Jennifer K. Queri 315-282-8622 jqueri@advancemediany.com
ADVERTISING ACCOUNT
REPRESENTATIVE
Chrissy Tice 216-999-4643 ctice@advancelocal.com
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Amy Bleier Long 315-282-8553
ableierlong@advancemediany.com
ASSISTANT EDITOR
MJ Kravec 315-766-7833 mkravec@advancemediany.com
DESIGNERS
Susan Santola ssantola@advancelocal.com
Kimberly Worner kworner@advancelocal.com
CUSTOMER SERVICE
315-282-8622
ON THE COVER
A peaceful moment at the historic Greek temple behind Rowland House, part of Inns of Aurora. Photo courtesy Inns of Aurora Resort & Spa. Design by Susan Santola.
Thank you to the advertisers that make CNY Magazine possible!
Oh babe, I hate to go
After hearing people say,
“It’s the hope that kills you,” perennially positive TV character Ted Lasso counters, “I disagree. I think it’s the lack of hope that comes and gets you.”
Like the team worried about losing their next game and getting demoted to a lower league, it sometimes feels like Central New Yorkers are afraid to believe that the area will thrive again. Change is hard, and development on the scale we expect won’t be easy, but we have hope that CNY is on the upswing.
Even though going forward we may not be telling those stories in these pages, we wanted to end on a positive note because there is already so much good happening in this community — as we hope we’ve demonstrated over the last 111 issues of this magazine.
With that positivity in mind, we highlight an Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital employee whose role brings great joy to young patients, ask four nonprofits to share how they tackle some of the region’s biggest challenges and keep raising us up, and get advice on how to get through the holidays when you’re grieving a loved one. It wouldn’t be the holidays without talk of food, so we looked to the savory “side” of things this season (p. 54, I am still
craving the Thai chili Brussels sprouts).
Speaking of food, we’re so excited about Louise, Everson Museum of Art’s new cafe, and the literally one-of-a-kind experience it offers, plus She Fancy gives us a creative take on salt potatoes. We also head north to explore Oswego, beat the winter blues, meet a Renaissance woman turning her passions into products, and talk to married screenwriters who create holiday magic from their Manlius home. Additionally, we witness the contentment of a young man who finally has a loving home of his own, and we suggest ideas in our annual local holiday gift guide to delight family and friends.
We’re very grateful to you, and it’s been an honor to be trusted with the stories we’ve told. Thank you also to our talented writers, designers, photographers and behind-the-scenes folks for their work through the years.
We wish you a very happy holiday season, and we hope you enjoy this issue.
Amy Bleier Long ableierlong@advancemediany.com
As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts. Drop us a line at info@readcnymagazine.com.
And now, a word from our contributors:
Ashley Kang
“I saw how hard they work to stay connected with the community and to ensure the community is connected to how decisions and priorities are set.”
On writing about CNY nonprofits
Caitlin Wright
“From interviewing the Giglios and their wonderful colleagues to learning about their story creation process, it’s truly been an enjoyable experience.”
On writing about screenwriters Keith and Juliet Giglio
THANK YOU
It has been an honor to produce this magazine for you.
Over 112 issues, we have shared the stories of Central New Yorkers: some famous, some infamous, some relatively unknown but doing what they love. Some new to the area, some lifelong residents. Some celebrating incredible successes, some sharing what they’ve learned from past mistakes or failures. Some working in health care, in education, in politics, in the arts, in philanthropy, in science, in sports, in business. Some living in the city, in the suburbs, in the rural areas. Some who excel at developing neighborhoods, some who excel at planting a neighborhood garden. Some who like to stay in and some who like to explore the vast array of options this region provides.
Over thousands and thousands of pages, the thing all these stories had in common was a celebration of the life you can make here in Central New York.
This isn’t goodbye. It’s see you around town.
Thank you for being our readers.
54
The Bright Sides
Order savory holiday side dishes from CNY restaurants that will complement (or outshine) your entrees.
44 Game Changer
Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital gaming and technology specialist Brad Taylor gives pediatric patients a win.
50
Lightening the Load Guidance and support from HOPE for Bereaved provides comfort for people grieving during the holidays.
64
Looking Forward, Lifting Up
How four area nonprofits address, meet and alleviate the needs CNY has now and those to come.
PHOTO BY ALAINA
Departments
33 Poet laureate launches new project 34 Downtown Doings: Louise cafe opens at Everson 38 Caught Doing Good: Erica Wells 40 The Seen: A pictorial review of CNY’s social gatherings 77 Making Good 77 Popular cafe & bakery rebrands, relocates
CNY Scout: Lifestyle brand Luxury From The Farm
Farm to Table: She Fancy’s Syracuse Salt Potatoes with Caviar, Pickled Red Onions and Crème Fraiche
Down to Earth: Building a better relationship with the land
Art Profile: Screenwriters and authors Keith and Juliet Giglio
It’s all good
POSITIVE VIBES • OUR TOWN • HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE
GATHER ’ROUND
BY MJ KRAVEC
It’s the time of year for cozy get-togethers paired with a little holiday magic. Here are seven ways to make the season more festive.
HOLIDAY HIKES
Take a break from shopping, traffic, sales pitches and Mariah Carey. Head out to a county park and relish the quiet side of the season. The American Psychological Association reports that several studies show a connection between being outside in nature and experiencing lower stress, lower anxiety levels and improved moods. Even 10 minutes is enough to boost feelings of well-being.
SYMPHONIC SALUTE
The Syracuse Orchestra honors veterans with a free concert featuring music inspired by our national heroes. 2 p.m. Nov. 10 at Destiny USA, Syracuse Orchestra Underground Lounge. Free to attend, but a ticket is required for entry. Visit syracuseorchestra.org/event/veterans-tribute.
GREEN SPACING
WRAP SONG
Bringing a hostess gift? Consider wrapping the item in something useful, such as a chic kitchen towel, wine bag or basket the host can use over and over again.
When placing pine branches throughout the house, avoid putting them in direct sunlight or near heat sources that can cause greens to dry out faster. Mist greens weekly to keep them looking fresh.
PHOTOS
BERRY PRETTY
For a pretty and easy seasonal side dish, combine 1 pound Brussels sprouts, 1 cup fresh cranberries, 2 Tbsp. olive oil, 1 Tbsp. fresh thyme, 2 Tbsp. maple syrup, salt and pepper. Toss halved sprouts with olive oil, thyme, salt and pepper; roast at 400 degrees for 10 minutes in a pan lined with parchment paper. Remove from the oven, add cranberries and roast for 10 additional minutes. Drizzle sprouts with maple syrup and mix to coat.
LUCKY BRAND
Try a tradition that started in Saratoga Springs during the late 1800s. Place a peppermint candy pig in a red bag and smash into pieces. Share bits with family and friends to ensure good luck and health in the new year. Find them at saratogasweets. com/peppermint-pig.
BY GEORGE
Visit Seneca Falls, aka “The Real Bedford Falls,” for the 78th Anniversary Celebration of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” December 13-15. This three-day special event includes actors in full costume, special screenings and presentations, dining, swing dance lessons and autograph signings with cast members Karolyn Grimes (Zuzu), Jimmy Hawkins (Tommy Bailey) and Donald and Ronald Collins (Young Pete Bailey). For more, go to wonderfullifemuseum.com.
POSITIVE VIBES
TAKING THE WOE OUT OF WINTER
Research shows that embracing the season is linked to improved well-being
BY MJ KRAVEC
As Central New Yorkers, we are subjected to long, dark winters. It’s no wonder many people experience the winter blues. Characterized by feeling unmotivated, unhappy and lacking energy, the winter blues aren’t as serious as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) or seasonal depression, but that doesn’t mean you have to endure the condition.
In a 2023 Cornell Health newsletter, Cornell researchers noted that more women than men suffer from winter blues and SAD, and that, unsurprisingly, the rate of those suffering increases in areas that experience more cloudy days. The newsletter pointed to a number of ways to alleviate the winter blues, which include spending time outside, exercising, being around nature and plants, and waking with the sun.
Additionally, a 2024 article on Psychology.com notes that simple tasks such as taking a shower and dressing in clothes that make you feel good, decluttering your home, meditating and volun-
teering to help someone in need can help alleviate feeling blue. To practice: Start by changing your thinking. It’s worth noting that Nordic nations such as Denmark, Norway and Sweden, which endure long, cold winters, are among the world’s happiest countries. Many researchers attribute that positive vibe to their ability to embrace the season by getting outside (even if it’s just for a short walk), staying social and seeing the beauty of winter. Or give yourself permission to stay at home. Like Nordic residents, embrace the concept of hygge (pronounced hoogah), loosely translated as the art of coziness. Try to see winter as a chance to appreciate nature’s quiet beauty, a night by the fire, a warm drink or board games with friends. Bringing in greenery and caring for a few houseplants can help combat the blues, too. If all else fails, it helps to know winter will turn to spring, or our version of it anyway.
Hang in there.
This is CNY is a new website celebrating good news and good living across Central New York. The platform is also used as a recruitment resource for CNY companies looking to attract talented candidates to our region. Thank you to our community partners for supporting This is CNY.
It’s all good OUR TOWN
Oswego
BY KAILA CHAMPOUX | PHOTOS BY VINTAGE JUNEBUG PHOTOGRAPHY
Sometimes referred to as the “Port City,” the vibrant city of Oswego has unparalleled access to Lake Ontario. Known for world-class fishing, marinas and incredible sunsets, the city and its namesake town are a haven for outdoor enthusiasts. Oswego is rich in history and full of life year-round. The city is home to competitive SUNY Oswego and was home to Dr. Mary Walker, a 19th-century trailblazer for medicine and women’s rights. Grant funding from the New York State Resiliency and Economic Development Initiative continues to allow Oswego to revitalize and evolve.
THINGS TO DO
Zoom down slides at Splash Indoor Water Park. Bowl with the whole family or sign up for a league at Lighthouse Lanes. Enjoy the Children’s Museum of Oswego for a day of interactive play. Head to NYS historic site Fort Ontario for an incredible history lesson. Float your troubles away at Aqua Spa Float Center & Wellness Boutique. Give the classes at Steel Athletics Fitness Studio a spin. Tour the 1889 Richardson-Bates House Museum showcasing original Victorian furniture. Check out a book or a craft program at the Oswego Public Library. Hear recording artists or try your hand at an open mic at Oswego Music Hall. Enjoy performances by the Oswego Players community theater. See the next box office hit at Art Deco-style Oswego Cinema 7. During the summer, book a boat venture to the Oswego West Pierhead Lighthouse with H. Lee White Maritime Museum; the museum itself is open year-round. Immerse yourself in the incredible story of the only WWII refugee shelter in the U.S. at the Safe Haven Holocaust Refugee Shelter Museum Follow the route that so many freedom seekers followed to escape persecution and explore landmarks that housed them through the self-guided Underground Railroad Driving Tour Take an Oswego Sunset Tiki Tour all summer long. Shred some ice at the Crisafulli Rink or the Cullinan Rink. Join die-hard ice hockey fans and catch a SUNY Oswego Laker game.
HAVE A DRINK
Swing by The Coffee Connection for signature flavored coffees. Stop for a spot of tea at the Oswego Tea Company cafe and bakery, or sip house-roasted coffee at Riverwalk Coffee Roasters Port City Cafe and Bakery features beverages made with Finger Lakes Coffee Roasters beans. Prohibition Coffee House features 1920s flair. Enjoy a specialty coffee or catch a paint and sip class at Khepera Coffee Take in panoramic views and sophisticated cocktails at The Rooftop Lounge. Jam out to live music at Gibby’s Irish Pub. Stop into Cellar Door Tap House and Kitchen for NYS beverages, plus poker and trivia nights. Enjoy suds, pub fare and a game at Shamrock Tavern, Lagraf’s Pub, The Press Box or Gary’s Sports Bar. See what everyone is crowing about at The Raven, which serves several craft beers on tap. Biker-friendly Woodchuck Saloon has cold brews and pub fare. Head to The Ferris Wheel and split a fishbowl with a friend before moving upstairs to Hurricanes Dance Club for a DJ and dancing.
Oswego West Pierhead Lighthouse
accessories.
SHOP LOCAL
Rep SUNY Oswego with merchandise from the Marano Campus Center Store. Try on stylish fashions and accessories at Blossom & Bloom Boutique. Visit River’s End Bookstore for small-town charm. Delight your inner child with chocolate-covered potato chips or sponge candy from Man in the Moon Candies, or order molded chocolates for any occasion at Stone’s Candies. Purchase fresh meat and wild game at Scriba Meats Bosco’s Market offers groceries, daily lunch specials and party platters. Eat well with organic and fresh local produce from health food store Green Planet Grocery. Uncover rare finds and browse 40-plus vendors at Port City Co-op Antiques and Unique Gifts. Find holistic items or schedule a meditation session at 3 Sisters Gifts. Check out Mother Earth Baby/ Curious Kidz for children’s toys and parenting needs. Browse over 25 local artists’ work at Riverside Artisans, then have it framed at Picture Connection. Sip on fresh cider, pick your own apples and walk through the greenhouses at Ontario Orchards and Fruit Valley Orchard. Find rare international chips, candy and sodas or items like freeze-dried Snickers at SNAX. Buy a new bike or get yours tuned at Murdock’s Bicycle & Sports Get geared up with custom-fit ice hockey accessories at Clean Check Hockey Shop. Sparkle with a diamond from JP Jewelers or DuFore’s Take a class or shop for fabric at Quilt With Passion. Book a party or go solo to craft to your heart’s content at The 315 Studio. Pick your next Funko Pop, Manga, Marvel and DC Comics at The Comic Shop
“As a business owner, I love the support from our tight-knit community. People are dedicated to shopping local and supporting their neighbors.”
