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Beth Davis — ‘Books can be your friend’
Beth Davis has fulfilled a lifetime dream.
She was one of just eight school librarians from across the United States to serve on the William C. Morris Young Adult Debut Award Committee for 2022.
When she applied for the post, Davis thought she wouldn’t be chosen, reasoning, “Nobody’s going to pick … a librarian from a small library and I haven’t done anything so phenomenal.”
Many would beg to differ with her modest self description. She has been Berne-Knox-Westerlo’s secondary school librarian for 26 years where she fulfills a wide variety of roles and is now serving students who are children of students she originally served.
When she got the letter asking her to be on the committee, Davis screamed with joy.
“I did not realize the amount of work involved, but I would do it again in a heartbeat,” she says in this week’s Enterprise podcast.
The committee was chaired by Patty Gonzales Ramirez who lives in Texas. The other members besides Davis were Kit Ballenger, Rebecca Caufman, Michelle Cheng, Kara Hunter, Beth Kirchenberg, and liaison Ellen Wickham.
Davis and her counterparts each read scores of books written by first-time authors for readers age 12 to 18 and then met extensively, through their computers, to finally winnow the selection to five finalists and ultimately a first-place winner.
Davis herself read over 200 books up for the award. And 200 new books are being donated to the BKW Secondary School library because of her efforts.
The Morris Award, first given in 2009, is named for a beloved publisher who promoted literature for children and teens.
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Gerard Wallace’s lifetime and work on kinship care
01:22:57|Gerard Wallace, who grew up in Brooklyn, suffered as a child and so devoted his career to ending childhood suffering.Retired now, he lives in the rural Helderbergs and believes some of the worst suffering happens in rural areas.Wallace, a lawyer who advocated for kinship family rights, had a hand in creating a dozen laws in New York state that gives grandmothers and other kin rights in caring for children whose parents are unfit.“Why I got into kinship care and meeting grandparents raising kids is that my home was really a broken home,” Wallace says in this week’s Enterprise podcast. “My father was an alcoholic, worked on the waterfront. He was a good person but, when he drank, it was a nightmare …. We grew up in a state of toxic stress.”
Laure-Jeanne Davignon and John Anderson, Friends of Thacher State Park
25:22|The Emma Treadwell Thacher Nature Center is being reimagined so that kids will be able to crawl into a giant honeycomb or tree to learn about meadows and forests or “dig” for fossils to learn about the Devonian sea. The Friends of Thacher State Park are helping to fund the transformation.
The tale of two generous men and a bygone era
26:48|Bob Flynn has written a book — titled “Tork’s Hill & Mead’s Pond” — about two Voorheesville men who used their private property to create what he terms “winter wonderlands” where he and his friends could gather. Flynn’s book captures an earlier time when kids played outside — even in cold winters — and when there was a sense of community, a sense of place, and a sense of trust. Read more at altamontenterprise.com.
GleeBoxx creator Shreya Sharath wants forgotten people to feel seen
25:36|Each box includes a note she wrote. Sharath read one to The Enterprise: “Even in difficult times, hope can be a light in darkness. Know that you are deserving of support, compassion, and a better tomorrow. Stay safe, take care of yourself, and never forget that you matter.” Read more at altamontenterprise.com.
Kate Cohen says, to save the country, atheists should make themselves known
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Daughter and mother coach dragon-boat paddlers
31:33|Anna Judge and Louisa Matthew realize they live in an ageist and sexist society — but, with generous spirits, they are paddling against the current. The mother-daughter duo together coach a crew of dragon boat paddlers. Matthew, the mother, is an art professor at Union College. Judge, her daughter, is a certified personal trainer who led her mother into the sport. “A dragon boat is a 40-foot long, very narrow racing boat,” explains Matthew in this week’s Enterprise podcast. “That became standardized in the 20th Century but it’s based on a thousands-year-old Chinese tradition of racing the big rivers in China.” A dragon boat has 20 paddlers, two to a seat, with a person in the stern who steers and a person in the bow signaling directions, traditionally by drumming. “It’s the national sport of China,” said Judge “so it’s quite big in Asia and has subsequently spread to Australia, New Zealand, and Europe.” It came to the United States through Canada, she said, citing the work of a doctor in British Columbia who changed prevailing medical opinion on exercise for breast-cancer survivors.
Lyon Greenberg: A doctor takes a long view of his farm and his life’s journey
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