The Helpers Fund News

With a full field participating, more than $3,000 was placed in the Fund’s Medical and Hardship Program to assist those most in need at the Fund’s Seventh Annual Tournament held on June 11 at Green Mansions Golf Club.

Tournament Winners The foursome of John Palermo, John Christopher Palermo, Terri Palermo, and Rich “Big Dawg” Greco placed first. Second place went to the foursome of Al Matrose, Paul Matrose, Mary Matrose and Jamie Potter; and, in third place was Nick Amodeo, Sr., Alan Amadeo; Nick Amodeo and Bill Murray

Lunch and Prizes After the tournament everyone enjoyed a full steak luncheon prepared by Martha Walker and her helpers, who also provided the full breakfast before the tournament. Lunch was followed by the awarding of prizes, and the announcement of the winners of the raffle, which included gift certificates to numerous golf courses in the area such as Cronins, Queensbury Golf Club, Tee Bird, Airway Meadows, Saratoga Spa, Westport Country Club and others. The raffle also included gift certificates to numberous local restaurants. Also, the winner of the 50/50 drawing was announced.

Sponsors of the Tournament included: Frank & Mary Jane Dower, The Silver Star Diner, Upstate Agency Inc., Terrio's Carriage House Restaurant, Able Energy, Cosmos Communications, Riverside Gas & Oil, Deer Crossing Café, The Contessa Italian Restaurant, Friends Lake Inn, Original Lincoln Logs, and Natural Stone Bridge & Caves

Other Thanks All photographs of the tournament were taken by Barbara Davidson with the assistance of her husband Mark Davidson. Ron Walker acted as the Tournament Director having the tournament come off flawlessly. His group of volunteers, which included J.C. Palermo, Ray Smith, Bob Sweatman, Ed Hardman and Terri Palermo, helped where needed. Linda Warner handled registration and assisted at the contests held during play.

More details and photos of the tournament are online here.

Family Help The Fund continues to assist the single parent family with three children, all suffering from a hereditary neurological disease. Because the son is working part-time and going to college, the family has been denied food stamps because of the employment in the family. The son also has some development problems. The family requires one meal a day of basic food nutrients, but the food must be organic. The other two meals are a prescription formula. The Fund has opened an account at Hannaford’s so the mother may purchase the necessary foods for their daily meal. This is done on a weekly basis.

Biopsy Funding The Fund also continues to make monthly payments on a biopsy performed at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York, which was not covered by Medicaid. This funding will stop at completion of the payments in approximately eight months.

New Case The Fund is considering assistance to an applicant who is awaiting a liver transplant. All the necessary documentation has been received and the request is for prescription drug assistance. The applicant moved from Albany County to Warren County and because of a waiting period the person was without prescription drug coverage for a period of time. This happens quite often when disabled people move from one location to another. Most times local clinics will supply temporary supplies, but in this case there was some difficulty in obtaining the necessary prescription forms. Her condition is serious, and she must be checked bi-weekly.

Mary Jane Dower has been active in the community for many years and has been a very positive force in bringing about change and improvement to the community. Recently she was one of the primary organizers of the very successful Bicentennial Committee. She is the person who thought of having the Chestertown 5k and 10k, and is a member of the Marathon Committee which organizes the Adirondack Distance Festival Weekend each year during the month of September. Mrs. Dower is also involved in the W.B. Yeats Seminar and dinner. She has been involved in school activities and a strong voice in the community. The Fund is proud to have Mary Jane on its Board.

Terri Palermo teaches at Warrensburg High School in the Special Education Department and is active in school affairs, particularly with the Warrensburg Scholarship Association and the Trepasso Golf Tournament held each year to benefit the scholarship fund. Mrs. Palermo works with “special” and disabled students. Her knowledge in these areas will be a great help to the Fund in determining need and levels of assistance for many of the applications the Fund receives requesting assistance. We welcome her to the board, and are quite proud and thankful that she has decided to volunteer her time to the Fund.

Ticket Sales Increase Proceeds from the raffle go into the General Fund. This year’s raffle set a record for tickets sold surpassing the 2004 ticket sales by almost 200 dollars. Just over 1,600 ticket were sold this year besting the previous high total by almost 200 tickets. This year’s tickets were distributed by the following businesses: Silver Star Diner, Bagel Girls Deli, Green Mansions Golf Course, O.P. Fredericks and Terrio’s Carriage House Restaurant. We thank them all for their invaluable help.

