July 4th Celebrations at Van Cortlandt Manor and Sunnyside
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Participating in old-fashioned ice-cream making, listening to a spirited reading of the Declaration of Independence, marching in a grand parade, and drilling and mustering with military re-enactors are some of the activities visitors can take part in at Washington Irving’s Sunnyside in Tarrytown, N.Y. and Van Cortlandt Manor in Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y. on Independence Day, Sunday, July 4th, from 12-6 p.m.
Both sites, living history museums that are part of the Historic Hudson Valley network, will be dressed up in their finest patriotic regalia to celebrate the nation’s founding. Visitors can journey back to 1800 at Van Cortlandt Manor and to 1850 at Sunnyside. Tickets are available online at www.hudsonvalley.org . Admission for children under 18 is FREE when you purchase online using code JULY4.
Dramatic readings of the Declaration of Independence are a feature at both events.
Sunnyside will feature a reading of an 1850s speech by Irving contemporary George William Curtis on abolition, who spoke “attended by a bodyguard with a great mob outside ready for violence, held in check by a large body of police. A few paving stones and a bottle of vitriol were thrown through the windows, but no serious injury was inflicted. This was one of the last instances in which an attempt was made to suppress free speech in the free states in the interest of slavery.” Curtis was also a close colleague of George P. Putnam, Irving’s longtime publisher.
Comic vignettes featuring toasts to the Republic and spirited debates about the pros and cons of temperance and women’s suffrage will also take place. On the issue of whether women should be granted the right to vote, two sisters will duke it out in a lively fashion.
Visitors can participate in country dancing with caller Eric Hollman, join in rousing renditions of patriotic songs, witness the feats of comedic juggler Will Shaw, and play “town ball,” an early version of baseball that uses a big bat and small ball. Plus, there will be ice-cream making demonstrations. The home of Washington Irving will be open for tours throughout the day.
At Van Cortlandt Manor, the day’s centerpiece is a vast parade starting at 2 p.m. in front of the manor house. The parade will traverse the entire site and end with a special ceremony, singing, dancing, and games. Children can carry banners and all are invited to march.
From 10-2:30, a military re-enactment group will set up camp and invite one and all to drill and muster. Visitors can help with camp activities such as fire starting with flint and steel. Storytelling and 18th-century fiddle music round out the day.
While either event could be a perfect preamble to a picnic elsewhere, classic Fourth of July food from Geordanes Market in Irvington will be available, giving visitors an easy option for lunch. Of course, picnickers are welcome to bring their own treats.
Admission to either site is $12 for adults; $10 for seniors; $6 for children 5-17; and free for children under age 5 and HHV members. Tours of the sites’ houses are included in the price of admission. Tickets for all children under 18 are FREE when you purchase in advance online using the code JULY4.
Washington Irving’s Sunnyside is at 89 West Sunnyside Lane in Tarrytown, one mile south of the Tappan Zee Bridge, off Route 9. Van Cortlandt Manor is at 525 South Riverside Avenue in Croton-on-Hudson, just off Route 9A. For information: 914-631-8200 or www.hudsonvalley.org
Host Families Needed for Cultural Exchange
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This summer, 34 students from Spain will be visiting our area to spend three weeks improving their English and learning about American culture. From July 1-27, the visiting students will attend classes, take field trips and have a full schedule of planned activities. The program is sponsored by the non-profit Education First Homestay Program that provides high school students from 40 countries the opportunity to become immersed in another culture. Its goal is to break down barriers of language, culture and geography.
Eleven host families have already been found but another 23 homes are needed and all types of host families are welcome. Families with teens, families with small children, retired couples, single Moms or Dads and single adults ages 25 and older are eligible to host a student. There is also a teacher from Spain who accompanies the students to the states who needs a home as well.
Host families do not have to entertain the students and they are fully insured and come with their own spending money. Host families are asked to take the student to school each morning around 8:00 a.m. and pick up students around 5:30 p.m. at the Hitchcock Presbyterian Church on Greenacres Avenue in Scarsdale. Nights and weekends are spent with the host family and the program is offering a $100 referral fee per family.
Host families can also send their teen to Spain or other countries in Europe and travel through the company and received a 10% rebate on their trip if they host a student for these 3 weeks.
If you are interested in learning more, contact:
Angie Quidley, Area Manager,
EF Educational Homestay Program
www.efhomestay.org / www.effoundation.org.
