Cross Sound Ferry has announced a Winter Break 2009 promotion in which North Fork families can save up to 70% on an excursion to Mystic, CT from February 14 through 21, including discounted ferry fare and discounts on destination attractions, food, shopping and lodging.

For details, visit www.longislandferry.com.

Travelers can save up to 70% on their ferry trip; get $4 off adult admission and $3 off youth admission prices to Mystic Aquarium and Institute for Exploration; and free adult admission with every paid child admission at Mystic Seaport.  There are also special overnight rates available at Mystic area hotels as part of the package.

Mystic Attractions and Special Winter Break Programs

All destination attractions will offer special programs during the week.

At Mystic Aquarium and Institute for Exploration, visitors will be able to get close to ocean animals and see the new beluga whales and Pacific white-sided dolphins visiting from Shedd Aquarium in Chicago for a limited time only.  Learn what makes a fish a fish, and a mammal a mammal, during Animal Diversity Week.

At Mystic Seaport, kids can hear fish tales in the Children’s Museum and make their own Inuit keepsake, explore exhibits, climb aboard tall ships and gaze at stars in the planetarium.  America’s famous whaling ship – the Charles W. Morgan – is out of the water and undergoing major renovations.  See this once-in-a-lifetime event firsthand!

This year’s Winter Break Getaway includes discounts at participating merchants at Olde Mistick Village where visitors can browse among the 60 unique shops and dine at one of three local restaurants in the Village – all offering specials for those taking the Cross Sound Ferry Winter Break Getaway.

With so much to do, visitors may wish to stay overnight. Destination Mystic Travel is offering discounts at seven of their Mystic area hotels for the Winter Break.  Log onto www.destinationmystic.com for more details.

Expanded Ferry Schedule

Cross Sound Ferry will be offering an expanded schedule of departures during the winter school break beginning on Saturday, February 14th.  This expanded schedule will feature an early morning departure from Orient Point at 7:30am.  For complete schedule information or to make Winter Break Getaway Package reservations, call Cross Sound Ferry at 631-323-2525 or log onto www.longislandferry.com.

Tags: Winter Break, excursions & activities, historical/heritage, transportation by Nancy
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The East End Arts Council School of Music is offering a Winter Break Rock ‘n Roll Workshop (for electric guitar players only).

Instructor: Stan Wright*
“Learn the tricks of the trade. Through hands on instruction and demonstration, this workshop will teach the skills necessary for young rock guitarists to let go of the fears of playing solo jams and riffs in the rock band setting and when they’re on stage. Participants must have had at least one year of lessons and have knowledge of basic chords. Bring your own guitar.”

(2 classes) Ages 9+ yrs.
Tuesday & Wednesday 12-1:30PM, February 17 & 18
Cost: $30 current music student or member EEAC/$38 nonmember

*Stanley Wright, bass, guitar, percussion
Mr. Wright is an accomplished bassist and guitarist. He is well known throughout Long Island and New York City as a professional musician and teacher. His performances include work with Bo Diddley, Little Buster, Jim Chapin, Walter Perkins, Ranny Reeve, Mark Gatz and numerous others.

For more info about this or other EEAC Winter Break music and art classes, go to the EEAC School of the Arts website.

Tags: East End Arts Council, Winter Break, art & culture by Nancy
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The East End Arts Council has announced that fun and games may begin. It is presenting a series of programs at EEAC with the theme of games. In addition, it is coordinating a large collaborative and creative effort with area businesses and organizations to help spread the games far and wide.

Exhibits, Trolley & Specials

On Friday, February 27, 2009 from 5:00 – 8:00pm, the juried, mixed-media art exhibit Games People Play will open at the EEAC gallery, which kicks off their Year of the Game!

Artists are invited to interpret the Games People Play theme in any way using the medium of their choice.  The show will be juried by artist Jen Benton and artist/ mayor of Greenport David Nyce and will run through April 10, 2009. All those who attend the EEAC opening on February 27th will have a chance to win prizes by collecting special game-piece buttons.

