CLOSE
Times of Smithtown

by -
0 939
An assistance dog leads a man who is blind. Photo from Wikimedia Commons
By Emma Gutmann

For 77 years, the Guide Dog Foundation, at 371 Jericho Turnpike in Smithtown, has used small classes, individualized instruction and generosity to turn the $50,000 expense of breeding, raising, training and placing an assistance dog into a purely joyful human right for those who are blind or experience low vision or other disabilities. 

At no cost to the individual, the GDF provides a welcoming, reputable community and matches each student with the perfect canine companion. Volunteering is the gear that keeps the operation going. 

In a phone interview, Puppy Program Manager Lorin Bruzzese said that while every helping hand is valuable, puppy raisers are the heart of the operation. Raisers are responsible for housing, training and caring for a foundation puppy from eight weeks to 16 months old. While the pups may be hard to let go, Bruzzese considered puppy raising a gratifying and enriching opportunity.

“You know you’re involved in a beautiful dog’s life and their upbringing, but it’s not really letting go,” Bruzzese said. “It’s gaining so much when you’re able to see how they impact somebody really special.”

Variations of the puppy raiser role include breeder caretakers, who care for adult breeder dogs in between sessions, and litter hosts, who take in a litter of future guide puppies and their mother for six weeks.

For shorter-term commitments, one might become a puppy camper, taking pups for two to three weeks at a time when extra help is needed. Similarly, temporary home volunteers open their fenced-in, dog-safe homes to a puppy or adult dog for an agreed-upon timeframe.

There are also plenty of opportunities for those allergic to dogs, partial to cats or otherwise unable to host. Non-canine-related volunteering on the Smithtown campus consists of serving meals to students or clerical work.

Young volunteers looking for community service might arrange a toy drive or puppy shower with the help of accessible resources like GDF’s Amazon Wish List. They can also distribute flyers looking for puppy raisers around their neighborhoods to assist with outreach.

The volunteer services team continues to invent new and modify existing roles to meet the foundation’s needs. The Taxi Team has been expanded as the organization searches for volunteers willing to travel long distances to transport dogs, clients and volunteers along the East Coast. With the vehicle and travel expenses provided, the Taxi Team is only asked to donate their time.

For the community’s continued efforts, the GDF hosted an appreciation event on Saturday, June 10. 

“At Volunteer Recognition Day, we provide interaction with our staff, different events and ways to make keepsakes,” Bruzzese said. “We have the acknowledgment of each person’s role. They add ribbons to their name tags with all of the different ways that they’ve been involved in supporting our program. We also held a graduation ceremony for some of our guide dog clients.”

In an email, Allison Storck, director of marketing and public relations at GDF, said people of any age or skill set could find a volunteer role that suits them.

“The first step is to apply online on our website,” Storck said. “There is a web page with all the current opportunities listed, and by clicking on a button for the volunteer position, it will bring you to the appropriate application.”

She added, “Every volunteer attends an Introduction to Volunteering class and then the appropriate training class for the position.”

Even a simple donation through the foundation’s website will help improve the lives of puppies and their companions. The Allen E. & Patricia M. Murray Foundation will match all gifts up to $34,000 made on July 13 for Giving Bark Thursday.

To begin your journey, visit www.guidedog.org.

by -
0 551
Photo by Capturing Life as it happens from Pixabay

In recent years, much has been said of the state of division in the United States. But as the nation celebrates its 247th birthday, Americans should remember the many struggles they have overcome.

After the fall of Fort Sumter in April 1861, President Abraham Lincoln believed the Confederate South would never peaceably re-enter the Union. The country was engaged in the defining conflict of its history and the deadliest war its citizens had ever fought. 

Yet Lincoln helped the nation carry on, ensuring that Americans would reunite under one flag. In a speech to Congress on July 4, 1861, he asserted the cause of the Union as that of the American Revolution. The Civil War, Lincoln affirmed, would prove to the world the viability of self-rule.

“It is now for [Americans] to demonstrate to the world that those who can fairly carry an election can also suppress a rebellion,” Lincoln said, “that ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors of bullets, and that when ballots have fairly and constitutionally decided there can be no successful appeal back to bullets.”

