Risqué with some raw language “Disenchanted!” is a Disney princess performance where the kids stay home
As the curtain opened this past Sunday for the matinee of “Disenchanted!” at Hardscrabble Theater on Long Island, the weekend run marked their premiere mainstage musical production with a hilarious yet strong-willed spoof on the masculine ideals placed on beloved Disney Princesses.
The Hardscrabble Theater at St. Thomas Episcopal Church located on Conklin Street in Farmingdale, NY is set quaintly back with a patio garden entrance just steps away from the intersection of bustling restaurants on Main Street to take in a meal before or after the show. Having stepped into many theaters over the course of my career in New York City, New Orleans, LA, and London, I instantly felt I was looking upon a local theater hidden gem that I had long been looking for on Long Island.
Walking in through the open wooden doors, there is nothing small about the audience entrance. While the stage itself holds a tightly squeezed cast of 11 with little to no props in an all-female-vocally-explosive cast the theater is classic and spacious with seating that can hold up to 100 people.
Directed by Rita Sarli, the story of “Disenchanted!” sets the stage and the tone for the comedy to come with an opening from a sassy and there to set-the-record-straight Snow White who explains to the audience that all of the princesses we were about to hear stories from had fallen to “The Princess Complex;” being tricked by the real spell of believing their tiaras always ended in happily ever after.
The delivery of comedic one-liners from characters referring to their own movies with sarcasm and a disgruntled release were great laughs for the audience from Snow White’s “One more whistle while you work, I am going to scream” to Ariel’s post-wish to be part of your world blues anthem, “I can’t believe I swapped the seven seas for a prince and a pair of these [legs].”
The score was fun and risqué with some raw language here and there making this show a Disney princess performance where the kids stay home. For mature teens and up it is a humorous twist of a tale taking on real emotional pressures such as the ideals of being perfect and standards that feel impossible to live up to as the princesses speak their truths.
“Disenchanted!” made me think if there was a fictional reality show of behind-the- scenes at the Bippity Boppity Boutique where the princesses were the stars this would be it.
With a runtime under two hours and a 15-minute intermission the show flowed with great pace leaving the feeling of just the right ending while wanting to see it again.
“Disenchanted!” runs again for its final weekend this Friday and Saturday, Oct. 3 and 4 at 8 p.m. with the closing performance Sunday, Oct. 5 at 3 p.m.
Tickets can be purchased in advance online at hardscrabbletheater.com or in person at the door.
Twisted Sister bassist continues to rock a new generation with solo projects, collaborations and storytelling
By Amy Nicole
With hit songs such as, “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and “I Wanna Rock” Mark “The Animal” Mendoza rose to fame as Twisted Sister’s bassist and has since left no stone unturned rocking on stage, talking about music as a profession, and living a life he promised he would.
Most people have defining moments in their life and for Mark, as he reflected on his career, he said, the first of many came from his parents. Both his parents, WWII veterans, gave him strong examples of courage as well as an introduction to music.
At about 6-years-old, living in Malverne, N.Y., the Long Island native said he recalled his first memories of music from when he watched his parents dance to swing music. Even though he didn’t know what it was really about, he said, the one thing that got him was the rhythm of the music.
“At the time, they were into two types of music. They were into big band music, swing and the crooners,” he said.
Having picked up his first salvaged guitar at the age of 9, Mark, who was seemingly determined from the start, took his meager savings to a local music store to get some strings. Thankfully Mark said, the man who worked there was kind enough to put the strings on for him and show him how to do it.
By the age of 12, Mark picked up his first bass; essentially self-taught listening to 50’s rock on the radio like Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis. He said he realized quickly there were many more openings for a bass player and the rest was history.
“Everything I have done professionally has been on bass,” he said.
Throughout high school Mark not only became engulfed in music, but he also became an avid mechanic with a passion for motors, cars, motorcycles and a life on the road he still lives out today.
In 1974 after he had graduated high school, his friend Freddy came to him to get him to try out for this rock band: The Dictators. In that instance, his entire destiny came to life.
At the time, he considered it a wild proposition. His friend told him it wasn’t going to be music he liked but told him he thought the band was going places. He recalled him saying: “just be yourself and show them how it’s done.”
Taking a leap of faith, Mark said he learned all ten songs in about ten minutes and showed up for the audition at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
“To this day when I play a great gig with Twisted Sister, Joel Rock and the Allstars, anybody, I will give a good poke in the chest and yell, ‘That’s how it’s done,’” followed by a two-word expletive he said, which has turned out to be a line many people he performs with have come to know him for.
Through his emerging years with The Dictators rocking giant hair and touring with bands like Blue Oyster Cult until 1978 fate then brought along his induction to Twisted Sister. The band founded by Jay Jay French and eventually Dee Snider, called home to Long Island and New Jersey and when Mark was home in between tours he said he would go check them out.
Already knowing TS, having seen them on the scene, Mark said he signed on to help out on the road as a tour manager in his downtime post Dictators. He traveled on tour with three loaded sets every night; giving him the opportunity to jump on stage and play all the time.
