Vernon Downs’ track announcer reflects on storied career

By Patricia J. Malin

For Jim Moran, 47 years on the job have passed with the lightning speed of a pacer.

That’s more than 72,000 races he has spied from his rooftop perch at the Vernon Downs raceway.

“It’s gone by very fast,” he said recently as he walked over to the harness racing track and observed a pacer kicking up clouds of dust during a morning workout. “When I look back, if you had asked me in 1962 if I’d still be here, I would never have dreamed it.”

Moran is the track’s primetime announcer and former director of publicity and marketing. A self-described “apostle” of the sport, he is nostalgic for the traditions that marked America’s “first” national pastime. Standardbred racing dates back 200 years, long before baseball arrived.

The weather-beaten 56-year-old clubhouse and grandstand at Vernon Downs used to be packed with 10,000 bettors on a good night. The enthralled fans lined up along the rail to catch the colors of the best drivers on the Grand Circuit—Stanley Dancer, Del Miller and Clint Galbraith—seated atop such well-bred pacers as Bret Hanover and Niatross.

The bettors also came to rely on a handful of local teamsters like Brian Allen, Jack Bailey and Howard Okusko Sr. to put extra dollars in the fans’ pockets.

Thanks to his long tenure and thousands of pages of press releases, Moran, 70, has chronicled the rise and fall of harness racing on a small scale.

Vernon Downs held a “Jim Moran Night” on Sept. 17, 2009 as the Upstate New York Chapter of the U.S. Harness Racing Writers Association celebrated his induction into the Harness Racing Hall of Fame’s Communicators Hall. He will join a legendary crew of contemporaries on Fourth of July weekend in 2010 in Goshen.

He was named to the Greater Syracuse Hall of Fame in 2003. In 1990, he received the Golden Pen Award from the North America Harness Publicists Association. He has been a member of the local U.S. Harness Writers Chapter since the mid-1970s.

Trying moments—A native of Springfield, Mass., Moran dreamed of a career in sports. In high school, he played varsity and American Legion baseball and was pinning his hopes on a major league career. He attended Springfield College for one year, then transferred to Western New England College for two years.
He had tryouts at two major league camps. Then like many other promising athletes, fate dealt him a blow when he suffered a knee injury during his junior year in 1957.

Worried about his future, he began praying for guidance. “I had received the Infant of Prague (statue) as a high school graduation present,” he recalled, “so I began saying a novena.”

He would listen regularly to the broadcasts from Vernon Downs on WGY Radio in Schenectady, not far from Springfield. His uncle, George “Bud” Hebert, happened to be the original announcer when the race track opened in 1953.

“My father died when I was 12,” Moran said. “My uncle was like a second father to me, a John Wayne figure. I wanted to be like my uncle.”

Late in the winter of 1962-63, Hebert talked his nephew into accompanying him for a week’s vacation to Florida, the winter home of harness racing. “He dared me to do it,” Moran said, laughing. “I spent a few anxious hours praying, whether I should go to Florida or continue working as a bank teller. I took a chance (on harness racing) and it paid off with a job.”

Moran became a groom and cared for two prized fillies in the Del Miller stable. Impressed with his hard work, Miller encouraged the young man to join him on the New York racing circuit.

When Moran returned to Vernon in the summer of 1963, he was plucked out of the stables and hired as clerk of the course. He would record the competitors for each night’s race, and note their qualifications based on gait (pace or trot), age, sex, class, wins and purses.

Then when his uncle retired in 1964, Moran took over a seat in Hebert’s nest, located on the roof of the grandstand, seemingly a mile high.

The 2-minute mile—One of Moran’s memorable calls came in 1965. A record crowd of 14,000 passed through the Downs’ turnstiles, and witnessed Bret Hanover’s track record of 1:57 for a 2-year-old pacer. Over the next two years, the pacer returned to Vernon and lowered his records, including a stunning 1:54.0 as a 4-year-old.

With lightweight racing sulkies, professional drivers, better breeding and veterinary care, and well-groomed tracks, track records are no longer that extraordinary.

“Last year, I called a 1:49 race,” Moran said. “I thought I’d never see that.” He estimates he has called 19,000 two-minute miles in his career.

From 1953 to 1976, the Vernon Downs program expanded. The New York State Racing and Wagering Board approved 177 racing dates in 1977, when 10,000 fans turned up regularly on weekends. In 2009, the Downs presented just 90 dates over seven months (April to November), usually Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, in front of crowds averaging less than 5,000.

In the early years, Moran also assisted the iconic Don Evans, the track’s publicity director who later became an author of harness racing books.

Moran became the track’s fulltime publicity/public relations director in 1975. He also served as a director, officer and shareholder of Mid-State Raceway Inc.

“I continued my novena and I definitely owe my success to the Infant of Prague,” Moran added. “Without his intercession, I wouldn’t be as successful. It was a guiding hand.”

Belly up—But in 2005, the rug was pulled out from under him when Mid-State Raceway declared bankruptcy. The track was closed for one racing season, sending a jolt through the local community.

The track was rescued by Jeff Gural, a former horse man, with millions in state funding. Now as chairman of the Vernon Downs Casino and Raceway, Gural and his partners have combined both Tioga Downs, near Binghamton, and Vernon Downs into one successful racing operation. They  installed a casino in the hotel next door. Those revenues help finance purses for harness racing’s struggling drivers and trainers.

For Moran, the shuttered track proved another blessing in disguise. Although he was pleased that the horsemen could return to their livelihoods, his own perspective had changed. When he was offered his job back in publicity, he decided it was time to start crafting his life away from the track.

“I used to work 50 to 60 hours a week in the summers,” recalling 30 years of split shifts, including weekends, holidays and matinees. He would get to his office at 9 a.m., pound out stories on a trusty typewriter for about a dozen newspapers from Syracuse to Binghamton to Utica. He maintained a log of results on each local driver and horse, and kept the national harness publications posted of the track’s activities.

Moran would write press releases, then mail and fax releases and the entries a day or two in advance and generally work until 3. He went home to rest and would return to the track by 6 p.m. and announce that night’s race card (from nine to 12 races) from 7 to 10 p.m. Then he would walk back to his office to file a brief story to accompany that evening’s complete results.

Family ties—Since he has given up the publicity job, he spends 20 to 25 hours a week at the track, and relishes significant time with his family.

He met his wife, the former Suzanne Keller, at the track in 1963 and they were married in the off-season in November 1964. Her uncle, Ed Keller, was Vernon Downs’ first general manager. Her father, Bernet “Spin” Keller, started the program department, and worked alongside her mother, Ann.

Jim and Sue raised three children at their home in Vernon, just a mile and a half from the track.

Their eldest child, Maria, is an assistant district attorney in Syracuse. She and her husband, Chris Bednarski, have adopted a little girl, Mariana.

In the 1980s, Jim helped coach youth football, basketball and baseball teams when his sons, Matt and Jamie, were active. They also live and work in Syracuse.

Recognizing the trend toward a shrinking racing season, Moran long ago sought other opportunities to work. When Jamie was attending Hamilton College and playing football there in the late 1990s, Jim was a “color man” for the home and away radio broadcasts.

