SARATOGA SPRINGS — Each morning Staci Snider opens the doors to SNIDER Fashion and is greeted by a store filled with her own designs. 

Snider said her designs are about creating clothing pieces that go above and beyond the typical clothing found in a fashion boutique. Opening her doors on 18 Congress St. to the public in April 2019, Snider said she has since created relationships with not only people in her community but across the states. 

“It hasn’t been a year but I have really good local customers so its been really nice. I haven’t done any marketing or PR but the company is starting to grow by word of mouth. Then the people that come in stop by quite a bit, so I see them weekly,” Snider said.

Snider said that having a store filled with her own design makes it easier to connect with her clients. Since she knows the clothes so well, styling and fitting the clothing for each customer is easier. She operates with a “hands-on” approach that allows her to tailor designs to fit each customer individually. The sizes range from women’s 0-16 on average, but Snider said her clothing could be made outside of those restrictions.

“It’s good and easy knowing that everything in the store is mine. It’s easier for styling and for helping people because I know the clothes so well. It allows me to readjust the garment to their body type,” Snider said. “It’s very different. I do in-house alterations, hemming and even if we have to add more fabric into a garment I will.” 

Currently Snider is working on pushing out her Spring 2021 line of clothing and said everyone is anticipating her new collection. Due to the current health issues overseas, her production has been slowed down. Snider said the Coronavirus tied up toggles that she had included in her designs and now has to wait for them to be disinfected, shipped and then disinfected again once arriving to the states. 

“Thank goodness I’m a designer that produces in the United States, because most designers produce overseas so they might not be able to ship their spring collection,” Snider said. 

Along with pushing out her spring designs in mid to late March, Snider is looking to welcome students starting early summer 2020. She said a lot of her clients stop by the store with kids who approach Snider and ask about the fashion industry. She said young girls in particular approach her on sewing and design tips, which she hopes to teach them this summer.

“Now I can start getting a little bit more involved with community stuff, so my first is going to be a kids class,” Snider said. “It’s going to be fun.”

SARATOGA SPRINGS — A simple sign is fixed to the glass at the entryway door where Gail Purdy Brophy operated her business for a generation. “In remembrance of Gail,” reads the sign inside the Congress Street Plaza, “we honor her lifelong dedication to Purdy’s and the local community.”

Decorated golfer, accomplished speed skater, longtime Spa City business owner and community member Gail Purdy Brophy died Feb. 23. She was 77.

“I’m just honored to have known her and to have been her friend,” said Kent Tarkleson, owner of Tark’s Indoor Golf Club in Wilton. They’ve been friends the past 15 years.  “Such a wonderfully generous person; she’s going to be immensely missed.”

For more than a half-century Brophy operated Purdy’s Discount Wine and Liquor store, sited at a number of locations throughout the city – including Caroline Street for seven years and Broadway for 26 years, before moving to Congress Street Plaza in 1997.

She was born in Glens Falls in 1942. Her career as a businesswoman launched in the fall of 1963, when she quit college and returned home to run her father’s liquor store after he became ill.  A few years later, she married James “Bud” Brophy to whom she was wed for 28 years, until he passed away at age 79 in 1998.

Across the decades, Brophy has employed more than 200 employees, generated millions of dollars in sales tax revenue for the city and county and has supported more than 1,000 local charity events.

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Brophy had been a member of Saratoga Winter Club speedskating since she was a teenager. She won more than 100 titles in the northeast, including winning several Eastern States Championships, New England Championships, Eastern Seaboard Championships, New York State Championships, and the Lake George International Silver Skates. She won seven National or North American divisional championships.

At age 16, she competed in the first U.S. Olympic Trials for speed skating women in 1959, and in 1964 competed in the U.S. Olympic Trials for the Olympic Games – in both cases narrowly missing the Olympic team by one spot. One year later, Brophy secured the top prize in 1965 North American Indoor Short Track Championships, as well as being crowned champion at the Diamond Trophy Indoor in Lake Placid.

Perhaps her greatest athletic achievements came as a golfer – participating in the U.S. Women’s Open in 1960 and 1961 and emerging as the New York State Women’s Amateur champion in 1961, the youngest at the time to ever win that championship.

When she left college to run the family business, she put her sports career on hold. In 2006, she returned to the golfing world and won the New York State Super Senior State Championship in 2007 and 2008.

For the past eight years, Brophy dealt with pulmonary fibrosis, but refused to let that hold her back.

“No matter what she was going through, she kept practicing, kept working on her game. She just loved it so much she didn’t want to give it up,” Tarkleson says. “She was more passionate than anyone I’ve ever known. Dedicated and determined to succeed. As she started to struggle, she would still practice and she would tell me: I may not be getting any better, but I’m not getting any worse. That says it all.