“I played every night. Sometimes during the main shows. I knew all the songs, all the copy songs. I knew the originals,” he said.
Despite his relationship with the band, he said, he was in complete shock when the tour was over and Jay Jay French called him up during the wee hours of one Sunday morning telling him he had a band for him.
While trying to wrap his brain around the conversation he was having, he could only ask: “What band?” In which Jay Jay simply said: “Twisted Sister.”
After an absolute “yes,” the true heart of the matter came to the forefront of his mind; telling his hero and veteran father who was gravely ill in the hospital.
Having always been supportive of Mark’s passion for music and knowing the guys in the band, Mark said his father congratulated him on the news. It was only four days before his opening show while visiting his father, who he recalls still being a powerful man, when he said he squeezed his hand and made him promise as he made that jump in WWII he would do the same no matter what happens.
The next day on December 7, 1978, Pearl Harbor Day, Mark’s father Ray passed away and in time of grief his mom insisted he make his debut. That’s what his father would have wanted him to do. Three days later, he kept going as promised and on December 10, 1978, Mark debuted as the new bassist of Twisted Sister.
“I think about the chronological order of those four days. The happiest times of my life and the saddest time,” he said.
Life for Mark was forever given new meaning in that moment, and he never looked back. In the years that followed Mark traveled the world with TS opening for bands such as Iron Maiden and Metallica. With that he also earned the nickname “the animal” among peers as a larger-than-life bass player who meant business on and off the stage.
Throughout the years Mark has never stopped working with independent artists, playing in bands, writing and producing songs, hosting radio shows, voiceovers, and even acting to his credit.
In a world where collaboration has recently become the mainstream definition of a working concept long been practiced Mark has built an entire career through the art of collaborating.
At any given time, he can be found getting on stage with local bands and stepping out to support, recording in the studio, writing songs, or at the radio station working on various projects.
Most recently, Mark can be heard on Long Island’s 94.3 The Shark on the new Sunday night rock show, “Rock and a Hard Place” hosted alongside longtime friends and radio personalities Rob Rush and Billy Mira.
While Mark is the founder of his own production company, Area 22 Productions, where during the pandemic the trio hosted their first show together, “Rollin With,” he said he is currently focused on his work with 94.3 The Shark.
In a time where the world of radio is ever evolving, Mark said he is grateful for station parent Connoisseur Media being such an example of great support giving Rob, program director for The Shark, the platform for them to bring their interviews, song picks and conversations of past and present rock music to listeners on the airwaves and through streaming.
“That’s the wave of the future and the future is here; It’s what people are doing, and I put it out it there to my fans around the world they can stream it,” he said.
For those local or visiting fans to Long Island looking to take in some Twisted Sister music history the Long Island Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame located in Stony Brook, N.Y. has become home to memorabilia and original costumes for the 2006 inductees.
Whether Mark is playing bass on stage, writing songs and scripts, acting in films as cameos like he did with Twisted Sister for “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure” in 1985 or independent films he is currently working on, he said he just loves doing it all.
“I love it as much as I did when I was 12 years old,” he said.
Playbill.com founding editor, author, and journalist shares lifelong passion for turning theatre into news
By Amy Nicole
For decades Robert Viagas has been a leading voice of Broadway news, most notably as Playbill.com’s founding editor, but with a new book release, Right This Way: A History of the Audience, his passion for telling stories continues to burn.
Now in an unexpected turn in post-retirement, he continues his career as editor-in-chief of the Atlanta based program company, Encore Magazine. What started out with working one day a week beginning in 2020, has since grown rapidly following Robert’s expertise with Playbill, creating programs such as the Tony Playbill and distinguished reputation that accompanies. He now creates programs for 22 theatres in 15 cities including Broadway Across America (BAA).
“We grew very quickly and we’re still getting calls,” he said.
The start of his career, in essence, began in high school at 17-years-old while writing theatre reviews for the Franklin Square Bulletin on Long Island, NY. At that time, he said, he didn’t really know he wanted to be a writer he just loved seeing shows.
However, what he did know, he said, was at a young age he had passion for theatre coming from a working-class family. Writing reviews was a win-win after learning it was a way to see shows for free.
Prior to his spark for writing, came his intrigue of the stage at the young age of 12 when he saw “The Fantasticks” by Tom Jones, his now friend, at the old Westbury Music Fair with his father.
For Robert, he said it was a “seminal” moment for him when the character Henry, the Old Actor (a Shakespeare actor who is not) left the audience laughing with the line, “Screw your courage to the sticking place,” and he had no idea why it was funny. He asked his father why everyone was laughing and with a classic parental response his father simply said he would tell him when he was older.
“This was seminal for me because it made me feel theatre was full of secrets; a secret knowledge I had to learn,” he said reflecting. “I really have spent the whole rest of my life pursuing that secret knowledge.”
Since then, Robert has spent the collective of his life exploring every avenue leading to what creates the draw for theatre, including: the love for performance, and the different ways humans gather as an audience. This is also the core of his first chapter from Right This Way, “Gathering Around the Fire.”