In winter, he would broadcast an entire season of Hamilton basketball games, but now he has cut back to home games only. He has also worked at the college’s golf course in the summer. His other interests include jogging, tennis and painting acrylics in miniature.

With his golden voice just a bit weathered after five decades, Moran doesn’t know how much longer he will remain behind the microphone. “I’ll take it one year at a time,” he said.

Despite today’s ailing economy, Moran thinks the raceway has a good future. The owners plan to demolish a portion of the grandstand, and replace it with a $16.5 million addition to the video lottery terminal facility, which has to compete with the giant Turning Stone Casino just six miles away.

Though the old seats might soon disappear, Moran’s memories will linger on much longer.

SUNY Upstate President David Smith takes

aggressive, proactive approach to managing

By Lou Sorendo

“Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” …

That popular 1960s rhythm and blues song could very well be the mantra for David R. Smith, a pediatrician by training and the president of SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse.

Smith, despite being faced with many seemingly insurmountable obstacles, is slowly but surely maintaining SUNY Upstate’s role as a key player on Central New York’s economic and healthcare scene.

And he is using moxie to do it.

Combining courage with inventiveness, the sixth president of Upstate is in his fourth year of steering Upstate through a maze of problematic issues.

SUNY Upstate is the only academic medical university in the Central New York region, with about 7,200 employees, four colleges, its own University Hospital, and close to a $1 billion operating budget. It’s the area’s largest employer.

Beyond today’s complex problems such as recession, a looming physician and nursing shortage, and much needed healthcare reform, Smith has the background and drive to deal with each problem in a successful manner.

He wouldn’t have it any other way.

The trigger—Smith characterizes his healthcare career as a calling.

He said one of the most compelling events in his life that galvanized him in that direction was his maternal grandfather’s struggle with laryngeal cancer.

“It was particularly difficult because we were very close,” said Smith, noting his grandfather worked in a steel mill in eastern Ohio.

He was a pipe smoker, and developed cancer in the 1960s. “It was a very traumatic event for the entire family to see him go through that,” he said.

He eventually lost his voice box and was unable to communicate.

“He used to slap me on the back and call me ‘partner,’” Smith recalls. “I remember the last time I saw in the hospital, I came up to him, slapped him on the back and called him ‘partner.’”

“At that time it really began to cause me to think about what my career was about,” he said.

In addition, Smith volunteered extensively at a hospital during high school, which further solidified his interest in health care.

“I think later on, your career gets ratified by a number of things, which is unique in my case being that we were National Health Service Corps doctors in Brownsville, Texas,” he said.

His mom was a nutritionist. “There was a clear appreciation for the healing arts and health care in general in our home,” he said.

Smith said that while he is a top administrator, he is also a pediatrician. He enjoys the day-to-day interaction with people, and applying insights of individuals that become part of a broader strategy moving forward.

“It’s exciting to be a student of people,” he said.

He also enjoys the relevance of what Upstate accomplishes.

“It can be the ambulance that pulls up, the diabetic patient going to the Joslin Center, or taking an elderly person at the Oasis Center and keeping them engaged in life and activities, and it changes every day. There is nothing boring or dull about this job. It’s different every day and I learn from it,” he said.

“I can sit in at a lecture of a Nobel laureate or hear one of our incredible alum talk about the latest intervention in cardiac disease, or students talking about transformations in their lives. I get so fulfilled in so many ways because we are so diverse,” he said.

“Then I can run up to Fort Drum, where we are doing more work including mental health [care] and traumatic brain injuries, and see the impact our psychiatrists are having at Good Samaritan Hospital,” he said. “It gives you goose bumps.”

“Here we are reaching out to a dedicated group of individuals—almost 20,000 soldiers and 18,000 dependents—and making a difference in the North Country. That’s exciting,” he added.

Dealing with stress—Taking on a job that has the magnitude of his certainly carries with it a dose of stress.
“You try not to over-personalize the challenges, but you do have to intercalate them,” he said.

Smith said he would be worried about himself if he “weren’t concerned about things” or if he “didn’t wake up in the middle of the night to either break something down or pace the hallways.”

“I can’t say it’s healthy, but I would be worried about a CEO that didn’t do that,” he said.

He said in medicine, it’s imperative to place prevention first and put systems and people in a position to prevent challenges.

“You can’t anticipate everything,” he concedes.

Smith said most of his stress comes from the personal side of management.

“It isn’t about a problem in a building or a lab, we get those all the time,” he said. “I think invariably, it’s either the personal need of a patient, student of faculty member. It’s not having quite the right number of faculty to meet the incredible shortage of nurses in the state.”

People ask, “What are you going to do about it, Dr. Smith?’ That does create stress.”

“A big stress is the budget. I’ve been in public higher education and commissioner of health for a state, but it’s different because of the relentless nature of the cuts,” he said.

Smith said Upstate is also going to absorb cuts from Washington, including slashed Medicare reimbursements.

“What has helped me is doing it a while and having a really strong team,” Smith said.

“You can quickly sit down in a room and get the best ideas from some incredibly bright people and diffuse the challenges and opportunities of stress,” he said.

“If you are solely relying on yourself, which is obviously a little bit too egocentric, you’re going to feel all of that and probably won’t make the right decisions,” he noted.

How does Smith de-stress?—Smith said family time is a “great way” to de-stress. His children are in the area and his wife Donna Bacchia takes on several roles at SUNY Upstate, including being a fellow pediatrician.
Much of his family time is spent in the great outdoors.

“The No. 1 stress relief for me is water, fishing and outdoors,” said Smith, who is not afraid to strap on water skis.

The Smiths have a camp near the Thousand Islands. “It’s a good way to allow your mind to wander,” he said.
“Even when you are not there, it’s sometimes good to let your mind wander there,” he said.

One of Smith’s colleagues on the lake has a Web cam. “For some strange reason, it’s pointed to my island,” he said.

“At any time during the day, I can actually see my island at any given moment,” he said. “That’s sort of an interesting diversion.”

“I love to fish and hunt and like the outdoors,” he said.

Prior to his appointment at SUNY Upstate, Smith served as chancellor of Texas Tech University from 2001 to 2006.

In fact, basketball coaching great Bobby Knight—known for his fiery demeanor—had a highly publicized argument with Smith in 2004 at a Lubbock grocery store. Knight coached the Texas Tech men’s basketball team at that time.

Smith said he enjoyed coming back to Central New York with its natural beauty, water and distinct seasons.
“I’m a Northern guy,” he said.

“I knew this job and the geography of this area were going to be a better alignment,” he said. “I selected this position as much because of the area and people. Generally, these positions select you and you have to move.”

“This was the first time where I saw alignment between some of the things I value very much—family time, outdoors, water, lakes, boats, water skiing,” he said.

Smith said he also works out, but not as much during the summer as he seeks opportunities to get to the water.

While he is swimming or water skiing in the warmer months, he takes to the snowshoes and downhill skis in the winter.

‘Foodie’ at heart—Smith also characterizes himself as a “foodie.”

He, along with his wife, join Syracuse University Chancellor Nancy Cantor and her husband Steve and visit different restaurants every two or three months.

“We try to get out and pick a new restaurant and do a little foodie thing,” he said.

