Few would call Rockland Community College student Jonathon Galdamez-Paguay your average 19-year-old. On Thursday, March 14, the first-generation high school graduate and first of his family to attend college was selected as a semifinalist for the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation’s Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship—one of the most prestigious scholarships for students transferring into a four-year university […]
As a champion of Rockland theatre, I am inclined to share that Nyack’s Elmwood Playhouse’s fourth show of the 2023-2024 season— Lisa Kron’s memory-musical “Fun Home”— wins the status of required viewing for locals. While the community-based playhouse has turned out other fabulous shows this past year, including Bruce Norris’ “Clybourne Park” and John Patrick […]
On Saturday, March 9, the Haitian Cultural Heritage Preservation put on their twelfth annual International Women’s Day celebration. Held live at St. Joseph’s Church in Spring Valley for the second time since the start of COVID-19, the event included speeches from female community leaders and a panel discussion. While the event is designed for women […]
To say author and Rockland native Gil Roscoe has seen it all would be little exaggeration. Born in Nyack and raised in Monsey, the nine-book novelist and current Hollywood Bowl usher spent the early years of his adulthood in an array of professions all around the world, working as a tree trimmer, VISTA volunteer, bank […]
When Piermont resident and freelance TV/film makeup artist Joanne Ottaviano applied to Optimum’s Derek Jeter Community GOAT (Greatest of All Time) Contest in late 2023, she never dreamed she would be selected as one of its winners. Fortunately for her. Ottaviano’s work to improve the village of Piermont was exactly the sort of effort that […]
That Louise Higgins named her Pearl River restaurant Café Diem is a fact most would call fitting: the West Nyack resident is no stranger to “seizing the day.” Having worked in a corporate role in construction finance for 25 years, Higgins decided to pursue the new venture after being diagnosed with sarcoma in her abdomen […]