Sharks win 25 straight, look to advance to NJCAA Division III World Series in Rochester, Minnesota
The Suffolk County Community College softball team poses with its championship plaque following the Region XV championship win over Nassau County Community College. Photo from SCCC
On Saturday afternoon, the Suffolk County Community College softball team beat Nassau County Community College, 9-1, to capture the Region XV Championship.
With the Sharks’ three wins this weekend, their regular season record is 27-10, and they are the winners of 25 straight. The team will travel May 7th to play Montgomery College, the winner of Region XX. The team that comes out on top this weekend
advances to the National Junior College Athletic Association Division III World
Series in Rochester, Minnesota.
Paige Baker, Sandra Lombardi, Jackie Chester and Jamie Parente were named to the All Tournament Team. Courtney Lawrence was voted Tournament MVP to go along with her Region XV Player of the Year Award.
Freshman third baseman, shortstop and outfielder Jessica Parente; freshman outfielder, second baseman and shortstop Jamie Parente; freshman outfielder Paige Baker; sophomore shortstop, outfield and pitcher Valerie Scura, from Newfield; and freshman pitcher, outfielder and shortstop Courtney Lawrence were named to the Region XV All Region Team voted on by the Region XV coaches.
Sophomore first baseman, third baseman and catcher Samantha Magerovich was named to the second team.
Activists demonstrate across the state in a 2013 rally for farmworkers’ rights. Photo from U. Roberto Romano
The road to fairness for farmworkers starts in Suffolk County.
Supporters of the Farm Workers Fair Labor Practices Act, as it has been known for the majority of its existence, which has spanned years and decades, will begin a 200-mile march to Albany on May 15, starting from Sen. John Flanagan’s (R-East Northport) office in Smithtown. A group called the Rural Migrant Ministry organized the March for Farmworker’s Justice. The group has been lobbying for better working and living conditions and benefits like overtime pay and health insurance for farmworkers, who Linda Obernauer, a volunteer with the ministry, said “live in fear” under “strongholds” from many farmers.
“The owners of the farm are the landlords — the owners of the housing,” Boris Martinez, a farmworker from a nursery in Patchogue, said through translator Katia Chapman in a phone interview Tuesday. Martinez is from El Salvador and has worked at the nursery for about two years, he said. “The owners only care that the housing is okay when inspection is going to come. They don’t care what state the housing is in, what condition the housing is in. It’s most likely that there will be at least 10 people living there.”
Nathan Berger is the main organizer of the march, which is a yearly occurrence. Participants march between 10 and 15 miles per day, stopping overnight to sleep at churches or at homes provided by volunteer host families. Obernauer said anyone is welcome to march, and they can join during any leg and participate for as many or as few miles as desired. Berger could not be reached for comment.
“We should all be involved in this,” Obernauer said in a phone interview Friday. “They are who we are but we don’t give them justice.”
Martinez said during a snowstorm last year many of the rooms in the housing provided by the owner of the farm where he works had leaks. Snow and water got inside of virtually all of the rooms. About 10 tenants share the home at a given time.
“The difficulty is that if we were to say to the owner that it’s not adequate housing he would send us out of the house to rent elsewhere because here when you work at his farm we don’t pay rent and it would be difficult to afford rent elsewhere,” Martinez said. “None of the workers are paid overtime pay. None of us have health insurance and if we get sick we don’t have the resources to pay for basic medical care. I know a lot of other workers in the area and none of them are paid overtime pay. Many of us don’t have a day of rest either. I’m right now working about 60 hours a week but when the weather warms up I’ll probably be working 67 or 68 hours.”
“The owners only care that the housing is okay when inspection is going to come.” — Boris Martinez
Martinez added he has friends who work upward of 80 hours a week.
“Those in power, they don’t care how we’re doing as workers, what they care about is the money that we’re producing for them,” he said.
An anonymous website, located at www.nyfarmworkerprotectionbill.com, provides the farmers’ perspective on the seemingly never-ending battle. An attempt to contact the purveyor of the website was unsuccessful. The email associated is no longer active.
