- [Luke] Tonight on "WPBS Weekly Inside The Stories."

With school starting in a matter of days, we take you back to school with BOCES.

Discover what's new and what to expect as a new student and seniors learn how to stay safe in cyberspace.

Flower Memorial Library offers tips on how to practice safe browsing and recognizing online scams.

Also, this old house on Wolfe Island is now a museum.

Originally built in the early 1800s, it is notably the oldest home on the island.

We'll take you inside.

Your stories, your region coming up right now on "WPBS Weekly Inside The Stories."

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] "WPBS Weekly Inside The Stories" is brought to you by the Watertown Oswego Small Business Development Center, the J. M. McDonald Foundation, and the Dr. D Susan Badenhausen Legacy Fund of the Northern New York Community Foundation.

Additional funding from the New York State Education Department.

- Good Tuesday evening everyone, and welcome to this edition of "WPBS Weekly Inside The Stories."

I'm Michael Riecke.

It's that time of year when students gear up for back to school at BOCES.

In Watertown, it is no different.

If your student plans on attending BOCES this year to learn a trade, here's what you need to know before they head back.

(upbeat music) - [Stephen] It doesn't look one size fits all.

We have something for everybody.

- [Luke] With school right around the corner Jefferson Lewis BOCES superintendent Steven Todd, prepares to welcome students back for another year of vocational learning.

- BOCES is a program that is committed to providing all students with what they need to be successful.

We provide vocational programming, programs for exceptional students and we provide districts with resources through back office services and other things that allow them to better spend their money on student services rather than spending more than they might need to on other things.

So we are a way to help school districts to provide all of their students with the best possible education through sharing.

- [Luke] Some of the programs offered at BOCES include veterinary care, culinary and cosmetology.

These areas of study offer students hands-on experience in their trade of interest.

Other areas of study are also booming.

- We've seen tremendous growth across the board but actually two programs that we've seen explosive growth in the last few years are welding and electrical wiring.

And I think that's driven by the fact that students and families recognize there's a huge demand in the field for more people with those skills and with those certifications.

So we have continued to grow our programs in both of those areas.

We are exploring the possibility of adding welding in Lewis County, also an EMT program.

We're exploring that.

For Lewis County, that would be brand new for us.

Not so much creating new curricular programs but expanding the existing ones where we have waiting lists that I think students can expect, there will be fewer waiting lists.

There will be more seats available to them in these very popular programs.

- [Luke] But it's not just the programs that are expanding.

With partnerships with schools like Jefferson Community College and as vocational education becomes more popular the student population continues to grow.

And according to Stephen, it's bursting at the seams.

- I think the reason we've seen growth, for instance from somewhere in the area of 1100 students per day in our two technical centers to now we're expecting about 1,350 students in the coming year.

We've seen year over year increases with double digit percentage increases.

While the percentage of students in our home districts has gotten smaller, the building doesn't get any bigger overnight but we are growing overnight.

So we've had to be very creative and we are able to work with our key educational partner Jefferson Community College, both here in Jefferson County and in Lewis County to share space.

- [Luke] Also new to schools this year our guidelines set in place by the New York State Department of Education that aim to create safe, supportive and affirming school environments for transgender and gender expansive students.

These guidelines provide more inclusive curricula normalizing name and pronoun changes, and more ways schools can make their environment feel safe and inclusive.

At BOCES, many of these guidelines are already in place.

- During our capital project that was one of the things that we did.

We made sure that all of our bathrooms were specifically designated as neither male or female, but these are trans, they're therefore all people, all of our bathrooms.

It's so inherent in the BOCES way.

Our motto is Caring, Confident, United.

And that speaks to our staff.

That speaks to our students, that's who we are.

- [Luke] Finally, inclusivity with special needs students is also evolving.

- We'll have a new program in South Jefferson Central School and then districts will bring their students there for a portion of or all of a day for the specialized educational opportunities that they need.

Whether it's programs for students who have physical challenges or emotional challenges or might have learning disabilities, we have programs for everybody and highly trained, highly committed, highly caring staff who provide that.

We want inclusiveness.

We want programming that provides all students with an appreciation for the fact that we are all stronger and better when we are all together.

- [Luke] In Watertown, for WPBS Weekly, I'm Luke Smith.

- If you would like more information on the various programs BOCES offers, including adult education and professional development programs, visit boces.com.

