MILLBROOK — People usually think of retirement as a time to relax and enjoy some leisure time — time to relax and take it easy. That may be true for some, but that is not the case for Pam Freeman. After all, she spent the last 20 years working at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, first with its education projects and then moving to its communications department. One would think she might have been ready to find a quiet spot to relax and perhaps settle down with a good book after retiring, but that really isn’t her nature, as her family and friends can attest to.
Hers is a life that revolves around altruism, and it’s a family tradition. She and her husband, Denis, adopted their two sons. Alex is from Russia and Scott is from Kazakhstan.
According to the Freemans, the process for both adoptions were quite an adventure; things did not go easily. After the initial process of adopting Alex lagged, they started the process for Scott. They were overjoyed when they ended up with both children.
Born and raised in Pleasant Valley, Pam still lives there with her family. She only left to attend Endicott College in Massachusetts.
However, the Freemans have been closely aligned with the Millbrook community through their affiliations with Grace Church, and of course, the Cary Institute. Both Pam and Denis have been very active with the church during the past 25 years, tirelessly fundraising for events like the annual golf outing before the COVID pandemic. She also worked tirelessly for the concert Grace presented online last winter. She’s also taught at the church and served on its advisory board.
Her husband is the food pantry coordinator at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Amenia Union, which is affiliated with Grace Church and distributes food to roughly 500 families per month.
Now that she is retired, Pam said she’s more busy than ever. She has gotten involved in raising seeing eye dogs for Guiding Eyes for the Blind. That means she is responsible for the care of the dogs when they are only puppies, and raises them to be guide dogs for the blind. To qualify as a trainer Pam and her family had to meet the criteria as caring, giving and responsible people.
She said she gets attached to each puppy, but knowing they are going to loving homes where they will make a difference makes it all worthwhile. It’s hard work, as the family must attend classes and go on outings to socialize the pups and prepare them for their life’s work, which includes being out in public with their humans.
The Freemans’ dogs in training have been to the Red Rooster drive-thru for lunch and to Kirby Hill Farm as well as to Joey’s Ice Cream — Pam said they all had a great time. They are now training their third dog and anticipating training their fourth.
The family usually gets the puppies at about 8 weeks of age, but during the pandemic they are started getting them at about 4 weeks old. They usually keep them until they are 16 to 18 months old.
Not every dog becomes a guide dog, said Pam, as sometimes it becomes obvious during training that the dogs should be placed in other programs, such as Exceptional Sidekicks, which provides therapy and service dogs to disabled teens in need.
Pam said her family’s involvement with training the seeing eye dogs has brought them new friends and introduced them to a new community.
Her sons are now grown. Alex works at Grace Church and is teaching his mother to play the piano, a life-long desire.
“It gets harder as you get older,” she said.
Scott is a firefighter in nearby Poughkeepsie.
Pam, ever occupied, is already working on the Grace Church’s next golf outing, which this year will be held at the ice arena in Poughkeepsie come September.
Clearly, Pam Freeman is keeping plenty busy during her retirement, staying productive and very satisfied. Her life continues to revolve around doing for others, her family, her community and just about anyone she feels her actions will help make life just a little bit better for — and just like when she was working, now that she’s retired, that seems to continue to open up a whole wide world of possibilities.
NORTH EAST — Habitat for Humanity of Dutchess County will conduct a presentation on Thursday, May 9 on buying a three-bedroom affordable home to be built in the Town of North East.
The presentation will be held at the NorthEast-Millerton Library Annex at 5:30 p.m.
Any first-time home buyer interested should attend the information session.
The application for this pilot program home-buying opportunity must be made between May 1 and June 10.Minimum household income for the pilot program is $55,000 while maximum income is determined by family size.
Applications are available at the North East Town Hall.Habitat for Humanity describes itself as a nonprofit with global reach, working across the United States and in approximately 70 countries.
‘Migration Collage' by ransome
If you claim a single sobriquet as your artistic moniker, you’re already in a club with some big names, from Zendaya to Beyoncé to the mysterious Banksy. At Geary, the contemporary art gallery in Millerton founded by New Yorkers Jack Geary and Dolly Bross Geary, a new installation and painting exhibition titled “The Bitter and the Sweet” showcases the work of the artist known only as ransome — all lowercase, like the nom de plume of the late Black American social critic bell hooks.
Currently based in Rhinebeck, N.Y., ransome’s work looks farther South and farther back — to The Great Migration, when Jim Crow laws, racial segregation, and the public violence of lynching paved the way for over six million Black Americans to seek haven in northern cities, particularly New York urban areas, like Brooklyn and Baltimore. The Great Migration took place from the turn of the 20th century up through the 1970s, and ransome’s own life is a reflection of the final wave — born in North Carolina, he found a new home in his youth in New Jersey.
