Hey guys, Matt Major from Clickstream Studios.
Welcome to another edition of Good News New York.
This is very exciting because we are joined by
our fellow winter fair sponsor and we get to
talk about all the fun at winter fair that is
coming up in February. Still a little bit, seems
like it's a little bit away, but it's really
not that far away. But this is a great day. If
you haven't been watching a bunch of these episodes,
I strongly recommend that you jump back. We have
been having some absolutely killer interviews.
It's been great. We just looked at some numbers.
Last 90 days on Facebook alone, we hit two and
a half million. I'm sorry. Yeah, two and a half
million views just on the one platform. So considering
we've really only been doing this since last
year's winter fair, it's really about 10 months
worth of content. I'm pretty excited and big
thanks to Danny and Mike and Amanda and Malachi
and the whole team that make this happen. And
big thanks to our sponsor, Ads on the Go. Get
ads on the go .com. Our man, Zach, driving around
the billboard truck is our biggest fan. I love
that guy. He's awesome. I don't know if you've
met Zach, but incredibly impressive young man.
But anyway, without further ado, let's get to
the guest. That's the important part here. So
if you wouldn't mind, go ahead and introduce
yourself and let folks know where you're from.
Yeah, so I'm Vanessa Schwabka. I'm with AmeriQ
Credit Union. I'm the executive director of their
charitable foundation, the AmeriQ Charitable
Foundation. I've only been there for about 10
months, but it's been a very busy 10 months,
but it's been fantastic. So we're doing a lot
of great things around the area. That's incredible.
Yeah. So anybody in central New York knows of
AmeriQ. You got branches everywhere. You're very
well known. But I don't know that a lot of us,
myself included, know a lot about this charitable...
side of the business. So if you wouldn't mind,
tell us a little bit about that. Yeah, I mean,
there's a reason for that, because the foundation
is new. Gotcha. January 1st, 2025. But AmeriQ
is not new to giving back to the community. This
is AmeriQ's 75th anniversary. and they've been
giving back since the beginning. But really with
the foundation, it was more kind of doubling
down on giving back to the community, serving
our members, serving our employees who are parts
of every community, and really just showing that
we're here to stay. And where we are is very
important to us. We're across 24 plus counties
throughout central New York, Finger Lakes, Southern
Tier, North Country. And we actually just took,
merged with a credit union in Clinton and Essex
County. So we're growing. important that we show
that we really care about where we are. That's
incredible. So if you wouldn't mind, tell us
a little bit about this in the first 10 months
here of this organization. What types of things
are you doing out and about? So what I love about
the American Charitable Foundation is, you know,
a lot of foundations can have a singular focus,
which makes sense. We have a very large focus.
So we have four pillars, which is education,
veterans and military education and social programs,
which pretty much, I would argue, encompasses
any nonprofit that you can think of. That's done
by design because of our large footprint. You
know, every area is different. I grew up in the
Finger Lakes. I'm a lifelong central New Yorker.
And I think the one thing that people in central
New York would argue is frustrating is when everyone
kind of says everyone in upstate New York is
the same. Yeah, which isn't true. And I think
that's a great thing that we're all absolutely.
So we kind of a broad focus because we're serving
very different areas with very different needs.
So really, those are our focuses. And we've done
everything from big kind of shovel in the ground
type of, you know, give backs to smaller food
pantries, because despite the size of the projects
and the give, it's the equaling of importance
is the same, no matter what, even if it's a thousand
dollars here, you know, multiple thousand dollars,
tens of thousand dollars elsewhere. So I really
enjoy that because you have your hand in everything.
And there is a lot of need across our community,
which I think is the case everywhere. But it's
nice that we're able to kind of have our hand
in it all. That's wonderful. Yeah. Are you, do
you have a team or is this kind of a, are you
leading this whole effort yourself so far? So
it's, you know, it's a crossover between AmeriQ
employees and the foundation kind of shared for
now. Sure, that's great. So the community side
of the team is myself and two other folks, Madeline
and Courtney. So, you know, we're out there doing
events and you'll see us tabling. If we sponsor
something, we always like to be there because.
Our philosophy is we don't just want to cut checks.