Well, classes and education, they're for everyone not just our kids.

At Flower Memorial Library in Watertown, our senior population is also in class this time for cybersecurity tips to keep them safe online.

WPBS producer Eric Cleary has more.

- [Eric] In this digital age we live in, technology seemingly changes every day.

This fast-paced high-tech world can be tough for seniors to navigate and stay safe with their personal information online.

To that end, Flower Memorial Library in Watertown, New York regularly holds classes to teach seniors online safety.

Amanda Tehonica, library manager heads the class and says it's very important for seniors to know how to protect themselves online.

- I feel seniors are more at risk to having their information compromised because people find out their age demographic and then assume that they're not keeping up on things.

So then assume they're not gonna be aware of the latest scam therefore gonna be easier to get to click on that link or make that phone call and then they're going down that rabbit hole of trying to backpedal.

But once the information is given, you can't get it back.

But it's just so easy to click that link or make that phone call.

It's trying to get everyone to pause.

- [Eric] Taking that pause when dealing with any questionable materials online can make all the difference between safety and disaster.

And that's what the class tries to teach by arming seniors with knowledge to instill that moment of pause and stay safe with their information.

- With these types of classes we're basically doing a lecture style.

So we're presenting information giving a handout, something they can take with them reminding them what they learned today but just going over basics.

And we try to present them in a very simple way so someone who doesn't have a lot of knowledge on the topic isn't left behind, right out of the gate.

So it's just basic terminology you're learning, defining that terminology and explaining how it interacts with their daily lives in ways they might not have realized.

And then just encouraging them to be safe with our tips.

- [Eric] Seniors like Jim Hanson understand the importance of being knowledgeable about staying safe online and taking such a class provided by the library to bolster his knowledge.

- I think it's important to take classes to, one, stay up on the technology because it continues to evolve and the scammers continue to evolve.

And you come up with emails, they come up with a idea of using emails, come up with text messages that come up with ideas for scamming using text messages.

So the technology continues to evolve.

My wife and I had a conversation about 10 or 15 years ago, we had a computer that was about to bite the dust and we said, do we take advantage of the new software, the new computers, and try and stay up with the technology and be able to use it?

Or do we just say we're going old school pencil, paper, mail, that's it?

But if 10 years ago, if we had stopped trying to stay up with the technology, we would be so far behind.

That would be almost impossible to catch up.

- [Eric] Hanson knows all too well what can happen if your information isn't protected as he has been the victim of identity theft even before the advent of the internet.

- I have fallen for some online scams and sort of kicked myself about it because of there were some warnings, internal warnings that I should have picked up and didn't.

In a few cases, I've been able to catch myself partway through a response and therefore I was able to terminate it.

But yes, I have, and it's one, embarrassing.

Number two, frustrating.

I have had my identity stolen but it was before the internet, believe it or not.

And it took me actually two or three years to get it corrected.

- [Eric] In Hansen's case it took him two to three years to fully recover his identity and he was eventually able to rectify his situation.

But that's not always the case, especially in today's climate because as Tehonica says, once you've given out your personal information, to the wrong source, you cannot get the information back.

- From my experience personally and professionally here at work, anything that says suddenly you owe me a lot of money.

People get instantly tense about, scared about, and they wanna resolve it.

So the quickest way to do that is to click on that link or make that phone call and then the person already has you.

But your instinct was, I need to resolve this.

They tell me how I should resolve it.

And by using their means, you're actually falling right into their trap and just getting 'em to stop and pause at what they were given too.

This isn't grammatically correct.

There are typos.

This is a fuzzy logo.

This layout looks like something you could quickly throw together in a file.

It's not looking legitimate.

- [Eric] Taking the time to be critical of anything you receive online and giving it its due diligence is paramount to staying safe online.

Tehonica reinforces that advice and has some tips to help with the decision making.

- I would say my top three tips were, if you're suddenly hearing from a company you've never done business with, be cautious.

Why are they contacting you?

Are they legitimately contacting you?

Find other ways to reach out to that company to find out if this this request is legitimate.

Two is just pause.

When anyone is asking you for a bank account number, a credit card number, or your social security number, once you give those out, they are not going to stay private.

They're going to be shared in those networks and that's gonna lead to a whole lot of headache for you.

