ITTYBITS & PIECES

Collecting small things since 2003
“It just make me angry — angry and sad – that we had to fight for everything: doctors, insurance. And this (disorder) isn’t rare. This was first discovered in the 1800s, but it’s only been in the past few years that it’s become more recognized as a result of MRI testing. What’s sad for me is that you can still go into a doctors’ office, and they don’t know the symptoms.” Deb La Due, founder of an organization that raises awareness of Chiari Malformation, a neurological disorder that is believed to occur in 1 of every 1,000 births, and her daughter, Ella Grace.

“It just make me angry — angry and sad – that we had to fight for everything: doctors, insurance. And this (disorder) isn’t rare. This was first discovered in the 1800s, but it’s only been in the past few years that it’s become more recognized as a result of MRI testing. What’s sad for me is that you can still go into a doctors’ office, and they don’t know the symptoms.”

Deb La Due, founder of an organization that raises awareness of Chiari Malformation, a neurological disorder that is believed to occur in 1 of every 1,000 births, and her daughter, Ella Grace.

“Grandmother didn’t have a sub-zero freezer and she didn’t have a food processor. This is where 19th century tradition and 21st century technology can really work together.” Anna Dawson is a retired home economics teacher and owner of a commercial harvest kitchen, Hometown Foods LLC. Dawson hopes her work to make healthy, convenient frozen meals from local growers’ unused produce will help create a more sustainable food supply and inspire the formation of a network of community-supported kitchens statewide.

“Grandmother didn’t have a sub-zero freezer and she didn’t have a food processor. This is where 19th century tradition and 21st century technology can really work together.”

Anna Dawson is a retired home economics teacher and owner of a commercial harvest kitchen, Hometown Foods LLC. Dawson hopes her work to make healthy, convenient frozen meals from local growers’ unused produce will help create a more sustainable food supply and inspire the formation of a network of community-supported kitchens statewide.

“I don’t take this picture lightly … I wanted my parents to understand that I had prepared for what was coming. I went up to a room – there were guest rooms in the Straight — and showered and cleaned from all the exertion and sweat that I’d been involved in that day in securing the building. I’d thrown away most of the garb and took a bedspread and folded it and cut here and here, laced with sheet, gather here and here and laced with sheet, so dad would know when he came that I’d prepared myself.” Dr. Homer “Skip” Meade, a W.E.B. scholar, a professor at UMass at Amherst, and a demonstrator during the takeover of Willard Straight Hall on the Cornell University campus in 1969

“I don’t take this picture lightly … I wanted my parents to understand that I had prepared for what was coming. I went up to a room – there were guest rooms in the Straight — and showered and cleaned from all the exertion and sweat that I’d been involved in that day in securing the building. I’d thrown away most of the garb and took a bedspread and folded it and cut here and here, laced with sheet, gather here and here and laced with sheet, so dad would know when he came that I’d prepared myself.”

Dr. Homer “Skip” Meade, a W.E.B. scholar, a professor at UMass at Amherst, and a demonstrator during the takeover of Willard Straight Hall on the Cornell University campus in 1969

“I see a lot of people who come here who are at a crossroads. They are in crisis and they need to make an inner shift. And what they need is to connect with the spiritual part of themselves. In nature they can feel their oneness, the beauty and the perfection of nature. By being in that energy field it opens them to the work we do together. It expands their experience of the world.” Satyana Ananda, director of Starseed Sanctuary in Savoy, Mass.

“I see a lot of people who come here who are at a crossroads. They are in crisis and they need to make an inner shift. And what they need is to connect with the spiritual part of themselves. In nature they can feel their oneness, the beauty and the perfection of nature. By being in that energy field it opens them to the work we do together. It expands their experience of the world.”

Satyana Ananda, director of Starseed Sanctuary in Savoy, Mass.

“Every little girl in Lesotho has to make one of these dancing skirts. It starts with bottle caps. And then they collect feed sacks and little shreds of material to put overtop. “… You know how when your parents go to the store or on a shopping trip and they bring something back for you?  When a parent actually makes a trip to go 50 miles to a camptown for supplies … the little girls are hoping their parents will come home with a feed sack. That is a good gift. And the little boys are hoping they will collect wire so they can make a galimoto. “These are the only toys they have. That’s it — what they make themselves. “And yet, they are some of the happiest children I’ve ever met.” Lynn Minderman, former Peace Corps volunteer, who continues to work with a community in Lesotho, Southern Africa, through her organization, Qholaqhoe Mountain Connections

“Every little girl in Lesotho has to make one of these dancing skirts. It starts with bottle caps. And then they collect feed sacks and little shreds of material to put overtop.

“… You know how when your parents go to the store or on a shopping trip and they bring something back for you?  When a parent actually makes a trip to go 50 miles to a camptown for supplies … the little girls are hoping their parents will come home with a feed sack. That is a good gift. And the little boys are hoping they will collect wire so they can make a galimoto.

“These are the only toys they have. That’s it — what they make themselves.

“And yet, they are some of the happiest children I’ve ever met.”

Lynn Minderman, former Peace Corps volunteer, who continues to work with a community in Lesotho, Southern Africa, through her organization, Qholaqhoe Mountain Connections

“Did you know all the colors of Play-Doh … if you mix them together … make gingerbread? It’s true. You can’t eat it, though.” - A helpful hint from Mrs. Claus

“Did you know all the colors of Play-Doh … if you mix them together … make gingerbread? It’s true. You can’t eat it, though.”

- A helpful hint from Mrs. Claus

“A lot of our volunteers are shoppers, too. That’s one of the things that got me volunteering here and that didn’t stop once I volunteered.” Jessica Willis (with Zola) is manager of the Habitat for Humanity-operated ReStore in Hudson, NY.

“A lot of our volunteers are shoppers, too. That’s one of the things that got me volunteering here and that didn’t stop once I volunteered.”

Jessica Willis (with Zola) is manager of the Habitat for Humanity-operated ReStore in Hudson, NY.

“Community has changed so much. We ‘ve become so separate. All about me, me, me. But for me this is what we need to do as a community. We need to support local farms, and it’s so important because down the road, if you let that farmer go out of business, where will you get your food?” Richard Sahr, one of the founding members of the Nassau Community Food Compact, a small cooperative dedicated to supporting local food.

“Community has changed so much. We ‘ve become so separate. All about me, me, me. But for me this is what we need to do as a community. We need to support local farms, and it’s so important because down the road, if you let that farmer go out of business, where will you get your food?”

Richard Sahr, one of the founding members of the Nassau Community Food Compact, a small cooperative dedicated to supporting local food.

“I think this is the most time I’ve ever spent in a library. … I suppose I resented it a little. My mother was always there. It got to be that every time I needed something – tape, scissors, glue, even my mother – I had to go over and find them. Everything in my life was always at the library.” Priscilla Sherman, remembering her mother, Carolyn Sherman, a former librarian at Nassau Free Library for 40 years.  

“I think this is the most time I’ve ever spent in a library. … I suppose I resented it a little. My mother was always there. It got to be that every time I needed something – tape, scissors, glue, even my mother – I had to go over and find them. Everything in my life was always at the library.”

Priscilla Sherman, remembering her mother, Carolyn Sherman, a former librarian at Nassau Free Library for 40 years.  

“Whenever someone calls me a workaholic I actually get offended. Workaholics are people who are so bored with life that all they want to do is work. That’s not me. I work the way do for a purpose.” Gail At Large

“Whenever someone calls me a workaholic I actually get offended. Workaholics are people who are so bored with life that all they want to do is work. That’s not me. I work the way do for a purpose.”

Gail At Large