- [Joleene] Tonight on WPBS Weekly, Inside the Stories, a program that keeps seniors active while helping other seniors is making waves in the north country discover the power of Seniors Helping Seniors.

And Collective Joy Farm in Kingston, Ontario offers fresh greens and meals from their innovative indoor farm, we'll take you there.

Also, the LeRay Mansion located on Fort Drum is jam-packed with history.

We'll take you inside to learn more.

Your stories, your region coming up right now on WPBS Weekly, inside the stories.

(soft upbeat music) - [Narrator] 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 evening everyone, and welcome to this edition of WPBS Weekly, Inside the Stories.

I'm Joleene DesRosiers.

For several weeks now we've been covering stories that shine a light on our aging population.

As part of WPBS TV's Aging Together in New York Project, we share an organization with you tonight called Seniors Helping Seniors.

As we age, we need a little guidance, a little more care, and a little more conversation.

One organization in the north country has it covered, and its managed and led by seniors.

Take a look.

Joanne and Diane Nugent-Ward are on a mission.

As co-owners of Seniors Helping Seniors, they work to provide dignity and a sense of camaraderie to our aging population in Jefferson, Lewis, St. Lawrence, Clinton, Essex, and Franklin Counties.

Today they're visiting Norm and Janet Hunneyman of Sackets Harbor.

Norm has Parkinson's disease.

He requires round-the-clock care.

Spending time with seniors in need is just one of several things this in-home service provides for seniors.

- We have providers that take folks to appointments.

They go into the doctor's office with them, so they have a second set of ears.

You know, we do the laundry, we do housekeeping, we do companionship, prepare meals for them, take them for rides, maybe get their hair done.

- Barb Hatchett has been with Seniors Helping Seniors for over a decade.

She visits Norm every Friday to play games.

- Getting a little physical here.

- [Joleene] Read.

- God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.

- [Joleene] And do exercises - Four.

Five.

- [Joleene] This respite gives Jan an opportunity to leave the house to tackle other things.

- It helps me because it gives me a chance for two hours in the morning when Barb is here, to be able to do some things.

If I have an appointment, I can go to the store, or I can go to a doctor's appointment or whatever, and Barb's been very cooperative about helping us in that manner.

- I do enjoy doing this very much.

I miss my dad, so doing this is very important, because not that he can't be old enough to be my dad, but I still- We chat, and it's important for me to chat with people.

It's important that we both talk because we need a different person to talk to.

And I live alone, and Jan and Norm do talk and family, but it's a different person coming in.

- I think that we heard about Seniors Helping Seniors through family members.

One of the ladies that worked for Seniors Helping Seniors was a friend of my daughter's.

And so through that we heard about it, and the family decided that we should have some help come in.

And so we contacted Seniors Helping Seniors, and with the help that enables us to continue to stay in our own home.

- In the beginning, Seniors Helping Seniors came about by the inspiration of Kiran Yocom.

She worked in Calcutta with Mother Teresa for years, was married, and came to the United States.

She felt she wanted to carry on Mother's ministry and what she found in Reading, PA was there were seniors who really needed some help, because family had moved away.

And then there were other seniors that had energy and desire to help others.

And so she had the brainstorm of doing Seniors Helping Seniors.

- And I don't mind at all to stand here with my Parkinson's and know that I can walk, that I can get out of a chair, that I'm not handicapped in any way with my life.

- [Joleene] Those utilizing the program can pay using long-term care insurance, self-pay, or through the office for the aging where the cost may be covered or offered on a sliding scale.

Respite grants are also available.

For these ladies, finding a way to make it work for families is a priority, especially because the aged population is often put on the back burner and devalued.

But not in the world of Seniors Helping Seniors.

- I think that the need for seniors gets lost because there's a diminishing value as someone ages.

And the less they can physically do or understand, the less value society puts on them.

And these are the people that have allowed us to be where we are today.

- For more information on Seniors Helping Seniors, visit seniorcarenorthernny.com.

In Sackets Harbor for WPBS Weekly, I'm Joleene DesRosiers.

This interview is part of WBPS TV's Aging Together in New York project and is produced in association with the New York State Office for the Aging and the New York State Education Department.

For more interviews and stories on senior isolation, visit wpbstv.org.

From Canada tonight, fresh produce and high quality foods are available to folks in Kingston by way of Collective Joy Farm.

This small indoor farm in the heart of the city is changing the way Canadians buy local fresh foods.

If you're not familiar with them, here's your first look at this innovative and highly revered farm.

- [Gail] Farming is an honorable profession.

It is hard work, and oftentimes a thankless job.

Building a farm business can be difficult, but building a resilient local food system has become increasingly important.

For one local Kingston farmer, with a different business model, a different and unique way of growing is proving that small-scale farming may be one solution.