When taking two seconds to stop and think about what information you're being asked to provide could have saved you a lot of headache.

And three is, there's no such thing as a dumb question.

So if you're not sure if something's legitimate, look to other resources in your community, other people that you trust, present it to them.

'Cause it's much easier to ask a stupid question and stay safe than it is to get taken for a ride because you were too embarrassed to ask.

- [Eric] For WPBS Weekly, I'm Eric Cleary.

- The library hosts various educational events all year long like the one you just saw.

Visit flowermemoriallibrary.org/events and sign up for any one of the many things they offer on the Events page.

Well, WPBS loves to share bits of history and this evening we share some out of Ontario.

The Old House Museum on Wolfe Island was originally built in the early 1800s and is notably the oldest home on the island.

It was also once a school located on a different part of the island than it is today.

Come with us inside to share its story and the history of Wolfe Island.

(upbeat music) - [[Narrator]] Just across the harbor from Kingston Ontario lies the largest of the thousand islands.

Wolfe Island is 21 miles long and seven miles wide originally known as Long Island.

The British renamed the island in 1792 in honor of the achievements of one of their generals.

- General James Wolfe was a British general famous for the Battle of the plains of Abraham which is near Quebec city.

He defeated a French general named Montcalm.

Both of them died in the battle.

The British were victorious and that was basically the end of French involvement in the country that was to become Canada.

- [[Narrator]] General Wolfe, however, never actually stepped foot on the island named after him.

- General Wolfe never got further up the St. Lawrence River than the Plains of Abraham.

There are a number of thousand islands that are named for British notables.

Wellesley Island, Carlton Island.

There's a group, they're called the Admiralty Islands.

They're all British military people, be they sailors or generals and Wolfe was one of 'em.

His major accomplishment basically claiming Canada for the British.

- [[Narrator]] Early settlers to the island were French.

Once France was defeated in the battle of the plains of Abraham in 1759 and Wolfe Island fell under British control, the French left.

British settlers looking for land with good fishing, fishing, hunting, fur trading and farming opportunities gradually settled the island.

Built in the early 1800s, the Old House Museum is the oldest house on the island, it was also once a school.

Over the years, the house changed hands a number of times and was even moved once from its original location on Lamberts Hill just west of the village of Marysville.

In 2009, it became the home of the Wolfe Island Historical Society.

The museum holds many stories and artifacts that tell the history of Wolfe Island.

- You can see just by the construction people lived in this building 365 days a year and as idyllic of places Wolfe Island is in the summer, the wind and the snow and the ice howl through here in the winter and being heated with a potbelly stove, I think it was probably a very tough frugal existence.

- The one room schoolhouse upstairs is interesting 'cause there's old desks.

Down here, there's a number of artifacts.

So we also have a display about Wolfe Island Ferry and the people that worked on it.

So it's got lots of, there's lots and lots of stuff to see and people that have come in, it's a little bit of something for everybody.

- [Narrator] Another early resident constructed Ardath Castle in 1823.

- Ardath Castle and known to the locals as the Old Castle.

And it was built for the Baron de Longueuil Charles Grant, 25 Rooms as a summer residence.

The Baron de Longueuil and his wife Carolina Coffin are buried up the front road at Trinity Cemetery.

Very pretty little Anglican church, which the Baron himself donated the land for.

In 1925, it was being used to store hay, basically abandoned and the legend, nobody knows for sure it was kids were playing smoking, playing with matches, and so it burned to the ground.

Oh, I think that I got fascinated with it as a child, the idea of a baron on a Wolfe island, you know and a French baron at that, out the middle of nowhere in lilac groves.

It's pretty romantic looking little place.

- [[Narrator]] As interest in the thousand Islands.

And along with it, trade and tourism grew, people looked for a way to travel by boat through Wolfe Island rather than making the sometimes treacherous journey around the island.

- The canal runs about two and a half miles through the center of the island.

The canal was built between 1853 and 1857 as a shortcut through Wolfe Island for mariners to avoid going across the head of Wolfe Island 'cause you have the full fury of Lake Ontario at your back.

It can be a very dangerous crossing to get goods to the United States.

It was meant to be a rail link to link with railroads in Kingston and railroads in upstate New York to transport goods to New York City, Boston, et cetera.

It was plagued with all kinds of failures.

Groundings, silting ins, really was it's a romantic story, but a failed experiment.

