Author: Dylan McGlynn

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Kindergarten students at Greenfield Elementary School received a surprise on Friday, with the donation of 24 Strider balance bicycles by Saratoga Shredders.

Saratoga Shredders is a local non-profit organization aiming to provide more children with the opportunity to ride bicycles. Anna Laloë, founder and executive director of Saratoga Shredders, said “It’s really a dream,” to see the students receive the bikes.

“This is something I’ve been wanting to do ever since I started Saratoga Shredders, was to be able to be part of the school curriculum,” Laloë said.

Laloë said Saratoga Shredders currently offers after-school programs but wanted to expand to the school level to help reach as many children as possible.

“We thought that if we start at a school level, at a kindergarten school level, and they’re taught in P.E., that automatically it’s going to allow them to learn how to ride,” said Laloë. “Really, the whole idea of Shredders is to remove as many barriers as possible to get kids on bikes. If we can provide this to another group of kids to be able to have access to bikes for free, that’s really what our premise is.”

Saratoga Springs City School District athletic director Nick McPartland said approving the donation of bicycles was “an absolute no-brainer.”

“To make these kids feel like, ‘Hey, I’m getting to do something at school that I might not be able to do at home,’ it’s really exciting to think that’s going on in our district,” said McPartland. “There’s a lot of schools that don’t have this type of stuff, especially at the elementary level. It just makes you feel really good.”

Laloë said the school district was very supportive, saying the process came together rather quickly.

“There was no pushback from the district at all, so that was really, really special,” said Laloë. “For it to go from the first conversation with Coach (Ricupero) at the end of November, to basically two months later, the bikes are here in the school. It’s just an incredible process to be a part of.”

The Strider balance bicycles are not a typical bike. They come without pedals attached, allowing kids to practice their balance before eventually advancing to pedaling. Pedals can be manually added on to the bike once the child is comfortable. Greenfield Elementary P.E. teacher Mike Ricupero said this can make for an easier transition to a typical bike.

“The difference between a Strider and a bike with training wheels is that balance,” Ricupero said. “The balance is a huge part of riding a bike. Training wheels are great, but it slows you down to progress to actually getting to ride a bike. The Strider bike is a faster way to get kids on pedal bikes.”

“These Strider bikes allow kids to understand balance right away, by removing the training wheels,” added McPartland. “So now they’re forced to use their feet, but also when they feel confident, to get their feet off the ground and ride just on the two wheels. Over time, they’re going to become more and more confident on how to balance a bike and be able to ride it.”

The balance bikes also come with a curriculum for teaching students how to learn to ride. Ricupero said the lessons will help students build up their confidence and skills from one day to the next.

“The lessons are broken down for the kids to actually build upon the skills they already learned in the previous lesson,” said Ricupero. “We’re just excited that, by the end of lesson nine, most of the kids or all of the kids will be able to ride a bike with the pedals.”

Ricupero said he was initially contacted by Laloë, and their conversations led to the donation of the bikes, saying the opportunity “kind of fell in our lap.”

“We met one day, and we just kind of talked through some of the obstacles and some of the things that we needed to do,” said Ricupero. “There’s generous people in the community willing to donate money to these bikes, and for me, it was a no-brainer.”

The bikes were purchased as a package from the All Kids Bike program, said Laloë, costing about $6,000 total. The package was funded by donations from local families of Greenfield Elementary students and members of Saratoga Shredders.

Will and Jen Aldrich, Dr. Amy Knoeller, Dr. James North, Thad and Talara Hedgpeth, Peter Mulford, Jane Cramer Varian, and the Winter family all donated funds toward the purchase of the bicycles, according to a press release by Saratoga Shredders.

While the Greenfield Elementary kindergarteners will be the first to go through the curriculum, there are hopes of expanding the program throughout the district. 

“If we do a pilot here at Greenfield, figure out if it works at a kindergarten level, and then maybe scale it up to all the other elementary schools and then K-5 over maybe year two or something,” said Laloë. “That would be the idea, would be a progressive step for them to learn new skills as they get older and the bikes get bigger for them.”

“Again, we’re very fortunate that we have this, and I’m confident that it’s going to be used a tremendous amount,” McPartland said.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — When it comes to mental health, speaking up can often be difficult. 

Elaine Anton-Lotruglio, the founder of The Circle of Mothers Saratoga, knows this well. She established the support group following her own experiences as the mother of a child struggling with mental health.