Participating Businesses Each year there are changes in restaurant certificates. The Fund looks to add a few new and different restaurants each year. This year certificates were donated by the following businesses: Silver Star Diner, Chestertown; The Sagamore Hotel in Bolton Landing; Copperfield Inn, North Creek; Terrio’s Carriage House Restaurant, Schroon Lake; Deer Crossing Café, Chestertown; Davidson Brother’s Pub & Brewery, Glens Falls; Massie’s, South Glens Falls, Montcalm Restaurant, Lake George; The Log Jam, Lake George; Chicago Pizzeria Uno, Queensbury, Applebee’s, Queensbury; The Place Restaurant, Chestertown, O.P. Fredericks, Chestertown Villa Napoli, Bolton Landing; Sutton’s Marketplace, Queensbury; George’s The Place For Steak & Seafood, Lake George; Main Street Ice Cream Parlor, Chestertown; Friends Lake Inn, Chestertown; Stone Bridge & Caves Coffee Shop, Pottersville; and The Contessa Restaurant in Bolton Landing.

We would like to thank each business for their participation, and in helping us make this raffle the best ever.

Increased Interest This selection should increase the number of runners attending and will add to the interest of the 5k and 10k races. It will also join the “Bent Trophy 5k For Students” which is part of the 5k Race on the same day. The student event involves five-member teams who compete for trophies that are a bit different from the normal trophy awarded. This event is part of the 5k race and has grown in numbers each year in the three years of the race.

Volunteers Credited The volunteer group of almost 40 local residents, under the direction of Mary Jane Dower, has been receiving compliments since the inception of the race, but over the past few years the word has been getting around. Not only have runners written in after the race complimenting the volunteers as “one of the most friendly, most helpful group of volunteers in any race,” but Laura Clark in writing a column for Adirondack Sports & Fitness indicates that the reputation of the volunteer group has become known throughout the Capital Region. Most of the volunteers have been with the race every year since the first race in 1999. This year there will be an additional need for volunteers as additional water stops will be added as well as locations where pictures will be taken. We thank them all!

Results of the 2005 races are online here.

On Display at Main Street Ice Cream The 102” x 88” quilt is on display at the Main Street Ice Cream Parlor in Chestertown. Tickets may also be purchased from that location. The tickets are $1.00 each or $5.00 for a book of six tickets. The raffle will be held in November at the Fund’s annual meeting. Tickets may also be purchased by contacting the Fund at 518-494-5565. Postage on mail orders will be paid by the Fund.

Pine Needles Members All the members of the “day group” of the Pine Needles worked on the quilt. The “star blocks,” as well at the borders of the quilt, and the joining together of the blocks were done by: Mary Jane Bouchard, Sandy Carpenter, Alice Jensen, Kathy Maiorana, Joanne McGhie, Betty Walp, Joyce Greenridge, Marky Carroll, Joan Mohrmann, Janet McDonald, Jaent Nieradka, Alice Vollaro, Emmy Santasiero and Anne Hoff. Ellen Miragliotta assembled the star blocks for the quilt top, and Evangeline Mills did the backing and the binding. Terry Meyer was responsible for the machine quilting.

The Fund and Estelle Carl Lamm of the Fund said a number of people on the board were quite close to Estelle. They knew her as a golfer, a dinner mate, and “crossword” helper. There were many memorable moments spent with Estelle. The Fund is proud to be able to be part of something which will remind us of those memorable times, he said.

Photos of the quilt are online here, and
a special edition of the Helpers Fund newsletter about the quilt project is available here as a pdf file.

Scholarship Committee The Scholarship Committee has been headed by Edna Wells of Pottersville from the beginning, but this year Mary Jane Dower came on board to help with the screening, the interviews and the final selection of candidates which were then forwarded to the board of directors for their final approval. A record number of scholarship applications were processed by the Committee this year.

Number of Scholarships There have been 12 scholarships awarded, three of those have been renewal scholarships where the person applied for a second or third year. This year there were three scholarships awarded, They were awarded to Paul Hale of Schroon Lake which was a renewal scholarship, Scott Hayes of Chestertown, the selection this year of the JSP Science Scholarship, and Berness J. Bolton of Brant Lake was awarded the Helpers Fund’s Scholarship.

More about the 2005 scholarship winners is online here.

Winter Jackets For the past three years the Fund has worked with North Warren Central School and Schroon Lake Central School in making sure every student has a winter jacket. This year the Fund will also include the town of Warensburg in its clothing drive. Since the program started three years ago more than 100 students have been supplied with winter jackets.

Difficult Winter Ahead It could be a very difficult winter for area residents who are in need. With fuel prices soaring and the limit on heating allowances remaining the same as 2004 with only a cost -of-living being added to the total, there could be major heating assistance requests during the winter.

Program Expanding The program has expanded each year and the Fund expects an increase in requests this year. Last year over 180 people received assistance with food and clothing during the holiday period. This total does not include those who received heating help last year.

A form for donations to the Holiday Drive and other projects of The Helpers Fund is online here.

The Helpers Fund is a 501(c)3 charity which has been serving the geographical area of the Tri-Lakes region since 1997.

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