Mountaindale Hosts Chamber of Commerce

Terri Ward & Cathy Paty

The Sullivan County Chamber of Commerce has been serving the Sullivan County business community for more than 35 years. Their Mission Statement includes: "... bringing together the business and professional interests of the county, permitting them to accomplish collectively what none could do individually. The focus and objective of the Chamber shall be the growth and retention of its member businesses and other enterprises in Sullivan County."  Their challenge is that the businesses are spread out over the 970 square miles of our sprawling county. They tried to reach everyone from offices that were based in Monticello and Liberty at different times over the years. Chamber President Terri Ward and Vice President Cathy Paty were concerned that too many members weren't availing themselves of all the numerous Member Benefits and only viewing the Chamber as an organization to wite a check to once a year.

The Chamber Staff and Board of Directors were deeply concerned about how to remain relevant in these changing economic, technological, and environmental times. They made a bold, creative move on September 1st, by eliminating their physical office and creating the world’s first completely mobile chamber of commerce. They purchased a 37' Coachman RV which is now the Chamber's sole office, moving throughout the county servicing each township for a minimum of two-weeks at a time while appearing at many county events and festivities. They post their weekly location and hourly schedule on the homepage of the Chamber website to ensure that community businesses know where they are. A video blog of the journey is on the Chamber’s Facebook page.

Mobile Chamber on the Run

Next week, Main Street Mountaindale will proudly be hosting the Chamber. Diversified Realty Services will be supporting our guests by donating electricity, parking and whatever else might be needed. Although the Chamber Staff seems pretty self sufficient. They are extremely "green" and have begun the process of going paperless and communicate with their member base electronically or face-to-face in The Chamber on the Run TM. The RV currently runs on diesel fuel but plans to eventually run their electricity off mounted solar panels and a small wind turbine as a backup. The office utilizes laptops and cell phones, allowing the Chamber Staff to move from town to town and business to business at ease.

The RV will be parked in position on Main Street to take advantage of the strong Verizon WiFi signal we have. So far, the Chamber has been experiencing the significant savings in expenses that were projected under this Mobile Chamber initiative. This savings will enable the Chamber to continue to provide valuable services to their members while keeping its membership, sponsorship, and attendance fees low. If you are already a Member, please stop in to visit next week to find out more about what the Chamber can do for you and how you might better utilize your membership. If you are not yet a member, Terri and Cathy will be glad to let you know more about what they do in our community and how they try to attact more positive growth with tools like the Relocation Guide and their Shop Local Campaign.

Pops Concert Jazz Band

The reponse to everyone's stellar performance at the Pops Concert this past Tuesday has been wonderful. I will be posting some concert highlights. However, for now, I wanted to get one particular piece posted since the very talented sax soloist in this Jazz number has family in from out of town this weekend. CONGRATULATIONS, Josh!  By the way, the "Big Kid" sitting in with the trombones is Fallsburg Junior-Senior High School Principal, Mr Michael Williams.  Way to go, Mr Williams! This famous jazz tune is called "Basic Basie" Please enjoy it.

I didn't realize how many talented Mountaindale musicians were going to be participating in the various performances that evening. In addition to the Schmitt Family Trio on trumpets and Josh H on sax, we also enjoyed Danny J in another trumpet piece and Deanna P showed her lovely voice in a Chamber Chorus solo.

Let's Get Literary

New Yorker magazine

Short Story Discussion at E.B. Crawford Public Library
Someone, a short story by Alice McDermott, will be discussed at the next meeting of the great books discussion program at the E.B. Crawford Public Library on Broadway in Monticello. Copies of the story are available at the library or in the January 30, 2012 issue of The New Yorker magazine.
This program will take place on Tuesday, February 28, 7:30PM. New members are welcome.

Any one who knows me, knows what a big fan I am of our fabulous Ramapo Catskill Library System and the dedicated staff at all of our local member libraries like Fallsburg & the newly renovated EB Crawford in Monticello, as well as our friends at Mamakating in Wurtsboro. The local collections are amazing and the bar code on your library card gives you access to the holdings of all 50 member libraries. I can't honestly say I love the brand new Enterprise Catalog portal, but I am impressed with the effort to keep up with technology and offer great eBook titles over the web.

If you devour good books the way I do, you owe it to yourself to visit your friendly local library and bring along a young person if you can so they develop a good reading habit as well.

