Category: Membership

SPRING NEWSLETTER

Happy Spring from the Castleton-on-Hudson Main Street Association (COHMSA)! We are so happy to be embracing 2021 with vaccinations under our wings (in our arms) and our excitement for the future ramped up. Please join us in celebrating coming through a tough time, and know that our hearts are with those who suffered losses this past year.


 To those of you who made a membership donation, we thank you! As a 501c3 staffed by volunteers and funded entirely by donations and sponsorships, we appreciate the generosity that allows us to take on new projects and maintain existing ones. We want you to feel your money is well-spent, so please give us feedback. A special thank you to our sponsors. We have rolled your sponsorship over to cover 2021 because 2020 was such a bust.


WHAT WE’VE DONE

Calendar year 2020 was tough for everyone. We had to cancel some major events, such as a planned Bike Race, Main Street Day and Halloween Happening. But we did accomplish:

  • Main Street Cleanup
  • Main Street planter flowers
  • Rainbow lawn signs throughout the Village
  • New signal flags for nautical flagpole; new American flag
  • Participation in Diversity Parade
  • Purchase of new garbage cans in partnership with Village
  • Participation in Halloween Parade
  • Main Street Fall Decorations
  • Riverfront Park cleanup as part of Riverkeeper Sweep in collaboration with the Village
  • Created masks with “I LOVE Castleton” for membership and sale
  • Grant applications
  • Collaboration with Library to hang Snowflakes in Main Street windows
  • Monthly meetings; attendance at Village Board meetings; articles submitted to Castletonian; annual membership drive

WHAT WE’RE PLANNING

  • We are looking to expand our leadership team! Do you want to join a team working to improve our hometown and having lots of fun along the way? We have new bylaws and we’re jazzed to step up our activities. Your payment will be in the sense of service to your community and lots of laughter. People of all ages, genders and backgrounds encouraged to apply. For more information, email info@castletonmainstreet.org 
  • We are looking to increase our volunteer list. Do you have special skills or the desire to help out on an as-needed basis? Please watch your Inbox for a survey coming later this week. We’d love to add you to our database and reach out when the time comes.   
  • Volunteers needed now! We are looking for volunteers for two upcoming cleanup events: 

SAVE THESE DATES:

Main Street Triple Treat: Week of 5/17/21

Main Street StoryWalk: In collaboration with the Castleton Public Library, COHMSA invites you to bring the family down to read a book from one end of the Main Street business district to the other.

Main Street Geocaches: Caches in Castleton! Finally! Where are they? (What are they? Learn here.) Maybe you’ll be able to find them and log them. Or maybe not…

Main Street Mile: It’s not new, but it’s as good as ever. Start somewhere on Main. Walk south to the Village Hall, north to the base of Seaman Ave., and back to where you started. Boom! One mile. Look for MSM medallions and signs along the way. Fun + Healthy = WIN


Diversity Parade II: June 19th. While not a COHMSA event, we will be participating. If you’d like to help plan or know more, please contact COHcelebratingdiversity@gmail.com

Main Street Day: September 25. Join us for music, art, crafts, raffles, camaraderie. You don’t want to miss this one!

Halloween Happening: October 25. Details TBD. Ooh, scary.

GRATITUDE AND UPDATES

Happy Holidays! 2020 is coming to a close soon, and we’re looking forward to a new year. This one has been very challenging, to say the least. To those who have endured losses this year, our hearts go out to you. And while Thanksgiving looks very different this year for most of us, we want to express our gratitude for our village and for each other. The Castleton-on-Hudson Main Street Association (COHMSA) team feels very grateful that we live in a welcoming community with kind neighbors, low crime, lovely homes and beautiful scenery.


We launched our annual membership drive at the end of October and we are grateful to those who have renewed their membership or joined for the first time. Your support helps us accomplish our goals of visible change and forward our efforts in the areas of economic growth and community pride. We are 100% volunteer and the support of the community helps keep us going. It’s not too late to donate for the 2021 year!

Those who donated $50 or more got a free “I Love Castleton-on-Hudson” face mask. We are also selling them for $12 each. If interested, please email info@castletonmainstreet.org and we’ll get one to you.

In addition, while we encourage buying local and shopping small businesses, if you do shop on Amazon, consider enrolling in their Smile program and choosing us as the charity to receive a portion of your purchase. It doesn’t cost you anything extra and it helps our organization.

