MILLERTON – The reopening of Eddie Collins Memorial Park on Saturday, Oct. 1, drew hundreds of people from the community at-large to mark the completion of the first phase of the revitalization of the park that has served as the recreational center for the region for decades.
The party came to life starting around noon as the 100-car parking lot filled to capacity, forcing an overflow across Route 22. Families arrived with strollers and excited children who ran into the wide-open spaces. Basketball games started immediately on the new basketball courts. Soccer players — young and old — took to the new regulation-sized soccer field. Mothers and fathers streamed into the expanded, repaired and resurfaced handicap-accessible playground.
The party atmosphere was fueled by rock music that filled the air, and food booths that served tacos and other traditional fare. The hot dog booth ran out of buns, but hamburger buns became an option.
Parker Plouffe, a toddler from Sharon, enjoyed a hot dog without a bun. His mother said this is their preferred playground. There was face-painting, small horses for petting and the basketball got serious with a tournament and a referee. Free doughnuts!
A handicap-accessible walkway extends from a renovated pavilion to the Little League field.
The park is named after Eddie Collins, who played major league baseball from 1906 to 1930 for the Philadelphia Athletics and the Chicago White Sox. Born in Millerton in 1887, Collins was not only a big leaguer, he was Ivy League, having graduated from Columbia College. He also was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Stephen Waite, chair of the project committee for the park, recalled that he used to play baseball at the park as a youngster.
“When my nephews started playing here,” he said Saturday, “I saw that it had really deteriorated, and I thought we should get the community and its volunteers to make it a project.”
Waite, a quadraplegic from an accident 35 years ago, is proud of all the volunteer efforts and also of the fact that the park is handicap-accessible, which also includes extending the sidewalk along Route 22 to the entrance.
On Saturday, the air of success was punctuated with news of a state and municipal grant of $125,000 toward making the Little League field accessible to those in wheelchairs (the walkway and a set of bleachers to be installed in the spring). New York Rep. Didi Barrett (D-106) made the announcement, and she also gave Millerton Mayor Jennifer Najdek a New York State Assembly citation congratulating the village and its residents and partners for successfully completing this phase of the revitalization of the Park. More than 30 community partners teamed up to help with the day’s festivities. Fundraising has raised $2 million for the park.
Political leaders who attended, besides the mayor and Rep. Barrett, were Sen. Susan Serino (R-41), Gregg Pulver, (R), chair of the Dutchess County Legislature and Chris Kennan, North East town supervisor.
The Millerton Police Department’s Mike Veeder, officer in charge, was giving out bike helmets to children, carefully adjusting them for the right fit. The helmets were donated by the Stop DWI program.
The next phase of the work will include a pool and pool house and a recreational center with a community room, commercial kitchen, locker rooms and showers. The new swimming pool with a handicap-accessible entrance will also include a water slide and kiddie pool.
“The pool was the No. 1 interest,” Waite said, “when we asked people what they wanted.”
Photo by Olivia Valentine
From left, North East Town Supervisor Chris Kennan, State Rep. Didi Barrett, Stephen Waite, Chair of the Park Project Committee, Millerton Mayor Jennifer Najdek and State Sen. Sue Serino.
Photo by Olivia Valentine
Watching the big boys.
Photo by Olivia Valentine
From left, North East Town Supervisor Chris Kennan, State Rep. Didi Barrett, Stephen Waite, Chair of the Park Project Committee, Millerton Mayor Jennifer Najdek and State Sen. Sue Serino.
“Once Upon a Time in America” features ten portraits by artist Katro Storm.
Part of what became a capstone project for Wolgemuth, she left behind a comprehensive guide to help future student interns manage the gallery effectively. “Everything from who we should contact, the steps to take for everything, our donors,” Wilbur said. “It’s really extensive and it’s been a huge help.”
Art teacher Lilly Rand Barnett first met Storm a few years ago through his ICEHOUSE Project Space exhibition in Sharon, “Will It Grow in Sharon?” in which he planted cotton and tobacco as part of an exploration of ancestral heritage.
“And the plants did grow,” said Barnett. She asked Storm if her students could use them, and the resulting work became a project for that year’s Troutbeck Symposium, the annual student-led event in Amenia that uncovers little-known or under-told histories of marginalized communities, particularly BIPOC histories.
Last spring, Rand emailed to ask if Storm would consider a solo show at HVRHS. He agreed.
And just a few weeks ago, he arrived — paints, brushes and canvases in tow.
“When Katro came to start hanging everything, he took up a mini art residency in Ms. Rand’s room,” Wilbur said. “All her students were able to see his process and talk to him. It was great working with him.”