Amy Lear, owner of Man in the Moon Candies
GRAB A BITE
Sherry’s Downtown Diner, Maria’s Family Restaurant and Wade’s Diner have classic breakfast, brunch and lunch dishes. Stop into Oswego Bagelry & Bread Shop for fresh-made boiled bagels. Pick up homemade donuts at Heidi Ho Donuts or from-scratch bagel sandwiches at Riverwalk Bagels. Snag a table by the water and fresh fish fry from Rudy’s, then walk to Bev’s Dairy Treats for a few scoops. Oswego Sub Shop, serving over 60 fresh sandwiches since 1969, is a campus favorite. Make a build-your-own brick-oven pizza at Riverwalk Pizza Red Sun Fire Roasting Co. offers a diverse menu and specializes in wood-fired pizza, or grab specialty pizzas at Pizza Villa, The Pies Guys, Cam’s Pizzeria, GJP Italian Eatery and Bridge Street Pizza & More. Savor mouthwatering Italian fare at Vona’s, celebrating over 80 years in business. Devour baked manicotti at Canale’s, then purchase a bottle of sauce for home. Take out classic Chinese dishes from Food Chow City or K-Q Restaurant. Experience hibachi at Japanese steakhouse Kiyomi. Have a poke bowl and a bubble tea at The Fuse. Modern Mexican fare and Acai bowls await at Whacko Gringo For traditional Mexican and drink specials, try Azteca. Find the famous tenders at Tully’s Bring some South to your mouth with dishes like shrimp & grits at Southern Fare. Feel good about eating health-conscious meals at Nora’s. For an extensive menu featuring weekly specials, check out Cheap Seats Sports Bar & Grille. Soak in the views on G.S. Steamers’ riverfront deck while you enjoy live music and a meal. Experience globally inspired cuisine at La Parilla on the Water. Wind down at Bistro 197 with an extensive wine list and upscale dishes in a casual atmosphere. For Middle Eastern desserts like Baklava and Kadayif, visit Tatlim Bakery. It’s sweet at Chelle’s Bake Shop, Cakes Galore and PJ’s Ice Cream
Blossom & Bloom Boutique carries women’s fashions and
Fish from Rudy’s lakeside restaurant
GET OUTSIDE
Pack a picnic and visit Franklin Square Park, Washington Square Park and Breitbeck Park to find playgrounds, a free splash pad and mini golf. Play pickleball at Shapiro Park Launch your kayak or play volleyball at Lakeside Park; at sunset soak up the best view of the Oswego West Pierhead Lighthouse. Snap a pic in the huge Adirondack chair at Sheldon Beach Park (Flat Rock) Hamilton Park has an ADA-accessible playground. Board the stationary choo-choo train at Rotary Park. In the summertime, many of the parks offer live music. Enjoy a few rounds at Evergreen Hills and Stone Creek golf courses. Scoot around town on a rented Bird E-Scooter. Visit Cahill Pier for boating access and a new boardwalk featuring a fountain and sculpture park. Schedule one of many fishing charters to catch the massive and coveted salmon. Skateboard into town and hit the half pipe at the Skate Park. History buffs will enjoy Veteran’s Memorial Park, Montcalm Park and the restored World War I memorial monuments at Oak Hill Park. Consider adopting a fur-baby from the Oswego City Animal Shelter, then socialize them at The City of Oswego Dog Park. Bundle up for cross-country skiing, hiking and snowshoeing on five miles of trails at the Rice Creek Field Station. Throughout Oswego County access 400 miles of trails for snowmobiling or 150 miles of trails for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing
ANNUAL EVENTS
Purchase homegrown food and crafts every Thursday from June-October at the Oswego Farmers Market. Attend the Independence Day Parade and Block Party for music, food and fireworks. Join hundreds of Paddlefest participants and embark on an excursion by kayak or canoe through four canal locks. Harborfest boasts four days of food, music, carnival rides and the world-famous Fireworks by Grucci. On Labor Day weekend, listen to the roar of the crowd and the engines at Oswego Speedway’s Budweiser International Classic. Hear live bands perform from the porches of historic homes on the city’s westside during Porchfest Get into the fall feels with activities, amusements, food and vendors at the family-friendly and free CNY Pumpkin Festival. Awaken the holiday spirit at Oswego’s Tree Lighting and Fireworks. Find your jingle bells and running shoes for the 5K Oswego YMCA’s Annual Reindeer Run
A father and son watch the sun set over Lake Ontario.
The Old Newsboys campaign started 92 years ago to raise money to help the needy buy coal to heat their homes in the winter. Now, any amount you’re able to donate goes directly toward the annual Salvation Army-sponsored Christmas Bureau, which provides toys, books, and food for Onondaga County families in need during the holiday season.
Please donate online or by mail today! or text HFTH2024 to 31333
Central New York is brimming with locally owned shops and boutiques carefully curating their product assortment to offer stylish, quality, and in many cases, regionally made goods. The customer service experience of shopping with small businesses like these is unparalleled. Whether you’re looking for clothes, entertaining and decorative items, humorous trinkets, books, sports and outdoors equipment, toys or edible goods, please check our local shops before turning online — in fact, many CNY shops offer e-commerce. The breadth of what’s available and the number of independent shops goes well beyond what fits on a few pages, so start exploring, and tell them we sent you.
PHOTOS BY AMELIA BEAMISH
FURRY FRIEND Jellycat Bedtime Bartholomew Bear, $30, Pride + Joy, 88 E. Genesee Street, Skaneateles, 315-685-7576, skanbaby.com.
Adventure explorer kit, $28, Almost Local, 18 W. Park Row, Clinton, 315-466-9059, almostlocalshop.com.
WALK ON
Reclaimed vintage Dufferin red leaf maple pool cue hiking stick by Magpie (re)Claim(ed), $28, Wildflowers at the McCarthy Mercantile, 217 S. Salina Street, Syracuse, 315-552-1627, wildflowersarmory.com.
Bronze Rosemary necklace, $275, and Petite Herb Rosemary earrings, $80, Papavero Clay Studio, 38 E. Genesee Street, Skaneateles, 315-685-6263, papaverostudio.com.
STYLISH, CHECK
Brown square dolman top, $198, Floridella Boutique, 406 S. Franklin Street, Syracuse, 315-741-7961, shopfloridella.com.
Maple and cherry charcuterie & cutting board with deeply inset rosewood inlay by Dave Eichorn, $89, Cazenovia Artisans, 39 Albany Street, Cazenovia, 315-655-2225, cazenoviaartisans.com.
HANDS-FREE HAPPINESS Clip & Go phone carrier strap with pouch, $30, Nicole M. Boutique & Gifts, 7070 Cedar Bay Road, Fayetteville, 315-446-1576.
LIMINAL MESSAGE
Ceramic mezuzah by Marcia Rothenberg, $35, Salt City Artisans, 226 Hawley Avenue, Syracuse, 315-479-0400, saltcityartisans.com.
GROW UP
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Botanical Collections Essex Low Handled Bowl planter, $137, The Station 603, 603 E. Seneca Street, Manlius, 315-682-8741, thestation603.com.
STRETCH BREAK
Yoga at your Desk, $10.99, Witty Wicks, 190 Township Boulevard, Camillus, 315-672-3110, wittywicks.com.
PUT A RING ON IT
Big ring cone by Funktional Form, $18, and large round labradorite and sterling ring by Gilded Bug Jewelry, $90, Papavero Clay Studio.
FLOWER OF KNOWLEDGE
Bibliophile ceramic vase, $29.95, Golden Bee Bookshop.
BOOKED FOR THE EVENING
Book and tablet reading pillow, $42, Snow & Rose.
QUILTED COMFORT
Barbour women’s cropped Liddesdale navy jacket, $270, J Michael.
TRUE BLUE
Confetti yarn sweater in sapphire, $114, Bev and Co., 18 E. Genesee Street, Skaneateles, 315-685-5064, bevandco.com.
THE GAME IS AFOOT
Little Sherlock book, $7.99, First National Gifts, 2 E. Genesee Street, Skaneateles, 855-810-9076, firstnationalgifts.com.
OUT OF THIS WORLD
Saucer pendulum clock, $54, Genesee Daley.
BOB AND WEAVE
Woven Neoprene mini tote set in navy, $125, Skaneateles 300, 2 W. Genesee Street, Skaneateles, 315-685-1133, skaneateles300.com.
ON A ’ROLE
Cuisinart 5.5-quart enameled cast iron oval covered casserole, $99.95, Rhubarb Kitchen and Garden, 59 E. Genesee Street, Skaneateles, 315-685-5803.
FOR A SONG
Taylor Swift coasters, $8 each or $86 for set of 11, Salt Point Shop, 100 Brooklea Street, Fayetteville, saltpointshop.com.
TO THE LETTER
Puffy initial necklace, $110, Skaneateles 300.
KNIT WIT
Seaport Knit sweater in cream, $220, Sea Culture, 11 Jordan Street, Skaneateles, seaculturebrand.com.
FLY BOY
Fly fisherman wallet, $76, The Local Branch.
THE GOAT
Large serving bowl set by Smoke Pail Studios, $220, Mixed Methods, 215 E. Water Street Rear, Syracuse, 315-399-1766, letsgetmixed.com.
POCKET FULL OF SUNSHINE
Leather wall pocket, $128, The Local Branch, 4 Jordan Street, Skaneateles, thelocalbranch.co.
SNIFF IT OUT
Labradoodle snout mug (other breeds available), $16, Salt Point Shop.
Allegheny fleece overshirt Hanko stripe in mink brown, $135, Emma + James, 25 Jordan Street, Skaneateles, 315-685-2747, shopejclothing.com.
GOTTA HAND IT TO YOU
Recycled cast aluminum Handheld bookends with antique gold finish, $146 for set, M Graham Interiors, 309 Vine Street, Suite 3, Liverpool, 315-440-6637, mgrahaminteriors.com.
STROKE OF GENIUS
Beard butter, $22, and beard shampoo, $18, Nicole M. Boutique & Gifts.
SLOW LIVING
Sloth heating/cooling pad, $32, The Rose Cottage, 214 S. Manlius Street, Fayetteville, 315-637-1330, therosecottageny.com.
BIT OF BOTANICALS
Gin Adventure Kit bitters and Whiskey Adventure Kit bitters, $25 each, Epicuse, 334 S. Salina Street, Syracuse, 315-960-1920, epicuse.net.
Art Dice inspiration for drawing & painting, $20, Everson Museum of Art, 401 Harrison Street, Syracuse, 315-474-6064, everson.org.
SCRUB A DUB
Sugar scrubs by Zambezi Escentials, $6.50 each or 4 for $24, Wildflowers at the McCarthy Mercantile.
JEWEL TONED
Earrings, $30, The 315 Hive Boutique.
CHUG ALONG
NameTrain letters and train pieces, $6.99 each, track pieces available, The Gift Box Shoppe, 4317 Fay Road, Syracuse, 315-487-9099, thegiftboxshoppe.com.
JINKIES AND JAMMIES
Velma’s Glasses sleep mask, $12.99, Witty Wicks.
CHECK YOURSELF
Check Me Out Blue Ronan dress, $72, available in XS-2X, KàBee Boutique, 60C E. Main Street, Marcellus, 315-6737266, shopkbboutique.com.
OUT OF THIS WORLD
Outer Space pop and play, $14.99, Colorful Inspirations, 170 Township Boulevard, Camillus, 315-320-4364, colorfulinspirations.com.
BOOK ‘EM
Hat, $29, and paperback books, $12.99-$18.99 each, Parthenon Books, 333 S. Salina Street Syracuse, 315-4638485, parthenonbookstore.com.
THE REINS
LITTLE LAYER
Long-sleeve zip top in anthracite, $54, Chloe’s Closet, 107 Brooklea Drive, Fayetteville, 315-637-2513, facebook.com/ chloesclosetny.
DEAL WITH IT
A Big Deal oversized playing cards, $18, Paola Kay Gifts, 105 Brooklea Drive, Fayetteville, 315-632-2192, paolakaygifts.com.
GETTING FLEECED
MacKenzie-Childs Courtly Check Lulu small bolster pet bed, $149, Lucky Dogs.
Warmplus Favorite Jacket in gray, $64, Pride + Joy.
TAKE
Metal reindeer wine holder, $32, The Station 603.
SHAWL WE GET COZY Soft knit shawl, $22, The Wren’s Den.
BOUGIE BED
TO HAVE AND TO HOLD
Smitten With This eMitten hand warmer and emergency power bank, $26.99, Paola Kay Gifts.
SHEAR BRILLIANCE
Audrey faux shearling coat in cream, $400, Skaneateles 300.
TOO COOL
Paul Newman book, $65, Sea Culture.
THE HOLE PACKAGE
Bagel/donut board, $88 without bowls, $199 with one large bowl, one small bowl and spreaders (two styles available), Nest58, 58 E. Genesee Street, Skaneateles, 315-6855888, nest58.com.
DMR album of local bands from the late 1970s and early ’80s, $10, Onondaga Historical Association, 321 Montgomery Street, Syracuse, 315-428-1864, cnyhistory.org.
CHANGE IS IN THE AIR Raccoon change purse, $9.99, Olive + Fern.
Good news
RAISE YOUR VOICE
Thanks to a $50,000 fellowship from The Academy of American Poets, Onondaga County Poet Laureate Georgia A. Popoff is launching Voices in Verse, an intergenerational community poetry project.
As the county’s first laureate advocating for poetry and literacy, her outreach includes events such as poetry open mics, book fairs and workshops. She is also curating a collection of poetry books that she hopes will become part of Onondaga County Public Library’s inventory available for interlibrary loan.
From now through spring, Popoff will be working with about 10 cultural and community centers around the county to host
workshops led by professional poets. Individual participants will write their own poems, then elements from those pieces will be crafted by their group into a new unified work. Project partners Professor Ricky Pak and Syracuse University’s drama department will then help turn the different groups’ poems into a staged production to be performed next summer.
Popoff says “the role of a poet is frequently to observe the world around them and reflect it back.” With Voices in Verse, Popoff and Pak’s goal is to incorporate perspectives from people of all ages and identities to represent and engage Central New Yorkers.