“I tell people on the health side that when you’ve been in senior management for a while, your DNA doesn’t repair quite as quickly as it used to. You had better figure out what you’re going to do to flex some of that,” he said.

After his summer camp closes for the season, Smith heads back to Fitness Forum.

He is a hockey player as well, and participates in a three-day annual hockey tournament in Canada along with several of his cousins and friends from Quebec.

Smith lived in Toronto—a hockey hot bed—for 10 years, and former Boston Bruins hockey great Bobby Orr is a close friend of the family.

He works out at the Fitness Forum to aerobicize and develop muscle tone for his skiing and hockey endeavors.

He’ll hit the stationary bike for about 30 minutes, and then work the Stairmaster for another 10. He then lifts weights, working on various muscle groups on alternating days.

“It’s got to a point where I’m doing more reps than heavy weight because of my age,” he said.

Smith was diagnosed about a year ago as being allergic to wheat and gluten.

“I’m pretty good about avoiding wheat products. It’s challenging,” he said.

He noted that more restaurants are cognizant of the fact that about 6 million people face the same circumstance.

His daughter, Jocelyn, is a chef who graduated from The Culinary Institute of America and is presently enrolled at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration.

“She’s also gluten intolerant, and we love it when she visits and cooks,” he said.

Smith has discovered ways to deal with his allergy.

He has discovered as a lover of pasta, there are many types that are made with different kinds of flour other than wheat.

“You can even do neat things like marinara sauce on spaghetti squash, which is an incredibly healthy meal,” he said.

He also opts for soy milk and watches his lactose intake, a measure which has resulted in Smith dropping 12 pounds over the past year.

The family also enjoys game meat, but often opts for lean products such as chicken and fish.

The Smiths have also formed a co-op with an Amish farmer and enjoy the wide variety of vegetables that are offered on a seasonal basis.

Smith said his energy level and mental status both benefit from adhering to a diet and workout regimen.
“I believe in a holistic approach to healthcare,” Smith said.

Smith was involved in a project that resulted in Bill Moyers’ book, “Healing and the Mind.”

“There’s very much an incredible mind-body connection and obviously nutrition and exercise are a part of that,” he said.

Smith conceded that he is a “little more negligent than his wife, who is phenomenally committed in this area. She is a pediatrician and nutritionist, which is a good combination to have.”

His wife is also director of the Central New York Master of Public Health program.

“It’s good to have her as an influence, because she walks the talk every day,” he said.

Healthy marriage—The Smiths met at Cornell University while they were undergraduates there. They have been married for 32 years.

“We actually knew each other before either of us were physicians,” he said. “I was heading that way, while she was doing a master’s in nutrition and applied to medical school after that.”

“It’s a great balance in life. We have a diversity of interests as well,” he said.

“She’s really incredibly astute and brings a different set of talents to the table than I do,” he noted.

“She brings all those assets and a lot of energy and commitment, and I think that’s been great,” he said.
“We’re both pediatricians, but our kids didn’t have a chance,” he said with a chuckle.

If there was any downside to being married to a fellow physician, it was that the Smith’s first child, Chris, got to watch his parents experience residency.

“He occasionally had to sleep at someone else’s house,” he said.

Chris, however, has become “incredibly connected” to the area, his dad remarked, and wanted to come back to be closer to family.

“That’s a great ratification of it,” he said.

Despite sharing a profession for many years, the couple avoids talking shop.

“The big benefit for me relative to this job is we don’t talk business very much,” he said.

Bacchia has also artfully guided Smith through his dietary restrictions experienced in the last year.

“I’d be better off at home very night cooking dinner together,” said Smith, who notes that his activities often force him to eat out.

“She’s a good therapeutic counselor for me in that regard,” he said.

What’s down the line?—Retirement is certainly many moons away for Smith, and he is unsure as to how he will spend his golden years.

“I’ll be doing this for a while. I really don’t have any other plans. People often ask if there is another rodeo somewhere because I was in Texas a lot,” he said. “I don’t see that.”

“Because of the alignment of the area, this is as close to home as I’ve ever been. That feels good,” he said.
“More likely, I’ll be engaged in academic higher education, probably here,” he said. “I’ll probably be moving to some of the advocacy and broader health policy issues that we continue to face.”

Smith said he can foresee making a transition from direct management to some of the other policy arena issues that Albany and Washington tackle, particularly in the areas of child and public health.

“My other passion, having been a commissioner of health, is probably getting back and even doing some teaching and things in that regard. That is another significant part of what gets me jazzed at the end of the day,” he said.

Program is celebrating five years at its current home. It delivers more than 180 meals a day, but it wants to deliver more, have more volunteers

By Nancy Haus

The North Area Meals on Wheels (NAMOW) has been around since the 1970s but it’s celebrating five years this year at its present location at 413 Church St. in North Syracuse.

With 250 volunteers, 50 to 60 substitute volunteers per month and 19 daily routes, about 180 meals leave the Church Street location on a daily basis headed for deliveries in the North Syracuse, Cicero, Brewerton, Mattydale and Liverpool areas.

Volunteers are mostly 65-plus themselves with a fair number of younger people who also volunteer their time on a day off from work or school.

Jim Baker, NAMOW’s facility manager, recounts the historical facts of NAMOW’s growth from the old Bessie Riordan Elementary School in Mattydale to a 2,800-sq.-ft facility in an old pizza place with a small parking lot (on Kreischer Road in North Syracuse), to purchasing the tract of land located on Church Street from the Lions Club for $365,000 in March 2004. Baker said with a lot of help from volunteers, some state grants, over $130,000 generated by fundraisers, and the generosity of contractors committed to the NAMOW cause, volunteers were able to move into the new 5,000 sq.-ft. state-of-the-art facility Nov. 4, 2004. “We’ve come a long way,” said Baker, referring to the facility.

The ultra-modern kitchen features stainless steel counters and prep areas, which are meticulously cleaned in the morning and afternoon. Dishes are fastidiously done by a dish washer — yes, a live dish washer.

Kitchen coordinator and board member Donna Snowberger proudly shows off the new walk-in freezer and other refrigerator/freezer areas, storage areas impeccably and methodically arranged, the food line, and many other features of the efficient facility.

“They grab their hats, aprons, and gloves, and start right in, and it’s a new crew every day,” Snowberger said of the volunteers who work in the kitchen.

When the meals are prepared, drivers deliver to a different number of customers based on the area they serve. They use their own vehicles and gas and are out the door quickly so they can reach their clients before noon.

Fran Fedrizzi, the driver coordinator, said “one dedicated volunteer has served 35 years.”
NAMOW has been proud to call Homer Gere (Richard’s father) a volunteer for the past 20 years.

But drivers don’t just deliver meals. They check on customers who are often waiting at the door for them to arrive just to exchange a few words — sometimes the only conversation they have for the day. They help with opening the meal packaging for those who can’t do so on their own; they bring in mail; open or close windows, and just try to bring a little sparkle to their customer’s day. Sometimes, when a regular customer doesn’t answer the doorbell after several tries, they contact NAMOW  offices, which, in turn, call 911.

