Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY EP.125 | 2026 Winter Fair Press Conference

Episode Date: November 20, 2025

Exciting Announcements for Syracuse Winter Fair 2026 In this announcement video, the organizers of the Syracuse Winter Fair reveal exciting details and acknowledgments for the upcoming 2026 event. The Fair will be held at the New York State Fair's Expo Center and will feature rides, entertainment, food, and special activities focused on children. The Fair is dedicated to the late Van Robinson, an instrumental figure in its inception, and his contributions will be honored through the Pan-African Village. Various local dignitaries and community leaders express their support and excitement, including Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh, State Senator Rachel May, and County Executive Ryan McMahon. New sponsors like Destiny USA and AmeriCU Credit Union are introduced, and the event will also feature unique attractions such as live reindeer, a healthcare village, and a winter campfire sing-along led by local Scouts. The Boys and Girls Clubs of Syracuse will benefit from fundraising efforts at the Fair. Organizers encourage community participation and highlight the event's economic and cultural benefits. 00:00 Opening Remarks and Acknowledgements 01:16 Dedication to Van Robinson 02:06 Linda Brown Robinson's Speech 06:11 State and Local Support 14:42 Partnership Announcements 24:25 Boys and Girls Clubs of Syracuse 30:55 Upcoming Winter Fair Highlights 33:20 Closing Remarks

Instagram teen accounts have automatic protections for what teens see and who can contact them. Plus, time management tools. And Instagram will continue adding built-in safety features to help create age-appropriate experiences. Learn more about teen accounts and Instagram's ongoing work to protect teens online at Instagram.com slash teen accounts. It's a gentle cruising. You start to see the village, almost like a painting. Join me, travel expert Darley, Newman and Uniworld Boutique River Cruises Loebate, Bali, to learn about river cruising in France. As we have been sailing there for decades, we have been able to create deep connection

with the local communities. Local connections make exploring France easy. Tune into the Travels with Darley podcast on IHeart and wherever you listen to podcasts, to hear about river cruising and Unirond's 50th anniversary summer specials. First of all, I'd like to thank Ed Wiley with our hotel here, Marriott, Downtown Surve. here for Ed and the staff I see Lindsay and they do a great job and this is a special year for us it's going to be our seventh edition and it's just amazing we want to thank the New York State Fair we've been holding it in the Expo Center that's over a hundred thousand square feet it is a great facility we

pack it with rides and entertainment and food it's more summer fun into the winter, something very unique. We want to attract people from all over, not only from Central New York, but New York State and out of state and such, and we'll give you some details how we're going to be able to do that. But we're also doing a theme this year, which will be about look to the children. All of our daytime activities will be centered around students ranging from elementary school up through college. And we'll give you a lot of you some details on that but before I really get underway I want to let you know that we're dedicating our Syracuse Winter Fair 2026 to the honorable

Van B Robinson let's hear for Van Van was very instrumental in helping us get off the ground with the idea and such we will have the Van Robinson Pan African Village there and I want to to bring up his wife who was right by his side all through these years and she is also the NAACP Western Regent Director I'd like to bring up Linda Brown Robinson let's hear it for her good morning everyone okay let's hear it for Steve so when I prepared this because I'm old and halfway blind, I should have made the FART figure, so you're going

to have to bear with me. So as we all know, Steve is an advocate and an entrepreneur for this community, and Steve really does all he can for this community, even without being asked, he still does it. So, Van and I got to know Steve. How many years ago? Many years ago, let's put it that way. too many to count. And so because of our activism,

it was an easy fit to support Winter Fair, which is an extension of the New York State Fair. So as most of you know, back when then Governor Cuomo was our governor, he committed and dedicated the Pan African Village to be Van Robinson's Pan African Village. And so moving forward, our current governor rededicated that to be Van Robinson's Pan African Village. Van and I got here in 68, and we never stopped working in this community.