We want to create partnerships and we want to
be in front of people, members and nonmembers
alike, and just show that we're here and we want
to make a difference. That's great. Yeah, that's
great. So we'll talk about some of the different
things. But as I already mentioned a little bit,
you're a sponsor of America is a sponsor of the
Syracuse Winter Fair. And we are as well. I think
this will be our third year in a row. What I
think is really neat is specifically what AmeriQ
sponsors at Winter Fair. Would you talk about
that for a moment? Yeah, so we're the parking
sponsor, which I love because anyone that like
drives anywhere, isn't parking like the topic?
It's traffic and parking lately. It's like the
topic of everyone's conversation. So it's important
because, you know, you want to get somewhere,
you want to get in easily and not have to worry
about that extra fee. We want people to spend
the money on the fun stuff, the experiences,
the things for the family, because the price
of things has gone up. So if that... you know
not having to pay for parking takes a little
bit of ease off the day and you can have that
money to spend on amazing food fair food every
time i hear fair food is like the first thing
100 games entertainment you know so i think that
that is what makes it unique is it's just one
less thing i personally paying for parking is
like a pet peeve yeah i'm right with you parking
so i think that that's a really kind of unique
sponsorship that we have to say, OK, it's one
less thing that everyone's got to worry about.
I think it's just such a neat idea, because just
in terms of the value to you, everybody realizes
and appreciates this this organization that paid
for my parking today, even more than a lot of
the other. You know, we sponsored the reindeer
with a reindeer sponsor for the second year in
a row. So if you want to see those live and in
person at winter fair, you'll be able to. But
the parking, honestly, it's just such a much
a bigger thing. And it's honestly much more of
a memorable. piece. And I just love that. I think
it's just a great concept and great that AmeriQ
can do. It's been a few years now, actually,
haven't you? Yes, we have. And, you know, we
work closely with Steve Becker, who's fantastic.
I mean, like, shout out to him for putting this
together and his big personality to just, you
know, you know how these things go. It takes
a lot of people coming together in a community
to put something like this on. And I think It
takes a certain kind of personality to bring
everyone together. And it was really his idea
to do the parking. We didn't really come to him
or something unique. And he kind of brought it
to us. And we thought, OK, that's that's really
memorable. And I think if it wasn't for him,
I'm not sure how long this would have been going.
Oh, sure. So it's it. We're excited to be a part
of it just because, you know, the fair when you
hear the word fair, that carries a lot of weight.
Yeah. I mean, that's that's big shoes to fill.
So I think about how big the expo center is and
the fact that we have that in our backyard. I
think we can fit a whole many in the expo center.
No, it's pretty crazy. No, that's good old Stereo
Steve. I'll tell you what, I knew him for a little
bit before I went to a winter fair the first
time. And I remember the first time I walked
in that expo center, all set up with the rides
and everything. And it was like, how is this
possible? It's unbelievable. And knowing Steve
and knowing that his team is incredibly small,
it's just mind blowing. And big kudos to him
for massive undertaking. But yeah, for folks
that don't know, the Syracuse Winter Fair is
really all of an entire fair indoors in one building.
In rides, they get ride tickets for the kids
so they can do as many as you like, just like
the regular fair. They've got games. The vendors
are, to me, some of the best part because it's
the type of stuff that you only see in the fair,
often the type of stuff you only see in the summertime,
fair or not. Right. And to be able to have that
in February where it's cold and support a lot
of local small businesses with some really unique
stuff that you can only get there. Personally,
you mentioned the food. I mean, that just goes
without saying. I'm a little partial to the wine
slushies. Well, yeah, for being honest. That's
just a go -to fair staple that I have to make
sure we cover. But you can do that at Winterfair,
which is pretty cool. Such a neat thing. If we
could, let's talk about a couple of the other
things, though, that you've got going on in your
organization. Are there other events that you're
a part of, things like that coming up we should
talk about? Yeah, one of the biggest fundraisers
that we do and events that we hold is called
Salute to the Troops. We've been doing this since
2011, and it's a concert that we hold at Fort
Drum. Oh, wow. Free to the public. The public
can come in. It's for the service members and
their families. in the Fort Drum community is
unbelievable. I've been up there a lot, never
actually had been on Fort Drum because it's hard
to get on base if you don't have a reason to
be there. But I got a tour and it's like, what
an unbelievable thing to have in our backyard.
So that draws about 20 ,000 people every summer.