‘Square Quilting painting' by ransomeAlexander Wilburn
Map fragments of North Carolina feature heavily in a large collection of eight-by-eight collage and acrylic paintings, sold individually but together mounted on Geary’s wall resembling the stitched patterns on quilts, like the quilts by the late Black American artist Arlonzia Pettway. Along with artists like Annie Mae Young and Mary Lee Bendolph, Pettway was a renowned artist associated with the quilts of Gee’s Bend, generations of women in the town of Gee’s Bend, Alabama who preserved African American culture in beautiful and vibrant textile art with bold combinations of stripes, textures and colors. The influence is also wonderfully clear in ransome large-scale collages and acrylic paintings like “Square Quilt painting” on display at Geary. It’s a powerful symbol of Gee’s Bend’s legacy continuing on, even under a new artistic medium.
In the smaller works, called “Migration Collages,” painted portraits are combined with pieces of floral and pastel paper, evocative of the tradition of “Sunday Best” splendor worn in Black churches in the South. “The women elders at my Baptist church often greeted each other that way on Sunday mornings when one hat was more elaborate, colorful, or wider brimmed than another,” New York Times veteran Lena Williams wrote in her 1996 essay, “In Defense of the Church Hat.” “It was traditional to put on one’s newest finery for church, and in many historically black churches, the wearing of fancy hats by women carried both spiritual and cultural significance.”
“The Bitter and the Sweet” is on view at Geary through Sunday, June 2.
Hospitality, ease of living and just plain fun are rolled into one for those who are intrigued by the leisure-time Caravana experience at the family-owned Four Brothers Drive-in in Amenia. Tom Stefanopoulos, pictured above, highlights fun possibilities offered by Hotel Caravana.
The month-long process of unwrapping and preparing the various features at the Four Brothers Drive-In is nearing completion, and the imaginative recreational destination will be ready to open for the season on Friday, May 10.
The drive-in theater is already open, as is the Snack Shack, and the rest of the recreational features are activating one by one, soon to be offering maximum fun for the whole family.
Tom Stefanopoulos, the second generation helping to guide the Stefanopoulos family’s recreational complex, brings a deep understanding of hospitality and business sense in support of the multi-faceted enterprise, begun in the 1970s, that is now a mainstay of the town of Amenia, located on a corner in the heart of the commercial district. He paused for an interview on Friday, April 26.
Two luxury camping trailers, each with an attached wooden deck and fire pit, make up Hotel Caravana, and each offers a different fun vibe, Stefanopoulos explained. The larger of the two, offers a California lifestyle, retro to 1967, although its modern where it should be. It can sleep four.
The smaller Caravana sleeps two and offers a lifestyle of the future dating to about 2041. It’s a brand-new Airstream, Stefanopoulos noted. It also has an attached deck with firepit.
“We get a lot of New York City people,” Stefanopoulos said when asked what sorts of people are apt to be attracted to Hotel Caravana. “They want to experience the upstate life,” he added. The idea of sitting out on the deck while watching an actual drive-in movie appeals to them, as does room service offered by the restaurant.
The lobster rolls prepared by the Snack Shack, are served on brioche hot dog rolls, either Maine-style or Connecticut-style, and the lobster can be topped with caviar. Four Brothers version is praised by customers for the generous portion of lobster in each, and the price is competitive.
Caravana guests may book for a single night, or maybe two, or even longer, taking advantage of the bicycles to pedal along the nearby rail trail, a local amenity, Stefanopoulos noted.
“We make our guests feel like movie stars,” Stefanopoulos said of the hospitality. And, if they like miniature golf, it is just a few steps away from their Caravana deck.
Asked how and why the Caravana idea began, Stefanopoulos recalled that as the drive-in theater grew in popularity, people were traveling from greater distances away. The last film of the night might start at midnight, he said, so the idea grew that Four Brothers might be able to offer an accommodation to stay the night.
In addition to Caravana, Four Brothers offers an alternative of two or three tent camping sites.
Future plans may include a third Caravana, Stefanopoulos said. Also, there is a giant mastodon skeleton, presently in storage, that should be on display, he said.
“It’s pretty big,” Stefanopoulos added.
The playground might be enlarged in the coming seasons, and perhaps an old-fashioned arcade added for retro amusement.
The community that surrounds Four Brothers remains important to the Stefanopoulos family as they offer substantial summer employment opportunity. Stefanopoulos said that a goal is to contract locally for business needs, such as musical entertainment and advertising. The drive-in also schedules occasion fundraisers to benefit local organizations, including the Amenia Fire Company and area schools.