Good news
DOWNTOWN DOINGS
AN EXPERIENCE UNLIKE ANY OTHER
Downtown museum cafe lets visitors interact with art in a special way
BY AMY BLEIER LONG
Louise, Everson Museum of Art’s new cafe, provides a multisensory experience where every dish, mug, cup, plate, platter, vase, salt and pepper shaker, and creamer that diners use is fine art handcrafted by a top ceramicist. No other museum in the world has attempted this.
“I think that’s exactly what the Everson is all about. It is taking risks. It is trying new things. It’s putting your faith in artists and architects who have a vision,” Executive Director Elizabeth Dunbar says.
Five years ago, when Dunbar was considering a cafe and how ceramics — Everson’s curatorial cornerstone — could be incorporated in a unique way, Dallas-based Everson board trustee and prolific ceramics collector Louise Rosenfield was looking for a place to donate her collection — with the stipulation that
the pieces must be used.
The Rosenfield Collection comprises thousands of functional ceramics by more than 500 domestic (some from our region) and international artists. Rosenfield supports living artists, though some have died since her purchase of their work, and the caliber of artists is remarkable.
To create an inviting, exceptional cafe that would appeal to modern visitors, the Everson wanted fresh talent. “Just as I.M. Pei was a young architect, we wanted to do the same thing and honor the legacy, the history of this building, by bringing in someone who’s kind of up-and-coming, had new ideas and would be very respectful of the space in which they are working,” she says. The East Wing, where an onsite cafe operated many years ago, was a natural location but needed reimagining.
Restaurateur Danielle Mercuri Campolito in Louise, the Everson Museum of Art’s new cafe.
Together with the Syracuse University School of Architecture, the museum held an international competition ultimately won by MILLIØNS, a Los Angeles-based firm. Their ambitious proposal centered the ceramics with two-story transparent towers to display works and created a soft palette to complement the museum’s concrete walls and the collection.
It was important to the Everson team to find someone who sees food as art. Downtown restaurant Eden was involved early on and was instrumental in helping the museum design Louise’s prep kitchen; an existing lower-level full kitchen is also utilized.
Danielle Mercuri Campolito has built a reputation for elevating everyday foods with inspired ingredients and artistic presentation at Rise N Shine, and previously at Lala Lu, Loded and Lobster Babe. After seeing her daring work, Everson Deputy Director Jennifer Neuner reached out. “The whole thing intrigued me because I’ve always been so passionate about art,” Campolito says.
Louise, which opened July 24 and is named after its benefactor, seats about 30 to 40 people; the adjacent Members Council Gallery serves as overflow space. Custom-colored tables can be arranged in numerous configurations to accommodate communal interaction. The interplay between fine art tableware and artistically presented food encourages diners to be more aware of the sensory qualities of both and be more engaged in the experience.
The menus Campolito devises each season inform which collection pieces are called into service. Fall soups require more bowls, mugs and cups on hand, for example. The colors, shapes and scale of menu items and ceramics are considered as she scrolls through the collection’s online catalog to find selections that work from utilitarian and aesthetic perspectives.
Chefs are artists, too, and any chef would love the opportunity to put their creations in an art museum, Campolito says. Having her own imaginative touches be recognized and receive the exposure that comes through a truly unique outlet — “It’s definitely one of those bucket list things,” she says.
Chips, cracks and breaks are inevitable. For the
“I think that’s exactly what the Everson is all about. It is taking risks. It is trying new things. It’s putting your faith in artists and architects who have a vision.”
Elizabeth Dunbar, Everson executive director
Top, one side of Louise’s dining room. Above, two versions of the Art Deco filled puffed pastry. Left, from summer, taco filling, refried beans and cheese, and right, for fall, chicken pot pie. All dishes are served on Rosenfield Collection pieces.
Good news
DOWNTOWN DOINGS
Everson, Rosenfield and the artists, that’s the point. If these objects sit on a shelf, they’re not fulfilling their destiny, and it means a lot to artists to have their work used. Louise “marks a milestone in closing the gap between a functional artist and museum: acknowledging the artist intention to use/touch while staying true to the museum’s mission of educating, exposing and challenging the public to question context and meaning,” says Cazenovia-based artist and SU School of Art professor Peter Beasecker, who has 68 vessels in rotation.
Each Rosenfield Collection piece has a tappable NFC chip attached to the underside that leads diners to information about the maker and their work.
Louise is open Wednesday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., and until 7 p.m. on the third Thursday of each month. Made possible by an extraordinarily generous and purposeful donation, the cafe takes the idea of sharing to new heights, Dunbar says.
“It’s not only just sharing a meal and sharing friendship and companionship, but sharing the artists’ voice in some ways, their input into this experience … and also Louise [the person] at the same time. So it becomes this very multifaceted, layered experience of connections that happen over the simplest but greatest thing, food.”
For more information: visit everson.org/louise
Right, a soup flight from the fall menu. Below, Frank display towers hold a fraction of The Rosenfield Collection.
PHOTOS
“We all have something to share, not always money, but we all can share.”
Mary Pat and Joe Hartnett are members of the Upstate Legacy Society, which was established as a tribute to donors who have included the Upstate Foundation in their estate plans. Someday, their legacy gift will blossom and grow in the healing garden at the Upstate Cancer Center.
Mary Pat was a nurse at Upstate University Hospital for 27 years and is now retired. She explained her interest in the healing garden. “I used to work with many oncology patients, and I knew what the healing garden could be for them, and for other patients and staf as well. Every week, I would walk by it.”
“She talked about it often when she was working and continued to talk about it after she retired,” Joe added.
Both Mary Pat and Joe view their philanthropy as a way to share their values about making a diference.
“We take so much enjoyment from this. We all have something to share, not always money, but we all can share.”
Please join Mary Pat and Joe in making a legacy gift today!
To read their complete story, visit www.UpstateFoundation.org/ LegacyGiving, or to create your own legacy gift, call Upstate Foundation at 315-464-6490
Our mission: Impacting patient care, education, research, and community health and well-being through charitable giving.
Good news
CAUGHT DOING GOOD
WELCOME HOME
After more than a decade in foster care and institutions, one teen finally finds a family
BY SUSAN KENNEDY
Zane Wells says a weight has been lifted from his heart since he found what was missing for most of his life: loving parents.
“I am relaxed now,” says the 18-year-old. “I can breathe.”
In a red brick farmhouse north of Geneva, surrounded by a large vegetable garden, woodworking projects and acres of tree-covered land with trails to hike and drive his dirt bike on, Zane now has a home with Erica and Brian Wells. The parents of two grown children filled their nest again with Zane, formally adopting him a year ago.
It’s a family Zane has searched for his whole life. He and his siblings, including a twin sister, were taken from their abusive and neglectful biological parents when Zane was just 6 years old. While his younger siblings and twin were soon adopted by different families, he floundered in the system, moving between residential homes, foster homes and respite stops, changing schools and worlds time after time, despite the efforts of adults and social workers. “They always stood up for me, with me, never
against me,” says Zane, but still he could never find a good fit for a permanent home.
‘“Unadoptable’ is not acceptable,” says Jami Millson, program manager for the Hillside Institute for Family Connections in Syracuse. Zane was referred to Wendy’s Wonderful Kids (WWK), a national program of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption that hires adoption professionals they call recruiters — of which Hillside has three — who are dedicated to finding permanent families for children who are legally freed for adoption and too often overlooked: teenagers, children with special needs, and siblings. In Zane’s case, being a teen warranted the special effort to help find him a home, as most often people want to adopt an infant. In traditional adoptions, strangers, in essence, choose a child. With the Wendy’s program, recruiters focus on the child first and help them choose a trusted adult who already exists in their world, such as extended family members, neighbors or school staff.
After years in the system, Zane Wells is grateful to have a home and loving parents.
“These teens need a permanent, loving connection,” says Millson. “An adult who is not paid to be there. Someone who is going to love you through all the ups and downs of life.”
Zane’s recruiter Annette Aiosa spent six years meeting monthly with Zane, working with his clinicians, county staff, Hillside and WWK, helping Zane try to find permanency. “He went from a sweet little boy to a shy young man,” Aiosa says. Then, during a particularly hard time, Zane’s prayers, and hers, were answered.
As Zane’s special education teacher at Waterloo High School, Erica Wells had known Zane since 9th grade. She taught him again in 10th grade and watched as the once engaged and smiley student became thin and depressed after a foster family decided not to adopt him. “It was like he was being thrown away,” says Erica. “I couldn’t sit by and watch.” Erica spoke with her husband and asked, “Can I bring him home?” After the initial shock, Brian agreed.
With a small bag of personal belongings, Zane came to the Wellses’ home for Thanksgiving break in 2022. Food prep was in full swing as the Wellses prepared to host neighbors, extended family and now Zane for the annual feast. “Let’s add one more to the pot,” Brian laughs. Zane ate a lot, and says he was relieved to be away from the dorm-like respite house and in a regular home with Erica.
That visit went well, as did another at Christmas, so Erica and Brian talked with Zane about pursuing the formalities to become a family: fostering, then adoption. “It was an easy decision for us,” says Brian, and Zane agreed. WWK recruiter Aiosa cried with joy when Zane chose the Wellses.
A year later, in November 2023, a judge legalized the adoption. “I was torn apart and unstable, and now life is glorious,” says Zane. More than a decade after they were separated, Zane’s twin sister attended his adoption day. “I love her with all my heart,” he says. The twins can visit each other
more easily now that Zane has a family.
“Love doesn’t fix everything,” acknowledges Millson, but “Erica and Brian have the knowledge and skills to parent a child with trauma and support him come what may.”
At the Wells house there are chores, expectations and, most of all, grace. “He has his own space, his own goals and interests,” says Erica. “He’s growing up.”
Zane is a senior this year; he passed his Regents exams and is on track to graduate. School is still a challenge, but Erica helps get him through, guiding Zane to build skills — he’s mechanically inclined — that will sustain him after graduation. “I remind him that he’s with us always,” says Erica. Life with the Wellses is not another temporary relationship, this is a forever home.
Zane is one of more than 14,000 children nationwide who have found permanent homes through Wendy’s Wonderful Kids. To other adults who may consider helping an older child, Erica says please open your
hearts. Love is expansive. “We all want independence,” says Erica, but first we as humans need a sense of belonging, stability and guidance. “Now is the right time to help change a child’s life,” says Hillside’s Millson. Certification is available for hosting on occasion, fostering regularly or adoption.
“It’s not their fault. All our children deserve a loving home,” Millson says.
To other teens who may still be looking for a family, Zane has some advice. “Never give up. I didn’t give up and I ended up being here, at home.”
For more information about this program and ways you could foster or adopt a child or teen: visit hillside.com/services/ wendys-wonderful-kidschild-focused-recruitment. Hillside can also provide guidance on county and private adoption agencies.
Zane Wells with his adoptive parents Brian and Erica Wells at their home.
Good news THE SEEN
AUGUST
15
CEO Soak
The third CEO Soak exceeded expectations this summer: more than 40 Soakees stood in the Clinton Square fountain and got drenched for a good cause. The CEO Soak, born out of the Ice Bucket Challenge, raises money for the ALS Association. Funds go toward increased awareness, advocacy and treatment research of the brutal, progressive neurodegenerative disease. Syracuse University Football Head Coach Fran Brown, County Executive Ryan McMahon, Le Moyne College President Linda LeMura and many others worked to raise funds, surpassing the $50,000 goal by the event date, and reaching nearly $63,000 a few weeks later.
PHOTOS BY DENNIS NETT
The spectacle of business and community leaders dressed in work attire getting soaked in a large fountain helps draw attention to the fundraiser.
Good news THE SEEN
AUGUST
16-18
Marriott’s Centennial Celebration: A Grand Affair to Remember
This year, Marriott Syracuse Downtown celebrated its 100th anniversary. The centennial event weekend was nothing short of spectacular, showcasing a century of excellence in hospitality and setting the stage for the future. The celebration began with a VIP Cocktail Reception on Aug. 15, followed by the Onondaga Historical Association Gala on Aug. 17 and Community Day on Aug. 18. Held at the iconic former Hotel Syracuse, the celebration brought together guests, partners and community members. The event was filled with elegance and excitement, reflecting the Marriott’s rich history and its commitment to innovation. Roughly 900 people attended the festivities.
LEVELING UP PEDIATRIC PATIENT CARE AT UPSTATE
BY NORAH MACHIA
Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital has found a creative solution to help pediatric patients cope with the anxiety, stress or trauma they may experience during a hospitalization.
Video gaming, an activity increasingly popular with kids, has become a way to give hospitalized children a sense of normalcy. While gaming can be a valuable tool to help pass the time, it provides more than just entertainment, says Brad Taylor, the hospital’s gaming and technology specialist.
“My primary goal is distraction,” says Taylor, who spends part of each day playing video games with young patients. “It sounds obvious, but there is data out there that shows how much it helps.”
Upstate created the gaming and technology specialist
position in 2021 with grant funding through Child’s Play Charity, a national organization that focuses on improving the lives of hospitalized children through gaming. Taylor became the first person to fill the role at Upstate. “There are not many of us out there working in the hospitals,” he says. “It’s such a unique role.” This year, his position is being funded through Spirit of Children, a foundation established by retailer Spirit Halloween that provides nationwide funding to children’s hospitals.
“The position aligns well with the mission of Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital by providing an exceptional patient experience while promoting a culture of respect, compassion and trust,” says Gina Lozito-Yorton, child life
“It’s very rewarding work. I had one teenager tell me he could not have gotten through his last visit without the gaming. Another child was crying when I entered the room but laughing when I came out.”
Brad Taylor, the hospital’s gaming and technology specialist
Brad Taylor, left, plays a video game with a teenage patient at Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital.
manager at Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital. “We are the only hospital in the area with a gaming specialist.”
Gaming provides a much-needed distraction while children await medical procedures such as IV insertions, blood draws or chemotherapy treatments. Sometimes Taylor will play video games to help distract children who cannot eat because they are scheduled for surgery.
“It’s very rewarding work,” he says. “I had one teenager tell me he could not have gotten through his last visit without the gaming. Another child was crying when I entered the room but laughing when I came out.” Another patient commented that his pain level had quickly gone down after he started playing a video game. “He was so engaged with the game, he didn’t notice his pain as much,” Taylor says.