Meals consist of a hot entrée for dinner, including meat, a carbohydrate, vegetable and drink. A brown bag meal is also delivered, consisting of a sandwich, salad, dessert and fruit. Diabetic meals are also available for those who require them. So, two meals per day at a cost of $6 provides quite a nutritionally sound and tasty bargain by anybody’s standards.

A program called Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which is funded by a NYS grant as well as by the Onondaga County Office of Youth and Aging, subsidizes the cost for seniors who qualify for it, enabling them to pay only what they can afford.

To be eligible for this program seniors must be at least 60 years of age and nutritionally at risk. One-half of NAMOW’s clients participate in the SNAP program.

Volunteers at NAMOW feel that many people who might qualify for the SNAP program aren’t aware of its existence and many others may disregard the benefits NAMOW offers because they assume they’re ineligible.

Those with chronic illnesses, no support systems, difficult pregnancies, weight or other health problems that leave potential customers bedridden or immobile are also criteria for NAMOW eligibility, volunteers said.
Many more people could qualify and would not even require medical documentation — simply a telephone call from their primary care provider, volunteers said.

Donna Barrett is the operation manager of NAMOW and oversees all volunteers and the agency’s 250-plus clients. “NAMOW’s No. 1 goal is to keep seniors independent for as long as possible,” Barrett said. That goal is two-fold, according to her: “Not only do we work to keep the seniors we serve independent, we work to keep the seniors who do the serving independent as well.”

Barrett enjoys working with all of her volunteers, who, she says, “are extremely loyal” and “the backbone of our organization.”

Barrett said one of her goals is to raise awareness of what NAMOW does and who is eligible, and to find ways for the organization to get involved. “We never have too many volunteers,” she says. “And our fundraising events are always in need of more help. For instance, our annual garage sale, held at the Community Center, raises significant funds for us on an annual basis. So, we can use all the help we can get.”

At 57, Chancellor Nancy Cantor leads Syracuse University into era of community engagement

By Lou Sorendo

Syracuse University is not afraid of commitment. In fact, the university is engaged. Engaged with the Syracuse community, that is.

With Nancy Cantor as its chancellor and president, SU is emphasizing the importance of being deeply committed to community engagement.

“It is the centerpiece of what it means for a university to be a public good,” she said. “We are engaged in using intellectual capital as students, faculty and staff in making a difference and having an impact in the world. A big piece of our world is our local community and region.”

She said universities are widely thought of as “place-based” institutions. “SU isn’t going to just up and leave,” said Cantor, who was born in New York City in 1952. She is 57.

“A very important context for discovery, for education, and for making a difference in the world is our own community,” she said. “We are intimately linked to it. Its ability to flourish influences our ability to flourish as an institution in very pragmatic ways, but also substantively. We’re committed to it.”

“The identity of SU, the kinds of things it is good in, its history and tradition have been deeply shaped by the region and city we’re in,” she noted.

Cantor said SU is strong in its emphasis on environmental sustainability, water resources and indoor environmental quality. It is also spearheading innovations that are being done not only on campus but also at the Center of Excellence downtown, a collaborative effort that the university leads. All of this has “very deep roots in both the Erie Canal, what that meant and the innovation of that period, and also Native American tribes and their commitment to sustainable environment,” Cantor said.

“There’s a lot of history behind who we are as an institution,” she said.

Cantor added that it is important as an academic institution to have its tradition and identities reflected in the kind of intellectual work that people do. That, in turn, has a kind of reciprocity with the community, she added.

“I think one of the things that’s exciting for me is the way in which the university-community collaborations have really taken shape,” she said.

These unions cross sectors to feature public and private collaborations which involve many faculty as well as students.

Cantor enjoys seeing collaborations that involve business, community and government partners as well as foundations and non-profits. “The commitment to use our intellectual capital generously to try to have an impact on the world is what I feel very strongly about,” she said. An example of this, she said, is the “Say Yes to Education: Syracuse” project happening in the Syracuse City School District. The program is a collaboration of the district, Say Yes to Education, Inc., and SU. Say Yes is a national, non-profit education foundation committed to dramatically increasing high school and college graduation rates for the nation’s inner-city youth.

A host of business and community partners is joining SU faculty and about 200 students in supporting the education reform initiative designed to make a difference in the school district.

Cantor’s efforts at emphasizing the need for this level of collaboration helped her earn the 2008 Academic Leadership Award issued by the Carnegie Corp.

Cantor said the university sees itself as an “anchor institution” in the city of Syracuse in several different ways.

“On a pragmatic level, we are a large employer in the city of Syracuse,” she said. “We care deeply about the city school systems and quality of life because our employees, faculty and their families live in this environment.”

“We also see ourselves as intellectually and substantively tied to the creativity and innovation of this city and region and to the people and cultures represented in the city,” Cantor added.

“The city is our world,” Cantor said.

“We are an anchor because we are a large community that itself represents a diverse set of backgrounds, peoples and cultures. We map onto the city,” she said.

Cantor said SU wants to be an anchor of revitalization in the city of Syracuse and wants to be a reciprocal partner and neighbor in that sense. “We want to promote change,” she noted.

Prior to her appointment at Syracuse, Cantor served as chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the University of Michigan.

Leading through tough times—SU, like any large employer and community, has faced real financial constraints while the country hobbles through the current recession.

However, “we are also in a disciplined phase and making sure we are keeping momentum on key projects, collaborations, programs, and financial aid for our students,” Cantor said.

Last year, when economic issues began to take hold and came into sharp focus, SU’s administration made it clear that it had three major goals that cuts would be made around.

One goal was to maintain academic momentum. “For example, we kept faculty searches going,” Cantor said.
Another was to make sure SU provided enough institutional financial aid to its student body and families.
“We increased financial aid substantially over what was already a very large base of institutional financial aid,” she said.

A third goal involved continuing to be able to be supportive of lower- paid employees and staff.

“We kept a salary program going for our lower-paid employees and froze salaries for higher-paid employees,” she noted.

Cantor said SU made administrative and support unit cuts but not academic unit cuts.
“We tried to keep focused on our core missions, and what we need to do going forward. I see it as a continuous process,” she said.

Passionate approach—“I have a very deep passion for the role that universities can play in not only shaping the next generation, but in having real impact on the world,” she said.

This role includes addressing pressing issues of the world, bringing different groups together to convene, and making significant discoveries, whether it involves the environment or life sciences.

The role also includes bringing people together for intercultural dialogue and exploring ways in which people think of citizenship and what it means.

“I really believe in universities as centers of impact that make the world better, that make a difference in the world,” she said.

“For people who are going to be leaders, it really helps if you have a deep passion for the role that your organization can play in making the world a more just, equal and sustainable place, making it a place that is exciting, evolving and innovative,” Cantor noted.

She said it is vital to maximize people’s abilities and talents in order to make contributions.”

“What’s challenging in a positive way is really trying to make sure that we are in a very disciplined way playing to our strengths and building on our strengths,” she said.

Another challenge is being attentive and compassionate toward the people who are members of the university community.

“It’s about really keeping a focus on what this institution, with its tradition and who it is, can do to have a maximal impact,” she said.

Gratifying job—Cantor described some of the challenges as well as sources of gratification she gains from her position.

