Attend the Children's Benefit Concert and Help to Send Needy Kids to Summer Camp
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- Written by: Joanne Wallenstein
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Here is a letter from Dorothy Yewer, Chair of the Children's Benefit Concert: The Church of St. James the Less in collaboration with Westchester Reform Temple and The Children's Aid Society will hold their 8th annual benefit concert at the Recital Hall at SUNY Purchase Performing Arts Center on March 21st at 7 pm.
Proceeds from the event will be used to send underprivileged children from Mt. Vernon to summer camp. Since its inception, over 350 children from the Edward Williams School have gone to the Children's Aid Society's, Camp Wagon Road in Chappaqua, New York. At camp, the kids get to experience the joys of childhood. Additionally, while there, they are fed both breakfast and lunch. This is essential as many of these kids qualify for the federal Free Lunch program. When school is out, the programs that are in place to see to it that these meals are served disappear, so camp takes on an extra significance.
I have been lucky to work with these children and to get to know them individually. At first blush I didn't completely grasp the overwhelming void camp fills in their lives. I thought it was a place to play, but I didn't appreciate the importance of spontaneous play. There are studies that show that the brain develops differently when a child is exposed to the natural world. There is a model referred to as the "curriculum of camp" that draws into focus behavioral differences that are exhibited between inner city kids who have been to camp and those who have not. What the findings show is that the children who experiences nature, and unrestricted play are able to make better choices later in life. Of course, this is true for all children, but the real difference here is that the children we are helping from Mt. Vernon do not have the ability to enjoy the many benefits of the outdoors that are so easily accessible to all of us. These children have little opportunity to get outside as the parks near their homes are too dangerous.
What all this means is that as a community we are giving our neighbors to the south a chance at a better life. The kids who have had the great good fortune to go to Wagon Road are changed. They are learning to be forgiving, to be gentle, to try new things, to jump high and to laugh easily. They are learning to let go of their worries and to face challenges bravely. They are learning what it means to give back. They are learning simple lessons too, like what it means to be on time, because being late means missing the bus and a day at camp. They are learning about fresh fruit and how to eat a balanced meal; they are learning the joy of having something to look forward to.
Our 8th Annual Outreach Children's Benefit Concert is taking place on March 21st at 7 pm at SUNY Purchase Performing Arts Center. Join us and help send a child to camp as every single dollar raised in ticket sales will to go directly to this cause. To buy a ticket, click here www.artscenter.org. or call the box office at 251-6200. We plan to fill the house and raise the roof to celebrate a world-class concert under the baton of internationally acclaimed conductor Justin Bischof and his 60-piece orchestra.
Justin is the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the benefit and has made all of this possible. In addition, there will be the combined adult choirs of St. James the Less, Trinity Church Ossining and IHM of Scarsdale and New Amsterdam Singers of New York City. We are very excited that over 75 children will be singing including 30 children from Mt. Vernon. How empowering it is for the Mount Vernon kids to take part in an evening of which they are the beneficiaries. Children from Fox Meadow School, St. James the Less and Westchester Reform Temple will join to make the combined choir. The concert will close with all of the children and adults, as well as you the audience, joining in on a classic gospel piece. It promises to be a fun time!
See you on the 21st!
Dorothy E. Yewer
Co-Founder & Benefit Chair
SHS Chorus Performs and Tours in England
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- Written by: Lena Proctor
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While most people go on vacation to get away from school, this February, a group of 60 students from the Scarsdale High School Choir took a trip to England with their classmates and teachers. For six days and five nights, the chorus travelled, performed, saw the sights and made memories.
Choral Director and teacher John Cuk organized every moment of what proved to be an excellent trip. He arranged the hotels, the performances, sightseeing and transportation, packing loads of fun into just six days.
We were busy from the moment we landed in London. After an overnight flight, the choir met our tour guides at the airport and started sightseeing right away. We stayed in Oxford for two nights and in Cambridge for three nights and saw a remarkable number of England's most famed sites including:
Windsor Castle: also known as the world's largest occupied castle, we walked through the beautifully detailed and spacious fortress.
Christ Church College: This college at Oxford was the location of several famous scenes from the Harry Potter movies.
The Bodleian Library: while perusing on the courtyards of Oxford colleges, we stopped into England's biggest library, containing a copy of every sing book that has ever been published in England.
Cambridge: A whole day was spent at the university, but we did not out of things to do ... we toured, had lunch and performed with a masterclass of Cambridge students.
Covent Garden: We all enjoyed our visit to Covent Garden where we visited boutiques, souvenir shops, and stores.
Tower of London: highlighted by the famous exhibit of the royal crown jewels, we toured the beautiful tower inside and out and marveled at the view of the Tower and London Bridges.
Victoria and Albert Museum: tour guides shepherded us through the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, currently showcasing their current exhibition of wedding dresses from 1775-modern day.