“Gaming systems in children’s hospitals are ubiquitous today,” says Lozito-Yorton. “We understood that for these gaming systems to play a role in a child’s hospital stay — such as providing them with a sense of normalcy or serving as opportunities to offer a distraction from their stay — we needed an expert with knowledge of the games who could spend time interacting and playing games with our patients.”
It was also essential to have someone on staff who could ensure the systems were updated and operating properly. “Just as we have experts in art therapy and music therapy who are part of the Child Life team, we also needed a gaming and technology expert, especially when video games and technology are such a part of our children’s lives today,” she says.
The video game program often helps the entire family. When a brother or sister visits, they may play a game with their hospitalized sibling. Often, Taylor will offer to play a game with a child to give parents a chance to discuss their child’s medical condition with hospital staff, or to take a well-needed break.
Taylor watches as a group of children enjoy a multiplayer game.
He reviews a daily list of pediatric patients who may benefit from a visit and spends an average of 40 minutes playing games with each of those patients.
Hospitalized children whose first language may not be English can also take advantage: “Even if they don’t speak English, we learn the game together,” Taylor says. “Video gaming reaches beyond a language barrier.”
All the video games at Upstate are played offline. Some popular titles include Minecraft, football and basketball video games such as Madden and NBA 2K, and the Farming Simulator series. For those who are able, there is also an option to use virtual reality game headsets.
Seven-year-old Carrick Fox, the son of Cazenovia residents Josh and Colleen Fox, greatly benefited from the gaming systems in the hospital.
The couple had taken their son to Upstate Golisano Children’s
Hospital in May after he began experiencing stomach pains that would not go away. “It turned out to be a mass in his small intestine,” Josh Fox says. Their son was diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma, a very fast-growing form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
After surgery, Carrick was admitted to the hospital for intensive chemotherapy treatments and spent more than three months at Golisano. “He met Brad at the hospital after his first day,” Fox says. “Brad walked us through the video games on the PlayStation, and he was always there to coach.”
Video gaming provided a “coping mechanism for our son to deal with all the physical and mental stuff that he was experiencing” during his treatment, Fox says. “Carrick would often shut down, but after he started playing video games, he would open up.”
“It made things less stressful for Carrick,” Fox says. There were specific medical procedures that his son had to undergo as part of his treatment, such as IV insertion, which were traumatic for him.
Carrick Fox played video games while he was a patient and it improved his experience during a three-month stay at the hospital.
BY
“But he lit right up when Brad walked in the room,” Fox says. Carrick is now in remission and returned to school this fall.
A graduate of Skaneateles High School, Taylor received associate’s degrees in mechanical technology and computer science from Cayuga Community College, both of which have helped him with this role. He earned his bachelor’s degree in business management from Empire State College and worked as a drafter for a civil engineering firm prior to entering the marketing field — first for legal software and later for educational software — before joining Upstate.
“I was looking for something new that was more people-focused and not behind a computer all day,” he says. “Gaming is one of my hobbies. This job seemed too good to be true.”
Taylor maintains the PlayStation gaming systems in each patient room (a total of 71) and brings in mobile carts with Xbox and Nintendo Switch systems, along with virtual reality gaming headsets. He oversees the gaming systems in the common areas where groups of children can play together.
He also works with a 3D printer at the hospital, which has enabled him to help children with special medical needs. Many of his 3D projects have come from other gamers who have shared ideas for hospitalized children. Taylor printed an attachment to place on top of a regular hand-held controller that allows a child to play a video game with one hand. “Children may have a long-term injury that has resulted in limited mobility, or an IV inserted into an arm that may temporarily limit the range of motion and dexterity,” he says. “Sometimes when I’m playing a game with a patient, I can help by using the other controller if needed.”
The 3D printer has been used not only for video gaming, but to help children better understand their medical treatments. For example, Taylor printed a miniature version of an MRI machine so a child scheduled for the test could first see how a scan would be done. “It helped to ease his fear of the upcoming procedure,” he says.
“It’s still a hospital. It’s not fun times and nobody wants to be here,” Taylor says. “But if we can help make it better for the children through video gaming, it’s an improvement.”
From top, Brad Taylor, Carrick Fox plays a Pac-Man arcade game, a 3D-printed controller made by Taylor.
LIGHTENING THE LOAD
FINDING HOPE IN THE HOLIDAYS WHEN YOU’RE GRIEVING
BY JACKIE PERRIN
ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOANNE WALSH
ike the weight of Santa’s sack, grief during the holidays can be a heavy burden to carry amid an already stressful time of the year. If you’re coping with grief, or supporting someone who is, some simple strategies can help you adjust the load and make it more manageable, says Kelly Ocampo, executive director of HOPE for Bereaved. The Syracuse nonprofit is dedicated to supporting Central New Yorkers in the grieving process free of charge through resources, support groups and individual peer counseling.
Founded in 1978 by Therese Schoeneck, whose daughter, Mary, died in a car accident, the organization was initially known as “HOPE for Bereaved Parents.”
“The very first support group was called Coping with the Holidays, and it was specifically for bereaved parents,” says Ocampo.
Since that time, the nonprofit has expanded to offer help and hope in the grieving process to a range of individuals and groups, from schools, businesses and healthcare providers to friends and family members, including parents, siblings, grandparents and children ages six and up. Besides support groups for grieving parents, HOPE for Bereaved has groups designed to support the specific experiences of bereaved children, widows and widowers, and grieving people touched by drug overdose or suicide. The newest support group, Parents without Parents, is designed for parents who are raising children without the support of their own parents.
“It brings unique challenges to that situation. A lot of what we do here at HOPE is just validating people from what they’re going through,” says Ocampo.
While the needs of each grieving person are unique to their life experience, there are some common challenges shared by many bereaved people, such as how to cope with the holidays. Ocampo offers some helpful tips for getting through an unpredictable season.
Rule # 1: Throw Out the Rules
The number one rule when it comes to grieving is to avoid “shoulds,” says Ocampo. “Everyone grieves differently. There is no standard way to do it.”
Use Flexible Thinking
Rather than taking an all or nothing approach to holiday traditions, Ocampo suggests giving yourself and your loved ones the grace and space to decide what feels right and how much you can handle at a given time.
“It’s all about the person’s feelings and where they are. If they want to keep holiday traditions, that is totally fine, and that’s how some people approach it. Other people want to do something totally different on the holidays and create new traditions,” she says.
Make Seasonal Changes in Small Steps
Ocampo suggests taking a “baby steps” approach to seasonal change to avoid feeling overwhelmed during the holidays. “It’s a stressful time of year, and when you have grieving on top of it, it just adds another layer. For example, if you used to bake a lot, maybe you don’t bake a bunch of cookies, but you order cookies instead. If you would normally do a plated dinner, maybe you do buffet style. Or instead of going into the stores to shop, if that’s what you would normally do, shop online.”
Taking just one item off your holiday plate can make a difference, says Ocampo.
“We suggest trying to change one or two things, especially if those things are really kind of pulling on your heartstrings or are just too emotionally tough for you because maybe that’s a tradition you did with someone who’s no longer there.”
Acknowledge the Loss and Communicate the Plan
Ocampo says verbally acknowledging a loss helps validate the grieving person’s feelings and normalize the grieving process.
“In our country, there is a huge stigma around death and dying, and we don’t talk about it enough. When somebody dies, it’s like we’re totally unprepared. First and foremost, make a plan and sit down with people ahead of time to communicate it. Don’t just walk into a holiday event without addressing or discussing what is happening or what has happened.”
Ocampo suggests using “I” or “I feel” statements to reduce potential conflict or feelings of blame.
Get Support
“For example, ‘I’ll do my best to come to dinner, but I don’t know how I’m going to be feeling that day,’” she says.
Extend Continued Specific Support
While there’s no timetable for grieving, one of the hardest things about losing a loved one is coping with loneliness. After the funeral, the grieving person can be especially vulnerable, says Ocampo.
“When somebody dies, there’s all this support right away, and then eventually that support fades away. People get back to their lives, but the bereaved person is still reeling from this devastating loss. Being there for those people in a real way by calling and not avoiding them and trying to understand where they’re coming from can go a long way.”
Ocampo says that rather than saying, “I’m here if you need anything,” be specific in your offer of help — or just provide the help. You can set up a meal train, bring them a plate of cookies or an ornament, write them a card, reach out to make plans to take a drive or go on an outing, or just be present in an authentic way.
“Don’t wait for the bereaved person to ask. Anything that’s going to let them know that they’re not alone and that someone’s out there thinking about them is hugely helpful,” she says.
Getting connected with support is key to the healing process, especially for individuals who do not have an extensive network. HOPE for Bereaved offers free counseling and support groups for individuals, children, adults, parents and organizations.
Support groups are offered monthly on a drop-in basis, and Ocampo recommends first-timers plan to arrive early to get oriented. Peer counselors provide counseling sessions virtually or in person within one to two weeks of initial contact.
“Somebody just needs to call our phone number. During our business hours we always have a person answering the phone. You can talk to somebody right away,” says Ocampo.
HOPE FOR BEREAVED SEASONAL SUPPORT GROUP: COPING WITH THE HOLIDAYS
» All Saints Roman Catholic Church Thursday, Dec. 12, 6:30-8:30 p.m. 1340 Lancaster Ave., Syracuse
» OneGroup Monday, Dec. 16, 1-3 p.m. 706 N. Clinton St., Syracuse
THE BRIGHT SIDES
Elevate your holiday dinner with one or more of these excellent add-ons
STORY AND PHOTOS
BY ALAINA POTRIKUS BECKETT
From hearty starters to sweet and savory sides, holiday meals are often made that much better — and more memorable — with delicious supporting dishes. Restaurants across Central New York are serving up catering menus with sides that deserve their time in the spotlight. We dug into just a few.
Rolled Pizza Pinwheels
Mona Lisa’s Ristorante
These fun favorites come in nearly a dozen flavor profiles, including mac and cheese, tomato and ham, chicken bacon ranch and chicken riggies. Other catering favorites on Mona Lisa’s menu: meatball and prime rib sliders, pork Normandy and lasagna. The Italian restaurant in Geddes is known for its Thanksgiving Day buffet and will offer hot takeout dinners as well as cold readymade to-go dinners. For a sweet treat, try their specialty butter pecan, maple or pumpkin fudge.
Tomatoes spiced with cherry peppers, cream and sherry make a smooth base for meaty chunks of haddock in this fromscratch soup. The Fish Friar, a cozy restaurant at the corner of East Washington and Montgomery streets near City Hall, brings in wild-caught seafood from New England multiple times a week. A robust catering menu offers haddock, shrimp, calamari, steamed clams and smoked salmon in a variety of preparations, with sides and sauces to match.
The Fish Friar 239 E. Genesee Street, Syracuse 315-468-FISH, thefishfriar.com @thefishfriar
Smoked Gouda Mac & Cheese
Epicuse
This Winterfest-winning recipe will keep you warm in the early winter months — spice it up with hot honey drizzle and top with microgreens. Epicuse, a gourmet market and deli in downtown Syracuse, is the perfect place to find artisanal and regional food items to take holiday hosting to the next level, including hot sauces from XO Taco, finishing salts from Syracuse Salt Co., and local cheeses and honey.
Epicuse
334 S. Salina Street, Syracuse 315-382-0274, epicuse.net @epicusesyr
Black Your Eye Soup
SOULutions: Sley’s Southern Cuisine
The star of this hearty soup is classic black eyed peas, simmered with smoked turkey, celery, onion, garlic, tri-color bell peppers and a house blend of spices. SOULutions chef Sleyrow Mason’s holiday catering menu includes additional sides such as Slammin’ Yams caramelized in brown sugar and butter, topped with crushed pecans; Fire Mac, cavatappi pasta and a four-cheese blend, topped with crispy chicken, green onions and fire sauce; and Confetti Cornbread with whole corn kernels, tri-color bell peppers and scallions.
SOULutions: Sley’s Southern Cuisine
Salt City Market, 484 S. Salina Street, Syracuse 315-927-9428, soulutionscatering.com @soulutionscatering
Fried Brussels Sprouts
Brian’s Landing
These appetizing bites are accented with crispy Thai chili pork belly (smoked in house), a black garlic aioli and togarashi — a Japanese spice blend of red chili peppers, hemp and sesame seeds, ginger, citrus peel and nori seaweed flakes. The complex flavors make it one of the most beloved items on the menu at Brian’s Landing. Other popular catering items include chicken riggies, Bella Luna greens, lobster mac and cheese, and charcuterie. The restaurant also offers family-style Thanksgiving meals that feed eight to 10 people.
Brian’s Landing
6523 E. Seneca Turnpike, Jamesville 315-299-5242, brianslanding.com @brianslanding_jamesville
Cornbread
Limp Lizard Lounge Bar & Grill
Leave the holiday cooking to your favorite barbecue joint. Order a pit-smoked turkey dinner from Limp Lizard, then add sides from choices like this moist cornbread with light honey flavor, or roasted corn, cranberry cornbread, garlic mashed potatoes and sweet potato casserole. Check social media for pre-order and pickup instructions. Specialty desserts, including cheesecake, are also available.
Not too sweet, with hints of orange, apple and cinnamon, this homemade cranberry sauce from Sweet Life of a Baker Cafe in Sherrill is a tangy topping or entree accompaniment. Owner and chef Andrea Maranville serves small-batch handcrafted artisanal baked goods and a seasonal breakfast/lunch menu at her cafe. Also on the holiday menu: homemade maple-sea salt butter, pies and an assorted butter cookie platter. Check her website or social media for a full menu.
Sweet Life of a Baker 552 Sherrill Road, Sherrill 315-280-4975, andreamaranville.com @sweetlifeofabaker
Utica Greens
Nestico’s
This traditional Italian American dish is a CNY staple, and this flavorful take (it’s got a kick, but it’s not overly spicy) from Nestico’s is sure to be a crowd-pleaser. The North Syracuse restaurant helps customers bring their favorite dishes home for the holidays, with catering options of chicken parmesan, pasta pie and fried calamari — as well as homemade pasta sauce by the quart and meatballs by the tray.