Having gone into his college years at Hofstra University as pre-vet, Robert’s passion for being a theatre writer took over after he received an internship with Newsday. The internship inspired him to switch gears and graduate with a major in communications as part of his three minors including one in theatre.
As fate would have it, Robert walked right into news on July 13, 1977, while on his way to see a Broadway show after he passed by the Daily News on East 42nd Street playing backdrop as Superman shot the first movie lighting up the NYC skyline with giant flood lights. Moments later when he walked into the theatre everything went dark. Not knowing it was city wide, he thought that Superman had caused the lights to go out.
He raced back to his friend’s apartment and called Newsday’s city desk when the editorial page editor and Pulitzer Prize winner, Sylvan Fox who Robert said never would talk to an intern took his call after telling the receptionist he had a great story, “Superman Blacksout NY.”
For the next two days Robert said he interviewed people and went back down to where the movie was shooting when a woman who was there said to him, “Where is Superman when you need him?”
The woman’s quote became quote of the week and Robert won 3rd place in an AP Byline Award during his internship etching Broadway news on his resume. This, unknowingly, set the bar for a life in the heart of it all to come.
“Because I had done the internship at Newsday, doors opened for me,” he said.
Without wasting any time, Robert received his first writing assignment post-college in 1978 only two weeks after graduation in Westchester County with the former Gannett newspapers, now known as Lohud. At that time, he was a general assignment reporter.
Fast forward to 1980, after paying his due diligence, Robert was given the chance to become a theatre critic for the same newspaper at the aspiring age of 24.
But what was a temporary assignment in title, led to staying a part of the theatre coverage writing local reviews for theatres such as Yale Repertory Theatre (having reviewed all their shows in the 80’s) and Goodspeed Opera House.
“I used to go out to lunch with August Wilson, because he was unknown at the time and he was just writing his first plays,” Robert said.
Robert was in the front row as theatre history during that time period unfolded right before his eyes as he took in countless shows on their way to Broadway. He also interviewed memorable emerging playwrights such as the late aforementioned Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, August Wilson. He recalled how August loved to talk about listening to old blues records and would tell him that the music would tell him how the characters sound.
While Robert embraced the opportunities to get his start, he said the dream to be a writer in NYC continued to grow, feeling like a wall he could not break through. That was until the creation of the internet and a company called Prodigy which led him directly to the beginning of playbill.com.
At the heart of this dream to be a writer in NYC was an even grander dream, Robert said, to start a newspaper where theatre was on the front page every day.
With the concept of creating a daily theatre page that would reach “1,000 Points of Light,” he pitched his idea to publishers. Sadly, though, there wasn’t enough call for that in print. Determined and innovative, he turned to Prodigy, one of the first online services local to him, and asked them if they were looking for an editor.
The answer from Prodigy was yes, and Robert became a “Theatre Expert,” a title to this day, he said, is his “most proud title he has ever had from any job,” answering questions from subscribers before there were browsers. Eventually Robert’s role grew from arts editor to producer. It was a true moment when the then publisher of Playbill, Philip S. Birsh came to Prodigy and asked for help to become the “encyclopedia of theatre” on the internet.
Robert said they discussed creating “Who’s Who” on the forum, how to find out about any show, any actor, anytime and how to monetize with ads. Responding to the idea of becoming an encyclopedia, Robert proposed the question, “How many ads do you see in an encyclopedia versus how many do you see in a newspaper?”
Answering his own question he continued: “I said, what you want to be is the newspaper of theatre.” And in 1994 Robert became the webmaster of Playbill.com bringing “theatre news” from print to the internet 110 years after the theatre program magazine, Playbill Inc. was founded by Frank Vance Strauss in 1884.
Originally called Playbill On-Line, the new platform was launched in August of 1994 with a plot summary of “Hamlet” written by Robert making it the first item entered into the database still used to this day.
All the while focusing on writing theatre news, a pivotal moment as an emerging author came along when Robert said he interviewed his now late mentor author (The Ghost Flight 401) and Saturday Review Magazine columnist, John Fuller, who became an inspiration behind his work. With Robert’s eventual release of the book, Good Morning, Olive; Haunted Theatres of Broadway and Beyond, he said John was a direct influence on his ghostly storytelling.
“He (John) was skeptical but so many people told him the same stories it actually inspired the book that I wrote,” he said.
Robert states he has never had a “ghostly experience” himself but became captivated by so many people who had with stories so consistent. With a concept in place and content building underway for his Playbill Broadway Yearbook, he said he simply started asking the question: “Have you had a ghostly experience? And they started answering.”
Over 10 years, Robert said he started a spreadsheet of every row, every theatre and found the theatres that always had ghosts and some theatres that never had any ghost stories. It was when the late Playbill columnist, editor, and longtime ghost story collector, Louis Botto retired leaving unanswered phone calls from people calling in with ghost stories when Robert really got an earful taking over calls.
“A lot of times people just want to be comforted. They just want to be told they’re not crazy,” he said, and felt like he really calmed people down just by telling them there were other people having the same experience.
