- [Stephfond] Tonight on WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories, 12 months, 12 feats, 12 charities.

Meet an Ottawa man pushing the limits to raise money for several causes.

And what's in a burrito?

Grill master Spencer Watt shares a fun summertime treat that you won't want to miss.

Also, what does it take to keep the trails of the Adirondacks clear?

Meet the trailblazers keeping them safe for you.

All of this and more coming up 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, a public resource offering confidential business advice for starting or expanding a small business.

- Good Tuesday evening, everyone.

I'm Stephfond Brunson.

Welcome to another edition of WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories.

We all have a favorite charity we donate to, but for one man in Ottawa, he's giving to more than one in a very unique way.

Starting in March of this year, Alex Dorward began doing a physical or mental feat each month to raise money.

With September just around the bend, he has many months to go.

His cause is called 12beCause, and here's why he's doing it.

- The initiative's called 12beCause, and the idea here is I'm doing 12 separate feats, so it could be a physical or mental feat over the course of 12 months for 12 different charities.

And the idea here was during the pandemic I realized a lot of obviously individuals, a lot of businesses, but also charities had a lot of challenges.

So for instance, obviously people that were under financial stress wouldn't be donating as much, businesses wouldn't be donating as much, and on top of that, a lot of fundraisers that typically a charity is getting quite a bit of money from were unable to be held due to COVID restrictions.

In some cases, charities even lost money.

I recognized I wanted to help out, because overall I've been pretty fortunate, so I wanted to help out, and to do that, I couldn't really volunteer in person.

Like for instance, I couldn't volunteer at a homeless shelter, because I care for my parents in particular, my dad, I drive him to his chemo appointments, so I have to be pretty COVID-friendly, for lack of a better term.

So I couldn't really do those sort of initiatives.

So instead this way I can still raise money, still see people outside, but not have to do anything indoors that would put myself, or others, or my family at risk.

So I thought to myself, "What can I do that's kind of unique, might get people interested, but also keep me physically and mentally motivated through probably another COVID year?"

So I thought, "Okay, why don't I do one event, or one different feat every single month for 12 months?"

I thought, "Okay, well, what charity should I do?

Well, let's just do 12 charities."

It's too difficult in my opinion, to choose one charity.

And also in terms of fundraising, it's much easier when you give people choice, because maybe some people might be more interested in a local charity, or some people might be interested in something that has more of an international impact.

So by having 12 charities divided between local, national, and international charities, it gives people more opportunity to donate based on their preferences.

In terms of feats, I've, as you know, I've got 12 feats.

For April, it's a international charity, it's water.org.

And to do that, the feat is kind of symbolic.

I'm carrying 20 liters of water for six kilometers in sandals, and the reason why I'm doing that is because that's the average distance and amount of water that people, that women and children in Asia and Africa have to carry every single day.

So I'm doing this one day, and it's a challenge.

May is the, probably my one I'm looking forward to the most, not because it's my favorite charity, or anything like that.

I like them all equally, but because it's probably the most relaxing.

I'm doing a paddle and portage through Ottawa, so down the Rideau river, down the Ottawa, to basically what they would call it the indigenous highways, where the Gatineau, the Ottawa, and the Rideau all intersect.

And that's why Ottawa was a meeting place, because of those water highways, so to speak.

And that's for Minwaashin Lodge.

So Minwaashin Lodge is a local indigenous women's shelter that I volunteered at before.

June, I am skipping for one hour straight.

This one, again sounds pretty easy, but get a skipping rope, and skip for five minutes consistently, and you'll be pretty exhausted.

So I'm doing this for an hour.

I've been training so far.

At first, I did five minutes, and I was exhausted.

I thought there was no chance of me doing an hour.

Now I'm up to 40 minutes, but unfortunately getting pretty bad shin splints now from constantly jumping.

So I was hoping to not get injured until after at least a couple of feats, but, oh well, that's already started.

So that one is for the Heart and Stroke Foundation, I think it was called Heart and Stroke Canada now.

That one kinda is nostalgic to when I was a kid, and I used to do Jump Rope for Heart, and I haven't skipped since then, until now, so it's been a long time.

I remember skipping being a lot easier as a kid.

July I'm doing a four-hour submersion under water.

I'm a certified PADI dive master, and diving is a big passion of mine.

And the idea here is to raise awareness towards the ocean for the World Wildlife Fund.

Then in August, I'm doing an Olympic triathlon again for War Child.

I did that two years ago.

I'm going to do it again this year.

Not entirely sure how I'm going to train since the pools, I imagine will continue to be closed, but I'll find a way.

September, I'm doing a marathon for Terry Fox Foundation.

