This column includes tidbits from local papers about the amazing volunteer effort that took place to build the Hasbrouck Park playground in September of 1995. Enjoy these words of 25 years ago:
Olivia Treubig’s “The Lotus Seed Project” is primarily an initiative to introduce yoga and mindfulness to more people, she says, doing so in settings other than the traditional yoga studio and with a focus on community and healing. Her efforts extend to both adults and children.
Community athletic competitions are fun in and of themselves, but especially meaningful when their purpose is to raise funds and awareness for a good cause. A new such venture, which its organizers hope to become an annual event, will make its debut in New Paltz on Saturday, September 14: the Great Wallkill River Race and Festival.
The playground at Hasbrouck Park in New Paltz is at the end of its serviceable life and volunteers are being asked to help rebuild it, as was done 25 years ago. The New Paltz Village Board and the DPW assessed the playground’s condition in 2015, which is what put this plan into motion.
When chef Josh Cohen appeared on the reality television show “Chopped” earlier this year, the basket of mystery ingredients he and the other contestants were given to utilize in their dishes included a few things that even avid foodies may not have heard of. But when the New Paltz native first discovered his love for making culinary creations, it was with a far simpler proposition: grilled cheese.
Former Town of Lloyd building inspector Fred Riley has made it his mission to fix the crumbling roof of the First United Methodist Church of Highland on Vineyard Avenue almost single-handedly. This house of worship was built in 1869 and has long served as the centerpiece of the hamlet. Having weathered many a storm, and at least three roofs later, the church steeple was about to collapse before Riley stepped in and decided to do something about it.
The New Paltz Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Hiring and Executive Committees have named Christopher Short to serve as the organization’s new executive director. He replaces former New Paltz Chamber director Jen Roe, who resigned recently after only a year at the helm.
Gardiner Day, the annual free celebration of “Family, Friends & Fun” in the Gardiner hamlet, is coming back for the 30th time this year, on Saturday, September 7 from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. No longer does the event need to be marketed as a “block party,” as it was in 2018, “because they took the Pavilion down and we had no place to store the food,” says Gardiner Day Committee organizer Jaynie Marie Aristeo. “What’s going to be different this year is that it’s going to incorporate Majestic Park again.”
The store was opened in 1979 by Bruce Conklin, who named the fledgling business for a favorite author’s collection of short stories: October Countryby Ray Bradbury. Current owner Devon Sprenger says he thinks the store name is very appropriate, given that “a comic book store is really an eclectic collection of different short stories.”
Growing hemp will be more than just another crop for local farmers, Gail Hepworth says; it will literally be essential to the very survival of local farms. “It needs to happen.”