While Good Morning, Olive holds a special place for Robert he said his favorite books to have written so far have been On the Line: The Creation of “A Chorus Line” with Baayork Lee and two-time Tony award winner, Thommie Walsh and The Amazing Story of “The Fantasticks” with Donald C. Farber thanks to the collaborative work of his then agent, Mitch Douglas.
Robert said, Mitch the late literary agent to greats such as Tennessee Williams, Lanford Wilson and Arthur Miller took him on as a client and an unpublished author as a result of his mentorship with John but told him he had to come up with an idea for a book.
With an equal love for music and composers, Robert said he pitched an idea about different generations of Broadway composers, but Mitch came back and said nobody was interested in that.
However, he told Robert what caught his eye was the chapter on “A Chorus Line” as he had on his desk content from the original cast who had been trying to write a book about their experience.
He said Mitch told the cast they needed a writer to bring it all together and asked him if he was interested in taking that on. Of course, the answer was yes, and the rest is so-called history.
“I was going to create a story arc in the book, a story of the creation of the show and I was going to let each person tell a section of the story; it would be like The Canterbury Tales,” he described.
With over 20 books to Robert’s credit, other published works include: The Playbill Broadway Yearbook, the Tony Playbill, and The Alchemy of Theatre: The Divine Science: Essays on Theatre and the Art of Collaboration, a collaborative book with some of Broadway’s greats exploring all the different careers and aspects behind the scenes with the intention, Robert said, to encourage people, especially schools and students, to explore other opportunities in theatre than being an actor.
Being in the midst of writing about the art of collaborating, Robert said he was well-aware he was working on a book with theatre legends in their own rights such as Chita Rivera, Edward Albee, Hal Prince, Wendy Wasserstein, Brian Stokes Mitchell, and William Ivey Long all with the most esteemed work in their respective theatre careers.
“It wasn’t just a book about careers. It was about collaboration, because in theatre you collaborate,” he said.
Now retired from Playbill.com since 2018, the time between 1994 and 2018, Robert experienced countless Broadway moments as an editor, journalist, author, podcaster and the honor of having served on the Tony Awards nominating committee.
At the heart of it all for Robert is to travel with his wife Donna, a love that waited 50 years to find each other again. That and spending time with his first-born-grandson whom he said is his true legacy.
In terms of writing, he said, he is hopeful history will show through what he created at Playbill.com, his books and everything else in between that he created an interest among younger people putting it on the internet.
“I feel like I have done my part to help keep theatre alive,” he said.
Right This Way, along with other published works of Robert’s can be found on Amazon. To see his take on the 2025 Tony Award snubs check it out here with Encore Magazine:
Family and friends scramble to help 64-year-old caregiver who lost everything
By Amy Nicole
In the early hours of February 12, Johnny Barrett woke up to a raging fire tearing through his Patchogue home.
As he frantically raced to get himself and others out after his sister Cathy awoke to the smell of smoke, Johnny said he raced to rescue his disabled friend who was unable to walk safely on her own, but the flames coming out of her room made it impossible to get to her behind the shut door.
“I really tried a couple times, but I couldn’t. It was the scariest moment of my life and at one point I lost Cathy in the thick smoke,” he said.
Now after years of helping other family members, friends, and working to maintain the family home, Johnny has lost everything and become homeless temporarily staying with his nephew until any help comes along.
To add to the already unfortunate circumstances Johnny is now facing, he said when his mother passed there wasn’t any homeowner’s insurance.
“We were trying to get the house transferred to me and my siblings, but because of a very large lien from Medicaid (over $250,000) we were having issues doing so,” Johnny said.
Johnny, who spent years caregiving for his mother until her 2022 passing at 99 years old, lived in the Patchogue home since his parents purchased it in 1982. A former sheetrock worker and disabled from a bicycle accident years ago, Johnny continued with his calling as a caregiver when disabled friend, 70-year-old Sondra Mazursky lost her partner.
Johnny said he took-in longtime friends Sondra and her boyfriend Timmy when they became homeless in 2022 and when Timmy had a massive heart attack and died in 2023, and Sondra with no family, he took over care to help her live with serious health issues related to osteoporosis.
“I cooked her meals, did her laundry and went to all her doctor’s appointments with her. My sister Cathy visited on the weekends and helped Sondra bathe,” he said.
Although firefighters were able to rescue Sondra from the fire, she was severely burned and after two weeks on life-support, Sondra passed away from her injuries on February 25 at Stony Brook University hospital.
Johnny’s sister-in-law Lisa Barrett, has been working diligently since the fire creating a GoFundMe to help raise funds for basic living needs, collecting personal care items and posting daily on social media asking for help from members of the community.
“The goal with the GoFundMe is to help Johnny get into an apartment and some immediate relief,” she said.
Tragically the cause of the fire was determined to have started in Sondra’s room, and for Lisa, she said it was an awful fear come true.
Just days before the fire, Lisa said when visiting the family home, she had seen troubling signs of change in Sondra’s mental capacity. Signs that appeared to point towards a possible onset of dementia and a strong worry specifically about her smoking in the home.
