Hundreds jam Catskill’s Main Street for parade, tree lighting
Nov. 29, 2008

CATSKILL — Hundreds of people who lined Main Street in Catskill Friday caught a glimpse of Santa Claus, the Grinch and Barack Obama during the second Annual Parade of Lights.

Members of local groups, including fire departments, churches and businesses, marched and rode floats in this year’s parade, almost double last year’s participation, said Pam Wright of the Catskill Fire Department Ladies Auxiliary and the parade’s organizer.

The crowd-pleasing floats included the Catskill Fire Department’s entry of a faux-burning house, elves busy at a workbench and two nativity scenes.

A likeness of President-Elect Barack Obama joined 10 members of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Movement in the form of a life-sized cutout draped in an overcoat. Donna L. Davis, the group’s co-founder, said that the the two-dimensional Obama would be back for next year’s event.

Some of the youngest participants were six members of Girl School Brownie Troop 1795, who, along with a few even younger Daisy scouts, marched in personalized sweatshirts made specifically for the event. Elizabeth Liberti, a troop leader, said that the girls had a lot of fun.

Crowned only last month, Miss Greene County, Michelle Suttmeier, and Miss Greene County Teen, Brittany Smith, braved the cold in a silver convertible and met youngsters after the parade.

But it was Suntime Tanning Center’s beach-cabana-on-wheels that was deemed the best float overall.

Lynn Young, who owns the salon with her husband, Ronnie, said that last year’s parade came too close to the salon’s grand opening to coordinate participation. Planning for the overall wining float began immediately following that parade. Like at last year’s parade, many participants tossed and handed candy, but the Youngs’ staff showed their unique flair.

“We threw beach balls,” Lynn Young said, adding, “We ran out.

Other participants in the event included members of the Fortnightly Club, God’s Woman Ministries and the Catskill Community Center Bugle and Drum Corps, whose drum sticks were illuminated with green glow-sticks for the occasion.

Last to come up the street were Santa and Mrs. Claus, who arrived in a cloud of snow — fake this year. They were accompanied by the Centerville-Cedar Grove Fire Department. According to Santa, the North Pole was left in Rudolph’s capable hooves while the couple was visiting Catskill.

At the culmination of the parade, the crowd counted down to the moment when Donald Gibson, president and chief economic officer of the Bank of Greene County, lit the colored lights on a 25-foot evergreen next to the Greene County office building.

While the official count of spectators has not been tallied at this time, the crowd seems to have surpassed last year’s attendance of 1,000.

State giving the gift of warmth
84 coats to be delivered to Cairo church, Catskill food pantry
Nov. 28, 2008

With temperatures, not to mention family savings, dropping, Greene and Columbia county residents can be thankful for a state gift of free coats.

Gov. David A. Paterson announced that the Department of Correctional Services has donated more than 190 winter coats to area distribution centers, according to a press release issued on Nov. 24.

According to the Governor’s office, 108 coats will be presented to the City of Hudson’s coat drive; 60 coats will be given to Resurrection Lutheran Church, in Cairo; and 24 coats will go to God’s Storehouse and Food Pantry, in Catskill.

“This is a small gesture, but hopefully these coats will find their way to individuals who need them this winter,” Paterson said in the press release. “It is in the spirit of Thanksgiving that we hope to provide a little warmth to the most vulnerable of our residents.”

Seven thousand of the blue polyester-and-cotton coats will be distributed statewide in a variety of adult sizes. Although the coats, which were manufactured by inmates at Clinton Correctional Facility’s Apparel Shop and were part of the standard correction officer uniform until 2006, they closely resemble commercially made coats.

“It was apparent that we would no longer have a use for these coats, and it made sense to make this most of these surplus items by helping our fellow New Yorkers,” Brian Fischer, department commissioner, said in the release.

The coats began their journey to their new homes after an inventory of items in storage was conducted, Correctional Services spokesman Erik Kriss said Wednesday. Fischer approached the Governor about giving the coats away, an idea that appealed to the Governor. Fisher worked with prison supervisors, inclucing Hudson Correctional Facility’s Jeff McCoy, to choose centers to receive the coats, Kriss said.

