Bizdata {Peter Lyons Hall] is a specialist expert in the region of Warwick, NY, and has been a member of the Warwick Historical Society, Sustainable Warwick, the Pine Island Chamber of Commerce, and the Drowned Lands Historical Society (Pine Island, NY). You can reach him via e-mail at this address: peter[at]warwickinfo.net. Peter is also the marketing manager at Cranemere.com.
After moving to the Pine Island area in 2000, Peter Hall began getting involved in the community and began a career in helping a variety of organizations achieve their goals and aspirations. In 2004 he produced several annual program guides for the Pine Island School drama productions, and the following year, he created a special audio/visual presentation, with Terry Odell and principal Jane Hamburger, performed at the WV High School for Pine Island School parents to accompany a unique fund-raising program to help a public elementary school devastated by a hurricane Katrina in Louisiana.
Later in 2004 he volunteered as a member of AppleFest Committee, redesigning the program guide, while elevating the presence of apples in the event. He received a commendation from the FFA organization for “putting apples back into AppleFest.” During that same period, he launched the Warwickinfo.net Internet community directory which became the on-line voice for several not-for-profit organizations and enabled them to increase awareness throughout the region. These groups included the Warwick Valley Farmers Market, Florida Farmers Market, Greenwood Lake Farmers Market, Warwick in Bloom, The Pine Island Elementary School and other groups.
During 2005 He launched the websites for the Warwick Farmers Market (until Warwick took over its management a few years later) and the Florida NY Farmers Market, which he continues to manage today. In 2006, he volunteered for the Communities in Bloom committee with Warwick in Bloom members, designing website, a presentation, and other collateral materials that helped them enter and eventually win the prestigious International CIB worldwide award in their community size category.
The following year, while serving as vice president of the Pine Island Chamber, he designed and produced Pine Island Onion newspaper, with Cheetah da Parma, which was distributed in print and digital versions throughout the community on a quarterly basis, until 2011. The newspaper later became a collaborative production with the Florida Onion newspaper. During the summer of 2007, Peter volunteered for Warwick Summer Arts Festival, obtaining TV coverage for Mannequin Project on Cablevision.
Later that year, he received a call from Mayor Michael Newhard about needing help to raise at least $50,000 to move the original Union A.M.E. Church on McEwen St., to keep it from being demolished, in order to make room for a new church building. Church elders were hoping to be able to move the old church to the Warwick Historical Society to preserve its history, but there was not enough money available. Peter contacted the NY Times and other media about the urgency to publicize the need to obtain community action. A NY Times reporter, Barbara Whitaker, arrived a couple of days later and met with Michael Bertolini, other members of the Historical Society, who explained how important the church was to the community and how Warwick was one of the stops in the underground railroad. Like the other churches in the Village, when the Union A.M.E. Church was first built in 1906, many Village residents, regardless of their religious affiliation, contributed their time, money, materials, and effort in building it. The NY Times article, https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/09/nyregion/09ame.html, appeared a few days later and helped to generate enough attention and donations from residents of the Hudson Valley, to prevent its demolition and successfully complete the move to Forester Ave., where it resides to this day as part of the buildings managed by the Warwick Historical Society.
In 2008, Peter designed the Vernon Chamber of Commerce website, and managed it as volunteer until 2016. He also volunteered for Vernon Chamber Charities Annual Vernon Earthfest program, launching website, publicity, promotion, video, pictures that continued through 2019; and he designed the St. Stephen website and managed it until 2018, when NY Archdiocese took it over.
That same year he began to devote more resources and efforts into Pine Island, however. He was an active volunteer for the Save the Farm program, with members of the school board, after Hurricane Irene and Tropical storm Lee devastated local Pine Island farms; he designed the program website, incorporating art from design teacher, Rocco Manno, to help coordinate program events with WV School District and other organizations. He also established an awards program for community beautification in the Pine Island area that recognized businesses that made an effort to enhance curb appeal and the first impressions to customers.
While continuing to serve as vice president of Pine Island Chamber, Peter initiated the Black Dirt Feast community event (with Sondra Hall) in Pine Island, which has become largest fund-raising event for the Pine Island Chamber of Commerce. He created the program guide, website, and acquisition of consistent sponsorships to offset costs of producing the event, generating a net profit during each of the first four years, and culminating in raising over $9,000 for the Chamber during the fourth (and final) year of producing the event. Peter obtained sustained media coverage for the event from TV News 12, Orange magazine, Times Herald-Record, Straus News, WV Dispatch, Luminary Media, and other news outlets, featuring each of the participating chefs who represented a different hamlet or village in the community.
In 2009 Peter designed and produced a tourism brochure for Pine Island Chamber with illustrated map of all the business members of the organization. He also to contributed several episodes of Cablevision’s Neighborhood Journal program, gaining publicity for several of Pine Island farms and businesses, as well as businesses and events throughout the Town of Warwick, the Pine Island Elementary School, Jean-Claude’s Bakery, The Black Dirt Feast, Scheuermann Farms and Greenhouses, and others. He was a founding board member of the Drowned Lands Society, creating a Facebook Page for the organization and continue to include the organization’s events on the Warwickinfo.net events calendar.
During 2009 Peter was Chair of Records, Reports and Archives Committee for the Mid-Orange Correctional Facility project for the Town of Warwick. He edited and designed the final report for the Town of Warwick that enabled it to be the first former jail property to be sold by the State of NY. The project has become a considerable success story, often in the news, and a source of employment and tax revenue for the town.
For the next few years Peter was active in a number of community initiatives. He created a websites for Sustainable Warwick, the Warwick Historical Society, the Hoboken International Film Festival in Greenwood Lake, artist Chris Van Vooren’s Film Strip Project in Greenwood Lake to benefit the teen program; Teen program beneficiary of funds raised; website, collateral materials, etc. He integrated into the Historical society’s website a self-guided tour app for which he produced photography and several of the voice-overs for the app.
In 2016, he produced a shared TEDx presentation and viewing party (on How We Eat) for Albert Wisner Library in its new community center room. The event was later cited in its “Best Small Library in America” award achievement.
From 2018-2019, Peter designed and edited the book Pride and Produce, by author and former Pine Island Chamber President, Cheetah Haysom, which described the Origin, Evolution and Survival of the Drowned Lands, the Hudson Valley’s Legendary Black Dirt Farming district. The book continues to be sold in many local establishments and on-line in a digital version.
Recently Peter has been a volunteer for Rumshock Veterans Foundation, producing a website, collateral materials, and, working with WVHS students video production class, produced three videos for use in communicating to the region about the need to address issues faced by Orange County veterans (affordable housing, suicide, mental health, and unemployment). The Foundation’s efforts have been covered by numerous local press and TV News 12. As a member of the board of directors he is playing a prominent role in the Foundation’s acquisition of property in Port Jervis, NY.
Peter continues to be a regular contributor with stories and photography for Straus Newspapers, the Warwick Valley Dispatch, Times Herald-Record, and other media outlets about Pine Island and Warwick area events, organizations, and businesses.
He now works full-time for an international holding company that acquires businesses for the long-term with permanent capital, business-building expertise and a global network. The company looks for businesses that share its focus on creating environmental and social value as part of business success. Its active and lasting partnership enables innovative founders, management teams and family-owned businesses to capture their full potential to build exceptional organizations. The company is inspired by the Seventh Generation Principle, an ancient philosophy from indigenous peoples, that ensures that decisions regarding energy, water, and natural resources, are sustainable for seven generations into the future and the power of private enterprise to steward businesses with enduring values over decades.