“She was tough, she was gritty and absolutely a wonderful person. She was world-class.”

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Dozens of members of the city Police Department took part in active shooter response training drills this week. The training classes were conducted at Saratoga Springs High School during the school winter break, from Feb. 17-21.

“Our entire department is involved. Everyone who’s not on vacation or gone for this week takes part in the training, said Saratoga Springs Police Sgt. Paul Veitch. “Probably we’ll have 55 or 60 go through.” 

City police conduct the training sessions at least twice a year, in a varying number of locations. This week’s sessions marked the first time in a few years the sessions were staged at the high school. 

“What we train here is for things that are school-specific. If we’re doing something say at SPAC, it would be more of a large crowd-mass casualty incident. This is more of a school active threat,” Veitch said. 

Twenty-four shootings had occurred on K-12 school properties domestically in 2018, and 25 in 2019 that resulted in firearm-related injuries or deaths, according to Education Week – a self-described independent news organization that provides comprehensive coverage on K-12 education news, analysis, and opinion. The organization notes five such shootings – three of which took place in Texas and two in California – thus far in 2020. 

Despite the high profile of school shootings in recent years, however, a study published in June 2018 by James Alan Fox and Emma E. Fridel, “The Three R’s of School Shootings: Risk, Readiness, and Response,” points to a more violent past than circumstances of the present-day. According to the report – which researched school shootings and mass shootings between 1992 and 2015 – schools are safer now than they were 20 years ago, and that shooting incidents involving students have been declining since the 1990s.

Local police started the trainings shortly after the Columbine High School incidents in 1999, Veitch said. The most recent training procedures involve having a rescue task force, which includes fire department medics, closer at hand. 

“Two or three years ago they would wait for us to go in first then they would come in later and help. It’s slowly evolved; now they want to come in with us as soon as they can to help as many people as they can,” Veitch said. 

This week’s training solely involved the city department, and the costs involved during the course of the training are all city costs, with no federal grant money provided, Veitch said. 

The weeklong school winter break – with no students present – provided an opportunity for the training to take place at the school.

“We do not train active shooter with students,” Veitch said. “The school is responsible for teaching them lock-downs and what happens in their internal procedures and policies. For us, we focus on what we’re doing, we don’t include need to include them because frankly the school does a good job on their own.”

SARATOGA SPRINGS — More than three million residents aged 65 and older currently live in New York, reflecting a boom of older adults during the past decade in nearly every corner of the state. 

Saratoga County – which has experienced a 55 percent spike over the past decade – depicts the largest county growth in the elder population statewide, dwarfing neighboring communities in Albany County (a 23 percent increase), Rensselaer County (a 32 percent increase), and Schenectady County, which experienced a 13 percent increase in its older adult population over the past decade, according to the Center for an Urban Future analysis of the U.S. Census from 2007-2017.

In specific numbers, the 65-plus age group in Saratoga County has increased by 14,300 from 2007 to 2017, from just over 26,000 to more than 40,000. The county’s under-65 population meanwhile has remained relatively flat during that same period. 

To meet current trends, the Saratoga Senior Center, located in Saratoga Springs, is making plans to build a new senior center to accommodate the explosive growth in senior population.

 “When I took over in 2010, we served 300 seniors a year, now we have more than 2,000 a year, and every day we have 125-150 seniors walk through our doors,” says Lois Celeste, the agency’s executive director.   

Founded as the Golden Age Club in 1955, the Center started with just 35 members. The group purchased their own building at 162 Circular St. in 1960. A larger and more modern facility named The Robert Gass Senior Center was erected in May 1979 at 5 Williams St. 

“We’re out of space and we need to build a larger facility to serve our existing population and for the influx of ‘boomers’ to come in the very near future,” Celeste says. “We looked at the current building to see if we could expand, but we can’t really go out, or up,” she says of the agency’s Williams Street location, which stands in a city-owned building. 

The agency is currently involved in siting a new venue in Saratoga Springs. Celeste isn’t prepared to specifically identify the site at this point as project details have yet to be finalized, but explains that the agency has plans for a new, larger building that could be announced “in the next couple of months,” with a targeted completion of the new center expected in 2021.

The announcement of a new building comes as the non-profit, non-residential community center celebrates its 65th anniversary. 

At the Center, adults age 50-and-over can join for $25 per year and participate in programs, trips and social activities tailored to adults and seniors. 

