous children and grandchildren the art of making pie. She had a gentle touch with babies and animals and believed we had the duty to leave the world a little better because we have lived here.  She was guided in life by love and everyone who met her felt that she loved her children’s friends as she loved her own. 

Besides her husband and her parents, she was predeceased by a brother Charles “Charlie” Graig.

She is survived by her six children:  Wendy (John) Every of Wisconsin, Cheri (Tom) Vroman of Hamden, Robin (Tom) Magnan of Bloomville, Meg (Timothy) Donahue of Hartwick, Amanda Martin Decker of Bloomville, and Donald (Bridget) Martin of Bloomville; 22 grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren; a brother, Kenneth (Patricia) Graig and sister Mary Ufot; many nieces, nephews, and cousins. 

Calling hours will be held 4:00-6:00 pm on Thursday, August 1, 2024 at the MacArthur Funeral Home, 15 Buntline Drive, Stamford, NY.  A memorial service will be held at the Bloomville Methodist Church, 35 Church Street, Bloomville at 11:00 am on Friday August 2, 2024. Refreshments will be served after the service.

Contributions in memory of Juanita may be made to the Bloomville Methodist Church or Helios/Hospice Care.

Please visit www.macarthrufh.com to share a condolence with the Martin family. 

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Obituary - Donald W Ackerley

Donald W Ackerley passed away peacefully on July 22, 2024, at A.O. Fox Hospital in Oneonta, following a brief illness. 

He was born on April 6, 1941, in Walton NY to William and Marjorie Faulkner Ackerley.  While living in Walton he met two people who became very special to him, and he considered his second parents, Hanford and Helen Nichols.

He attended many area schools until finally settling in Bloomville where he went to South Kortright Central School until he joined the US Marine Corp in 1959.  He served until 1963, when he had an honorable discharge as a Corporal.

On March 21, 1964, he married Barbara Brockway, a marriage that lasted 60 years. 

Don and Barb owned and operated Crystal Springs Dairy in Hobart, NY along with their 3 daughters.  Don served as a member and former chief of the Hobart Fire Dept. and a member of the Stamford Fire Dept for many years.  After selling their farm Don went to work for South Kortright Central School as a custodian for many years and then at Andes Central School where he retired in 2011 as head of building and grounds.  Once he retired Don did what he enjoyed best, mowing lawns and visiting the local diners for breakfast.

Don is survived by his wife: Barbara; daughters: Wendy (Jeff) Bailey of Davenport, NY, Kim Ackerley of Roxbury, NY, and Michele Ackerley of Hobart, NY;  granddaughter: Kayla Ballard; two step-granddaughters: Erin (Fred) Blumberg and Sarah (Derek) Scully; four great-grandchildren; sisters: Iris Wood and Jackie (Kevin) Cotter both of Johnstown, NY:  sisters-in-law: Diane Ackerley Williams and Mary Brockway; honorary mother: Helen Nichols; along with several nieces, nephews cousins and friends.

Besides his parents, he was predeceased by his brothers: Doug and Gary; sister: Joyce Stuver; grandson: Jason Mclean; brother-in-law: Dennis Brockway; and honorary father Hanford Nichols.

If you knew Don, then you knew his sense of humor.  He always left you with a joke and a smile.

Friends and relatives are invited to call on the family from 2-5PM on Saturday, August 3, 2024 at the MacArthur Funeral Home, 15 Buntline Drive, Stamford, where full US Marine Corp Honors will be held at 2PM.

Please visit www.macarthurfh.com to share your condolences with the Ackerley family.

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A Summer Success: 2024 AMR Open Studios Tour in Delaware County

Lynn Preston 

Erica Bradbury

Paul R Weil

Ken Hiratsuka 

Suzanne Ausnit

Joe Miller 

By Robert Brune

DELAWARE COUNTY — Hundreds of visitors spent the most beautiful weekend of the summer visiting over 60 artists in eight popular Eastern DelCo towns. 25 of these artists were new to the tour, though not new to the area. Success was measured not only in studio visits and art purchased, but also by new and old friendships cultivated, collaborations and commissions created, and by the overall sense of magic that visitors felt as they peered into the private studio spaces of the talented artists that dot these hills.

