Earth Week may be coming to a close, but what did you miss? Quite a bit tobe frank. This past week SUNY Oswego celebrated everything that earth does for us and demonstrated support for environmental protections. This week the campus celebrated and presented the contributions that students and faculty have made thus far in order to preserve our schools beauty and environment.

On Monday we discussed how the removal of plastic and wastes from around campus and the dining halls has genuinely made a big impact on the amount of plastic that is discarded on a day to day basis.

On Tuesday we participated in reducing car usage by being able to use amenities provided to us through the Sustainability office such as bike share where you can rent a bike from the office located in Hewitt and bus share which provided alternate transportation for commuter students.

On Wednesday a climate change panel co-hosted by the Environmental Advisory Council and the Sustainability office discussed the challenges within the concept of climate change which will feature multiple different faculty members all representing a different program of study at Oswego.

On Thursday we focused on using alternate search engines that give back to the planet such as Ecosia which has been using their profits since 2009 to plant trees which has resulted in over 54 million trees being planted. We also focused on our new printing program Lakerprint which is projected to save around 120,000 sheets of paper a year due to getting rid of banner pages and sheets with our names.

However on Friday Lucas Grove a senior philosophy-psychology major will present the progress he has made in the “Fresh Water for All” project.

If you would like to learn more about Earth Week or simply would like to get involved around campus you can email the Director of Sustainability on campus Jamie Adams at jamie.adams@oswego.edu or call the office at 315.312.2500.

In honor of April being national child abuse prevention month Oswego’s Child Advocacy Center, located in Fulton, New York,  has set out to spread awareness through Oswego County by placing blue and white pinwheels around the area.

These pinwheels are a part of a national campaign that multiple organizations take part in, in order to spread awareness of child abuse through communities and get the conversation started that children need to be looked out for not only by their families but their community as well.

Executive Director of Oswego County Child Advocacy Center, Karrie Damm, gave some insight as to why the Pinwheels are placed throughout the County “The pinwheel gardens that you see throughout the community are intended to start a conversation. We would like people to see those and have a conversation amongst themselves, amongst their friends, and especially with their children.” Although the conversation may seem touchy Karrie stressed how important it is to begin having conversations about serious issues such as this one. Because the first step to preventing incidents is spreading awareness, which the conversations help to achieve.

Although the child advocacy center is not well known throughout Oswego County it is an important organization that more people should get involved with. Take Craig Stewart for example, he is an electrician for the building, but STILL volunteers and aids the employees there because he does it for the unfortunate children that have to seek help at the organization.

If you would like to volunteer as well you can visit that website at oswegocac.org, Facebook message them, or call them. If you are not able to volunteer and would still like to help out this organization you can make a donation right on their website.

Oswego Autism Task Force established in 2005 is having their 4th annual fun run/walk. The fun run/walk will take place Saturday, April 6th, a great way to kick off National Autism Awareness month! The walk is being coordinated by one of the original parents who helped found the organization OATF, Julie Chetney. Julie’s family has been directly affected by Autism, her son was diagnosed when he was younger and she helped found the OATF to spread awareness and collect opportunities that she could share with not only her son but other families that have been affected as well.

Another person that impacts the organization greatly is their president Tammy Thompson. In 2005 after many families in Oswego County had been affected by Autism she gathered a group of parents to form the organization and she was named president with her expertise in the subject due to the fact that at the time she was an early intervention specialist and was able to share insight on the matter.

The fun run is attended by many people every year, Julie said that over 200 people usually participate in the run/walk. The run/walk is a great family activity, but is also great just volunteering. Julie says “We can never have too many volunteers at that event. It does make a 5k event more fun and enjoyable when you have great people that are volunteering and out there on the course especially just cheering on people. It’s a good feeling, for those participating and those volunteering”. Or if you would like to cheer on the runners you can enjoy the “Breakfast of Autism Champions” for an additional price that will benefit the event in the Press Box.

If you would like to partake in this event you can register at www.auyertiming.com, registration will close on April 4th. Or if you would like to volunteer you may Facebook Message the group at Oswego Autism Task for or email the race coordinator Julie Chetney at juliechetney@yahoo.com.

Local family owned orchard closes after a great crop season but continues to sell their delicious apples throughout the winter to the public and to SUNY Oswego as well. Not only do they sell apples but they also sell vibrant red cherries. Along with selling to the public and SUNY Oswego Fruit Valley Orchards also picks and produces apples for popular apple-based products brand Motts.

Although the Orchard has been around for many years it has recently been under new ownership for the Gfeller family from Northern Virginia. Owner and farmer Craig Gfeller said that he came to upstate New York to raise his family on a farm much like he did in Rochester. They purchased the land last July in 2017 and have been roaring ever since.

They’ve been able to rake in tons of families to their beautiful orchard with their U-pick program, when asked what family friendly activities they offer at the orchard Craig responded with “We offer a lot of activities here, mostly just U-pick right now,we have families that come and have picnics here, just a great way of spending the afternoon as a family.”

The crop season has been a little short this year due to the fact that not much rain had been around Oswego in the early fall months. However the orchard was still able to grow a great crop under the conditions they had. They grew and sold some of the same apples like Macintosh but also sold new apples to the orchard like Snap Dragon bred by Cornell University where Craig is an alum from.

If you would like to check out Fruit Valley Orchards you can visit their website www.fruitvalleyorchard.com or call them at 315-342-3793.  They open again next fall but continue to sell their remaining crop throughout the winter. Get the while they last!

Come one come all to the local touring dinner theater musical interactive experience that is “Bullets for Broadway”. Filled with music, amazing local talent, comedy, romance, and a surprising murder mystery. This show will leave you will a full stomach and hands in the air wanting more from this incredibly talented cast all from Oswego county!

Director of the show Derek Potocki says the cast has been hard at work for about a month and that is has “all kinds of twisted plots, crazy things going on, you never know what’s gonna come at you next, it’s really interactive theater at its best.” With all kinds of musical numbers like “Me and You” featuring Jodi Halczyn as Toffee Alto and Peter Fekete as Tony Alto where they confess their love for eachother. Or “Mafia Queen” also featuring Jodi Halczyn as Toffee Alto and Stephanie Johnson as a chorus girl where they sing about Toffee being a mafia queen will leave you laughing yourself right out of your seat.

This show is being put up by none other than Oswego’s very own Theater DuJour! Finding out about how the company was started speaking with Tammy Wilkinson, founder of this company says “we were bringing shows to the Oswego Players, my role there was also producer, but we were having a little bit of a challenge getting butts in the seats and so we had the idea to bring them out into the community”. And good thing she did because they’ve been on a roll ever since, constantly in the media surrounding central New York.

If you would like to catch this show you have until the end of October. Their first show is October 11th in Mexico, NY at The Eis House. Second in Altmar, NY on October 14th at the Tailwater Lodge. Third in Syracuse, NY on October 23rd at Barnes Hiscock Mansion. And your last chance to see this marvelous show is October 26th in Fulton, NY at Virgilio’s Event Center. Tickets are $60 and can be found on their website http://dujourcny.com/. For more information you can reach them at (518)253-6930.