UNSUNG HEROES: Carol Baxter, a true quality of life improvement activist for her community

BY BARRY WARNER

 Carol Baxter is admired in the community of Palisades for her work advocating many local improvements through the years
Carol Baxter is admired in the community of Palisades for her work advocating many local improvements through the years

Carol Baxter, a Palisades resident, has been willing to step forward and make a difference in the lives of others for many years.

As president of the Palisades Community Center, Carol is overseeing a restoration master plan of critical repairs to conserve the 1870 historic former schoolhouse building and make it accessible to all. The final capital improvement phase will involve renovating the kitchen to make it fully functional and installing a handicapped bathroom.

Baxter said, “I love working with people on projects that I believe in. I don’t push a clock and enjoy volunteering to create things that don’t exist.”

She initiated the Nyack Farmers’ Market 20 years ago, ran it for 12 years and eight years ago started an indoor Winter Farmers’ Market in the Palisades Community Center (PCC). The vendors offer a wide range of products that include meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, cheese and bakery items. All the food is grown or prepared within a hundred mile radius of the Palisades hamlet.

Carol was PTA president of three elementary schools in the South Orangetown School District, advocated for more arts in the curriculum and created Earth Day festivals. She was a professional dancer for 15 years and lives in the hamlet with her husband Loren and two children.

Maria Gagliardi, director of the Palisades Free Library said, “Carol Baxter is admired in the community as someone who cares about people and issues that affect Palisades and the Rockland community.”

In addition, Baxter has aided in effort to collect food and clothing collection for People to People. She has been an editor and coordinator of a community newsletter “10964,” she writes about traffic safety and environmental issues, for many years, as well.

According to Gagliardi, “Her biggest accomplishment was tirelessly campaigning for years and successfully getting Palisades to build the Oak Tree Road sidewalk, which has greatly improved the safety of residents in the area.”

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