For those that don’t know, AMR Artists is a growing non-profit arts organization that supports a vibrant cultural life for the Delaware County community by promoting and advocating on behalf of the area’s artists and cultural institutions. AMR stands for Andes, Margaretville and Roxbury, the three original towns that kicked off the Open Studios Tour in 2012. The tour has since expanded to include Arkville, Bovina, Denver-Vega, Halcottsville, and Fleischmanns. 

(no byline credit here)

Lynn Preston of Andes, NY

“My work as an artist is conversational. I initiate something open-ended—a spontaneous gesture—and the art responds in unexpected ways, asking for some further response on my part,” says Lynn Preston of her artistic process. Encouraged and assisted by her friend Robin Kappy, a 2021 AMR Artist, Lynn participated in the Open Studios Tour for the very first time this year. Her work, as captivating as her smile and as colorful as her garden surroundings, most definitely illicit responses of surprise and delight with those who ventured to her Davis Hollow studio.

Paul R. Weil and Erica Bradbury of Margaretville, NY

Annex Art Supply and Gallery

Business partners in Annex, the newly opened Main Street Margaretville art supply store/gallery opened their space to dozens of visitors, friends and artists during the Open Studios Tour, as well as hosting a welcoming reception on Saturday. The artists were all smiles, as was their official greeter, Erica’s new puppy Mooney.  Weil poses with his latest piece, a commission in progress. Also pictured, is a painting by Erica, who is additionally the founder of the design and craft studio Species by the Thousands in Margaretville, NY.

Kenichi Hiratsuka of Andes, NY,

Sculptor “One Line Ken” as he is affectionately known by his fans and friends, is committed to art for everybody and has participated in the Open Studios Tour for many years. Every piece he creates, carves, etches and sculpts contains only one continuous line. This magnificent feat can only be appreciated in person at his Squid Farm sculpture garden on Rt. 28 on the way to Andes. “I want to help bring human beings together. In my art there are no social, economic, cultural or political distinctions. We are all one.” Here he is pictured within the walls of his immense barn studio. 

Suzanne Ausnit and Joe Miller of Bovina, NY

“I draw my inspiration from the natural world- both outside and inside - expressed through complex compositions that move me emotionally,” says Suzanne, a painter working mostly in watercolors. She shares a studio with her husband Joe Miller, whose work includes beguiling nudes and landscapes in pencil, charcoal, chalk and ink, as well as paintings in water media and gouache. Joe sums up his inspiration in this way, “I am inspired both by the complexity of the human figure and the beauty of the natural landscape of the Catskills.”

Photo credits and summaries by Robert Brune and Christein Aromando 

For more information on AMR Artists

See ww.amropenstudios.org

Richard McAfee of Roxbury, NY

A retired PhD chemist and grandfather, Richard McAfee only started painting six years ago and already has a significant body of work. Utilizing his science background, he introduces chemicals to create some of the cellular effects in his abstract work. McAfee’s paintings feel subtle and natural. “I don’t use any brushes. I use, weirdly enough, wet paper towels of different sizes.” 

Kathleen Sweeney of Roxbury, NY

Tucked away in her charming studio the woods, Kathleen Sweeney merges art with nature in her multi-media work. Sweeney, originally a digital artist working in video and photography, says she didn’t know she could paint, but it was “like a door punched open” when she moved to Roxbury just three short years ago. Inspired by her natural surroundings, she started exploring painting, using natural materials in her work (birch bark and branches, paper from wasp hives) and writing about this natural world. Join Sweeney at her photo book launch and art exhibition opening for The Book of Awe: Wandering and Rewilding, this Saturday, August 3rd at Diamond Hollow Books in Andes. 

Irina Grinevitsky of Halcottsville, NY

On the side of a red, weathered barn in Halcottsville, Russian-born multi-media artist, Irina Grinevitsky, displays her beautiful pastel and acrylic paintings that are inspired by nature. Her subdued palette and unique painting style draw you into her work. The elegance of the imagery captivates while the textures brought out in her technique make you want to come in for a closer look. See more of Grinevitsky’s work in her upcoming solo show Navy Yard In Daylight at Longyear Gallery, Opening Reception August 10th.