“The difficulty one has in these kinds of jobs is that there is a crisis a minute, a constraint a minute, and there’s discord all the time. It’s like being mayor of a city,” she said. “You can be fairly easily distracted.”
Cantor said job stress emanates from the fact that her job is 24-7. “There is never a time in which you are not on call,” she said. “Part of that is exacerbated by technology to the extent that you want to be accessible, and I do.”

“People come at you from all directions,” she added.

“You have many constituencies that you are really trying to take into account and serve,” said Cantor, pointing to students, faculty, alumni, federal and state agencies, non-profit partners and auditors as some of the factions she deals with on a regular basis.

“There’s the business end of things, the safety and security side of things, and fans and athletics. There’s just a lot of different pieces,” she noted.

Cantor said it is gratifying “seeing people collaborate who may be protecting silos” and seeing new partnerships brought to bear across all sectors—public-private, community-campus, and global-local.
She also gains gratification from seeing “students being prepared for the world in the world that they are in” and seeing intellectual discovery being made and having an impact.

She pointed to the work of SU professor Charles Driscoll Jr., one of the university’s foremost engineers. Not only is he an extraordinary scientist specializing in aquatic chemistry, but he is also making significant contributions to cleaning up Onondaga Lake, she noted.

“Seeing things put to work that way is very exciting,” Cantor said.

Cantor added that she enjoys seeing SU’s interdisciplinary design group known as COLAB “not only create innovation but actually change the quality of the way in which people interact with each other.”

COLAB is a new initiative based in SU’s College of Visual and Performing Arts that encourages students and faculty to use their diverse skills and perspectives to solve complex, real-world problems creatively and collaboratively.

Being a leader—Cantor said the leaders who she has had the most respect for are people who can create an atmosphere of collaboration more than of competition.

“They can really see how different people’s talents and expertise can be brought to the table together rather than create silos,” she said. “It’s also tremendously important to be willing to experiment, to change one’s mind, never forgetting that leadership is about the institution and not about one’s own power or opinion.”
“You have to be willing to be decisive and make decisions, but it’s important to create an atmosphere where people feel it’s OK to change course, OK to change one’s mind, OK to experiment, risk or even fail,” she said.

“It’s really being entrepreneurial and innovative in that sense,” she added.

“Entrepreneurial in the willingness to experiment and take risks, to see opportunities and grab them,” she said. “And innovative in the sense of really having a very experimental, agile mindset of what you’re doing so there isn’t one right answer or right thing to do.”

Compassion is also a key to leadership, she noted.

“It’s vital to keep up a compassion for people at the center of it so that you are really willing to put that value out there and to stand by it,” she said. “That doesn’t mean that you don’t make hard decisions and it doesn’t mean that everyone agrees with you.”

“It’s understanding what compassion means in an organization as opposed to just thinking of it as always being liked. It’s not about being liked necessarily,” she added.

Cantor oftentimes draws on her background as a social psychologist.

“I feel like I do social psychology 24-7,” she said.

“I’m constantly formed by theories of social psychology. It helps in understanding how people’s different standpoints so impact their perspectives and views, the groups they are in, the turf they are protecting, the default they have of how they see the world,” she noted.

“So much in life is not about right or wrong or good or bad, it’s about alternative ways of construing the world and it’s about being able to role play and see someone else’s perspective,” she noted.

“In a world like ours where there’s so much uncertainty, people are very zero sum about it,” Cantor said. “If I win, you lose and if you win, I lose. It’s often hard to get people de-centered enough from their own perspective to take the other one’s into account.”

“In a more specific sense, certainly my background as a social psychologist is important to what I do as a leader,” she said.

“What we always need to be looking at is the different perspectives that different groups bring to bear and the ways in which you get organizations to be welcoming and inclusive environments,” she added.
As far as influences go, Cantor said besides her children and students, she’s always had a strong network of women friends in academics.

Cantor said she hopes to be an inspiration to other women seeking leadership posts “in terms of the passion I bring to wanting to make a difference in the world and in shaping the lives of the future leaders and citizens of the world,” she said.

Diverse environment—Cantor said diversity is a “huge piece of my scholarly life and as a social psychologist.”

She has strived to make universities be reflective of diversity in many dimensions, whether they concern race and ethnicity, income, geographic diversity, sexuality, disabilities, or the kind of intellectual diversity regarding the way in which one views the world.

“It’s so enriching to the basic mission of an institution like a university to really have as rich a tapestry of diversity as it can,” she said.

“I am deeply committed to the importance in any contemporary moment to take responsibility for the history of the ways in which we have excluded people rather than included them and the ways in which we have not reached equity or justice,” she said.

She said diversity is both a positive recognition of the talent and creativity that comes when one brings different people to the table, and it is a recognition of the ways in which—over the course of history as well as today—we represent a divided, unequal society. “We need to be always committed to access and opportunity,” she said.

“We care deeply about diversity not as a marginal agenda, not just some add-on where you check off the list to see if you have ‘x’ number of people of different backgrounds or such,” Cantor said. “It’s a very substantive, core piece of what defines the institution.”

Cantor said the history of the region has featured some extraordinary social movements of opportunity, such as the women’s rights movement that began in Seneca Falls, as well as the abolitionist and indigenous movements.

She characterizes the “Say Yes to Education: Syracuse” project as “diversity at its fullest.”

“We’re committed to making sure that the opportunities are there for every inner-city child to become a thriving college student eventually,” Cantor said.

“When you think about the faculty, we want to be as supportive as possible of publicly engaged scholarships that allow people not to turn their backs on the community but rather to use their intellectual capital to further make a difference in the world,” she said.

Cantor said a good example of this is the “extraordinary richness we have on this campus of disability studies from a variety of directions. That is a core way of seeing disability as ability and as a really positive feature of the talent.”

“One can be so motivated by the late Eunice Kennedy Shriver and how she had a passion for really reminding people of talent and the different forms it comes in and making opportunity,” she said.
Shriver was a member of the Kennedy family and founded the Special Olympics in the 1960s as a national organization.

An author of numerous books, chapters, and scientific journal articles, Cantor holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Sarah Lawrence College and a Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford University.
She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and a member of the National Academies Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability.

Cantor is married to Steven R. Brechin, an environmental sociologist who holds a dual faculty appointment at Syracuse University in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and the College of Arts and Sciences. They have two children, Maddy and Archie.

Nancy Cantor in Her Own Words

Nancy Cantor is the 11th chancellor and president of Syracuse University. Here are some of her thoughts and feelings regarding several key topics:

• On health and fitness:

Cantor said she is conscious of prioritizing health and fitness, although “they are easy to fall by the wayside” given her hectic schedule.

She is on the road a lot, traveling for SU, and also participates in many social events. “You always have to be careful on food,” she said.

Her favorite form of exercise is walking with her husband and dog Ruby, when time allows, on weekends and vacation.

Her newest exercise regimen is getting up early in the morning and jumping on the treadmill. “Otherwise, once the day starts, it’s gone,” she said.
• On ways to relax:

“I love the beach and I love walking. I also love movies and museums, although I don’t get to go as often anymore. A good novel on the beach is about as good as it gets,” Cantor said.

The Cantors have a residence on Lake Michigan. “That’s my favorite beach. I lived in Michigan for many years,” she said.