“He (Johnny) was actually taking her to the doctor to talk about the worry of dementia. We think she lit a cigarette and fell asleep, because that’s where the fire started and that’s why they couldn’t get to her,” she said.
While Lisa said some self-care items, blankets and bedding have already been donated to Johnny along with an air mattress for him to sleep on for the time being, he is still presently in need of more clothing, pillows, toiletries, and other day-to-day items that can be found on the Amazon Wish List she created.
Looking at the front of the house Lisa said you would never know the whole inside was completely destroyed, and while the ultimate hope for Johnny is to rebuild that is something in the distance. Right now, the goal is to just help him get back the basic necessities lost with hopes of giving back what he has done for others.
“He is always the person if you need something done, he’ll come do it,” she said.
For Johnny, it is a double-time of grief for the loss of his friend and his home all the while having little means to repair but he remains thankful for everyone who has supported, donated and offered messages of care.
“Everything I own was lost in the fire, but I am grateful I made it out alive” he said.
Non-profit becomes homeless ahead of organization’s 10th anniversary
By Amy Nicole
Helping Makes U Happy founder, Keith Caputo has dedicated his life to helping others and spreading happiness throughout his community and beyond. However, recently, when the 44-year-old stepped into the space the organization called home the last seven years it brought him to tears.
Standing by his side was his mother and co-founder, Cassy Caputo who took to social media to share a video of the emptiness of the former space, which was used as their hub for helping countless others for years in their community. The video also depicted the heartbreak of her son, Keith, asking for support as they continue their search to find a new working space.
While the decision for the 501(c)(3) non-profit charity to leave the Center Moriches location was not an easy one, Cassy said it became an “unhealthy environment” leaving her and Keith with the only option but to find a new space.
Currently, the entire contents of supplies and items kept from the move are in storage until a new location comes along. Keith and Cassy are hoping the right opportunity comes along as soon as possible.
Ideally, they said they are looking for a workspace with a minimum of 1,500 square feet, a small reception space, plenty of room for table setups, and storage, anywhere between Moriches and Eastport.
Also, to properly function, a prospective space needs either a ramp or street level entrance for loading and unloading as Keith and Cassy, who do much of the heavy lifting themselves, face their own challenging physical needs.
“Stairs are a problem; we need something we can walk straight into. We carry a lot of stuff. Food, clothes, Halloween costumes,” Cassy explained.
And, although it is not a requirement, it has been a dream of Keith’s to have yard space to one day build a community garden.
But most of all, the location of the prospective new space is a top factor in the decision-making process. Moriches to Eastport is not just the community Keith and Cassy live and work in, but also a big consideration for the parents who bring their kids back and forth from schools in between sports, play practices and clubs to drop and pick-up for their offered community services.
With rental costs being at an all-time high across Long Island, Keith and Cassy said they have been exploring every option all the way to the possibility of buying a small plot of land and building a kit home.
However, they are hopeful the right place is out there. And Cassy said it is a matter of getting the word out to the right people.
“We just need to get on the right path,” added Keith.
Even though there is an urgency to find the perfect new home for Helping Makes U Happy, it has not slowed Keith down from getting out in the community and doing what he does best: bringing smiles to others, hosting raffles, and collecting for those in need.
This past weekend, Helping Makes U Happy held their annual Super Bowl Party Raffle/Basket auction at the Triangle Pub in Eastport, N.Y., with over 70 baskets, and this year it was to support funds for their new building plan.
In years past, Cassy said the Super Bowl Raffle event is usually held to raise money for their annual scholarship fund, but last year they worked so hard they already secured the scholarship for this year so they were grateful to be able to hold this year’s event to support rebuilding.
Over the past decade, Helping Makes U Happy has raised thousands of dollars and collected thousands of donations. And though their time now is uncertain, with their entire organization being packed up in a storage unit, Keith is keeping a shining eye on all his goals for the year ahead.
In addition to helping as many people as he can in the community, Keith said, his top three goals for the new year are to work on a new website, reactivate their “Cooking with the Cops” program, and do more to honor his local law enforcement and first responder heroes.
Another particular hope for Keith’s and the future of Helping Makes U Happy, he said, is to host an event for people to come together including volunteers, families, law enforcement and first responders for a day to say thank you and learn about those who serve and protect in their community.
“I want to inspire more ‘good guys’ to come up and serve and protect our freedom in America to help us where we need,” he said.
With the clock ticking and so many big plans lined up, Keith and Cassy said so many businesses are ready to do more, but they just need the space.
“What we do is simply because we want to make people happy,” Cassy said as she looked over at Keith and smiled with a wink.
For any information or recommendations regarding any prospective spaces available, please email helpingmakesuhappy@gmail.com. To learn more about the organization visit: helpingmakesuhappy.org and to keep up to date with all things Helping Makes U Happy follow them on social outlets @helpingmakesuhappy.
