Students in the Jamestown High School Concert Band rehearse in the Merton P. Corwin Auditorium for the annual Spring Band Concert scheduled for Friday, May 5 at 7 p.m. in the high school auditorium.

Jamestown High School’s Spring Band Concert will take place on tonight.

The performance at 7:00 p.m. in the JHS Auditorium will feature both the Concert and Symphonic bands under the direction of JHS Director of Bands Meghan Murray.

The bands will present works by Balmages, Mackey, Maslanka, Standridge, and more and also include music from “How To Train Your Dragon,” “Jekyll and Hyde,” and “Horn Concerto No. 1” by Strauss, performed by 2023 Concerto winner Madeline DeJoy.

The bands will combine for a special performance and a goodwill offering will be taken to benefit the Mental Health Association in Chautauqua County.

Admission is free and open to the public.

2023 Battle of the Classes donation to Mental Health Association Executive Director Steven Cobb (March 30, 2023)

Jamestown High School students raised $6,936.57 for the Mental Health Association in Chautauqua County through the 2023 Battle of the Classes.

MHA Executive Director Steven Cobb accepted the donation, saying that proceeds will help benefit the MHA’s “Code Blue Warming Center” established earlier this year. He said, “This expansion into homeless/shelter services has created new areas of need the MHA is working to directly address in our community.”

The donation will be used to help make physical updates to the association’s Gateway Center space to provide shower, laundry, and technology services to those in need across the community.

The Battle of the Classes event held last Thursday marked the event’s return to McElrath Gymnasium for the first time since 2019 following two years of an outside competition at Strider Field.

The Class of 2024 was declared the winner, raising $4,125.24 and also placing first in the skills competition. The Senior Class of 2023 raised $1,259.88, the Freshman Class of 2026 raised $885.68, and the Sophomore Class of 2025 raised $666.07.

JHS Battle of the Classes

The 42nd annual Jamestown High School Battle of the Classes takes place tonight.

The event is at 6:30 p.m. in the McElrath Gymnasium. Proceeds from the annual competition will benefit the Mental Health Association in Chautauqua County.

The school-wide competition will include games, skills contests, and dance-off.

Over the last four decades, the school has raised over $300,000 for community organizations and charities.

Proceeds will help benefit MHA’s “Code Blue Warming Center” established earlier this year.

MHA executive director Steven Cobb said the donation from JHS students will help to make physical updates to the association’s Gateway Center space to provide shower, laundry, and technology services to those in need across the community.

Those interested in donating can contact Tony Dolce at anthony.j.dolce@jpsny.org. Tickets for the event $2 at the door.

Mayor Sundquist addresses organizations for a homelessness meeting (March 1, 2023)

As two months remain for the two new emergency shelters in Jamestown to provide housing for the homeless, a group working on homelessness is looking at what’s next.

A group of faith-based organizations, social service groups, and other non-profits has been coordinated by Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist to discuss the issue of homelessness in the city.

At an meeting on March 1, the Joy Fellowship and Mental Health Association in Chautauqua County provided an update on how their emergency shelters have been operating. Both facilities are only open during Code Blue situations, where the overnight temperature drops below 32 degrees.

MHA Executive Director Steven Cobb said he feels very positive about how things have gone with the shelters, “Today we have celebrated some of the successes we’ve had in providing housing with our Code Blue shelters in Jamestown, both at the MHA and Joy Fellowship. They’ve been very successful. And I think the other positive thing I leave here with is that there is a lot of support in the community to continue this and figure out what comes next.”

Cobb said there was a negative realization over the last couple months, “The folks we are serving in these shelters have enormous needs and at this point in the community we might not have all the resources we need to have in place to foster continued success for the folks in our community who are experiencing homelessness.”

MHA Project Manager Sean Jones said since January 6, there have been 142 individuals who have stayed at the MHA shelter.

Both facilities said they are in need for food donations, especially frozen meals, fresh fruit, yogurt, and milk. They also said donations of sturdy shoes and backpacks for adults are needed.

For more information about donations, contact Joy Fellowship at 716-484-1542 and the MHA at 716-661-9044.

WRFA’s Julia Ciesla-Hanley speaks with Mental Health Association Executive Director Steven Cobb about the FDA possibly approving naloxone to be offered over the counter.

Narcan

The FDA is considering making naloxone available over the counter in the United States.

Naloxone is a life-saving medication that can reverse an overdose from opioids, including heroin, fentanyl, and prescription opioid medications,, when given in time.

The panel of Food and Drug Administration experts voted unanimously last week in favor of the switch after a full day of presentations and discussions centered on whether untrained users would be able to safely and effectively use the nasal spray in emergency situations.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, over 106,000 people died of opioid-related overdoses in 2021.

Mental Health Association in Chautauqua County Executive Director Steven Cobb is enthused about the news and said it will help remove stigma, “When you make something over the counter, I think it shows to a broader bunch of people that it’s safe to use and that people can handle using it. And it also makes Naloxone, or Narcan, which is a brand name, just available to a larger segment of the population.”

