What caught our eye - Mar 2, 2019

March 2, 2019

 With help from Make-A-Wish®, Tiago Cusano helped warm up Lake Placid.

FROM WISH TO WHOOSH: Meet 8-year-old Tiago Cusano, who had never touched snow before Make-A-Wish® chapters of Southern Florida and Northeast New York teamed up to make his wish come true: To ride a bobsled in Lake Placid. http://bit.ly/TiagosWish

A FIREFIGHTER’S STRENGTH:  Firefighters are known for strength and courage, but Josh Woodward is setting a new standard. The Albany International Airport firefighter had only a 5 percent chance for recovery when he rolled into the hospital with near-fatal sepsis.  Now, he’s recovering and his story, chronicled by his wife Chelsea on Facebook, has touched people across the globe – 65,000 are following it and so far more than $100,000 has been raised to help the couple and their two children.   http://bit.ly/MiracleFirefighter

JUST GROWING: JUST Water, the company that buys 100% spring water from the Glens Falls reservoir to serve conscientious consumers nationwide, is now in about one-third of all U.S. grocery stores – and needs room to expand its operations in the Glens Falls area. http://bit.ly/JustGrowing

YOUNG BLOOD INFUSION:  At a time when New York, especially Upstate New York, is getting grayer faster, its elected leaders are getting younger. “At the start of the 2009 session, 10 (New York) lawmakers were younger than 35,” Politico reports. “Now there are 28, a near tripling over the course of a decade.” What’s it mean for state policy? http://bit.ly/YoungPols

TOP SCHOOLS: Bethlehem, Niskayuna, North Colonie, Saratoga Springs, Guilderland, Voorheesville, Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake, East Greenbush and tiny Keene in the Adirondacks make the grade among the Top 50 Schools in Upstate New York. http://bit.ly/NYTopSchools

HOMETOWN OF CHAMPS: In the same week that Joseph Girard III nets over 60 in a high school basketball game, a national website names Glens Falls high school sports capital of New York. No wonder. It’s the area that produced more than 50 high school, college and professional champs. http://bit.ly/GFAreaAthletes

BULLY FOR C-TOWN: Chestertown’s Bull House Kitchen and Bar, a “head turner” for its Latin-influenced comfort specialties, gets props as one of a dozen unique dining adventures in Upstate New York. Peruvian brandy peach barbecued pork chop from Oscar’s! Gnocchi in sweet potato cream sauce! Sharon Springs’ American Hotel makes the list, too. http://bit.ly/FoodiesInChestertown

FRIENDS OF THE QUEEN: Business leaders and environmental advocates are teaming up to protect Lake George. It’s The FUND For Lake George’s Model for Enduring Protection. Here are The FUND’s Eric Siy and Kathy Flacke Muncil of the Fort William Henry Corp. on Look TV.  http://bit.ly/LakeGeorgeFriends

Adirondack Theatre Festival celebrates 25 years of providing great live entertainment
in Glens Falls, including last year's hit, "The Jedi Handbook"

A HOT TICKET AT 25: Glens Falls’ Adirondack Theatre Festival, the Capital Region’s summer stage for often-brilliant original theater, will celebrate 25 years of fresh comedy, drama and music this summer at the Charles R. Wood Theater. The season of four shows and three special events kick off June 14. ATF’s Chad Rabinovitz, his team and collaborators launch shows locally before they make it big elsewhere and the shows sell out early. http://bit.ly/SilverATF

TRUE COLORS: Speaking of new theater, the Adirondacks’ leading community-based theater company is mounting a production of a new play about a small town where a photographer records extraordinary moments in the ordinary days of her neighbors. Love, loss, relationships,  and living in the moment make up Kodachrome by Adam Szymkowicz. The show premiered just a year ago. Now, The Our Town Theatre Group brings it to their Spring Main Stage March 8-10 at Tannery Pond Community Center in North Creek. http://bit.ly/ColorfulTheatre

THE LONGER ARM OF THE LAW: When all else fails, try Facebook. Even to serve legal judgments. http://bit.ly/DigitalArmOfTheLaw

Project Cameron supporters provide books for parents to read to their babies in
neonatal intensive care units around the North Country and Capital Region.

BOOKS BORN OF LOVE: Watching your infant in a neonatal intensive care unit can be one of the most frightening experiences any family faces. Sometimes, in such a moment of scary uncertainty, there’s no better way to connect than simply reading a favorite book to your tiny one.  Project: Cameron’s Story is the Capital Region organization that makes that possible. Sara Quartiers and her family founded the organization 10 years ago in memory of her precious son Cameron. Since then, they have collected 100,000 books and donated them to the NICUs of 13 hospitals across the state.   www.projectcameronsstory.org

SPACTACULAR: Saratoga Performing Arts Center is gearing up for a blockbuster summer concert season that looks like your old record collection wed your I-Tunes play list: Jackson Browne, Santana, Kiss, Lynrd Skynrd, Peter Frampton, Heart, Beck, Goo Goo Dolls, Hootie and the Blowfish, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Dave Matthews, Phish, Dead and Company, Zac Brown plus Norah Jones and George Benson at the Jazz Festival. http://bit.ly/Spactacular

WASTE NOT: A new study finds that American consumers waste vast amounts of food because we simply don’t understand what the food product dates mean. http://bit.ly/HoldThatFood

NEW PAPER FOR RURAL PLACES: Competition, regulation and declines in consumption put many small paper mills out of business across upstate New York and three nearby Canadian border states. Now, $20 million in federal funds is to about become available for competitive proposals for job training, infrastructure grants and other uses to help offset the effects of the forest products industry’s decline. http://bit.ly/FundsForRuralJobs

 T AND L

WARM WELCOME: Is it the hot days? The sunny attitude? Or the cool tax treatment? No matter, the Governor of Florida is welcoming New Yorkers. http://bit.ly/FloridasPitch

TWA TIME MACHINE: Is that Liz Taylor and Richard Burton at the bar? The classic TWA terminal at JFK Airport closed two decades ago. Now, it’s being repurposed as a Mad Men-era hotel. Its 512 rooms are furnished Rat Pack chic with wet bars. Pick up your rotary phone and make a reservation. Opens in May. http://bit.ly/TravelBackinTime

THE SIGNOFF

DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME: It will not go as well for you as it does for these guys.  http://bit.ly/ThatWasPrettyGood

PLEASE SHARE: Feel free to pass this along to your friends and colleagues.

THANK YOU to our content contributors Colleen Potter, Lisa Fenwick, Bill Callen, Bill Richmond, John Brodt and Matt Behan.

FACING OUT: FACING OUT is what we do. We help companies, organizations and individuals work effectively with their most important external audiences – their customers, their shareholders, their communities, the government and the news media.www.behancommunications.com

Facing Out features news and other nuggets that caught our eye, and that we thought might be of value to you, our friends and business associates. Some items are good news about our clients and friends, others are stories that we hope will leave you a bit more informed or entertained than you were five minutes ago. As always, we welcome your ideas and feedback. 

 Let’s make it a conversation: mark.behan@behancom.com

Our Vault:
The Week: 2/23/19
The Week: 2/16/19
The Week: 2/9/19
The Week: 2/2/19
The Week: 1/26/19
The Week: 1/19/19