Ryan and Catherine Thompson of Old Forge, also known as “Hit and Miss,” shared their extreme hiking and paddling adventures with a mixed-age group at Niccolls Presbyterian Church in Old Forge on Sunday, April 14.

In April of 2010, the couple started a long trek by canoeing from Old Forge to Fort Kent and Portage in Maine. Their canoe was provided by Tickner’s Moose River Canoe Trips.

From there, they connected with the start of the Appalachian Trail (AT) at Mount Katadin, and made the 2,175 mile hike from Maine to Georgia.

The Thompsons had hiked the AT in 2008 from south to north, and looked forward to making the trek in the opposite direction.

They arrived at the end of the the trail, in Springer Mountain, GA, on September 23.

Prior to doing a through hike of the AT, they had hiked from Maine to Pennsylvania, and Georgia to Maryland in 2005 and 2006 respectively.

Hit and Miss entertained the audience with stories of wild weather and interesting characters they met on the trail, challenges they faced, lessons they learned and obstacles overcome during their five-month adventure. Continue reading →

On Wednesday, April 24, Linda Manzo of the Alzheimer’s Association will conduct a training session for those interested in becoming, or being involved with, caregiver support group facilitators.

The session will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. in the large fellowship hall at Niccolls Memorial Church on Crosby Boulevard.

To assist with organization, those interested in participating should email Manzo at lmanzo@alz.org and Wende Carr at swimmerwende@gmail.com.

Handouts and refreshments will be provided. Those attending should use the church’s rear entrance and go through the doors to the right, at the end of the long hall.

The March 28th building fire on Main Street in Boonville. Photos by Wende Carr

Local fundraising efforts are in progress to aid the 11 families who were displaced by an apartment building fire that occurred on Main Street in Boonville on Thursday, March 28.

The fire was started by a male smoking in bed causing fire fighters to respond to the alarm around 2 a.m. on Thursday.

At 10:30 a.m., fire fighters from Boonville, Constableville, Floyd, Remsen, Stittville, and Woodgate were still tending to the fire.

Many of the area churches, including the United Methodist Church, Chamber of Commerce, Community Bank, Red Cross and individuals are working together to reach out to the 29 fire victims who lost their homes and possessions in the early morning fire.

According to Boonville Fire Chief Dave Pritchard, the fire destroyed nine apartments-seven in the Hutchins building and two in the adjacent Hair Spa building.

The Boonville Chamber of Commerce has set up a Victims of the Boonville Fire 2013 Fund. All monies will go directly to the victims and will be evenly distributed among the families, said Melinda Whittwer of the Boonville Chamber.

Donations in the name of the fund can be sent to: Boonville Chamber of Commerce, P.O. Box 163, Boonville, NY 13309. Gas and grocery store card donations, can be made to the Chamber. Continue reading →

Paul Josephson as his friend’s mom gives him a tika, a red mark on his forehead, for Dashain, a hundu Nepali festival

Town of Webb School graduate Paul Josephson has found his place in the Himalayan mountains of Nepal, having served as Education and Rural Development Coordinator for Saprinu, a nongovernmental organization (NGO), since the fall of 2012. Saprinu, founded in 2010, is dedicated to providing access to affordable quality schools with a mission to educate, equip, and inspire students to value truth, think critically, and live responsibly and fully.

“Investing in quality education is the best investment one can make. Everything else- the rest of one’s life- depends on the quality of education one receives as a child,” Josephson said.

Paul Josephson in the Himalayas

While Saprinu’s main focus is on education transformation, it also works toward women’s empowerment through literacy and skill development, youth empowerment and small business and local NGO development, he added.

Based in Nuwakot District, six hours northwest of Kathmandu, Josephson rents an earth and stone house in the village of Archale, where he works.

He also rents a small house in Kathmandu, where he travels for monthly meetings.

Paul talks with Nepalese boys at the school in Archale

Saprinu takes a grassroots approach to education, he said, treating villagers as equals.

Once relationships are established, staff members implement “appreciative inquiry” and listen to what villagers want and help facilitate their dreams into realities.

Saprinu will be working with the government-sponsored school in Archale, providing teacher training and workshops, improving physical infrastructure, introducing extracurricular classes and programs like physical education, music and art, and help-  ing to fill the school with resources like books, computers, games, art supplies and science lab equipment.

This year, the staff will work with Seed, a Nepali NGO which specializes in local, environmentally- friendly building techniques such as passive solar heating, green roofs, water collection and composting toilets, to repair school infrastructure.

Local men and women will be trained and employed to repair the school, which serves preschool children from age three to grade 10 coed students. As a national policy, education in Nepal is provided free of charge. Saprinu intends to help Archale residents create a community resource center to house a library, computer lab and meeting place. Continue reading →

Patricia Tribastone, winner of over twenty-five art awards, will teach ‘painting with pastels’ at View on Sunday, May 5.

Tribastone’s still lifes are painted realistically. In her workshop, she and the participants will focus on form, value, vibrant color and light and shadow.

“Pastels are a medium with dried pigment and a binder of calcium carbonate, clay, pumice or something of the kind,” Tribastone said. “We paint with them as we would draw, only with the color and the pastels right in our hands.”

Tribastone has participated in numerous international shows hosted around the United States. She’s taught pastels for over ten years, around New York State, branching out into Pennsylvania, and regularly in the Rochester area, where she has a studio.

This is Tribastone’s first time teaching at View. Continue reading →

State Fish Hatchery at Old Forge. Courtesy of Town of Webb Historical Assn.

Justice Jack Graham and an inmate worker do insulation work at the Town of Webb courthouse. Photo by Wende Carr

Town of Webb’s remodeled courtroom and justice’s bench. Courtesy photo

The renovation project on the Town of Webb Courthouse on Route 28 in Old Forge began on March 1 under the supervision of Town Justice Jack Graham.

The renovations, which according to Graham will be completed in three phases, one per year, allows physical space for the judges and court clerks to operate while the work is being done.

Every work day, a construction crew from Mid-State Correctional Facility in Marcy, under the supervision of a corrections officer, travels to Old Forge to work at the courthouse.

Two of the inmates are contractors by trade. Those who aren’t are eager to learn the trade, according to Graham.

“It’s helping them and helping us,” he said.

“It makes my day go better,” said one of the men, who is a union contractor and mason by trade. “I’m used to doing taping and sheetrocking, and it’s better than sitting in the prison.”

Graham expressed gratitude for the work they are doing, saying it wouldn’t have been possible to get this project approved if construction crews had to be contracted for the job.

Phase One, now in progress, started at the bench area. Dark paneling is being replaced with blonde wainscoting up to chair rail height, with a medium shade of green paint above the chair rail.

Continue reading →

Town of Webb school students in grades six through 12 were transported to the Strand Theatre in Old Forge on Monday, March 18 for a special viewing of the documentary film, Bully.

Bully is the true story of five bullied students and their families. Two of the male students featured—one gay, the other afflicted with Asperberger’s Syndrome—committed suicide in response to the persecution they experienced.

“The film evokes empathy for students to take a stand, to stand up for someone being bullied, whether by nonaggressively confronting the bully, helping the victim or reporting the incident to trustworthy adults in the school,” said Town of Webb School Counselor Kandis Griffin, who made arrangements for the viewing.

Griffin said the students were empowered by the film and broke into applause at the end.

In describing her experience with bullying situations at Webb, Griffin said students who don’t find their niches are the most common victims.

However, she was quick to add that Webb students tend to recognize when a bullying act is going on and stand up to the situation.  Continue reading →