Great Lakes Seaway Trail

PRESS RELEASE: July 28, 2010
Contact: Teresa Mitchell, Seaway Trail Foundation, 315-646-1000 x202; Pope Vickers, Seaway Trail Foundation Chair, 315-786-2356; Rosalind Cook, work: 315-788-8450; Patti Stephens, 315-646-2195

Seaway Trail Foundation Adds Board Members

The Seaway Trail Foundation operates the Great Lakes Seaway Trail Discovery Center in Sackets Harbor, NY. In addition to being open for self-tours, the Discovery Center hosts educational programs on many diverse topics.

Sackets Harbor, NY – The Seaway Trail Foundation Board has recently added two local educators. Seaway Trail Foundation Board Chairman Pope Vickers said, “The Seaway Trail Foundation Board is pleased to welcome Rosalind Cook and Patti Stephens aboard as we continue to develop educational programming and activities to share the unique learning experiences found only in the St. Lawrence River, Lake Ontario, Niagara River and Lake Erie shoreline region and at the Great Lakes Seaway Trail Discovery Center in Sackets Harbor, NY.”

Rosalind Cook is a Community Food Security Educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Jefferson County and serves on the board of Gardenshare, a locally led, nonprofit organization seeking to end hunger and strengthen food security in Northern New York.

“I see my mission with the Seaway Trail Foundation in similar terms of what I do at Cornell Cooperative Extension in encouraging people to enjoy local products. I look forward to sharing the Great Lakes Seaway Trail byway region and its travel, tourism, food and agriculture ‘products’ with others,” Cook says.

Patti Stephens is a retired 2nd and 3rd grade Sackets Harbor Central School elementary school teacher who enjoys outdoor activities, including canoeing, kayaking and camping.

Stephens says, “I am pleased to join the Seaway Trail Foundation board to assist with promoting the educational value of traveling the Great Lakes Seaway Trail as an America’s Byway perfect for natural history and outdoor learning.”

The two new members join Inger Curth, Sackets Harbor; Chuck Krupke, Seaway Trail, Inc. Board Chair; Aileen Martin, North Country Children’s Clinic; Genie McKay of Sackets Harbor; Stephen Pierce, Key Bank; Ken and Patricia Schwarz of Sackets Harbor; Arthur Stever III of Conboy, McKay, Bachman & Kendall Law Firm; and John Tenbusch with the St. Lawrence County Planning Office.

The Seaway Trail Foundation operates the Great Lakes Seaway Trail Discovery Center at the corner of Ray and West Main streets in the former Union Hotel, now owned by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation in Sackets Harbor, NY. Frederick White, considered Jefferson County’s wealthiest man, built the hotel in 1817-18 to take advantage of the post-War of 1812 hotel boom.

The Seaway Trail Foundation hosts educational programs on a diverse range of travel and learning themes, operates a gift shop at the Seaway Trail Discovery Center, and has recently published two guidebooks: a Birding the Great Lakes Seaway Trail field guide by ornithologist Gerald A. Smith and Waterways of War, a traveler’s guide to 19 sites of French and Indian War forts and battlefields found along byways in New York and Pennsylvania.

Learn more about the 518-mile Great Lakes Seaway Trail, one of America’s Byways and a National Recreation Trail, at www.seawaytrail.com. #

Upcoming Seaway Trail Foundation/Discovery Center Programs

July 30, 6:30pm – Colonel David Fitz-Enz presents “The Heroes of the War of 1812,” $5 admission
July 31, 1-3 pm –Colonel David Fitz-Enz signs copies of his books, including “Why a Soldier,” “The Final Invasion,” “Old Ironsides,” and “Redcoats’ Revenge,” free admission for signing
August 13, 6:30pm, “Deep Shipwrecks of Lake Ontario” with underwater explorer Jim Kennard, $5 admission
August 14, 10am, “More Shipwrecks of Lake Ontario” with Jim Kennard, includes “The Final Chapter of the US Coast Guard Cable Boat #56022,” “Discovery of the Schooner Orcadian,” and “Last Flight of the SeaBee,” $5 admission