So it was such an easy fit when Steve asked me to make a few remarks. I didn't have to make up anything because Steve is truly, truly a committed and dedicated community servant and he does things without ever being asked so Steve I think the whole entire community is humbled and proud that you do all of this for your community so that's what Van and I wanted to do always assist Steve in helping him to realize his dreams for this community so where else in but the queues can you go fishing, can you eat candy cotton, jump on these little bouncy things that I would probably kill myself, but at Winterfair. So when Steve thought of this idea, and I

don't even know how the brainstorm came about, it's not important, but it came about, and so where else can you go to support the community, which he does in every aspect? I was a former board member for the Boys and Girls Club. And so I know all the good Steve did for the Boys and Girls Club and every other community organization. Steve gives his whole, his heart. And so thank you, Steve, for being our community advocate. Thank you for honoring Van and myself. We would do it anyway because that's just who we are.

You know, we were taught to give back. So Steve, thank you very much. And let's make this winter fair best and more best. Not good English, my mother's probably gonna slap me. But we're gonna make this. And where's Alan? Is he here? Is he here?

Alan? Thank you as well. Because you get left out of this equation. Come on up here. You need to stand here. This is Steve's partner. So thank you so much. Okay.

And so support this. This talk about it in the community because our youth and he supports our youth you have to talk about it the community Talk it up talk it loud talk it proud. Thank you Steve Thank you. Let's hear it for Windex Brown Robinson Thank you and I also like to acknowledge Mike Atkins Mike was the chief of staff with Van through the years and he's been also very supportive of the Syracuse Winter Fair Thank you Mike let's hear for Mike Atkins. Now We've been getting great support from the state, county, and local as well as city of surrogous.

And you've been out there a few times, Senator. I think you were a judge on one of the, you know, one of the competitions who were doing. And we really appreciate your support. I'd like to introduce State Senator Rachel May. How wonderful to be dedicating this to me. And that is so appropriate. I just want to say Steve does amazing things for this community, but this winter fair, if you love Syracuse, you get really tired of people saying, oh, yes, Syracuse is nice, but the winters are awful.

And I don't think that. I actually love winter. But Steve is instrumental in making more people love winter, making winter be something people can look forward to, and when they're making sure that they're indoor activities as well as outdoor activities here in the winter. I really appreciate that. I did get to judge a cheering competition, I think it was, a few years ago. It was really fun. I recommend people volunteer to do these things because there's a lot going on there

and you get to know all kinds of things going on in the community that you might never have known about. So I applaud you for seven years of doing this and can't wait to see how exciting this one is. And just best of luck. Thank you very much. We also like to thank State Senator Chris Ryan. He's been very supportive as well. And we have our other assembly members. I see Matt Jones here representing Pam Hunter, Bill McNarelli. We have Dan. Dan, where are you? There he is in the back. And of course, we have Al Sterpy. But I will tell you, one of the goals that we have for Winterfair is to bring people not only to City of Saras. but to On the Docket County.

It is amazing what's happening here, and I have to dedicate a song to our county executive. When I was on the radio, I was Stereo Steve, I used to play this song by Tim Buck 3 called The Future is Right. I gotta wear shades. And I want to say he does a great job of obviously being a visionary.

a visionary I'd like to introduce our county executive Ryan McMahon what's here for Ryan. Good morning everyone and certainly it's good to be here this is such a beautiful hotel and if you think about the comeback of this community and when it really started it was when this hotel came back online which allowed us to continue to reinvest in downtown to continue to grow so it's really fitting that these types of announcements are here So Steve, thanks for doing that. Linda, it's so good to see you, and we love you,

and we love Van. And you know something about Van? You know someone's really a good guy or a good girl? If everybody wants to kind of have a piece of that, a piece of that memory. And I'm no different. You know this, we served together on the city council when I was a young guy, and he was such a great mentor.

And so this is fitting that we continue to remember him daily and so this is so nice thanks Steve for doing that for our friend Van and I saw some great us u.m. former athletes around here over here in the corner here and I saw drumming and buoy and you know that's that's cool these guys are great and as a kid you looked up and saw him play but I think what Steve's doing is important and I think the senator referenced you know we have four seasons in this community and you need to embrace that You can't hide a run from that.

And I think overall, what we also know is not everybody likes to embrace four seasons outdoors. And so what a great way to celebrate four seasons and get people back together, utilizing the entertainment infrastructure we have in the community. And Steve, you and your team put on a great show. I know you'll put on a great show here. And I think the other thing, too, that I always like to talk about when we have events like this is how the money works. You know, in county government, in city government, the only growing form of revenue, unless you raise property taxes, which quite frankly politicians don't like to do, right? That's us taking more money out of your pocket is sales tax, economic activity.