And the nation endured.

In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson nervously watched as European powers marched toward World War I — the “powder keg” ignited after the heir of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated. 

“Nobody outside of America believed when it was uttered that we could make good our independence,” Wilson told a beleaguered nation. “Now nobody anywhere would dare to doubt that we are independent and can maintain our independence.” 

After his re-election in 1916, Wilson declared war against Germany in April 1917 to make the “world safe for democracy.” As it had during the Civil War, the nation again endured.

In early July 1945, the United States was nearing the end of World War II. With Nazi Germany defeated, America was one month away from dropping the atomic bomb against the Japanese. On July 4 of that year, President Harry S. Truman tied the war effort to the cause of American freedom. 

“This year, the men and women of our armed forces, and many civilians as well, are celebrating the anniversary of American independence in other countries throughout the world,” he said. “Citizens of these other lands will understand what we celebrate and why, for freedom is dear to the hearts of all men everywhere.”

The war would end the following month, and the nation endured once more.

President John F. Kennedy presided over the federal government at a volatile moment. After the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961 and only months away from the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, Kennedy reminded his fellow citizens of the cause of independence on July 4, 1962.

“For that Declaration unleashed not merely a revolution against the British, but a revolution in human affairs,” Kennedy noted. “Its authors were highly conscious of its worldwide implications.”

Despite the tumult of the 1960s, the nation still endured.

Near the end of the Cold War, President Ronald Reagan was determined to ensure American victory over the Soviet Union in this global conflict. With tensions mounting between these two superpowers, Reagan reminded citizens of the resolve of America’s founders.

“Their courage created a nation built on a universal claim to human dignity — on the proposition that every man, woman and child had a right to a future of freedom,” Reagan said in his July 4, 1986 speech, likening the cause of independence to the triumph over communism.

The U.S. won the Cold War, and the nation endured.

Today, as Americans enjoy outdoor barbecues and spend time with loved ones, they should remember that the legacy of independence still flourishes. In the face of brewing tensions abroad, Americans must remember that we have experienced such challenges before and will do so again.

And the nation will endure.

Rich Acritelli is a history teacher at Rocky Point High School and adjunct professor at Suffolk County Community College.

by -
0 933
Gordon Wood, professor emeritus of history at Brown University. Photo by Kenneth C. Zirke from Wikimedia Commons

This week marks the 247th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

In the nearly two-and-a-half centuries since this formative moment in American history, much has changed, with an uncertainty of the country’s long-term future.

Gordon Wood, professor emeritus of history at Brown University and 1993 Pulitzer Prize recipient for his book, “The Radicalism of the American Revolution,” remains optimistic that America’s future is bright. 

In an exclusive phone interview, he detailed why the American Revolution is relevant today, dismissing apocalyptic predictions. 

Revolutionary relevance

Wood contends that despite prolonged separation from the American Revolution, this cause remains highly relevant today.

“It is the most important event in our history, bar none,” he said. “It not only legally created the United States, but it infused into our culture everything we believe.”

Wood maintains that America is “not a nation in the usual sense of the term.” By this, he means Americans are not bound by any common ancestry. Instead, the United States represents a particular set of ideas to which Americans subscribe.

“Someone once said that to be an American is not to be somebody but to believe in something,” Wood noted. “And what do we believe in? We believe in those things that came out of the Revolution: equality, liberty and so on.”

“There’s no other adhesive to hold us together, so I think we need to emphasize that,” he said.

American stability

Within contemporary national discourse, some have expressed fears that America is a declining democracy. Even the nonprofit think tank Freedom House, which measures the strength of democracy in countries around the world, has scored the United States incrementally lower in recent years.

Wood characterized some recent historical developments as “destabilizing,” though he maintained these concerns are often overblown.

“We’re still the greatest power the world has ever known,” the Brown professor emeritus said. “I think that we’re very stable, and I certainly think we’re at the height of our powers.”

Assessing the current geopolitical landscape, Wood acknowledged China is a rising global power. However, he maintained that America’s long-term outlook remains promising.

“I don’t see any evidence that China is going to replace us,” he said. “I think it would be unfortunate if we got into a war with China over this fear of being displaced, but it’s just not in the cards.”

