The shop is beautiful and calming with fully half of it dedicated to kids. A growing events calendar is available. We’re especially excited about an upcoming reception for Fireflies Steve Walker and Steve Caputo who have already found a temporary home for their art on her walls.
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Photo of Superstorm Sandy aftermath by Katheryn Laible
September is National Preparedness Month., and annual national campaign ”to remind everyone that preparing for emergencies and disasters can keep them, their families and their communities safe.” Thousands of people are harmed by natural disasters each year. The early Fall is known for hurricanes. These and other major storms often come with some warning. Other events like house fires will never be expected. The best we can do, both for our family and in service to those who risk their lives to rescue others, is be prepared.
Be Ready LI is a collaboration from PSEG, 2-1-1 Long Island and United Way of Long Island. The website contains information on what to pack and other ways to prepare including: an emergency supply kit checklist, evacuation routes and family disaster plan advice and more information on how to handle valuable items, assets and pets. There are links to a broad variety of educational and other resources aimed at residents, businesses and others, covering a broad range of potential disasters and ranging from all levels of government, to power and transportation systems, to emergency service providers, as well as resources to track weather events and power outages. There are also special sections dedicated to children, seniors and individuals with special needs.
There’s a much simpler recent press release from PSEG LI, that something of a quick sheet on how to be prepared. Among resources is a “Critical Care Program” specifically designed to serve individuals with special needs who may literally count on electricity to keep them alive.
If you want to advance to the next level of being able to protect your family and neighbors, you might consider joining the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) in Nassau or Suffolk County. These are federally funded, community based volunteer programs providing special training that prepares citizens to assist emergency responders in the event of disaster, or in providing public education to make our communities more resilient.
At the very least, when you know something’s going to happen, please listen to the advisories, and stay home when recommended. It’s not a matter of personal bravery, but saving emergency management folks from having to put themselves at risk unnecessarily.
The better prepared we are, the better off we’ll be.
Like a mantra, we read and republish this piece each 9/11. It’s been years since it was first written. Though the children are older, adults now who have no memory of this day, the sentiment remains the same…
Photo Credit: Colin Hopkins, who was three weeks on the job as an iron worker when the towers fell, and then got to witness the new spire rise to the sky…
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Heroes Among Us. You may recall that we hosted a show of previously unshared works by Photojournalist Peter Foley. Soon after it opened, Firefly Steve Walker came in and saw his neighbor.
Claudia Fortunato-Napolitano is a walking, talking inspiration. Our local historical societies are amazing.
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Photo of Wendy Curtis in the new home of the Huntington Art Center by Katheryn Laible
The Huntington Art Center recently celebrated a ribbon cutting for their beautiful new space on Wall Street in Huntington. Now, it is easy to find their quality framing, printing and design services, as well as a curated collection of local and national fine art.
At a time when I felt like I knew every corner of The Village, discovering the Huntington Art Center was delightful. I was just starting out as a fine art photographer, and looking at frames and art in ways I never had before. They say when the student is ready the teacher appears, right? I guess that’s why, after a lifetime of wandering the streets of Huntington, it was then I found the then-tucked away shop that had served the Village of Huntington since 1957.
Wendy was thoughtful and enlightening. I had so many questions! I’m not sure when I found out she was a regular reader of the newsletter – or if maybe that same day I discovered her was the first time she found me, too. I also had no idea that she was a major creative spirit behind Huntington’s Art Walks.
What I did know, instantly, was that this place was grounded in love of art and craftsmanship. It was a beautiful shop, for the frames alone, but it was also …. An art gallery…. Almost like a secret gallery…
Just knowing it existed made me smile.
Now! Now, I am grinning ear to ear because now this frame shop is where it should be: Right on Wall Street in Huntington where anyone can see it. Inside is a gorgeous selection of frames as well as local and national art; a beautiful gallery that can frame whatever you need.
It’s got the work of dear Firefly Constance Sloggatt-Wolf in there, for one – Big pieces that she can’t usually fit at the Firefly!
I love it so much…
Go see!!!
It’s beautiful…
These images from September 11th and immediate aftermath, collectively titled “Our Heroes,” are on view at The Firefly Artists at 90 Main Street in Northport through 9/14. This is just a small piece of an incredibly moving collection captured by photojournalist Peter Foley…
We of The Firefly Artists are honored to host this special window exhibition entitled, “Our Heroes.”
This show of works by photojournalist Peter Foley honors the NYC Firefighters who ran in to do what they could in the aftermath of 9/11.