“For me, it seemed like one day he woke up and he just said he didn’t want to live anymore,” said Anton-Lotruglio.

In the following years, her son attended a boarding school and a therapeutic wilderness program in Utah, before eventually finishing high school at what Anton-Lotruglio described as a “therapeutic boarding school.”

“He’s in a really good place, but it took a lot to get him there, and it was complete anguish for me, and his brother, and for my husband,” said Anton-Lotruglio.

Her son is doing well these days, she said, and is currently a junior in college. But the family’s experience empowered Anton-Lotruglio to try to make a difference for other families who may be going through similar experiences.

She attended a parent night led by a local mother who had lost her son to suicide, and came to a realization after several other parents spoke up about their childrens’ mental health struggles.

“It dawned on me that there are people like that hiding behind closed doors, because they’re ashamed, they don’t want other people to know they’re struggling,” Anton-Lotruglio said. “There’s so much shame around this that it’s just so upsetting, because literally that silence is deadly.”

Anton-Lotruglio booked a room in the basement of the Saratoga Springs City Library, officially laying the roots for The Circle of Mothers Saratoga. The support group meets on the last Wednesday of every month at 7:30 p.m.

“There are guidelines, rules. There’s no advice given. Everybody shares time, no one person can dominate the conversation. We don’t judge, we don’t give advice, we just listen,” said Anton-Lotruglio. “No one has to speak if they don’t want to. If you just want to listen, that’s perfect too. Nobody has to divulge anything they don’t want to, but if they hear something that another parent says that helps them, perfect.”

While she said the group tends to be “really small,” in size, its impact seems to be large. Anton-Lotruglio said she receives messages nearly every week from parents who are dealing with mental health crises in their children. She stressed that, “Whatever’s said in the circle stays in the circle.”

She also stressed the importance of speaking up, saying that silence only leads to more deaths by suicide.

“If you are silent about suicide, deaths occur,” said Anton-Lotruglio. “That was really troubling for me. …If you’re silent about these things, the silence is actually what perpetuates adolescent suicide. Because people are afraid to talk about it, children die.”

Anton-Lotruglio said she loves “that people know I’m a resource,” saying she wished she had a similar support group when her son was struggling.

“I was so lost and so afraid. … I wish I had that at the time,” she said. “For me to be able to be vocal about it, and hopefully make it easier for someone else to have someone to talk to. … I’m so glad that I can do that, that I can be that.”

Anton-Lotruglio has held administrative positions at universities, and as a former Division 1 lacrosse player at Hofstra University, she has spent several years coaching lacrosse at a variety of levels, including helping lead the Saratoga Springs varsity girls lacrosse team to the Section II Class A Championship in 2018. 

Now, however, Anton-Lotruglio is back in school, with the goal of obtaining a PhD in social work. She said she is currently studying “the idea of a precipitating event that leads to an adolescent suicide.”

“Like, what happens that they decide that today is the day?,” said Anton-Lotruglio. “If we can identify that, if there’s a red flag. Something happens, a relationship breakup, or a bad event that occurs in a day. Can we identify that, and have that be a red flag, and then monitor a young adult more closely, so that we can prevent it?”

Despite her studies, Anton-Lotruglio stressed that the group is not therapeutic in nature, but instead simply a group of mothers supporting each other, saying, “It’s a mother’s group, not a therapeutic group.”

She also said she hopes to inspire others to share their stories, and feel comfortable doing so, saying we must “stop judging other parents because their kids are struggling.”

“By me sharing, I hope that I’m inviting other people to share, or to feel better about where they are, and know that they’re not the only ones,” said Anton-Lotruglio. “Other people are going through it, they’re just not talking about it. So I talk about it.”

If you or someone you know is in crisis or considering suicide, there is help available. Call 988 or text TALK to 741741.

SARATOGA SPRINGS —It isn’t always easy to teach children to read. However, when there’s a dog in the equation, things can change rather quickly.

Lynn O’Rourke, the K-2 reading teacher at Lake Avenue Elementary School, has been offering “dog therapy” to second-grade students at the school for over 20 years. The program was forced to undergo a lengthy pause due to COVID-19, but O’Rourke said they are preparing to bring dogs back into the classroom.

“I just got approval for a couple dog handlers in December, right before break,” said O’Rourke. “I’m hoping by next week we can get all the permission slips in and have all the dogs start visiting the school.”

Students visit O’Rourke’s classroom and read to a therapy dog, which she said helps the students get enthusiastic about reading.