Nestico’s
412 N. Main Street, North Syracuse 315-458-5188, nesticos.com @nesticosnsyr
LOOKING FORWARD, LIFTING UP
Nonprofit organizations take on CNY’s biggest challenges
From Micron’s chip fab development in the north to the impact of Interstate 81’s removal on the South Side, a great deal of change is headed our way. For generations, dedicated nonprofit and not-for-profit organizations, their supporters and volunteers have been helping address, meet and alleviate the pressing needs of our residents. Some organizations focus on individual issues and some are the connective tissue between groups, encouraging collaboration and funding this important work. In looking ahead, we wondered how some of Central New York’s nonprofits are prioritizing the challenges our community faces and how they hope to help set us up for the future.
Left, United Way supports PEACE Inc.’s Big Brothers, Big Sisters. Bigs and Littles gathered for Canal Day at Erie Canal Park in 2022.
ERIE21
BY ALLISON KENIEN
Tech companies like Micron and Amazon have brought new opportunities and investments to Central New York, and the area has been buzzing optimistically about an impending economic revival. Boosting the economy is no small task in Syracuse, which has some of the highest poverty rates in America. Le Moyne College is taking a fresh approach to tackling this challenge. Staff designed a workforce development program called ERIE21 to ensure that historically and intentionally excluded groups are included in the newly projected economic growth.
The program grew out of a request made in 2017 by former Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney. Mahoney approached Le Moyne for ideas on how to improve education and career options for those who typically get left behind. Le Moyne responded with ERIE21, which is an acronym for Education for our Rising Innovation Economy in the 21st Century.
The effort embraces the spirit of the Erie Canal, which brought economic prosperity to Central New York in the 1800s. The Erie Canal has locks to raise and lower boats along the waterway, and
likewise, the ERIE21 program is organized into locks, one for each educational level.
Lock 1 for middle school-age students was the first to be developed. Participants get an introduction to engineering, coding, robotics and quantitative reasoning. They receive access to engaging after-school programs and summer camps all centered around technology education. Students can also take advantage of in-person and virtual academic tutoring and homework help from Le Moyne undergraduates.
For high school students, Lock 2 offers resources that are similar to those in Lock 1, but with high school-level content and objectives. Additionally, staff provide college advising and application assistance, help families compile a list of colleges to apply to, and review and explain financial aid packages. Inperson college visits are held throughout the year.
Students in these locks are from low-income families and attend Syracuse City schools. This past spring, additional funding opened the ERIE21 program to students in the Onondaga Central and LaFayette Central school districts, rural districts that aren’t
A student works on a project in the Quantitative Thinking Village, now known as QTV, where participants entering grades 6-8 explore coding programs and have access to academic tutoring and more over the summer.
able to provide these types of opportunities themselves.
Le Moyne introduced Lock 3 for college students, creating a community on the Le Moyne campus for New York state students who exhibit financial need and are interested in pursuing a technology career. Majors in biology & computer science and philosophy & computer science, and a minor in visual design are supported by the Lock 3 program. Participants receive extra support through academic planning, tutoring, career counseling, internships, an M&T Fellowship program and assistance with academic fees like textbooks.
The Lock 4 program for adults was added in 2021 and rounds out the ERIE21 sequence. It gives unemployed or underemployed adults in Central New York a pathway to enter the tech workforce through Le Moyne’s professional and undergraduate certificate programs. It has been six years since the first cohort of students enrolled in the ERIE21 program, and Le Moyne is seeing the impact on those kids.
One child in particular stands out as a success story, says Amanda Delaney, director of ERIE21. The boy was in eighth grade when he started attending the program. He was a football player, prone to mischief, and he didn’t believe in his ability to pursue a specialized tech career. As he moved through the locks, he tried new activities that were out of his comfort zone. From hands-on coding classes to sewing banners for an event at the zoo, he stuck with the program and now he’s reaping the benefits. This fall he moved to Buffalo to earn his bachelor’s degree in cybersecurity.
“We are so proud of him,” says Delaney. “There are a lot of success stories,” she adds.
From middle school kids to adult learners, ERIE21 has served more than 1,000 students since 2018, and the program’s success is closely tied to the many local companies who have championed it. Major supporters include M&T Bank, KeyBank, The Equitable Foundation, Equitable, Lockheed Martin, Micron, PEACE Inc. and Excellus.
Delaney says that businesses have been creative in their willingness to assist in building the program. “Employer partners help us stay up to date on what skills are needed, what they are looking for when they hire people and they really help inform our curriculum.”
As a result of the company partnerships, ERIE21 students have landed internships and entry-level positions in Central New York, ultimately bolstering the local tech economy. The skilled worker gap has been a concern of high-tech and manufacturing companies in the area for some time. Creating a homegrown, inclusive, trained workforce will set up Central New York for success.
While the program has been very successful, there are still many opportunities for partnership, and Delaney hopes interested organizations will reach out.
“We couldn’t do this in isolation,” Delaney says. “We’re shovelready. If anyone wants to implement a program, we have a formula and a foundation. We are a ready and willing partner.”
For more information: visit lemoyne.edu/syracuse-community/ erie21-pathways
Top, Lock 4 students graduate from the ERIE21 program. Above, Lock 3 students on Le Moyne’s campus.
Blueprint 15
BY ASHLEY KANG
Blueprint 15, a community organization serving Syracuse’s East Adams neighborhood, prioritizes the needs of these historically excluded residents during the Syracuse Housing Authority’s Housing Transformation plan, the $2.25 billion eight-stage Interstate 81 replacement project and beyond.
The Allyn Family Foundation partnered with the City of Syracuse to establish Blueprint 15 in 2019, with the goal of reimagining what a future neighborhood slated for the footprint of the old 15th Ward could look like.
Blueprint 15 is part of the Purpose Built Communities network, a national initiative that aims to revitalize urban neighborhoods through collaboration between residents, partners and local leaders. Executive Director Raquan Pride-Green says Blueprint 15 convenes community stakeholders and residents to think through the neighborhood redesign together — unlike when the community was given no chance to weigh in on the I-81 viaduct’s construction or its impact.
The East Adams Street Neighborhood Transformation plan is meant to create a thriving neighborhood of choice. The nonprofit’s work is centered around four pillars that will help lift up the
neighborhood: safe, affordable, high-quality mixed income housing; access to culturally competent and trauma-informed mental and physical health resources; educational opportunities from cradle to college or career; and generational wealth-building pathways and resources.
Redevelopment plans call for McKinney Manor and Pioneer Homes to be demolished and rebuilt in phases, requiring some residents to be temporarily relocated. Blueprint 15 answers questions folks have about the process. Pride-Green says, “There can be a lot of misinformation. We’re available to have conversations and share our plans.”
The organization also aims to develop parcels in the southern part of its footprint into new mixed income housing that may include townhouses, single-family and multifamily homes. Current demand appears to be for single units, but Blueprint 15 wants to see ample options for families so those who want to stay have the space to do so. “Even though the demand may be one or two bedrooms, families do grow over the years. We want to be able to accommodate that as well,” Pride-Green says.
The long-term vision includes critical community improvements: Proposed amenities include childcare, teen and health
A former intern, Youth Navigators and Neighborhood Navigators with Syracuse City School District Superintendent Anthony Davis, third from left.
centers, commercial retail developments and job training. The Children Rising Center will offer early learning opportunities for around 118 children and provide health and wellness programs.
“We came up with the Children Rising Center idea after hearing from several residents who shared they wanted to see early learning programs,” Pride-Green says. “They also wanted things to do for teenagers; they wanted jobs and training for adults.”
To expand opportunities in these areas, Blueprint 15 has pushed for partnerships, such as working with the Educational Opportunity Center. “We’re hoping to partner with the YMCA for an urban style Y,” Pride-Green adds. “There will be an indoor turf facility, basketball court, fitness center, community meeting spaces and a cool teen center.”
Syracuse will receive at least $6 million from the federal government to help build the children’s center and Y facility, and Pride-Green notes neighborhood residents will have priority for job placements.
Keeping residents informed and engaged is a priority. Neighborhood Navigators are members of the community who work as expert advisers to reach residents directly and invite them to attend meetings.
Since joining Blueprint 15 in 2021, Pride-Green has grown the Neighborhood Navigator program and is most proud of bringing youth voices into the mix. “The first thing I asked: ‘Where’s the youth component?,’” he says. “Because when the transformation is said and done, they will be the 20-something-year-olds who live in this community, and they should also have a voice.”
Now there are four Neighborhood Navigators, and four Youth Navigators who meet with Blueprint 15’s board and leadership from the city and Syracuse school district.
Three navigators are from Pioneer Homes and one is from McKinney Manor. Soon, one will likely go full time (current navigators work about 10 to 15 hours a week) and at least three more will be added, with the intention of finding additional
For more information: visit blueprint15.org
representation from McKinney Manor, Central Village and someone from the southern part of Blueprint 15’s footprint.
In addition to the Syracuse Housing Authority units, the coverage area extends to Colvin and South Salina streets. “We like to hire people from the neighborhood to be our credible messengers to share with their neighbors [and] invite them to community meetings so that we can get their voice and input included,” Pride-Green says.
By advocating for their voices to be heard by government officials, Blueprint 15 ensures residents have a say in what’s to come. The feedback, collected during meetings and community fairs, will help the nonprofit and a supporting consultant develop a strategic plan to create housing, economic and educational opportunities.
“Seeing these two programs evolve and our ability to engage over 700 residents in one year, as a small organization of less than 10 people on staff for the day-to-day, are the biggest accomplishments,” says Pride-Green.
Still, community buy-in can be a challenge, and Blueprint 15 must continue to emphasize the need for residents to have patience with the process.
“There’s so much damage that’s been done to this community for decades, as well as a lack of investment, so it’s hard to get people in the community to believe that we’re actually trying to do something for the people who live in this neighborhood,” he says. “But we are here to support and protect the residents.”
Above left, a Youth Navigator, a former staffer and a former intern review blueprints at Hueber-Breuer Construction’s headquarters.
Above right, a former intern, Supreena Smalls, Tara Harris, Syracuse Police Community Officer Nikki Hendrix and Quwanka Ellerby at a community event in Wilson Park.
From top, United Way Volunteer Administrator
Elisabeth Osei-Kwame marching in the 2024 CNY Pride Parade; Haylor, Freyer & Coon employees volunteer at ARISE at the Farm for United Way’s Day of Caring in 2024; folks enjoy the United Way-supported Westcott Community Center’s Senior Services Program.
United Way
BY ASHLEY KANG
For more than a century, United Way of Central New York has monitored the needs of area residents, advocating through collaborations to support those in greatest need and offering opportunities for those with the means or time to help.
“This movement began right here in this community: to think about working together, looking at needs and determining the best ways to help people who are in need — whatever type of need — and that’s why we’re still here,” says President Nancy Kern Eaton.
In Onondaga County, 14% of people live in poverty (a combined income of less than $31,200 for a family of four). To meet the essential needs of families like these, as well as ones living just above this threshold, the United Way mobilizes the community. The organization excels due to strong partners, support received from local donors and a large pool of volunteers.
As part of the federation of United Ways, the local chapter benefits from grants provided to the wider network, Eaton says. For example, a program called Ride United makes it possible for DoorDash drivers to deliver food pantry supplies and household essentials to the county’s most vulnerable, isolated neighbors at no cost to the local group. Similarly, United Way of CNY partnered with the Syracuse City School District and the Food Bank of Central New York to deliver 400 boxes of food last April to students who rely on the daily school lunch. “During spring break time, they’re not getting meals they would be receiving at school,” Eaton says. “So, that distribution of such a large box of food can provide meals for the week.”
In 2019, United Way served as the fiscal sponsor and coordinating entity on behalf of Greater Syracuse H.O.P.E. — of $2.8 million from New York State’s Poverty Reduction Initiative to fund antipoverty work in the city. Eaton says more than 11 initiatives sparked from that funding, many still active today, including a county program to prevent school dropouts; the Pathways to Apprenticeship Program, a pipeline to careers in trades; the Syracuse Financial Empowerment Center and others.
The effort served as a pilot for creative strategies and collaborations to solve the community’s greatest needs. “These fit with our big picture view of what
we believe makes sense for us: financial security, health and well-being, youth opportunity and community resiliency,” she says.
Eaton identifies early childhood education as one of their greatest efforts: “We know from the research that if a child isn’t reading at grade level by third grade, they’re going to struggle the rest of their school career,” she says.
United Way literacy initiatives include Book Buddies — a high-impact tutoring program at five Syracuse City School District elementary schools that includes 450 trained volunteers helping children practice reading — Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and the Literacy Coalition of Onondaga County. Housing, combatting lead poisoning, and workforce development are the nonprofit’s other top priorities.
With a significant jump in homelessness since COVID, United Way’s 211 info hotline handles many calls seeking immediate shelter requests and housing assistance referrals. “Prior to COVID, we were decreasing homelessness every single year as a community,” Eaton says, noting the city, county and nonprofits united to help reduce the issue’s prevalence. Despite groups working closely to address this need, she says, the need still is extraordinary.
The Housing and Homeless Coalition of Central New York focuses on homelessness prevention, as well as helping those who become homeless in Onondaga, Cayuga and Oswego counties. Since 2017, it has grown under the
United Way and now is working to become its own nonprofit. The coalition will continue to hold talks with all who work in this arena to discuss best strategies to increase affordable housing in our region.
The most recent initiative to come under the United Way is the LeadSafeCNY Coalition. United Way’s LaToya Jones, coalition director, manages the coalition’s efforts to end childhood lead poisoning by raising awareness and coordinating resources to eliminate lead exposure, ensuring safe, lead-free environments and healthier families.