That's gonna be tough, what I'm dreading the most, because I actually hate running.

Similar to walking, it's slow, so I don't really enjoy it that much, but I'm gonna do it anyways.

People can help help me out in a couple of ways.

One, they can just share the initiative.

You see this broadcast, you see my website, just share it.

Any of my social on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, you can share that.

Any, even if people aren't donating, I'm still happy that people are raising awareness for the charities, and what's actually, what they're standing for.

People can also feel free to donate.

You can go to my website 12because.ca.

Donate button right at the top there, that'll take you to a website called canadahelps.org.

There, you can donate, you can allocate money to any charities that you want, any combination.

Primarily, if you can share and donate, that'd be terrific.

Or if you want to volunteer at those at those charities or initiatives, that'd be terrific as well.

It doesn't have to be through my initiative.

I'm happy with any impact.

(upbeat music) - As Labor Day approaches, professional trail workers for the Adirondack Mountain Club are hard at work, keeping trails clean and clear for you.

It's part of a recent initiative to increase the trail sustainability with the recent influx of hikers.

PBS mountain lake producer, Michael Hanson takes you to the trails.

- The first day you get out on the trail, and start doing actual trail work, you're like, "Oh, wow, this is legit, this is hard.

I've got to learn what I can fast."

So that includes relying on the people around you, and asking them for help and suggestions.

But we are professional trail workers for the Adirondack Mountain Club.

- So this is called setting rocks, and the goal is to get them in a position where they're relatively sturdy, and won't really move too much when you kick them from any direction.

And that's to make sure that over time, as the ground heaves, and people walk on it, and it gets wear and tear, that they won't pop out of place.

We're getting people up out of the mud, so when they step down, it's not displacing material and sediment, causing it to erode off.

It's also going to keep people on one concentrated section of trail, instead of coming to a muddy section, and then wanting to walk around it, and making it even wider and wider.

- So what we're doing is helping to create these trails, so that people can be using them, and they're not going to completely erode away on us.

So there'll be there for everyone to use, and everyone to use for a while.

So we're creating sustainable trails that will last.

A lot of the trails are really old here, versus out west they're very new, and they're built to be sustainable, because they were built very recently, versus our trails were built a long time ago, so they were just kind of cut to be the quickest way to a point, so they were not built sustainably.

So what we're doing is going back to make them last for everyone.

- You kind of have to think about your average everyday person, who maybe is on their first or second hike.

What are they going to want to do?

Where are they going to want to walk?

And how can we make it easy for them to get from point A to point B, while staying on the trail, and staying out of the vegetation.

A lot of time goes into it to make it look natural, and make it be very clearly the way that people are going to want to walk.

- So the point of breaking the rocks down is we want to fill up as much space as possible.

So on the bottom layer, we're going to have these larger rocks kind of like this size.

And when I'm breaking them down, we're getting closer and closer to the top of this, so we don't want it overflowing, because then crush just runs off the trail, and causes more erosion.

So the point of crushing it down is to just make a nice, even walking surface.

People would much rather walk on smaller sized rocks, than trying to rock hop.

- Especially around here in the high peaks, there's a lot of use, and seeing the wear and tear that they go through it, you know, it gets you thinking when you're hiking, you wish could help somehow.

And it's important, because I really care about more than having good hiking opportunity for everybody, which is extremely important.

I want to protect the ecosystem, because this place is beautiful, and is being greatly impacted.

- One thing I've learned is that the best way to get people involved in caring about the environment is to get them out in it, and experiencing it.

So being able to give them a way to do that, and have it not be totally daunting, or have them not just be tearing up the trails while they're doing it is super important.

Just seeing like, parts of the trails that we work on that are like, the worst of the worst.

Like, people won't go over like, a mud puddle.

Instead, they'll walk around through the brush, and just trample a whole bunch of vegetation.

It's hard to see that.

So when we're doing this stuff, we're trying to make it as manageable as possible for every type of person.

So the trails can be maintained, and everything around it can stay natural.

(laughing) - You definitely have to enjoy what you're doing.

So you have to, you have to care a little bit about the environment, and understand that like, okay, yeah, I'm building this trail for a reason, so it's got to look a certain way.

- These rocks aren't just placed there all like willy-nilly from a storm or something.

They're like, very purposely placed, and they take hours.

- You have to kind of take pride in things that you do as well.

Like if you're a kind of person who just throws something together and it's like, "Yeah, that looks fine," you're not really going to do great things on trail work, because if you do that, it might just fall apart in five, 10 years after use.

- It's a really important job I think, and I'm really grateful to be part of it, and to create something that's gonna hopefully outlast me, and allow for people to really enjoy this beautiful area, and hopefully you want to conserve it as well.