A pregnant and homeless young pup, now named Cardi, was found in 2022 by U.S. Marines deployed in the Philippines. She was found trapped in a box starved before they broke her free and brought her back to their camp, but that was just the beginning of her rescue story.
The Marines who rescued Cardi knew they couldn’t leave her and the pups behind, so they reached out to the non-profit organization, Paws of War, who stepped in to bring Cardi home to the U.S. The organization also helped aid deployed military members adopt their forever friends through the “War Torn Pups and Cats” program.
“We are a small team, and we are a grassroots organization, but we are a mighty team for what we are doing,” said director of Veteran Affairs and Development Ryan Haugstatter.
Cardi’s story is just one of the countless miracle missions successfully brought full circle over months and years thanks to the life-saving work of Paws of War. However, rescuing animals in need is just one aspect of what makes up the entity.
In addition to rescue, Paws of War specializes in training dogs for obedience, therapy, and service; providing life-changing companionship and assistance for veterans and retired first responders.
Paws of War was co-founded in 2014 by current organization President Robert Misseri and Dori Scofield. The mission began with the War Torn Pups and Cats program, which has evolved into a national organization working internationally to not only help save animals but work tirelessly on the home front to help heal veterans, first responders, gold star family members, and active military.
According to the most recent data collected by the organization, Paws of War has rescued to date over 5,000 animals, adopted over 800, and served over 950 veterans.
On the heels of its 10-year-anniversary, the organization’s headquarters located on Long Island in Nesconset, N.Y., has grown to include a main kennel, new offices, and a training facility. The facility is currently able to hold anywhere from 7 to 10 different teams for veterans and first responders to participate in the training programs.
“There is never a cost to our Veterans or First Responders for adopting from our program or to be a part of our training program, said Ryan.”
Through the War Torn Pups and Cats program, Ryan said it simply started with active military men and women deployed overseas who would find and fall in love with these stray dogs and cats as a way to help them get through their time deployed. In turn, they started contacting the program to ask for help to rescue and bring them home.
Many of the locations overseas where Paws of Wars have had to navigate to coordinate rescues are very remote. This, Ryan explained, leaves a daunting task of not only rescuing the animal but also getting it to the closest veterinarian before the animal is transported to the U.S. and foster arrangements can be made for the animals until their owners come home.
“One of our rescues we did we were in such a remote location we actually had to transport the animal with a mule and a wagon,” he said.
With such missions overseas including a Ukraine rescue program at the height, and right at home, Paws of War depends on the volunteers and donors who make things happen collectively for veterinary care, transporters, foster, kennel help, puppy socialization, office help and so much more.
Importance for Veterans
While some of the veterans and first responders who are members don’t want or need service dogs, Paws of War is there to train their dogs for therapy so they can in turn bring their dogs to places such as VA and nursing homes.
However, some people are suffering so badly they can’t even come out of their cars at first to meet and greet with the animal. For Ryan, he said, when you see them come from that moment to the training program with their dogs, it is truly when you see how Paws of War is helping both ends of the leash.
“You just see these people transform as well as the animal too,” he said of overseeing the rehabilitation of the dog as well as the veteran or first responder.
In turn, Ryan said, veterans and first responders have found a place to call home where they can keep coming back and talk with others who they can relate to.
Local Long Island hero Robert Weisberg, a Commack volunteer firefighter and Nesconset resident who served heroically on September 11, 2001, has been an active member of Paws of War alongside his service dog, Chip.
In 2023, Robert set out on an expedition to hike the Appalachian Trail to raise funds for Paws of War and help bring awareness to veterans and first responders living with mental health challenges post-service.
Locally, Ryan said Robert has been an inspiration and an active member in supporting Paws of War speaking about his experience and what the organization has done for him.
“We are really happy to have him [Robert] on board as a volunteer and a member as well,” said Ryan.
Currently, Paws of War has over sixty rescues they are working on overseas and throughout the entire process from rescue to reunion the moment that is the long-awaited goal for each animal and their rescuers is the reunion.
Paws of War not only transports to various states, wherever the military men or women reside, but most of the time they are doing the reuniting right in their front yard.
For Ryan the most memorable reunion he has been able to witness during his time as director came in 2023 with the reunion of Cardi, her pups, and the Marines who helped rescue them when they returned home to North Carolina.
“When seeing the active service men and women reunited with their dogs that they rescued from overseas was such a special moment, one that I won’t ever forget”, he said.
In a continued effort to raise awareness and support for Paws of War in 2024, the organization is set to locally host their 2nd annual Paws of War Carshow on Sunday, June 2, in the parking lot of their headquarters at 127 Smithtown Blvd in Nesconset from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The day’s festivities will include vintage and classic cars and the dog and family-friendly event will offer those in attendance music, raffles, 50-50, and food trucks.
All proceeds of the event will go to helping a veteran receive a service dog.
There is not one favorite part about Paws of War for Ryan, but the whole process itself he said is a reward in seeing the animals being placed with good families and seeing the people who are in desperate need of a therapy dog to heal and thrive.
“I just love everything about Paws of War. What it stands for and what we do here,” he said.