Cantor normally vacations in July, but oftentimes takes breaks during Thanksgiving and Christmas.
• On juggling her work life with family life:

“There’s no easy recipe for that. One balances with difficulty,” she said.

“It helps that both my husband and I are academics,” she said. “Over the years, what we’ve tried to do is integrate family life with work life so there’s not a hard firewall between them.”

The couple has also included their children in university-related events throughout their careers as well “so they are part of our lives,” she added.

The husband-wife team also shares a study in their home. “If I’m writing a speech or working on a paper, he may be at his desk doing that too,” she said.

“The way we juggle is not to have a harsh line between what’s work and play,” she said.

• On her legacy:

In terms of legacy, Cantor said she would “love to feel that we were a model of what it means to create signature, collaborative academic programs that speak to the pressing issues of the world and that prepare our students for the world in the world itself.”

She also wishes her legacy to be one that “created long-lasting, sustainable collaborations in our city and around the nation and world. Specifically, she wants it also to be one that created a “place of opportunity and a place that cared about its community.”

• On delegating responsibilities:

Cantor said delegation is a “funny word in modern organizations,” because “you can never fully delegate. What we’re trying to do is create collaborative teams and work with them on things.”

“The emphasis is trying to bring different parts of the institution together on particular issues,” she said.

For example, when thinking about how much debt to borrow to continue building projects in the middle of a recession, Cantor will bring to the table not only business people, but also academic, design and construction experts as well as trustees.

The word “free” fills a lot of commercials nowadays, but its meaning is far from clear

I must confess: When I would hear or see the word “free,” I became tingly all over, but today ecstasy has given way to skepticism, wariness and, yes — I admit it — cynicism.

You see, “free” no longer seems to mean “free.”

Just to make sure the word hasn’t undergone a definition shift in recent years while I wasn’t looking, I consulted the newest Webster’s dictionary. There it was — still the same unequivocal definition: “no charge.”
Can’t get much more specific or simpler than that.

When I watch TV, I hear commercials for scores of products, but the new rage these days is upselling. Pitchmen like the late Billy May, who died in late June of an apparent heart attack at age 50, would tell us that not only can we have one of these incredible miracle-working products for $9.95, but we can have another “absolutely free.” Then, after a slight pause, he says: “Pay only shipping and handling.”

The shipping and handling on a $9.95 product usually means another $6, so the second item isn’t really “free.” It is $6.

I don’t get it. Why are these “as seen on TV” products allowed to perpetuate these untruths? When the government seems intent on cracking down on fraudulent claims and consumer scams, these postage-and-handling scams are pervasive, and no one seems to do anything about it. What is even more disturbing, however, is that they are perfectly legal, according to several representatives of consumer groups to whom I have spoken.

Why not require this simple protection for us consumers: Telemarketers cannot claim a product is free if there is a postage-and-handling add-on cost. If there is such a charge, it must be clearly stated in the infomercial or ad. I mean it’s not as if the product gains or loses weight daily. There is no reason why the fixed amount of postage and handling can’t be specifically noted.

I also take issue with some entertainment book offers. “Buy one, get one free,” says the coupon. You don’t really get one free, because you have to buy one first, and that one isn’t free. So why not just a simple change of wording: “Get one when you buy one.” Now, that’s truth in advertising.

Same thing for coffee clubs — buy six, get the seventh cup free. To my way of thinking, the seventh cup is not free if I have to buy the first six.

Vista, a printing company in New England, sends me periodic offers with headers such as “Bruce, today is your lucky day — everything is free.” Vista says I could buy 140 address labels “free.” So why did I wind up having my credit card charged $3.31 if they were “free”? I did the deal, because $3.31 (for postage and handling) is not a bad price for these address labels. Still, I felt I was being taken advantage of after seeing that word “free” in big, bold type. When the package came, the postage was less than 50 cents, so the other $2.81 apparently went for handling, or, more likely, to Vista’s bottom line.

Nutri-System TV ads also are misleading. We see a slim, sensational-looking actress Valerie Bertinelli telling us that she has lost 40 pounds the Nutri-System way. But, wait. What does that small print say? “Results not typical.” Another ad shows a smiling ex-Miami Dolphins football coach Don Shula who lost 30 pounds, but there’s that small print again: “Results not typical.”

If the results are not typical, why not show us the typical results? If Nutri-System were to do that, there wouldn’t be many sales, because most dieters fail to have the necessary will power. Implying that you can lose a lot of weight merely by eating those delicious-looking Nutri-System meals is, of course, misleading on its face, because you need to couple controlling caloric intake with a vigorous exercise program.

Companies which use misleading tactics to sell their products do a disservice to us consumers. We seniors, especially, need to be constantly vigilant, especially when we see that four-letter “f” word  — free.

Welcome to the world of social networking

Are you on Facebook? Do you Twitter? Are you LinkedIn?

Sorry to tell you this, but a recent New York Times article said not being online today is akin to not existing. Even AARP is planning to find you on online to help you make the world a better place (and you know they will find you.)

So where do you stand?

I surveyed friends to see if they used any social networking sites, of which Facebook (FB), Twitter and LinkedIn are the three most popular. I’m hoping to convince you that there’s fun to be had by giving the sites a try even if you presently feel like my friends Tom, Susan, Michael and JoAnne.

“I have enough ‘real time’ friends who can be a pain,” said Tom. “Why would I need another bunch of virtual friends who are probably the same or worse?”

Or Susan Hopkins in Florida who sent this letter she saw in the The Weekly Standard. “All of a sudden my grown-up friends have all joined and refusing to have a Facebook page has become an anti-social act. Do you really want to know when your true love from grade school is cleaning up her cat’s hairballs, or that the balding guy you idolized in college is ‘glad it’s the weekend’? Down with Facebook, says I. It’s like the world’s worst high school reunion—a reunion you can never leave.”

And from my hip classmate Michael who I found on Classmates.com, “I didn’t get a cell phone until three years ago and didn’t get cable TV until about two years ago, so no, I’m not on Facebook.”

Oh well, Michael, at least you still have your hair.

Finally from my friend JoAnne Spoto Decker who said she only got involved because I sent her “this (expletive deleted) e-mail!”

I registered and have been getting notices that I don’t want to respond to, for example, an old relationship from 33 years ago! I don’t want to find lost friends. Friends I want to keep aren’t lost.”

When asked if she made interesting connections that would not have happened in any other way, she replied, “that’s what I’m afraid of!”

On the “those who love it” side, let’s start with Trisha Torrey, of Every Patients Advocate and Ask.com, who prefers Twitter.

“I’ve used it to ask questions of doctors and other health professionals I would never otherwise have access to, and to find other patients who have similar concerns to mine. It’s been a goldmine of knowledgeable people who respond within minutes. Amazing tool.”

“I use social networking sites to research individuals with whom I may be doing business or involved in a negotiation,” said Ralph Valente, senior vice president sales and marketing for a technology distribution company. “As a professional vetting tool, I’m there in full disclosure and also I’m always looking for an angle, an entry point for conversation, mutual interests or experiences, etc. As far as checking it regularly, I never go there through my own initiative (other than for research), but I am often there responding to others who annoyingly now use it as a substitute for email. And no, I’m not interested in what my friends are serving their children for dinner!”

