LIBERTY, NY — The ninth annual Eileen Haworth Weil Scholarship picnic was held on August 7 at Walnut Mountain Park.
The scholarship is given in memory of and to honor the legacy that Weil …
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LIBERTY, NY — The ninth annual Eileen Haworth Weil Scholarship picnic was held on August 7 at Walnut Mountain Park.
The scholarship is given in memory of and to honor the legacy that Weil left behind. As Paul Austin wrote about her for the first scholarship event, “Eileen was a passionate advocate for human rights and social and economic justice. She left a lasting legacy that hope, compassion and a sizable measure of good humor can triumph in the struggle to make a better life for all people.”
Scholarship recipient Calvin Barnett will receive $1,000 toward his college fees through the EHW Scholarship Fund at Community Foundation of Orange and Sullivan. He was recognized for the free time he spent giving tours of his college. A report from the scholarship fund notes that “one of his professors recommended a student that needed help crafting his assignments and needed some words of encouragement. Calvin, using his own experiences, was able to help the student academically, as well as giving the student moral support and increased self-confidence.”
Barnett was unable to attend, so SUNY Sullivan president Jay Quaintanace accepted the scholarship on his behalf.
At the picnic, several people whose lives reflected Weil’s values were honored.
Sonja Hedlund, the keynote speaker, paid tribute to musician Roy Tedoff, who died this year. She then said, “We’ve come together to renew our connections and our shared values, still committed to social justice, fairness, kindness and a vibrant democracy that really works… We know the times are changing, and we want to lend a hand to make these changing times ones of social justice, fairness, honesty and accountability to each other. The train that is coming is one that we are on, all of us folk, young, old and in between; people who are ready for what is coming.”
Stephen Ham introduced the first honoree, Janet Carrus, calling her “a voracious student of life, traveling the world, learning about other people’s experiences, cultures, and environments and then… this is the key… when sees problems she gets involved, she helps find solutions to help make this world a better place than she found it.” Meghan McCormack spoke about the next honoree, her father, Dan McCormack. “I can see exactly why my dad is involved with this scholarship fund and why he’s an honoree today. The last sentence of Paul Austin’s description of Eileen, where it says, ‘She provided her family, friends and community with a lasting legacy that hope, compassion and a good sense of humor can triumph in the struggle to make life better for all people,’ is exactly what I would say about my dad as well.”
She added that McCormack was involved in many groups, but what he really did was ‘[help] people get what they deserve,’ whether those were workers being underpaid or the ‘bad guys’ exploiting them.”
Zaida Chasi, who died in 2019, was honored by Sandra Oxford. “Zaida contributed immensely to helping Latino and other families in Sullivan County. She served on numerous boards and governmental advisory committees, believing that our community could always do more to empower families. She was the first bilingual outreach health worker in Sullivan County. For over 14 years she was a community care partner with the first federally funded community health center in Sullivan County, Hudson River HealthCare (HRHCare).
“The community health center movement,” Oxford continued, “is rooted in empowerment of patients and moving beyond medical services, complimenting care with patient-centered resources. Zaida was always a bright light and her work at HRHCare allowed her to illuminate and directly serve a community she loved and cared deeply about.”
This year, music was provided by Gregg “Sinatra” Schults, and Madeline Phalen sang.
The program closed with Andrew Weil, who spoke about his late wife, noting that she wouldn’t want the focus to be on her, and that we are all doing this work. He closed with “It’s not about searching for the meaning of life; it’s about giving life meaning. This is what Eileen was about.”
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