The Riverhead Business Improvement District (BID) is sponsoring a collaboration among downtown restaurants to extend the fun and games on the 27th, and the North Fork Trolley will shuttle folks from the EEAC gallery’s Games People Play to the Suffolk County Historical Society’s exhibit, Luck, Strategy and Diplomacy: Playing Games and to the Long Island Science Center’s Science of Games exhibit. Restaurants in Riverhead will play along by offering specials for diners.

“We’d like to thank the Riverhead BID for their support,” said Pat Snyder, EEAC Executive Director.  “We’re looking forward to seeing lots of people downtown for the exhibits and hope they check out Riverhead’s great restaurants for dinner.”

Winter Break Games

From February 17th through 20th, the East End Arts Council School of the Arts has arranged a week of play and games as seen through, in and about art. Join the fun for an hour, a day, or the whole week. Children 7-12 yrs can combine theatre and visual art classes for a Winter Break arts camp experience.

Shannon Tahir will run classes each day, starting with Lost and A-Mazed on Tuesday, where kids can learn the ancient art of the labyrinth to become a master maze creator. On Wednesday, It’s an Illusion, and kids can get dizzy from studying the many layers and meanings in optical illusions & tessellations and make their own. Game Saver Thursday is about putting those games and puzzles that are missing pieces to creative use! Kids can bring in their own, or use what we’ve gathered to make a positively puzzling 3-D game collage. On Friday, it’s time for Art Smart, where kids can improve their art knowledge through fun art-fact games. Then they’ll pick an artist, style or period, and paint their own masterpiece based on what they’ve learned. All classes are from 10-11 am for ages 4-6, and 11:30-12:30 for seven and older. Each class is $10 for EEAC members and $12 for nonmembers. Sign up for all four together, cost: $36 member EEAC/$43 nonmember.

Checkmate, a class that calls for students to make a giant chess piece together to display on the School of the Arts porch, as well as small, individual versions of a game piece to bring home is offered from Tuesday through Friday from 1-2 pm for 7-12 year-olds at the cost of $63/member or $79/ nonmember.

For the more musically inclined, there’s Winter Break Rock & Roll Workshop for electric guitar players only! Stan Wright will teach the tricks of the trade on Tuesday and Wednesday from 12-1:30PM. Through hands-on instruction and demonstration, this workshop will teach the skills necessary for young rock guitarists to let go of the fears of playing solo jams and riffs in the rock-band setting and when they’re on stage. Participants must have had at least one year of lessons and have knowledge of basic chords. This cclass is for kids nine and up, and costs $30/current music student or member or $38/ nonmember.

Kids ages seven through twelve can also ‘get their theatre on’ Tuesday through Friday from 10-11 am at Master of Disguise with Laura Helms. Anything can happen in this class where kids don costumes, learn character creation by analyzing who or what their “character” might be, and then adding mannerisms and accents. They’ll learn hilarious and spontaneous improvisation skills and, before you know it, they’ll be turning table napkins into super-hero capes and rivaling those amazing guys from Whose Line Is It Anyway?. The cost is $40 member/$50 nonmember.

Don’t forget that this is also CONTACT week in Riverhead, where kids can collect stamps at area businesses to get free ice cream.  EEAC gallery will have a really cool scavenger hunt on fun words and phrases for their Idioms show!

For more information on any of these classes or to register, please call the EEAC School of the Arts at 631-369-2171.

More Events To Come / More Info

Stay tuned for information on upcoming Year of the Game events, like the Jeopardy-style East End Charity Game Show, where East End community leaders compete to benefit their favorite non-profit organizations.  Save the date: March 27, 2009.

For more information on the Year of the Game and Games People Play, please call 631-727-0900. To find out more about restaurant specials in Riverhead on the 27th of February, please call the Riverhead Business Improvement District at 631-727-0048.

Tags: East End Arts Council, Long Island Science Center, Riverhead, Winter Break, art & culture, events, excursions & activities by Nancy
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Bay Street Theatre has announced a theatre camp over the winter breaks of 2009. The dates are February 16 – 20 and April 6-10.

Each day will be filled with classes and theater games incorporating every aspect of theater, from acting to singing, from performance to dance.