For expected future workforce needs, Eaton says, “We have been honored and delighted to be closely speaking with folks from Micron, both the Micron Foundation and the corporate entity, thinking about ways to reach communities and get folks in training.” To prepare, they’ve partnered with CenterStateCEO, the Syracuse Educational Opportunity Center and the Manufacturers Association of Central New York. The group is thinking through how trainees can be supported after hiring, too, and is well aware of the need to offer opportunities to those who’ve historically been excluded.
Eaton says she’s excited for what’s on the horizon. “We need to be sure that we’re proud looking back that no one was left out or left behind. This is the time when we all can really ensure opportunity for everyone in our community, and I think that’s a goal that people share. I think for us, it’s the North Star.”
Above, United Way supports Huntington Family Center’s Youth Development and Preschool programs. Students stand in front of a mural created by local artist Tommy Lincoln for United Way’s Day of Caring in 2023.
For more information: visit unitedway-cny.org
Central New York Community Foundation
BY ALLISON KENIEN
Over the last 97 years, the Central New York Community Foundation (CNYCF) has funded thousands of local initiatives that address our area’s most critical needs. Last year alone, the Community Foundation granted funds to 1,456 nonprofit organizations including schools, parks, faith-based programs and municipal ventures.
CNYCF is focused on fostering the spirit of giving in Central New York. It acts as a philanthropic partner for those who want to invest in our community, helping donors contribute to existing funds or start their own fund. Donors might choose to give in the form of cash, stocks, real estate, life insurance, retirement accounts and other assets. The funds are then managed by CNYCF for long-term growth, allowing each fund to continually provide financial support to causes of public interest.
“We take community dollars and try to put them into community change,” says Melanie Littlejohn, CEO and president of CNYCF. In 1927, the organization was started as a centralized place where individuals could support community improvement projects with the promise that their donations would be stewarded for lasting impact. CNYCF fulfilled that promise and has become Central New
York’s largest charitable foundation with $434 million in assets.
The Community Foundation touches all areas of public concern and supports projects that impact the residents of Onondaga, Madison, Cayuga, Cortland and Oswego counties. Last year’s grant recipient list included Clear Path for Veterans, CNY Land Trust, Helio Health, Joseph’s House, PEACE Inc, Ronald McDonald House, Skaneateles Festival, The Upstate Foundation and United Way among many others. While the organization’s reach through other groups is broad, it has prioritized several strategic initiatives of its own that focus on tackling what it considers the most pressing local issues.
Parts of our region endure a long-standing cycle of poverty. Education is considered one of the best ways to escape the cycle, but the Syracuse City School District (SCSD), whose students live in some of the most affected neighborhoods, has close to the lowest math and ELA test scores in the state. For the 2022-2023 school year, SCSD ranked 532 out of 535 districts for math and 644 out of 661 districts for ELA. CNYCF is working to improve literacy and access to education for children from disproportionately affected communities, like the students living in the city district and rural areas.
Above, Clear Path for Veteran’s Dogs2Vets program. Right, children explore a stream at Baltimore Woods Nature Center. Opposite, young girls dance during a PGR Foundation youth program.
CNYCF formed the Literacy Coalition of Onondaga County, which has distributed 1.7 million books to local children through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and offers in-home literacy resources to build pre-reading and reading skills. On the other end of the educational spectrum, the Community Foundation funds the Say Yes Syracuse program, which has provided fulltuition college scholarships for more than 6,000 students to date.
One of the nonprofit’s newest endeavors is a partnership with Micron and other community organizations to form the Youth STEM Funder Collaborative, which makes technology skills and careers more accessible to girls of color and integrates performing arts into the curriculum.
CNYCF has also addressed the prevalence of lead poisoning in Syracuse. In 2018, data showed that children living in certain city neighborhoods had a 1-in-4 chance of contracting lead poisoning, a condition that causes learning disabilities and other disorders.
CNYCF launched an initiative called LeadSafeCNY and started working to lower the numbers. To date, the organization has invested more than $2.6 million towards window and door replacements, construction of safe rental units, new homeowner loans, public education campaigns and other projects resulting in the reduction of lead poisoning rates across the city. Earlier this year, CNYCF committed another $1 million to continue the effort.
“We won’t stop until the [lead poisoning] number is zero,” Littlejohn says.
Last year, The Community Foundation redoubled its commitment to racial equity, acknowledging that structural inequities and other obstacles make it more difficult for historically excluded groups to succeed. CNYCF outlined a number of values that guide the nonprofit’s actions and set specific goals such as investing in nonprofits led by and serving people of color, expanding the donor base through intentional and informed outreach, and breaking down barriers to academic success to ensure all Syracuse students can pursue higher education.
To formulate goals and monitor progress for all of its efforts, the Community Foundation publishes an online “report card” for Central New York at cnyvitals.org.
“This is the home of data that speaks to who we are,” says Littlejohn. “When you have access to this information, you begin to think about what we need to do to get stronger. Data is the key enabler of change.” She notes that capturing this information is necessary to allow CNYCF and others to make informed decisions about how to support needs that arise.
CNYCF’s vision is to create a “vibrant community with equal access to opportunity for everyone,” and the website helps track their impact on poverty, racial equity, education, health, housing, the economy and arts. Statistics, context and local stories help site visitors understand the larger picture of our region and the
Top, Black Girls Don’t Get Love participants in Natural Heritage Trust’s Ladders to the Outdoors program. Above, Andy Cortez with his parents at the Golisano Center for Special Needs-AccessCNY Sensory Movement Exploration Center.
For more information: visit cnycf.org
needs of their neighbors next door or down the road.
The vast majority of CNYCF donors are former or current Central New York residents. Littlejohn hopes to raise awareness and send the message that everyone is welcome to contribute.
Cultivating a spirit of giving across the region will allow this region to thrive, she believes.
“Give five dollars — that means something,” says Littlejohn. “Give your time, that means even more. There is room for all of us in this world of giving, and a dollar is just as important as a million dollars.”
Making good
ON THE RISE
Visiting Sugar Grove Cafe and Bakery for a flaky croissant or cold brew draft latte means stepping into Tonya Duffy’s history. Named after the West Virginia mountain town where Duffy lived and learned to bake, the restaurant has a general store-inspired interior, cozy repurposed furniture and a detailed narrative mural about her life by Sarah Wiley Joyce.
Formerly known as The Toast, the café, coowned by Duffy and her daughter Kylie Gunnip, opened its doors on Sept. 21. The new name better fits the wide array of menu options, which
include build-your-own breakfast and lunch sandwiches, soups, coffees, luscious pastries and baked goods, and Sunday brunch with mimosas, beer and wine.
Customers can pay it forward for people in need by buying a coffee, soup or sandwich token.
Open daily, the Dey’s Building spot on South Salina Street in downtown Syracuse is larger than their previous locations in Canastota and Cazenovia. A yet-to-be-built deck will add more seating out front. Sugar Grove will also be offering a variety of pies to take home for the holidays.
For more information: visit sugargrovesyracuse.com
Ripe for the picking
Entrepreneur turns her life’s passions into lifestyle products
BY LORNA OPPEDISANO
In her heart, soul and lineage, Caryn Joyce Borden is an artist.
“My mother was so artistic. She was so inspiring,” Borden says. “Everything I loved, wanted, and wanted to do had to do with my mother.”
While her mother, Arlene, wasn’t an artist by trade, her trendy eye for elegance touched everything she did, from interior design, clothing and hairstyle choices to social sphere. “She was daring,” Borden says. “She just knew what worked together.”
Fueled by the creative path her mother blazed and her own passions, Borden founded lifestyle brand Luxury From The Farm. She combines her love for gardening, painting and home fragrance and expresses it through products she grows and makes herself: heirloom tomatoes, original artwork, candles handmade in small batches, home goods and more.
Growing up, Borden didn’t plan to be an entrepreneur. Perhaps it was somehow her heritage; her sister also followed their mother’s creative example and opened a bakery in Montreal.
When Borden was in art school she took chances and did things differently than she was taught, taking leaps of faith. A practice she says still bleeds into every area of her life.
While working in the restaurant industry after college, her interest in heirloom tomatoes blossomed. She was obsessed with finding the best ones; when she couldn’t, she set out to grow them herself. Anywhere she has lived, she has made sure to have space to grow her “beautiful, artful and rare” tomatoes, either at her own home or space she rented from friends. Borden learned how to save the seeds from what she grew and would add more varieties from people she got tomatoes from.
Caryn Joyce Borden grows many varieties of heirloom tomatoes in Skaneateles. She sells tomato seeds and uses the fruits to make art.
Swapping seeds with people from around the world, she grew her collection. While cultivating these heirloom tomatoes wasn’t the future Borden envisioned, it was something she felt compelled to do, she says. She keeps nearly 200 varieties that she has carefully cataloged, chooses different types to grow each season and sells the seeds on her website.
Borden now lives in Skaneateles, which she describes as her own charming patch of paradise.
“And you betcha I planted tomatoes on my rooftop deck,” she says with a chuckle.
Life threw Borden for a loop in early 2020. For more than a year prior, she had been plagued with headaches. She learned that she had a brain tumor and underwent emergency surgery. Recovery was difficult; she persisted, tending to her tomato plants a mere four months after surgery, but she wanted to do more.
“I had this lifestyle brand inside me that I needed to create. Everything made sense to me,” she says. “I knew I needed to do it myself. If I couldn’t find it, I would make it. I was determined to create.”
While in recovery, Borden studied organic cosmetic chemistry, with the goal of learning to develop organic formulas for products such as lotions. This led her to a course on the history of candle making and she was inspired to start her business.
“It took me two years to formulate my own scent profiles,” she says. “I didn’t want to use prefabricated perfume oils. I didn’t want to use soy wax.”
After a couple of years learning and experimenting, Luxury From The Farm now offers seven fragranced candles made from a coconut-apricot wax blend. She began selling them at The Local Branch in Skaneateles and has expanded to Paola Kay Gifts in Fayetteville, Carol Watson Greenhouse in LaFayette and The Station 603 in Manlius, with more to come. After initially using an iridescent vessel, Borden decided to make her own candle vessels out of concrete blended with natural mineral pigments from France, Italy and Spain.
Borden also sells the candles online, along with other items, such as original paintings featuring birds, and boxed note cards and calendars with enticing photos of her tantalizing tomatoes. She plans to expand her home goods offerings with a curated selection including ice buckets, fragrances, coffee, teas and ceramic flasks. She searches mostly for artisan items made in America.
What she offers through Luxury From The Farm is all about the home, Borden says. The styled images of her products are sumptuous and a little moody. The candles have rich, earthy scents that make you want to dig your hands in the dirt and the mix of products evokes the beauty and luxury of nature.
“It’s about the colors that make us feel at home. It’s about our gardens. It’s about life,” she says. “It’s about finding our sense of space, our sense of self, our sense of peace.”
Borden envisions Luxury From The Farm eventually finding its own home at a brick-and-mortar location.
“These products are made from my whole heart and soul in my home. Luxury From The Farm would be that place that people would travel to come see. It would be an experience,” Borden says. “My products are an experience.”
Above, a coconutapricot wax candle made by Borden sits on a table with locally made pottery. Left, Borden’s catalog of heirloom tomato seeds.
Making good FARM TO TABLE
She Fancy offers an elegant salt potato app for holiday and everyday entertaining
BY
MJ KRAVEC | PHOTOS BY ALAINA POTRIKUS BECKETT
Making good
FARM TO TABLE
The new logo for She Fancy Catering offers the same vibe as the catering company’s eyecatching grazing boards.
A vibrant woman wearing pearls and opera-length gloves, surrounded by fruits, veggies, meats and cheeses, dramatically, yet playfully, pops an olive into her mouth. It’s colorful, fun and elevated, and perfectly captures the She Fancy experience.
Co-owners Anna Sofer and Chris Diflorio offer an epic-curious selection of grazing and charcuterie boards, grazing tables, homemade dips and butters, and specialty sandwiches for catering and events. They invite clients to “experience culinary luxury” through daily “cutie” (charcuterie) boards ranging from 8- by 8-inch boards that feed up to six people to 17- by 12-inch boards that feed up to 18.
“They really are cute little noshes centered around the grazing table,” says Sofer.
The pair aim to use local products and produce wherever possible, with boards that feature regional cheeses (from a blueberry vanilla goat cheese to wild mushroom brie and others) and meats (some of which include a red wine-and-garlic dry salami and black pepper salami), fruits and veggies, Syracuse Salt Company salts, nuts and other additions based on what’s available throughout the year.
“We try to do seasonal. The grazing tables are always changing,” says Sofer.
She Fancy’s platters include a bread and butter board featuring a choice of their homemade butters that include garlic and herb, dill pickle, and bleu cheese. Other platters include “sexy sandwiches” with names like She’s That Chick, Girly Pop and Not Your Basic BLT. Vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free and nut allergy-safe options are also available.
For holiday (or any day) gatherings, Sofer and Diflorio offer a recipe for Syracuse Salt Potatoes with Caviar, Pickled Red Onions and Crème Fraiche, an elegant appetizer that’s easy to prepare. “Even for a date night grazing. You can get it all done and have time to socialize,” says Sofer.
“The combination of the salty potato crust, rich crème fraiche, briny caviar and tangy pickled onions creates a luxurious bite that will impress guests.”
Chris Diflorio and Anna Sofer with a selection of offerings from She Fancy Catering.
SYRACUSE SALT POTATOES
with Caviar, Pickled Red Onions and Crème Fraiche
4 lbs. small new potatoes (or baby potatoes)
1 ½ cups kosher salt
8 cups water
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
Gourmet Toppings
4 oz. caviar (choose your favorite type, such as sturgeon or salmon roe)
¼ cup pickled red onions (recipe below or use store-bought)
½ cup crème fraiche
Fresh chives, finely chopped (optional, for garnish)
6 oz. smoked salmon, thinly sliced (optional)
Pickled Red Onions
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
½ cup vinegar (apple cider or red wine vinegar work well)
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
For pickled red onions: In a small saucepan, heat the vinegar, sugar and salt until the sugar dissolves. Pour the mixture over the red onion slices in a jar or bowl. Let sit for at least 30 minutes, or overnight for best results.