“[The Rural Migrant Ministry] and others have recruited various celebrities and ‘foodies’ to support the bill, as well as downstate/New York City legislators, most of whom have never even been to a farm,” the site says. “We believe these individuals have been misled and have not done the proper research to find out the truth about farms, growers, farmworkers, and the challenges we face to bring fresh food to as many tables as possible.”
State Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan (D-Queens) is the sponsor of the bill in its current form. The site suggests increased rights and benefits for farmworkers would take a financial toll on farmers’ businesses.
“What we are talking about are five or six exemptions to state labor law,” the site states. “These exemptions, like the one for overtime pay exist because of the production and marketing realities associated with farming. Farming does not take place in an enclosed building with a regulated environment. We have a limited time to plant and harvest. If overtime is enacted, farmers will have to cut hours during the growing season so as to afford the extra hours needed at planting and harvest times which can’t be avoided.”
Flanagan was a sponsor of the bill during his time in the State Assembly in the early 2000s. Since being elected to the State Senate in 2002 he has publicly supported the bill. However, despite becoming the GOP majority leader in 2015, the bill remains before the Labor Committee and has yet to pass the Senate. Flanagan did not respond to multiple requests for comment through his public relations personnel.
Jose Ventura, another farmworker from Guatemala who lives on Long Island, said his living and working conditions are not bad, but he also does not receive overtime or health benefits. He will be participating in the march.
“I’m participating in the march because even though, as I said, I like my job, I also see my friends, my companions that they are not always treated well,” Ventura said in a phone interview Tuesday through Chapman as a translator. “On their farms they’re not always paid fairly. There’s a lot of Guatemalan farmworkers and some of them are mistreated in the job and while I feel that this march is for the benefit of my people, therefore I feel motivated to be a part of the movement.”
Martinez, who also plans to participate in the march, said he knows his value and plans to fight for it.
“Farmworkers are the most important workers in every country because they’re the ones producing the food for the country.”
Miller Place's Alyssa Parrella moves around John Glenn’s Amelia Biancardi. Photo by Bill Landon
By Bill Landon
Miller Place dominated over visiting Elwood-John Glenn amid light rain Tuesday afternoon. The Panthers outscored their opponent 9-1 after 25 minutes of play in Division II girls’ lacrosse action, and despite the Knights scoring six goals in the second half, Miller Place was able to extinguish the rally and put the game away 17-7 to improve to 8-3 in the league and secure a solid playoff position.
The Panthers spread the scoring around in the first half, but senior Kristin Roberto led the way, as the midfielder and captain scored twice. Attacks Olivia Angelo, Julia Burns, Loren Librizzi and Allison Turturro each found the cage, as did midfielder Danielle Plunkett. The two other co-captains, junior midfielder Arianna Esposito and senior midfielder Alyssa Parrella, also split the pipes to dominate the game early.
Arianna Esposito cuts downfield for Miller Place. Photo by Bill Landon
Senior captain Amelia Biancardi scored the lone goal of the first half for the Knights 12 minutes into the contest.
To combat the deficit, Elwood-John Glenn head coach Janine Bright made a change in her team’s strategy for the second half. Bright said she knew Miller Place was a formidable opponent and that her team would have to fight from whistle to whistle for any chance of winning.
“We have to play a full 25 minute half — not just show up for six minutes in the first half, seven minutes in the second half — we have to play the entire game with full intensity from start to finish,” Bright said. “If we did that, today’s score could’ve been very different.”
Parrella opened the second half by lighting up the scoreboard with two quick goals — the first off an assist by Plunkett and then a solo shot for her hat trick goal, putting her team out front 11-1.
Miller Place head coach Thomas Carro said the leadership from his team’s captains is the reason for the team’s success this season.
“I think we’re peaking at the right time, and the girls are firing on all cylinders right now,” Carro said. “Their positive attitude on and off the field is just contagious. The girls are starting to believe in themselves and as a result of that, they can play with anybody this season.”
Biancardi, from a free position shot, scored again to make it a nine-point game with 16:03 left to play, but Parrella, unassisted, buried another one two minutes later to reopen the gap. Biancardi answered back at the 11:45 mark with a hat trick goal of her own, to bring the score to 12-3.