Paws of War welcomes donations such as closed bags of food, beds, toys and leashes to be dropped off at their facility and have wish lists on Amazon and Chewy. You can also make a monetary donation right on their website at pawsofwar.org.
For more information about Paws of War and how you can become involved, visit www.pawsofwar.org.
‘Family Volunteer Day:’ a day of wrapping, raffles and refreshments
By Amy Nicole
In 2005, cancer survivor Renee Lynn Scott made it her life’s mission to help other survivors and their families when she founded the non-profit organization, Stepping Stone Support.
Survivor’s Helper, a branch of Stepping Stone Support and an annual fundraiser created in 2010 to help families battling cancer have a happier holiday, has provided gifts and necessary winter items to countless people across Long Island.
This year, they are returning with their “Family Volunteer Day” for people in the community to come out and participate in the event.
“The purpose is to alleviate some financial burden and to bring joy when there is so much sadness in their lives,” she said.
Family Volunteer Day will be held at Atlantis Banquet & Events, a wedding venue located next door to the Long Island Aquarium in Riverhead, on Sunday, Nov. 26 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. This will be the first event held in person since 2019, due to the COVID pandemic.
As is tradition, the event has always taken place on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
“We just stuck with that date,” Renee said. “We use it as kicking off the season of giving with a day of service for all ages.”
The two-and-a-half-hour event will include wrapping stations set up with gift wrap, tape and scissors at every table. There will also be a card making station to make holiday cards for the adopted families, guest speakers, 50 raffle baskets valued at over $500 each and refreshments.
During the original event, which has since turned into a day of volunteerism hosting up to 350 volunteers and community members in year’s past, volunteers wrapped presents on Renee’s living room floor.
This year, Renee said her goal is to fill the donated venue space with 500 people.
People are encouraged to attend with admission of an unwrapped toy or sports ball. Volunteers from Survivor’s Helper will be delivering gifts to over 50 families, directly to their front doors, from Riverhead to Queens on Sunday, December 10.
Families who are sponsored through the holiday program are nominated on their website annually by September 1. The criteria requires a mother or father of a family to be in active treatment for a cancer diagnosis during the grant year and a letter from the treating oncologist if nominated by a friend or family member.
“We have been doing this since 2010 and we have never turned a family away,” she said.
During this year’s return evening, Survivor’s Helper has added guest speakers to the events list and will be having a memorial remembrance of one of Survivor’s Helpers past adopted mother who eventually became a committee member to the organization and passed away the summer of 2022 just before her daughter, an only child, started college.
Since that time, Renee said her late volunteer’s daughter has become like a niece to her and the young woman has brought things full circle having taken her mother’s place on the Survivor’s Helper committee.
“We thought it would be only fitting we honor her mom at this event,” she said.
Aside from hands on help, Renee said one of the biggest and easiest ways people can help Survivor’s Helper is to support by shopping for families through their Amazon Wishlist, “Survivors Helper.”
Inspiration to take Survivor’s Helper to an even higher level of purpose with the formation of Family Volunteer Day initially came to Renee, she said through the Points of Life Foundation and the Daily Points of Light Award.
Formed in 1990 by President George H. W. Bush and carried on by his son, President George W. Bush, Survivor’s Helper became a recipient of the Daily Points of Light Award for several years early on to help fund supplies such as wrapping paper and tape. This started Renee thinking just how Survivor’s Helper could make an even greater impact through volunteerism within her own community and beyond.
“We molded it to our needs as a nonprofit and we really created it as a program that would fit us,” she said.
Building on her inspiration to help others with cancer across Long Island and beyond through a life of service, this past July Renee took another leap forward in with the creation of the Stepping Stone Support S.T.E.P. program (Survivorship-Tone-Exercise-Personal Training) to offer free personal training and nutrition coaching to people affected by cancer.
In partnership with her 23-year-old-son, Brenden Scott who is a Certified Personal Trainer (CPT) and Certified Nutrition Coach (CNT) of The National Academy of Sports Medicine is currently leading physical training three times a week for an hour to 9 people in addition to the nutrition counseling.
The fact that physical fitness helps just as much mentally is so important for those in recovery from cancer, Renee said, and the mental exhaustion, lack of time and money it costs to train is a huge hurdle. As the branches of the tree for Stepping Stone Support, Survivor’s Helper and now S.T.E.P. grows, Renee’s ultimate dream is to one day open a S.T.E.P. center.
“Not only for the cancer patient, but for the family members watching their loved ones battling cancer,” she said.
Aside from helping families this holiday season through Survivor’s Helper, Renee said one of the goals and what’s really important to her is to ask local businesses to encourage their employees to use this event as a day of giving and service to bring their own families together.
This Sunday’s wrapping event will include a list of local businesses who have already committed to helping hands on. Suffolk Federal Credit Union is bringing their employees, Hampton Coffee will be hands on serving coffee with their employees, and for Renee, she believes this is an opportunity for businesses to show their community that they’re supporting the efforts also.
“We are trying to encourage volunteerism across the board,” she said.