For potatoes: Scrub the potatoes to remove dirt but leave the skins on. In a large pot, bring 8 cups of water to a boil. Once boiling, add 1 ½ cups of kosher salt. Stir until the salt dissolves. Add the potatoes to the boiling saltwater. Bring back to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20-25 minutes, until the potatoes are tender. Drain the potatoes and let them cool slightly, allowing the salty crust to form. Transfer the potatoes to a serving dish, slice open the tops of the potatoes and drizzle with melted butter. Top with a few slices of pickled red onions and smoked salmon, if using. Place a small dollop of crème fraiche on each potato. Add a small spoonful of caviar over the crème fraiche. Optionally, sprinkle with finely chopped chives for added color and flavor.
Pair it with?
“I would do a nice bubbly or something light like Sauvignon Blanc — something dry to cut through the butter,” says Sofer. “For cocktails, I would go with mimosas or bellinis,” says Diflorio.
Tips?
Herbed butter is always a really nice thing — especially if you can make your own, or even if you just whip [store-bought] butter up with something. Let butter come to room temperature, then whip in seasonal herbs including finely chopped rosemary, chives and thyme.
For more information: visit she-fancy.square.site or visit on Instagram @shefancycatering
Upstate Foundation Since 1976
Institute for Human Performance Millions raised for research
Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital
Over $72 million raised for children since 1977
Madison Irving
Over $6.5 million to be raised for Golisano Center for Special Needs
Upstate University Hospital
Over $3.7 million in annual donations
Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Funding for adult and pediatric patient services
Wellness Institute Joslin Diabetes Center
Heliport Funded the rst helipad
Cancer Center
Consistent annual fund giving since its opening in 2014
Upstate Foundation
The Upstate Foundation was founded in 1976 as a notfor-pro t corporation to receive and administer gifts and bequests for charitable purposes. A public charity with the ability to make distributions to any quali ed nonpro t organization, the Upstate Foundation’s primary orientation is supporting the mission of Upstate Medical University.
We partner for impact in the following areas:
• Patient health care
• Education of future health care providers
• Scienti c research
• Community health and well-being.
Thanks to generous supporters of the Upstate Foundation, world-class health care is provided; scholarships for students in various areas of health care education continue; scienti c research e ects current and future medical diagnoses and treatments; and the Central New York community receives services such as Upstate’s HouseCalls for the Homeless street medicine program.
For nearly 50 years, the Upstate Foundation has had the pleasure of working with those who give philanthropically with an altruistic desire to help others. The Foundation o ers a variety of ways you can achieve your charitable
Where your gift impacts the health of the entire region
goals including donor-advised funds and charitable gift annuities. You can contribute to an existing fund or endowment (we have more than 1,200 – the most of any nonpro t in the region), or you can establish your own (think naming gift).
Mary Pat and Joe Hartnett of Syracuse are leaving a legacy gift that will provide funding to beautify the healing garden at the Upstate Cancer Center.
By working with members of the experienced Upstate Foundation team, they can help connect your passion and philanthropic goals for the bene t of others.
To read the Hartnett’s story, visit www.UpstateFoundation.org/LegacyGiving
For more information, call Carolyn Hendrickson, director of planned giving, at 315-464-6490.
Nappi
Upstate
Making good
DOWN TO EARTH
Rooted in Respect
Adopting Indigenous perspectives on our world
BY DANIELLE BENJAMIN
One of Central New York’s greatest assets is its physical beauty: sparkling lakes and rushing waterfalls, forested preserves with great hiking, farmland providing agricultural bounty, plus four seasons that allow us to interact with the outdoors in numerous ways year-round. If we want to continue to enjoy these resources, we residents need to concern ourselves with the area’s conservation.
Do we as a community feel a sense of stewardship or respect for the land that gives us so much? How do you create a relationship with the land and feel responsible for its care?
“Hug a tree and you will feel its energy.”
protect 80% of Earth’s remaining biodiversity.” Respect for nature and the environment is deeply embedded in Indigenous cultures and their practices can serve as a guide for how we can all become more mindful and responsible for what we have here.
The Onondaga Nation’s website notes that their relationship with nature is “most evident in how we begin every gathering, meeting or ceremony with the Ganoñhéñ• nyoñ, or the Thanksgiving Address.”
“Nature guides us. Our connection to nature supports us.”
Neal Powless
While Neal Powless says this partly in jest, he means it. His connection with nature is unlike most people’s. Powless and his wife, Michelle Schenandoah, are both proud members of the Haudenosaunee, people who have lived in this area now known as Central New York for more than 1,000 years and were its original conservators.
Studies conducted worldwide demonstrate that land governed by Indigenous people maintains incredible biodiversity. In fact, according to the World Economic Forum, “Indigenous people
Identifying and having gratitude for each element of the environment makes the interdependence of all living things apparent.
Knowing that every action a human takes directly impacts the environment, the couple advocates for building a reciprocal relationship with nature that involves a mutual respect between humankind and the surrounding ecosystems.
Powless and Schenandoah use these mantras in their business, Indigenous Concepts Consulting, a firm that teaches Native American culture and practices to guide individuals and organizations. Powless shares a few ways to start shifting your thinking.
TAKE TIME EACH DAY TO GROUND YOURSELF
There are many ways to physically connect with nature. Perhaps it means taking off your shoes and feeling the blades of grass between your toes. Powless emphasizes the importance of connecting to Mother Earth, allowing the ground to absorb any negative energy you are carrying. Doing this regularly helps to center the body, leaving room for the mind to focus on the tasks at hand. In the winter, try catching a snowflake on your tongue or rolling around in a fresh blanket of snow.
CENTER YOUR ENERGY WITH THE SURROUNDING NATURE
Go for a hike to embrace natural beauty and serenity along with some fresh air. Powless recognizes that people joke about “tree huggers” and how they care too deeply about the plants around them. But that is exactly what is needed. Recognizing that each little piece of nature plays an important role in the world around us, from the tiny ant to the mighty oak tree, and that humans are just a small part of that ecosystem, creates a deeper sense of connection.
REDUCE UNNECESSARY CONSUMPTION OF MATERIALS
The world is a finite resource and human consumption needs to slow down so future generations can savor what the world has to offer. Rethinking how much we consume and how we dispose of items can mitigate the negative impacts on the planet and protect our air, land and water — and the living things that depend on them.
TAKE ACTION
Major components of Indigenous culture are the emphasis on community over the individual and future sustainability for coming generations. So it doesn’t matter if the litter at the park isn’t yours; help clean it up because it’s the right thing to do. And don’t wait until Earth Day to act: Attend a lecture on sustainability. Eliminate food waste by being more conscious about what you’re buying and using. Look for items with eco-friendly packaging or postconsumer materials. Every small step is a step in the right direction. However you choose to physically embrace nature — becoming one with the surrounding world — you’ll discover a new level of respect for the natural environment and it will empower you to want to protect it. “When you engage with Indigenous knowledge, amazing things happen,” Powless says.
To learn more about the Thanksgiving Address and Haudenosaunee culture, visit Skä•noñh – Great Law of Peace Center near the shores of Onondaga Lake. A permanent exhibit at the cultural center encourages visitors to understand the ways the Haudenosaunee give thanks to the different elements of the environment and to consider their own relationship to nature. Printed copies of the Thanksgiving Address in multiple languages can be purchased at the center, skanonhcenter.org
For more information: visit indigenous-concepts.com
Making good
Season’s Readings
HOLIDAY MAGIC MADE IN MANLIUS
BY CAITLIN WRIGHT
Winters in Manlius are even longer than usual, at least in the home of screenwriters Keith and Juliet Giglio. A life-size nutcracker stands at attention in the dining room year-round, perhaps waiting to turn into a Christmas miracle one day. A welcome sign over the family room fireplace greets the guests of Treeline Ski Resort. And their living room features packaging from a fictional bakery, a token from the Giglios’ very first holiday project.
These and other decorations have been featured in the Giglios’ films, which are filled with family and the sort of tenderness that everyone needs but that sometimes warrants a push. When they moved to Central New York from California for teaching positions, the couple thought their writing careers had ended, but a new opportunity awaited when they were asked to pen holiday movies. The area’s small-town feel and chilly weather provided inspiration to create the wintry wonderlands their characters inhabit.
Left, authors and screenwriters Juliet and Keith Giglio at their home in Manlius, and above, their two novels.
“I like centering the movies around the holidays. It helps to bring back that sense of magic in our adult lives that might be missing sometimes.”
Juliet Giglio
After writing four Lifetime Christmas movies in four years, from “A Very Nutty Christmas” in 2018 to “Christmas in Tune” in 2021, the couple was asked to write a novel. In “The Summer of Christmas,” they kept the holidays as a focal point but incorporated into the story their own Hollywood moviemaking experiences. They published their second novel, “The Trouble With Tinsel,” last year. Each of these projects conjures a time of year where anything is possible.
“I like centering the movies around the holidays,” says Juliet Giglio, who is the director of the Creative Writing program and teaches screenwriting at SUNY Oswego. “It helps to bring back that sense of magic in our adult lives that might be missing sometimes.”
Keith, a screenwriting professor at Syracuse University, adds, “There’s always time for a Christmas miracle in terms of rom-coms.”
That said, not all their films follow the inevitable rom-com beats. In “A Very Nutty Christmas,” a nutcracker comes to life as Chip and briefly enters the life of busy bakery owner Kate Holiday.
Colin Theys, the film’s director, praised the Giglios’ ability to write an impactful story that goes in surprising directions. “Kate comes to appreciate what Chip brings to her life without it becoming a real love story,” he says. “Her journey is not as straightforward as in many Christmas movies, and it’s richer for that.”
Another special element of their Christmas films, Juliet Giglio says, “is that the female characters have agency. The story revolves around them. They have a problem to solve. Typically, in most movie genres, the story is about the men, and the women are the secondary characters.”
Laughter and warmth are two recurring components in the Giglios’ movies, which have starred the likes of Reba McEntire, Melissa Joan Hart and Jason Priestley. “The things that they have done have had heart and humor, and I think that is something that is in short supply,” says director Andy Wolk, who worked with the pair on an earlier non-holiday film, a “Romeo and Juliet” riff set in two feuding Verona, New Jersey, pizzerias called “Pizza My Heart.”
“Their humility and their humanity and their authenticity to who they are really come in through their writing,” Wolk says.
The “write what you know” dictum came into play when the Giglios, who met when they were grad students at New York University’s film school,
PHOTO BY AMELIA BEAMISH
shifted their focus from Christmas movies to novels about Christmas movies. “Our first book that we wrote together, ‘The Summer of Christmas,’ is about the making of a Christmas movie in Upstate New York during the heat of summer,” Keith Giglio says. The story was pulled from their own behindthe-scenes experiences.
“I like their writing because they dare to be funny while still understanding the heart and emotion that goes into a Christmas story,” Theys says.
The Giglios commemorated “The Trouble With Tinsel” with a book signing and talk at Parthenon Books. “They bring out all the stops,” says Parthenon assistant manager Ann Duddy. “You could tell from their body language they were really engaged in the conversation with people who came up and asked questions.”
Producer Jane Goldenring, who first collaborated with the Giglios in 2005, described them as “naturally ebullient people. They like to laugh. They like to create situations where people are at their best and worst in a funny way.”
Gathering together as a family is important both for the Giglios’ projects and for the duo themselves, and Juliet Giglio says the Christmas movies lend themselves to exactly that experience.
For all the twists and surprises in their films, Juliet says, they all have one predictable component: “People know that when they turn on the TV, it’s going to be something happy.”
Caitlin Wright is a recent graduate of the Goldring Arts, Style and Culture Journalism Program at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications.
left and right, Juliet
Top
Giglio on the set of “A Very Nutty Christmas” and the couple with stars Melissa Joan Hart and Barry Watson. Above, the Giglios with Reba McEntire and John Schneider on the set of “Christmas in Tune.”
August 22 - December 10, 2024
August 22 - December 10, 2024 Syracuse University Art Museum
Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan
Galleries
ARTRAGE GALLERY
505 Hawley Avenue, Syracuse. 315-218-5711, artragegallery.org. Open 2 to 6 p.m., Wednesday-Friday, noon to 4 p.m. (and by appointment for groups), Saturday.
In Secrecy: New Works by Jaleel Campbell. Jaleel Campbell’s latest series, titled “In Secrecy,” will explore the experiences of out, discreet and dl (down low) Black men in the gay community and what toll that takes on the psyche over time. Unlearning our natural instinct to operate in secret is half the battle. Homophobia in the Black community continues to run rampant. Growing up under these constraints forces queer youth to assimilate to prevent drawing attention to their mannerisms, interests or desires. Each year, those that are able to “pass” lose more of their natural instincts and begin to present themselves to the public how they believe society wants them to be. A performance. What is the truth? Is there truth? Jaleel hopes to enable real conversations from those that may share a similar experience and encourage others to tell their stories. Jaleel Campbell is a Syracuse-based artist whose work ranges from illustration, curation, directing, performing and the latest, doll making. Jaleel attained his BFA in visual communications with a specialization in graphic design from Cazenovia College, and his MFA in media arts & culture from SUNY Purchase. Opening reception 6 to 8 p.m. Nov. 9. Free and open to the public. Runs Nov. 9 through Jan. 18, 2025.
Portrait of artist Jaleel Campbell
Campbell’s latest series, “In Secrecy,” at ArtRage Gallery
Galleries
COMMUNITY FOLK ART CENTER
805 E. Genesee Street, Syracuse. 315-442-2230, communityfolkartcenter.org. Open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday. Hours may vary based on programming.
