‘CLICK’S’ MESSAGE CELEBRATED

Jim Kevlin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA

Author Julia Dostal and artist Mark Drnek sign copies of “Click Saves The Day” Saturday, March 12, at the Green Toad Book Store.  The book is part of the anti-gambling curriculum developed for LEAF Inc., the local anti-drinking and anti-dependency agency.    Dozens of kids showed up for the accompanying puppet show created by Carol Mandigo, a LEAF educator formerly associated with the Catskill Puppet Theater.

Oneonta’s Ryan Winchester Gains Eagle Rank In Milford BSA Troop

Ryan Winchester, Oneonta, who attends Milford Central School and is active in Troop 31 there, has just received the Boy Scouts of America’s highest rank, Eagle.
Ryan has been in scouting since becoming a Tiger in first grade; he is now in ninth.
His Eagle service project was renovating the pavilion at Milford’s Wilber Park, painting, installing new railings and fencing (protecting pavilion users from stray fly balls), and building a handicapped accessible ramp.
The project required 300 hours of work between March and November 2010, and $1,800 in supplies, purchased through donations and bottle drives.  His fellow scouts assisted him.

Ryan Winchester at the renovated Milford pavilion.

Akiva Garfield, 10, Sets Another NY Swim Record

He’s only 10, but Akiva Garfield has broken another state swimming record, completing the 50-yard breaststroke event in 36.91 seconds Sunday, March 20, at the YMCA State Swimming Finals in Nassau Aquatic Center on Long Island.
Akiva, a Center Street School fifth grader who swims for the Oneonta Family Y Orcas, broke his first state record at age 8.
He is the son of Dr. Robert Garfield and Anne Green.

ONEONTA, BILLBOARD ENJOYED

Ian Austin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA

Eric Mazarak helps MSO Downtown Coordinator David Hayes lash an “Oneonta, Life Enjoyed” banner to the billboard on the north end of the South Main Street viaduct, welcoming visitors to town.  Mazarak’s father, John, the retired SUNY Oneonta professor and photographer, provided the image of the black-eyed Susan used in the city’s new logo.

Parisian Family Transformed Tragedy Into Accomplishment

Trooper Ricky Parisian

 Since death is part of life, all of us face – or will face – tragedy in various guises, and respond in varied ways.
When it arrives, let’s keep in mind the exceptional Parisian family that responded in such an exceptional way to the unfair and unexpected death of a loved one, State Trooper Ricky “Pit” Parisian, who was killed on May 20, 1994, trying to stop an armed robbery at a Southside supermarket.
Fate was cruel to the Parisians.  But the family was unwilling to accept their loved one’s death as the end of the story.
That very October, the family organized the first “Pit Run,” a 10K race – a 5K and a walkathon have since been added, plus a picnic, music and games – in remembrance.
“The day is designed to celebrate Rick’s life by bringing the community together for a fun, healthy afternoon of outdoor activities,” according to pitrun.org, the event’s Web site.

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Proceeds – more than a quarter-million has been distributed in the past 17 years – help underwrite college scholarships for young people who are courteous, honest, caring, responsible – all the qualities of the namesake.
The money has been used to send young people on Rotary Exchange Programs to Costa Rica, Italy and Slovakia, to study Irish history in Dublin, to participate in an opera in France.
The scholarships helped send Marcel Sanchez to MIT, Thomas Vogler to Bucknell, Caroline Kang to the Eastman School of Music, Kristin France to Williams.
Alec Macaulay graduated magna cum laude from Cornell, Genevieve Bernier from Geneseo (she went on to a Ph.D. at Virginia Commonwealth), Jonathan Hojn from SUNY Albany.

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Ricky Parisian’s legacy could have been bitterness, but it’s been quite the opposite due to true devotion of a family that was stricken but not struck down by tragedy.
Last Saturday evening, March 19, the St. Mary’s School community honored the Parisian family, from Al, the father of the family, to his children and children-in-law, including Ricky’s widow Deb, to his grandchildren, with the St. Mary’s School 2011 Distinguished Education Partner Award.
It was a delightful evening at The Gables, as you can imagine.  (We can’t write about it with mentioning chef Bob Eklund’s beef tenderloin, rolled in pepper and garlic.  Exceptional!)
State Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, presented the family with a resolution passed a few days before on the Senate floor in Albany, and Mayor Miller declared March 19 “Parisian Family Day in Oneonta.”
St. Mary’s Principal Patricia Bliss presented Al Parisian – he and his wife, Margaret, ran a weekly Bingo game for years, to benefit the school – with a clock.  “Time is the most precious thing anyone can give,” she said.
Some may think community life is humdrum; quite the opposite.  The Parisian family’s story has it all.  Tragedy, grief, then renewal and accomplishment, accomplishment that through the scholarship winners will be carried forward into innumerable generations in ways we can’t know.
Friends, tragedy has stricken all of us and will come again.  It’s the human condition.  But let’s reflect on Parisians’ story, gain inspiration from it, and declare to a family who we can all be proud of:  Well done.