Recipes 4 Learning Transition Program created for differently abled students
By Amy Nicole
The Baking Coach, owner and founder, Lisa Basini said inspiration to start the non-profit of her baking lesson company, Recipes 4 Learning, Inc., initially came from students who took her community classes and kept asking to work for her.
She said she would love to hire everybody; however, she recognized the possibility of that would not be realistic.
The second layer of inspiration came from Lisa’s own personal experience, having raised her own son who is on the spectrum. She always felt the fundamentals of working in a business environment were important.
Blending it all together, the concept for Recipes 4 Learning came to Lisa in 2019 and less than a year later she founded the non-profit organization in 2020.
“Food is a deep connection with the brain, and I really feel it is an under-utilized force that maybe we should utilize more,” Lisa said.
The Bellrose native who moved to the east end of Long Island in her 20’s where she has lived ever since, said it was at the age of 4 when she was first compelled to bake. She herself had a hard time decoding as a child and said she started applying her baking skills to reading and schoolwork which brought her from “zero to sixty.”
She credits most of her learning about baking to her aunt and grandmother, but since her mother wasn’t a baker, she said she learned at a young age how to make different things out of mostly cake mix. She fondly remembers a Better Homes & Gardens cookbook where she went through and made all the baking recipes in the book. With such an emotional connection to her baking, Lisa said baking has always been a coping method aside from being a learning tool through all phases of life.
“I learned to make cookies out of cake mix, muffins out of cake mix. I was an avid easy-bake oven kind of girl,” she said.
From growing up to marriage and becoming a mother, years had passed and one day Lisa said she realized something was still missing, so she enrolled in the Culinary Academy of Long Island and received her baking certification.
In addition to years of entrepreneurship with the Baking Coach, Lisa was a recipe writer for Domino’s sugar for approximately 9 years and credits that experience as an amazing time working for great people.
“This is definitely my calling. There is no doubt about that,” she said.
After spending years in Huntington with the Baking Coach since she opened her doors in 2005 and teaching privately in homes, Lisa recently relocated her business to the Bellport Outlets at 10 Farber Drive in Bellport, NY where Recipes 4 Learning is currently calling home until its own storefront opens next door in the coming weeks. With an exact grand opening date to be announced, Lisa has been busy bringing all the final pieces of the puzzle together.
While the Baking Coach kitchen will always be where the baking takes place, the rest of the learning will take place next door where students will learn how to sell products, develop customer service skills, and continue their math education by learning how to use a cash register and process transactions.
Recipes 4 Learning is an organization focused not only on teaching basic baking skills to young adults across the board, but Lisa said they also teach young differently abled adults how to manufacture and sell their own cookies-even creating their own original recipes; giving them the full spectrum of what it means to be in business.
This is where the Recipes 4 Learning Transition Program comes in and is designed for what Lisa calls her “Special Education Super Seniors” as a 2-year non-credited work transition program with a focus on developing careers in the food industry for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The tuition for the program can be paid for through a self-direction budget if the student has one or private pay.
For 4 hours per week students enrolled in the program come to Recipes 4 Learning and work on all facets of working a job in addition to baking skills. Whether it be just practicing saying good morning or when to stop saying good morning, Lisa said the goal is to work with the students to build confidence, socialization and to mentor the kids to find out what they really enjoy.
Thus far, the kids have been selling at craft fairs and Lisa said seeing them interact with the public and step out in such confidence has left her feeling blown away.
“They were selling, using their voices and getting people to come over to their booth,” she said with great pride.
As for the baking, the students learn how to read a recipe, use an oven and money management. The students are also taught about the importance of a team and how to work together as well as independently. Lisa said what brings everything together and really makes it work is the staff of the Baking Coach giving the program a balance of experience, compassion, and skills.
“Everybody has personal experience and attachment to the work,” she explained.
Now, as Lisa prepares to open the Recipes 4 Learning storefront she is currently looking for “shelf-stable” products from local businesses to sell in the store giving the opportunity to support other small businesses. In turn these local products will be what the student’s study, become experts on, and sell to the public.
Lisa has been actively reaching out to small businesses all over New York state to occupy shelves with their products in the store for the students to sell with just a small percentage of sales going back to support the program.
“We are willing to partner with as many organizations as possible,” she said.
While the Recipes 4 Learning Transition Program was created to specifically help those with intellectual and developmental disabilities, Lisa said Baking Coach is open to the public to teach the general population and kids who want to learn to bake: all ages and all abilities.
Looking to continue to build on the future of Recipes 4 Learning and Baking Coach Lisa is already working on another new concept called, “Open Bake” where the public can create their own groups to come in to the Baking Coach anytime, take a kit off the shelf and make their own kit right there in the kitchen.
“If I were to tell you what Baking Coach (and Recipes 4 Learning) is today-it’s a place to gather and a place to bake,” she said.
To learn more about becoming involved with Recipes 4 Learning, visit recipes4learning.org. You can also find Recipes 4 Learning and Baking Coach on social media @recipes4learning and @bakingcoach
The Human Interest Story 