Author: Kacie Cotter-Harrigan
Saratoga Grad Accepted to West Point
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Eve Crossett, a 2020 graduate of Saratoga High School, has been accepted to attend West Point in the fall.
Eve has spent this year at Marion Military Institute in Alabama, the nation’s oldest military junior college, prepping for her next “assignment” at West Point. Congratulations Eve!
Eve Crossett. Photo provided.
Statewide Maple Weekend Cancelled
NEW YORK, STATEWIDE — Citing public safety concerns, the 2021 Maple Weekend (typically celebrated in March) has been cancelled.
Because some local maple producers have facilities that can safely operate with drive-through, online ordering for take-out, and under the limited-capacity guidelines, the New York State Maple Producers Association (NYSMPA) encourages customers to use their map of maple producers and thier Producer Directory to find out what types of activities the sites near you can host (nysmaple.com/retail-dealers).
Educational resources for children in grades K-6 are available online at nysmaple.com/educational-resources.
“Calm in the Chaos” Virtual Workshop
SARATOGA SPRINGS — March is Mental Health Awareness month and the Saratoga Springs City School District wants to support families, parents, and guardians who continue to go above and beyond to support their children during an especially difficult year.
Join Beth Sabo Novik for the virtual workshop “Calm in the Chaos” on Thursday, March 4 at 6 p.m. This workshop will teach you simple, quick, easy ways to get calm and be happy. You don’t have to meditate for an hour a day to change your life. Many of these techniques take one minute or less. Simply changing what we do with our body and our mind can transform how we feel in deeply profound ways.
For the Zoom link, go to www.saratogaschools.org.
Sign-up Now for Spring Stress Reduction Course
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Registration is open for the Saratoga Stress Reduction Program, an eight-week course taught by Selma Nemer, PhD, and Pierre Zimmerman, MS, in which students learn mindfulness-based meditation as a practice for growth and healing.
This program is offered by One Roof Saratoga, a community of credentialed instructors that have taught locally, nationally, and internationally for more than 10 years, including more than 100 classes in Saratoga with 3000+ graduates.
The Spring online session begins March 13. Classes are held Saturdays from 8:30-10 a.m. Class size is limited. Some insurances accepted. For more information or to register, please call 518-581-3180 ext. 300 or 307 or go to saratogastressreduction.com
Kindergarten Parent Orientation in Ballston Spa: Held Virtually March 10
BALLSTON SPA — The Ballston Spa Central School District is excited to welcome the class of 2034! To prepare for Kindergarten student registration this spring, a Kindergarten Parent Orientation night will be held on March 10, 2021 from 6:30-7:30 p.m.
For everyone’s health and safety, this year’s orientation will be held virtually utilizing a video conference meeting. Anyone with an incoming Kindergarten student who has not already contacted the district is asked to call the Registration Office at 518-602-0256. Registered students/parents will receive additional information about the meeting including the links to the presentation before March 10, 2021.
Snow Fort Army Chow
Hello my Foodie Friends!
This winter is certainly giving us plenty of snow. As I glance out into the white wonderland and watch the children in our neighborhood play, I reflect on some of my own fondest childhood memories playing in the snow. I enjoy sharing this story with you each winter. I grew up during a time when the average was at least four children per household and you were literally thrown outdoors to play and told not to come back home until the street lights came on. Playing in the snow included making homemade sleds to slide down the golf course hills, making snowmen, and of course, building the best snow fort in the neighborhood. In our house we divided up the tasks to ensure that our “fort” could withstand repeated attacks of snowball wielding elementary school kids. In the creation of our snow fort, my brother Danny was the engineer and he mapped out how high and thick the walls should be. My youngest brother Billy was the builder and shaped the inside of the fort for the chairs, refrigerator and snow TV. The baby of our family Patty was support staff. Since I was the oldest of the Reardon children clan, I was the recruiter and went door to door finding my soldiers and builders. We were not allowed to use the phone back then (adults only), so when I came to the door and knocked you could hear a stampede of children in the house trying to get to the door. To get them to work on the fort I would tell them that my mother was making meatball sandwiches! My mother’s meatballs were the envy of the neighborhood and far exceeded the bologna and spam the other kids were getting. My first stops were Dave and Karl’s houses and they lived next door to each other. They were my age but already almost as tall as most of our fathers at the age of six. Dave turned out to be 6’8” and Karl is 6’6”. If you want your walls to be the highest, I thought, get the tallest kids. My mother would grimace when she saw them coming as she knew she would need a lot more meatballs. Our first forts were wrecked at night by teenagers until my brother Dan came up with the idea to put water on the outside walls and it would turn them to ice. You could hear the howls of the mean teenagers when they kicked the walls and they didn’t give so easily.