Miller Place’s Loren Librizzi passes the ball. Photo by Bill Landon
“In previous years, we’ve played them closer, but they played amazing today,” Biancardi said. “They have so much speed on that team and you could see the difference.”
After another Panthers goal, Biancardi struck again after circling the cage and slipping an underhand shot in for the score. On the Knights’ next possession, Biancardi fed the ball to Madisyn Hausch, who found the net as momentum began to shift.
“[The Knights] have a couple of really good players who are not afraid to take it to cage,” Roberto said. “We had to step up and put pressure on them because they can score. We couldn’t take them lightly at all.”
Victoria Tsangaris drove one home from the free position, followed by Hausch’s second goal a minute later, to shave the Panthers’ lead to 13-7, but the Panthers capped off the game by scoring four more goals.
“Early on they were beating us to the ball, so we had to step it up — they came at us strong,” Parrella said. “Everyone’s fighting to make playoffs and we knew that if we played our game we’d come out on top.”
Four candidates, no challenges. Both the Comsewogue and Port Jefferson school boards have two seats up for election later this month, but in both school districts, the incumbents are unopposed for re-election.
Rob DeStefano
Rob DeStefano photo from the candidate
DeStefano was first elected to the Comsewogue Board of Education in 2010. He graduated from Comsewogue High School with the Class of 1996 and joked that he’s been proud to be a part of the community since the day his parents brought him home from the hospital.
“I’m so honored that our community has supported me,” DeStefano said, as he runs unopposed for his third term. “It’s a lot to entrust in a handful of folks to make sure our district is in the right hands. I take this very seriously.”
DeStefano graduated from the New York University Stern School of Business with degrees in business marketing and business management, and a minor in political science. He earned a Master of Business Administration in 2004 from Long Island University. He said he’s spent his whole professional career in technology and is currently a senior product marketing manager for a software company that specializes in mobile connectivity.
DeStefano and his wife have a 7-year-old at Norwood Elementary School and a 3-year-old who will soon be attending Comsewogue schools. DeStefano will be leading the school board’s newly formed public relations committee next year.
Francisca Alabau-Blatter
Francisca Alabau-Blatter file photo
Alabau-Blatter did not respond to requests for comment on her run for her third term on the Comsewogue school board.
Originally from Spain, she moved to Long Island at 13 years old. She has three kids in Comsewogue and teaches Spanish in the Central Islip school district. She holds a bachelor’s degree in art education and a master’s degree in computer graphics.
Alabau-Blatter has made comments in the past about her views on standardized testing for students.
“I have little kids and I know what they go through,” she said in an interview after her election for a second term in 2013. “The only goal right now is to do well on this test and it shouldn’t be that way — it should be a well-rounded education.”
She said in 2013 that she was running for a second term because she felt there was still work to be done in the district.
Kathleen Brennan
Kathleen Brennan file photo
The Port Jefferson school board president and former educator is seeking a third term because “there’s so many pieces still in play in the district, not the least of which is the search for the new superintendent.”
Superintendent Ken Bossert recently announced that this school year would be his last with Port Jefferson, and Brennan said she wants to focus on finding a replacement because “that person helps set the course for where the district goes.”
Brennan, a member of the board’s audit and finance committees and a resident of the district since 1978, noted that all the board members have a good rapport with one another, respecting each other’s opinions.
“There isn’t the kind of … interaction that there once was on the board,” she said. “There was a lot of negative interaction between board members.”
In addition to finding a new superintendent, the president would like to continue work on infrastructure improvements, because improving the campuses “affects morale for everyone in the organization,” including staff and students.
Ellen Boehm
Ellen Boehm file photo
Boehm, a member of the Port Jefferson board’s facilities and audit committees, also noted the superintendent’s departure when discussing her reasons for seeking a third term on the board.
“It’s, I think, good to have people that are familiar with what’s been going on with the school,” she said, “that we remain together” during the change. But she added that she thinks the district has a good administrative team in place, between new principals and other officials, to see everyone through a change in leadership.
Boehm, a Port Jefferson grad herself, was once a teaching assistant in the district.