352-857-7521
Seniors Explore Their Options
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For the last six weeks of the school year, seniors take part in a program called Senior Options. Senior Options is supposed to serve as a culminating experience for seniors as they end their career as a student at Scarsdale High School. Each senior chooses an area of interest and decides to participate in one type of senior options: full internship, partial internship, extended independent study, and community service.
Students are required to complete 30 hours of work each week, working a minimum of 5 days per week. Each senior has an SHS faculty member who serves as a mentor to regulate the student's work and ensure that the student fulfills the 30-hour requirement. Seniors also work closely with a sponsor, if they are doing an internship, or a consultant, if they are doing an independent project. Seniors can work individually or in groups. At the end of Senior Options, seniors present their work and what they have learned during the program. The program is a graduation requirement and is graded on a Pass-Fail basis.
Senior Options presents a complete change from the strict structure of high school. Seniors can design the layout of their day however they like, as long as they complete 30 hours of work throughout the week. They are supposed to extend their skills and knowledge during Senior Options, but they are not always successful in doing so. While the program is designed to monitor students' work, some students manage to evade the requirements. Seniors are expected to keep time logs of their work, write journal entries reflecting on their experience, and have weekly meetings with their mentors. However, depending on the mentor, these "requirements" are mere suggestions.
Seniors seem to appreciate the inherent freedom during Senior Options. "It's really nice to be able to create my own schedule and practice something that I enjoy doing," said Allison Borko. Peter Kentros also enjoys the change-up from days at school. "It's fun to do something non-academic and to really feel as if I have tangibly accomplished something," he said. Meanwhile, Bryan Gertzog has found Senior Options to be educational, without the stress that high school brings. Gertzog is doing an internship relating to finance. "The conversations with my sponsor are enjoyable and interesting because I walk out of them having learned a bunch of new things and with a lot more things that I need to be familiar with by our next conversation. Our meetings get me to think about what is going on with current events and the global economy. Also, the flexibility of my Senior Options is enjoyable because, although it is a more academic Senior Options, it is not stressful at all."
On the other hand, no longer attending classes or seeing classmates every day also presents a sense of yearning. Bryan Gertzog suggests the Senior Options "keep students closer to the school, their teachers, and their friends by having some sort of grade-wide meeting once a week."
Many seniors through their Senior Options have discovered much about their possible future careers, whether they have found a new interest or realized their old interest was not as ideal for a career as they hoped.
Nathalie Waelbroeck, a senior redesigning one of the interior courtyards at Scarsdale High School, aspires to be an architect. By working in the courtyard, "I've learned that the architect/designer always has to work around obstacles, but I never understood how much that affected progress," she said. Looking for ways to overcome such obstacles has taught Waelbroeck that "architecture involves a lot of creative problem solving." With help from the PTA, the high school staff, Principal Klemme and Vice Principal Peppers, Waelbroeck has over $5,000 to work with in redesigning the courtyard.
Whether seniors hope to become chefs or are just interested in food, culinary-related Senior Options projects are very popular this year. Allison Borko worked with Katrina Ricks in learning how to cook. During their independent study, they cook independently and go through recipes they find. "Usually once a week we cook with a family friend and they teach us their specialty. We also take cooking classes and have created a website about our cooking," explained Borko. Borko and Ricks also worked at Standing Room Only a few times to learn the tricks of the trade. "I would suggest that everyone do an independent study," said Borko. "It's a great learning experience and a time to experiment in what you're most interested."
Kentros does not aspire to be a wood-worker, but he chose to build a ten-foot sailboat with his friend Nick Gordon. Still, he has learned that "building with wood is an art that requires a tremendous amount of insight and planning," he said.
Gertzog sees a future in finance. Through his Senior Options, he has learned "a ton of the basics of finance, such as the different types of investors, brokers, and money managers, and the biggest in each category... the way the bond market functions, the
implications of the existence of the euro, how both are causing issues in the global economy, the purpose of central banks, what causes inflationary/deflationary times and the effect of both, and the way the mortgage market functions," Gertzog explained.
Simon Penzer, who is making a short film from a script he wrote prior to Senior Options, has learned much about the filmmaking process. "Unlike more personal (though not necessarily easier) artistic pursuits like writing or painting, filmmaking is a collaborative process, and is a process that rests upon factors you can't always control, like when your actors are flu-stricken. On top of that, sometimes it rains on a day you plan to shoot a sunny scene, and you've just got to roll with it," Penzer explained. Penzer has enjoyed his Senior Options not only because of the freedom but also because "being out in the world filming also inevitably leads to some amusing stories," he noted. For example, "I was shooting a scene in Larchmont with two of my actors about a week ago right next to this gazebo that overlooks the water, and just as I called "cut" on a shot, we hear "Will you marry me?" It turns out a guy was proposing to his girlfriend inside the gazebo right as we were filming, and once we realized this we all went silent so we wouldn't ruin their moment. She said yes, and afterward we finished the shot."