“The dogs come into my room, and then a group of students will come to my room, and they each take turns reading to the dog,” O’Rourke said. “They have time to ask questions about the dog to the dog handler.”

Students typically read to the dog for about 15 minutes and are provided a reading certificate with an image of the dog. 

“It’s a great program just for kids to feel good about their reading, and create confidence,” said O’Rourke.

O’Rourke has been running the program for 23 years, she said, noting the program has helped increase reading participation and has “taken the stigma off” her classroom.

“Because students kind of think, ‘Well, if you have to go to Mrs. O’Rourke’s room, then you have to get help with reading’,” she said. “But now they all associate the dog with my room, so everybody wants to come to my room.”

O’Rourke said that some of her students have told her that reading to the dogs is “the best part of second grade.” 

“And the kids help each other, which is nice,” said O’Rourke. “The adult doesn’t necessarily intervene with corrections, the kids help each other. It builds a nice little camaraderie with the kids.”

She also said that being in a small group “reduces stress and anxiety for the students,” offering them a comfortable place to improve their reading abilities. 

Prior to COVID, O’Rourke said she had roughly eight to ten therapy dogs that would rotate in her classroom daily. 

“I literally had a dog every single day in my classroom,” O’Rourke said. “Students were able to come in and read with the dogs, and they love the different certificates with the different dogs.”

Now, over two years since the last time a dog entered her room, O’Rourke is “starting fresh.”

“I don’t have any of my old dog handlers for various reasons,” said O’Rourke. “Right now, I have three dogs that have gone through the approval process. I’m always just looking for a few more if possible.”

In order for a dog to join the classroom, it must be a certified therapy dog through Therapy Dogs International and has to be approved by the Saratoga Springs City School District. Anyone interested must fill out a pair of forms, which are in turn sent to the district superintendent to be approved. To access these forms, email O’Rourke at l_orourke@saratogaschools.org. 

“There’s a lot of positive impacts with the program, and it’s been pretty good over the last 20 years,” O’Rourke said.

BALLSTON SPA — Around the holiday season, many nine-year-old children are eagerly awaiting their haul from Santa. Aidan McFarland, however, was more concerned with how he could give back.

McFarland, with help from the local community, delivered Christmas Eve dinners and Christmas morning breakfasts to the Saratoga County Jail, Ballston Spa Police Department, and Saratoga County Sheriff’s Patrol Division.

“I have a friend, and they have a dad that’s a sheriff,” said McFarland. “I noticed that sheriffs have been protecting us for a long time, and I wanted to start serving lunch, dinner, and breakfast. I wanted to support them because they didn’t get to spend time with their family, and they are protecting us.”

Cassandra McFarland, Aidan’s mom, said he hopes to become a sheriff when he grows up. His grandfather, Bill Roner, is also a retired sheriff with the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Department. 

“It was just something he kind of noticed,” said Cassandra McFarland. “The sheriffs work on the holidays; they don’t get days off.”

Roner said they are “having a very difficult time filling positions,” leading to mandatory overtime for many employees. 

“Some of these guys are getting minimal sleep and right back at it, and then they’re missing their families,” said Cassandra McFarland. “So we kind of talked about ‘What can we do to brighten up their spirits on a holiday?’, and Aidan said, ‘Let’s bring them food.’”

Cassandra then contacted Roner, her father.

“I got talking to my dad, and he said there’s a lot of guys. If you do just the jail, that’s a lot of guys, but then there’s also the road and the communications, that’s a lot of guys and girls,” said Cassandra. “What about doing Ballston Spa too, not just Saratoga County? It became a big picture at that point.”

Aidan and his mom then recorded a video discussing their goal and uploaded it to Facebook. It caught the attention of members of the American Legion Post 234, who invited Aidan to speak at their next meeting.

Aidan said speaking at the meeting was “really cool, because it was my first time.” He admitted that he was “kind of” nervous, but also said it was exciting.

The McFarlands’ goal also reached members of VFW Post 358, who helped out as well. Between the VFW and Legion posts, coupled with help from friends and family, they raised nearly $850, as well as baked goods and other food, Cassandra McFarland said.

“It was a pretty big turnout,” said Cassandra McFarland.

“It was cool,” added Aidan.

Cassandra said she was “really impressed” with Aidan’s drive and determination, as he took the reins for much of the duration.

“I’d say to him, ‘Do you want to do a live and update people?’, and he was like, ‘Yeah!’,” said Cassandra. “Some days, I thought I was going to talk, and then he’s just babbling on in the video, and I’m like, ‘OK, you got this.’ … It was definitely humbling and emotional to watch your kid do something good.”