- All my life I wanted to be a farmer.

I was a... Part of my life I grew up in the country, a larger part of my life I was in the city moving around a lot.

But I had these early memories of being in the countryside and walking around outside with my dog, and being in the garden, and I always wanted to get back there my whole life.

So I bought a farm, I started to farm and I got to work.

- [Gail] After years of perfecting her skills and her business model, Tammara went from farming in a rural setting to an urban setting.

Instead of growing on her farm and bringing her produce to sell in the city, she literally moved the whole farm to the city.

Collective Joy is a new indoor year-round farm right in the heart of downtown Kingston.

- I specialize in microgreens, herbs and edible flowers, and then I have a line of plant-based food made from that fresh produce.

The great thing about this space is I grow it all right here.

Then I prepare the food right here, and then I sell it right here.

Or I go to local restaurants, I go to farmer's markets, I go to events and I sell it there.

So it's all a very, very small radius of travel, transportation, everything's really fresh, so it works really well.

I've only been here a month, and the response from the community has been amazing.

- Collective Joy is, I feel like what we've been missing from our diet at home before.

Getting to have those vegetables so close to home is wonderful.

- I feel like it's really important for us to shop local when we can.

It's really amazing too in winter, there's not a lot of choices for seasonal products.

And the fact that she's growing inside means that we can have greens, and edible flowers, and microgreens all year round.

- [Gail] We need more small farmers who are providing high quality food on a local level, so that we can withstand things like supply chain interruptions, and the various things we have experienced in the last few years.

If we have a good local food system with many producers being supported by people on a local level, we will have a stronger food system overall.

No matter what happens globally - It's different.

It's more accessible, it's closer to community organizations, schools, it's closer to other businesses, so the potential for collaborations literally like goes up overnight.

The second I got here, I had so many requests for different kinds of collaborations, and that's how I run my business.

I look at it like a collaborative growth opportunity in terms of working with other businesses, community organizations, because my mission, the whole point of this, is to do my part to increase access to fresh food.

That's all I'm really trying to do here, and I am doing it every day in my way.

And hopefully in the future I can do it in a larger way by sharing what I've built with other people.

- It really is the new way of farming.

Because if you think about it, how many people in the world now live in an urban setting.

And there's less rural property use for farming and, you know, you can control a lot of the climatic conditions indoors that you can't do outdoors.

It really is a different way of farming.

- [Gail] The growing season is very short in Canada compared to many parts of the world.

But with a business model like Collective Joy, you could grow year-round, and grow nutrient-dense food in literally any indoor space.

It could be done in any city, in any underused space, anywhere in the world.

- I honestly see the potential for something like this on every street corner.

Maybe it'll take 50 years to get there, but why not?

If we can have a Becker's store, or we can have a gas station, why can't we have a family-operated small farm on every street corner in every city in the world producing fresh food for their neighbors?

It's like, it's so fun and it's so good.

And it's so possible.

If I can do it, anyone can do this.

It takes dedication, hard work, know-how, you know?

But now there's more and more information available online.

I offer consultations.

I have a strong business model here that I hope to share in the future.

I think there's definitely a future for this.

I think it's, like I said, one thing that's needed out of many solutions.

It's a very, very complicated system.

What we can grow here is limited to fresh greens, some herbs, some flowers, things like that.

We we're not on a scale to do tomatoes and the kinds of things, but what we can offer is nutrient-dense greens year-round, and that's valuable.

- [Gail] Microgreens are especially suited for indoor growing on a small neighborhood farm scale.

Indoor growing is great, as it uses very little inputs, very little growing medium, small amounts of water, and you don't need heavy equipment.

There is a place for lots of solutions we need right now for food, and this is one of them.

- People love it.

They see the plants growing, they can't help themselves, they come in, they wanna know what's going on.

They wanna see what's happening in here because it's different.

And because they see life, they see plants, they see the word farm in the middle of the city, they're curious.

And as far as I know this is the first of its kind anywhere.

- You see people walking past the windows here, and they look in and they'll then turn around and come back in and say, "What is this?"

You can see that what they do is they look in and they go, "Wow."

(Hart chuckles) - [Gail] For WPBS weekly, I'm Gail Paquette.

- For more information on subscriptions or weekly meal plans, visit collectivejoyfarm.com, or visit the Memorial Center Farmer's Market in Kingston on Sundays.

History buffs, have we got an historic mansion for you.

The LeRay Mansion at Fort Drum has been a vital piece of north country history for over two centuries.

Step inside the historic estate of James LeRay de Chaumont, and discover the story of the mansion, the man, and the family that lived within.

- [Dr. Laurie] This mansion at one point was known as the White House of the North.

- [Luke] Built in 1808, then later rebuilt in the 1820s, The LeRay Mansion has stood the test of time for 200 years.

