Kingston’s team in the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL, a semi-pro league) — the Stockade FC — had its season cancelled this past week, an innocent victim of the coronavirus. It’s a disappointing turn for the players and fans and for second-year coach Jamal Lis-Simmons.
In these fearful months of corona, it’s important to celebrate the many good things about life in Woodstock, one of which is the 33 year history of videographer David Menzies filming hundreds of events in Woodstock and the area. In addition he keeps them in order, dated, and ready to use!
After being awarded a long-awaited state grant of $500,000 toward the cost of a brand-new shelter, daughter of shelter founder Marie Post and founder of the new Saugerties Animal Welfare Fund Adele Zinderman insists that all donated monies toward the total $1.8 million structure’s cost will go toward their intended purpose, despite a severe dip in donations that cover the living and surgical expenses of animals housed at the facility.
For more than 20 years, a 32-acre tract of alluvial land on the banks of the Wallkill River on Plains Road in New Paltz was maintained as a CSA by Sylvester (“Pete”) and Robin Taliaferro. Despite all their years of hard work, the Taliaferros never quite recovered from the financial setbacks caused by Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee in 2011. By 2018, the handwriting was on the wall: It was time to find a new tenant to lease the farm and retire. That search has now ended.
All local sports have been sidetracked by the brand-spanking-new COVID-19 (sounds like a phone number from the land-line era) — which all of us peasants know as the non-scientific and plebian corona (think Mexican beer) virus (think common cold, with a twist), as well as the vicarious world of sports viewing: no NBA, no NHL, no MLB, no NCAA, no NASCAR, no NFL, no XFL, no MLS, no WWF and even, unthinkable as it may become: no more BLT, no more FBI, no more CIA and even no more BB King.
“It’s like Woodstock 99 for four months….” says Michael Berg, Executive Director of Family of Woodstock, which began its mission back in 1970 with the goal of helping its communities with “any problem under the sun…” And now, a new one, the Corona virus pandemic which has the non-profit organization, which runs shelters, provides emergency food pantries, domestic violence services, court advocates, counseling, hotlines and child care supports, up and running around the clock.
Neighbors responding to the pandemic with ingenuity.
I’m not the only one who loved Eric Weissberg. There are legions of us, many who were enraptured by the musical cut of the man, many who teed it up onstage beside this giant and were privileged to go along for the ride as his splendid banjo picking drove a band headlong into wild uncharted territory.
Over the course of the 2019-2020 school year, Highland High School is hosting local leaders for a series of “Lunch and Learn with a Leader” events. The series is designed to provide real-life skills education for students on important topics. On March 11, students gathered for a session featuring local first responders.
While life in the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic has come to a grinding halt, and every imaginable event has been canceled, closed or postponed until further notice, the one thing that remains constant and steady and available is the outdoors. Spring has not been canceled.
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