So the more you can capture spending that exists here in the community, and the more you can bring people into the community to spend money, that pays for all of the services and programs that people want us to invest in, right? And so this is another great piece, another great event that will help drive more economic activity here and out of the county. So congratulations, everybody, please participate, and Steve, great job. Thank you.

Again, let's hear it. For our Onondaga County Executive, Ryan McMahon, thank you so much. And we also have, like I said, the support of the members in the assembly as well. City of Syracuse has always been great. always been great working with Mayor Ben Walsh and we do know our incoming mayor which is Sharon Owens and Sharon would have been here but she is in New York

City right now so I want to bring up somebody who has been out to winter fair a few times he is the most active common counselor city counselor for the City of Surrogues. Morty Navi, let's hear it for Marty. So this is one of my pleasures, and it's special because we're honoring Van. And as you know, Van was very insistent of taking down 81. So a brief story, one day I was walking into VisionWorks, get eyeglasses, and Van is leaving. Van and I ended up having a big discussion in the foyer of VisionWorks, and people are coming in and out. him and I were having a discussion right into the FOIA vision works about I-81

that is the one thing I remember about that his passion and it's wonderful that we are honoring him and someone is missing here someone should be here is not here and I think of Lawrence Mowellon Lawrence Mowellon it's a terrible shame that we lost Lawrence this year in such a young age he was such a so passionate of our community. And it may be, remember, always be a blessing to all of us for what he did, for our community. He did more than us shoot hoops.

He was one of our greatest assets, and he engaged with our young people. I do want to comment that I've enjoyed the Winter Fair. This is the only place where we could go. Maybe the temperatures were going to 70s, I hear, that last weekend. It's going to be in the 70s, I hear. We hope. But it brings people together. And this is one of our greatest assets.

So, and I hope the ranger will be out there. Okay, so we got the reindeer. You're going to decorate them. So we have a lot of post-Christmas. But thank you for inviting me here. This is one of our greatest assets we have in our community. And it's an honor for me to represent the city of Syracism. Thank you, Steve.

Thank you. Thank you again, Marty. Is Daniel Mahoney here? Hey, Dan. Well, we have a brand new winter fair state sponsor. You ever hear of Destiny USA? They are coming on board, and I have to bring up Daniel Mahoney, who's working in marketing, and he's going to say a few words about how this will be a great partnership between Destiny and Syracuse Winter Fair 2026. Let's hear it for Daniel. Good morning, everybody. My name's Dan. I'm from Destiny USA. We just want to say we're super excited to partner for the first time with the Winter Fair. I think that the Winter Fair

really showcases what makes the city so special because we had so many great people and members of community coming together, especially during the cold winter months where everyone's looking for something fun to do. It shines a really great light on the city of Syracuse. We're super proud to support the event that celebrates the family-friendly fun. Not only in Destiny was Saba anywhere in the city, we really like to support all that the city has to offer. So I just want to say thank you so much for having me, and we're super excited to support this year. I believe Destiny has something going on tomorrow in the morning, another press conference at 945, the ever hear of Akea. They're going to be opening up.

So we'll definitely hope people will be coming out for that. That is special, and we want to thank Destiny USA for being a part of this. Next person I called up is working with AmeriQ charity foundation, and they've been involved. Their CEO and President Ron Bell has been very supportive. I'd like to bring up Vanessa Chiuwipka. Good morning, everyone. I just want to start off by saying on behalf of America,

I RQ Credit Union, thank you to Steve for being the driving force of the winter fair. And a lot of folks have talked about the long relationships they've had, but I've just gotten to know Steve recently. And it's been a pleasure. It's a gentle cruising. You start to see the village, almost like a painting. Join me, travel expert Darley Newman and Uneworld Boutique River Cruises Luik Bali to learn about river cruising in France. As we have been setting there for decades, we have been able to create deep connection with the local communities. Local connections make exploring France easy.