Earlier this month, the Center started opening its doors on Saturdays to accommodate the growing demand and changing needs of its seniors. The expanded activities – grant funding was provided by the Alfred Z. Solomon Charitable Trust – feature varied activities such as yoga, dance, billiards, computer skills training and arts workshops, and take place 9 a.m. – noon on Saturdays. 

The Saratoga Senior Center will also host a “Leap Of Kindness Day” from 10 a.m. – Noon on Saturday, Feb. 29. The event is free and open to the public. 

The Saratoga Senior Center is located at 5 Williams St., Saratoga Springs. For more information, call 518-584-1621, or go to: saratogaseniorcenter.org. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Three seniors from Skidmore College’s Environmental Studies and Sciences Program are working with Saratoga PLAN, Open Space Institute, and a group of regional partners to develop a trail from Moreau Lake State Park to the Saratoga Greenbelt Trail in order to promote outdoor recreation, sustainable economic development and environmental conservation. They developed a survey to better understand the value of the current trails and recreational pathways in Saratoga County. Community members who fill it out and spread the word will be entered to win one of three $10 Apple gift cards.

BALLSTON SPA — The Saratoga County Sheriffs’ Office graduated six new canine teams from the 2019- 2020 canine school on Feb. 14. 

Of the six new canines, four will be replacing existing canines that have moved on to retirement. All the retiring canines will remain with their handlers and their families in retirement. Two of the new canines are assigned to handlers who are new to the K9 Unit. 

The Sheriff’s Office K-9 school consists of more than five months of training. The training covers patrol functions such as handler protection, building search procedures and socialization with the public. The canines are also trained to track criminal suspects or missing persons. The Sheriff’s Office K-9 Unit now comprises of four narcotics detection teams and four explosive detection teams, all dual purpose for patrol work.

They are: Deputy Nic Denno and Canine Taylor. Deputy Nic Denno will officially retire his partner Canine Jagger and will be teamed up with a one-year-old German Shepard named Taylor. Canine Taylor has been named after PFC David “Taylor” Miller from the Town of Wilton. Miller died in combat on June 21, 2010, in Lar Sholtan Village, Afghanistan supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Canine Taylor and Deputy Denno will serve as a Narcotics Detection and Patrol/Tracking team assigned to the road patrol. 

Deputy Robert Whipple & Canine J.D. Deputy Robert Whipple will officially retire his partner Canine Karma and will be teamed up with an almost-two-year-old German Shepard – Malinois, named J.D. 

Deputy Brownell & Canine Johnny Deputy C.J. Brownell will officially retire his partner Canine Lee and will be teamed up with a one-year-old German Shepard named Johnny. 

Officer Adam Potter & Canine Riker Officer Adam Potter retired his partner Canine Bud in September of 2019 due to an unexpected illness. Officer Potter will now be serving the Sheriff’s Office Correctional Facility with his new partner, a one-year-old German Shepard named Riker. 

Deputy Nikki Voegler & Canine Neeka Deputy Nikki Voegler is a newly assigned member of the K-9 Unit who will be assigned to Canine Neeka; an 18-month-old German Shepard. 

Deputy Crien Salton & Canine Flash Deputy Crien Salton is also a newly assigned member of the K-9 Unit who will be assigned to Canine Flash; a one-year-old German Shepard. 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congressman Paul D. Tonko was recognized last week as a 2020 Champion of Science by The Science Coalition (TSC), a prestigious distinction that honors a small group of Congressional leaders each year whose actions and votes consistently reflect a commitment to fundamental science through funding investment for federal research agencies. 

“As an engineer, I have always had a deep respect for science,” said Congressman Tonko, in a statement. “When we embrace science and truth, we begin to realize the vast potential of our great nation to lead the world in advancements in technology that open our eyes even as they boost our economy, create good jobs and better the lives of countless in our Capital Region and beyond.” 

Tonko is one of nine Members of Congress recognized this year; the Science Coalition is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization of more than 50 of the nation’s leading public and private research institutions dedicated to highlighting the partnerships between the federal government and America’s research universities.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, has cosponsored the bipartisan Forest Recovery Act, legislation that will support timber farmers affected by catastrophic loss events. The bill will help forest landowners recover from natural disasters by eliminating the basis limitation rule and allowing them to deduct up to the fair market value of their devastated trees.

“Farmers across many sectors continue to be impacted by extreme weather events, and not all of them are protected by crop insurance,” Stefanik said in a statement. “This bipartisan bill will help timber producers continue their business, which will have a positive impact on many of our North Country communities who include timber production as part of their economic base.”