Ogden Kruger of Denver, NY

Ogden Kruger was a life-long rock collector when she retired from her education career ten years ago and started training in energy medicine. “One of the first things you have to do in Shamanism is find rocks, which of course I had thousands of them.” Nine years ago, she extended her work in collage and painting into rock wrapping, a process which is an art form unto itself. Kruger often uses embellishments in the wrapping such as gemstones, twigs, shells, or metal charms. Each rock is then ignited by Kruger with healing Reiki energy. You can see and feel the peaceful healing intention in her beautiful work. 

Oneida Hammond of Halcottsville, NY

Oneida Hammond is a true Catskill Mountains treasure. Her prolific work in watercolor has earned more than 200 awards and has been collected all over the world. Born in Panama, she received degrees in science and education before moving to the United States where she worked for NASA studying meteorites and moon rock. “It was a thrill to have the moon rock in my hands!” Her 80+ sketchbooks are something to behold, and at 84, she still paints every day. Look for Hammond’s work at the Annual AMR Exhibition at Margaretville’s Galli Curci Theater this fall.

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Huber to Join Meeting

Dr. Catherine Huber, ONC BOCES District Superintendent, will be joining the Roxbury CSD Board meeting on Wednesday, 8/14. Dr. Huber served on the NY State Education Department's Blue Ribbon Commission on Graduation Measures-- a multi-year process that involved much research and stakeholder input. We are delighted that she is joining us to present and discuss the Commission's recommendations. All are welcome to attend. The meeting will take place at 7:00 p.m. in the Chorus Room.

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11th Annual Fire Tower Lighting Event

The NYS Chapter of the Forest Fire Lookout Association is pleased to announce the 11th Annual Lighting of the Fire Tower Event! Saturday, August 31st at 9:00 pm we hope to have a light begin to shine in the cab of many towers across NYS! 

Last year we had so many wonderful volunteers that we were able to light 37 towers!

We hope to increase that number this year. In the event of rain, the event will be held on Sunday, September 1st at 9:00pm. The event is done to honor the men and women who worked in these historic towers; protecting homes, businesses, communities and surrounding forests. The plan is to place a light in fire towers around the state from 9 to 9:30pm. We invite people to go to locations around the community (listed on our website) where they can look up, see the light on the horizon and remember that there was a fire tower there watching over them. 

Thank you to Doug Hamilton for this wonderful idea to honor the past! All Illuminators also read aloud the names of those who served in the towers as they turn on the light and that they include these names in local advertisements for the event. If you have any questions, please reach out to lauriejrankin@gmail.com and I will get you all the information you will need. We will close registration on August 19th to allow time for all Illuminators to get their advertisements out. Additional information can be found at the website: www.nysffla.org

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Are You Ready To LEAD?

DELHI — Leaderful Delaware, an initiative of the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce, is seeking people committed to community service who would benefit from strengthening leadership skills while developing a personal professional network.

The 2024-2025 program will start on October 10 with an in-person session in Delhi. We will continue to meet on the second Thursday of each month through May 2025. A graduation recognition will be celebrated at the Chamber’s Business and Breakfast event in June 2025.

Participants will learn about critical issues facing Delaware County and the Catskill Mountains region through lectures, discussion groups, personal introspection, and panel discussions featuring current community leaders. The innovative curriculum is based on scientific theories of organizational and community leadership. Leaderful Delaware offers an alternative to the traditional model and calls on leaders to be concurrent, collective, collaborative, and compassionate. Strategies include effective facilitation, dialogue skills, active listening skills, managing conflict, intercultural competence, leadership styles, and peer coaching.

Candidates will be selected based on their:

Commitment and motivation to community service.

Previous community service or desire to become involved in community activities.

Interest in public service and desire to learn more about public policy.

Potential to advance to a leadership position within their companies.

Commitment to remain in Delaware County.

Preference will be given to Delaware County residents but non-residents are encouraged to apply.

Applicants may be sponsored by a business or a community leader and provide references. Tuition is $595 and includes all program materials, meals, and fees. Applications are due September 27. 

More information, including an application for the Leaderful Delaware Emerging Leaders Program, is available under the Events & Programs tab at www.delawarecounty.org.

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