Carroll Grant helps untangle developmental disorders

For a parent, there is perhaps nothing worse than the feeling that something just isn’t right with your child. When the problem is a developmental disability, it can be especially tough to diagnose and treat.

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CNY’s Dr. Richard Waldman gains a voice in the nation’s largest ob-gyn group

Dr. Richard Waldman isn’t one to romanticize his reasons for becoming a doctor. “My mother gave me three choices: I could be a doctor, a lawyer or a dentist,” he explains. “I had two older brothers, one was an endodontist and the other was a surgeon.”

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Apples are the core of family life at Beak and Skiff

Each autumn, thousands of Central New York families take the scenic drive on Route 20 to LaFayette. Their destination? Beak and Skiff Apple Farms, one of the area’s most enduring family-owned businesses.

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Education advocate strives to gives Syracuse parents a voice

Michele Abdul Sabur got involved in education advocacy as a volunteer 12 years ago to make sure her own voice—and those of her children—would be heard. Now Sabur is a facilitator of the Parent Partner Network, an organization that seeks to improve achievement for all students. The network is integral to the Syracuse City School District’s efforts to connect with parents.

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Fiddler mixes a music career and family

By Tammy DiDomenico

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By Tammy DiDomenico

League of Women Voters adapts its family-focused agenda to the information age

The League of Women Voters (LWV), an organization founded in 1920 to call attention to issues pertinent to women, children and families, may not have obvious appeal to the 25-and-younger crowd. But members of the Syracuse Metro chapter of the LWV took their nonpartisan agenda, which includes educating the greater community on policy issues and political choice, to the Syracuse University campus last month as part of a program to educate new voters.

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Dan O’Hara aims for a State Fair that welcomes young and old

For Dan O’Hara, it’s difficult to remember a time when the New York State Fair wasn’t an important part of his life. He has fond memories of playing the games of chance as a child, working there as a teenager, and enjoying some behind-the-scenes access when his brother Joe held the reins as director in the mid-1980s.

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Barbara and Everett Wood have cared for foster children since 1977

There’s a reason a certain unassuming white house in LaFayette feels like home: It has been home for Barbara and Everett Wood for more than three decades now, along with their 141 children.

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The Jewish Community Center's Lori Innella-Venne aims to met families' needs

It’s a wintry Central New York morning. You’re moving through the usual routine of getting yourself and the kids ready for the day when, surprise! School is canceled.

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Dr. William Raineri gets his patients’ pearly whites straightened out

Growing up in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Pa., William Raineri didn’t exactly aspire to be an orthodontist. But he was certainly drawn to the idea of doing something to help others.

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Jim Greene leads Skaneateles revels

Jim Greene doubts he resembles Charles Dickens, the character he has portrayed each December for the past eight years. But the actor, who produces and is executive director of the annual Dickens’ Christmas festival in Skaneateles, does have a youthful sensibility and is filled with good humor. Biographers have attributed both traits to the enduringly popular 19th-century English writer whose A Christmas Carol inspired the lake-front celebration.

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Nurse Chris Vona Delivers information to expectant parents.

By Tammy DiDomenico

When the chimes ring out on the fifth floor of St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center in Syracuse, Chris Vona can’t help but smile. Those soft tones alert the staff that a new baby has been delivered.

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Rose Boyton's group helps parents cope with children's allergies

Nothing says "back to school" like a good old peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It's one of those American lunch-box classics that are so childhood, so seemingly innocuous, and. . . so potentially lethal. Three million American children are allergic to peanuts, and a bite of a PB&J can send some of them into life-threatening anaphylactic shock. 

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Laura Harting’s day campers learn to express grief—and have fun

For all of the important services offered through Hospice of Central New York, it might be hard to imagine any of them being described as “fun.” But Laura Harting, a children’s grief therapist with the organization’s Center for Living With Loss, has changed that.

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Barbara Gifford and her team find families for foster children

Becoming a foster parent transforms your life. Few people know that as intimately as Barbara Gifford, a homefinding supervisor for the Onondaga County Children’s Division Foster Care program. She and her staff take families through the extensive training and uncertainty that accompany the foster-parenting process.

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Meteorologist Wayne Mahar and his feline sidekick, Doppler, help Central New Yorkers weather the worst

To live in Central New York is to lament the weather. This past winter gave us our share of snow days and wind chills, and it’s almost certain that the summer will have us grumbling about humidity and thunderstorms.

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South Side librarian Ossie Edwards puts residents in touch with the facts

Try reaching Ossie Edwards at the Southwest Community Center in Syracuse once school has let out for the day, and you just might be out of luck. The library at the center, where Edwards spends half of her workweek, is typically abuzz with young people using resources such as tutoring programs and computer access after 2 p.m.

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Joe McCarthy is manning a Salvation Army red kettle for the 48th time

We all see them each holiday season: the hearty souls who brave the elements and the varied temperaments of holiday shoppers to collect donations for the Salvation Army’s annual Red Kettle Campaign.

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Dr. Cynthia Morrow tends to the health of Onondaga County’s half-million residents

With a solid background in research and a range of medical field experiences, Dr. Cynthia Morrow was more than prepared to faced the challenges of Onondaga County’s sizable health department when she was appointed health commissioner last May. She moved up to the top spot, succeeding Dr. Lloyd Novick, from her position as director of preventive services with the department.

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