Cobb said people in New York can already obtain Narcan from a pharmacy without a prescription thanks to a standing prescription order from the State Department of Health, “New York State will cover the co-pay for your insurance, whether it’s private pay insurance or whether it’s Medicaid or Medicare. The pharmacist will put it through on your prescription and then New York State will cover the co-pay for three boxes of Narcan per year per New York State resident.”

Cobb said if the FDA approval goes through, he’d like to see Narcan made available through vending machines anywhere people who use substances gather, including health facilities, libraries, bars, and more.

He stressed that Narcan is not a drug that can be abused, “Unless you have opiates in your system, Narcan will have no effect on you. And there’s no ability to get high. You can’t be poisoned by Narcan. It’s a very safe drug to use for the community, to feel comfortable using, safety-wise there are no issues.”

A vote on the matter by the FDA is expected by the end of March.

For more information about Naloxone and training on how to use it, contact the MHA at 716-661-9044 or visit mhachautauqua.org

Mental Health Association Executive Director Steven Cobb and Jamie Billquist hold a check from Rosie’s Run, the annual 5K run/walk in memory of Rosemary “Rosie” Billquist. The donation is for supplies at the new warming center in Jamestown’s Gateway Center.

The Mental Health Association has received a donation to help support its new warming center.

The annual “Run for Rosie,” which is held in memory of Rosemary Billquist, donated $800 to the MHA.

The recently opened warming center at MHA’s offices at the Gateway Center offers emergency shelter and a meal for people who are homeless.

Sherman resident Rosemary Billquist was a marathon runner, triathlete, community volunteer, and animal lover before her life ended unexpectedly in November 2017.

The next Rosie’s Run 5K run/walk is Sunday, June 4, 2023, in Sherman. All proceeds benefit the memorial fund that helps Hospice, the Southern Tier Kidney Foundation, the Chautauqua County Humane Society, and other community needs. An annual August golf tournament also supports the fund.

To learn more about the Mental Health Association, call (716) 661-9044 or visit MHAChautauqua.org.

Eddie Sundquist

Plans for two emergency homeless shelters that will have a total of 30 beds are coming together in the City of Jamestown.

Mayor Eddie Sundquist said a third round of meetings on homelessness in the city took place Thursday between community groups, faith based groups, resource providers and medical providers.

He said as winter weather is on the horizon, the group wanted to make sure there was emergency shelters in place for “Code Blue” nights when the temperature drops below 32 degrees, “What’s unique about these shelters is that they’re different from anything else we have. One shelter will primarily focus on families that may need emergency sheltering and support during cold nights. And another one will focus on co-ed singles, something that we do not have here in the city. We’ve experienced in a lot of encampments those issues.”

Sundquist said the city still needs state and county approval, but the proposed shelter locations will be at Joy Fellowship Church on 7th Street and the Mental Health Association at the Gateway Center.

The Latin Inspiration show is a radio program for the community, hosted by Pastor Juan Perez (right), who provides an hour of inspirational Latin music along with news, interviews, and an encouraging message from the word of God. On Oct. 2, 2022 he interviewed Allyson Murphy from the Mental Health Association in Chautauqua County.

Southern Tier West ARC Area Development Program Regional Development Associate Fileve Palmer and MHA Executive Director Steven Cobb (September 20, 2022)

A large crowd of community organizations and elected officials gathered at the Mental Health Association Tuesday to celebrate the award of a $500,000 grant that will help people in recovery return to the workforce.

MHA Executive Director Steven Cobb said the two-year federal grant is coming from the Appalachian Regional Commission‘s INSPIRE (Investments Supporting Partnerships In Recovery Ecosystems) Initiative, “The purpose of that is to develop a recovery ecosystem that supports people in recovery as they return to the workforce, to remove barriers, to provide opportunities for education, and to provide assistance where wrap-around-services don’t traditionally supply assistance.”

Cobb said the grant will enable them to work with businesses to help them develop tools to support employees in recovery as well as helping employees who have family members who are have substance use issues.

He said the program will be implemented across Chautauqua County.

Cobb said St. Luke’s Episcopal Church will be a facet of the grant through the collaboration with MHA on the social-enterprise program, St. Bernard’s Blessed dog biscuits. He said that program will be used as a classroom, “For folks in our community who might need some support in developing skills to go back to work, communications skills, skills insofar as showing up to work, being on time. And we will use the making of these biscuits, the marketing of the biscuits, the packaging, the selling as a classroom to teach people skills that they can take and then go back to work.”

Cobb said another facet of the grant will allow MHA to go into the Chautauqua County Jail to work with inmates transitioning out in order to shorten the gap between their release and going back to work.

He said MHA and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church are each matching the $500,000 grant with $250,000 of in-kind services for a total program value of $1 million.

MHA was the only ARC INSPIRE grant recipient in New York State this year.

EDITOR’S NOTE: As a point of transparency and disclosure to our audience, MHA in Chautauqua County is a corporate underwriter for WRFA and has provided a financial contribution for the general operations of the station within the past year. Funding we receive for General Operations is not used to fund our coverage of local news in the community. That is only made possible through a Community Service Grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.