Tune into the Travels with Darley podcast on IHeart and wherever you listen to podcasts to hear about river cruising and Unirold's 50th anniversary summer specials. My name is Mackenzie, and I started to go fund me for the adoptive mother of a nonverbal autistic child. The mother had lost her job because she wasn't able to find adequate care for this autistic child. So she really needed some help with.

with living expenses, paying some back bills. So I launched a GoFundMe to help support them during this crisis. And we raised about $10,000 within just a couple of months. I think that the surprising thing was by telling a clear story and just like really being very clear about what we needed. We had some really generous donations from people who were really moved by the situation that this family was struggling with. GoFundMe is the world's number one fundraising platform

trusted by over 200 million people. Start your GofundMe today at gofundme.com. That's gofundme.com. Gofund me. This podcast is supported by Gofundme. To chit-chat and talk about how the winter fair came to be and why it's so incredibly important to our community. But the winter fair is much more than just an event.

And the word fair has some pretty significant meaning in this community. When you think fair, you think top. notch entertainment, you think about delicious local food, and of course, being family-friendly. So thank you for bringing this important event to our community. And the word connection to Amerique has very deep meaning. It's part of who we are. We love connecting with our members.

We love connecting with our communities. And this is our 75th anniversary, so we're really proud to step up and be celebrating this with the community. The Winter Fair is a true celebration of connection, of family. of fun and really it shows what makes central New York and Syracuse such a wonderful place to live work and play. We're proud to once again support this event and try to make it just a little bit easier for families visiting to provide free parking courtesy of AmeriQ Credit Ian. We look forward to the community coming together, having fun, and making memories for the 2026 Wonder Fair. Thank you. And we have another new sponsor.

we usually like to do a health care village as well, very supportive of getting information into people's hands of taking care of our health. And I want to bring her up right now. Latoya, and she is the director of Lead Safe C&Y Coalition with the United Way. Latoya Jones, come on up. Good morning, everybody. I just want to say first, thank you to Steve for his continued partnership with Led Safe C and Y Coalition and prior to me coming into this role. I'm honored to be here today on behalf of the Coalition as the Health Care Village sponsor for this year's New York State Winter Fair. This partnership represents

something truly special, a shared commitment to the health, safety, and future of our Central New York families. At Let's Safe C&Y Coalition, our strategy is simple but powerful to protect children from lead exposure and create healthier homes and communities. But we know this mission isn't something anyone organization can accomplish alone. Protecting children from lead exposure is a shared mission that knows no city limits. Lead poisoning doesn't stop at a border, a zip code, or a neighborhood line. It affects families across every community, city, town, and village. That's why awareness and prevention are so critical.

critical. When we bring partners together from public health, housing and education, and community organizations, we create real change. We are proud to partner with Steve Becker and the New York State Winter Fair and the ongoing advocacy to raise awareness about lead poisoning prevention. The Winter Fair brings people from all walks of life together, and that's exactly where the message belongs, right in the heart of our community. Through the Health Care Village, we're connecting families with information, resources, and tools. They need to keep their homes and children safe. We're empowering parents to ask questions, check their homes, and take preventive steps.

And we're reminding everyone that lead poisoning is 100% preventable, but only if we do our part. So as we gather here together to announce winter fair, let's also celebrate the power of coalition, partnerships, and the ideal that when public health advocates, community leaders, and neighbors unite around a common purpose. We can build brighter, safer futures for every child. Thank you. Thank you, LaGroia. We introduced something last year that was very, very special that, believe it or not, has never been to the fairgrounds before. Reindeer's. We had live reindeer's, two of them this past year, and

They're coming back again. And we want to thank Matt Mauser with Growth Mode Technologies for sponsoring that. But he also kicked off something very special. He does a special podcast called Good News York. It's all positive. He's talking about what a great community we have. And I want to bring up Matt right now,

because we're going to be doing some more things out at Winter Fair this year. Let's hear it for Matt. Thanks, Steve. Good morning. My name's Matt Major. This is my co-host, the state's biggest Bill's fan, Mike Brindisi. And as Steve mentioned, we have a content business.

