Dear NMHA volunteers, members, and friends,

In 2022, I never expected that to a large extent I would be repeating my COVID comments of 2021 (and 2020!). In the back of my mind, I expected the whole COVID thing to be over by the end of 2021. Unfortunately, with the appearance of the Omicron mutation in the last few weeks of December 2021 it is now starting to appear that 2022 will literally be 2020 too.

However, somehow NMHA manages to adjust course with the prevailing storms and stick to the execution of its mission. While COVID considerations were ever present, it has far from prevented NMHA from doing what it does: focusing on the river, local history, youth engagement and general fun.

We have presented speakers in Zoom format. We have had various successful excursions such as whale watching and the cruise to Red Hook and back. We have had River Rangers, picnics, family paddles, and Grover house projects. All these events were designed to be flexible to adjust to changing COVID requirements and we managed to make most of them work splendidly.  

That success depends not only on the hard work of the board and volunteers, but also on the flexibility and patience of the members and participants. Particularly, I would like to commend everybody with our record of having absolutely no transmission vectors running through NMHA in 2020 or 2021, and hopefully we can repeat that record in 2022 and complete most of our events and programs without incident.

In 2021 we lost some friends. In particular I would like to make mention of Walt Treacy who passed away last December. Walt was a very strong supporter and a truly likeminded soul to NMHA, and we were very much honored to have received substantial donations in his memory.

Rik van Hemmen, President NMHA

PLEASE RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP

Please renew your Membership or Join NMHA. It is not expensive, and it helps us so much to focus on the fun. Please note that Membership choices include SUSTAINING MEMBERSHIPS as well as the traditional Annual  Memberships. A Sustainer has an automatic monthly deduction from a credit card that continues until the Sustainer decides to stop, whereas the Annual Memberships are renewed manually each year. Renew or join now and you will be a member for 2022. Renewals are on the membership anniversary.