Community Update: Shop Local for the Holidays, Need for Federal Funding, Managing Mental Health & more

Dear Friends:

Happy Hanukkah to everyone beginning their celebrations tonight. May the Festival of Lights bring you and your family with hope, happiness and health. I understand how challenging it is to be hosting small celebrations this year with only those in our household. I miss my children and grandchildren dearly, and I look forward to hosting them for a big family dinner when the pandemic is over. I encourage those doing their holiday shopping to shop local. Small businesses need our support more than ever, and I have gathered some helpful information below to make that a little easier. Check out the Shop Local for the Holidays section below to support a small business in your area for holiday shopping. 

Over the past week, I was glad to join my Senate Conference for a virtual retreat where we unanimously re-elected my colleague and friend Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins as our Majority Leader. I am immensely proud to work with her. She has been an extraordinary leader during this challenging time and has a unique gift of bringing people together, making them feel heard, and leading us to move NY forward. You can read more about Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins in a recent profile about her time in leadership here. After the retreat, the Majority Leader of the Senate and the Speaker of the Assembly released the Legislative Calendar for 2021. For those unfamiliar with the legislative session, in reading the calendar, session days are days we work in Albany, discussing and passing legislation. While the 2021 legislative session will be very different, we have much work to do and we are ready to address our communities’ many pressing issues. The calendar is available here.  

My colleagues and I continue to focus on the upsurge in positive COVID-19 cases in Port Chester and elsewhere in Westchester. On Thursday, we hosted an event in Spanish to disseminate important information about curbing the spread of the virus. We have continued to meet with small businesses in Port Chester who are struggling especially while the area is an Orange Zone. I am hopeful we can get them some relief soon! In addition, there are two scheduled days for free COVID-19 testing in Port Chester on December 13th & December 16th. More details below.
 

Kind regards, 

Shelley B. Mayer

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