Letter From the President

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

Just when we thought we had managed to escape with a snow-free winter, along comes April with an arctic sting in its tail. Having just attended a fabulous Logan Symposium on Investigative Reporting in balmy Berkeley, California I landed back in Albany past midnight. Imagine my delight at having to discern which snow blanketed car was the one I had to scrape off.

Nevertheless, the first shoots of spring are peaking through, birds are returning in droves and days are lengthening. The season of renewal is upon us and what better way to celebrate than by opening our brew pub to the public. We were delighted to welcome so many of you from far and wide to the opening night at the Helderberg Brewery. In fact, so good a time was had by all that collectively we managed to drink the bar dry—as auspicious a start to the Helderberg Brewery as one could wish for. We look forward to welcoming you to quench your thirst and sample our brews throughout the rest of the year. You can view Helderberg Brewery’s hours and keep up with what’s on tap on the Facebook page.

On the topic of regeneration—we are about to relaunch our website: www.careyinstitute.org. Sarah Gordon and Carlene Willsie have been working round the clock to refresh our digital presence. You’ll be able to find updated information about all our programs and upcoming events, including much more dynamic content, blog posts, videos and podcasts as well as the opportunity to give us feedback and donate to the Global Good.

Speaking of upcoming events, watch out in May for NeXt Doc, an intensive workshop for emerging documentary filmmakers with mentoring from renowned documentarians Sam Pollard, Tom Jennings and Iva Radivojevic. We are delighted to be partnering with the wonderful, award winning Albany-based YouthFX for what we anticipate to be the first of many such workshops. There will be evening screenings and Q&A sessions with filmmakers in the Guggenheim auditorium open to the public, so mark your calendars for that.

Applications are open for the Rensselaerville Ride, a weekend of festive cycling fun. There will be rides to suit all ages and abilities, showcasing much of what the beautiful Helderberg Hills have to offer. For the more intrepid cyclists among you, we’ll have the Pond Hill Challenge, a hill climb time trial. It’s only four miles—but be warned, it goes up and up and up and up.

Yes, spring has sprung and we are looking forward to another wonderful, fun-packed summer at the Carey Institute for Global Good.

Come along and join the fun and thank you for your continued support.

Best,

Gareth