Key Communicator                                       September 9, 2009

The North East Community Center will present longtime Webutuck Teacher John
Roccanova with its annual Community Service Award, on September 20. 

The community is invited to join the celebration.

The event, a "Big Barn Dance and BBQ" will be held at Silver Mountain Hay on
Silver Mountain Road in Millerton, and is NECC's largest fundraising event
of the year. It will include a square dance with music by Mountain Laurel, a
silent auction, a barbecue with food provided by The Bottletree, as well

as the award to Mr. Roccanova.

"Mr. Roc," as he is known to all, has inspired generations of Webutuck
students to serve their community, locally, regionally, and globally. "I met
him on my first day at NECC, back in 2001," says NECC executive director
Jenny Hansell. "His students had built wooden desks for preschoolers at the
Astor Center - they were called "desks for success", and the students had
designed them so that they could be reconfigured as the students grew so
they could use them for many years."

In his 24 years at Webutuck, Mr. Roccanova has designed and led dozens,

of similar projects - for many years, his homegrown "Christmas
in April" engaged students in planting trees on the rail trail, building
window boxes for the village of Millerton, painting the firehouses in
Millerton and Amenia, cleaning up and staining the decks for the Astor
Center, and many other projects using the skills he teaches in his
Technology classroom.  Most recently his students designed signs for the
Millerton Farmer's Market - giant cutouts, in the shape of and painted like
vegetables, with phrases like "A-maize-ingly fresh food!" painted on a stalk
of corn.

John Roccanova grew up in New York City, as did his wife, Jean. He taught in
the Bronx for several years before buying property and rebuilding a

falling-down old church in Ancramdale, where he and Jean raised
their three children, Vincent, Nicole and Camille, all Webutuck graduates
(Camille was this year's valedictorian.)

"He is the perfect partner for NECC in every activity that benefits and supports

young people," said Hansell.  "He's organized music nights for high school students
and cooked soup with middle schoolers to raise money for Doctors without Borders.

He and his wife are now raising money for a PlayPump for a school and village in Africa.
They previously raised money to rebuild several classrooms in the school and to sponsor

additional teachers.  Mr. Roccanova also volunteers at Frost Valley YMCA in the Catskills

several weekends a year. Recently he helped build raised bed gardens at their farm camp.

And now the NECC is starting to dream up a new project, a schoolyard farm, based on Alice
Waters' Edible Schoolyards.  Mr. Roc is the driving force, but it fits in
perfectly with our after-school programming and the Farmer's Market."

"He has inspired generations of young people to look beyond themselves,
reach for a higher purpose, and develop a sense of ethics and generosity,"
Hansell continued. "They develop skills and learn to use them for the good
of all. Mr. Roccanova builds good citizens."

NECC's Big Barn Dance and BBQ, honoring John Roccanova, is on September 20,
2009, from 4-7pm. Tickets are available at www.neccmillerton.org or
by calling

518-789-4259, or at the door. The Silver Mountain Hay is on Silver Mountain Road between

McGhee Hill and Smithfield Road. A map is on NECC's website."