Hudson Mayor Rick Scalera worked with the department to procure the coats, said Rev. Ed Cross, who coordinates the Community Warmth Program, which grew out of a winter hearing forum held in August.

Coat deliveries began immediately, and items will be available to the public in the coming weeks.

Cross said Wednesday that he is busy planning giveaway events for this winter, but people who need winter coats and blankets can contact him at any time. He said that the department’s gift almost doubled the supply of coats the City has collected from individual donations and drives, such as one sponsored by the Bank of Greene County.

The coats will be available at Resurrection Lutheran Church, in Cairo, during a giveaway on Dec. 20, Joyce Notarnicola, who runs such events, said. Charlotte Stengle, who ran the church coat giveaway until this year, said that more than 100 winter coats were picked up by residents last winter.

Mary Irvis of God’s Storehouse and Food Pantry said that most of the 50 coats available every year are usually taken by mid-winter, and the coats should help extend availability.

Corrections coats were given to organizations in 35 communities across the state.

As economy slides, demands on local food pantries rise
Nov. 26, 2008

CATSKILL — Volunteers with the Catskill Ecumenical Council stood and sat at the ready Tuesday morning, waiting for Catskill residents to come out of the cold rain and into the First Baptist Church to pick up free Thanksgiving meals.

The packages of turkeys, cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes and other vegetables were collected by the Ecumenical Council’s member churches and by God’s Storehouse. Students at Catskill High School made bread for the packages. In all, the council had gathered enough food for 192 families, although already over 50 packages had been given out before the event.

Last year, the council prepared enough food for only 115 families, but, Rev. Joyce Wilkerson, pastor of United Methodist Church and council president, said that requests for food have increased significantly this year.

Other area pantries have seen a similar rise in first-time requests for assistance, and although local scout troops, school classes and town and federal employees have held food drives, pantries’ staff have had to supplement the donations with larger and more frequent orders from the Regional Food Bank of Northeast New York than they have in the past.

“People say, ‘I’ve never had to ask for help before, but I have to get help from somewhere,’” said Joyce Notarnicola, of Resurrection Lutheran Church, repeating what she has heard from those who sign up for the service for the first time.

The pantry’s Thanksgiving giveaway, held Nov. 22, provided food to 170 families — 30 more families than last last year, she said.

Charlotte Carter, with the First Reformed Church’s emergency pantry, said that 50 more families have come to take food than required the service last year.

“I know we are spending twice as much than we were last year,” she said, estimating that the pantry spends $2,000 per month at the regional bank.

Mark Quandt, regional bank’s executive director, confirmed what anecdotal evidence has shown. The demands on Greene County pantries have significantly increased over the last year. Orders, he said, have increased 19 percent.

Between January and September 2008, 179,202 lbs. of food had been distributed to pantries across Greene County, he said. During the same time period last year, local pantries received 150,000 lbs. of food from the regional bank.

Quandt said that pantry orders across the region, which stretches from Rockland and Putnam counties all the way up to the Canadian boarder, have increased by 20 percent in the last year.

“Demand is so great that whatever we get in flies right out,” he said.

Staple items, such as rice, bread and peanut butter, are the hardest to keep in stock, and local pantries sometime need to find those items elsewhere, Charlotte Carter said.

Carter said the church’s pantry has almost used all the funds provided by state and federal grants. Then next wave of grant money will not come to the pantry until July 2009, she said.

The Greenville Area Food Pantry is facing a similar economic challenge. Phyllis Beechert, the pantry’s treasurer, said that pantry also receives grant money in July, but has already used up almost the entire $4,000 budgeted for its yearly expenses.

Area pantry staffs have not disclosed monetary contribution totals, but say that the numbers are similar to last year’s figures.

Mary Irvis, of God’s Storehouse and Food Pantry in Catskill, along with other pantry representatives across the county, thanked everybody who has donated time or resources this fall.

“People are being generous and it’s a good thing they are, because we get more people every day,” she said.