- Some of you may be grilling on Labor Day next week.

If so, we've got a fresh idea to share.

Spencer Watts of Watts on the Grill makes a banana burrito to close out your summer with sweetness.

(upbeat music) - [Spencer] Today is all about barbecue and bananas, including a decadent dessert, barbecued banana burritos.

And when I think of summertime, I think of cherries, and you can't make a barbecued banana burrito without summertime cherries.

Glass bottle, cherry, and a chopstick, check this out.

Cherry's intact, pit at the bottom.

Now just a little cherry pitting to do.

(upbeat music) Let's make some banana burritos.

I really like putting the tortillas on the grill.

They just kind of warm up a little bit, and they make it nice and easy to handle.

And to glue it all together, a little bit of melted butter, and a little bit of sugar.

It's going to act like caramel once it heats up, and it's going to seal the whole burrito together.

Let's do this.

(upbeat music) Okay, I'm going to start with the banana, about one for each burrito.

Yes.

And I like lots of cherries, banana, and tons of cherries.

Pack them in there, okay.

And then for some extra decadence, a little bit of melted chocolate.

You can use whatever chocolate you like.

This is semi-sweet, it's perfect.

(upbeat music) Hashtag cheat day.

It's easy to roll them up, just drop the sides in, bring it over, tuck it in real nice, real nice, and then roll.

And you have a banana, chocolate, and cherry burrito, barbecue worthy.

Let's do it again, this is great.

(upbeat music) So medium to high heat is perfect, and a little oil on the grill to help with the non-stick.

If you have kids, they're going to love these.

I put them with the crease side down, so it sticks together, and you're off to the races.

(upbeat music) Barbecue banana, cherry burrito.

(upbeat music) This is great.

That's exactly what you want to see.

You only need it on there for a little bit of time.

You just kind of want to warm everything up, and then you're in cherry, chocolate, banana heaven.

El burrito finisho.

(chuckling) I get to eat it, I get to eat it.

I like to just take the ends off, and then cut it in half, right down the middle.

Seriously ,charred tortilla, banana, smooth chocolate, fruity cherries, it's got it all.

(upbeat music) These look really great.

It's just dying for some whipped cream.

And I just like to finish it with just a little bit of fresh cherries, and a little bit of fresh mint.

I guess there's only one way to find out if bananas work work in desserts, gotta taste it.

(upbeat music) Bye-bye.

(chuckling) I'm a kid again.

It's really good, the banana goes with chocolate, chocolate goes with banana, chocolate goes with cherries, and wrapped up in the tortilla with the sugar and the butter.

I'm going to make this with my nephew Wyatt, for sure.

- Lighthouses are the castles of the waterways.

They are historic beacons of light that have guided ships and other watercraft for centuries.

In tonight's destination piece, we take you on a tour of the Lighthouse Islands in the Thousand Islands.

- [Narrator] The story of the Thousand Islands begins tens of thousands of years ago at the hand of Mother Nature.

Receding glaciers of the last ice age carved the great lakes out of the vast North American river basin.

Melting glaciers filled these five new sisters with fresh water searching for a path to the sea.

The Laurentian River had served the ancient watershed, but now covered with ice, it had to be rerouted from the spout of Lake Ontario to meet its old path near what is now the Quebec New York border.

The new river, the St. Lawrence cascaded to the Atlantic Ocean, submerging hundreds of granite knolls, and their larger limestone and sandstone partners.

In all, more than 1800 islands were formed.

The exact number has fluctuated over the centuries, due to river levels.

The vegetation on each ranges from mosses to maples.

To be considered an island, these rocky outcroppings must be above water year round, and support at least one tree.

The first French explorers of the 16th century christened the 60 mile stretch the Thousand Islands.

The Iroquois called the archipelago Manitouana, or Garden of the Great Spirit.

The first white French and English settlers to arrive in the Thousand Islands reportedly found a few scattered Iroquois on the shores of Chippewa Bay, and in a small village known as Antoniotta.

Antoniotta is believed to have been located either on Tar or Grenadier Island, or Cook's Point, east of present day Rockport, Ontario.

The Iroquois were farmers as well as hunters, and Antoniotta was likely surrounded by cornfields and apple orchards.

The earliest explorers, Jacques Cartier, Rene-Robert LaSalle, and Count Louis Frontenac undoubtedly made Antoniotta one of their first stops as they traveled up river from the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and through the Brockville Narrows.

Just west of Brockville, the St. Lawrence widens to more than double its downriver width, as the Thousand Islands begin.

Straight ahead is Grenadier Island, and to the south lies Chippewa bay, home to 20 or 30 islands.

