Life was anything but easy growing up on Cutler Street during the early 1940s. At the time, the bustling street in Schenectady’s Mont Pleasant neighborhood was crowded with low-income and immigrant families. Poverty was common, and there was seldom time to do anything but work.
Edwin Bentley has been busy.
He spent a week recently cleaning up trash on bike trails in Schenectady, mowing lawns, sweeping business parking lots, taking his neighbors to doctors’ appointments and, for recreation, reading Steinbeck novels at the Schenectady Public library.
Ian Butler was shocked when he found out he had been named “Intern of the Year” by the Center for Economic Growth for his work at a Saratoga Springs business.
When she was 4 years old, Scotia resident Ashly Markowski began wrapping presents for needy children living at the Northeast Parent and Child Society’s housing facilities during the holidays.
Leslie Lane of Schaghticoke is used to keeping busy. And at 92, he’s found a new pastime that is benefiting military morale in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as hospitalized children and nursing home residents.
Whether he’s fetched mail for working folks or tended to household chores for the elderly and shut-ins, Harold “Pooch” Hagadorn has always volunteered his service with a smile.
Allan Carter answers horse racing journalists’ questions, spends hours compiling historical statistics and researches every jockey, trainer and horse nominated to the Hall of Fame.
Although Andre LaPointe doesn’t speak a word of Spanish, he’s shown up for Schenectady’s Spanish-speaking Mass every Sunday for more than 10 years now.