He added that fears of American decline have been pervasive throughout the nation’s history, with concerns about China just the latest iteration of this long historical pattern.

“We have a lot of apocalyptic thinking that goes on, and that’s not new,” Wood said. “We’ve always done that. There are always people saying that we’re going to fall apart.”

Triumph of the future

Wood suggested Americans have an unusual relationship with their national history. “I don’t think we have ever been a historically minded people compared to other nations,” he said. “I think it was President James Polk [1845-49] who said the United States is the only country in the world that has its history in the future.”

Since the Revolution, Americans have always been a “future-oriented people,” according to Wood. Yet the ideas articulated by the Founding Fathers have been passed down to subsequent generations of Americans, and those values are still practiced today.

Americans “know about ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,’ and ‘all men are created equal,’” Wood said. “Those are phrases that are very potent and available to most people, but I don’t think there’s much real interest in history as such among Americans.”

But, he added, “I’m not sure that that’s a bad thing. We’re future-oriented. We think the future is going to be better than the present.”

Wood concluded by saying that America’s faith in the future has long attracted new immigrants. Despite the numerous complications throughout its history, America still draws in people from all around the world. 

Wood indicated that this attraction demonstrates how the American Dream lives to this day.

“Immigrants still want to come here because they can get a better life here than they can where they came from,” he said. “It’s an optimistic view.”

by -
0 669

Thank you, TBR

After reading the story in the June 22 edition informing the community about the Guide Dog Foundation in Smithtown, I would like to share as a volunteer — both as a puppy raiser and presently breeder-caretaker — the joys and fulfillment over the years of seeing first-hand people helped by assistance and service dogs.

The Guide Dog Foundation truly helps people “live life without boundaries.” After seeing its flier stating so in a local supermarket, all staff members in various departments helped me through my different roles of training and preparing these special dogs in lives of service. As a volunteer, I have always been treated with courtesy and appreciation in visits, contacts and calls.

Thank you TBR News Media for publishing in detail the mission I am myself living each day, which is close to my heart.

Anna Fisco-Aubree

Ridge

Port Jeff needed change

One must sympathize with Mr. William Snaden’s “broken heart” considering his wife’s loss to Mayor Lauren Sheprow’s remarkable win through a write-in ballot [Letter, “My heart is breaking for Port Jeff,” The Port Times Record, June 29]. 

Mr. Snaden cannot bring himself to understand his wife’s loss in terms of her apparent efforts on behalf of the Village of Port Jefferson. What he fails to recognize is that the people of Port Jefferson needed a change from the same old approach to problems that were pursued by the Garant-Snaden administration. 

Let us face the future with fresh ideas and with the guidance of Mayor Lauren Sheprow. I anticipate that the Village of Port Jefferson will rally in supporting Lauren and her new administration.

Herb Herman

Port Jefferson

WRITE TO US … AND KEEP IT LOCAL

We welcome your letters, especially those responding to our local coverage, replying to other letter writers’ comments and speaking mainly to local themes. Letters should be no longer than 400 words and may be edited for length, libel, style, good taste and uncivil language. They will also be published on our website. We do not publish anonymous letters. Please include an address and phone number for confirmation.

Email letters to: [email protected] or mail them to TBR News Media, P.O. Box 707, Setauket, NY 11733

by -
0 458
Fireworks in the Village of Asharoken on July 4. Photo by Steve Zaitz

Each year, we have the pleasure of covering the patriotism and camaraderie of our North Shore community.

While we love featuring fireworks and celebrations, it’s easy to get discouraged about the state of our nation. Yet, we are reminded each year to put it all in perspective. 

On a rainy Fourth of July, as families gathered for barbecues and the fireworks shot into the sky, it’s safe to say most of us could recognize that we are among the luckiest of people in history to have the freedoms and opportunities we have.

To love our country, and our community, is to fight for them both. The Founding Fathers envisioned an active, informed and passionate electorate. We encourage everyone who took Independence Day to reflect on their patriotism and gratitude for our service members, and to think about how we got this wonderful freedom born out of a grand experiment.

The Founders were passionate citizens, many of whom risked their lives to design a government they thought would bring freedom and prosperity to all. This bit of history, which we all shared this week on July Fourth, is one we should remember each day.