To this day, when I talk with some of my childhood friends, they join me in reminiscing about the fun snow forts, and the reward of my mother’s meatball sandwiches. To this day, her meatballs remained unparalleled. However, Paula’s meatballs are on target with them especially since my mother did share her “secret” method with Paula.
At Compliments to the Chef, your Neighborhood Kitchen and Cutlery store, we carry skillets to make your meatballs in, saucepans to make your sauce, baking sheets to pop your meatball hoagies into the oven with, and other really “Cool Tools for Cooks.” Meatball Hoagies are a great way to deal with these frosty winter days. The neighborhood kids will love you!! Remember my Foodie Friends: “Life Happens in the Kitchen.”
Take Care,
John & Paula
Wintertime Farmers’ Market Finds: New Arrivals & Hidden Gems
Wintertime is a slower season at the farmers’ market. There are fewer vegetables and fruits in season, and there is a more intimate group of vendors. But innovation never stops for local businesses; customers can find new products almost every week. Here are some new arrivals and hidden gems to look out for the next time you shop in person or online at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market.
More digestible than cow milk yogurt and less processed than most plant-based options, R&G Cheesemakers’ goat milk Greek yogurts offer a solution for lactose intolerant yogurt fans. Choose from plain or strawberry. Their goat milk cheeses include more unusual finds like feta, which are also a great option.
Want an easy dinner solution that’s fresher than grocery store-bought? Try Argyle Cheese Farmer’s frozen pizzas, available in double cheese, garden veggie, and meat lovers-style (“Dave’s Fave”). They make the crusts with whey from their cheese which adds more protein, and they top the pies with their cheese curds.
Does your dog keep whining for a bite of your beef jerky? Next time you shop at Muddy Trail Jerky, add a chicken jerky pack to your bag. They make this jerky from dehydrated chicken breast, with dogs specifically in mind.
Do you hear more and more about the health benefits of some varieties of mushrooms? 518 Farms provides an even easier way to reap these benefits by offering pure lion’s mane and reishi mushroom powders. Add to loose leaf tea or coffee grounds, or make a mushroom tea or stock.
The cheesemakers at Nettle Meadow are always inventing. Their newest Schroon Moon, a line of spreadable cow milk cheeses, offers various flavors such as savory olive or chive or sweet lemon poppy seed.
Locally grown beans might not be what you would expect to find in Upstate New York in February. But now is prime time to pick up some legumes from Squash Villa Farm as the 2020 harvest is dried and ready for consumption. Choose between heirloom varieties of pinto or kidney or a variety pack of black, red, and white beans.
Something’s Brewing is known for its coffee beans and drinks, but don’t miss products like herbal tea (their hibiscus, vanilla, rose, and rooibos blend is refreshing) and coffee sugar (organic sugar blended with freshly ground spices).
The Saratoga Farmers’ Market is open Saturdays from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Find us online at saratogafarmersmarket.org and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. For online pre-ordering and curbside pickup, visit localline.ca/saratoga-farmers-market.
Creating Our Future
On December 31, 2020, Skidmore College made history when they concluded their largest fundraising campaign ever.
Creating Our Future: The Campaign for Skidmore raised a record-setting $229.4 million from a whopping 27,193 donors over a seven-year period beginning in October 2013.
“Strengthening a creative, collaborative and community-centered future for Skidmore has always been at the core of Creating Our Future,” said Skidmore College President Marc Conner in a press release.
Conner took over the position last July following the retirement of President Emeritus Philip Glotzbach, who, along with Marie Glotzbach, publicly announced the campaign in 2017.
“Our commitment to this vision for the future remains steadfast,” continued Conner. “This is an incredibly important moment for our college because of what our entire community — past, present and future — has made possible.”
CHANGING THE GAME
Skidmore, a first-class liberal arts college known for their exceptional humanities, social sciences, and arts programs, is now integrating the sciences more than ever before.
