The Importance of Community

Few things make you feel as comfortable as the familiar sights, smells, and even the tastes and sounds of home. I’ve called the Rivertowns home for nearly my entire life, and it’s been a wonderful place to grow-up, to live, and to raise my own children.

Over the last several years I’ve opened a business in Tarrytown with my brother, and another of my own. I’ve also worked with and gotten to know so many local merchants through my role with the Tarrytown Sleepy Hollow Chamber of Commerce. I’ve fallen entirely in love with the towns of 10591, and indeed Westchester, all over again.

Working with and knowing real local merchants, one gains a whole new perspective on what business means. Business doesn’t have to be about stock valuations, earnings estimates or quarterly reports. Most businesses, I’ve been reminded over these last several years, are NOT about hundred-million-dollar profit and loss statements. Most businesses in this country and in our community are about people, their lives, passions, values and families.

This reality makes every struggle more poignant, every failure more impactful, and every success richer and more rewarding. As the business that I opened with my brother comes up on it’s first anniversary, I find myself grateful for the community into which we’ve been welcomed. I find among the faces and personalities of our towns, a collective soul that I am pleased to know, and one to which I wish to add just a couple of brush strokes of my own.

We’ve seen some local businesses recede into the sunset, and new ones rise and grow in their places. I’ve come to know the story behind so many, and have the opportunity to share in the joy of their successes. I’ve watched the growth and accolades of so many. The very same achievements and milestones that our Tarrytown Sleepy Hollow Patch records so well, for us all to share.

I celebrate with my friends and with my community all that we have to offer one another, whether it is support through trials, or cheers upon success.

I am so pleased by the expansion of A Nu Toy Store, our welcome new neighbor on Main St., and the planned expansion of W@tercooler after being accepted to the Westchester Business Accelerator program. I am filled with hometown pride for each new medal and trophy that Mike Love and his team garner at Coffee Labs. I smile at the addition to our hamlets of AuNaturel, Pure Mountain, Believe Juice & Books, Sun Blue Energy, Crabtree Kittle House and Rivermarket, Lighthouse Ice Cream, and the many other wonderful businesses opening around us. I am also reminded that each of these businesses represent the hopes, dreams, the best intentions and the livelihoods of all of our brothers and sisters.

I wish to them, to the other businesses new and old, and to all the people of our community, great success. and just as importantly I wish for you all the comfort and support of community.