We, too, should think of ways to improve our government. In these divided times, most of us have plenty of opinions on this already, but maybe not in terms of realistic expectations and compromise.

We must think about issues and consider ways we can move the needle. Writing to our elected officials and contributing letters to the editor are ways to do that.

The Founders wanted us to participate in the political process. We should follow their example and speak up, while being civil and compromising as we work toward mutually agreeable solutions for all.

The spirit of freedom we celebrated this week can live on throughout the year. It’s up to all of us to continue to pursue efforts to maintain equity and justice for all Americans and all members of our communities. It’s up to us to ensure that all of us feel free.

by -
0 702
1 of 5
'Tiger Lillies' by Sandra Ray
'Od Country Cellar' by Sandra Ray
'Symphony' by Sandra Ray
'Golden Quartet;' by
'Village Stroll' by Sandra Ray

Smithtown Township Arts Council has announced that the works of Smithtown artist Sandra Ray will be on view July 4 to August 24 at Apple Bank of Smithtown, 91 Route 111, Smithtown. The exhibition, part of the Arts Council’s Outreach GalleryProgram, may be viewed during regular banking hours Monday to Thursday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Sandra Ray was born Alessandra Bocchi in Brooklyn, NY, July 14, 1924.  She is 99 years old and is a smart, outgoing, and humorous woman who loves animals and good conversation. Her parents, Rose Oddo and Gino Bocchi were Italian immigrants.  She had one sister, Yolanda.  She met  and married her husband, Charles Ray after WWII, and lived in Brooklyn, Ohio, Rochester, and Kings Park before moving to Smithtown in 1961. She has three daughters, Linda (now deceased), Pamela, and Amy, and four grandchildren.  She attended both Hunter College and Hofstra University where she earned her Bachelor of Science degree in education. Sandra still lives at her home in Smithtown to this day and worked as a teacher for the Smithtown Central School District, retiring in 1986.  Having lived and worked in Smithtown for so many years, everyone seems to  know her, and she sees former students all the time who remind her of how much they loved having her as a teacher.

Her passion for art and painting started as a young adult. While living in Brooklyn, Sandra worked for Whelan’s in the photo restoration  and retouching department.  She loved the feeling of the oils and started to purchase her own art supplies and began her painting in her small backyard.  She also worked for a photographer when she and Charles lived in Rochester, New York.  In the studio, Sandra worked in the Heavy Brush department retouching portraits and painting photographs.  She used thick oils to tint faces.  If you ask her about oils as a medium, she will tell you that oils fascinate her because oils “Project life in the way that they flow.  They have a velvet flow.”  She has always enjoyed the arts and attended several galleries throughout the years, joining painting groups and going on tours. One of her art teachers recommended that she try other mediums, so she started to work with pastels, acrylics, and watercolors.

Sandra’s daughter Pam says, “My mother is very funny, and she is sharp as a tack!” Smithtown Arts Council is pleased to feature the work of this incredibly special local lady and artist at Apple Bank!

“STAC is grateful to Apple Bank for its continued support of culture in our communities. We are so happy to feature the talents of Long Island artists in this space!,” read the press release.

by -
0 1093

By Emma Gutmann

After a months-long search and evaluation process, the Smithtown Central School District Board of Education unanimously approved a contract with an armed security vendor during its Tuesday, June 27, meeting. 

The district reached out to 21 vendors, of which six responded. The evaluation committee’s five-pronged rubric scored proposals based on cost, references, relevant experience, understanding of the project and implementation plan and schedule. 

With an anticipated expenditure of $850,000 for the 2023-24 school year, the district deemed Ronkonkoma-based security and investigative agency Covert Investigations & Security the proper fit.

With the security firm approved and the contract in effect as of July 1, the next step is to introduce the security detail to the facilities, coordinate with the Suffolk County Police Department and post guards throughout the district. The contract is valid until June 30, 2024, with the agreement subject to termination by the district under certain circumstances.

Covert Investigations & Security’s website touts its teams’ expertise from police and fire service, homeland security and emergency management agencies. They have about 20 years of experience with school safety and protect approximately 75,000 students.

