Library, non-profit join forces

WATERVLIET, N.Y. » Two local non-profit organizations from both sides of the Hudson River recently created a partnership that will offer workshop seminars to adults.

The Watervliet Public Library and Butterfly Wings will be offering “Urban Bootcamp” a 6-week workshop for adults ages 18-35 to teach strategies for building a better world through sustainability and kindness.

Through Butterfly Wings, Anastasia Lewitinn upcycles self-care items for children and adults, as well as household products, and passes them along to individuals experiencing financial hardship. She hopes to distribute bags of supplies on a monthly basis to those in need upon the organization’s official launch in April, though she currently provides on an emergency basis items she collects primarily through donations.

The 26-year-old mother of two girls created her “paper pantry” in 2015 after working with another area nonprofit group. She said was compelled to organize overstocked items that were kept in storage units and noticed how many were deemed unusable due to damage. Lewitinn currently runs her organization mainly out of the Troy Innovation Garage.

Watervliet Library Director, Michelle Fernandez, said that each week the workshops will discuss a different life topic and each workshop will feature a guest speaker with knowledge on the various workshop topics. The workshops will run through the summertime on Saturday’s, starting July 8 and runs until Aug. 12, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Watervliet Public Library.

Fernandez said that the partnership between the two organizations began right after Lewitinn came to a meeting in Watervliet City Hall- where Fernandez also is employed as a temporary part-time grant administrator, and Lewitinn

pitched the mission of her organization to city officials there that day.

“Anastasia came to a meeting in city hall to talk about partnering with the city of Watervliet, to reach out to the Watervliet community, which definitely has some people in need,” said Fernandez,” and I happened to be sitting in on that meeting and she was talking about public resources

at community organizations that might be able to reach out to the community and I said, ‘you know what I direct one of those organizations’ and we sort of went on from there.”

Some of the workshop topics will include life tips on things like financial literary, public safety and selfdefense, staying healthy for caregiver, spot the lemon car, home buying for beginners

and job interview and educational preparedness and each workshop will be free to the public.

“We find that that is the age group that generally is moving towards a lot of these educational sections of life,” said Lewitinn. “We want to help people in our age group avoid some of the traps that people fall into when they’re going into some of these new things

in life.”

Organizers of the workshop say that the goal of hosting these is to help present methods to increase economic self-sufficiency and resourcefulness. Fernandez also that participants will receive giveaways at each class session, and refreshments will be provided. For each session attended, participants will receive an entry into our

grand prize drawing at the end of the program.

To register for the Ubran Bootcamp workshops visit its registration page at, http://www.watervlietpubliclibrary.org/urban-bootcamp-2017.html Organizers also noted that participants will also be able to bring their children to the workshops and they will have space for the children to play.