Tag Archives: mcbride

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Carola and Rosen Sign Letters of Intent – by Sandy McBride

They’ve been bowling almost since they could pick up a ball. They’ve been varsity bowlers for five years already and together they have racked up an impressive array of accolades. It was only fitting that Allison Carola and Lindsey Rosen sat at adjacent tables in the Mechanicville High School library two days before Thanksgiving to sign their respective letters of intent to continue their bowling careers in Division I colleges in 2014.

Read the entire article in the Dec. 5th issue of the Express.

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“The Only Sound Was Hoofbeats and Drumbeats” – By Sandy McBride

Greg Connors was just 9 years old when he stood alongside a street in Washington, D. C. with his dad, John H. Connors, and watched the funeral procession of our 35th president, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, pass by.

A fourth grader at St. Paul’s School at the time, Greg says, “I was just a kid.  I didn’t really know what it was I was watching, but I knew it was something of historic significance”.

And 50 years later, he remembers it like it was yesterday. John had lifted Greg up to stand on a trash can so he could see it all.  What Greg remembers most vividly is the silence.  As the horse-drawn caisson carrying the president’s flag-draped coffin followed by the symbolic riderless horse passed by, Greg recalls that the only sounds to be heard were the clip-clop of hoofbeats on the pavement and the solemn cadence of drumbeats.

The entire article is in the Nov. 21st issue of The Express - now online.

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VFW’s Gift to MACSC – By Sandy McBride

They’ve served in all branches of the military.  They have seen action in World War II, the Korean conflict, the Viet Nam War, the Cuban missile blockade and the Dominican Republic. When the United States faced a perilous situation, they were there. They have given much of themselves to their country.  And on 11/12/13 our local veterans of Elmer E. Ellsworth Post #6328 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars gave once again for the good of their community.

Read the entire article in the Nov. 28th edition of The Express - now online.

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Fundraiser for JP Honsinger – By Sandy McBride

“He’s just a 10 year old kid, running around.”

So says Donna Wojtowicz Honsinger of Clifton Park of her son, JP.  But less than two months ago, Donna and her husband Jay learned that JP’s eye problems, balance issues and occasional seizures put that fun-loving and active boy into a rare group of fighters.  Concerned about his vertical gaze palsy and the balance issues, a neurologist had sent them to Boston Children’s Hospital in June for a skin biopsy.  Further tests were administered in September after he suffered a minor fall at his school, followed by a seizure.

“We were thinking maybe epilepsy,” Donna says.

Full Article in the Nov. 14 issue of the Express

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Kids from 5 Counties Write Anti-Bullying Song – By Sandy McBride

“Bullying is bad, bullying is wrong.  If you don’t like hurting others, then sing our bullying song!”

This is the opening line of a song written by schoolchildren from six schools in a five-county area under the mentorship of Richie Phillips, well-known radio disc jockey with WGNA 107.7, part of the team of “Sean and Richie and Bethany in the Morning”.  The students in Vicki Schuette’s fourth grade class at Stillwater Elementary School were among the young composers.

How the song was composed is a fascinating story.

“These kids never even met each other,” Richie says.

Richie, who began his grown-up life as a social studies teacher before he “turned in his blackboard for a keyboard” and became a radio personality, has long been dedicated to working with children in his “Reading, Writing and Rhyming” program which he presents in area schools.  He has been a disc jockey with WGNA for 23 years, playing the best in country music. In 2000, he was the co-recipient of the Country Music Association’s award for Best Morning Radio Show in a Mid-size Market, an award which he has also received from the New York State Broadcasters Association.  And his “Reading, Writing and Rhyming” program has twice been honored by the NYSBA.

Full article in the Nov. 14th issue of the Express

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Lincoln’s 2-Minute Gettysburg Address – By Sandy McBride

On June 30, 1863 Gettysburg, Pennsylvania was a small, quiet village of 2500 inhabitants.  It had seven churches, a college and a seminary, and it was surrounded by rolling farm fields and wooded hills.  Three days later, its streets and the nearby fields and woods were littered with the bodies of 6,000 soldiers and the rotting corpses of 3000 horses killed in an epic battle of the Civil War.  97,000 Federal soldiers had converged on Gettysburg to confront the invasion of 75,000 rebel troops. 50,000 men . . . nearly one out of every three . . . had been killed, wounded or captured. The Union had won the three day battle, but failed to end the war.

 

Read the full story in the Nov. 7th edition of the Express.