By Nikki Kupferman

SCHOHARIE–Over the Columbus Day weekend,a group of volunteers from Galway traveled to Schoharie to help deal with the aftermath of the recent flooding. The group of people spent a good portion of their Saturday helping out (working from 8-2). The job that was done was installing fiberglass insulation in a local business called Harva. The teachers and older volunteers gave demonstrations to the younger and more inexperienced workers. But even with a lack of experience the amount of volunteers cut the work time down to three hours. Harva is an important business for Schoharie. It employs about 30 people/families for that area. This business is known for making plastic parts for several companies and even has military contacts.

Why was this opportunity offered to the students for Galway in particular? Mr. Marc and Mr. Brooks both saw this as a wonderful opportunity to give students a way to give back to good people that needed help. Mr. Brooks also requires his 12^th grade government students to do a form of community service for his class and this opened doors for some students that needed to find somewhere to volunteer. Mr. Marc was also interesting in bringing his building students to the work site.

This opportunity to give back to a community in need was carefully organized by several people and organizations.  The Schoharie teachers put the program together but they needed a lot of help to achieve their goals. They provided $10,000 from their own funds which was then matched by the UFT (NYC teachers). Donations and volunteers flowed in from other places that include Galway. Mr. Marcantonio and Mr. Brooks took a poll to see which students would be interested and then asked the GTA for donations to help pay for the fuel to get them to Schoharie and back. In total, nearly $30,000 worth of insulation was purchased from Home Depot (they also had representatives there to give basic instruction to anyone that asked). Other than local recovery groups and teacher association there aren’t any major organizations taking part in fixing the devastation. Volunteers are always welcome and if you are interested you can find more information at www.schoharierecovery.org/index.cfm.

To get most of this information I interviewed both Mr. Marc and Mr. Brooks and asked them a couple of other questions such as:

• Do you believe that this day truly made an impact?

Mr. Marc- “Definitely.  Not only for the people we helped (business owners and their 30 employees) but for the students involved.  It is a great feeling to know that we help someone in need.

Mr. Brooks-“ Absolutely. In fact, the owner couldn’t thank us enough. They have been dealing with the flood’s effects for the last 6 weeks. This project gave them a boost and got them that much closer to where they were 6 weeks ago. The homeowners are that much closer to getting in their homes and the businesses are that much closer to opening.”

• Is there anything that you observed about the people or town that really stuck out to you?

Mr.Marc-“ I don’t think some people are coming back.  The amount of destruction and the amount of work that is needed to repair their buildings and operations might be too much for people to handle.  Some homes have homemade for sale signs in front of the house.”

Mr. Brooks-“ I’ve been down a few times for various projects and the one thing I’ve noticed is that these people have a real sense of community. Nearly everyone suffered losses so they are all in this together and they are all pulling together. Day after day there have been hundreds and even on some days over a thousand volunteers from all over the area down there working. “

• And finally, Is there anything you want to add?

Mr. Marc-“Picture just the Village of Galway.  Now imagine all of the establishments (The Market, Agway, the bank, Chuck’s, the post office, the churches, funeral home) and homes cannot be used without extensive repair.  People cannot live in the homes.  People cannot get what they need in their town.  They have to travel to get anything.  The town basically looks like a ‘Ghost Town’ until the volunteers and workers show up to begin repairs.  Without help, it won’t get done.”

Mr. Brooks-“The program was called STAY which stand for Schoharie Teachers and You. The big concern is that people will move away either for money reasons or out of fear and frustration. It was feared that the community could fall apart. The teachers down there wanted to try to give homeowners and businesses a little incentive to stay, hence the acronym. On any given weekend there have been several teachers working with the community members because they feel they are part of the solution to this problem. They also feel very deeply concerned for the well being of their students and their student’s families.”

The effort made by the Galway volunteers truly made a difference and it was a great thing to do. So a special thanks to all of those students (Cody Alvord, Mike Armitage, Evan Hohlenkamp, Carmen Gomez, Kevin Barnes, Andrew Wright, Stacy Arnold, Bridget McFadden, Kenzie Barr, Katie Zawiza, Brandan Ashmutat, Emily Martin, Shannon Cerny, and Will Seibert), Adults (Bill Seibert, Mr. Snow, Mr. Brooks, Mrs. Weaver,  and Mr. Marc), and faculty and staff that donated money (Mrs. Kondrat, Mrs. Burdick, Mrs. Muth, Mr. Swain and Poppin Kernels, Mrs. Hartz, Ms. Morck, Mr. Barrow, Mrs. Wilday, Mrs. Peconie, Mrs. Peters, Ms. Mierzwa, Mr. Powers, Mrs. Ostrander, and Mrs. Trask). And I would personally like to thank both Mr. Marc and Mr. Brooks for taking the time to answer my question. I hope that Galway continues to be involved with volunteer work and trying to make a difference.