The beauty of Senior Options is that students choose their own course of action they wish to participate in for the six-weeks. When the seniors first learn of the requirements for Senior Options, they are repeatedly told to think carefully about what they want to do because the more effort the students put in to their choices, the more likely they are to have a fulfilling experience. In January, when planning for Senior Options begins, the program seems far off in the future, and seniors do not put in too much effort planning their project. "I believe that a lot of seniors look for “easy” projects that require minimal time and effort, and sometimes it works out ok.
However, I think that picking the right Senior Options project/internship is a step that needs to be taken more seriously because it is a huge opportunity. With the right senior options project/internship not only can you learn a lot, but you can.
reenergize and prepare yourself for life after high school," said Waelbroeck. Although Waelbroeck's project turned out to be more work than she expected, "all that hard work and effort is worthwhile and meaningful," she said. Similarly, Penzer believes Senior Options to be "a great program...and a great way to end senior year."
This article was written by Scarsdale High seniors Emily Michaels and Julie Shabto
Athletes Honored at Maroon and White
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The Maroon and White annual Spring Awards picnic was held on Tuesday June 9th at Scarsdale High School. This year the event honored 472 athletes who participated in spring athletics. The evening includes a picnic dinner, school-wide awards and recognition for individual players by team.
Athletic Director Michael Menna made opening remarks and thanked the athletes and the coaches and then gave the stage to those presenting the awards:
Two seniors were give The Pepper Awards, which commend students for their leadership, spirit and 
academic excellence. The awards were presented by SHS’s Assistant Principal Sue Peppers and her husband Jerry to three-season varsity athletes Rachel Whitney and Arthur Whyte.
In addition:
The Nina F. Mooney memorial award was given to Chelsea Lobue
The Nonie Kopp memorial award was granted to Colin Muldoon
The Elizabeth Timberger Memorial Award was given to Tyler Baker-Carr
Following the awards ceremony each team went to a room at the high school to receive individual awards.
Among Scarsdale’s winning teams this year, were the boys Varsity A tennis team who had a stellar season and much to celebrate. The team won their league 10-0 and had an overall record of 12-1. In the sectional tournament, senior Preston Poon placed 4th place in the singles tournament and the team of Jake Gorobetz and David Goldberg placed 2nd place in doubles. Austin Kaplan and Ben Fife placed 3rd in the doubles.
Several members of the team then proceeded to the state tournament that was held at the National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows last weekend. Playing in the states for their second year together, Jake Gorobetz and David Goldberg were quarterfinalists,  and the team of Austin Kaplan and Ben Fife played in the finals and came in second place in New York State. Even Coach Jennifer Roane won an award for the Coach of the Year for Section One, that includes Westchester, Rockland Duchess and Putnam Counties.
Pictured below are athletes from the girls JV lacrosse team, the boys Varsity B tennis team and JV team and girls’ varsity lacrosse team. If you have photos and information to share, send them to scarsdalecomments@gmail.com for publication on Scarsdale10583.com
Predator Arrested in Edgemont
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Jason Lee , age 24 of 150 Old Army Rd. Scarsdale, was arrested for Attempted Dissemination of Indecent Material to Minors in the First Degree (a felony) on Wednesday June 2.
This arrest followed a joint investigation between the Greenburgh Police Department and the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office High Tech Crime Unit whereby the suspect attempted to meet a 15 year-old girl for the purpose of engaging in a sexual act with the girl. Lee met the alleged underage girl and arranged for the sexual act on Facebook. However, the 15 year-old girl was an undercover police officer.
Jason Lee is a freelance tennis instructor who states he currently does work for Mount Vernon Tennis Center and has done work for Scarsdale High School, as well as providing private instruction to Edgemont High School students and others. In the past, he ran classified ads for tennis instruction and racquet stringing on Scarsdale10583.com
Lee was arraigned before the Honorable Judge Doris Friedman and remanded to the Westchester County Jail without bail. Lee is scheduled to return to Greenburgh Town Court on Friday June 4, 2010 at 9:30 am.
Greenburgh Detectives and Investigators from the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office executed a search warrant at the suspect’s home and gathered further evidence. Greenburgh Detectives are continuing the investigation and ask that anyone with information to please contact them at (914) 682-5331. All calls will be kept confidential.