“I love the community, especially the students here,” she said. “Having spent time at the elementary school, I’m familiar with a good number of the student body. It’s a great place. We should have strong schools.”
Boehm has served four years as a trustee,after being appointed in 2012 and re-elected to a full term the next year. In her third run on the board, she has her sights set on improving school facilities and supporting special education students “so that they’re career-ready.”
Three candidates are vying for two seats on the Three Village school board.
Incumbent Jonathan Kornreich, who has been on the board since 2008, will try to hold on to one of the at-large seats. Newcomer Angelique Ragolia, 46, and Andrea Fusco-Winslow, who ran unsuccessfully for the school board in 2012, are joining Kornreich in a bid for the two, 3-year positions.
Jonathan Kornreich Photo by Andrea Moore Paldy
A handful of residents showed up at Ward Melville High School Monday for the PTA-sponsored Meet the Candidates Night, at which the candidates for board trustees fielded prepared questions from the audience. Pitching their strengths, each highlighted qualities they said make them uniquely suited for the board.
Fusco-Winslow, an anesthesiologist with ProHEALTH Care Associates, said that, as a former business owner, she understands budgets and the importance of the bottom line. As a “fresh face” to the board, “I may see things differently,” she said, which could help the board ask the right questions and “change things that need to be changed.”
“I want to do the best for the community that has taken such good care of me,” said Fusco-Winslow, a 1988 Ward Melville High School graduate.
Kornreich, 46, chair of the board’s audit committee and a member of its legislative committee, said his background in investment management and as a legal consultant gives him a good sense of what tomorrow’s businesses want. That makes him an effective advocate for programs that will give Three Village students the right skills.
“There are certain very special things about this school district that make it desirable,” Kornreich said. “The size of our district allows us to run a wide variety of programs and allows every child to find that special thing about school that they really enjoy.”
He added that he has demonstrated a commitment “to the kids of our community and the community at large.”
Angelique Ragolia file photo
“I would love to be someone who advocates for all of our children,” said Ragolia, who taught speech for seven years in Brooklyn before moving to East Setauket more than a decade ago. She works as a positive behavior intervention specialist with people suffering from traumatic brain injuries.
Now at the end of her second year as president of the Three Village Council of PTAs, Ragolia said she has a good working relationship with district administration and the board.
Asked about the district’s greatest weakness, the former Minnesauke Elementary PTA president answered that there wasn’t one. She praised the school board for restoring several student programs while presenting a “fiscally responsible” budget within the cap.
“I see all good,” Ragolia said. “I see room for growth always, but that’s with everybody, everywhere.”
Fusco-Winslow, 46, said she’s pleased with the education her daughters are receiving at Nassakeag Elementary and P.J. Gelinas Junior High, but sees areas that can be improved.
The 13-year East Setauket resident touched on the need to increase technology and student safety. Specifically, Fusco-Winslow said she wants to move voting, like the April 19 primary, out of the district’s schools. In addition, she wants to ensure that student athletes have the most appropriate safety equipment — particularly for sports such as football and lacrosse, and that the additional $6 million from the state goes toward student programs like art and music.
“There are things that need to be improved, and we have the money to do it,” she said.
Kornreich mentioned the restoration of high school business classes, the expansion of secondary level computer science and the elementary STEM program as examples of the current board’s budget priorities.
Not only is next year’s budget below the cap, he said, “It enhances programs to the maximum extent possible for our kids.”
The district’s greatest weakness, he said, is the loss of local control.
“No one knows better than us how we want to educate our students,” he said. Kornreich added that being “force-fed” state assessments infringes on the district’s ability to “control parts of our own destiny.”
Both Ragolia, who spoke at the 2013 Ward Melville forum with then Education Commissioner John King, and Fusco-Winslow, whose platform includes opting out of state tests, believe the standardized tests are developmentally inappropriate. In interviews before Monday’s event, each said the tests were not helpful to students, teachers or parents in determining how well students are doing.
The vote for school board trustees and the budget will take place on Tuesday, May 17, at the elementary schools. Those who usually vote at W.S. Mount Elementary will vote at R.C. Murphy Junior High, and Arrowhead Elementary voters will go to Ward Melville High School. The order on the ballot, determined by a drawing required by law, will be Kornreich, Ragolia and Fusco.