And according to Roner, the food was very well-received by employees of the three departments.

“Oh, they loved it,” said Roner. “They couldn’t thank him enough.”

Roner said he recently saw an officer in town, saying the officer told him he had set aside some of the mac and cheese that Aidan had delivered the week prior.

“He came over and said he just finished the last bit of mac and cheese that day,” Roner said. “He said he set it aside so he’d know where it was.”

And the local police gave back to Aidan as well, returning the favor by bringing him in for a tour of the communications department and a ride in a police car. 

“It was pretty neat. Christmas Eve, we went in and communications, they were tracking Santa on their computers,” Cassandra said.

“When I was putting on the siren and the light on, the person actually stopped,” said Aidan of his ride in the police car. 

Aidan also said it felt good to give back, and said he wants to continue his deliveries during next year’s holiday season. 

“It was definitely a rewarding experience, and it feels good to give back,” added Cassandra McFarland.

ALBANY — As members of the Saratoga Springs High School’s Academic Team, students Isabelle Savage, Harrison Schuck, and Prav Mishra were no strangers to competition. But this summer, the trio had a chance for a slightly different competition than what they were used to.

The three students were selected to represent New York State in the Spectrum News Challenge, described as a “team-based quiz show based on the zeitgeist of what is in the headlines,” on Spectrum’s website. Teams from two different states compete to answer questions based on recent headlines, with the winner receiving a $500 prize per player.

The students’ episode was filmed this past August, but Savage and Schuck, who are both seniors at the high school, said the group initially applied for the show over two years ago. Mishra is now a freshman enrolled at Cornell University.

“We heard about this initially two summers ago,” said Savage. “We initially applied for the pilot episodes, and then you kind of had to try out, audition for those. It was really just an interview over Zoom, to see how well you worked on camera.”

The team was not selected for the pilot episodes but were contacted shortly after by Spectrum and secured a spot on the show.

The competition consists of four rounds, with each round worth progressively more points.

“The last question, they asked both teams at the same time, and both teams show their answer at the same time,” Savage said. “But for the three rounds before that, they would go to one school that would do the whole round, and then go to the other school and do the whole round.”

Correct answers are worth 10 points in the first round, 15 in the second, 20 in the third, and 500 points in the final round.

“So obviously the last question was the deciding question,” said Savage.

The students said they prepared by keeping up with the news as much as possible.

“I guess you just kind of watch the news,” said Schuck of the preparation. “It’s literally a news challenge.”

“A lot of headline-based questions, so it was just like scrolling through whatever news app you use and just kind of scanning stuff,” added Savage.

The questions covered topics such as the first released photo from the James Webb Space Telescope.

“One of them was about (President) Biden releasing photos of the James Webb Space Telescope,” Schuck said. “It was asking what telescope it was.”

The students said the experience of the Spectrum Challenge was quite different from their typical Academic Team competitions. 

“Normally, what we do during the school year is we go out and do tournaments against a bunch of different teams,” Schuck said. “This one was just against one team. Although I guess this had more stakes behind it.”

“Because with the tournaments, you typically end up doing them across long periods of time, and you only play either one or a couple schools per place that you go,” said Savage. “Then you end up doing a finals round. That’s where the prizes are determined. This game is where the prizes are determined. It was definitely a different setup than what we’re used to, but we are used to the different rounds, different points, different layouts for the rounds.”

The Saratoga team did not come away with the win, losing to a group of students from Preble High School in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Despite that, the group said it was still an enjoyable experience.

“It was definitely a fun experience,” Savage said.

“It was interesting to see how TV works, and everything that’s behind it,” Schuck added.

The group also said the experience helped provide feedback for upcoming Academic Team competitions during the 2022-23 school year. 

“There’s certain questions, both in Academic Team and the competition that we went to, where you’re able to discuss as a group. Kind of seeing it on the TV, I realized, we do not discuss for the full, allotted amount of time,” said Savage. “I think we could discuss more, both in Academic Team and using this experience.”

Both seniors said they hope to attend SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Albany, with majors in nanoscale engineering.

“In the building, a lot of companies are there. IBM, Taiwan Silicon Manufacturing,” said Schuck. “There’s an entire computer chip fab in that building, which is like a half a billion dollars.”

“The industry is located right at the college,” Savage added. “The joke is like, you go to school on the second floor, and then you work on the third floor.”