(happy music) The Lighthouse Board of the United States Treasury Department constructed both Rock Island Lighthouse, near Fisher's Landing, New York, and Sunken Rock Lighthouse of Alexandria Bay, New York.

Both lighthouses became operational in 1847.

Sunken Rock Lighthouse marks a dangerous submerged rock just off Alexandria Bay.

The lighthouse was built by constructing a foundation on top of the sunken rock, and converting it into an island.

The original brick tower was replaced in 1882 by this iron structure.

The light was converted to solar in 1988, and is now owned by the St Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation.

The first lighthouse at Rock Island was a combination lighthouse and keepers' residence.

In 1882, the building was replaced by separate structures.

A conical iron tower was erected at the center of the island.

A few yards away, a Victorian shingle-style dwelling was constructed.

However, the lighthouse was difficult to see through the trees and building obstructions, and resulted in several shipwrecks.

In 1903, the tower was moved to the end of a concrete walkway near the edge of the island.

Several other buildings were added to the station through the years, most of which survive today, the carpenter shop, generator house and boathouse, and smokehouse.

In 2010, the Thousand Island State Park and Recreation Commission began a massive rehabilitation of the site, and Rock Island Lighthouse State Park opened in 2013.

The island and its buildings are open to the public.

The light itself was converted to solar power in 1988, but is no longer used as a navigational lead.

Guarding the rocky American shoreline, where Lake Ontario empties into the St. Lawrence's southern shipping channel is the light at Tibbet's Point, three miles west of Cape Vincent.

This beacon of safe passage began operating in 1827.

In 1854, the first tower was replaced by the present circular one, and a Fresnel lens installed.

The lighthouse features the only original working Fresnel lens on Lake Ontario.

The first keeper's dwelling was built in 1880, and a second keeper's house was added in 1907.

Both are now home to an American youth hostel.

A fog whistle was added in 1896, and replaced with an air diaphone in 1927.

- This is the part in the program where we feature a regional artist, and it's one of our favorite parts.

Tonight, we feature Annett Miller, and her country twang and original rhythms will have you humming along.

Here she is with Hannawa Falls.

- Hi, I'm Annette Miller.

I wrote this song a few years back.

I was out in St. Lawrence County one day.

Didn't want to be where I was, didn't know where I was going, and I wasn't happy about it, until I turned south on 56 outside of Pottstown.

(strumming guitar) ♪ I like bourbon on my throat ♪ ♪ I like kisses on my chin ♪ ♪ I like strangers, some girls don't ♪ ♪ I like places I've never been ♪ ♪ This day started out the worst ♪ ♪ A cloudy day stuck in my car ♪ ♪ All around God's green earth ♪ ♪ Then the sun came out in Hannawa Falls ♪ ♪ Hannawa Falls.

.

.Hannawa Falls ♪ ♪ Pine trees reachin' to the sky ♪ ♪ A mirrored lake, a tiny bar ♪ ♪ LOVE for sale by the roadside ♪ ♪ Leaves have changed in Hannawa Falls ♪ ♪ Hannawa Falls.

.

.Hannawa Falls ♪ ♪ I like places I've never been ♪ ♪ Roads I've never been down before ♪ ♪ Wipe the whiskey from my chin ♪ ♪ Better pour me just one more ♪ ♪ When you're blue and impatient ♪ ♪ Clouds eventually roll along ♪ ♪ The sun comes out in strange places ♪ ♪ It's always green in Hannawa Falls ♪ ♪ Hannawa Falls.

.

.Hannawa Falls ♪ ♪ Hannawa Falls.

.

.Hannawa Falls ♪ ♪ Hannawa Falls.

.

.Hannawa Falls ♪ Or something like that.

- That does it for us this Tuesday evening.

Join us next week for a fresh look Inside the Stories.

A documentary released earlier this year dives into three indigenous architects in Canada, using their cultural heritage as inspiration for designs.

Also the Lake Placid Olympic Center gets a million dollar facelift.

Is it a sign for a future Olympic site?

We'll have all these stories and more.

Meantime, if you have a story idea you'd like to see us explore, or you're a musician or poet that would like to be featured, email us at wpbsweekly@wpbstv.org.

Until then, good night.

- [Announcer] WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories is brought to you by the Watertown Oswego Small Business Development Center offers confidential business advice for those interested in starting or expanding their small business, a public resource serving Jefferson, Lewis, and Oswego Counties since 1986.

♪ Down before ♪ ♪ Wipe the whiskey from my chin ♪ ♪ Better pour me just one more ♪ ♪ When you're blue and impatient ♪ ♪ Clouds eventually roll along.

♪