The candidate with the most votes will complete Susanne Mendelson’s term, which ends on June 30.
Above, Jillian Winwood grabs possession at midfield off the draw. Photo by Desirée Keegan
Amid a rain and wind-whipped field Tuesday, the Kings Park girls’ lacrosse team struggled to find a rhythm and, as a result, the Kingsmen fell 15-1 to Greenport/Southold/Mattituck on their home field.
Mattituck capitalized on Kings Park’s early mistakes, as the team continued to win the draw, force turnovers and scoop up the ground balls off bad passes, leading to 10 unanswered goals by the end of the first half.
Shannon Savage scoops up a ground ball. Photo by Desirée Keegan
By the 10th goal, which came at the 3:05 mark, the seconds began to tick away off the now-running clock, regardless of the referees blowing the whistle.
In the second half, Mattituck mustered up five more goals, while Kings Park junior Jillian Winwood scored the lone goal for her team, off an assist from classmate Shannon Savage.
Freshman goalkeeper Lexie Kotsailidis made five saves between the pipes.
With the loss, the Kingsmen fall to 6-5 in Division II. The team has three games left this season, against Shoreham-Wading River, Center Moriches and Hauppauge.
Kings Park will travel to Shoreham-Wading River today, Thursday, for a game against Division II’s No. 3 team at 4 p.m.
The Kingsmen will host the 4-7 Center Moriches team on May 9 at 4:30 p.m., and wrap up the regular season against visiting 5-6 Hauppauge on May 11 at 4 p.m.
“I hate you,” in middle school often means, “Why don’t you pay more attention to me? I think you’re pretty awesome and I don’t know how to tell you that directly.”
Or, how about:
“What you did isn’t so great. I could have done that.”
Translation: “Damn, I wish I had thought of that. Where’d you get that idea?”
“Johnny is so much worse at this than I am.”
Translation: “Johnny may or may not be much worse than I am, but I can’t possibly be the worst one at wrapping holiday presents. Please, tell me that I’m not at the bottom of the barrel in this activity.”
Parents have their own way of communicating with each other and/or speaking about their children. Most of the things we say, either to our spouses, to their teachers or to other parents, are direct and straightforward. I’ve had some recent conversations in sporting matters where the subtext is so obvious that I thought I’d share my own decoder.
Me: “So, how do you think the team looks this year?”
Superdad: “Well, my son has spent much of the offseason preparing for this.”
Translation: “I poured thousands of dollars into training. He better do well and you all better notice it quickly, if you want to protect my son and the trainers from my wrath.”
Then there was a recent discussion about various volleyball skill sets among our daughters. I was speaking with the mother of a girl who is so much taller than my daughter that she’d have to bend down to eat peanuts off the top of my daughter’s head. This other girl plays the frontline almost exclusively.
Me: “So your daughter Clara looked great in the front today.”
Superdad: “Yeah, but she’s the best one on the team in the back line. She just never gets there, but she’s scary good back there, too.”
Translation: “I probably wasn’t that good at sports when I was younger and I want my daughter to define awesome on this team. In fact, this team would probably be better if we either cloned my daughter and had her play every position or if we took a few of your daughters off the floor for some of the game, until my daughter was able to give us a big enough lead.”
Bragging about our kids is inevitable, and probably helpful as a way to assure ourselves that there is a payoff for all the work of getting them to and from practices, rehearsals and other activities.
There are those parents who feign disappointment in their children.
Faker: “Oh, man, did you see that she only got two outs when she could have had a triple play? Now, that would have been something special.”
Translation: “She made the most incredible catch anyone has made this year and she would have had a triple play if your daughter hadn’t been studying the butterfly over in the bushes. Next time, maybe the team will be ready for that kind of play and your child can play a supporting role in my child’s greatness.”
And then there are the parents who work to limit any praise for their children, warding off the evil eye.
Me: “Wow, your son made a sensational running catch in the end zone. Congratulations.”
Superstitious parent: “Yeah, I guess it was OK, but the throw from the quarterback and the blocking by the other boys was even more impressive.”