Jim Kevlin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA
The Parisian family was honored with the St. Mary’s School 2011 Distinguished Education Partner Award with a dinner at The Gables.  Standing, from left, are Lisa Parisian,  Jennifer McGrath, Edythe Parisian, Scott Georgia, Janice Currie, David Currie, Mark Parisian, Deb Parisian, Steve Parisian.  In front are Al Parisian and, at left, his granddaughter Cheryl Parisian.

PATRICIA BLISS IN APPRECIATION: Al, Margaret Parisian Embraced ‘Call To Serve’

Editor’s Note:  These are excerpts from Principal Patricia Bliss’ remarks Saturday, March 19, on presenting the 2011 St. Mary’s School Distinguished Partners in Education to the Parisian family.

St. Mary’s School has been blessed with many wonderful benefactors over the years. 
The Distinguished Partner in Education Award was developed as a means to publicly show our appreciation to those who have supported our mission, our philosophy and our ideals, with gifts of their time, talent and treasure. 
We all know how valuable time is and we know that to share your time with someone is one of the greatest of gifts that one can give.
Those of us who have St. Mary’s at the core of our lives believe that our success is reflected in our children. We encourage all to be visible witnesses of Christ by instilling a sense of responsibility and service to his or her community and sensitivity to the call for a just society. 
The Parisian family has embraced those same ideals.  The call to serve was modeled by Al and Margaret Parisian, as they helped out at St. Mary’s Church through bake sales, the parish festivals, and as an usher; at St. Mary’s School in the PTO, Bingo, and to help out at lunch time; or the Oneonta community, with Meals on Wheels and Election Day bake sales. 
Those are a few of the ways  Mr. and Mrs. Parisian were an integral part of the Oneonta community.  It is a partnership between family, church, school, and the community.  We support one another through good times and bad.  And this sense of community service is ingrained in the whole Parisian family.  It is part of who they are. 
And when tragedy struck the Parisian family when son Ricky, a state trooper, was killed serving the community he loved, the family turned their grief into faith and increased sense of service to church and community by starting a foundation to support the many needs of the people of the greater Oneonta community. 
And St. Mary’s School is one of the many groups that are supported by this foundation.  Over the years, The Parisian Foundation has provided funding for the art, music and technology programs at St. Mary’s, as well as funding for equipment for our phys-ed classes, our playground and ball field.  
And so this evening, we, the community of St. Mary’s School, along with your family and friends, want to thank you for your gift of time, talent and treasure. 

“To share your time with someone is one of the greatest of gifts that one can give,” said Principal Bliss in presenting an engraved clock to Al Parisian.

Helping Poor Will Challenge Samaritans

By JIM KEVLIN
The War on Poverty dates back to LBJ’s State of the Union speech in 1964, but Opportunities for Otsego is still fighting the fight.
In the past decade, its Wheels To Work program has sold used cars, $750 each, to 200 Otsego County families who, living off the OPT lines, wouldn’t have been able to get to jobs otherwise.
Its Homelessness Intervention Grants provide emergency rent payments to people, many of whom have lost their jobs, who would lose the roofs over their heads without it.
CSBGs – Community Services Block Grants – helped OFO create the homeless shelter on Depew Street, which has been 80 percent occupied for the past year, mostly families with children, 300 individuals in all.
CSBGs also created a shelter for victims of family violence – mothers and children – in a locale unspecified, for obvious reasons, and OFO provides them with legal help and counseling as well.
“There is no other option for the folks who depend on us,” Gary Herzig, OFO’s chief operating officer, said in an interview the other day.  “If we can’t help a homeless family, there is no place else they can go for help.”
Contrary to the stereotype, 70 percent of OFO’s client are working people, but working in fast-food, quick-stops, the tourism trade; many of them simply can’t make ends meet, Herzig said.
The poverty level for a family of four is $24,000, he said:  Think about how far that goes.
Right now, in particular, none of this is academic, since Congress and the General Assembly in Albany are debating how much to cut all these programs, plus HEAP (heating assistance), Head Start (for pre-schoolers) and much more.
How much?  “That’s completely up in the air,” Herzig said.
With the looming threats, he and the CFO, Amy Vogel, have been thinking of ways to raise funds to make up as much as possible for likely shortfalls.
As it happens, OFO is marking its 45th year of service – the sapphire anniversary – so one idea was a celebration, which grew into a gala planned Saturday, May 7, at SUNY Oneonta’s Hunt Union ballroom.
The evening will also honor Ron Ranc and Roxana Hurlburt of ISD, the local technology company that has assisted OFO in a variety of endeavors.
Other plans are also in the offing, Herzig said.
OFO’s fate is not just important to our most vulnerable neighbors, as it is one of the major employers in the county, with more than 200 people working in sites that range from Schenevus to Richfield Springs to Oneonta’s several sites.
OFO’s budget is $9 million, and 90 percent of that is spent locally, Vogel said.  The multiplier effect would suggest that creates more than $20 million in spending power over the years.
The county’s political delegation has been accessible to OFO, Herzig said, but it’s a tough time.
OFO President Dan Maskin met just last week with U.S. Rep. Richard Hanna, R-Barneveld, elected in November.
“He was sympathetic of what we do,” Herzig related, “but...”

HOMETOWN ONEONTA
OFO Chief Operating Officer Gary Herzig and CFO Amy Vogel are combatting budget cuts.