Visit to Chinatown: for dinner one night, we took a trip to London's Chinatown- just in time for Chinese New Year- and celebrated by having dinner at a traditional Chinese restaurant.
Les Miserables: You can't visit London without going to the theatre – and everyone loved the musical performance of Les Miz at Queens Theatre in London's West End.
St. Paul's Cathedral: On a guided tour, we admired the high, detailed ceilings, and were taken downstairs to the whispering room.
St. Giles' Cripplegate Church of London: We performed with the New London Children's Choir and the Oxford Concerto Orchestra after a warm up-rehearsal in this beautiful spacious Church.
When I asked some fellow friend and performers what they liked most about the trip, it was very hard for them to decide. Sam Rosner, a tenor and also one of the soloists said, "I loved everything... singing in the chapel, and just the city of Oxford in general, and having the free time to explore such an old space with a modern subculture was really amazing. I also really loved meeting the English people, it was nice to get to meet the orchestra we were performing with, as most of them were our age! " Soprano Elizabeth Hansen said, "As cheesy as it is, the last concert really stuck with me. I really think it brought us all together, and we sang beautifully."
Choral Director John Cuk said, "This was one of the nicest group of students I've ever taken on a trip. They represented their school, town and country admirably. The concerts at Oxford and London were performed with distinction. A high point was their master class with world renown choral conductor, Steven Cleobury. After his work with the Scarsdale students, he allowed us to perform a short program at King's College Chapel in Cambridge. It was truly an experience that I will never forget."
For me, I enjoyed making new friends and rehearsing the performing with the chorus. It was also nice to have a break from on phones and computers and to focus on the trip and each other.
On the last day of the trip at our last performance, a wave of sentimentality hit the group. After an amazing week, we all realized that the sound we created over the course of the trip will never be recreated again. The combination of all 60 of our voices created a unique and beautiful sound that each one of us will remember for a lifetime.
Photo Credit: Bella Vierra
Gentle Scarsdale Satire
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- Written by: Joanne Wallenstein
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Scarsdale native and mother Deborah Skolnik has just launched a Facebook page called Gentle Scarsdale Satire. According to Skolnick, the page is for easygoing individuals who aren't afraid to laugh at themselves and their beloved town. Skolnik says that "whenever inspiration strikes," she'll put up some "light verse gently skewering Scarsdale's silliest quirks."
Here's a poem she posted about the potholes which are plaguing our local roads.
Pothole Palooza
I'm driving on the Bronx River Parkway...
Then BAM! I'm seeing stars!
The road has suddenly turned so bumpy
my car's like the Rover on Mars!
I've driven straight into a pothole,
its edges half-hidden and rough.
It's as big as a black hole in outer space
gobbling planets and light waves and stuff!
On Mamaroneck, Fenimore, and Post Road too,
there are dips and gaps and ruts.
It's amazing we all don't have broken axles
and also broken butts!
"When will they fix this?" we ask each other,
Failing to remember
that road crews will come by and patch this all up...
in time for next December.
Check out more of her witticisms on Facebook at Gentle Scarsdale Satire.
LOL at Ivy League Comedy Night
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- Written by: Joanne Wallenstein
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Chase away the winter blues with a professional night of laughter brought to you by the Ivy League of Comedy. The stand up comedians will be appearing at Scarsdale Synagogue on Saturday night February 28th at 8 pm. Regularly appearing on late night television and Comedy Central these clever comics are now bringing their stand-up act to Scarsdale. Tickets are $54 per person if you reserve before February 25 and $60 at the door. Dessert and wine is included and 50% of the net proceeds will be donated to the United Interfaith Food Bank.
To reserve your tickets now, click here:
Here is information about the troupe:
Scarsdale native Shaun Eli Breidbart has rightfully been called one of America's 
smartest comics. Whether it's a story about dining with a vegetarian or successfully fighting a parking ticket, master storyteller Shaun Eli proves that there's hilarity in the ordinary if you approach life with a comedic warp. Job interviews? Serving on a NYC criminal jury? How about the Ten Commandments? For just about anything he has experienced Shaun has a hilarious story at the ready.
Joe DeVito has the power to start fires using his mind, and he also does standup comedy. Whether taking on relationships, his Italian-American family, or current events, Joe's dead-on timing, unexpected twists and sheer flights of lunacy make him a favorite at clubs and colleges across the USA, and at the top 
venues in New York City.
After spending a decade as a journalist and advertising writer, Joe gave into his coworker's demands to try performing so he could find fame, while they finally got some work done. In 2006, he was invited to the prestigious Just for Laughs Festival in Canada, where the Montreal Gazette rated his performance "9.5 out of 10."