Last week, Stefanik additionally cosponsored the Counting All Military Votes Act, legislation to make Express Mail Labels available to deployed active duty military serving U.S. embassies, consulates, and/or in diplomatic posts. The measure is to ensure each of their absentee votes will be successfully delivered on time by Express Mail in order to be counted.

When they are by our side, friends give us the confidence to freely follow our own path.

Two years ago, Megan Hale met a friend like this. 

“Her dog is by her side for everything. Hero is awesome! He helps her get around safely. He runs with her. He watches out for her and makes sure she’s okay,” said Tiffany Mitrakos, Director of Camp Abilities Saratoga. 

Finding New Freedoms

Each summer since middle school, Hale has been attending Camp Abilities Saratoga’s week-long program. 

As one of 26 blind and visually impaired campers between the ages of 10 and 16+ in the program, Hale had the opportunity to participate in sports including track, baseball and bicycling, on the grounds of the Skidmore College campus. 

“After camp, I tried out for and got into, the varsity team at school starting in 8th grade. I was able to join and tell them how to adapt things so I could do them, too,” said Hale. 

This summer, Hale was a counselor-in-training at Camp Abilities and is currently a Freshman at Hudson Valley Community College pursuing a physical education degree.

“I have realized, over the years and going to camp especially, that not many students with a disability – any disability – are being included in sports. There are not many teachers out there who know how,” she said. 

A Special Sidekick

Hale’s sense of sight has been substantially affected by Leber congenital amaurosis, a condition that she describes as, “similar to going to see a 3-D movie without 3-D glasses on, and with no peripheral vision”. 

She had primarily been using a cane to get around until high school, when she was old enough to be matched with a guide dog. 

“I was nervous. Growing up, we didn’t have a dog and we’d never had dogs in the house before. This is my first time being around a dog, but I knew the benefits, and that pushed me forward,” said Hale.

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Guiding Eyes for the Blind trained Hale how to work with and care for her guide dog, a yellow Labrador named Hero. 

“He’s like a car and they teach us how to drive the car. I call him my “Lab-orghini,” she said.

Hero has given Hale an inspiring new independence.

“She is the only camper that has ever come to Saratoga with a guide dog. It was really cool for the other campers to see that might be an option in the future for them, too,” said Mitrakos.

Coaching Companion

Together at Camp Abilities Saratoga, Hale and Hero not only participated in sports, but also experienced leading others.

“He will basically be at my side the whole time. They call us; Coach Megan and Coach Hero. On the very rare occasion that I’d need to guide athletes, he’d guide both of us,” said Hale. 

As heros are apt to do. 

“More people will get excited about physical activity if people like them were a part of leading it. I just think that everyone should have equal access to it and it should be open, with opportunities for everyone to participate.” 

To find out more about Camp Abilities Saratoga, go to CampAbilitiesSaratoga.org. 

I’ve always been interested in history – especially WWII coverage and the brave men and women who fought for freedom. I’m a German-Jew, with vivid memories of sitting with my mother in front of the TV as a child, here in America. I can still hear her voice pleading that we never forget the atrocities of Hitler’s Germany – lest they happen again. 

Many of the stories I write today involve WWII veterans willing to speak with me about that time, what they lived through during those years. I’ve met Holocaust survivors and their families, attended ceremonies and celebrations, listened to stories of good people who hid them during the war that encompassed so many different countries throughout the world. 

Chris Carola worked 34 years for The Associated Press, the last 31 as a reporter with the AP’s Albany bureau. His byline appeared in newspapers and on media websites around the world, including The Washington Post, MSN, ABC News, Fox News, The Independent, USA Today, New York Post, Yahoo Singapore, Yahoo India, to name a few.

When he heard about John J. Wilpers Jr. – Jack to his friends and family – Chris knew he wanted to meet and speak with him. “He was born in Albany in 1919 but grew up in Saratoga Springs. His father loved horses and worked as a bookie. Wilpers enlisted in the Army Air Corps during 1942 and then transferred to a counterintelligence unit,” the man sitting in front of me says. I watch as he looks away for a moment, deep in thought. 

Wilpers was one of five men, part of the U.S. Army Intelligence unit ordered to track down and arrest former Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo after WWII ended.

It was September 11th, 1945, only nine short days after Japan surrendered. In Tokyo, the soldiers stood outside Tojo’s home, ready to take him into custody. Before that could happen, there was a shot – the Japanese warlord who had approved the attack on Pearl Harbor had tried to take his own life by shooting himself in the chest. 

Wilpers kicked in a door and found Tojo collapsed on a small couch, his white shirt soaked in crimson blood, a pistol still clutched in his hand. Wilpers ordered a Japanese doctor – at gunpoint – to help keep the war criminal alive until an American doctor arrived to take over. 