And last year at Winter Fair, we kicked off this podcast called Good News York. Exclusively Good News. No crime, no controversy, no politics. Just great stories about people all over New York State. things to do, cool businesses, new jobs, all kinds of things like that. We kicked it off at Winter Fair and that was only about 10 months ago now. Since that time, the podcast has reached millions and millions of views across all the social media channels. We've interviewed folks from the county executive and the senator who were just here onto rock stars and next week,

we're even going to talk to a W.W.E. wrestler. So it's quite the gamut. But it's been It's done an incredible thing. And like I said, millions of people have watched this and we think we're doing our good part to spread positivity. And the other thing that's helped us kick off is a major expansion of our content business. And we announced just a week or so ago that we are moving to a massive new spot in downtown Syracuse. We're going to have a 17,000 square foot content creation studio. It will be one of the most unique resources for content creation, online video podcasting you'll find anywhere in the country. So we're really excited about that. Winter Fair and helping us kick off these efforts is a big part of it. So we're really excited to be back.

We'll be doing all kinds of sort of in-person podcasting at the event and really just having a good time. It's the most fun. My kids love this event every year. They've already been asking me about it. When are we going to Winter Fair? So very excited to be a part of it. Thank you so much, Steve, for having us there. And anybody wants to check out anything that we've got going on starting with that first episode at Winter Fair. Good NewsYork.com is the place to do that. So thank you, Steve. We have one more speaker I want to pick up, Juan. And we always like the raise funds at Winter Fair. We have the NAACP. They will be raising money through our coat check. And I see Gwen here. Hi, Gwen. And of course, Linda. So

So there is a main fundraiser that we've been doing. We've raised over $15,000 for them, and that is the Boys and Girls Clubs of Syracuse. Now, Jenny normally would have been here, but she had been called away. I want to bring up James Hastie, who will speak for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Syracuse. And I also like to bring up Roosevelt Bowie and Rob Drummond. to come up as well. Let's hear it for them. Surprise. I was always good to see you guys.

Thank you. Well, you say Syracuse and my heart starts beating fast. I was an 18-year-old kid from Camden, New York. And I said, a guy's name, Jim Beheim, came out to my school and gave me to come to Syracuse. And at that time, I was coming here to go to university, and I became a huge Syracuse fan because I was I played here and Syracuse is my adoptive city. I went to Europe for 20 years and as you

can see after 20 years I came back to Syracuse and anything anything I could do to help out the city of Syracuse call me. I'm a little bit I'm a little bit shorter to Rosie. For me it's a different feeling when I get up in front of an audience like this because I literally grew up a hundred yards away from here and primary homes. I went to the Boys and Girls Club right down the street here on East Fayette Street, you know, so in walking distance here, I mean, just so much it's happening in my life. And a lot of times people ask me as I get older, and I used to always wonder when my grandma would rough her knees. Now I know, because my knees hurt sometimes. They ache in the winter, you know, but it's Syracuse. And by that, I mean, I mean, one of the most, or one of the best feelings I've ever had as an athlete, you know, was when my last game in the Carrier Dome.

I mean, I started walking in the field as they introduced the seniors and I was crying. But the whole audience packed on gave me a standing ovation. And it was just out of the appreciation of being one of their own. They used to always call me a townie because I was a homegrown kid. I was born and raised in Syracuse. I grew up in Syracuse. I play my high school football here, which is JD. I'm a assistant coach in JD now.

I love my JD. I love my Syracuse. You know, it's just it's home to me. And when athletes like Rosie, like, like Lawrence, like John Wallace, like Derek Coleman, all those guys come back who weren't born here, but they accept and they love this city. They always come back to the city of Syracuse,

and I always wonder why. And it's like, and it's not me, it's you guys. It's the things we have in Syracuse, what we have to offer. You know, for the kids, I remember just coaching. We were nine and one, lost in the championship game, we lost by a touchdown. I remember walking into the locker room,

and these kids were just crying and it broke my heart because as a parent myself, as a mentor, you know, you want to take kids paying away. And I didn't know how to do that, but I just sat there and I told them, it's like, young men, I mean, the greatest things I've learned in life is that the beat happens to everybody. It's not just everyone, but you learn from that.

