The effort to extend the Harlem Valley Rail Trail to Hillsdale is moving forward. Recently, two grants totaling $11,000 were awarded toward the project. The Rheinstrom Hill Community Foundation awarded the effort $10,000. And the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation gave $1,000 for the work.

Both grants will go toward the $40,000 that the Copake Hillsdale Rail Trail Alliance, a group of residents from both towns, needs to raise over the next few months. That's the matching amount required by a $121,000 grant awarded late last year by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

The state grant will be used to hire engineers to design construction plans for the five-mile extension of the trail from its current terminus in Copake Falls. The work will be done in cooperation with the Columbia Land Conservancy and the Harlem Valley Rail Trail Association.

Residents wishing to donate money toward the rail trail extension can visit the website of the land conservancy at www.clctrust.org. Click on the "Support CLC" tab atop the home page, select "Donate Now" and then choose "Copake Hillsdale Rail Trail Fund" from the drop-down list under "Designating your gift."

Hillsdale's unique, nature-oriented summer program wrapped up earlier this month. Nearly 70 kids took part this summer in HOPE -

Hillsdale Outdoor Park Explorers!

Joe Raco and his team of counselors led a program that took advantage of the park's trails, stream, wetlands, meadows and playground. The Community Garden was also a wonderful environment for kids to learn the science of gardening and planting and all the benefits of healthy living. A field trip to a garden-to-table program at Kinderhook's Katchkie Farm also emphasized the importance of farming.

Read more about our Summer Recreation Program here.

Saturday, August 27

11:00 am

Roe Jan Library

Child Friendly

A bubble volcano? Bubble roller coaster? A kid in a bubble?

"BUBBLE TROUBLE", Jeff Boyer's fun science show for kids and adults, will be held at the Roeliff Jansen Community Library at 11:00 a.m., Saturday, August 27, in the community room. Admission is free and ice cream will be served to all who attend.

Beth Adams, the library's Youth Services Coordinator, says that "the event marks the August Reader Sprint program's conclusion and we will award prizes to the most prolific readers before the show starts."  For more information click here.

Saturday, August 27 beginning at 4:30 pm

Roe Jan Library

Writers of all genres are invited to share their work at the Roe Jan Library's first Open Mic Night.

Wouldn't you love to be in the audience when the next Stephen King or Emily Dickinson first reads from their work?

Here's your chance. The Roeliff Jansen Library invites writers of all genres - fiction, poetry, non-fiction, beginners, established, or aspiring - to come and speak out on Open Mic Night, Saturday, August 27, beginning at 4:30 p.m. The event is free of charge and open to all. 

Hosting the event will be Therese L. Broderick, a poet, workshop leader and member of the Hudson Valley Writers Guild. She says that "most writers know that reading their work aloud helps them edit and improve their work. Plus, it helps writers gain a following of readers who know and like their work."  More information here.

Sunday August 28
Noon to 3:30 pm
Roeliff Jansen Park

This event has been postponed due to the weather.  See the Roe Jan Library website for more information:  www.roejanlibrary.org

Saturday September 10
5:30 to 7:30 pm
 

Camp Pontiac, West Copake

Dubbed "Broadway's Golden Couple," Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley - fresh from their triumph at Manhattan's Cafe Carlyle - will perform musical selections from their hit show He Said, She Said at the second annual Gala for the Roeliff Jansen Community Library.

This year's event will take place from 5:30 to 8 PM, Saturday, September 10, in The Playhouse at Camp Pontiac, 2044 County Rt. 7, West Copake, NY. Tickets are $100 each, or two for $175, and are available at the library, or online at the Roe Jan Library website.

Novelist, playwright,  teacher Wesley Brown will give a reading, 3:00 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 18 at the Roeliff Jansen Community Library, 9091 Rte 22, Hillsdale, NY.  Brown will read from unpublished short stories with the common theme of the Big Band Era of the 1930s and 1940s. Brown's work includes three acclaimed novels (Tragic Magic, Darktown Strutters, and Push Comes to Shove) and three produced plays (Boogie Woogie and Booker T, Life During Wartime, and A Prophet Among Them). He is Professor Emeritus at Rutgers University, where he taught for 27 years. He currently teaches literature at Bard College at Simon's Rock, and lives in Spencertown, New York. http://www.roejanlibrary.org or (518) 325-4101

Taste your way around the world with a stunning array of the best cheeses available. We will talk about the history, politics and philosophy of what has to be one of the most interesting foods around. $50 per person. To register: Creamery  or call 518-672-7500 x 243

Pasta Making

Saturday, September 17

Expand your cooking skills by learning to prepare pasta from scratch.  $40 per person.

To register: Caroline or call 518-672-7500 x 232

Farmscape Ecology Program Walk

Fall Wildflowers of Meadows and Forest

Saturday, September 17

2:00 - 4:00 pm.  Free of Cost

Ecologists Claudia and Conrad Vispo will take you and the entire family to different parts of the farm and introduce you to a variety of on-farm habitats and their wild inhabitants.  Meet in front of the Hawthorne Valley Farm Store on route 21C in Harlemville.  For information email fep@hawthornevalleyfarm.org or call 518-672-7994

Learn all about coyotes and then take a walk to a spot overlooking where they often gather for their nightly howl fest. Learn to yip, yelp, bark, growl, woof and howl just like them. If all goes well you'll trick the "trickster into talking back.