Translation: “He’s OK, but don’t call too much attention to him.”
And then there are the put-it-in-perspective parents:
Me: “That was a tough game, no?”
PP: “I suppose, but they get to go home to a comfortable house with supportive parents.”
Victor Ochi, right, races toward the quarterback in a game for Stony Brook last season. File photo from SBU
Victor Ochi realized his dream on Saturday evening when the senior member of the 2015 Stony Brook University football team signed an undrafted free agent contract with the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League.
If he makes the team, Ochi would join former Seawolves teammate Will Tye as an active player in the NFL. Tye, the first SBU graduate to play on the big field, earned NFL All-Rookie honors as a tight end on the New York Giants roster in 2015 after making the squad as an undrafted free agent.
Ochi, a 2015 All-America selection and the Colonial Athletic Association co-Defensive Player of the Year, led the nation with 13 sacks through the regular season and was top in the CAA with 16.5 tackles for a loss. For the 2015 season, the Valley Stream native recorded 47 tackles in the Seawolves’ 10 games, including his 13 sacks — the second most in a single season in the program’s history. He also had four games with at least two sacks, including 3.5 against the University of New Hampshire.
During the 2015 season, Ochi became Stony Brook’s career leader in both sacks and tackles for loss. He collected 32.5 sacks and 49 tackles for a loss in four seasons.
In addition, he made a splash at the 2016 East-West Shrine game in January and turned some NFL scouts’ heads after being invited to the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis in February.
‘The Three Graces’ by Lois Youmans will be on view at fotofoto gallery through May 28.
By Rita J. Egan
Spring is here and flowers are blooming all over the island. Yet, whether found in a garden or a vase, the beauty of a flower is fleeting, unless a photographer captures the image of a bloom. Then, not only can its beauty live eternally, but also every nuance can be seen, and the image may even inspire one to see the flower in a new way.
To celebrate the fine art of floral photography, fotofoto gallery in Huntington will present photographer Holly Gordon’s exhibit, FLORAbundance, through May 28. To complement her solo show, Floral Bouquet, with works from individual gallery artists, will be on display as well.
Gordon said that fotofoto gallery, which was founded almost 15 years ago by a group of Long Island-based photographers, is the oldest fine art photography collective gallery in the area that provides a space for professional contemporary photographers to display their work. Each month a group member has a chance to feature his or her art, and Gordon chose the month of May.
Lawrence Chatterton’s photograph, ‘Astilbe Chinensis’ will be on display at fotofoto’s latest exhibit.
The photographer, who explained her work starts out as photographs but grows into something different in the digital “darkroom,” said May is the perfect time of year for her to display her floral images. Gordon said while a young mother she would plant vegetables and flowers and then take photos of her garden. “A lot of my evolution as an artist has evolved from the garden, and I thought May would be a perfect time to let my gallery space explode with the color and profusion of these wonderful blooms after a cold, gray season,” she said.
Gordon said she uses a 35mm Canon EOS 5D camera with a Tamron 28-300 zoom lens or a Sony RX1 with a fixed lens, and she varies her techniques when photographing subjects. She sometimes shoots with a shallow depth of field so the background blends in, and other times sets her camera out of focus so she can capture a more impressionistic view of what is in front of her. She said everything is manual because she feels, “it’s not the camera, it’s the person who is using the camera. I do not want a little box making decisions for me.”
At times, Gordon will take one shot in focus, and then, without moving or changing the focus or depth of field, she’ll keep taking photos. Once she has the photos on her computer, she uses Photoshop to layer them over each other and changes the opacity to make it look almost like cellophane to create an image that is recognizable yet at the same time represents her vision. Many times her photographs have been compared to a painting, which is no surprise since Gordon has a background in that art form, too.
“I’m always looking for creating my own vision, because you can set up a zillion cameras, and let the camera make all the decisions, and all you do is snap the picture, but I want to have a more personal response and reaction to what it is that I am looking at,” she said.