This Woman’s Work Art Exhibition: Community Quilting & Storytelling Project. This innovative project, initiated by artist and community psychologist Rochele Royster, brings together 10 local artists to create artwork that celebrates the profound impact of Black women’s community care in Syracuse and Central New York. The exhibition began with a grant proposal submitted by Royster. It highlights the often-overlooked contributions of Black women, starting with the story of a Black herbalist in 1733 who lived near Ithaca, New York. The exhibit traces the pivotal work of Black women from the past to the present, demonstrating how their community care and mutual aid have shaped Central New York and the communities where they lived and worked. “This project/exhibit is unique in its co-participatory approach,” says Royster. “Artists are collaborating with each other and engaging with historical and lived stories to highlight the care work of Black women past to present, which is often overlooked and forgotten.” The exhibition will feature an interactive component where community members can share stories about the women in their families and communities who have resisted through care. Highlights of the exhibition include a community quilt, immersive storytelling sessions, and skill-share art workshops designed to educate and honor the work of local Black women while building community through the arts. The exhibit aims to provide a platform for learning, reflection and celebration of Black women’s resilience and community care practices. “We want this exhibit to be a living, breathing testament to the power of community care,” says Royster. “By sharing these stories and skills, we hope to inspire a new generation to continue this vital work.” Runs through Feb. 2025. For more information, visit communityfolkartcenter.org or contact Rochele Royster at raroyste@syr.edu. Rochele Royster uses her expertise in art therapy, education and civic engagement to facilitate social change. Her work focuses on creating inclusive and healing spaces for marginalized communities through participatory art projects.
Sascha Brastoff’s
“Night Monster” at Everson
EDGEWOOD GALLERY
216 Tecumseh Road, Syracuse. 315-445-8111, edgewoodartandframe.com. Open 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. Closed SundayMonday. Free.
Texture/Form/Surface: David “Hongo” Robertson. Robertson will be exhibiting several series of his textural acrylic paintings with Lauren Bristol’s sculptural coiled basketry and Dana Stenson’s metalsmith jewelry. Runs through Nov. 15.
Colorful Realms: Diana Godfrey. Acrylic/ mixed-media non-representational paintings exhibited with Terry Askey-Cole ceramics and Judy McCumber mixed-media beaded jewelry. Opening reception 6-8 p.m., Friday Nov. 22. Runs Nov. 22 through Jan. 3.
EVERSON MUSEUM OF ART
401 Harrison Street, Syracuse. 315-474-6064, everson.org. Open noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday and Friday, noon to 8 p.m. Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Closed Monday-Tuesday. $5 suggested donation.
Sascha Brastoff: California King. There are many wild and colorful characters in the history of American ceramics, but most pale in comparison to Sascha Brastoff. We most remember Brastoff as a prolific designer of midcentury dinnerware, but he also served in the U.S. Army during World War II, where he created props and costumes for Special Services events to entertain troops. Brastoff also performed as his drag alter-ego, G.I. Carmen Miranda, and was cast in a Broadway production, “Winged Victory” (later adapted into the 1944 movie of the same name). When the war ended, Brastoff moved to Los Angeles to design costumes for film stars, including the real Carmen Miranda. Brastoff then built a dinnerware empire (bankrolled by a Rockefeller) after taking a top prize in the Syracuse Museum of Fine Art’s 1948 Ceramic National exhibition. Throughout his career, Brastoff rubbed elbows with celebrities and was at the heart of L.A.’s Queer underground. Besides his work in ceramics, Brastoff also mastered jewelry, metalwork, enamels and created erotic works for many private clients. Runs through Dec. 29.
“Blue Light” from Diana Godfrey’s “Colorful Realms” at Edgewood Gallery
Putting Art to Work: Prints of the Works Progress Administration. The Great Depression reached its peak in 1933 when the unemployment rate in the United States climbed to 20%. The Public Works of Art Project, a relief measure to employ artists, was one of many New Deal initiatives that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed into law during his first year in office. In 1935, the program was replaced by the Federal Art Project, which was administered by the Works Progress Administration. Together, the two programs employed more than 10,000 artists and generated an estimated 400,000 paintings, murals, prints and posters. The Everson Museum of Art (then the Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts) played an important role as museum director Anna Wetherill Olmsted oversaw the Central New York region of the Federal Art Project. “Putting Art to Work” features more than 60 prints made under the auspices of the Public Works of Art Project and the Federal Art Project between 1934 and 1942. Runs through Dec. 29.
Tim Atseff: Final Edition. Fifty years following his Everson Museum debut, Syracuse native Tim Atseff returns with a solo exhibition dedicated to a topic he knows intimately — the news media. Atseff spent nearly five decades working in the newspaper business in various professional roles and is perhaps best-known for penning editorial cartoons that satirically skewered political and public figures in print. Atseff’s artistic practice is similarly grounded in current events but, as a platform for expressing his personal views about existential crises facing the world today, it is writ large and in full color in paintings, assemblages and installations. For the Everson, Atseff presents a selection of recent works about the continued shuttering of American newspapers — and what it means for the future of journalistic integrity, an informed public and national political debate. Runs through Dec. 29.
LA CASITA CULTURAL CENTER
109 Otisco Street, Syracuse. 315-443-2151, lacasita.syr.edu. Open noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday. For questions or to request accessibility accommodations please email: lacasita@syr.edu.
Weird Barrio: The works of Manuel Matías. Syracuse-based Puerto Rican artist Manuel Matías presents an intriguing collection of miniature 3D dioramas that depict the Latino experience of Syracuse and Central New York barrios in intricate detail. At its core, it is a testament to the power of storytelling and visual representation in shaping collective identity and fostering a sense of belonging. Matías invites viewers to immerse themselves in the rich tapestry of life in the barrios, capturing the essence of kinship and cultural pride that define these neighborhoods. Runs through April 2025. La Casita is a program of Syracuse University established to advance an educational and cultural agenda of civic engagement through research, cultural heritage preservation, media and the arts — bridging the Hispanic communities of the university and Central New York.
LIGHT WORK KATHLEEN O. ELLIS GALLERY
316 Waverly Avenue, Syracuse. 315-443-1300, lightwork. org. Open 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday-Friday, and 1 to 9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For guided tours, contact info@ lightwork.org.
Asea: Nicholas Muellner. Nicholas Muellner is an artist who works with photography and writing through books, exhibitions and slide lectures. The exhibition, “Asea,” showcases portraits in the landscape made complex by surreal lighting, staging and pantomiming that explore personal narrative and the limits of photography. Muellner received a BA in comparative literature from Yale University and an MFA in photography from Temple University. He is founding co-director of the Image Text MFA and ITI Press at Cornell University. Runs through Dec. 13.
Lynne Sachs: This Side of Salina. Award-winning filmmaker Lynne Sachs’ latest work was commissioned by Light Work and shot while she was in residence in Syracuse during spring 2024. Working in collaboration with reproductive justice advocates J’viona Baker, Ja’Rhea Dixon, Vernahia Davis and Angela Stroman from local organization Layla’s Got You, the film celebrates the ways that mutual support networks and the sharing of lived experience become tools of political and personal empowerment. This project is part of a larger effort in which Sachs is involved called The Abortion Clinic Film Collective, a diverse group of artists from around the country who came together in the wake of the Dobbs decision. Each has a relationship with a place where laws governing reproductive care have changed significantly since the overturning of Roe. Runs dusk to 11 p.m., Thursday-Saturday, through Dec. 21.
Lynne Sachs’ “This Side of Salina” at Light Work
ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
321 Montgomery Street, Syracuse. 315-428-1864, cnyhistory.org. Open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Admission is $5, free for members or children 12 & under. Check their website for updates.
Suit Up! A Look at Syracuse Sporting Uniforms Through the Years. “Suit Up!” is up in the Onondaga Historical Museum’s large first-floor gallery. The exhibit, in collaboration with Syracuse University’s Special Collections Research Center, displays various Syracuse sporting uniforms from throughout the decades. Local professional and collegiate teams are featured in this sporty jaunt through local nostalgia, celebrating the history of Syracuse athletics. Runs through December 2024.
Look At What We Got! One of the most common questions the archivists and curators of the Onondaga Historical Association are asked is, “Will the document or artifact I’m donating be on exhibit?” The answer is always a resounding, “possibly.” With limited exhibit space, and exhibit topics that don’t always include every item in our collection, OHA has many magnificent items preserved and protected, but not on display. “Look At What We Got” is OHA’s chance to exhibit an eclectic assortment of artifacts and documents that were donated to OHA in the last five years. The exhibit will also provide insight into the choices OHA’s archivists and curators make when accepting donations. Runs through May 2025.
Pages of the Past: The Personal Archives of Scrapbooks. This is OHA’s newest exhibit, featuring bits of history as collected and curated in personal scrapbooks of Syracuse community members that have since come into OHA’s archival collection. The exhibit displays both original scrapbooks and interactive reproductions that guests are encouraged to flip through and explore. “Pages of the Past” celebrates the history of scrapbooking and the local residents who have taken the time through the years to compile records of their lives and the community. Runs through Spring 2025.
SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
222 Waverly Avenue, Syracuse. library.syr.edu. Open to the public 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. MondayFriday. 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. 6th Floor is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. MondayFriday and until 7 p.m. on Wednesdays.
Destroy All Monsters: Developments in Fandom and Participatory Culture. The exhibition explores how fan bases from genres such as literature, film and music have radically shifted over the past century from mere consumers of media to active participants in it. The complex history of creative expression in fandom is represented in the exhibition by a variety of materials, ranging from sci-fi fan letters to punk fanzines to photographs of cosplayers and conventioneers. Taken in full, the materials displayed seek to illustrate the legacy of fan participation from the pre-internet era through the current day. Curated by Daniel Sarmiento, curator of 20th Century to Present, the exhibition will be on view at the Special Collections Research Center, Bird Library, 6th floor gallery during the fall 2024 semester. Runs through Dec. 18.
Tim Atseff’s “Final Edition” at Everson Museum of Art
Flashback
A FAMILIAR BING
Any lineup of Christmas crooners would not be complete without Bing Crosby, whose 1942 recording of “White Christmas” holds a Guinness World Record as the best-selling physical-media single of all time, with an estimated 50 million copies sold worldwide.
BY MARIA LORE
Crosby’s humble beginnings in show business trace back to a trio known as the Rhythm Boys. Formed in 1927 with fellow amateur singers Al Rinker and Harry Barris, the Rhythm Boys accompanied the Paul Whiteman Orchestra with three-part harmonies. A notable breakthrough for the group came in June 1928, when they participated in the coast-to-coast radio broadcast “Sixty Magic Minutes with Paul Whiteman.” In advertising this program, the Syracuse Herald praised the ensemble as “the ‘hottest’ combination of vocalists on radio or record.”
On the coattails of this early success, Crosby visited Syracuse for the first and only time. From Feb. 10-13, 1929, the Rhythm Boys performed at B.F. Keith’s Vaudeville Theatre on South Salina Street, later the site of Sibley’s department store. The Syracuse Herald reported that the trio was one of three headliners,
alongside silent film actor Cullen Landis and musical comedy star George Rosener.
Despite the fact that the Rhythm Boys were not accompanied by Whiteman’s orchestra while performing at Keith’s Theatre, they still delivered a well-received musical revue. Crosby, Rinker and Barris entertained audiences with their rendition of “That’s My Weakness Now,” a popular big band tune previously recorded and released by the group for Columbia Records in 1928, among other songs.
They also regularly interrupted their musical performance with jokes, and on Feb. 11, 1929, the Post-Standard recounted that the Rhythm Boys’ clowning had “a spontaneous quality that is delightful.”
Following the dissolution of the Rhythm Boys in the early 1930s, Crosby would go on to pursue a solo career that would make him a holiday mainstay and one of the most successful musical entertainers of the 20th century.
Maria Lore is research center manager at the Onondaga Historical Association.
Christmas crooner Crosby’s early beginning in Syracuse
Bing Crosby
WITH OHA
Last word
TOM BROWN
WITH Old Newsboys Christmas Sale Chair
BY MJ KRAVEC
For more than 90 years, the Old Newsboys Campaign has spread extra holiday cheer in Central New York through the sale of special editions of The Post-Standard to raise money for The Christmas Bureau, which buys food, toys and books for local families in need. As the season of hope and light begins, we thought it fitting to talk to Old Newsboys Christmas Sale chair Tom Brown, who exemplifies the true spirit of generosity, hope and positivity.
What time do you get up in the morning and how do you take your coffee? I’m usually up by 5 a.m. and love my coffee black and hot.
What’s your favorite season in CNY? The fall. It’s the wrap-up to summer and the ramp-up to the holidays! The leaves turning, the cool nights and warm days, harvests and pumpkins. I’m an old farm boy from Fabius.
Favorite place to enjoy the great outdoors? Besides my backyard on Onondaga Hill, Tinker Falls in Labrador Hollow and the eastern shore of Lake Ontario.
What are you binge watching, listening to or reading? SU sports and politics; all of the changes in the political climate are crazy.
Fun fact about you? My family calls me Clark Griswold. I tend to go over the top at Christmas.
How long have you been an “Old Newsboy”? This will be my 39th year.
Favorite memories from hawking newspapers for Old Newsboys? Working the escalator at the Carousel Mall food court entrance. Former Post-Standard circulation director and vice president of Advance Central Services Paul Thomas and I would greet people on the way in and hook ‘em when they came down the escalator after their lunch hour. Of course, a lot of caroling was involved.
We heard the competition to hawk newspapers can get pretty fierce. Any stories you’d like to share? Years ago, the DeWitt Rotary was our biggest fundraising team — outside of the Post-Standard team. The Ancient Order of Hibernians took on the challenge of outdoing them about a decade ago
and haven’t looked back since as our top fundraising team. They really got creative with their fundraising activities. The Hibernians hold TV raffles and other fundraisers prior to the annual sales day. They are famous for their Fridayevening-of-the-sale “pub crawls” with their bagpipeled bands, all dressed in traditional kilts. They do them in downtown/Armory Square, on Tipp Hill and in North Syracuse. They have a lot of fun.
As sales chair of Old Newsboys, what are you most proud of? Our devoted captains and their volunteers never cease to amaze me. The pride they take and the effort they make out in the cold, in what can be a cold-on-giving environment at times, and they just keep coming back to hawk. They not only represent the cause, they represent who we are here in CNY. They make getting up at 3 a.m. to get them their papers so they can start hawking by 6 a.m. a walk in the park.
Brown in a 1988 promotional photo for Old Newsboys.
