In the children’s section at The Dover Plains Library, from left to right, Amy Smith (Director of Dover Plains Library), Meredith Hamilton (Teen Program Director), Katie Cariello (School to Work Coordinator), and Shannon (student intern).
With funding from the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, North East Community Center’s (NECC) School-to-Work Apprenticeship Program supports young adults navigating the delicate transition from adolescence to adulthood.
Webutuck, Dover Plains, Pine Plains, and Millbrook Public School students (and recent graduates) are paired with local trades and businesses during their junior and senior years of high school, giving students an invaluable opportunity to explore a diversity of career fields while gaining transferable skills to shape not just careers, but lives.
The School to Work program began in 2022 under the Teen Programs umbrella, one of the longest running programs at the NECC, which serves students aged 14 through 17.
Also in partnership with local businesses, the Teen Program gives many of these teenagers their first work experience, paying each for up to 160 hours. It is a year-round program with additional funding for summer placements.
Teen Program Director Meredith Hamilton explained, “It’s the hope that our Teen Jobs youth will transition into School to Work as they gather more skills and are more aware of what they’re interested in.”
The School to Work Coordinator, Katie Cariello said, “School to Work is for folks who are mainly between 16 to 23 who are looking to enter the workforce after graduating high school. Or maybe they tried higher education and realized it wasn’t for them, or maybe they’re still in that middle area of trying to decide what they want to do next.” Cariello works closely with all these individuals, helping them to build their resumes and hone their interview skills while giving them space to focus on their interests.
Shannon, a student at Dover Plains High School, has been an intern at the Dover Library since mid-January. A self-proclaimed shy person, Shannon reflected, “It’s hard for me to get out there and this has been really helpful.” Amy Smith, the Director of the Dover Plains Library added supportively, “I was also very shy when I started, but one of the nice things about this work is you have kind of a scripted interaction, so it allows you practice speaking to strangers…which is weird,” she laughed.
Smith also underscored the program’s transformative potential saying, “One of the things I think that’s interesting about library work is that a lot of the skills are really customer service, and then a whole bunch are sort of office, clerical related. So, there’s a whole lot of transferable skills.”
Shannon drives her own car to her job at the library but the NECC’s Transportation program also helps individuals without access to transportation. Trying to find businesses to participate in the program that are on the school bus route, however, is also a priority as the new program continues to take shape.
Outreach for the program has taken the form of “a lot of cold calling,” said Cariello, as well as newsletters, word of mouth, and an online form for any business currently hiring.
The NECC also works closely with Dutchess BOCES (Board of Cooperative Educational Services) who do a lot of trade programming. Students can go during their school day to learn about plumbing, HVAC, culinary arts, nursing, security, cosmetology and more. “It’s a lot of hands-on learning,” said Cariello. Just a few of the businesses participating in the program so far are Amenia Parks and Recreation, AFI Glass & Architectural Metal, Inc, and Wethersfield Estate & Garden with more being added in the summer.
Meredith Hamilton shared, “We’re asking a lot of business, but we’re also showing them that we have youth that are ready and able to work, and we really want to support them.” She continued, “Our main goal is matching youth with a business and having it be the experience they’re looking for and a career that they want to pursue.” Cariello added, “We want to show the businesses that we are here to support them as well, that we are willing to do some of the financial backing if it means they can be a mentor and give this young person a real glimpse into what a particular field could look like for them.
“But,” she added, “sometimes students try working somewhere and realize it’s not an avenue they want to pursue. And so,” she continued, “they had a safe space in order to try it.”
Safety, access, and support are just a few of the gifts of this program. And, Smith adds, “No matter where Shannon goes next, she has a reference. As a young person, finding a reference that isn’t related to you or like a neighbor or whatever can be really hard. So that’s part of the beauty of this program. It sets people up.”
To find out more about the School to Work or Teen Jobs program, visit www.neccmillerton.org or email teenprograms@neccmillerton.org
Maxon Mills in Wassaic hosted a majority of the events of the local Upstate Art Weekend events in the community.
WASSAIC — Art enthusiasts from all over the country flocked to the Catskill Mountains and Hudson Valley to participate in Upstate Art Weekend, which ran from July 18 to July 21.
The event, which “celebrates the cultural vibrancy of Upstate New York”, included 145 different locations where visitors could enjoy and interact with art.
On Saturday, July 20, The Wassaic Project hosted numerous community events. Will Hutnick, the director of artistic programming, said “We’ve been a part of it since the beginning, this is the fifth year of UPAW.”
Most of the action was based at Maxon Mills, the seven-floor grain mill located in the heart of Wassaic. On exhibit was work from 30 artists, 18 of whom were past residents of The Wassaic Project. “Artists can come and do a residency here, meaning they live and work with one another for a couple months at a time,” Hutnick stated.
The first floor held work by Petra Szilagyi, who uses dirt and linseed oil to construct images of paranormal concepts, most of which include bats. They reflected that a recent trip to a fifth sense competition in Vietnam was the influence behind the exhibit.
Across the floor was Tiffany Smith’s interactive installation which incorporated plants and wicker chairs, all of which were objects associated with her Carribean upbringing. “The room being filled with plants is symbolic of hurricane prep which often included bringing the plants from outside into the house,” Smith said.