In an email, Jamie Stuart, communications consultant for the district, said the school district declined to comment further than what was said in the February 15 community letter from Superintendent Mark Secaur and the BOE, which is available on the district’s website.

“The rationale for this security enhancement is simple: Having armed guards on school grounds will improve our response time in order to better protect our students, faculty, staff and community members who are in and around our building on a daily basis,” the letter reads.

The school will not be at liberty to expose specific details such as “guard deployment, locations, and working hours as it may compromise their safety and effectiveness.” However, the letter promised guards would not be stationed within the school buildings or interfere with daily operations or activities. 

Guards would also have mandatory training sessions every year and be required to “requalify through performance-based assessments to ensure they will perform at an optimal level if ever called upon.”

Although the BOE meeting made the matter seem unambiguous, not all community members are content with implementing armed security. Representing the discontented peers he interviewed, Andrew Guidi, a recent alumnus of Smithtown High School East, has appeared before the board twice, highlighting the stance that heightened security can be counterintuitive. 

“I researched this topic more, and I found out there’s no clear evidence that supports the theory that firearms help prevent violence in schools,” Guidi told the BOE during its June 13 meeting. “The only thing this decision is succeeding at is making the people who attend these schools feel unsafe and uncomfortable.”

It remains to be seen whether the enhanced security measures will promote a more relaxed or unsettled environment for the students and faculty they were designed to protect.

by -
0 327
Image from Pixabay

By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

Okay, I’ll admit it: I’m a morning person.

Yes, sometimes, I’m an annoying morning person, ready to poke my wife in the arm, kiss her cheek, or play peek-a-boo with a son who can barely open his heavy lids to notice me.

No, my son is not two, and yet, I still have the urge to smile at him and play games in the morning.

I’m the lone morning wolf in my family. Even my dog, who is as far from a wolf as a dog could be, sometimes closes his eyes tightly when I get up too early for him, hoping I’ll go away or, maybe, I won’t see him. No matter how much his fur blends in with the carpet, it’s impossible not to notice a 95-pound dog.

On the other end of the circadian spectrum, I start to fade early each day. Surrounded by family and friends, much of the time, who enjoy late-night snacks, conversations, giggle fests, and games, I can barely keep my head up and my eyes open.

“You look so tired,” someone will say at about 10 p.m.

“Huh?” I’ll respond, trying to figure out if they’re talking to me. “Oh, yeah, well, I got up early today.”

I get up early almost every day. Getting up late for me means climbing out of bed after 8 am.

I’d like to alter my circadian clock sometimes, but I can’t.

Sensing my imminent departure into dreamland, my wife sometimes asks me a question or two at the utterly reasonable hour of 10:30 pm. I do my best to pick up my head and offer a coherent answer, knowing that the top few floors of my cognitive team have packed up, turned off the lights and tucked themselves in for the night.

The balance between the morning and night person in our marriage means that one of us can handle whatever time-sensitive needs or responsibilities might arise throughout the day. We have shifts.

When we go out on dates, which we can do on any given night as empty nesters, we typically lean towards the earlier side for our outings. The other diners at the early bird special are often decades older than we, although we also sometimes eat with families who have young children.

Our circadian differences extend to the seasons as well. I love the winter, when the sun isn’t too bright, and the air is cooler. Skiing is one of my favorite sports.

My wife, naturally, revels in the summer sun, basking in the extra sunlight each day and soaking up the warmth of the midday sun.

These seasonal differences also mean that one of us often feels energized and inspired by the season. With my wife dressed in numerous layers, we can take a stroll in cooler weather.

During those days when the sun bakes the sidewalk, and the humid air weighs on my shoulders, I can carry ice water or my wife can obligingly dump a welcome ice cube down my back.

Apart from the bookends of each day, we find times when we can give each other our best, reveling in the accomplishments of our children, observing the absurdities of life, and laughing at the differences in approaches to play between our dog and cats.