Nicknamed ‘Razor,’ Tojo was a high-ranking army officer, born into a military family. He’d been minister of war from 1940 to 1941, then Prime Minister until 1944. He was ruthless, blamed for the murder of millions of civilians in China, the Far East and the Pacific, as well as thousands of Allied POWs. 

Tojo survived his botched attempt at suicide. In the end, he was convicted on several counts, sentenced to death by hanging inside the Sugamo Prison just a few days before his 64th birthday, December 1948.

“I was fascinated with the story, from the moment I saw a photograph of Wilpers standing over Tojo’s blood-spattered body,” Chris tells me drinking from a bottle of Orange Juice while I nurse a cup of coffee. “Finding out that this young man was from Upstate, Saratoga no less, blew me away.” 

Chris’s quest to talk to the WWII veteran began in the early 1990s. “I called, left messages, wrote letters in an attempt to reach Mr. Wilpers,” Carola shakes his head at me. “He didn’t want to talk, like so many others who made it through the war, coming home to marry, raise families, start a new life. They just wanted it to be over.”

Once returning to the states, Jack married, raised a family of five while living in a Washington D.C. suburb, and had a successful 33-year career with the Central Intelligence Agency. It would be decades later before he was willing to speak about his wartime experiences. 

Most of the veterans I speak with are humble and shy away from talking about their years of service. I can’t even imagine the things they saw and lived through during times of war. Many say that they were doing their duty, what any good soldier would do. It takes some coaxing to accept any credit for their heroism. 

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In 2010 Pentagon officials held a ceremony to award Mr. Wilpers the Bronze Star he’d earned for his part in Tojo’s arrest. Only a few media outlets covered the ceremony and they didn’t get the details Chris would gather later that same year. None mentioned that Jack was a native New Yorker who had grown up in Saratoga, either. 

According to the award’s citation, however: “Had Captain Wilpers not acted with courage and initiative, Hideki Tojo would have succeeded in avoiding trial and possible execution for his acts.” 

The interview excited Chris Carola. “He was speaking to the press now,” he says while taking another sip of OJ. “I wondered if it was because of his age? Maybe the war was far enough behind him? It made me want to try to reach out again, try to get him to speak with me.”

That Summer, Chris was on vacation in Westport, MA with his brother Barry and his kids. They were staying at a waterfront rental house on Horseneck Beach. Plans for their return home changed a bit when news of a storm brewing hit. Chris decided to check out the other end of the beach before they left to head back to New York. 

He was wearing a khaki 2004 Saratoga Race Course giveaway baseball hat – the free ones they give out at the track during the meet. He watched an older guy make his way up the beach from the surf. The man collected his belongings and Chris laughed when he noticed the hat he was holding was the same one!

“Hey, you,” Chris called out. “Nice hat!” How ironic. The surfer told Chris his family had lived in Saratoga at one time, that they’d owned a couple of different businesses back in the day. Curious, Chris asked what the family name was. Believe it or not, the man replied ‘Wilpers.’

“Tell your old man I’m still pissed off at him for not talking to me about Tojo,” Chris half-kiddingly said.

Once the man introduced himself as John Wilpers, Chris realized they’d actually spoken on the phone in the early ‘90s. John had been the one to explain to the young reporter that his father was never willing to talk about the war – not even with family. 

They shook hands goodbye. John promised to tell his father about the random meeting on the beach, that Chris was going to call in a few days, that his dad needed to talk about the war with this man who’d been trying to get in touch for so many years.

Chris did get to speak with Wilpers after all. They talked on the phone two different times, on consecutive days, for about 90 minutes, but it was enough. I imagine the conversation was warm and open. I’d like to believe that both men spoke about heavy things – the capture and arrest of Tojo, the end of the war, heroism, for sure. Perhaps they also shared stories of family and loved ones, personal aspirations, and dreams of peace. 

“It was a job we were told to do and we did it,” he told Chris. “I just happened to be the one who busted open the door.” The words of a true, humble American hero.

Since April 2017, Chris has been giving one-hour presentations on Jack Wilpers – using family photos, Jack’s own wartime letters and WWII newspaper clippings to tell how a Saratogian helped capture one of WWII’s most hated figures. 

Among the places he has given the talk: The New York State Military Museum here in Saratoga, The Irish American Museum in Albany, Saratoga Central Catholic School, (formerly St. Peter’s, Jack’s alma mater,) and Fort Ticonderoga. He’s scheduled to give his talk at 7 p.m. Thursday,  April 23rd, at the Saratoga Springs History Museum in Canfield Museum in Congress Park.