students of all ages-- help us form new Dream Dutchess Coalition in our county-- see YesMagazine.org for inspiration!...

Hi all... Yes! magazine still brags (understandably and justifiably) about being the favorite magazine of Dutchess County's own late great living legend Pete Seeger... It really is an amazing publication-- with an even better website-- www.yesmagazine.org ... After twenty years of community activism here in Dutchess (and twelve years in our County Legislature), I have decided to focus my energies on building a truly intergenerational fan club-- a discussion club, really, for Yes! magazine and its website-- hopefully with representation and participation from every single public and private school across our county-- to work on new cutting-edge ideas... Check out www.yesmagazine.org if you haven't yet...(grist for mill of a Dream Dutchess Coalition!) In particular-- the five topic headings at the www.yesmagazine.org website: -- "New Economy"..."Happiness"..."People Power"..."Planet"..."Peace and Justice"... Perhaps the reason why Pete Seeger loved the magazine so much (and I as well) is because the hard-copy publication and the website day in, day out, week in week out, month in month out, consistently point out places across the U.S. and the world where positive, innovative, win-win, sustainable solutions to current problems are highlighted and profiled... As the cover of every Yes! magazine so succintly states in its top-left corner: "Powerful Ideas, Practical Actions"! So-- pls let us know as soon as possible if you'd like to join us for our potlucks to kick this off!... [we'll first try to start monthly-- unless significant interest is there-- then we'll biweekly or weekly; not just to work on new ideas-- but also to update/celebrate any progress locally too-- trade notes] Just imagine Dream Dutchess Coalition potluck meetings (even with music-- perhaps folksingers)... Imagine adults of all ages pulling together to collaborate to form a Dream Dutchess Coalition... Imagine college students participating from all over our county-- from DCC, Marist, Vassar, Bard, beyond... Imagine high school students from each of our county's thirteen public school districts-- Arlington, Beacon, Dover, Hyde Park, Millbrook, Pawling, Pine Plains, Poughkeepsie, Red Hook, Rhinebeck, Spackenkill, Wappingers, Webutuck-- coming together regularly to also trade notes and ideas and bring forth new stuff... [imagine not just high school students participating in this-- but also middle-schoolers and elementary students as well-- why not?...(students of all ages crucial, for example, in moving Dutchess to zero waste)] Imagine students of all ages from Dutchess County's many amazing private schools as well participating in our new Dream Dutchess Coalition project as well-- from the Poughkeepsie Day School, Oakwood Friends School, Dutchess Day School, Millbrook School, Randolph School, and Our Lady of Lourdes High School-- and Oasis Christian School, Upton Lake Christian School, Kildonan School, Maplebrook School, Ridge School, Astor Learning Center, St. Mary's School, Bethel Christian Academy, Anderson Center for Autism, Millenial Kingdom Family School, Regina Coeli Elementary, Hawk Meadow Montessori School, Nurtury Montessori School, Cardinal Hayes for Special Children, St. Joseph's Elementary, Mizzentop Day School, Trinity-Pawling School, Faith Christian Academy, Holy Trinity School, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Poughkeepsie Seventh Day Adventist, St. Martin DePorres School, St. Peter's Elementary School, Tabernacle Christian Academy, Devereux, Northern Dutchess Christian Academy, and St. Mary's School... [note-- for many years I've convinced a number of GOP and Dem colleagues of mine in our County Legislature to annually convene a gathering of the best and brightest local students from Dutchess County high school student governments for a kind of "student leadership summit" in our County Legislature's chambers; unfortunately the current leadership of our County Legislature has not followed through and acted on this idea-- but this new Dream Dutchess Coalition project goes well beyond just seeking out the wonderful students across our county who have chosen to get involved formally in their schools' student governments-- this project seeks to find students of all ages willing to build on Yes! magazine!] So-- what do you say?... [...would love to have a student volunteer to launch a Facebook page and actual website for Dream Dutchess Coalition; who's on board?] Let's do this! Joel Tyner County Legislator Clinton/Rhinebeck www.DutchessDemocracy.blogspot.com 845-464-2245/876-2488 joeltyner@earthlink.net [I myself also happen to have 28 years worth of experience working with students in public and private schools-- including currently with at-risk youth; taught math in the Bronx for five years, music teacher in Poughkeepsie, etc.; this subject is near and dear to me; our kids are our future.]