Blast from Staten Island's Past

Assemblyman John Lavelle

Last night, Staten Island lost one if its own:



Assemblyman John Lavelle, 57, the Staten Island Democratic Party chairman.



Although we are saddened by his death, we were happy to read the Advance is reporting Lavelle was a member of the New York Organ Donor Registry.



The Producers of SSI would like to acknowledge this wonderful gesture. In our family we have an organ donor recipient and a living donor.



New York now has a registry in which you can sign up in addition to marking your driver's license as we did in the past. Remember to continue telling your family members of your decision. They are the only ones who can speak for in the end.



To learn more about the registry and organ donation please visit the New York Organ Donors Network.



To learn more about Assemblyman John Lavelle, visit the advance online at www.silive.com.

We are in the paper today!

The Staten Island Advance printed an article about us today. Thanks to Melissa Anelli, our new favorite Advance writer for contacting us.



There's Something Good on Our Island



We were also thrilled to see we were not only on the front page of the OUR TOWN Section, but we also had the honor of being right next to BiscuitMagoo! Just yesterday we interviewed Ayana Mitchell and John Verdi, the owners. In fact, we took one of our dogs down for an evaluation. Our Chase may spend some time at doggie day care while we are out saving the Island!



I would also like to thank my son for running to the store to pick up several copies of the paper for me this morning. (He did owe me one. Twelve years ago, when he had his transplant and was featured in the Advance, I ran to the store to get the paper!)



Updates:

#1.The hits to our site are jumping today! If are reading this, you made a great choice in stopping by. Leave us a comment and you can have your say about the Island too. We print all comments we are given permission for.



#2 Thatz Wassup was spelled incorrectly in the article. Well, it was correct, but not for how the store spells it in their logo. They are currently on our friends page if you want more information about them.



#3 We had so many hits yesterday our free site meter crashed!

Biscuit Magoo

What can we say, as animal lovers who have rescued our fair share, and then some of cats and dogs, we were delighted one morning when we saw a sign in New Brighton/Shug Harbor. It said Biscuit Magoo.

I made a mental note to look them up. Later, I found them on Craigslist advertising a new dog salon/day care/ boarding place.

Today I was able to not only interveiw them for the film, but I had my dog evaluated at the same time. I need someone like them near my house.

After the interview we joked we both due to be in the paper. Maybe we will both be there tomorrow as expected.

Biscuit Magoo

Helping Hands Initiative

Helping Hands Initiative

Yesterday, we headed out to the Cromwell Center to meet with Julianna Farella, President of Helping Hands Initiative Incorporated.

This is a great group. Julianna gave us a unique view on how Staten Island treats the disabled. A lot of the same concerns came out as usual; transportation, over developement, attitudes, etc.

But it was also just great to see a person who running her own Staten Island based organization and volunteering her time at a community based facility to teach music.

New Reality TV Show

I was watching TV last night and a comercial came on for a new reality TV show about film making. My son asked if I was going to submit Save Staten Island.

Uh...NO!

This project started because one reality show did the Island wrong, I am not going to add to it. It goes against my purpose, however the show itself looks interesting.

There are two types of reality shows. One where you are in a competition and really only your actions can make you seem bad. The other is where you let the producers into your home to film you and ultimately make an ass out of your their ratings.

MTV True Life was the latter, whereas THE LOT is the first, so it shouldn't be that bad.

If there are any talented film makers out there reading this, check out their site:

http://www.thelot.com/

Scheduling

We finally got in touch with Vernon from Thatz Wassup. We are set to see the new digs on February 5th. The store has moved from Water Street to the NY Art Cypher Center at 12 Broad Street.

I think the reopening will be mid February. Check their myspace account for more details.

Another Night with SCARED

We went back to the Garibaldi Meucci Musuem last night for round two of the Scared investigation. This time we met up with the Staten Island Paranormal Society also.

Both groups are Staten Island based, paranormal investigators. Scared also has a show in CTV. Check out their websites:

SCARED

Staten Island Paranormal Society

And the best part is they travel the Island also for their work and don't mind us tagging along.

Save Staten Island In the News

Two weeks ago we did an interview with the Staten Island Advance. Last week, we did a photo shoot for the article. If all stays on track, it may be out this Sunday, the 14th.

Not only that, but we are working on scheduling a date with NY1.

We knew when we started this, it was a cool idea, but a lot of our crazy ideas seem cool to us. We had no idea how quickly this would catch on and all the attention it would get.

Our little idea of ‘Saving’ the Island from MTV turned into a real thing. No one cares about MTV anymore, but they do care about the Island and its future.

Hopefully the momentum will continue to grow and this project will turn out the way it is meant to be.

We have signed on with the Staten Island Film Festival. It was weird at first. We got an email asking us to call them about our film. At that stage, we didn’t have more than three hours of footage, yet we were getting called by THEM!

We went with the honesty route since it is usually the best bet and admitted we were just getting started. After explaining what we were trying to accomplish, it was decided we could work with the festival. No place else on the Island, will so many talented, artistic people come together at one time, than they will in June.

So we are officially invited to film some behind the scenes footage of the festival in 2007. Hope to see you guys at the festival.

New Art Exhibit

We attended the Garibaldi Meucci Museum tonight for the opening of a new art exhibit. Until we started this project, I never realized how many artists the Island homes.

Michael Santini will be on display until April. Stop by if you have a chance, see his art, tour the museum and maybe you will hear or see a few odd things along the way. The place is haunted you know.

SSI wishes everyone a happy and healthy New Year!

Welcome to 2007. We have started the new scheduling for Save Staten Island. Please contact us if you wish to be interviewed, if you have an event we can attend, or if you want more information on the project. All Staten Islanders, past, present and future are encouraged to call us!

The Save Staten Island phone line will be up next week! Check the site for details.

We are actively looking for music for the film. If you are a Staten Island musician and have a song with Staten Island in the words, please contact us for consideration in the film.