UCRRA Educator Eva Barret made a great presentation about Bokashi and demonstrated how to make Bokashi bran. Participants left with enough to compost five gallons of kitchen scraps.

While the Bokashi bran ferments for two weeks, Joanna is preparing buckets for a demonstration system at the Community Center hallway soon!

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"Bokashi what?"

It's a type of indoor composting from Japan that is easy, as long as you have the bran, which is what you'll have by the time you leave this workshop! 

Did you know that all the kitchen scraps you throw away get trucked 250 miles to the Seneca Meadows landfill in Watertown, New York? In diesel trucks! If you’ve ever been compost curious, if it’s been on your list of things you’ve been wanting to start doing, this is a great opportunity to make it happen!

Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency (UCRRA) educators Eva Barnett and Angelina Brandt will be here to answer questions and guide us through the fun process of making homemade bran, which is cheap if you DIY it, expensive if you buy it.

We will be setting up an example Bokashi system at the Center's hallway soon. It will be announced here when it’s up and running.

You can read more about Bokashi composting here.

Register here.

THANK YOU WENDY AT SECOND NATURE FOR PROVIDING OUR WHEAT BRAN AND MOLASSES FOR THE WORKSHOP!

Saturday, March 7th from 12:00 to 2:00pm. (Community Center)

We all had so much fun at Melanie's community sewing event! She brought in a vast expanse of beautiful, thrifted fabrics already sewn together. Participants saw combinations of patterns that inspired them, cut it out to size for an oven mitt or pot holder, stitched the pieces together on her gorgeous vintage machines, or took the project home to finish, along with patterns to make more. I'm pretty sure most left with the feeling of "I want to sew more!" It was fun doing it all together. Huge "thank you" to Melanie Gonzalez for hosting one of her incredible community sewing events at our Center! She will also be exhibiting her beautiful photographs on our walls very soon!

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Participants of the sewing workshop will learn basic techniques of hand or machine sewing and set up for a handmade home goods project. Everyone will get to explore sewing stations, prep materials, and experience vintage sewing machines and sergers.

Melanie Gonzalez is an Ulster County based photographic artist. Her photography has a concentration on vibrant double exposures of architectural landscapes and flora. Her sewing combines photographic studio skills, with textile printing, patchwork quilting, including upcycled garments and accessories. She is also a recipient of the 2022-23 Creatives Rebuild NY Grant. Melanie’s mission as a New York-based artist is to mesh the worlds of high art and street style. She produces photo art under “Melanie Gonzalez Art”: Professional International Photo, Video and Sound established in 2014, and “Piedra y Sombra Designs” as part of Suzanna Productions (Photo, Sewing and Admin., est. 2019). www.suzannaproductions.com

Free and open to the public. All ages welcome.

Register below or email recreation@townofnewpaltzny.gov to sign up.

Saturday, February 7th from 2:00 to 5:00pm. (Community Center)

Attention local seniors!

Have you, or a senior you know, ever thought about attending the Thursday Community Café Lunch at the New Paltz Community Center? 

Now would be a great time to take advantage of this wonderful service! 

With the uncertainty of federal funding, the Ulster County Office of the Aging needs more attendees, otherwise they will be compelled to move this beloved event elsewhere. Current attendees are an easy-going and welcoming bunch. Lisa, the server, is a treasure. 

Help to keep our New Paltz location! 

To pre-register for the meal, call 845-331-2180. Vegetarian options are available upon request at pre-registration.
$3 suggested donation.

Thursdays from 12:00 to 1:00pm. (Community Center)

On September 4th, Mike Murphy of Cornell Cooperative came to our Community Center compost bins to advise new SUNY student interns Aiden and Ben on compost maintenance. SUNY professor Eric Keeling will advise them on a research exercise pertaining to the compost. The interns will also be helping to aerate and maintain the compost system on Thursday afternoons. You are welcome to say hi!

Here is a picture of Mike explaining to Aiden, Ben, Eric, and community volunteer Steven that the compost should reach 130 degrees or more for peak decomposition activity.

Here the decomposing material is laid out on a tarp to search for the organisms that do that work.

Here is an example of one such organism.

Here a participant adds her kitchen scraps while the guys shovel the compost from one bin to another. The larger the pile, the more efficiently it will decompose, the faster it will turn to ready compost.

Here they are adding moisture to the pile with buckets of water. Water is important for keeping the microbial activity alive.

Here is a picture of the ready compost. Please take! Bring your gloves so you can sift out the plastic bits.

We have a beautiful new flower mural in the Community Center hallway, thanks to New Paltz High Piglets Ady, Ella, and Joe, with the assistance of Alex! They will be adding a seed library to the display soon! Thank you, Piglets!

Pictures: The sketch, starting to paint, in progress, and finished!

Hannah Fox, MA, RYT 500, has danced all of her life – it is her love language. She studied and taught dance in NYC for many years as well as at Manhattanville College as a tenured dance and theatre professor for almost two decades. $15-25 sliding scale.

See flyer here.

Monday, December 8th from 5pm to 6pm. (Community Center)

Join San Diego 2025 Western Ultimate Champion Deanna Abrams (and Director of Wayfinder) for a two day clinic for kids and kid's adults of all ages at Duzine Elementary gym.

See flyer here. Sign up here.

Sponsored by https://ultimateforall.com

January 6th and 13th from 5:30 to 7:00pm. (Duzine Elementary)

The New Paltz FireWolves U13 Ultimate Frisbee Travel Team hosted its first middle school tournament at the Field of Dreams on October 12, and it was a great success! First prize was a bushel of apples generously donated by Dressel Farms. The Skytop Showdown hosted Burlington Vermont, Schenectady, NY, Maplewood NJ, Montclair NJ and Tenafly NJ. The FireWolves finished 2-2 while Niskayuna MS (Schenectady) won the tournament and Burlington took second place. The event brought happy visitors to our town and Hudson Valley Ultimate For All hopes to host another great event in the spring.

Peter Blum took participants on a sound journey using his vast range of instruments from around the world. The arrangement of instruments set up next to him was a spectacle in itself. One hand-made percussion panel was given to him by his friend, the late Jack DeJohnette, world renowned jazz drummer, also of Woodstock. At one memorable moment, his singing voice melded into an accompanying instrumental sound for an other worldly effect.

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Join us for an evening soundscape with Peter Blum. He will play a variety of gongs, Himalayan singing bowls, Sabian resonating bells, handpan, tamboura, ngoni, frame drum, and vocals.

Saturday, November 8 from 7:00 to 8:00pm (Community Center)

Thank you to our wonderful student teachers for bringing fun and inspiring art classes to our Center! Participants loved the sessions! We look forward to more Creative Corner Fridays starting in September!

Open to middle school students, SUNY New Paltz Art Education students rotate to provide a new project every week. They will post updates on their Instagram at np.creativecorner.

To register for the new FALL 2025 sessions, click here.

FREE

Fridays from 5:00 to 7:00pm starting mid September. Please keep an eye on their Instagram for starting date. (Community Center)