The photographer said she calls the paired exhibits at fotofoto The Focus Is Flowers, and the name of hers, FLORAbundance, is a play on the words floral and abundance. Gordon has 10 of her prints on display, and in Floral Bouquet 10 gallery artists are participating: Patricia Beary, Sandra Carrion, Lawrence Chatterton, Patricia Colombraro, Susan Dooley, Rosalie Frost, Andrea M. Gordon, Kristin Holcomb, Seth Kalmowitz and Lois Youmans.
Gordon said photographers will each have one piece on display in the group exhibit, and their signature styles inspired the title Floral Bouquet. “Because each artist in the gallery has his and her own unique vision, that’s why it has become a floral bouquet. That’s what’s so fascinating, and it’s absolutely wonderful, because it just shows so many different approaches to photographing flowers,” she said.
The photographer hopes that visitors to the gallery will look at flowers differently after viewing the exhibit and that serious photographers may even be inspired to share their work with art lovers at fotofoto gallery. “I hope that it expands the way they see. That they look at the world much more sensitively and as a natural work of art, and that it might inspire them to see differently when they use their camera . . . not just to rely on the technology of the camera to snap something, but to be a more active player in choosing what to take and to realize that being an artist is a rare and special gift,” she said.
‘Iris,’ a photographic print by Holly Gordon, will be on display at fotofoto’s latest exhibit.
Gordon said she once read something that Monet said to the effect of “look beyond the bloom.” “What I took that to mean, and maybe that’s something that I would like people to take away from seeing my work, what he was saying, ‘look beyond the bloom,’ see it for more than the fact that it’s a tulip, or a rhododendron, or a rose or a daisy,” she said. “See it as colors and shapes and patterns, and how those colors and shapes and patterns and textures play with all the other colors and patterns and textures around it. And, that’s how I view the world; I see it as art elements.”
The exhibit is the first of a number of events for Gordon in the next few months. The photographer is scheduled to display her FLORAbundance pieces at the Bay Shore-Brightwaters Library from June 1 through 30 and will also present a slide show based on the artwork at the library on June 13. Another slide show with Gordon, presented by the Long Island Horticulture Society, is scheduled for Sunday, June 28, at Planting Fields Arboretum in Oyster Bay.
In addition to her solo work, the photographer is currently working with watercolor painter Ward Hooper on the artistic endeavor, The Brush/Lens Project, which compares Long Island landscapes in both a photograph and painting to show how the brush and lens relate. The Long Island MacArthur Airport Gallery will host an exhibit by The Brush/Lens Project with Gordon’s photographs as well as Hooper’s paintings from July 1 through August 12.
Gordon said an artist reception at fotofoto will be held on Saturday, May 7, from 5 to 7 p.m., and the gallery will also be part of Huntington Village’s first Art Walk taking place on Saturday, May 14. “I certainly hope that people will tiptoe through the streets of Huntington and come back to fotofoto gallery because I’m going to be there, too,” she said.
FLORAbundance by Holly Gordon and Floral Bouquet by fotofoto gallery artists will run through May 28. The gallery is located at 14 W. Carver St. in Huntington and admission is free. For more information on the exhibit, visit www.fotofotogallery.org or call 631-549-0448. To discover more about Gordon’s photography, visit www.hollygordonphotographer.com.
Gena Sbelia stands with her guide Elahavelo at Beza Mahafaly Special Reserve in southwestern Madagascar. Photo by Erik Patel
For the last 25 years, Patricia Wright has traveled back and forth from Stony Brook to Madagascar, studying the island nation’s lemurs. Along the way, she has worn numerous hats.
Within a day of returning recently to Madagascar, a country that honored her with three Legion of Honor medals, Wright received a letter from a mayor who made an unusual request. He wrote to her explaining that “You’ve been talking about trash for a long time,” related Wright, who is a distinguished service professor in the Department of Anthropology at Stony Brook University and the director of the Institute for the Conservation of Tropical Environments.
He promised to help arrange for its pick up and removal “if you buy us three wheelbarrows.” She wrote back indicating that she’d purchase two wheelbarrows if he bought the last one.
Living and conducting research in Madagascar, other countries around the world or in the United States requires a vast array of skill sets, including negotiation, Wright said.
Indeed, Wright spoke with a scientific colleague she’s known from her work with spiders in Madagascar, Sarah Kariko, recently about a one-day training session Wright’s graduate students could attend at Harvard, so they could learn to work with people with different agendas.