Kids will be divided into different groups, based on scene requirements, age levels, and experience.

Children ages 5-18, no experience required.

Call for information or to register: Tracy Mitchell, 631-725-0818 ext. 109 or email: tracy@baystreet.org.

Tags: Bay Street Theatre, Winter Break, art & culture by Nancy
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The Relay for Life of Southold Town has announced its kick-off meeting for its 2009 annual event. The kick-off meeting will take place on Wednesday, February 25 at 7:00pm in the Mattituck High School Auditorium.

For more info, visit the Community Bulletin page.

Tags: In Memory, Relay for Life, Southold, community bulletin, events, health by Nancy
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Elizabeth Morrison has announced the schedule for the 2009 LaLeche League meetings at the Floyd Memorial Library in Greenport.

What’s it like at a La Leche League meeting? Mothers and their children sitting in a circle with toys to play with in the center or mothers who are still pregnant that want to learn how to avoid breastfeeding problems. Nutritious foods and beverages to enjoy in between comments. Friendly and helpful accredited La Leche League leaders leading a varied discussion: getting breastfeeding off to a good start, or how to wean, surviving new motherhood, how to adjust to babies new sleeping patterns, how to wear your baby in a sling or anything other concern that a mother brings up.

At every La Leche League meeting you are guaranteed to get accurate information about breastfeeding that fulfills your individual needs as a mother- whether you want to breastfeeding for one day or one year.

Free mother to mother support has been La Leche League’s goal for over 50 years.

Meetings are held at the Floyd Memorial Library in Greenport on the third Tuesday of every month at 10:30 AM. For breastfeeding and/or meeting information please call Liz at 477-5914 or email elizabeth@mothermedoula.com.

Dates for 2009 are: January 20; February 17; March 17; April 21; May 19; June 16; July 21; August 18; September 15; October 20; November 17; December 15.

Tags: babies & pregnancy, greenport, libraries, parenting by Nancy
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Council for Unity Tearing Down Walls of Hate

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

Next to the door of a tiny meeting room, about the size of a music practice room, is a “Wall of Hate” built into a natural indentation of the hallway wall. To build the “Wall of Hate,” students cut out large squares to represent red bricks and wrote descriptions of “hateful” events that have happened to them. These bricks have been taped to the wall to form a “Wall of Hate.” Later in the week and prior to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, this wall of hate will be torn down. This effort initiated by tolerance.org is part of larger program coordinated by Pulaski’s social worker, Lauren Zambrelli, to encourage tolerance and a feeling of unity in the school. Prior to Valentine’s Day, she will coordinate another program encouraging students to “pay it forward” by performing acts of kindness throughout the school and the community.

“An estimated 5.7 million youth in the United States have identified themselves as a bully; admit to being bullied, or both.  Bullying can also include racial or ethnic slurs, stereotyping, and bigotry,” states Ms. Zambrelli.  “At Pulaski Street School, the Council for Unity members are working on a ‘Stop the Hate’ campaign.  They are building a wall filled with incidents of bullying and hate. These are personal incidents that C.F.U. members have experienced or witnessed.  These incidents will be discussed in depth and possible solutions developed to help to end incidents of hate. When the wall is complete, C.F.U. members will collectively tear down the wall, symbolizing healing and growth as well as a new-found respect for tolerance and peace.”

Social worker Lauren Zambrelli is engaged all day long right through her lunch hour in that tiny room meeting with students in grades 5-6 in this school of 840 students, who often have some very big issues. Students can get a pass at any time to go down and see “Ms. Z,” as the students fondly call her. If she can’t help the student resolve the difficulty, she will encourage him or her to schedule a mediation session. (Ms. Zambrelli flips through a loose-leaf notebook, which reveals about ten scheduled conflict mediation sessions during the last couple of days.)

“At this age, students have a hard time communicating their feelings and resolving their difficulties,” states Ms. Zambrelli. “I help students find language for their fears and their anger. Usually, an issue can be resolved pretty quickly by just bringing the two parties together before they act on their anger by name calling and fighting. If students are having difficulty at home, they often stop down and talk it over with me. I try to help them in any way I can. Students at this age really need to know that there is someone they can turn to when they need help. It makes a huge difference in their lives.”