Joe's TV appearances include The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on CBS, Comedy Central's Live at Gotham, and a semi-finalist turn on season five of NBC's Last Comic Standing. His savage wit has also made him an in-demand panelist on shows like Chelsea Lately, CNN's Headline News, Animal Planet's Wild 100, and a regular guest on FOX News Channel's Red Eye. As a writer, Joe has contributed to Maxim Magazine, MTV, and the award-winning film Super Size Me.
Jon Fisch has been featured on Celebrity Apprentice and in Maxim Magazine. He was the host of the widely popular podcast, In the Tank, and last year he made his late night television debut on the Late Show with David Letterman.
His appearances on Last Comic Standing 4, where he was the New York City Capital 
One Audience Favorite, gained him wide recognition and a new legion of fans. He has also been seen on Comedy Central, VH1 and was invited to be perform at the TBS Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Chicago and the Great American Comedy Festival at the Johnny Carson Theatre in Norfolk, Nebraska.
A staple in the NYC scene Jon performs regularly at Gotham Comedy Club, The World Famous Comic Strip Live, Comedy Cellar, and Broadway Comedy Club. Of his numerous credits, people seem most impressed with Jon being hand picked to open for Jerry Seinfeld at Gotham Comedy Club.
The Ivy League of Comedy
Scarsdale Synagogue Tremont Temple Emanuel
2 Ogden Road
Scarsdale, NY 10583
914-725-5175
Saturday night Febrary 28 - doors open at 7 pm, show starts at 8 pm
Order your tickets here;
Find My iPhone .... PLEASE Find My iPhone
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- Written by: Marilyn Berger
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Nobody said it would be easy. It takes a lot more than the "find my iPhone" app. It takes persistence, determination -- and a willingness to be quite disagreeable.
My son, age 13, dropped his iPhone during a dance at a bat mitzvah in Manhattan last Saturday. The GPS didn't pick it up on Saturday or on Sunday. Then on Monday, there it was, right there on the app's map. In Newark. We sounded the phone's alarm. We put a number in for the finder to call. We begged him/her to call.
Nothing. Then the signal went dead.
Find my iPhone worked, but only to a point.
Of course we called the mother who gave the party. She contacted the party venue and the event coordinator who hired the tummeler (although they don't call emcees that any more unless they're in the Catskills). No phone. Anywhere. But after a long snow day and a return to school on Tuesday my kid learned that one of his pals said he had found a phone and given it to the emcee on the night of the party. Which emcee had already said he did not have any phone.
But there was still that location in Newark. That had gone dead. I was interested to learn, however, that said emcee LIVES IN NEWARK and, since we're all connected, I was able to find him on Facebook. (Names are being withheld to protect the guilty -- or innocent.)
I was even more interested to see on said Facebook page that this very same emcee had written the following on January 31st, the actual night of the bat mitzvah:
"Greetings All. My phone is gone until Wensday and I'll by a new one." (His spelling, not mine.) Having found his page, I was able to email him and beg him to call me. And offer a reward. And beg. And beg again. Nothing.
Still, I figured we'd found our man. Hoping to appeal to his conscience, we texted that the kid was in serious trouble. We reminded him that he had picked out my son at the party.
"What's your name?" he'd rapped.
"Tyrone," my son jived, using his favorite alias.
Still, no reply.
I was told to report the missing phone and by some unlikely miracle found a sympathetic information officer in the Newark police. He listened to my tale of woe and said that although he couldn't help me with the report, he was getting off work in an hour or so and would stop by the last location of the phone to see what's what. And here, dear reader, I can't deny that the idea of a uniformed policeman making inquiries about a missing phone gave me the first pleasurable thrill I had through this entire ordeal. Believe me, Officer Gonzalez deserves a medal even though he didn't find the phone.
So, back to the events company whose president was at a loss, shall we say, to explain how this phone, handed to his emcee on Saturday night, and later located in Newark -- and to repeat myself, handed to the emcee who LIVES IN NEWARK -- had disappeared.
The events president then called a meeting with the emcee, who still maintained that he did not have the phone. Maybe the caterer has it, he offered helpfully.
"Go home with your wife," the events chief suggested, "and retrace your steps of Saturday night after the party and think about this."
An hour later, our emcee called to say he "just remembered" that he and his wife had stopped at a bar on the way home. They went to the bar (it is now Wednesday, in other words, Wensday) and asked if a phone had been found. Imagine. There it was.
Lucky me. I got to pick it up Saturday, a week after it was lost, when the emcee made his way from Newark to Manhattan to motivate another crowd at another party. He was very jovial as he handed it to me and said, with not a small amount of pride, "I found your phone."
And still there, on the phone, the number to call if found. I managed to say nothing.
If my son hadn't drowned a previous phone two weeks before, and if the phone weren't so new and expensive, and if I weren't completely furious, I would have given up long before.
So as I said: Persistence. Sheer determination. And yes, I was very disagreeable.
This story first appeared in the Huffington Post and was reprinted with the author's permission.
