blog
Local Haitian Community
January 16, 2010
The following message was sent out by the Columbia County Council of the Arts.
In order to help Carline send her container to Haiti, CoCotodo is selling two $500 leaderboard ads. They will run on the site for three months to raise a total of $1,000. If you would like to purchase one of these banner ads, please contact me at 755-4028.
EARTHQUAKE’S IMPACT ON OUR LOCAL HAITIAN COMMUNITY - HOW WE CAN HELP
As many of our members and friends are aware, Carline Murphy worked at CCCA as our arts-in-education coordinator until last year. Carline has always kept close ties with her family members still in Haiti, and she has led the effort to organize our local Haitian community. She founded the Haitian Community Development Project, which strives to improve the lives of people in her native country. Last year Carline won an international award among not-for-profit organizations for her idea to bring specially designed incinerators to Haiti to help with local sanitation.
Carline has at last been notified that her daughter ”Mary J”is safe. Mary J. had traveled to Haiti just after Christmas with other Tufts University students to bring some relief supplies, and she was not heard from for several days after the quake.
Though Carline received this wonderful news about her daughter, her relief is tempered by other news. Five of her brothers and sisters in Haiti, along with 13 nieces and nephews, are missing, as is her father.
Azouke Legbe, an active CCCA member and musician, also received terrible news. Two of his sisters and five of their children have all been killed.
Carline reports that the major relief agencies will indeed deliver aid, but it is more generalized, and many international aid sources target their aid for the areas where their own nationals are clustered.
A tireless organizer, Carline is working to fill a 40-foot container with needed supplies and to have it delivered directly to a location where her own relatives, and relatives of our local Haitian neighbors, will get it. She has asked that friends send monetary donations to her not-for-profit agency, the Haitian Community Development Project, P.O. Box 35, Niverville, NY 12130. Carline herself monitors this mailbox.
Links:
http://www.hcdpinc.org/
http://www.artscolumbia.org/
Filed under: keeping it local.
Shaker Museum Closed Old Chatham Site
March 30, 2009
The Shaker Museum and Library has announced plans to close its Old Chatham museum buildings in preparation for the future move to the historic site at Mount Lebanon Shaker Village in New Lebanon. The museum will continue to foster the preservation and dissemination of the Shaker heritage through a variety of projects, programs and exhibits beginning this summer at the New Lebanon location, according to a release.
Read more at The Columbia Paper »
Filed under: psa.
Haunted House in Chatham
September 18, 2008
On Halloween night, the Wenk Funeral Home on Payn Avenue comes alive with the undead:
http://nccrhauntedhouse.blogspot.com/
Filed under: psa.
Summer Camps
June 21, 2008
I haven’t been able to compile a list for 2008, but the old 2007 list is here. I had a request for it recently. My apologies for not keeping up with it, but this is why the rest of the site is user-contributed 
Filed under: site news.
Women Build Columbia County
May 30, 2008
Videos and pictures of Columbia County Habitat for Humanity’s first Women Build home. Construction in progress right now in Hudson, NY.
http://cocowomenbuild.blogspot.com/
Filed under: keeping it local.
Weekly Events Update Changed to Thurs
May 20, 2008
Starting next week, I’ll be sending the weekly events update out on Thursdays. This moves weekend events a little closer to the top of the list and hopefully makes it more useful.
Filed under: site news.
TownofAncram.org
May 09, 2008
The Town of Ancram has a new website with beautiful photographs by Ancram resident B. Docktor.
http://www.townofancram.org/
http://www.bdocktor.com/
Filed under: keeping it local.