AmeriQ is the sponsor of that. We bring in nationally
touring country artists. Last year we had the
opener, Priscilla Block. Our headliner was Chase
Rice. So this is a big concert that takes a lot
of planning, but also a lot of financial backing
and they're expensive. And I noticed a lot of
those smaller concerts are going by the wayside,
unfortunately, because it's hard to keep them
up. So that's... really our flagship event that
we do now and really the AmeriQ and the foundation
back with a lot of promotion and energy and money
and we're so proud of it because again we are
the military's in our DNA it's obviously one
of our pillars but AmeriQ was founded on Griffith
Air Force Base so that's really where we started.
So giving back and doing that for our military
and our veterans is one of the highlights of
what we do personally with the foundation. That's
incredible. And I have to recommend, if you've
never been, you have to go. This was my first
year going. And it just it just blew me away
just to look into the crowd and see, you know,
kids on their dads and moms shoulders. And it's
their first concert. And it's very family friendly,
which is sometimes hard to find when it comes
to concerts and entertainment. So. We're really
proud of that and that's something that we've
done for over a decade and we'll continue to
do. When is that? So we have the date, very exciting.
It's going to be June 25th of next year and we're
already starting to try to get some artists lined
up. Now that we cannot reveal, but very exciting
and getting the kind of acts that you can get
at the state fair. It's pretty impressive. That's
neat. That's gotta be kind of a neat thing to
put together. You get the sort of backstage access
too, right? You go meet the cool people. That's
kind of nice. If folks want to learn more about
all these different programs. Obviously, there's
the AmeriQ website for the credit union, but
do you have a separate one or where should folks
look? No, you can go right on the website, AmeriQ
.org, and then you can search for the foundation
and you can find there, salute to the troops,
if you're interested in that in particular, just
what we do at the foundation. Also, if you're
an organization that's looking for help and funding,
there's a request for donation and grants. We
have a very easy application. Wow. in a foreign
role I had to ask for sponsorships. And it can
sometimes be like filling out taxes. Pages and
pages of, you know, we try to keep it simple
because we understand people just need help.
We don't want people to jump through a lot of
hoops. So all of that is on our website. We really
encourage any organization. to, you know, submit
a request. And we'd love to hear, again, the
organizations that are staples in our area, but
also it's fun to hear about new smaller nonprofits
that are coming up that are, you know, more singular
niche that we're like, OK, that's definitely
an area we need to support. So that's incredible.
Lots of support out there. That's incredible.
And then what about, you know, for every charitable
organization, there is the funding for the organization,
right? What what ways can people help with that?
Are there ways that folks can donate? You got
events, things like that? Absolutely. So yeah,
right now you can donate on the website. And
if you want to be a sponsor, you know, businesses
that are looking for some visibility, because
for Salute to the Troops, we do a full marketing
media package, television, radio, billboards.
If that sounds good to you and the cost is very
affordable, you can be a sponsor of our Salute
to the Troops as well. And that's the best way
to get involved. Is that right now kind of the
bulk of your? funding constituents, is it businesses
that are supporting the organization? Yeah, and
AmeriQ is the biggest backer of the foundation.
And then it's a lot of the partnerships that
we have within the credit union. And we haven't
done a lot of outward fundraising just because
we've been so new and we're just trying to give
them money. But eventually we're talking, will
we do golf tournaments? Will we do different
things? Kind of fun stuff coming up that's. kind
of the rollout for next year. So, you know, you
got to you got to have the obligatory gala, you
know, I have one of those. Yeah, exactly. Have
some real good food events somewhere, you know,
or the new thing is like lip singing contest.
Like there's. Oh, it's like we're trying to think
outside. Yeah. That's different. Yeah. But there's
so many ways that you can like, I love that.
I love that time. If we could, I'd love to take
just a minute and talk a little bit. about you,
because we started before we went on the air
and you were telling me a little bit about your
background. I think it's incredibly interesting
where you came from, not necessarily the nonprofit
world, right? Right. Could you speak to that
a little bit? Or in the banking world, which
was really interesting. So I spent... the vast
majority of my career in broadcasting. I was
a meteorologist at Spectrum News for 15 years.
I was before that in Elmira at WETM, but yes,
meteorology, weather, which was a great career.
And it's funny, I get asked a lot, like, how
do you go from that to the role you're at now?