We would like to congratulate Joe Keegan for his win as Mayor of Castleton and Jen Pratico and Lissa D’Aquanni as Village Board Trustees. We thank Marianne Carner for always being a great liaison between COHMSA and Village Board and we welcome Lissa to joining us. We thank Bob Schmidt for his service as Mayor and Gina Giuliano for her service as Trustee.

RIVERKEEPER SWEEP: On October 17, COHMSA, in partnership with Mayor Joe Keegan and village Trustees Sharon Martin and Lissa D’Aquanni, led Riverkeeper’s annual Sweep which had been postponed from May due to COVID-19. With strict COVID safety guidelines and safe track crossing procedures, we did a huge cleanup of Riverfront Park. Drive or walk by and check out the beautiful views!
Thank you to the wonderful volunteers who came out and helped and to the Castleton Department of Public Works. We represented Rensselaer County as one of more than 65 locations from Brooklyn to Watervliet with more than 900 volunteers who came out to care for the Hudson River. Together we removed 8 tons of trash, 1 ton of recycling, and 98 tires, and planted or maintained 500+ native trees and shrubs.

Here are some other updates:

HALLOWEEN PARADE: We were delighted to participate in the vehicle parade organized by the Castleton Public Library in conjunction with the Fire Department and attended by village trustees. What a joy to see all the families lining the parade route in their costumes, excited to get the candy being tossed their way. 

FALL DECORATIONS: Thank you to Swartz Dairy & Produce for their generous donation of corn stalks and pumpkins for decorating Main Street.

CASTLETON VIDEO: You might remember that COHMSA submitted a video for HGTV’s new show, Home Town Takeover, last February. We didn’t win, unfortunately, but for some reason, it has begun circulating widely recently and we are happy for the attention and positive feedback.

MAIN STREET PROPERTY OWNERS: We see you! Thank you to those who have recently made improvements either by painting, cleaning or repairing your property. Every little bit helps Main Street look nicer. 

NAUTICAL FLAGPOLE: The nautical signal flags, which spell “WELCOME HOME,” have been taken down for the winter. The American flag will continue to fly and will be replaced as needed. (Last year, the replacement was delayed due to shipping issues related to COVID.)

As always, we welcome ideas and suggestions.
Email:

 info@castletonmainstreet.org 
Website:

 www.castletonmainstreet.org 
Facebook and Instagram:

COHMSA 

Wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday season – 

Team COHMSA

SPRING 2020

We hope the start of the new decade has brought you renewed energy and enthusiasm. The Castleton-on-Hudson Main Street Association (COHMSA) is excited for the future!

Coming this year:
COHFAM Spring Fest on Friday, March 13 at 4:30 to 7:30 pm – Come stop by our table at the Castleton Fire Department, visit https://www.facebook.com/COHFAM/ for more information.

First annual open meeting for membership and interested others – COMING SOON!

Spring Cleanup Day – volunteers greatly appreciated!

Fourth Annual Main Street Day

Fun Halloween Event at the Village Inn – Sunday, October 25

Announcements:
COHMSA received a grant for three dog waste stations. We gifted them to the Village and they’ve been installed on and near Main Street. Please use them to clean up after your dog.

The signal flags that hang from the nautical flagpole and spell WELCOME HOME will be raised again in April and flown throughout the spring, summer and early fall.

“Meet Me on Main” flower boxes are coming back!

We submitted an entry to the upcoming HGTV show, Home Town Takeover! We agreed with the other applicants that more is better. Cross your fingers, everyone! Please view our submission video on our You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvZ6ih5wCDVfMT3p8oF_4vg

Membership: We would like to thank our members for their support. We are working on our email list to communicate better with you. If you haven’t received any emails from us in the past 6 months, please send your email address to: info@castletonmainstreet.org

Sponsors: We would like to welcome our 2020 sponsors: D’Lish Catering, Becker’s Farm, Flair for Hair, Maple Hill Trees, Sacred Heart Church VanDeWal Coating Company, and Schodack Podiatry. Thank you for supporting our efforts!

For information on becoming a member or sponsor, please visit our website.

Contact us: info@castletonmainstreet.org
Website: castletonmainstreet.org
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: COHMSA