| NCZ Spring Scholarship Luncheon
Summary |
| by
Nancy Roberts and Pat Newell, PR Co-chairs |
|
“Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.”
... by William Shakespeare
|
As we welcome summer, nature has spread a beautiful
palette of shades of green in Jefferson and Lewis
Counties. The newly planted corn fields, lush green
lawns, green leafed trees in all their glory, green
plants with colorful blooms, all celebrate summer’s
arrival.
We welcomed 49 members and guests to our June 11th
Scholarship luncheon at the Hilton Garden Inn in
Watertown. It was exciting to watch Scholarship
Chair, John Gaffney, introduce our 2026
Scholarship winners. Cohen Hunter, son of
Jennifer Dean and stepson of David Dean, from
General Brown Central School, plans to attend SUNY
Brockport to major in secondary mathematics.
Ronald Zehr, son of Sarah and Gregory Zehr from
Belleville-Henderson Central School, plans to attend
SUNY Potsdam to major in secondary social studies.
Gwyn Monnat, Northern New York Community
Foundation Director of Scholarships and Programs,
presented $1,000 awards to our Future Educator
winners. |
Cohen Hunter and Ronald Zehr receiving awards from
Gwyn Monnat |
|
Also,
exciting on this special day, was the privilege of
awarding the State 2026 Hudson-Kramer Memorial Grant
of $2,000 to Active Professional Educator Kaylee
Hall-Bethel from Watertown City School District.
Ms. Hall-Bethel is a first year teacher working at
Case Middle School with 7th and 8th
grade special education students. Dr. James
Newell, past NCZ and RENY President, presented
the award. |
Kaylee Hall-Bethel receiving award from Dr. James
Newell |
NCZ
President, Rick Morris presented John
Gaffney a framed “CERTIFICATE OF APPRECIATION IN
RECOGNITION OF OVER 20 YEARS DEDICATED TO THE RENY
NCZ SCHOLARSHIP FUND”. John was the
inspiration for beginning our scholarship program,
and has carried it forward all these years. John
gladly accepted Douglas Dietrich’s idea of
doing a raffle at each of our luncheons. This raffle
grew to be very popular and significant in raising
funds. John also turned to Randy
Richardson, Executive Director of NNYCF, who has
totally supported our scholarship program through
the years. NNYCF has been an immensely important
partner in growing our investments beyond our
expectations. This has been a close and significant
partnership over the years.
 John has gathered
a devoted group of retired teachers for the
Scholarship Committee, who are focused on carefully
reading applications each year. They are considering
new ways to help future teachers, active teachers
and those who may be working in a school system who
dream of becoming a teacher, but do not have the
means to make that dream come true. We would like to
thank Kenneth Eysaman, NNYCF Director of
Communications, who comes to our luncheons each June
to take photos of our scholarship winners. We
appreciate his help. John Gaffney pictured at
the right. |
Our program
was very well received! John Morrow, a former
art teacher at Ogdensburg Free Academy, and now a
renowned artist for over 50 years, was with us to
talk about his journey with nature in the
Adirondacks, light in all its facets, various kinds
of mediums, and the connections between humanity and
nature. We were each gifted with an extraordinary
booklet produced by the New York State Council on
the Arts featuring Mr. Morrow’s history and works
over the years. It is a wonderful and inspiring book
with stories of how Mr. Morrow’s painting has
evolved over the years. The book included 140 photos
of his paintings.
 Mr. Morrow’s paintings were on
display last year at the Frederic Remington Art
Museum in Ogdensburg. Mr. Morrow also generously
donated one of his paintings, “October Morning”,
framed and wrapped, for a gifted drawing. Kathy
Allan was the delighted person to receive this
special gift! Mr. Morrow is a very talented and
humble man with a rare sense of humor. We sincerely
thank our program chair, Pat Newell, for
inviting Mr. Morrow to join us and share his story
and paintings. It was an inspiring experience.
Mr. Morrow pictured on the left with Kathy Allan. |
As one of
our Community Service projects organized by Pat
Dietrich, the names of four libraries were drawn
in the “Love Your Public Library” raffle at the
luncheon. The winners were Depauville Free Library,
Flower Memorial Library, Hay Memorial Library and
Macsherry Library. Each library was awarded $50 to
help build their collections. NCZ supports literacy.
A summary of our annual waterfall hiking excursion
was given. That is covered in the article at
the right. |
|
| Go
Take A Hike! |
On June 17th, NCZ members and friends set out for a day of
waterfall hiking in the North Country. David
Schryver, co-author of Waterfalls of New York
State and five other books on waterfalls in the
North Country, led this band of adventurous souls. David
designed the day to include selected waterfalls in
Lewis County and also several in Oneida County.
With
temperatures in the low 60s, the hikers felt
energized and ready for exploring, The first nature
stop was Roaring Brook Lower Falls outside Lowville.
From there, the group moved on to Roaring Brook
Falls on the Glendale Road. Lush green foliage and
the sound of rushing water greeted the explorers.
They viewed beautiful sights such as Swans Falls and
Hidden Falls.
|
 |
The group is shown above in Otter
Creek State Park with Eatonville Falls in the
background.
Some of the waterfalls had unique
names such as Fish Creek Falls and Singing Waters Falls.
The majestic beauty of Sugar River Falls at Talcottville was an impressive sight. After a busy
morning, the group stopped for lunch at Capri
Pizzeria in Boonville. The lunch was tasty, and the
company was jolly. In the afternoon, the adventurers
entered Oneida County. They attempted to view New
Bakers Falls, Lansing Kill Falls, and Lock 64 Falls.
The overgrown trail made these wonders inaccessible
for now.
They were able to view Pixley Falls. Due to
the recent drought, however, there was only a
trickle of water instead of a mighty rush. Such is
nature ... always changing, always interesting.
On the journey
home, the group stopped at Mercer’s Dairy outside
Boonville for their traditional ice cream treat.
This feature of each outing is a delicious way to
relax and to reflect on the events of the day. Under
the leadership of David Schryver, NCZ members and
friends had an opportunity to witness the beauty of
the North County. The tranquility of nature has a
way of restoring one’s soul. This day filled with
excitement, wonder, and friendship was no exception.
|
Dates to Remember |
Executive Council meetings
for 2026: July 22,2026 and November 5, 2026
Fall
Business/Luncheon Meeting: September 16, 2026 Hilton
Garden Inn, Watertown
RENY State Convention: October
14-16, 2026 |
RENY-NCZ Officers for 2025-2026 |
|
A new slate of officers was elected for 2025-2026 at our
Fall Business Luncheon on Wednesday, September 18, 2025 at the
Hilton Garden Inn, 1290 Arsenal Street, Watertown |
 |
|
From left to right: Elwood "Woody"
Lyndaker, Secretary; Patricia Newell, 2nd Vice-President;
Toni Gigliotti, First Vice-President; Rick Morris,
President. Missing from photo is Treasurer, Barbara
Cole-Russell. |
|
York State Available on
this website |
| A reminder to all of our members that
York State, our organization's
seasonal magazine is published four times each year.
Many of these issues are only available on-line.
They can be accessed by visiting the state website.
You can do that by clicking on the "York State" link
in the banner across the top of this page.
There is also a link in that banner for "State
Site". That will take you to the homepage of
the RENY state organization's website. |
RENY-NCZ on Facebook |
 We
are now on Facebook ... click on the logo to access
our group.
We encourage all of our members who are active on
Facebook to join the group.
Also, if anyone is active on other social media and
would like to volunteer to monitor a group for us
there, please
contact David Schryver. |
|
