Summer Updates

The summer has kicked off to a great start for the AFF team, with many exciting announcements, grants, and visits already happening and more to be expected over the next couple months.

Directors Nick and Fran with CPCA leaders and staff.

Earlier in June, Directors Fran and Nick visited the Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse, located in Poughkeepsie and a multi-year AFF grant recipient. CPCA is a nonprofit that offers Personal Safety Programs in many Dutchess County schools, as well as runs a Child Advocacy Center that provides resources and a safe space to children and their families. Fran and Nick had a great time meeting with their incredible staff and learning more about the important work they do for children across the county.

From time to time our Directors have the opportunity to apply for AFF Director grants. Director Jen was able to extend her previous grant to the Backpack program, which was working in collaboration with Red Hook Harvest. Director Sophie applied for a grant on behalf of Fiesta Youth, a nonprofit in San Antonio, Texas, that serves LGBTQIA+ youth, their families, and allies. Their goal is to empower young people to build a future where all people are accepted, affirmed, and loved as they are. The AFF grant will support Fiesta Youth’s new robotics program, which will kick off this summer!

We had the honor of awarding two more Ascienzo Family Foundation Scholarships to graduating Red Hook High School seniors: Lauryn Menz and Michelle Salas. Congratulations to Lauryn and Michelle, as well as last year’s recipients Cassy, Ava, and Lucia, who all received second year extensions of their scholarships.

And huge congratulations is also in order for Sophia Lawder, AFF intern who graduated from Bard College in May. Sophia has been our intern for the last two and a half years and become a part of the AFF family! We wish her all the best in the start of her post-grad career and adventures.

As always, please keep in touch! We’d love to hear what you’re up to, how we can help support you or organizations you admire, or how you’d like to be more involved with the AFF. If you know of anyone who may be a good candidate for joining our next Ambassador cohort, please send that name our way!

Scholarship Spotlight: Cassy Coleman

Meet Cassy, our third 2022 Scholarship recipient! Cassy Coleman is a freshman at Brown University studying political science - Brown has an open curriculum which means there are no core or general requirements, so Cassy is still deciding between environmental science and economics. What Cassy enjoys most about Brown so far Brown: Cultural Organizations! This weekend Cassy went to a Latin dance performance!

Cassy has found that the most challenging part about college is finding time to balance academic studies and being  social—especially as she’s taking the maximum amount of classes this semester.

Cassy loves fresh air, taking walks, and sushi. At Brown, she’s  involved with the Sexual Health Awareness Group (SHAG), a sexual health organization at Brown, as well as Providence Tree Canopy Organization, which works to build up the tree canopy by planting trees in underserved neighborhoods. 

If Cassy had to give the current RHHS class advice for applying to college, it would be: Don’t be afraid to be yourself! And in college, use the resources that your college has—whether it’s tutoring or you just need someone to talk to.

Our last question to Cassy, in order of Women’s History Month, was: if you could sit down with any woman who would you choose? Cassy says Michelle Obama: “She is so knowledgeable and wise, and communicated the importance of compromise and understanding well.

Scholarship Spotlight: Lucia Link

Meet Lucia, another 2022 Scholarship recipient! Lucia Link is a freshman at Barnard studying art history, but also interested in potentially minoring in French and English. Lucy’s favorite food is sushi or matcha, and she loves to dance. She says: “I love being able to just move. it’s blending being artistic and working out. I feel very fulfilled when I dance!”

Right now, Lucia is particularly enjoying an education class focused on pedagogy and how children learn. “It’s opened my eyes and helped me look back at my schooling in Red Hook,” she says. Lucy hasn’t found academics to be the most challenging part of her freshman year. Instead, she says, “it’s actually coping with living on my own even though I’m only two hours away. It was challenging navigating how to interact with people in that setting.”

Like fellow scholarship recipient Ava (featured here), Lucy misses the beauty of Red Hook and the small town feeling. "I went to Taste Budds and saw people I knew, it made me feel comforted being at home. I took for granted how wonderful the area we live in is.” Over the summer, Lucy will be back in the area working at Migliorelli’s farm stand.

Recently, Lucy went through rigorous training for a club called Meet Me at the Museum. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (the “Met”) charges schools a lot for official tours, and Meet Me at the Museum provides a free tour option for kids! “Making sure that there’s equity in those fields is really exciting!,” says Lucy. Lucy is also enjoying another arts-focused club called Artists Reaching Out, where Barnard students make art lesson plans and travel to schools to give those lessons. 

Our last question to Lucy, in honor of Women’s History Month, was: if you could sit down with any woman who would you choose? Her choice: Audrey Hepburn. Not only was she an actress, but also a ballet dancer. In World War 2, she was stuck in the Netherlands and gave dance performances to support the resistance!

Scholarship Spotlight: Ava Michaelides

Meet, Ava, one of our 2022 Scholarship recipients! Ava Michaelides is a freshman at UConn studying environmental engineering. Ava loves pasta, fiction reading, and the earth, and if she had to sit down to dinner with one person (living or dead), she would choose Greta Thunberg.  

Ava graduated from Red Hook High School (RHHS) in 2022 and says that the things she misses the most about Red Hook are the simplicity and the little things. Transitioning from Red Hook to a large school like UConn is a big shift, and Ava’s biggest takeaway is: don’t be afraid to put yourself out there! 

In college, Ava is on the field hockey team and recently helped raise money for HuskyThon, a fundraiser for the Connecticut Children’s Hospital. She is also in the Society of Women Engineers, where eighth-grade girls come to learn about STEM. If Ava could give the present RHHS graduating class any advice, it would be: don’t be afraid to succeed!

Winter Updates

Winter 2023 Updates

The strain of economic uncertainty, along with lingering COVID-19 effects, continued to shape our giving as we listened to advocates both near and far. 2022 was our eighth year of combined ambassador and local giving, with approximately $300,000 in grants and donations distributed to some 44 agencies in the Hudson Valley and in our ambassador neighborhoods. Some highlights of 2022 giving included:

• Adding three new ambassadors to our cohort, bringing the total to 48.

• Sponsoring six scholarships - our 2021 scholars had their scholarships renewed for a second year and we added three new scholars from the 2022 RHHS Class.

• Collaborating for the third year with Dr. Melitski’s Nonprofit Leadership and Management class at Marist. We provided matching donations for students’ fundraising campaigns for two local organizations - Grace Smith House and Special Olympics NY.

• Sponsoring our third No Cost Market at the Red Hook Community Center in November after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic. The Rotary Club and other volunteers assisted in the event which provided poultry and other foodstuffs to about 125 participants.

There is always a spirit of rejuvenation with every calendar year turnover on every level — personal, professional, and organizational — that lifts us up to aspire to an even better year than the one we view in the rearview mirror. 2023 offers us that promise, regardless of our age and experience. May your resolutions last beyond the end of this month and be part of the new you throughout the year!