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By Cameron S.

The Family School is expanding its services.  Beginning in January eligible students will be able to participate in a new program called The Bridge. This program is a 5^th year program for students ages 18-20 who are struggling to meet the challenges of transitioning from high school to college and are looking for a second chance to rehabilitate themselves academically and socially. It allows students the opportunity to attend college at Broome Community College in Binghamton, NY while residing in a structured, drug free, sober environment at FFS.

Jason Garnar, FFS college counselor, will be organizing, scheduling, and helping the students through the rigorous process of getting ready for college. The Bridge is open to either high school students who attend FFS and have earned all required high school credits, or students between the ages of 18-20 who are looking for an alternative approach to their college career.

Students currently enrolled at FFS can earn up to five college credits: statistics, English composition, sociology, forensics, and mythology. These credits are issued by Lackawanna and St. Cloud University. The addition of The Bridge program expands the available college credits and allows those same high school students to pick and choose from a variety of other classes offered by BCC.

The Bridge offers two scenarios: one for high school students who will receive dual credits and one for full-time college students – enrollment is not limited to FFS graduates but to students from across the United States.

High school students will be introduced and exposed to college life before being a full-time student. “They learn to apply for and schedule classes, buy textbooks, and get a feel for the amount of time studying deserves in college,” said Garnar. In addition to attending classes at BCC these students will participate in FFS activities throughout the semester. They will be treated just like a regular attendee at BCC and are expected to perform at the college level. “The pressure and stress will definitely be there for these students,” added Garnar.

For full-time college students the majority of their time will be occupied with class attendance and studying. Their focus will be on having a successful college experience without the distractions that are prevalent on most college campuses. Immediately upon entering into this program they become an intern at the FFS. Internships are given to students who are expected to step into a leadership role. “The hope is that these students can almost be a big brother or sister to other students and share their experience, strength, and hope,” stated Garnar.

Transported by FFS staff, Mike Losicco and Drew Demetrius, participants will be going to BCC every Tuesday and Thursday for classes and returning to FFS in time for dinner. Prior to the first day of school they will have already applied for and scheduled their classes. As they go throughout their day they receive breaks between some of their classes. While on break they have access to all BBC facilities including a full college library and gym. “I am thrilled to be given the chance to either shoot some hoops or tap into the unlimited information I have at my fingertips between classes,” said Bridge student Daniel M. (Learn more about The Bridge)

On 10/14/2011, the Catskill Mountainkeeper  posted the following first person account of Libby F., a  resident of the Finger Lakes region of New York. There is no question that what happened at Libby’s farm in Bradford County, Pa. is going to happen in the Finger Lakes, the Catskills and all over New York State. Here’s her story:

“Our family farm is in Bradford County, Pa.  Our farm was one of the ?first well sites chosen and is now one of hundreds, soon to be thousands.           

When the folks in Pennsylvania first heard of the wells coming, they were excited. No one had ever experienced the drilling business, so there was nothing to fear. They had toiled their whole lives just to make ends meet, and maybe this was the road to a better life. ?

Then they came. Trucks by the hundreds; tankers, dump trucks, drilling rigs, and fracking rigs. Five-acre drilling pads were bulldozed in the middle of farmers’ best fields, million-gallon ponds were installed, roads were built, woods and fields were trenched and bulldozed for tie lines. Drilling rigs went up at an unbelievable rate. From one spot on our farm, I counted eight? rigs. Then the generators started. You could hear them a half-mile away. Then the pumping stations — small, industrial sites with buildings and pipes ?sticking up out of the ground.

They put one of these at the end of our little dirt road. Now the woods are gone and the dirt road is a main thoroughfare. ?One entire field is a pumping station. When I first saw this, I cried. This industry is like a swarm of locusts, leaving destruction and a ?lasting impact on the environment.

But it goes much deeper than this. It creates greed and pits neighbor against neighbor, even dividing families. Back home, all rental properties now house gas people, as the landlords raised the rents so high that longtime tenants were forced to move. Every parking area is lined with pipes and equipment associated with the gas business. Roads have been destroyed and are barely passable. Motorists are being forced off ?the road by a steady stream of big rigs and trucks. People who are used to a few cars going by their house now have to endure 100 tractor-trailers a day. I went up to our well site and counted 80 tankers lined up so closely that you couldn’t fit between them.

The gas companies do put on a good show. They have a nice booth at the ?fair. They buy bicycle helmets for the kids. They pay to have the walkways at ?the fairgrounds paved. They are always presenting a check for this and a check for that. Their pictures are always in the paper for doing good deeds. What a joke. That’s Bradford County. ?

The Finger Lakes area has been blessed with so much natural beauty — the ?gorges, the lakes, the vineyards. We have so much to protect. We want our fields to be green so our children can walk through them. We need our water to be clean, not only for ourselves but for our livestock and marine life. ?If they start drilling, what’s going to happen to the water in our lakes? ?What’s going to happen if there is a drilling accident and people’s homes ?start filling up with methane gas? Don’t think it can happen? In northern Pennsylvania, it already has. ?I urge you to protect this area, its residents, its natural beauty and our way of life from the ravages of the gas industry.”