As visitors made their way up the narrow wooden stairs, music could be heard from behind the walls. The echoing music was Daniel Shieh’s installation, entitled Mother’s Anthem, which played a recording of the American Anthem in 30 languages. The languages ranged from Spanish and Italian to Navajo and Bengali.
Each floor was filled with artwork of all mediums, including painting, fibers, collage and photography. Rachel Bussières, who switched her concentration after watching the 2017 solar eclipse, uses varying light sources to produce lumen prints. During the wildfires, she recounted that she “made a new exposure each day to capture the changing air quality”.
Luciana Abait also incorporates the natural world into her pieces, instead using maps. An environmental activist originally from Argentina, Abait’s work highlights “environmental fragility, specifically the impacts it has on immigrants.” Her installation that is currently on display at Maxon Mills, takes the form of a mountain range built solely from maps of the US and Argentina.
Throughout the day, visitors could “Arm Wrestle 4 A Popsicle”. Winners had the choice of 3 playfully flavored trout-inspired popsicles - Nightcrawler, Power Bait, and Salmon Roe. Artist Katie Peck, who spent the day in costume as a rainbow trout, encouraged guests to step up and try their hand at an arm wrestle.
Shibori Indigo dyeing, group meditation, and dance workshops were open for community members of all ages as well.
While the daytime activities fostered appreciation of fixed art, a dance party until midnight at The Lantern Inn offered guests a space for performative art.
When describing the environment of The Wassaic Project, Smith emphasized, “It’s all community, it’s all love.”
A serene scene during the Garden Tour in Amenia.
AMENIA — The much-anticipated annual Amenia Garden Tour drew a steady stream of visitors to admire five local gardens on Saturday, July 13, each one demonstrative of what a green thumb can do. An added advantage was the sense of community as neighbors and friends met along the way.
Each garden selected for the tour presented a different garden vibe. Phantom’s Rock, the garden of Wendy Goidel, offered a rocky terrain and a deep rock pool offering peaceful seclusion and anytime swims. Goidel graciously welcomed visitors and answered questions about the breathtaking setting.
Amenia Finance Director Charlie Miller welcomed visitors to his Bog Hollow Road garden in Wassaic, a manicured expansive yard with well-placed garden beds framing a far-reaching view. He said he plans carefully each winter for the next spring’s improvement.
The organic, environmentally responsible Maitri Farm was next, a lesson in coordinating agriculture with natural balance. The farm stand and a walk among the greenhouses brought visitors together.
Near the center of Amenia was the garden of Polly Pitts-Garvin, offering a chance to visit a robust vegetable garden with raised beds to be envious of and a remarkable absence of any insects or usual vegetable garden problems.
At Chez Cheese, the vast garden acreage surrounding the 1850s historic home of Joan Feeney and Bruce Phillips in Millerton, visitors could begin at refreshment stations where walking tour maps of the 15-acre property were available. There were streams and ponds with docks, and a dozen bridges arranged around the landscape. In the 19th-century, the property had been the home of the Wilson Cheese Factory, inspiring the name of the estate.
The Amenia Garden Tour was supported this year by Paley’s Garden Center in Sharon.
Gary Dodson working a tricky pool on the Schoharie Creek, hoping to lure something other than a rock bass from the depths.
PRATTSVILLE, N.Y. — The Schoharie Creek, a fabled Catskill trout stream, has suffered mightily in recent decades.
Between pressure from human development around the busy and popular Hunter Mountain ski area, serious flooding, and the fact that the stream’s east-west configuration means it gets the maximum amount of sunlight, the cool water required for trout habitat is simply not as available as in the old days.
This is not a new phenomenon. It does seem to be getting worse, though.
Gary Dodson and I convened where the creek makes its final run into the Schoharie reservoir, part of the New York City water supply system, on a semi-broiling Thursday afternoon, July 11.
The goal was simple. Catch smallmouth bass, which abound in the lower section of the river.
This was hot stuff — as in an 80-degree water temperature.
The air temperature was actually slightly less at 77.
After negotiating the intensely slippery rocks, festooned with treacherous algae, the first major pool presented several difficulties, with a back eddy competing with a main flow and several large trees draped about the whole thing.
I hit on the simplest strategy, which was to flip a weighted attractor fly called a Tequilley into the start of the eddy so it would proceed slowly but steadily into the maelstrom, sinking all the while.
This worked. A proper adult smallmouth, with bronze coloring and vertical stripes, took the thing.
The point-and-shoot camera finally died, however, and I was not going to try to fumble my phone out for a nice but routine fish photo.
Why not?
Because I guarantee the fish would have made a sudden, last-moment bolt for freedom, causing me to drop the device into the drink.
Gary moved downstream while I continued trying to annoy the residents of the pool, succeeding a couple of times with different colored Wooly Buggers.
Then we all got bored and I moved off, where Gary was catching rock bass and cussing them out for not being something else. I have to admit, they are not the most compelling critters. Something about the red eyes.
This latest trip was dominated by extremely tedious and distasteful Harry Homeowner activities, but on both Wednesday and
Thursday mornings I prowled Woodland Valley Creek. By “morning” I mean “dawn,” because that was when the water temps were down to a barely acceptable 64.
I made the acquaintance of several stocked browns and of a handful of their wild cousins. The wild fish are smaller and nimbler.
The successful ploy was an Adams wet fly, size 16, drifted behind something big, like a Parachute Adams or Stimulator.