It was never commercially viable.

It never made anybody any money.

The only people that benefited from the canal were the islanders themselves.

So we used to use it as a shortcut.

You could get through it in a canoe even today but it's fallen on hard times.

It seems every five or six years there are movements around to open it up for canoeing, dredge it out and I like to think it would be open again someday.

- [[Narrator]] The wind that often makes the Great Lakes a perilous journey for Mariners also has economic benefits on land as a sustainable energy source.

- The wind turbines started arriving here in 2008.

I believe there were 86 of them distributed a lot up here at the head of the island.

The most western part of Wolfe Island is where the turbines are and that's where they catch the most wind.

They are hooked up to Ontario Hydro and they help feed the hydro lines.

- [[Narrator]] Wolfe Island is only accessible by ferry.

Visitors can catch the ferry outta Kingston, Ontario or Cape Vincent New York for day trips or overnight stays.

The Wolfe Island Ferry operates year-round from Kingston Ontario and is free.

Horns Ferry out of Cape Vincent operates during the warmer months and fees apply.

Schedules are available online.

If you are an American, you will need a passport or enhanced license to enter Canada.

(horn tooting) - For more information on the history of Wolfe Island or to visit the Old House Museum just go to WolfeeIslandhistoricalsociety.org.

We round things out tonight with some regional music.

Gretchen Koehler of Potsdam shares her visual music compositions called Fiddling with Traditions.

You really have to see it to appreciate it.

Here she is with pianist Daniel Kelly and her son, Sylvan Foisy composing to the likes of Paper maker folk artist, Todd Moe.

- My name is Gretchen Koehler and I'm a traditional fiddle player.

(fiddle pizzing) Fiddling with Traditions is a new suite of handcrafted fiddle tunes that were inspired by Northern New York folk artists.

I, during the pandemic, I felt very isolated and I was looking for a new way to compose something to get me excited about composing again really.

And so I partnered with TAUNY Traditional Arts in Upstate New York and found folk artists that I could talk to and think about how they use their hands, talk to them about their creative process.

And I looked for anything that they did in their work to see if I could put it into composing a fiddle tune.

I met with a paper maker named Todd Moe and one of the things he said about making paper is that it makes him feel so calm and so happy, so zen.

He's out in nature collecting all the ingredients that he needs to make his paper.

And so I wanted to really write a tune that was in harmony with nature.

When the paper's dry, he was showing me that he does this he shakes it and he listens for the rattle.

And the minute that he did that with his hand, I had this deep connection to that's the same motion I do when I play Irish music.

So I had a genre, I was like, oh I need to make a tune that has a lot of the stutter bow in there to mimic what he's doing in his work.

So then I have this slowed piece, so I needed something fast and I decided to write a a step dance tune.

My son is an Ottawa Valley step dancer, and so in this music video you'll see Syl dancing to this tune.

It was such a joy to work with him.

This tune, the medley is called "Pulling Paper and Shakes, Rattles and Rolls."

("Pulling Paper/Shakes, Rattles & Rolls") - That does it for this Tuesday evening.

Please join us next time for a fresh look inside the stories.

Johnny Spezzano is back in the kitchen with one of WPBS's very own fisherman, Mike Ortiz talks fishing and fileting and what it takes to fire, grill the perfect fish.

And EmpowerHer camp at John Dillon Park in the Adirondack Park teaches independent living and survival skills from disabled women mentors.

We'll take you there for the experience.

Also the Thousand Islands Wanderer Mitch Beatty visits the Thousand Islands Playhouse in Gananoque for a behind the scenes look at the Jersey Boys Production.

Meantime, if you have a story idea you'd like us to explore, drop us an email at WPBSweekly@wpbstv.org and let's share it with the region.

That's it for now, great having you here tonight.

We'll see you all real soon.

- "WPBS Weekly Inside The Stories" is brought to you by the Watertown Oswego Small Business Development Center, a free resource offering confidential business advice for those interested in starting or expanding their small business.

Serving Jefferson Lewis and Oswego Counties since 1986.

Online at watertown.nysbdc.org.

Additional funding provided by the J.M.

McDonald Foundation, the Dr. D Susan Badenhausen Legacy Fund of the Northern New York Community Foundation and the New York State Education Department.

("Pulling Paper & Shakes, Rattles & Rolls")