How “neighboring” helps the state’s most spread-out town build community
Earlier this spring, Old Forge Library director Linda Weal co-led a session at the Adirondack Food Justice Summit with Robin Hill, executive director of LivingADK, and the Rev. Dr. Naomi Kelly, of Niccolls Memorial Presbyterian Church. “Food security is not our main gig,” Linda admitted, but what these three Old Forge leaders came to present was a collaborative approach to caring for their community — what they refer to as “neighboring.”
“Reducing people to needs flattens them,” Linda said. Beyond just swooping in to fix problems, neighboring means getting to know the people in your community so that helping each other out happens organically. It can mean serving food at a craft night at the library, or starting a regular “Walk and Talk” program, where connection is prioritized as highly as calories provided or burned.
Defining a “neighbor” in the town of Webb is no easy task. Spanning 460 square miles, it is the largest township in the state, and sits entirely within the Adirondack Park, isolated from the more populous parts of Herkimer County. To further complicate matters, the Town of Webb Union Free School District serves families from several towns in Hamilton County and northern Oneida County.
“Our number one problem is always geography,” says John Swick, the K-12 principal. The school, like the library and the church, serves as a community hub. All three, along with View Art Center and Community Wellness Partners, are part of an innovative collaboration led by LivingADK and funded through ACF’s Strengthening the Social Safety Net initiative.
At its heart, the project aims to bridge the physical and social gaps that can leave residents feeling adrift. Rather than reinventing the wheel, the coalition focuses on linking neighbors to the initiatives and events already happening in their backyards. They are not just filling holes in a schedule; they are cultivating a sense of belonging. As these connections grow, they hope the entire region will see a measurable lift in collective well-being.
Kathryn Ruscitto moved with her husband to Old Forge 10 years ago, after retiring as President & CEO of a regional nonprofit health system in Syracuse. “I began to become aware of the challenges geography creates,” she says. She brings this perspective to her role on the board of directors for the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation, a major funder of ACF’s Social Safety Net initiative.
Along with the town of Webb school district project, ACF awarded three other catalytic grants, providing each with significant multi-year funding to implement innovative solutions that, through collaboration, lead to better outcomes.
It is a vote of confidence in the power of local collaboration. By weaving together the school, the library, the church, and the town government, the project is creating a blueprint for rural resilience.The goal is simple but profound: to ensure that no matter how many miles lie between front doors, no resident of the Adirondacks has to go the distance alone.
