Community steps up: Meals on Wheels of Western Broome serving more meals despite impacts of Matilda’s Law
The increase comes as individuals over seventy have been urged by New York State to stay home through Matilda’s Law. The law requires individuals over the age of seventy as well as those with underlying health conditions and those with compromised immune systems to remain at home. Pangilinan says the law has also presented other challenges. Pangilinan says staff are required to wear gloves, wash their hands frequently and remain six feet away from other volunteers at all time. While staff have also been advised to cut back on interaction with clients, she says now is not the time to stop providing meals. “We can take on more people right now and we want to deliver as long as we possibly can so until they tell us to stop we can take on more people,” she said. ENDICOTT (WBNG) — Staff at Meals on Wheels of Western Broome say the phone has been ringing a little more often than usual due to the coronavirus. So staff say they asked the community for help and the community responded. 
“We’ve had a lot of people from the community stepping up to say they’d like to volunteer we’ve signed up a bunch of new people and some of our existing volunteers are also working extra days,” said Volunteer Coordinator Bonnie Hathaway. “Demand for our service has gone up probably about 25% in the last few weeks so with a very small staff of seven people it’s been a little crazy handling the increase in demand,” said Executive Director Jackie Pangilinan. “As you can imagine most of our volunteers are age seventy or older so when Matilda’s law was suggested by Governor Cuomo we lost a large portion of our volunteers,” she said. 
(WBNG) — One group of farmers in Greene say they didn’t want students to miss out on a decades-old tradition of riding their tractors to school on the last day of the school year. “We have a lot of great teamwork. One thing I can say about this community, we will come together as a team to make things happen, especially for our students,” said Milk. Next Monday, students will still carry out Tractor Day, but it will look a little different. Instead of driving tractors to school, they’ll be driving them around the town of Greene. Due to the pandemic, students weren’t able to head to classes in tractors this year. With many events cancelled, they also were unable to celebrate with traditional graduation ceremonies. Farmers and the local community say they had to do something. “I started at about eight in the morning. My wife would take me down to the farm, and I’d drive a tractor up to the field, she’d pick me up and take me back down,” said Milk. Farmers put their heads together and came up with a plan to drive their tractors into the shape of “2020”. Moving that many tractors also was a pretty difficult task. The final result captured in drone video from the Chenango County Sheriff’s Office. Tractors in the shape of “2020” Milk says, shows the community’s eagerness to support local students. “Back in 1982, a friend of mine and a local farmer, Joe Warren, started driving his tractor to school. It’s been a tradition at Greene schools since 1982,” said Greene Central School District Board President Brian Milk. “A lot of people grew up on farms, and unfortunately they’re disappearing from our area. There are still some around and it’s still a good tradition, and we felt it was really important to be different,” said Milk. 
ENDICOTT (WBNG) — If you don’t feel like waiting in line at the Cider Mill this season, or if you’re concerned about the pandemic, staff say they’ve come up with a new way for you to still get your hands on some cider and doughnuts with the touch of a button. Manager Brent Natzle says while they tried out the app in a smaller capacity last year, it’s taken on new importance this season. You can download the app through the App Store if you’re using an apple device or through Google Play. Thanks to the new ‘Cider Mill’ app, you can order all of your goodies on your smart phone and then pick them up without ever getting out of your car. “This year with COVID and everything it was important that we did this so people didn’t have to come in the building, and this year it’s just blown right up, huge, absolutely huge,” he said.
He also hopes that raising awareness will bring about changes to how the military handles bringing our soldiers home, from recognizing signs that someone is having a crisis to taking a look at the effects medication has on soldiers. “We didn’t want any other family to feel alone. We didn’t want anyone who might be considering that as an option or suffering to feel that they’re hopeless,” she says. Now three years after his son’s death, Neild and his daughter, Aubrey, have made it their mission to raise awareness through a group they started called ‘Team Timmy’. OWEGO (WBNG) — September is Suicide Awareness Month, and the Tioga County Veterans Service Agency is marking it with a display of flags representing the 660 Veterans they say commit suicide each month. The display is called the ‘Field of the Forgotten Fallen’ and is located in front of the County Office Building on Main Street. “To honor his memory and honor his journey, we developed Team Timmy, and to me, that just helped put my energy toward something positive to give back to the community,” says Tim’s sister Aubrey Lang. “We need to keep our mouths shut and just listen,” he says. “That’s what they really need. They need a focal point where they can concentrate on how they’re feeling and their story instead of us telling them what they should or shouldn’t do.” “The amazing thing about the American soldier is they’re still human, and they came from here and that’s the hardest thing, to come back here and be a civilian again,” he says. He also hopes he can use his own experience to help other parents and loved ones of soldiers coming home to understand a little bit better what their needs are. Neild says the message his family hopes to convey through Team Timmy is that no matter how dark things may seem, there is always hope. “They represent the lives that we’ll lose this month to suicide alone,” says agency director Michael Middaugh. “We teach our young men and women to go to war, but we don’t teach them how to come home.” And as those flags wave in the breeze on Main Street in Owego, Neild says he hopes the display will bring attention to the struggles his son faced. “It’s a club that nobody wants to be a member of. The initiation fee is high, and we pay every day,” he says. “The kid was such a good soldier, he actually won the bronze star, but we never talked about that.” “They have to have it so when there’s a red flag, and if you feel like someone’s in dire straits, then someone has got to be notified. Someone has to be there to check on them,” he says. This year’s display honors Captain Timothy Neild of Candor who took his own life nearly three years ago. The organization offers a scholarship in Tim’s name, with a heavy focus on community service. It also helps offer guidance to other families and individuals going through the same painful journey. Rick Neild is the proud father of Captain Neild. He says he and his family are still dealing with their loss. You can learn more about Team Timmy by clicking here.
The health department asks anyone who was at the facility on November 11 between 5:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. or November 12 between 4:15 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. to self-quarantine until November 26 or 27 respectively. The health department suggested you contact your healthcare provider and the health department if you develop symptoms. VESTAL (WBNG) — The Broome County Health Department issues another public health alert Monday afternoon following a positive COVID-19 test.
The most recent alert stated someone who went to Midway Lanes in Vestal has since tested positive for the coronavirus.