Archive: Around Town

"You get them to a certain point and you send them home and you know that certain children, just because of the background they come from or the ability of their parents to provide books for them... you know they're not going to come back at the same reading level they left," said elementary school English Language Specialist Cindy Van Duren.  "For the child that's extremely frustrating.  We've been wanting to do something to enrich their summer with more reading and writing.  Serious summer regression happens if children don't read and write in the summertime.  It's a long time to go without opening a book.  That's what we wanted to prevent."

Van Duren joined Lisa Campbell and Sandy Rapp in an attempt to put together a summer reading and writing camp that would help first, second and third graders maintain their reading skill level, connect the books they read to local experiences, and to just have fun.  Campbell approached the Lansing Lions Club three years ago, and immediately received leads and suggestions.  And the club raised $2,000 to help fund the camp.  This month Campbell, Van Duren and Pam Bryce attended a Lions Club meeting to thank the members for their support and report on the camp.

Within the City of Ithaca, communities with diverse needs will be supported and brought together in 2017, aided by the latest round of Neighborhood Mini-Grants from Sustainable Tompkins. Three grants totaling $1,150 were awarded in December to the Southside Community Center, Multicultural Resource Center, and Spencer Road Neighborhood Association.

The Southside Community Center will begin running a preschool in autumn 2017, providing affordable, high-quality childcare to lower-income families in the Southside neighborhood. A Mini-Grant will support the purchase of classroom equipment.

Sometimes the best time to visit a winery is in the winter. While the rest of the world is hidden in their cubicles or huddled over their heaters, the wineries are open and welcoming of visitors – and you can actually converse with their people and learn something about the wine!

It is a cold January day, driving the 30 or so miles up the West side of Cayuga Lake to visit Goose Watch Winery. I'm making the trip expressly because of a new wine they have created; the very first from the Aramello grape. The first Aramello wine became available last year and now the 2015 vintage is available at Goose Watch exclusively.

Dear Margaret: My daughter is now 14 and up until now she has been a dream. She was responsible, needed little discipline, and was pure joy. She has been hanging out with a new group of girls at school, and I'm afraid they are a bad influence on her. I don't want to forbid her from seeing her friends as a punishment, but I'm beginning to be at a loss as to how to deal with this new behavior. She talks back, slams doors, and generally pushes boundaries. I know early teens can be a challenge, but this is beyond what I expected. How can I get the respect a parent deserves without going to extremes by limiting her social life?
Frustrated Mom of Teen

by Trish Mullen

   Folks, my people named me Flash when I was a kitten of four months, and I'm 10 years old now, so they really got to know me! Now they are retired and want to travel, so I need to find myself a new home where I will be loved and cared for again. My first person said I liked to play a children's game with her: I will stand by the door and meow until I'm let out, then I will stand outside the door and meow to come in! It's a really good way for me to get attention, don't you agree? Further, whenever the woman sat down I would hop right up onto her lap and spend as much time on her lap as she did on the chair! I have lived with at least one other cat - she didn't specify - so if you already have feline friend at home I could still fit right in; just ask the good SPCA folk the best method for this so that we can get along well. Also, even though I love to sit in a lap I like to do it on MY terms, not being picked up when YOU want to! I'm uncomfortable around children, so it would be best for me to be in a home with teen-agers, at least, who know how to treat a fellow well.

Visit the SPCA Web Page

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This winter, Project FeederWatch – a citizen-science program where participants track birds visiting their backyard feeders from November to April – celebrates its 30th anniversary.

The program which mobilizes 20,000 citizen scientists across North America and features one of the largest databases of feeder bird populations in the world also shows how technology has helped citizen science grow bigger in unexpected ways.

Next Monday kicks off the Lansing PTSO's (Parent Teacher Student Organization) second annual STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) month.  Dubbed STEAM 2.0, the month of activities is designed to offer unique, fun, and different kinds of experiences to get Lansing students excited about learning while providing a fun alternative to the winter doldrums.

"This started last year in response to feedback about winter doldrums," said PTSO President Kristin Hopkins.  "We rolled this out last year and it was a tremendous success.  We worked across our community.  We took input from parents and teachers and students about what they enjoy about STEAM and what they would want to do.  We worked with the community and Cornell and Ithaca College and the resources that we have to design specific activities and programs that expands upon the classroom learning in a hands-on format along with providing a community activity."

Six young artists were honored by the Lansing Lions Club Monday for their winning entries in the Lions Peace Poster contest.  This was Larissa Hsu's second win, which took her and fellow first prize winner Sean Anderson to the regional competition.  Hsu's entry was then chosen to go on to the state competition.

"Lions Club International sponsors a Peace Poster contest every year," said Lansing Lion Noni Krom.  "This year Larissa Hsu's poster has gone to the state competition.  She won our Lansing contest, she won the district contest, and now she's made it to the State.  It's really quite a thing because it's international, and there are thousands of entries.  It's something that we finally have a young lady that has gone this far."

Code Red Robotics' Build Season has officially begun! Code Red Robotics is an Ithaca High School student club, and one of over 3,000 teams that compete in the high-school division of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.) Each year, FIRST releases a game-like challenge for all high-school robotics teams in the world. The teams have six weeks from that day to build a 120 lb. robot to compete in the game.

Last year, Code Red Robotics and their robot were able to win a regional competition, and an award giving them a NASA grant qualifying them to compete in World Championships. At the World Championship event, Code Red ranked among the top 2% of teams.

On Thursday, January 5, 2017, the State University of New York's Board of Trustees Committee on Charter Schools awarded New Roots Charter School a five-year charter renewal without conditions by unanimous vote. The school's third charter term will be from July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2022.

The Renewal Recommendation Report states, "New Roots' academic program is strong, effective, and embodies its mission and vision of creating an academic program characterized by education for sustainability as an integrating principle for applied interdisciplinary studies."

Dear Margaret: I work for a rather large business in a department with employees who are generally extremely dissatisfied with their job. The conversation is always centered on gripes about responsibilities, perceived unfairness, inequitable pay scale, harmful gossip about other staff, bosses held in disdain, and on and on. I used to love coming to work and now because of the attitudes of coworkers, I’m finding the work environment to be troublesome for myself. I have suggested to coworkers that they apply for other positions within the company when they arise since they seem so unhappy there, but they have one excuse after another as to why they can’t make the change. How can I deal with these coworkers and enjoy coming to work again?.
Stuck with Disgruntled Coworkers

by Sarah Post

   Do you need a super-cute, super-silly Bulldog? Pick me! I'm an exuberant, friendly girl who arrived here after my owner's landlord said I couldn't stay. I'm not going to let that get me down, though, because I'm the type of dog who has never met a stranger. Everyone's my best friend! I'm short, but strong, so I might jump up on you while saying hi, and I never play half-heartedly. I throw my whole self into the game! Because of those tendencies, I'd probably do best with tween or teen kids who I won't accidentally knock over. I would rather be an only dog, but I might be able to live with a laid-back male dog who lets me be the princess I know I am. You'd have to bring him in and let me check him out. Do you love going for adventures and have as much enthusiasm for life as I do? We'd be perfect together! Call the shelter and let's get to know each other!

Visit the SPCA Web Page

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