Amenia residents help keep town clean

AMENIA — Last Saturday was beautiful and sunny when Amenia residents, young and old, were smiling and chatting and … picking up trash? On Saturday, April 30, a group of volunteers from the area celebrated Earth Day with the good deed of a trash pickup day from the local roadsides. Amenia town Councilwoman Vicki Doyle has led the trash pickup for eight years. “Some spots are worse than others,” she said. “We tackle the worst ones, but it’s unbelievable what people will discard. But Earth Day is becoming so popular recently, and thanks to the volunteers, it’s good to see sunshine and the daffodils again.”Earth Day activities, held in April, have also become important for students who wonder what the environmental impact will be on their futures. Two teenage volunteers were hard at work, handing out large plastic bags and work gloves. Megan Bailey, 16, explained her efforts of goodwill for the environment. “Well, I did this for myself, but also it’s a requirement to have community service for the National Honor Society at my school,” she said. “It’s more of a fun activity and gets us outside … to save the planet!”Small groups of two or three volunteers, armed with rakes, shovels and a little elbow-grease, went inch by inch over their assigned areas, bending to pick up every last tin can, glass bottle, candy wrapper, Styrofoam cup and so much more. The roadside trash filled bag after bag.Kevin Cassone and Gretchen Hitselberger were two more trash day volunteers celebrating Earth Day. “Last year we volunteered to do it. So this year,” Cassone smiled, “it’s put up or shut up. And next year we’re going do it again.” The pair was assigned to clear one of the most difficult spots. They picked up non-recyclables for more than an hour, but barely covered a quarter-mile. Both were hot and sweating doing their tasks, but grinning as well.They were able to manage all but one thing — a large pile of asphalt and roofing shingles that had tumbled down a steep hill.Hitselberger said, “It doesn’t look great, but we’ll do what we can.” “It’s a poor man’s workout,” Cassone joked.Cassone is also a volunteer for the beautification of Amenia, including his planting and caring for flowers in public areas, in the hopes of encouraging people to make Amenia their home. “I thought about the older people who were retiring, and this is a big change for them, so it’s time for us to step up,” he said. Earth Day is celebrating its 41st anniversary. There are plenty of activities for schoolchildren, but also some good ones for adults. Plant a tree, reuse recyclable materials, even encourage people to use recyclable grocery bags. And remember what Councilwoman Doyle said: “Earth Day should be every day.”To check out more about National Earth Day, visit www.Earthday.org.

Latest News

South Kent School’s unofficial March reunion

Elmarko Jackson was named a 2023 McDonald’s All American in his senior year at South Kent School. He helped lead the Cardinals to a New England Prep School Athletic Conference (NEPSAC) AAA title victory and was recruited to play at the University of Kansas. This March he will play point guard for the Jayhawks when they enter the tournament as a No. 4 seed against (13) Samford University.

Riley Klein

SOUTH KENT — March Madness will feature seven former South Kent Cardinals who now play on Division 1 NCAA teams.

The top-tier high school basketball program will be well represented with graduates from each of the past three years heading to “The Big Dance.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Hotchkiss grads dancing with Yale

Nick Townsend helped Yale win the Ivy League.

Screenshot from ESPN+ Broadcast

LAKEVILLE — Yale University advanced to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament after a buzzer-beater win over Brown University in the Ivy League championship game Sunday, March 17.

On Yale’s roster this year are two graduates of The Hotchkiss School: Nick Townsend, class of ‘22, and Jack Molloy, class of ‘21. Townsend wears No. 42 and Molloy wears No. 33.

Keep ReadingShow less
Handbells of St. Andrew’s to ring out Easter morning

Anne Everett and Bonnie Rosborough wait their turn to sound notes as bell ringers practicing to take part in the Easter morning service at St. Andrew’s Church.

Kathryn Boughton

KENT—There will be a joyful noise in St. Andrew’s Church Easter morning when a set of handbells donated to the church some 40 years ago are used for the first time by a choir currently rehearsing with music director Susan Guse.

Guse said that the church got the valuable three-octave set when Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center closed in the late 1980s and the bells were donated to the church. “The center used the bells for music therapy for younger patients. Our priest then was chaplain there and when the center closed, he brought the bells here,” she explained.

Keep ReadingShow less
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Penguin Random House

‘Picasso’s War” by Foreign Affairs senior editor Hugh Eakin, who has written about the art world for publications like The New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and The New York Times, is not about Pablo Picasso’s time in Nazi-occupied Paris and being harassed by the Gestapo, nor about his 1937 oil painting “Guernica,” in response to the aerial bombing of civilians in the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War.

Instead, the Penguin Random House book’s subtitle makes a clearer statement of intent: “How Modern Art Came To America.” This war was not between military forces but a cultural war combating America’s distaste for the emerging modernism that had flourished in Europe in the early decades of the 20th century.

Keep ReadingShow less