You see how you feel now? That means you have to work harder next time, so it doesn't happen again. I won a lot of championships in my lifetime. You guys know about the 1987 season when we went 11 and 1, and they keep the feel like to tie us, crying in the locker room. But if we had done better, if we had done things differently, we could have won that game. game so that just that just propelled me to be able to go out there and understand

and learn that you have to do more to become better it sounds like a cliche but it's so true the more you do the better you become you may not win all the time but you get better destroyed me when Lawrence passed away it truly truly did it still affects me to this day because Lawrence was a type of person that loved this city he truly loves Syracuse I would talk to him all the time about it and I was like Lawrence yeah I was born to race here I understand why I have the passion for it trying to figure out why you have as much passion for But Lawrence loved to see people be successful and things they did in life.

That's how he was as a basketball player. That's how he carried his life. That's where he gave so much back. So until the day, I have no more breath and able to do things. I always do things for my community. I always do things to see these young kids successful, and I'll always be a part of anything. They allow me to be in the city of Syracuse.

Thank you. So I have the awesome responsibility on behalf of 1100 kids growing up in three different neighborhoods in Syracuse to thank these guys, to thank these guys, these guys to thank Steve. Rob was just at our East Fayette Club. We have three clubhouses in downtown Syracuse. Rob, his last visit, the kids stood around him after his inspirational speech, the kids stood around him for probably an hour, and he stayed right until the last one was picked up by their parents to talk to each one of them, to deliver the same message he just

delivered to you guys. So on behalf of all the kids coming to the Boys and Girls Club at Syracuse, I want to thank these guys. I want to thank these guys. I want to thank you. thank Steve. I want to thank anybody who's supporting this event and coming out to it. A little over a year ago, Steve was my first phone call when I took this job to fundraise for these kids. And I get a lot of nose every day when I'm smiling and dialing. A lot of nose. Steve's the first guy to say yes, and he's the only guy that calls me frequently to say, how can I help you, you know, better the lives of these kids. So, you know, this event needs a lot and just appreciate it.

Again, we're going to be out there. We do a special Winterfare Hoops area. That is sponsored by the way of Market 32 Price Chopper. We want to thank them. Something interesting, they're going to be selling tickets for Winter Fair in 130 locations in six states. So we anticipate a lot of people coming to Syracuse Winter Fair 2026. We also have Triple A.

They're doing something special for their central and Western New York members for taking a dollar off the ticket. And of course, you can save money online at our website, which is listed right on your press release. I want to thank some of the media. We do have Cumulus here with 93Q, 95X. They're going to be out there doing what they do best. We also will have, as we've mentioned already, the Van Robinson Pan-African village.

We have the Latino village. We have the Indian Village. And coming back this year, we have our New Americans Diversity Village. And we have Sanchang James here. Say hello to Zujan. He'll be overseeing it. And we'll also have international performers too throughout the weekend.

So we really appreciate that. You know, we're going to have some of the people people that have been there. We got a karate John in the back. He'll be doing demonstrations through on Saturday. Our theme this year is look to the children besides you know bringing summer fun into winter and we have a lot of different oriented activities in a sense of entertainment that will be highlighting these students. We saw blue its ignition. We saw one of their members over here. They'll be playing out there.

We have the Beatles tribute, and that will be members of the Cicero, North Syracuse High School. We have just a lot going on. Charles would see Jack Run. He will be providing some entertainment as well. We got something a little bit different. I grew up as a Scout, Cub Scout, a Boy Scout. And we came up with this idea that one of my memories was going to camp sitting around a campfire at night singing songs well we're going to

recreate that at winter fair we're going to have a video screen up on stage with the campfire crackling away and the scouts boys and girls scouts will be singing and getting all the attendees to sing along so that's a little bit different and we have Brendan Brendan he is right there he will be leading the charge they'll be out there and they'll have a booth as well So we have a lot of different things that are going to be happening here. We want to thank all of our sponsors and such. If you have any information you need, just give me a call.

It's right on the press release information. But we want to thank you for coming out today for Syracuse Winter Fair, we'll see you out there. Thank you. It's a gentle cruising. You start to see the village. like a painting. Join me, travel expert Darley Newman and Uneworld Boutique River Cruises Loebuck Bali to learn about river cruising in France. As we have been setting there for decades,

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