The campus’ new Center for Integrated Sciences (CIS), which is slated for completion in 2024, will be a 200,000 sq. ft. building housing all 10 of Skidmore’s science departments and programs.
Equipped with state-of-the art laboratories, advanced safety and energy efficiency features, the building’s 58,000 sq. ft. North Wing opened last September.
“It’s going to totally change the feel of the sciences at Skidmore and be a game changer,” said Pat Fehling, Associate Dean of the Faculty and Professor for the Health and Human Physiological Sciences Department.
At the school for 28 years, Fehling is looking forward to the sciences being in a centralized location where collaboration can happen between disciplines.
“We’re relying on science to drive solutions. We are part of that conversation,” she said.
ANSWERS THAT CHALLENGE & INSPIRE
The campaign is also supporting critical priorities through the Skidmore Fund; bolstering scholarships and financial aid; and increasing career development opportunities.
Isaiah Perkins, ’22, a double-major in Spanish and Religious Studies, said that with three other college-bound siblings at home in Boston, without the scholarships that pay for the majority of his tuition, he’d likely have to work multiple jobs to afford school.
The remote work experience he got teaching English as a Second Language with LifeWorks Community Action and paid for through the college’s Summer Experience Fund allowed him to sustain himself through the summer.
“Everyone can think back to the teachers that have touched them – who have created and inspired a passion within them. Teaching changes the world,” said Perkins.
CREATIVE THOUGHT MATTERS
Creating Our Future is also enhancing athletics, health and wellness initiatives, and funding innovative programming at the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery.
Sophia Paulino Adames, ’22, is originally from the Dominican Republic and has lived in New York for four years. In addition to the scholarships that pay for her double-major in Studio Art and French, higher education COVID relief funds allowed her to get mental health support.
“It’s really awesome. It’s great. Honestly, I don’t know where I’d be without all the financial aid from Skidmore. I couldn’t imagine myself anywhere else,” she said.
Her time here has also fostered her desire for social equality and inspired her to build a better tomorrow.
“Skidmore is such an interdisciplinary institution. I’ve learned so many things outside of my area of study and I can bring all of that into my art.”
Inflation Lurking
A common risk to investments that is typically an afterthought is the risk that your money will lose purchasing power in the future. Why is it an afterthought? Its symptoms are mostly imperceptible from day-to-day, so we focus on more pressing things like the potential loss in value caused by a March 2020-style crash. In our hopefully-soon-post-COVID environment, we will be forced to grapple with the effects of the massive efforts taken by both the government and Federal Reserve to keep our economy afloat. Where will we feel the effects? What can be done to protect your investments?
Inflation is tricky. There is no easy way to define it. On the surface, it seems simple – the price of things going up. But which things? How much weight should we assign each item in a basket of goods? We are also not entirely sure what causes it. Many prepared for a hyperinflationary environment in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis that never materialized. Everybody is well aware of the inflation that has existed throughout the past decade(s) in healthcare and education, but perhaps post-COVID inflation will look different. A rush to the suburbs and a shortage of housing supply has seen the price of lumber quadruple in less than a year. We have also seen the price at the pump awake from its slumber and essential agriculture commodities like corn and soybeans have appreciated meaningfully in the past few months.
In a portfolio, fixed income will bear the brunt of inflationary pressures the most. This makes sense. If you are expecting to receive a pre-defined stream of future payments in a world where future dollars are worth less, the price of that instrument will adjust downward to reflect this. An allocation to an inflation-protected bond issued by the government would help to offset this. Another option to protect your portfolio is commodities. They were the hedge of choice at the beginning of the last decade, but they were coming on the heels of explosive growth in the prior decade and needed a chance to breathe. As you can see in the accompanying chart, they have been lying in wait for the last five years and this could be their time to shine.
It should be mentioned that nothing is set in stone and decisions about your investments should be made in the context of your complete financial picture. Focusing on just one risk that may or may not materialize potentially leaves you exposed in other areas. A finely tuned financial planning process combined with investment implementation can only help to set you up for financial success.
David Rath, CFA is a Director of Portfolio Strategies at Continuum Wealth Advisors in Saratoga Springs. Continuum Wealth Advisors, LLC is a Registered Investment Advisor through the Securities and Exchange Commission.
