fbpx
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Sign up for Free Newsletter
  • Print Edition
    • Get Home Delivery
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Customer Support
    • Submit A News Tip
    • Where’s My Paper?
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial
Hudson Valley One
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Log In
No Result
View All Result
Hudson Valley One
No Result
View All Result

Volunteering is still alive and well in the Hudson Valley

by Geddy Sveikauskas
July 22, 2019
in Community
1
Volunteering is still alive and well in the Hudson Valley

Backed by public officials and firemanic volunteers at the Volunteer Fireman’s Hall in Kingston last Friday, Ulster County executive Pat Ryan signs the legislation authorizing funding for expanded public safety training in Ulster County.

Backed by public officials and firemanic volunteers at the Volunteer Fireman’s Hall in Kingston last Friday, Ulster County executive Pat Ryan signs the legislation authorizing funding for expanded public safety training in Ulster County.

“In the United States, as soon as several inhabitants have taken an opinion or an idea they wish to promote in society, they seek each other out and unite together once they have made contact. From that moment, they are no longer isolated but have become a power seen from afar whose activities
— Alexis de Tocqueville,
Democracy in America (1831)

America has always been a society of joiners, and it was in that spirit that Ulster County executive Pat Ryan last Friday signed resolutions at the historic Volunteer Fireman’s Hall on Fair Street in Kingston to authorize up to $6.2 million in bonding for construction of a public safety training center on Ulster Landing Park in the Town of Ulster. The funding, which will also pay for equipment and hands-on education, specifies that the facility will be available for training purposes to law-enforcement agencies and other first responders.

Noting in a self-deprecatory manner that he had had nothing to do with the legislation which was being celebrated that day, Ryan praised its intent. In its emphasis on cooperation, sharing and working together, he said, it reinforced that volunteers felt they were “part of something bigger than we are.” It’s a theme he has often voiced before.

Ryan was blunt in what that concept of service might involve. Volunteer firefighters and emergency personnel had to overcome “the instinct to run away rather from than to run toward the danger.” For being prepared to risk their lives to help others, the West Point graduate and former Afghanistan combat veteran said, they deserved the best training they could get. “Let no man say his training let him down,” he said.

Affixed to the front of the table where Ryan sat was the appropriate three-word slogan for the photo opportunity: “Support Our Volunteers.” Standing around Ryan as he signed were five county legislators, the sheriff and undersheriff, and volunteer firefighters in spiffy uniforms and shined shoes from some of the 49 independent fire companies in Ulster County whose badges identified their allegiance: Clintondale, Esopus, Marlboro, New Paltz, Olive, Rosendale, Spring Lake and Wawarsing. 

The inevitable county staff took photographs to commemorate the event. A press release with laudatory sentiments about the occasion — quoting even those who hadn’t shown up for it — appeared promptly after the ceremony.

In recent years, there has been considerable literature about the decline of American volunteerism. It’s clear that the kind of volunteering represented by the firefighters and emergency personnel at the ceremony last Friday has been in decline. Most community fire companies in Ulster County have been finding it difficult to sustain their membership. 

But the traditions of local government, where people can most easily see and evaluate what they’re getting for their taxes, remain strong. Residents show up for meetings of school boards, town boards, planning boards, environmental committees and other agencies when the right occasions arise. Non-profits continue to proliferate. Human-service agencies are much more active.  

A local historian once reminded me that there once had been a time, perhaps now before the recollection of our oldest residents, when it was a point of pride among long-time citizens in many Catskills towns not to pay their local taxes in cash. Instead, I was told, they would work a few days on the local roads instead or cook meals for the community’s unfortunate and indigent. A few remnants of these practices, I am told, such as the highway department showing up for lunch when they’re working in the neighborhood, still persist among the oldtimers.   

Volunteerism takes many forms. Though there’s still a premium, as there always should be, on risking one’s life for one’s neighbors, the occasions for such behavior have diminished. That’s a good thing, not a bad one. Now community-minded Americans will need to explore new ways “to unite together once they have made contact.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. may have expressed the communitarian ethic best. “Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve,” he said at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta in 1968. “You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.”

Thank you for reading Hudson Valley One. We rely on your support to continue providing local, substantive news. Please check out our subscription options to keep local journalism alive in the Hudson Valley.
- Geddy Sveikauskas, Publisher
Previous Post

What happened to legal weed for New York?

Next Post

Tony’s Army wants you: Fundraiser to assist Saugerties man with medical bills

Geddy Sveikauskas

Related Posts

The Trashman Cometh
Community

The Trashman Cometh

July 1, 2022
Kingston launches Master Arts and Cultural Plan
Community

Free shuttle service for Fourth of July festivities in Kingston

June 30, 2022
New Paltz considers loosening lawn cutting requirement
Community

Shaggy lawns may mean fines in Saugerties

June 30, 2022
Broadband finally coming for some western Shandaken residents
Community

Bid to increase New Paltz franchise fee, services

June 30, 2022
State reps appalled by private water system neglect
Community

State reps appalled by private water system neglect

June 29, 2022
Discovering how to fix the Discovery Institute
Community

Planned auto repair shop in Saugerties concerns neighbors

June 29, 2022
Next Post
Tony’s Army wants you: Fundraiser to assist Saugerties man with medical bills

Tony’s Army wants you: Fundraiser to assist Saugerties man with medical bills

Please login to join discussion

Trending News

  • Shrestha upsets Cahill while Hochul, Delgado prevail in Dem primaries 1.9k views
  • Planned auto repair shop in Saugerties concerns neighbors 1.4k views
  • Kingston holiday fireworks 899 views
  • No contractors available for Saugerties schools work 721 views
  • Shaggy lawns may mean fines in Saugerties 629 views







Latest HV1 Podcast

Weather

Kingston
◉
82°
Fair
5:24am8:35pm EDT
Feels like: 84°F
Wind: 6mph SSW
Humidity: 53%
Pressure: 29.89"Hg
UV index: 0
SatSunMon
86/61°F
86/55°F
88/64°F
Weather forecast Kingston, New York ▸

Ulster County COVID-19 Active Cases

Subscribe

Independent. Local. Substantive. Subscribe now.

  • Subscribe & Support
  • Sign up for Free Newsletter
  • Print Edition
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial

© 2022 Ulster Publishing

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Contact Us
    • Customer Support
    • Advertise
    • Submit A News Tip
  • Print Edition
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
    • Where’s My Paper
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Log In
  • Free HV1 Trial

© 2022 Ulster Publishing