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Largest facility in area with most off street parking
Daniel J. Enea 3rd Generation Funeral Director
VOLUME 5: NUMBER 1
JANUARY 2025
It’s a Labyrinth Ethel, not a Maze
thought a labyrinth was a maze. Most of the time, OK, it’s a catchy headline, the cathedral has chairs but those who are on top of the labyrinth, captivated by Labyrinths so you didn’t even know want to make sure that it was a labyrinth. I didn’t everyone knows they even really know it was a are not mazes. And here labyrinth, to tell the truth.” in Little Falls, a group has organized to build She went back to the their own and add it to location with the kids the work being done at from school in 1994, the new Buttermilk Falls learned more about Park. them, and said, “This is wild. This thing has been If you want to know the a meditative device since history of Labyrinths, the Middle Ages, and it’s you must read Rosann in a Catholic cathedral, Scalise’s article about and that’s really weird.” them, which will be published on Monday, Collings said, “The January 6th. whole idea is to put a question in your mind Sharon Collins is one when you start and then of those involved in walk towards the center. the project. She said, Like life, you are trying “I ran into the labyrinth to get to the center and in Chartres Cathedral get your answers, but in France in 1989. That like life, you think you’re was my first introduction getting closer, but the to a walk of a labyrinth way a labyrinth is built because I was like - all of a sudden, you’re everyone else. I just turned around the other By Dave Warner
Vili Mang (left) and Sharon Collins review the site where the Buttermilk Falls Labyrinth will be located.
way, leaving the center.” “If you’ve been quiet and meditative while you’re walking, you get to the center and listen, and perhaps, you’ll receive direction. Some people use it very spiritually, and others, downright religiously,” she stated. The twists and turns in a labyrinth represent life. “You think you’re going where you want to go, in the state, offering services and supports to disabled residents, he noted, but Arc Herkimer stands out. “We’ve done things differently. Most Arcs tend to be pretty conservative,” Crosley said, adding that one way of operating is not better than another. “That’s just not who we are.”
An on-site woodworking shed at Arc Herkimer’s Gail W. Brown Center offers James and other agency clients the opportunity to tackle woodworking projects. Photo provided by Arc Herkimer
Crosley has served as head of the operation since 2005 and plans to retire at the end of 2025 after 40 years in the industry, which he said he “fell into it on kind By Donna Thompson of a fluke.” He has a Herkimer, master’s degree in sports A golf and event center President and CEO management. “But it is not likely to be the first Kevin Crosley admits (Arc) fit my personal and thing that comes to mind these are not traditional business value system. when one thinks of an projects for a New York It’s been really fulfilling.” Arc chapter. State Arc chapter, an agency dedicated to When he arrived from Neither are a retail store “empowering people with Cortland County, “I didn’t selling new and gently disabilities and enriching know a soul here,” he used goods, a cafe, or lives throughout our said. But he found the a recreation park, but community.” There is a board and staff “receptive they’re all part of Arc chapter in every county to an entrepreneurial
Arc Herkimer is working to build community
and suddenly, life throws a curve at you. But if you stay steady, you get to the center.” Collins said that she came back home loving labyrinths, and she uses the worldwide labyrinth locator to see if there is one nearby when she travels. “It was disappointing to me that in the Mohawk Valley, there are only two. The closest is a five or seven
circuit one in a cemetery in Clinton, and the other is kind of mowed into a cornfield up on Firey Hill Road,” she said. She said she had the idea for one locally when she was working at the Mohawk Valley Center for the Arts in 2019. However, like so many things, COVID-19 hit, and the idea died. Please See ETHEL Page 3
spirit.”
The first new enterprise was the goods store, Arc Herkimer has come which Arc Herkimer a long way since its operated for 10 years in founding in 1969 by a partnership with Goodwill group of parents who and for the past six years were concerned about on its own. The past three who would look after their years have been the most disabled children when successful, Crosley said, they were no longer able noting that the location to do so. Programming at 105 N. Caroline St., started with 20 children Herkimer, near Wal-Mart, and teens participating McDonald’s, and other in a summer camp. The businesses, is a good parents also saw a need one. for training that would prepare these children The store, along with non-traditional for employment when other projects and grant funding they became adults. - the agency has a fullFifty-five years later, Arc time grant writer - have Herkimer has grown to an allowed Arc Herkimer to agency with 35 locations reduce its reliance on that employs some 120 Medicaid funding from 90 people, both disabled percent to 57 percent. and non-disabled, and Arc Herkimer supports more than 600 The people through seven Business Park in the factory divisions that offer a refurbished building at 420 E. German variety of services and St., Herkimer, now houses opportunities. more than 20 tenants in And “Building Community” its 120,000 square feet of space, including various is its slogan. Please See ARC Page 2
W W W . M Y L I T T L E F A L L S . C O M
BILL MACRI
ASSOCIATE BROKER C: 315.360.1920 O: 315.866.2209 bill.joemacrirealty@gmail.com joemacrirealty.com
235 S. Main St. Herkimer, NY 13350