Beth Finkel from AARP said, “I’m on it all the time, connecting with what’s going on with friends, family and the AARP family, not to mention long lost friends and acquaintances. It’s also interesting to see what my kid’s friends post! I send out blurbs on where I am if I’m at an AARP event and also track what my colleagues are doing in other states for good ideas. I check my FB page a number of times a day and it’s now on my Blackberry. I recently heard from someone who met her husband at my sweet 16 party and now they are grandparents. That was nice!”

For non-business ideas on using Facebook, Sue Friedland sums up what a number of people responded in the survey: “This is just another way of keeping in touch with friends and family.”

She’s had some interesting conversations with her favorite nephew who was quite happy to see her on Facebook and she also reconnected with long lost schoolmates on Classmates.com.

My sister-in-law, Naomi Blumenthal, taught equine business management for years and now runs horse shows around the country. “I have heard from hundreds of former students and also found long lost schoolmates,” said Blumenthal. “I check the site when I get a message on my e-mail that someone found me or every few days just to keep up.”

Typical of many responses are these three:

• Bob Herz, who urged me to try FB, said “I don’t consciously use it, but it’s fun to have people I know, but haven’t been in contact with for years, get in touch with me.”

• Robin A., who “really loves FB!” said, “I have lots of friends my age and older who also have accounts. It is amazing the people you can find that you have not been in touch with for a while.”

• And Hedda, who wrote, “My daughter filled everything out for me and then said, “Mom, you’re on and you can’t ‘friend’ me!”

Dorothy Jordon, a New York City-based author, said when I asked if she’s found long lost friends, “Are friends really ever ‘lost’? At any rate, I look for folks whom I haven’t spoken with/seen in a while and wonder where they are and what they’re doing and certainly have ended up in touch with folks I might not have otherwise. And even though I’m not really in business anymore, I still like to see what my former colleagues are up to.

Some only promote their work; others offer useful tips. And having lost a son, I am also friends with some of his (Russell’s) friends and that is good for me. I like to see what they are doing (and they’re probably among the chattiest of my ‘friends’). In some ways, it brings me even closer to Russell, as strange as that might sound.”

Jordon’s friend, Julie Simon, wrote that “I got hooked on Facebook last year during preparations for my 40th high school reunion and recently set up an account for my 93 year-old mother.”

A gal after my own heart is Carol, who said she joined to “check her niece’s profile on Facebook so she could fix her up with a friend’s son.” And then there’s Stewart Koenig who just had lunch with his freshman college roommate whom he hadn’t been in contact with for 35 years until reconnecting on Facebook.

Take a tip from my other sister-in-law Stephanie, “my nieces made me sign up for Facebook and I use it mostly to look at pictures my friends and family post, even though I would still rather use e-mail,” and dip your toes in and try it out. If you know how to get online and send e-mail, then you can figure this out too. It might surprise you how much fun it can be.

The saying stated in this article’s headline unravels the fabric of a fulfilled life — particularly for those of us who yearn to know what life is all about. Credit is given to my granddaughter, Kali Spoto, for passing it on to me, along with many other words to live by from her journal that — she warns — “If ever I let you read, I’d have to kill you.” From thy children ye shall learn and from thy grandchildren ye can learn even more.

Someone to Love—Fortunately I still have my high school sweetheart-cum-wife-cum-mother of five children-cum-grandmother of 19 grandchildren by my side. As such I do not have to suffer the agonizing task of finding another person to take her place (as if that were ever possible). It is the natural order of things that we have mates, someone to share our dreams and give encouragement while we’re pursuing the challenges presented by life, someone to lift us up when we are down and someone to spawn our offsprings so that the family continues. Mostly, we need abiding love, unquestioning love, unmitigated love.

Unfortunately most of our relatives and friends who have reached our ripe old age do not have their original spouses. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly 30 percent of men and women over 65 are widowed and almost 9 percent are divorced. Among our contemporaries the percentage is much higher — well over 50 percent widowed or divorced.

Our generation has broken through the puritanical restraints that affected our parents (as if the original Puritans were ever restrained). We cite one example that typifies the situation. Joe and Barbara were each happily married but their respective spouses each died after lingering illnesses. Their apartments were adjacent to each other and they soon became more than friends. They planned to be married but it was not to be because their respective children objected (as so often is the case).

They love each other very much and spend a good part of every day together and — yes — they enjoy physical love as well as companionship. More often than not our friends and relatives who have been happily married seek ongoing love and more often than not the family objects. Fortunately, one way or another love (which is the driving force of life) wins out.

Something to Do—Many marriages break up in retirement because of too much togetherness. Husband and wife need to get away from each other occasionally, get out the house more often. One of the horror stories that circulate within our community is of the husband who follows his wife around the kitchen as she empties the dishwasher and places the dishes in the cupboards. We see many retired executives with nothing to exec, fussing and fuming and trying to cope with idleness.

A type ‘A’ personality who has raced through a career at 80 miles-per-hour cannot just slam on the brakes and let the engine idle — eventually the engine will stall. Anyone who has followed this column knows that I strongly advocate a “retirement career.” Grandma Moses became an artist at age 80. I have become a writer, among other things. Everyone has hidden talent never pursued because of the restraints of a career. Some women are much better adapted to retirement than men because their routine changes little but men cannot easily slow to their wife’s pace. It has been our observance that idleness can kill you as surely as an incurable disease.

Something to Look Forward To—Every day should be eagerly anticipated and never wasted (we who were given a second chance appreciate this more than most). A part of the day should be set aside for something you enjoy and subsequently look forward to. For me, it is at the end of the day, after the work is done, sitting on the deck with a good book or magazine and a glass of wine — usually followed by a game with my wife.

Anything will do, a trip to the mall, taking a friend to lunch or simply taking a walk. Then there are the long range things like a trip to visit family or friends, taking a cruise, annual family gatherings during the holidays and so on. Despite the fact that I’m retired, I still maintain an office within the family business. This allows me to get out of the house during the week — therefore I can look forward to the weekend. The important thing is to avoid the deathtrap of letting one day meld into the next and living a hum-drum existence.

Wrapping this all up — another entry from Kali’s journal via the pen of Mary Ann Rademacher: “Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Listen hard. Practice wellness. Play with abandon. Laugh. Choose with no regret. Appreciate your friends. Continue to learn. Do what you love. Live as if this is all there is.”

Hitting the Buffalo to Albany Bike Tour

By Mary Beth Roach

When Dan Benedict, at the age of 85, asked his daughter Rachel Doan to go for a bike ride last summer, it wasn’t your typical Sunday ride in the park.

It was the 10th annual 400-mile, eight-day bicycle ride called “Cycling the Erie Canal,” sponsored by Parks & Trails New York.

Approximately 570 cyclists embarked on this historic and scenic tour in 2008 from Buffalo to Albany, traveling along sections of the canal’s towpath, the original Erie Canal, and the Seneca and Mohawk Rivers, and through such towns and cities as Buffalo, Lockport, Medina, Rochester, Pittsford, Waterloo, Seneca Falls, Camillus, Syracuse, Chittenango, Little Falls, Canajoharie, Scotia and, finally, Albany.