Perhaps more unexpected was his openness. “He really trusted us as curators and visionaries,” Wilbur said. “He said, ‘Do with it what you will.’”
Artist Katro StormNatalia Zukerman
Storm’s artistic training began at New Haven’s Educational Center for the Arts. His talent earned him a full scholarship to the Arts Institute of Boston, then Boston’s Museum School, where he painted seven oversized portraits of influential Black figures — in seven days — for his final project. Those works became the backbone of his early exhibitions, including at Howard University’s National Council for the Arts.
Storm has created several community murals like the 2009 READ Mural featuring local heroes, and several literacy and wellness murals at the Stetson Branch Library in New Haven. Today, he teaches and works, he said, “wherever I set up shop. Sometimes I go outside. Sometimes I’m on top of roofs. Wherever it is, I get the job done.”
His deep ties to education made a high school gallery an especially meaningful stop. “No one really knew who these people were except maybe John Lennon,” Storm said of the portraits in the show. “It’s really important for them to know James Baldwin and Shirley Chisholm. And now they do.”
The exhibition includes a wide list of subjects: James Baldwin, Shirley Chisholm, Redd Foxx, Jasper Johns, Marilyn Manson, William F. Buckley, Harold Hunter, John Lennon, as well as two deeply personal works — a portrait of Tracy Sherrod (“She’s a friend of mine… She had an interesting hairdo”) and a tribute to his late friend Nes Rivera. “Most of the time I choose my subjects because there are things I want to see,” Storm said.
Storm’s paintings, which he describes as “full frontal figuratism,” rely on drips, tonal shifts, and what feels like emerging depth. His process moves quickly. “It depends on how fast it needs to get done,” he said. “Sometimes I like to take the long way up the mountain. Instead of doing an outline, I just start coloring, blocking things off with light and dark until it starts to take shape.”
He’s currently in a black-and-white phase. “Right now, I’m inspired by black and white, the way I can really get contrast and depth.”
Work happens on multiple canvases at once. “Sometimes I’ll have five paintings going on at one time because I go through different moods, and then there’s the way the light hits,” he said. “It’s kind of like cooking. You’ve got a couple things going at once, a couple things cooking, and you just try to reach that deadline.”
For Wilbur, who has studied studio arts “ever since I was really young” and recently applied early decision to Vassar, the experience has been transformative. For Storm — an artist who built an early career painting seven portraits in seven days and has turned New York’s subway corridors into a makeshift museum — it has been another chance to merge artmaking with education, and to pass a torch to a new generation of curators.
Le Petit Ranch offers animal-assisted therapy and learning programs for children and seniors in Sheffield.
Le Petit Ranch operates out of two small structures next to the family’s home: a one-room schoolhouse for animal-assisted learning sessions and a compact stable for the three miniature horses, Mini Mac, Rocket and Miso. Other partner animals include two rescued Spanish greyhounds, Yayi and Ronya; four guinea pigs and a flock of chickens.
Borreda offers programs at the Scoville Library in Salisbury, at Salisbury Central School and surrounding towns to support those who benefit from non-traditional learning environments.
“Animal-assisted education partners with animals to support learning in math, reading, writing, language and physical education,” she said. One activity, equimotricité, has children lead miniature horses through obstacle courses to build autonomy, confidence and motor skills.
Child working with a miniature horse at Le Petit RanchMarjorie Borreda
She also brings her greyhounds into schools for a “min vet clinic,” a workshop that turns lessons on dog biology and measuring skills into hands-on, movement-based learning. A separate dog-bite prevention workshop teaches children how to read canine body language and respond calmly.
Parents and teachers report strong results. More than 90% of parents observed greater empathy, reduced anxiety, increased self-confidence and improved communication and cooperation in their children, and every parent said animal-assisted education made school more enjoyable — with many calling it “the highlight of their week.”
Weekly small-group sessions with seniors at Le Petit Ranch stimulates cognitive function and improves motor skills.Marjorie Borreda
Le Petit Ranch also serves seniors, including nursing home residents experiencing depression, social withdrawal or reduced physical activity. Weekly small-group sessions with animals can stimulate cognitive function and improve motor skills, balance and mobility.
Families can visit Le Petit Ranch for animal- assisted afterschool sessions, Frech immersion or family walks. She also offers programs for schools, libraries, community centers, churches, senior centers and nursing homes.
For more information, email info@lepetitranch.com, visit lepetitranch.com, follow @le.petit.ranch on Instagram or call 413-200-8081.