Chatham Skateboarding Park
May 07, 2008
From Shari Franks, Town of Chatham Recreation Director
We are looking for youth and adults to be involved in coordinating a skate park at Crellin Park for our community. We will meet on Wednesday evenings starting on May 7th at the pavilion by the pond at Crellin Park. Should weather be really bad (thunder and lightening) then we will move to the Town Hall located on Rt. 295 in Chatham (near the transfer station). We really need youth of all ages to be involved in the process. They will learn how to research and develop a plan, get it approved and then work to fundraise for the project. The TOWN of Chatham Board is incredibly supportive, which is typically half of the battle in most towns who want to put in a skate park. WE HAVE THE SPACE, and WE HAVE SOME MONEY to get started with, so we are ahead of the game in this respect, all we need is YOU and your willingness to work hard for a good cause. My recreation committee and i have also met with our planning firm who will offer guidance and help us select our best options for what we want to do. But we really really need public input. Instead of worrying about the police confiscating our kids skateboards, let’s ALL of US be part of the solution and work together on a project that can benefit many age groups.
Any questions, please call me at my office at 392-0337
Filed under: keeping it local.
Club Helsinki Hudson Survey - Win 2 Free Tickets.
March 28, 2008
From Club Helsinki:
Club Helsinki is looking for your input on what people are most keen to hear, eat and do in our Great Barrington restaurant/club and our new Hudson venue, which is under construction…
It’s less than 20 questions, and gives you a chance (among other things) to propose who your “dream” Helsinki performers might be. A random winner will be selected among the respondents for two free tickets to the first show at our new Hudson venue!
Filed under: keeping it local.
Help FRC Win a $3,000 grant
March 25, 2008
You can help Family Resource Centers of Columbia County win a $3,000 grant by leaving a supportive comment here.
We are the only local program that provides free, supervised playgroups for children to age 5. These playgroups - offered at five sites around the county 5 days a week - are a big hit with the kids! But they also serve as a source of peer support and companionship for their parents and caregivers.
We believe that if we can reduce isolation, exhaustion and frustration that parents and caregivers often feel while raising young children – especially in a predominately rural community – that we can successfully prevent the incidence of child abuse and neglect.
Filed under: keeping it local.
Musica Website features events feed from CoCotodo
January 23, 2008
I’ve just helped Musica’s Rob Caldwell launch a little site and we’ve put a list of music events, pulled from CoCotodo, on his home page. Let me know if you are interested in doing something similar and need a hand.
Filed under: site news.
Local Blogs
October 10, 2007
I’m looking for local blogs to show latest post information here on CoCotodo using RSS. If you know of a local blog or have one and don’t mind a little publicity, would you drop me a line?
Filed under: site news.
Courier Mention
September 22, 2007
Kathy Stumph of the Chatham Business Alliance wrote a really nice little profile of CoCotodo for the Alliance’s spot in the Chatham Courier announcing that we’d be helping her to get information out about navigating the upcoming construction on Main Street. You can download a copy (pdf) of it here.
Filed under: site news.
Some New Features
September 18, 2007
I’ve added weather to the site. You can click on the weather icon at the top of every page to get a detailed forecast. I am considering implementing a more detailed but complicated weather page. I like keeping things on the site simple though so I’m a bit torn on this.
CoCotodo will be providing a space for the Chatham Business Alliance to post information to help people shop in Chatham during the road construction that’s happening in the spring. You’ll be able to check in here for parking information, irregular store hours and more. It’s critical to our local businesses that they continue to receive customers through the construction, and they will be helping folks to make the extra effort by providing useful and up-to-date information.
For those with contributor accounts, you can now view all of your posts from the “my posts” link in the top navigation. This only shows upcoming events, for more detailed access to your posts, including events that have past, use the “edits” link. You will also have access to these links from the screen that appears after you post an event.
I’ve also added a page with all advertisers. We’ll be stepping up our efforts to recruit advertising with the goal of placing a regular newspaper ad for the site. I’ll also be creating a page of link buttons and content widgets that others can place in their websites.
Filed under: site news.
Drawing Winner
August 04, 2007
On August 2nd my husband picked the name of Chatham resident Amanda Boyd from a stainless steel mixing bowl, making her the winner of our July drawing. Amanda said, “WOW! ... I never win those things… “ which she won’t be able to say anymore.
Amanda won brunch for two at Lippera’s at The Chatham House. Thanks to Lippera’s for doing this with us and thanks to everyone who entered the contest by recommending the site to someone. We’ll do it again soon. I have a few other promotional things in the works and will roll them out together in the near future.
Filed under: site news.