Having lived in Otisville for more than 30 years, Diana “Dee” Valentino is running for village board for the first time to give back to the community where she and her husband have raised their family.
“I will work with other village trustees as a team on whatever they’ve got planned,” she told The Epoch Times, adding that she liked the direction the village was heading under Mayor Brian Carey.
Raised in a big household in New Hampton, Ms. Valentino attended the Goshen Central School District before studying accounting at Orange County Community College, also known as SUNY Orange.
Following her marriage to Frank Valentino, an Otisville native, Ms. Valentino moved to the village in the early 1990s and scaled down her professional work in data entry to care for her two young children.
She returned to school in 1996 and attended evening classes at SUNY Orange to get an early childhood education degree. After that, she worked at several local nursery schools.
Ms. Valentino was actively involved in raising her two boys, including volunteering her time with the youth group they were part of at the Denton Presbyterian Church.
She also served as a den leader at the local Cub Scouts and then an assistant scoutmaster at Otisville Boy Scouts for more than a decade.
“They were both scouting kids as well as athletic kids,” she said of her children. “They played football, basketball, soccer, and lacrosse, so we were always at activities—we rarely missed anything.”
Ms. Valentino also spent a lot of her time helping with the Otisville Lions Club’s basketball program, volunteering as a girls’ coach for several years and a scorekeeper for almost 25 years.
“My husband became a coach for the boys’ teams, and then as one of my sons got older and moved back to town, he became a coach of the league, too,” she said. “So that became a family thing.”
The journey of raising her children was also one of overcoming her illnesses and searching for alternative medicine treatments for her own wellness, according to Ms. Valentino.
Years ago, she had back surgery for injuries sustained from a rafting incident. “I really took care of myself in the healing process and focused on healing naturally,” she said.
Now, she uses her knowledge to help others who want to learn more about alternative wellness approaches.
Ms. Valentino said she is interested in upgrading the village water plant, adding more play equipment at the Veteran Memorial Park, and having more community events.
Her husband is the public works department superintendent at the village.
Four candidates are vying for two village trustee seats up for grabs on March 19.
The Mount Hope Republican Party has endorsed Ms. Valentino.