Even as we are in the middle of my wife’s favorite season, I enjoy the summer more than I otherwise would, knowing that she’s fulfilled and, when I need it, ready to search for a comforting ice cube sometime around mid-afternoon, when I prepare to pass the baton towards her favorite time of day. 

by -
0 379
METRO photo

By Leah S. Dunaief

Leah Dunaief

When I make my way downstairs in the morning, I am often singing, usually some show tune. This never occurred to me as being something special until now. But I recently read an article by Alexandra Moe in The Washington Post that “singing is good for you.” Since it’s always nice to learn that something you do is actually good for you, I am sharing this result of significant research with you. Perhaps now you will feel emboldened to sing beyond the shower.

In a study called, “Sing With Us,” conducted on members of a choir in a London suburb, tests performed before and after they sang indicated an increase in their physical and mental health. This was no ordinary choir, but rather one made up of cancer patients, and their singing “reduced stress hormones and increased cytokines, proteins that can boost the body’s ability to fight serious illness.” Ultimately the study involved 192 patients. 

Other studies have found singing “lessened anxiety, stimulated memory for those with dementia, increased lung capacity and an easing of postpartum depression.” While singing in a group offers additional benefits, like social bonding and community, just singing because you feel like, if you are alone or with someone else, is calming and promotes a sense of well-being.

My mother would sing often when she was in the kitchen preparing meals. So did my dad, who would break into song at no particular time. I never thought about it then, but they did have nice voices, and they did sing on key. They didn’t sing together, just spontaneously. And they really were singing, not just humming along while they worked. No one thought it was strange, as far as I knew. It was in this way that I learned the lyrics to any number of World War I songs, which were popular when my dad was a teen. When, as a child, I would start to sing one of them, older people who might be sitting on a park bench, for example, would look surprised and ask where I had learned them.

And that is how my children learned Broadway show tunes. When we went on long car trips, in particular, we would spend much of the time singing together. I grew up amidst the Rogers and Hammerstein, then Rogers and Hart musicals of the 1940s and 1950s, the “golden age of musical theater,”and my children know those lyrics as if they had seen those magical shows, which were well before their births.

Some of our favorites were: “Oklahoma!” from the show of the same name, “Getting to Know You,” from “The King and I,” “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” from “The Wizard of Oz,” “Some Enchanted Evening,” from “South Pacific,” and “Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better,”  (a natural for our three boys) from “Annie Get Your Gun.”

All I had to do was start with, “Chicks and ducks and geese better scurry, When I take you out in the Surrey,” and they would all start singing from the back seat of the car. 

While I loved all the melodies, my particular favorites were from “My Fair Lady,” including “The Rain in Spain,” “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” “Just You Wait, Henry Higgins,” “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “You Did It,” “Get Me to the Church On Time,” and “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face.”

I share this with you so you will know what I am singing when I begin. It is, I’m afraid, not always apparent. On the other hand, I would encourage anyone to sing, even if you think you can’t carry a tune or have a terrible voice. A friend was asked to try out for a play when she was in junior high, and when she began to sing the required song, the teacher interrupted her with, “No, really.” He thought she was kidding. But it was “really,” and for many years, she never again sang until she met me.

Everyone should sing, softly if you must, but do it. And if anyone asks, it’s for your health.

by -
0 534
Mia

This week’s shelter pet is Mia, a four-year-old pit bull mix who came to the Smithtown Animal Shelter in 2020 after she was hit by a car (minor fractures in her no foot and some scrapes). Despite being scared and injured, she started bonding with the staff immediately.

Mia is a volunteer favorite as she is equal parts goofball and cuddle buddy. She can entertain herself for hours with any toy, loves going for walks and enjoys being snuggled on the couch. Mia does wish to be your only pet and she has “stranger danger”, meaning she needs proper introductions to new people. Once she has gotten to know someone, they are her friend for life.

If you would like to meet this sweetheart, please call ahead to schedule an hour to properly interact with her in a domestic setting.

The Smithtown Animal & Adoption Shelter is located at 410 Middle Country Road, Smithtown. Visitor hours are currently Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (Sundays and Wednesday evenings by appointment only). For more information, call 631-360-7575 or visit www.townofsmithtownanimalshelter.com.

 

Prev1...139140141...512Next Page 140 of 512
TBR News Media is your local news and entertainment website.
We provide you with the latest breaking news and information for your community.
Contact us: [email protected]

Most Viewed

©