Businesses, volunteers create community resources: Millerton remains strong as it unites to deal with pandemic

MILLERTON — Though their doors may be temporarily closed for business and their lives upended by the coronavirus pandemic, village merchants recently came together to raise spirits and remind the community of its strength through the creation of a community video. Additionally, local volunteers teamed up to launch the website, www.millertontogether.org, to ensure residents stay connected and informed of available resources during the current health crisis.

“Millerton Strong”

Inspired by community videos found on social media — such as the video, “Hudson Strong,” which was created by residents of the city of Hudson —  Griffin Cooper, a writer at Main Street Magazine, said he and the magazine’s editor, Thorunn Kristjansdottir, thought a Millerton-based video would be worth pursuing. They invited local businesses and residents to send uplifting video greetings or photos to them by Wednesday, April 8, to be featured in a video branded “Millerton Strong.”

“I think the goal is just to have business owners and people in town tell everybody what they’ve been up to,” Cooper said. “It’s a message of hope, it’s a message of perseverance, a message to say, ‘We miss you,’ and a message of staying safe and staying healthy.”

Following the submission deadline, Cooper said he and Kristjansdottir received a mixture of around 10 videos and photos, most of which were from village business owners.

Once the video is ready to go, “Millerton Strong” will premiere on the “Village of Millerton” Facebook page.

When asked if planning on creating more videos in the future, Cooper said, “I think we’re planning on one video now. Obviously, the duration of this whole experience is undetermined, so I think taking it a day at a time, keeping people involved and keeping people interactive in the business community, it’s really about taking it one day at a time and seeing where it goes from there.”

www.millertontogether.org

Aided by local volunteers and supported by leaders in the North East-Millerton area, community volunteer Jennifer Dowley, along with Gregg Osofsky and Brooke Lehman, co-founders of the nonprofit Millerton retreat center, The Watershed Center, collaborated on a new website, www.millertontogether.org.

As a way to ensure the community stays connected during the COVID-19 crisis, the website provides residents and businesses with vital information and a list of available resources, including medical and economic support; updates from the local, county and state governments; ways to support local businesses, restaurants and nonprofits; information for donating and volunteering during the crisis; and so forth. The website can be translated into English, Spanish or Chinese, and viewers are free to leave comments on the website or send an email to millertontogether@gmail.com. The website officially went live on Thursday, April 9.

“This is our way of offering support to the town and village residents,” Dowley said. “We want everybody to come through this in good shape, both our physical health as well as our financial health, so this is our effort to help as best we can.”

She added that the group anticipates constantly updating the site.

Thanking Lehman, Osofsky and the leaders and volunteers who helped make Millerton Together possible, Dowley said, “When your values are aligned, it’s easy to do things together and they’re just terrific. This could not happen without us all.”

Lehman acknowledged that the website stemmed from the volunteer network Millerton Community Care Network, which was modeled after the many different mutual aid networks that have surfaced throughout the Hudson Valley and beyond. She said the Millerton Community Care Network started a number of working groups and teams to meet the community’s needs during COVID-19. From an arts and culture group and technology and communications group to a wellness and emotional care network, Millerton Community Care Network groups work together to support the community with different resources.

“I think all of us hope that when this is all over, our communities are more connected and stronger internally and more able to meet each other’s needs on a day to day basis,” Lehman said.

Lehman said Millerton residents are fortunate to have so many strong community institutions like the North East Community Center
(NECC), the NorthEast-Millerton Library and the Millerton Rescue Squad available to help them deal with everyday life.

“This has made me really proud to be a Millerton resident watching our community come together so strongly,” she said.

Local merchants interested in having information about their businesses posted on the website at no charge can send the information to Dowley at jenniferdowley@gmail.com. They must include their business’s name, website, address and phone number as well as any information about their products and instructions for ordering, picking up and shipping those products; their email address; and their social media sites.

North East town Supervisor Chris Kennan heralded the”great new website” in a recent email sent to community members.

“A new website has been created, to assemble in one place as much useful information regarding responses to COVID in our community as possible. Even though it’s just been started and is still in development, it’s already a great resource. I would urge everyone to go on it, and to make use of it. Check it out.

“We are a community,” Kennan added, “bound together by family, by geography, by history, by school, by circumstance or by fate. Working together, we will get through this strange and deeply disruptive, difficult, damaging time. We need to lean into our own resources, our own creativity, our generosity, our strength. Let’s do this for us, for each other.”