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City Celebrates Saratoga Pride 2022

Kicking-off the start of Pride month atop the steps of Saratoga Springs City Hall on June 1, 2022. Photo by Thomas Dimopoulos.

by Thomas Dimopoulos Saratoga TODAY

SARATOGA SPRINGS — City officials were joined by local residents on the steps of Saratoga Springs City Hall to note the start of PRIDE month - “a commemoration, a celebration, and a call to action,” city Finance Commissioner Minita Sanghvi said, during the June 1 gathering. Pride month is typically held in communities during the month of June - marking the June 28, 1969 anniversary of a police raid at the Stonewall Inn in downtown Manhattan; the ensuing riot and subsequent protests are credited with kicking off the modern gay rights movement.

“It’s a commemoration of Stonewall uprising and our history in our state and city and our country. PRIDE is also a celebration. It’s a celebration of all of us - my LGBTQ brothers and sisters and how far we’ve come,” said Sanghvi, adding that she remembered growing up in India “scared about being different, scared about people finding out I was different…I am honored to represent our city as the first openly gay elected commissioner in Saratoga Springs.”

Commissioner Sanghvi was joined at the City Hall gathering by Saratoga Springs Mayor Ron Kim, city Supervisor at Saratoga County Tara Gaston, local residents and members of the Saratoga Pride community organization.

The Saratoga Pride Festival will take place 2-5 p.m. Sunday, June 26 in High Rock Park and will feature live music and family activities. For more information, go to: www.saratogapride.com.

Honoring the Memory of Billy Wardell: $12,000 Awarded to Local Students

Certificates of recognition awarded to two Saratoga Springs students this year in honor of the memory of Billy Wardell. Photo provided.

by Thomas Dimopoulos Saratoga TODAY

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Forty-eight students at Maple Avenue Middle School have been recognized for their individual displays of kindness and their helpfulness towards other students since 2016.

Those middle school students attending Saratoga Springs School – eight students each year from 2016 to 2021 - received a certificate and a $50 gift card to help purchase school supplies. That recognition was a way of honoring the memory of Billy Wardell, a sixth-grade student who was killed while riding an all-terrain vehicle in Greenfield in 2016.

“People wanted to give and to have some way of memorializing Billy,” said the boy’s grandmother, Sherry Wardell, who helped coordinate the Billy Wardell Memorial Fund.

The students were chosen by teachers. The criteria: kids the teachers have watched all year who have strived to help others, says Sherry Wardell. Caregivers, mentors with anti-bullying attributes. Students, she says, “with a caring heart.”

The Class of 2022, whose commencement takes place June 24, marks what would have been Billy’s graduating class.

As such, Wardell said this year’s recognition of students by the Billy Wardell Memorial Fund will be the final one. With $12,000 remaining in the fund, students Lucas Mergandahl and Isabelle Kelly were selected to each receive an award of $6,000 with the recommendation it be applied towards a skill school or college of their choice.