Community Center Activities

Brittany Florio (Bard Food Supervisor) and Rebecca Yoshino (Bard Farm Coordinator), two of the planners for the "Food for Life" component of the event, are shown here with Larry and Nick.

On Saturday, January 18th, the Ascienzo Family Foundation collaborated with other civic groups for the MLK Day of Engagement at the Red Hook Community Center. Bard College’s Sustainability Team (lead by Laurie Husted) coordinated the event, which included a Repair Cafe, music by Maggie Rothwell, and the opportunity to enjoy fresh foodstuffs prepared by Chef Larry Anthony. Chef Larry was assisted by AFF's Ambassador Tessa Rothwell, AFF Founder Nick A., and a number of Bard undergrads. The soup, dips, and crostini were a hit with the crowd of 100 or so that participated!

This past granting season, we provided two grants to the Red Hook Community Center. One will help support the Center’s Makerspace, which is a creative space that local residents access to the Tool Center where they can spend time on craft projects. The second grant supports the Center’s Teen Program, which provides a safe place for teens to pursue community service, life-skills learning, and organized recreational activities.

Review of 2019

The Foundation’s main granting season has passed, and it was a busy one! In 2019 we provided over $156,000 in grants, including $90,000 in local grants and $66,000 in grants through our ambassador network. Brief descriptions of our 2019 grants can be found here. We also awarded our first Ascienzo Family Foundation scholarship to a graduating RHHS student, and helped organize the second No Cost Farm Market as part of our Nourish Your Neighbor campaign.

Back row (L to R): Brenna Dolen, Tessa Rothwell, Sophie Laing, Elizabeth Ricci, Jonni Mills, Brittany Mosher. Front row (L to R): Iana Robitaille, Brita Brudvig, Mr. A. Photographer: Betsy Kirtland

On December 23, some of our ambassadors met up at the Elmendorph Inn for brunch. We had a wonderful time catching up on everyone’s various personal, academic, and volunteer endeavors. We talked about the future of the Foundation, and emphasized the importance of community building and sustainable programming. It was meaningful to hear from RHHS graduates at all stages of their lives- from those still in college, to those moving forward in their professional careers, to those in graduate school- who are investing in their communities but also still feel a connection to Red Hook. It was a great morning, and we couldn’t resist getting a selfie.

Nourish Your Neighbor 2019 Highlights

Linda, Nick, and Nancy

Back in December, Nick A. met with Nancy Keeney, the President of the Red Hook Faculty Association, and Linda Greenblatt, longtime Rotarian and Red Hook Community supporter, to review the recently concluded Nourish Your Neighbor campaign. 

Through the efforts of Red Hook Schools’ personnel, including teachers, students, and staff, Bard students (through the Center for Civic Engagement with assistance from Sarah DeVeer), and other local contributors, the NYN Food Drive collected over 4,000 food items that were distributed to local food pantries. Additionally, Mike McCrudden from the high school helped raise over $1,600 for this Holiday Season’s food voucher program. The Ascienzo Family Foundation was happy to match that. All in all, the Foundation’s pledge of $1 per food item donation and additional $1,600 in matching funds resulted in a charitable gift of $5,437 for the voucher program. 

Nancy’s message yesterday to her teacher colleagues reads in part:

Feel good! Food cards have been delivered to our food-insecure families, thanks to the diligent efforts of many. On behalf of the RHFA, I accepted a check from Nick Ascienzo and the Ascienzo Family Foundation for $5,347 yesterday. That's a lot of food cards!

Thanks to our lead volunteers, including Peg D'Onofrio, Kim Goldhirsch, Lauren Cerullo, Mary Hare, Jane Hillery, and Mike McCrudden…...Thanks to our amazing nurses and guidance counselors for getting the food cards into the hands of food insecure families for the holidays.

We’re grateful to partner with so many advocates who address food insecurity, are so generous with their time, and resolve in assisting community neighbors. Perhaps one of these years we will reach our goal of 10,000 collected food items - better yet, perhaps one of these years there won’t need to be any number to address at all and our collective generosities may be focused in other areas!

Read about last year’s Nourish Your Neighbor Campaign here.

No-Cost Farm Market 2019

Our Ambassador Tessa Rothwell provides a recap of the second No-Cost Market (read about the first here):

Maggie Rothwell (Tessa’s mom) preforming at the No-Cost Market.

I joined the Foundation a year ago, and remember hearing throughout the year about the success of the first No-Cost Farm Market in 2018.  I arrived at the 2019 market knowing there would be a large turnout. What I did not expect was the hundreds upon hundreds of fresh produce items that I, along with a large team of helpful volunteers from the community (including our partners from Red Hook Rotary), put into paper bags to be passed out later to the community members.  It seemed as if there was no end to the amount of fresh broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes, carrots, lemons, onions, and other items which were being distributed.  When the event began, I was bursting with excitement to be the first greeter in the distribution line.  When I wasn’t busy interacting with the community, I saw the other volunteers’ interactions, and it was special to feel the positive energy coming from all four corners of the room.  Knowing that many families would be going home with fresh produce as well as Thanksgiving turkeys was heartwarming.  Endless gratitude to all of the local farms and vendors who donated their time and their food to help the community, to Nick Ascienzo and Emma Donahue for planning the event, and to all of the community volunteers. Special thanks to Chef Larry for his food samplings, to my mother, Maggie Rothwell, for providing music, and to Bard CCE for providing fun children’s activities, including pumpkin explosion demos!  We couldn’t have done it without all of you!

-Tessa Rothwell (RHHS ‘18)

The volunteers for the day!

AFF meets Red Hook Public Library meets Serendipity

Serendipity is defined as “the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way”. The confluence of events last Tuesday & Thursday were indeed serendipitous! 

One of the intended talking points at our monthly Foundation meeting on Giving Tuesday (did you know $511,000,000 was raised in the US that day and over $1,970,000,000 worldwide?) included the solicitation of a grant from one of our local partners, and in doing so encourage them to “go big” in their request. As a means of saying thank you for their partnership and the work they do for the Red Hook community, the AFF Team was going to chat about how and when to go about that solicitation. We never got around to it - Serendipity stepped in…..

That same afternoon Dawn Jardine, director of the Red Hook Public Library, submitted a one year proposal for a modest amount to create bilingual language programming and add more Spanish resources to the library. The proposal was perfect! The AFF Team had no trouble, not just in accepting it, but in extending it over two years and increasing the award to $10,000. Normal policy calls for contacting the writer of the grant and exchanging information as to the grant’s processing and ultimate acceptance, but I had another idea with Dawn’s application that had now grown in size….

This past Thursday was our Red Hook Together meeting - 18 members of the community presented on their organization’s activity. Dawn, seated to my left, gave her report and then listened to mine. I finished with this: “On Tuesday our AFF Board met and discussed your proposal, Dawn.” I paused for effect. “And unfortunately it was rejected.” I thought I heard a faint gasp nearby, but paused a bit more. Turning to her, I said “It was rejected because we’ve decided to grant you a two year total of $10,000!” That was met with a hearty applause around the room and a wide grin (of relief and surprise) from Dawn and a warm “Thank You” after catching her breath.

My theatrics aside, it’s safe to redefine serendipity as “receiving more than you request.” The AFF is certainly happy to support such a great partner in the Red Hook Public Library and all they do for the Red Hook community!

- Nick A.