A resident of the community of Marbletown in the Catskill area, Dan said he had seen the riders in previous tours traveling through nearby Newark, and thought it would be interesting to take part. He invited Rachel, a biking enthusiast herself and one of Dan’s eight children, to join him.

Rachel, 52 at the time of the ride, was encouraged by her husband, Alan, to spend some quality time with her dad. She signed on.

For Joan Gardner, then 57, of Dewitt, it was her third tour, and it was to be the second one she did with husband, Bob, also 57 at the time. However, several days before the start of the tour, Bob decided he needed to stay home to tend to some medical concerns of his parents.

“In January [of ’08], I made a personal commitment to bike the canal in 2008 — after all, it was the 10th anniversary and I thought it would be a great T-shirt!,” Joan joked.

Joan’s first ride was in 2003. She and her then-Girl Scout co-leader, Anne Acevedo, also of Dewitt, had wanted to find a safe and healthy adventure for their Cadet troop, which included Joan’s daughter, Lindsay. When Joan had heard about the tour, she convinced Anne to try it to see if it was doable.

They not only found it doable, but a lot of fun.

“We laughed so hard and enjoyed the ride so much, that our husbands refused to be left behind,” she said. So both couples and three girls from Jamesville Dewitt High School Cadet Troop 47 joined in the 2004 tour.
Because the Gardners live close to the Dewitt branch of the Erie Canal, they were able to do their training right along the path, biking several days a week to Chittenango, where they would stop for ice cream, before heading back to Dewitt. As for the ice cream — you have to have an incentive, Joan chuckled.

Whatever the incentive, the scouts, the co-leaders and the husbands all completed the tour.

Training for the 2008 tour had Bob and Joan back on the canal path, heading to Chittenango, but this time, Joan laughed, it was for breakfast.

But shifting gears . . .

“It’s an incredible experience that takes weeks, months of preparation to be able to bike 400 miles in eight days,” she said.

She joined Curves for two months and got a jump start on strengthening her legs and heart. She also used a stationary bike at home and enrolled in a 10-week running program that enabled her to improve her cycling pace. Bob was an active member of the YMCA and worked out three times a week, riding the stationary bike.
Training was a little different for Dan and Rachel.

The oldest cyclist on the tour in 2008, Dan rides nearly every day, doing what his daughter calls a “country block” — nearly four miles, but Rachel had to begin her training in earnest.

“By the time we decided to do this, it was the tail end of May,” Rachel said. “I started to crunch miles after work.” The hilly terrain near Rachel’s home in Penn Yan helped in her training.

In getting ready for the 400-mile tour, Ride Director Al Hastings said, “The simplistic answer is to spend time on the bike. You should be able to ride 50 miles fairly comfortably prior to coming. Coming prepared to ride makes the event much more enjoyable and enables you to focus on things other than how uncomfortable you are.

The hardest part in the training is the sitting because your backside goes numb, Joan said. “No matter what, you’re going to hurt the first day,” said Bob, adding however, that by the second day, you’re doing better.

To assist riders in their preparation, the Parks & Trails New York’s Web site, www.ptny.org, has a detailed handbook, including a basic training schedule, advice on how to ready the bike, suggestions on how to pack, and information on overnight accommodations. Race staff also suggests the Adventure Cycling Web site, www.adventurecycling.org for more information.

The fee for the eight-day ride for adults is $525, but various ride options at different prices are available.
The deadline is June 20, after which there is an additional $50 fee.

Various facilities along the route provide green spaces for temporary camping areas called “tent cities,” for example, high school and college fields, Burnet Park in Syracuse, and Fort Stanwix National Park in Rome. Cyclists have the option of staying at nearby motels. Tractor-trailers carry much of the riders’ gear tents, sleeping bags, clothing from camp to camp, and volunteers at each “tent city” unload the trucks. The cyclists are treated to a hearty breakfast and dinner each day. Technical assistance is provided along the route, and each evening after dinner, the cyclists can visit attractions at the nearby towns or stay at the camp to enjoy the musical entertainment or guest speakers that the tour organizers arrange.

But it’s not all about pedaling. The tour included visits to various museums along the route, such as the Women’s Rights National Historic Site in Seneca Falls; and Fort Stanwix and the Erie Canal Museum and Village in Rome, where the cyclists enjoyed a ride on a horse-drawn packet boat along a section of the canal, reminiscent of water travel in the early 19th century.

“The whole thing is impressive,” Bob said. “It’s the little things that you enjoy.”

Although, Bob didn’t enjoy changing five flat tires along the way. His advice — make sure to have one or two spares and some fundamental tools and travel with somebody who knows how to change a tire.

Biking for the Benedicts and the Gardners has been a family affair for years.

The Gardners began biking as a family when Lindsay turned 10. She is now a sophomore at the University of Rochester. Over the years, they’ve been to the Rideau Canal in Ottawa and Harper’s Ferry in Virginia, and together with Anne and Russ Acevedo, the family did the Five Boro Bike Tour in New York City with 30,000-plus other cyclists in 2005.

The Benedict family‘s biking expeditions go back at least to the mid-1970s.

While a teenager, Rachel accompanied her father, then an American Baptist minister, and her mother, Edith, as they led bike trips between two church camps, one located southeast of Buffalo and the second one near Cooperstown.

And the Canal tour, itself, was a family affair for many.

Dan and Rachel were one of at least three father-daughter pairings, in which the fathers were all 80-plus! Jody Benedict joined her grandfather and aunt for part of the tour, and there was a father-son-grandson team from Scotia, N.Y.

Noting that there were several multi-generational families on the 2008 canal trip, Joan encourages grandparents to invite their grandchildren along to share the experience.

“Training for the trip would accomplish two things: Create beautiful memories and promote physical fitness as a lifestyle . . . As parents and grandparents, we are role models for our family.”

Rachel is considering taking part in this tour again, or the six-day, 200-mile Great Hudson Valley tour in August. Joan said she is also contemplating the Hudson Valley tour, although right now, her sights are set on several running events, including the Mountain Goat Run in Syracuse.

“This year’s challenge for me at age 58 is to run the Mountain Goat — 10 very hilly miles. On New Year’s Eve, I made the resolution — I want to be fit for the rest of my life — not just for “an event.” So keeping the goals will keep me from stopping,” she said.

Dan, however, is going to pass on both bike tours. “I enjoyed it thoroughly, but I’m looking for other goals,” he said. Dan’s favorite memory was that so many people were interested in achieving a common goal. “The whole experience of that many people, that intent on doing something ± everybody was aiming to get to Albany,” he said.

After the group reached their final destination in Albany, Dan told the story of how he was chatting with an 8-year-old girl who had taken the ride with her family.

“I said to her,’ when you turn 85, do it again.’”

Weather can be a challenge. During their stay in Syracuse, a heavy rainstorm had hit, followed by a full rainbow over “tent city.” The word “Eureka” on the tent in the foreground seems apt. While traveling through Seneca Falls, the heat was horrendous, Rachel said, and one of the residents there left out a garden hose with a sign inviting the riders to use it to get some relief.

Dan was in his signature red suspenders. “People ask me why I wear red suspenders,” he said. “I wear them to keep my pants up.”