2009 has been an encouraging year at the Pine Hill Community Center. Despite a climate of economic struggle, a wily stock market and climbing unemployment rates, the Center has continued to grow and to thrive. This is not because funding has been easier to secure; it hasn’t. It is because of the on-going commitment that the community is showing to itself. In other words, it is because people like you have been showing up, running events, and enjoying what we are offering. Here are a few outstanding examples of this:

– Florence and Bernie Hamling outright donating the building and grounds of 287 – 289 Main Street to the Center.
– David and Eve Smith, along with volunteers from their church community, hosting a free community meal and food distribution program twice weekly.
– Becka Lydick offering three mornings and afternoons each week of before and after school childcare.
– The talented and gallant Catskill Community Radio crew putting together our fabulous Cabaradio show, which celebrates the people and the personalities of our region, four times per year. They also help maintain a 24/7 broadcast schedule of internet radio programming at www.catskillradio.org.
– Glenn Baker and the rest of the Big Indian Native American Cultural Center hosting monthly Native American Gatherings that are open and welcoming to all.
– Our dedicated Board of Directors who show up to meetings with an attitude of mutual respect and their own personal commitments to furthering the Center’s mission and serving the needs of this community.
– Inspiring people like Polly Vos who shows up every Saturday morning with a delicious home baked dish to put on the pot of coffee and welcome anyone in who wishes to enjoy it.
– All the fine ladies of the Pine Hill Social Circle who meet and chat and eat and laugh their asses off every Wednesday afternoon.
– Jaime DeForest throwing her beautiful clay bowls and organizing an Annual Chili Festival in November.
– The countless local writers, musicians, historians and personalities who have shared their time and talents on our stage or given presentations here.
– All the people who have been showing up to help plan for the future of our little Main Street.
– Sara Ampel and now Lee Potter-Passus from the Mental Health Association (MHA) of Ulster County showing up on Wednesday afternoons to provide assistance and referral services to those who may need them.
– All the people and organizations who have responded to our fund drives, grant requests, membership drives, and who have given a little of their time, talent and money in support of our programs.

The list goes on. As Director of the Center I can take little credit for this. I can facilitate, write the bills and grants and so forth, but it is you who must own this place; it is you who make it work, and you are the reason we are here.

I have some visions for the future as well. Early in January I will be meeting with the Commissioner of Social Services in an effort to bring a representative from the Department here to Pine Hill once per month so people no longer need to get to Kingston to have their questions answered, to fill out certain forms and to access certain services such as Medicaid. I would also like to be able to offer access to professional counseling here at the Center, as well as to Public Health Nurses and other medical services. We have a Spanish speaking representative from MHA coming here in early January in an effort to begin feeling out and serving the needs of the growing Latino population in our area.

The Center is also kicking off a capital campaign to help raise funds to make our building more energy efficient. Late this fall we completed a few repairs to our roof, thanks in part to a grant from the Ulster Savings Foundation, and plan to begin insulating underneath it soon. We could use your help with this; it is an investment with a payoff. NYSERDA has estimated that if we do some $20,000 worth of work on the building now it could be made back in as little as six years through savings on our energy bills. Think of all that money freed up to expand our programming and to better serve this community! Think also of the resources that will be saved, such as heating oil and electricity usage. You can go to the “donate” page of this website if you’d like to make a secure on-line donation to help us with this. Please put “building fund” into your message if you’d like the money to be set aside for energy efficiency projects.

The most important point of this message is to say thank you. Thank you for your support of the Pine Hill Community Center, but even more for your care and commitment to this community, this area, these Catskills. Let’s continue to express our love for this place in positive ways, in ways that bring us together rather than divide us, in ways that uplift us rather than diminish us, in ways that are informed and visionary rather than apathetic and clinging to the status-quo, in ways that are protective of those things that we value yet progressive about creating a viable and enjoyable future. We are a community filled with so many talented, intelligent, strong-willed and energetic people; we are neighbors with decent values and a deep love for this place, a place whose winds blow clean, whose waters flow clear, where wildlife can roam unencumbered on the mountainsides, where we often encounter beauty that cuts so deep it is almost painful. These are things which most people on this planet rarely if ever come in contact with – we are overflowing with them. Let’s not put it to waste. Together we march into 2010; may the new year bring blessings to us all, and may we all make the most of our time with the resources we have available to us, which are many! Happy and healthy holidays to you all.