With regard to Emily Grillo’s story “A ‘Narrowsburg Angel’ reaches out to families in need” in the November 24 issue of The River Reporter: I am happy to see Barbara Drollinger recognized for her many charitable endeavors.

Barbara works hard year round, making home deliveries from the food pantry, and then goes into overdrive at the holidays to make sure those in need are cared for.

I am a recipient. I am grateful to see Barbara’s bright smile each month, grateful to the people who donate to Family to Family and to the St. Xavier Church.

In the six years since my daughter Sandi’s untimely death in July of 2000, Barbara Drollinger has persisted even when I didn’t have the will or the heart to go on. Barbara Drollinger is a good person dedicated to her many good works.

In response to Mr. van Swol’s letter to the editor in The River Reporter of November 24: He’s taken up a lot of time and ink being critical, but the amount of time and consideration it would take to contemplate anything positive he’s done for our Sullivan West community would be minute.

Mr. van Swol has become the Grinch that is not trying to steal Christmas from us, but a promising future for our students and generations to come. Community members are praying that during this holiday season his heart “grows and grows” so he will become an advocate for our children and the community as a whole. However, despite his counterproductive efforts, I have confidence that Sullivan West, just like Whoville, will overcome the destructive campaign of the Grinch—and our staff and students will continue to exceed all expectations.

I wanted to take this opportunity to extend heartfelt thanks to all those who have supported me during my recent illness by their prayers, offers of help and good wishes. Friends, neighbors, members of the various church communities, folks in the business community, Habitat for Humanity colleagues, WIN colleagues, fellow parishioners of St. John the Evangelist in Honesdale, housing colleagues, The Harmony Project—the list goes on! My husband, Mel, and I could not have gotten through the past several months without you. God has truly blessed us. I still have a long way to go, but I know the Lord will continue to be with us. I ask you to keep on with your prayers, as I will remember you in mine.

I have been privileged to care for you, learn from you and be touched by you during my 31 years of nursing experience. My goal being a registered nurse has always been the patients and their families first and foremost. I have been the advocate for all patients, especially the patients without anyone to speak for them. I can proudly say that I have reached that goal.

As a registered nurse at Catskill Regional Medical Center for the last 18-and-one-half years I have served in many roles: bedside nurse, educator and mentor for other nurses and staff and as a clinical director of the surgical floor, the oncology unit and for the new birthing center.

I am sad to say that I am unable to serve you in any of these roles anymore as of November 8. I received a call at home from a nursing peer that day at 4:00 p.m. She asked if I still had a job. My response was yes, as far as I knew. In fact, I had been asked to take on added responsibility to maintain my job and had accepted on November 7.

I called the hospital administration and inquired about my job. I was then told that when my director of nursing was demoted, it was decided by the new director of nursing that I would no longer have a job.

I will miss caring for you, my community. I will miss witnessing the miracle of birth and being there to hold your hand at the end of life. I will miss educating and mentoring the nurses. But most of all, I will miss being your advocate.

Thank you again for allowing me to be present during your brightest and darkest hours of need.

I would like to discuss something extremely important. My sincere sympathy goes out to the families and friends of all the students we have lost since the merger of our school districts.

Our community and school district has suffered the loss of one more student via another car accident. I believe that it is time to address this problem!

Sullivan West needs Driver’s Education! I implore the superintendent, the members of the Board of Education, teachers, parents, siblings and all community members to express their support for this program within our school.

I am not sure if all the schools had this program before the merger, but I am sure that I had it when I attended Narrowsburg Central School. I believe this should be a required course.

Some may say it is a costly program to implement. Can you say that any student is not worth the cost? Can you put a price on a life?

Without driver’s education, will we continue to see more student driver’s experience car accidents? I say yes. Will more die? I say yes. Haven’t enough died already? I say yes. Will the next one involve you or your family? I say it most certainly can.

We lose state aid money with the loss of every student. If you financially calculate how much each individual student brings to our school each year, this program will pay for itself.

I implore you to consider what I have said. I know accidents happen but I also know that many are due to human error and we can educate our youth and hopefully prevent some of these accidents in the future.

Jeannette Klug

I read your article about the development in Tyler Hill and I thought I had to reply.

The development that may come to Tyler Hill has been lurking for quite a while and surely can have only disastrous consequences for all people and wildlife of the area.

During the summer, Route 371 becomes very congested as it is because of the Tyler Hill Camp’s visitors. The camp looks like a car dealership for SUVs and luxury cars. Speeding becomes the order of the day. Can the area really tolerate several hundred homes turning the landscape into a ‘Little Long Island?’

What were all the meetings about if the developer has carte blanche to destroy the landscape and our way of life?

Surely a comprehensive impact study has to be done to clarify once and for all whether we will have serious issues with water, erosion and flooding, not to mention what will happen to the wetlands and the wildlife.

Let’s not even think of crime and noise! To be able to go to bed and hear coyotes and owls and to enjoy the dark sky with its ample stars and the quiet of Tyler Hill is why people live here.

Tyler Hill does not need to become another New Jersey.

We object to the disturbing and intolerant political agenda in the speech given by Professor Paul Austin at the Sullivan Peace and Justice (SPJ) awards banquet.

Among Austin’s list of accusations against the United States is failure to stop the genocide in Darfur, Africa. If President Bush sent troops, SPJ would cry out “Warmongers, murderers!” The United Nations needs to be pressured and our elected officials need to be contacted by their constituents about this horrible evil going on in Darfur. Call 202/224-4651 or fax 228-1608 for the Senate African Affairs subcommittee, and pray for peace.

Austin also placed sexual mores above the lives and health of the African people. The truth is all people are created in God’s image, not animals that are evolving; therefore sexual relations are to be between married men and women. The United States has given millions of dollars in aid to countries that have shown a decline in AIDS/HIV due to faith-based abstinence programs, which resulted in decreased welfare, a reduction in sexually transmitted diseases, fewer unwanted pregnancies and fewer abortions, while increasing two-parent households. These are all Christian values at work with our tax dollars. We pray this could happen in the United States, too.

We also hate war, but abortion is not war. It saddens us that Austin has no problem with the murder of innocent boys and girls in the womb. And what about the men and women who are emotionally damaged by casual sexual encounters and by the murder of their own child?

It was also disturbing that the speech wrongly referenced the Bible. The Holy Bible is the only divine book, accounting for our creation, fall of mankind into sin, and God’s loving plan to save the sinful people of planet earth via grace through faith in the death and resurrection of the God/Man Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Alpha and Omega and He is absolutely coming back soon. If you want to know what sin is we lovingly urge you read the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20. If you want to understand God’s love, read John Chapter 3.

J.P (John) Pasquale

Julius Goldstein