Katherine Kling holds a Verreaux’s sifaka, a type of lemur, at Kirindy Mitea National Park in Madagascar. Photo by Rebecca Lewis
“Having to learn the negotiation fields on your feet is very difficult,” Wright said via Skype from Madagascar. “If you have a skill set you can draw on, you could deal with many of these situations so much easier.”
Kariko, who is a research director at Gossamer Labs and an associate in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, and Gillien Todd, a lecturer on law at Harvard helped lead the training.
The goal of the seminar, Kariko explained, was to teach negotiation skills through role playing, games, lectures, discussion and case studies that participants, which included undergraduates and graduate students from Harvard, among others, could apply to their own life and work.
Wright’s graduate students appreciated the opportunity to hear and consider different scenarios that might require negotiation.
Katherine Kling recently started her Ph.D. in Wright’s lab. She studies lemurs that live in nontraditional environments including rice paddies and farms. “Crossover disciplinary training is important,” Kling said. “We’re not just doing science. We need to consider negotiating techniques.”
Kling is developing a conservation radio program in Madagascar. Every episode will focus on one of the lemur species in the country. To build interest in the stories, she hopes to involve music and musicians and stories from children and researchers.
“Who doesn’t want to listen to the radio?” Kling asked. “We’re hoping to make programs about lemurs, conservation and the environment that are interesting and fun.”
Kling “hopes to inspire people to care and know they can” achieve conservation goals on their own, she suggested.
In her research, Kling hopes to gain a better understanding of why lemurs are moving into these so-called matrix environments. She would like to see how humans altering a landscape affect lemur behavior.
Kling graduated from college in 2013 and took two years off before starting her Ph.D. The anthropologist developed and honed several important skills outside the realm of scientific research, as she worked at Disney World’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park in Florida.
Kling described the experience as “awesome” and explained that she “wanted to learn how people respond to conservation.” She appreciated the chance to work with children and help them forge a connection with animals at the theme park and carried over the skills and approach she used at work into everyday parts of her life.
“We were trained to talk to anyone we saw in the park,” she recalled. She’d go to the grocery store and would “talk to everyone there. You can’t turn yourself off.”
From left to right, Katherine Kling, Elise Lauterbur (a graduate student in Patricia Wright’s lab) and Gena Sbeglia pose in lemur suits during World Lemur Day last October. Photo from Patricia Wright
Gena Sbeglia, another Ph.D. student in Wright’s lab who is studying how social behavioral patterns affect disease transmission, suggested that people often feel negotiation starts with conflicts, which isn’t always the case.“There can be a mutual movement towards a good,” Sbeglia said.
Negotiations are a part of the research and life experience for scientists that extend well beyond the realm of their scientific mission.
Sbeglia said she was preparing to do field work in the Tsaranoro Valley and wanted to put identifying colors on ring-tailed lemurs. Any research needs the approval of the local kings. She had already received approval for her work in the forest, but no researcher had put collars on the lemurs before.
She understood that it would be difficult to get permission because the animals are considered sacred. With her guide as an intermediary, she explained how she would bring an experienced darting team that included a vet and that she intended to study these lemurs for a year. Other scientists would also be able to conduct their own field work if they could track and monitor individual animals.
Sbeglia received permission, although she didn’t put collars on the lemurs because the logistics of the site were inappropriate for her research.
Wright suggested that discussions in the conservation world can lead to creative solutions. When she was working to establish Ranomafana National Park, Wright hired Professor Beth Middleton, an expert on cattle damage in rainforests, to determine the effect of the cows on the park. Her work showed that for the population of cattle in the park at the time, the negative impact on the forest was minimal. The village elders had kept the cattle there to protect them from cattle rustlers.
“The elders agreed not to put more cattle in the park,” which was a satisfying solution for the scientists, Wright recounted. “By allowing the cattle to stay inside the forest, it showed that negotiation works both ways, so that both sides can win.”
Kornreich mentioned the restoration of high school business classes, the expansion of secondary level computer science and the elementary STEM program as examples of the current board’s budget priorities. 
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