It began as the main estate of one of Northern New York's greatest benefactors, James LeRay de Chaumont - James LeRay is often referred to as the father of northern New York.

He understood the importance of investing in communities in order to make his development efforts successful.

- [Luke] While James LeRay is well-known for investing in land in northern New York, his family is famous for contributing to the American Revolution.

- The LeRay family donated actually, and also loaned ships and men and uniforms and other material to the American revolutionary cause.

And at the end of the war, they also invested in Continental dollars.

But as the US Continental Congress went bankrupt at the end of the American Revolution, and became clear that there was going to be no option to repay the LeRay family, as a result, James LeRay, the son Jacques, took what was remaining of the family fortune and decided he would attempt to make back the family money by investing in land, along with his brother-in-law and other partners in northern New York.

- [Luke] The LeRay Mansion is one of James LeRay's earliest investments.

Originally located in the village of LeRay's Ville, It was where he spent most of his time while in America.

- James LeRay first came to the estate in the 1808 time period.

And he also brought his daughter and her new husband there, Therese LeRay de Gouvello, and her husband Hippolyte, the Marquis de Gouvello.

Their first child was born here and sadly passed away here from smallpox.

- [Luke] It's not the only place where members of the LeRay family lived.

Relatives also built homes in other parts of northern New York.

- His son, Vincent, for whom the village of Cape Vincent is named, built a mansion in Cape Vincent a beautiful stone mansion that still exists today.

And because the trip to Cape Vincent took a while from LeRay, LeRay's Ville here at the time, they also invested in a home and a tavern at the crossing of the Chaumont River in the village that's now known as Chaumont, which of course is their family name.

- [Luke] LeRay stayed in the mansion until 1836, when he settled his estate.

The Mansion was bought and sold from family to family until Fort Drum expanded into LeRay's Ville.

- In 1940 when Fort Drum expanded, the mansion and the estate was included in the eminent domain takings as part of the plan for the enlarged training areas.

The mansion at that time had just been restored by Colonel Harold Remington, and his wife Margaret.

And they were devastated by the idea that the mansion would be taken.

But they didn't have a choice in the matter.

They fought about it in court, but ultimately the Army took the property.

- [Luke] Today, the mansion has been converted to serve a dual purpose; inviting the public to pay a visit while working to preserve the history of the house and Fort Drum land.

- We're extremely grateful to Lieutenant General Walter Piatt, who was our division commander here at the time, because he made the decision to make the LeRay Mansion Historic District, the home of our natural and cultural resources programs.

So we've moved the cultural resources offices to two of the bedrooms upstairs.

The rest of the mansion is open as a museum and also is available for social gatherings.

Rachel's house, the quarters for the enslaved members of the household is becoming the main offices for our archeological survey.

And the Historic Land Office is going to be the home of our archeological collections.

And the farm manager's cottage is going to become a small event space and natural resources education area.

- [Luke] Thanks to the Fort Drum Cultural Resources program, the history of the LeRay Mansion remains preserved and intact for the public to see.

- It's an incredible privilege to be able to come to work at a place like LeRay Mansion.

And since we've opened it in 2018, we've received tremendous appreciation and gratitude from people, not just within the Fort Drum community, but from throughout northern New York.

And I don't know how many times, especially elderly people have said to me, "I've lived in this region for 60 years or 80 years, and I've heard about the mansion, but I've never had a chance to actually visit before."

The mansion is currently available also for Fort Drum families who want to host and appreciate special events here.

Or military units that maybe want to have a holiday luncheon, or a family readiness group meeting.

And I can tell you this building is really, really busy heading into the holiday season.

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

- If you'd like to visit the LeRay Mansion for a tour, reach out with interest by calling 315-772-9043, or email drumhistorytour@gmail.com.

Before we wrap things up for the evening, we want to introduce you to Kakaow.

Ricky Brandt is the psychedelic and funk-infused multi-instrumentalist from Kingston, Ontario.

Melding electronic music with live electric guitar, Kakaow will melt your mind.

(upbeat electronic music) (upbeat electronic guitar music) That does it for us this Tuesday evening, please join us next time for a fresh look inside the story.

We continue to educate the public on the overdose epidemic.

Learn how Oswego County helps early offenders struggling with addiction so they avoid jail and experience recovery instead.

And the strawberry is called the leader of all, and a sacred plant to the Irokoi.

We'll tell you how the Akwesasne celebrates this berry.

Also, pickleball is growing fast.

WPBS gives you a first look at a brand new pickleball facility in Kingston.

Meantime, we wanna tell your story.

If you or someone in your community has something meaningful, historic, inspirational, or educational to share, please email us at wpbsweekly@wpbstv.org and let's share it with the region.

Thanks so much for joining us.

We'll see you next time, goodnight - [Narrator] 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.

(upbeat electronic music)