It’s kind of nice the way we were able to tuck it in at our westernmost window. A few pieces face inward, a few out. It provides good space for quiet reflection.
May these pieces remind us that, no matter how bad things get, there are those among us who will run in to give all they have to make them better.
May we ever honor and care for the heroes. May we ever arc toward our most noble ideals. May we live to be worthy of such sacrifice…
Images are available for purchase. You may find Synchronicity’s own tribute to that day here.
We Will Never Forget… Photo of the WTC memorial lights by Colin Hopkins, Local 580 Iron Workers. Colin was on week three of work when the towers fell, a day when these folks and many others who never expected to be such, came to serve as first responders and who continued working at the site for weeks after the attack. Later, Colin was also among those present at work who got to witness the Freedom Spire rise…
We Will Never Forget…
It’s been years since this was first written. The children are older…there are adults now who have no memory of this day, while those of us who lived through it will never forget. The sentiment remains the same…
Over the last two and half decades, we have learned a new rhythm….The end of summer comes, there is a flurry of activity about getting kids prepared for and off to school, and then, the moment all settles down the weight of solemn remembrance overshadows everything but the realization of how lucky we are to have that terrible event cast such a pall over our beings only once a year. Our hearts go out to so many others who lost so much…who experienced so much…who have since endured so much…
We remember the first puzzled and then stunned and horrified voices of the professionals whose job it is to tell us the bad news every day. We recall the images that replayed, the bells that rang, the world that all but stopped.
We remember the selfless bravery of firemen who went in where anyone in their “right mind” would be running out.
We remember the horrific loss of 2,977 innocent lives, including 343 of those firemen, 60 police officers and 8 EMTS. We remember the probability that anyone we encountered may have just lost someone dear. We remember how some of those who perished did so heroically apprehending hijackers and crashing their own plane.
Our hearts twist in the simultaneous gratitude for the miracle of how, despite intense confusion, so many lived to tell their tale or simply were not there.
We remember the people walking over the Brooklyn Bridge…covered in dust…the people being rescued from the end of Manhattan Island…the people desperately seeking people who would never be found.
We remember the school children who did not know. We remember the teachers who did, but could not tell them. We remember the beautiful day slowly overcast by those beautiful, yet terrible clouds. We remeber the taste. We remember the smell.
We remember the iron workers, the dock builders and the other hard working Long Islanders who heard of the disaster and raced to the scene to see if they could be of service. We remember those who spent weeks upon weeks shoveling through the twisted debris. We remember the price so many have paid for their commitment.
We give thanks to all who give so much to see them cared for. We wonder why they’ve had to fight so hard.
We remember being implored to go out and live. We remember being told it was patriotic to shop. We remember wishing there was something more meaningful to do. We remember Paul McCartney and the musicians he gathered to play for the world and those first responders. We remember Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick who were on Broadway as The Producers, and how they epitomized the notion that “the show must go on.”…how meaningful it was to simply carry on.
We remember the brave men and women who have been at war ever since that fateful day. We pray that they and all the others who bear intense burdens and indelible scars will be properly cared for. We pray for a peace that seems so very far away.
We look down at children, and now young adults, who never knew the days before then; who never wondered at those impossibly tall buildings but may have marveled at those even taller beams of light; who never felt that fateful day; who look at us in bewilderment at the ongoing challenges, both at home and abroad…who wish, sometimes loudly, other times in quiet sighs, that the adults of this world would finally grow up.
We remember the noble ideals that we stand for. We remember how innocent we were. We realize on how much has changed since then, including an explosion of communication that somehow seems to have opened chasms between good people of different perspectives, and tidal waves of information that seem to only muddy any sense we once had of the truth. We reflect on how much we still have to learn, and on how much we seem to have forgotten…
We remind ourselves that while the battle may rage on within our hearts and across this world, we must never let terror win. We must never let the blind hatred that enables it to win. We must overcome.
But how?
The words of many sages come to mind; visionaries and scholars of so many cultures and kinds. We keep coming back to the wisest ones; the ones who seem to have mattered the most…
Over and over they whisper from the ages the same small, powerful yet humble, healing, overcoming, uplifting light of a word…
And so…we reflect…on Love.
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All she’s asking for is reasonable compensation for nonprofit employees to do the work that has to be done. The way it is now, a non-profit often doesn’t even get reimbursement for reasonable expenses incurred while providing services! She won’t say it’s not fair – because life isn’t fair — but it’s not right!!!
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