Entertainment Director 
Company Author 
Executive Director
Project Manager

Hon. John McDonald, III

John T. McDonald III is serving his fourth term in the New York State Assembly representing the 108th Assembly District, which consists of parts of Albany, Rensselaer, and Saratoga Counties. It includes Cohoes, his hometown where he previously served as Mayor for 13 years, sections of Albany, Troy and the communities of Green Island, North Greenbush, Rensselaer, Waterford, and Watervliet.

A life-long resident of Cohoes, John is a graduate of Keveny Memorial Academy and the Albany College of Pharmacy where he received a BS in Pharmaceutical Sciences in 1985 and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities as well. John is a practicing pharmacist and the President of Marra's Pharmacy. Marra's Pharmacy has been a resource for thousands over its 87 years focused their large selection and excellent customer service which John has carried into his time in government as well. As Mayor of the City of Cohoes, John focused on financial accountability, improved quality of life, and expanding economic opportunity. He pursued an aggressive economic development agenda centered on downtown revitalization, adaptive reuse of historic buildings, Hudson and Mohawk Riverfront developments and gateway improvements. His accomplishments include bringing more than 2,000 new residential units to the City, a revitalized downtown and improvements to the Cohoes Falls, which are now a regional tourist attraction. John created a platform for a more transparent and open process for conducting city business as well, which increased the city's financial stability when he left office in 2012. Just as importantly during John's tenure, the City of Cohoes' population grew by more than 8% which was the first population increase for the City of Cohoes since 1930.

John has also been an active member of the New York State Conference of Mayors where he served as President of the statewide organization. He has also chaired the Capital District Transportation Committee, RiverSpark, the Cohoes Industrial Development Agency and the Cohoes Local Development Corporation. In addition, he has served on the boards of the New York State Heritage Areas Advisory Board, New York State Workforce Investment Board, State Comptroller's Local Advisory Team, the NYS Local Government Records Management Council and the Board of Governors for the New York State Municipal Insurance Reciprocal as well as many other regional councils and commissions. John currently serves on the board of the Albany Convention Center Authority. As a member of the NYS Assembly, John serves as the Vice Chair, Majority Steering and sits on the Alcoholism & Drug Abuse, Local Governments, Insurance, Higher Education, Real Property Taxation, and Ways and Means committees. His focus is on his strengths in local government, health care, and small business. John has worked on legislation pertaining to reducing unfunded mandates to local governments, containing property taxes, job growth and creation, sensible health care and an aggressive and complete attack on the heroin/opioid crisis that is ravaging our state and our communities.

John enjoys working day in and day out as well running and golfing, although his most prominent activity is spending time with his wife Renee and his children Emma Rose, Liam John and Sophia Mary. Retrieved from https://nyassembly.gov/mem/John-T-McDonald-III/bio/
 

Eric Yetto

Eric Yetto, a lifelong Cohoes resident and spokesperson for addiction. Eric has appeared in the film Heroin as an actor and recovered addict. Eric has appeared in two All-Consuming Filming movies. He works on the railroad in logistical maintenance. Eric has volunteered his time to participate in scheduled film appearances and is active at fundraising events for addiction. Eric has shared his story on screen and is a real-life success story. Eric is super dedicated to encouraging life in recovery. Eric is the author of “Darkness to Light” and has participated in the script for Heroin. Eric will speak to what motivates recovery and are the tools for a successful recovery from drugs and alcohol. Eric will talk about waking up in his drug dealer's house. Eric resides in Cohoes with a loving partner, who also appears as an actress, in the movie and his beautiful children.

Peter Dudar

Peter is a lifelong resident of Cohoes, Troy, and Waterford. Peter Dudar has attended over fifty friends and family member's funerals in the past three years. Peter is a recovering & relapsing addict who prides himself on telling us about real-life addictive struggles. Peter is a street drug expert and can speak about the drug destruction overdose crisis process. Peter is very dedicated to educating the public about the struggles of addiction. Peter works in construction maintenance and has for over twenty years. Peter is spending his time on the panel to speak to the street drug epidemic and does not want to attend another drug overdose funeral.