Ms. Zambrelli has used the Council for Unity, a national organization designed to fight against gangs and give students a positive “family,” as the centerpiece of her efforts at the school. The Council for Unity family at Pulaski is about 60 students strong. Council members meet in five small group sessions of about ten students each throughout the day during their lunch break or recess. The small group sessions help give the students of every type and etnicity a “voice” and a “safe haven” to deal with their own problems and teaches them the skills to encourage other students in the school to practice tolerance and to work for school unity.

The Council for Unity also reaches out to the larger community through efforts like food drives and fundraisers. During the holidays, the Pulaski Street Council for Unity acted as a catalyst to provide gifts for twelve families in need. In addition to Pulaski’s Council, Council for Unity is offered at both the Middle School and the High School. In addition, a parent Council for Unity group meets monthly at the Riverhead Free Library.

“I think the Council for Unity and the addition of Ms. Zambrelli to our staff is one of the best things that has happened to our school in the last three years,” states Pulaski Street Principal David Densieski. “Ms. Zambrelli’s influence and the Council for Unity’s efforts  have made an incredible difference in student behavior and student morale. Since the inception of this program three years ago, we have had only one superintendent’s hearing. The year prior to her arrival, we had several. I’m behind her 100%!”

Photo caption: Ms. Zambrelli with some of the Council for Unity members in front of the “Wall of Hate” at the Pulaski Street School.

Tags: Riverhead, community bulletin, historical/heritage, schools, society by Nancy
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As part of Winterfest 2009 Jazz on the Vine, the East End Arts Council and the Long Island Wine Council will present 60 free jazz concerts at area wineries and over 100 special offers from area businesses from February 14 through March 22, 2009.

Details are available on the Winterfest 2009 website.

The 2009 Winterfest has been extended to six weekends this year from four weekends last year. ‘National Treasure’ David Amram, the legendary Teddy Charles, world-renowned Bakithi Kumalo, Dwayne Kerr and his Funky Flute Band and the Beledo Quartet, considered mythical to Uruguayan music connoisseurs, among many other outstanding talents, will perform during Winterfest.

“We have a stellar line up of musicians from both near and far,” says Pat Snyder, Executive Director of the East End Arts Council. “There is no shortage of jazz genres to choose from including Brazilian, Afro-Cuban, Contemporary, Jazz Standards, Dixieland, Smooth jazz, bebop and more. There is definitely something for everyone.”

The 2009 Winterfest is being organized by the Long Island Wine Council, the East End Arts Council (EEAC), Suffolk County Department of Economic Development and Workforce Housing (SCED&WH), the Long Island Convention and Visitors Bureau (LICVB), with support from American Express, WLIU Radio and LI Pulse magazine. The 2009 promotion also benefits from significant additional funding from an Agri-Tourism grant from New York’s Department of Agriculture and Markets and an Explore New York grant from the State’s Tourism Division.

According to Steve Bate, executive director of the Wine Council, “We were thrilled with the results of the 2008 program. Our participating wineries experienced an increase in sales of between 20 and 200 percent during this normally slow time of year. The promotion also exceeded our expectations in drawing new audiences from the New York metropolitan area, across Long Island and New England.”

Tags: East End Arts Council, Winter Break, art & culture, events, excursions & activities, seasons & weather by Nancy
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There is now a NorthForkParents group on Facebook.

It’s an open group and anyone may join. Please do!

Go to Facebook.

Tags: community bulletin, discussion group by Nancy
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In the new January 2009 installment of Healthy North Fork Lifestyles by holistic health counselor Erin Dunscomb, Erin tells us how to maintain healthy and hydrated skin during the cold winter months!

In Healthy North Fork Lifestyles, our monthly health feature, Erin Dunscomb has got some simple ways for us to incorporate some healthy habits into our busy lives and take advantage of our region’s healthy resources.

Go to the Family Health page.

Tags: health, seasons & weather by Nancy
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