Family, Community Celebrated at Van Hornesville Benefit Concert
By ERIC SANTOMAURO-STENZEL
VAN HORNESVILLE
An unassuming white church has for generations been a center of community life for the small, forest-nestled hamlet of Van Hornesville. With a benefit concert bringing together some of those Van Hornesville generations this past Sunday, April 26, the Van Hornesville Community Corporation sought to fund the Millpond Community Center’s next chapter.
Bringing together four descendants of a 19th-century local boy made international industrialist, businessman, and lawyer, Owen D. Young, “Relative Harmony” had around 30 community members snapping and clapping to dynamic sets incorporating country, jazz, and blues music. Hopes of far-flung journeys and potential sweeties rang off the high ceiling, illuminated by stained windows in the late afternoon light.
“I have done benefit concerts in my home state of Vermont in the past and helped other organizations raise money,” said jazz vocalist-percussionist and VHCC member Suzannah Young Ciernia. “And I thought, well, heck, why don’t I do this here in Van Hornesville?”
Also on stage were singer-songwriter-guitarist Charlie Young, a regular performer in Ithaca; bassist Peter Young, who gigs with several Americana and blues bands in Santa Cruz, California; and singer-songwriter-guitarist Martin Fjeld, who also performs in Vermont.
They share the same commitment of Owen D. Young to the village, who returned often even while he was rising in the ranks of General Electric, putting together the State University of New York, or, at one point, running for president of the United States—among other pursuits.
The public school he founded in Van Hornesville bears his name: the Owen D. Young Central School District.
“Among the things that it is said, and I believe it to be true,” shared VHCC Board President Bob Ciernia, “no matter where he traveled in the world, he always had his pocket watch set to Van Hornesville time.”
The VHCC has supported community activities from dancing to coffee chats since it was founded by Young in 1938 at the tail end of his professional career. Today, the church that once saw a teenage Universalist Young preaching needs some restoration and renovation to further empower its impact.
“It’s been used regularly, but winters are harder to manage,” Bob Ciernia, husband of Suzannah, said, proposing winterization. “What would make it a true community center? Perhaps adding a kitchenette, or something like that.”
The organization is also looking at purchasing new folding chairs and tables for community dinner events and the like. Grant writing is expected to be part of the funding process, too.
Suzannah Ciernia dedicated one song before an intermission with refreshments, “Workin’ on a World” by Iris DeMent, to those fighting injustice and working to improve their communities.
“Now I’m workin’ on a world I may never see / I’m joinin’ forces with thе warriors of love / Who came beforе and will follow you and me / I get up in the mornin’ knowing I’m privileged just to be / Workin’ on a world I may never see.”