Brian Connors

Brian Connors has had a long career as an actor which eventually evolved into writing, directing and producing.  Brian recently directed his first feature film, a “mockumentary” titled SENIOR ENTOURAGE starring ED ASNER, HELEN REDDY, CHARLIE ROBINSON, MARION ROSS & MARK RYDELL, which will be released soon. After graduating from Rutgers University Brian moved into NYC and began working off off-broadway, in major regional Theaters, Television and in over 100 TV Commercials including one for United Health Care that is currently airing now where he gets attacked by seagulls during a beach wedding. Brian appears opposite OSCAR winning actor  KEVIN COSTNER in the Disney film MCFARLAND USA.  He's been featured on LAW & ORDER, LAW & ORDER SVU, THE RICHES, THE HANDLER and CLOSE TO HOME. CROSS YOUR HEART starring ORSON BEAN, ALLEY MILLS, LANE COMPTON, AUSTIN HIGHSMITH written & directed by BRIAN CONNORS just completed a run at a lovely 500 seat theater in beautiful Newport Beach CA. His full length plays and screenplays include CROSS YOUR HEART, TWO SISTERS, KING BABY and PLAYS IN THE PARK. One of his short plays turned into the short film GOOD MEN starring ED ASNER & MARK RYDELL which won numerous awards in over 80 film festivals around the world. Brian produced and wrote the screenplay for KING BABY a short film starring GINO CABANAS, CHARLIE ROBINSON, JAMES HANDY & BRIAN CONNORS. The feature-length screenplay is ready to go! Trailers and Demo’s of Brian’s work can be found on Vimeo or by linking to brianconnors.co

New York State Troopers

Intel Analyst Kellen Crouse


Kellen Crouse is an Intelligence Analyst with the New York State Police, assigned to the New York State Intelligence Center.  He is responsible for tactical and strategic intelligence products, as well as major case investigations and critical incident response. He covers a wide variety of threat steams ranging from violent street gangs to transnational organized crime and illicit drug networks. Mr. Crouse has been in the field of Crime and Intelligence Analysis for 9 years, previously working with the Albany Police Department (NY), Baltimore City Police Department (MD), and Camden County Police Department (NJ). Mr. Crouse earned a Master’s degree in Criminal Justice from Radford University and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Mars Hill College.  

Kellie Roe

Kellie Roe is a person in long-term recovery from substance order. What that means is she hasn’t had a drink or a drug since February 6, 1995.

As a result of her recovery, Kellie is a wife, a mother and Executive Director of Second ChanceOpportunities, Inc.

Second Chance Opportunities, Inc. is a local not-for-profit founded by people in recovery in 2001. SCO's mission is to bridge the gap between treatment services and created a life centered in recovery. The gap is bridged by providing services that include, employment opportunities, recovery coaching, housing,

medical references, financial support and referrals, sober social events, community space, sober networking, recovery celebrations, and family support services.

Under Kellie’s leadership, Second Chance Opportunities has tripled in growth since 2016. As of Fall 2019, SCO holds 30 janitorial contracts with 85 employees, 77 of whom are individuals in recovery from substance use disorder.

Kellie lives in Albany with her husband Brian and daughter Kaelin; her dogs George and Otis and two cats Tito and Miss Kitty. She has a passion for showing people in early recovery that not only is recovery possible, but we also get to create a life beyond our wildest dreams. For more information please visit the Second Chances website www.SCOAlbany.com

Kimberly Trapani

Kimberly Trapani holds a Master's Degree in Business from Full Sail University, a Psychology & Education Degree from The State University of New York at Albany, and has over twenty years of career experience. Kimberly has been performing since a child. Kimberly co-founded a company, All Consuming Filming, with Business Entrepreneur, Chuck Ardezzone for the purpose of making films about the heartbreaking effects of illegal drug addiction and the over-prescription of controlled substances. Together with Chuck, Kimberly successfully has managed the company All-Consuming Filming which prides itself on "helping people together" to encourage life in recovery and support families of addicts. Kimberly produced the movie Heroin. Kimberly developed an operational business plan, branded the logo, authored scripts, and created the company tagline, just to name a few responsibilities. Kimberly has actively given back to the community by showing films in Florida and New York, participating in fundraising events for addiction recovery, volunteer lobbying, teaching children about the drug epidemic and coordinating “Confronting the Overdose Crisis in New York State” in Cohoes NY. Kimberly has been affected personally by the drug epidemic  and has been giving back to the cause for years.