Trumpet Trio Plays Buglers Holiday



Schmitt Family Trumpeters with Band Director John Lusk

 Joseph LaRuffa was the Band Director at the Fallsburg High School for many years. One of his students in the 1960's was a quiet young fellow named, Ken Schmitt, who played Trumpet. When Mr LaRuffa took his high school band group to NYSSMA Festival (NYS School Music Association) for Adjudication in 1968, with Ken playing 1st Trumpet in a complex piece called "Bugler's Holiday", the band received a score of "A" with Gary Lederman and Tim Hanofee, rounding out the trio.

Time marched on as it does, and the new Music Director at Fallsburg High School is a dedicated teacher, named John Lusk, who has been a teacher here of our young musicians for nearly 25 years now. Two of his students in his band this year who play trumpet are brother & sister, Aaron and Rachel Schmitt, the children of Ken. Mr Lusk knew of the Schmitt family trumpet tradition and had a very exciting idea he wanted to try out before Aaron graduates this June. Mr Lusk invited the three Schmitt musicians to perform the trumpet trio portion of "Bugler's Holiday" at the upcoming Pops Concert this Tuesday evening. The Pops Concert is traditionally a very enjoyable concert with performances of popular music by the High School Band and Ms Colleen Barber's Chamber Chorus. The Schmitt Family Trumpet Trio has been practicing regularly together and is looking forward to joining the full band for this unique perfomance in the high school auditorium on Tuesday night.

Busy Upcoming Mountaindale Weekend

This weekend in Mountaindale is going to be exceptionally busy with a wide variety of things to do from Friday straight through to Sunday and beyond.  The Valentine's Day weekend romantic activities in Mountaindale begin on Friday night with a very special 4 Course Feast of Love Menu, created especially by Chef Robert of Uccelli Restaurant.  These special delectable dishes will only be prepared on Friday,

Romantic Tango - Harold & Betty Fried

Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday nights, and will include Chicken & Shrimp Alfredo, Paella Catalana, Chicken Gruyere, Shrimp Saag and Steak Pizzaiolla. Live entertainment will be provided during dinner by songstress, Marilyn Kennedy.  Reservations are encouraged by calling 845-434-4447.

Romance will be in the air as you stroll down the block to 62 Main Street in Mountaindale on Friday night for a  Valentine Lesson in American Tango and other romantic dances with the return of the wonderful dance instructors, Betty & Harold Fried. They will give the first lesson at 7PM, have Open Dancing from 7:45 to 10PM, and include an additional lesson sometime during the evening. Their class in Mountaindale last month was very enjoyable. They brought great music, but I honestly thought that the best part was seeing all the wonderful dancers, who just love a great party that allows them to dance in a nice room.  I observed some who were quite experienced, some not as much; some who brought a partner, and some who enjoyed the experience of dancing with a brand new partner. This dance workshop is hosted by Janet Gula of Radiant Yoga of Mountaindale. The event fee is $12/person or $20/couple and includes tea and a dessert tasting in the Sweets for the Sweet Valentine's Dessert Competition. You may RSVP by calling Janet at 845-866-7822.

Double Primary by Michael McKee

Should you happen to miss a visit to Uccelli Restaurant on Friday, you are also welcome on Saturday. From 2 until 4PM, there will be a wine & cheese reception for local artist, Michael McKee of Moydan Art. The display that he is exhibiting in the Uccelli dining room is based on "Intuition, Mathematically Composed." Michael's style is unique and this particular show of his work includes his realism, abstracts and color balanced geometric designs. After the reception, the Feast of Love menu will be available for dinner.

Another very special event will be taking place on Sunday at Upstate Karate of Mountaindale. After the usual schedule of classes, there will be the monthly Testing for eligible students - Adults & Red Belt Evaluations will take place at 12:15PM, and Children's Testing will begin at 1:30PM. However, what makes this day unique is the special event that begins at 3:30PM. Master Instructor Alexandra Lalieu will be hosting a Dan Promotion Ceremony for a hardworking, dedicated student who is only 8 years old, but has achieved her Midnight Blue Belt, which will be presented to her that day. This traditional ceremony will be conducted in the Korean Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan style. Her family, friends and fellow students will be there to wish her well as she continues her martial arts studies.