And what I always go back to is my mentor, who
I interned with getting into the business, Chris
Brandolino, who's a name, if you haven't been
here, you may not know, but he was a meteorologist
that was very well known. And I remember he told
me, you know, you could be a person that comes
in, does your shift, leave, and that's totally
fine. He's like, but you also have an opportunity
now to have a platform to, you know. be parts
of organizations that matter and bring attention
to that, you know, a public figure. And that
meant a lot to me. I thought, you know, that's
a, what a cool opportunity. Absolutely. And I
started with animal welfare. I love animals.
Oh, wow. I got involved with a lot of nonprofits.
I had my own pet segment. every week where we
helped get I think over five years over 600 animals
adopted. That's awesome. So that's and then I
started emceeing for events and non -profits
and you know being that public face and I just
thought this is the work I want to do because
I love I just can't tell you how much I love
this area. I love central New York. I love the
Finger Lakes. I love the North Country and when
you're in television the only way that you can
really advance in your career is to move on to
a bigger city. And I was at those crossroads
at some point and I just thought I can't leave
this area. I just really feel that passionate
about it here. I love it here. And I thought
I'm going to I'm going to stay and give back
to the community. That's has been good to me
as long as they'll have me. Yeah, that's wonderful.
And honestly, I can. Definitely see how that
type of career, that background absolutely lends
itself to what you're doing today, right? Because
it's still very much a communications, almost
first and foremost, right? In your position.
Public facing, public relations, brand ambassador.
You know, it's all kind of wrapped up in that
people think about you're just on camera and
television, but it's like, that's the tip of
the iceberg. And same with you and what you do.
This is just a small piece of what you do and
there's a lot more behind the scenes. Very true,
very true. And I love to hear your just pride
in central New York, you know, we we share that
very much as well and sometimes especially folks
that are local seem to be the hardest on us,
but We just yesterday at turning stone interviewed
their PR director and she had just moved to the
area from down south and Talked about how much
she's absolutely fallen in love with it. Yeah,
and you hear those stories so often of folks,
especially ones that kind of experience it fresh
and go, this place is awesome. Um, and I think
that helps remind all of us. So I love, I just
love hearing that because it's so true. You hear
people that leave the area and then they come
back because they're like, yeah, I, I was a little
too negative about it. And then they go elsewhere
and they realized this was a real gem. We have
real treasures here. Uh, I was one of those,
in my twenties, I lived in Florida for a couple
of years and then North Carolina and came back
and it's just, you know, the things that we have
where you have all these resources here and with
an hour drive in any direction. That's what I
say all the time. They had her on deck so you
can go have some great. wine or not very long
drive to New York City and have all the adventures
you could imagine. So it's an awesome place and
glad to see that you're able to work with an
organization like AmeriQ and a charity that goes
and supports all these local communities because
that's so cool. Any other AmeriQ news? We talked
about the expansion there. Is there any? Anything
else you can tell us got any more that are about
to come down the pipeline? You know, that's the
biggest one. It was our first merger and it's
a credit union, Mountain Valley Credit Union.
And what was great is they came to us. The culture
at AmeriQ is unbelievable. You hear a lot of
workplaces talk about culture and it's talk.
And when I I've been an AmeriQ member for 16
years, which is funny because never coming from
banking and ending up at my own credit union
that I believe in and has impacted my life personally.
But the culture is amazing. And really when this
credit union heard about people helping people
and really having that as a financial institution
has an impact on people, especially in the really
small communities up there where it matters,
where you really need help, especially in these
times where obviously finances, they're really
at the base. I almost look at finances as...
breathing and water and food. It really impacts
the overall health and happiness of your life.
It's a cornerstone. You're not happy at work.
If you have financial problems, you're not happy
in your life. Your health goes down. So really
AmeriQ, that's the foundation of knowing that
we have to help people. We're not going to turn
people away in their moments where they're in
trouble. And I think that that really is what
drew this other credit union to us, which I just
find to be a real example of what we're doing.
And the credit union movement in general, beyond
just AmeriQ, a lot of credit unions are doing
great things. So we hope to continue to expand,
but also being very mindful of our communities
that we're in now. And there's always fun things
coming around the corner, but it's really, again,
the culture just being inside it and what we
do for our members. I just and Ron Bell, who
is our CEO, unbelievable. Just he lives it and
speaks it and the warmth. And, you know, we talk
about how much we love the community. I feel
like AmeriQ embodies this community at the heart
of it, really, which I absolutely love. I I could
speak to that a little bit, honestly, because
one of the one of the other hats that I wear
is is around an IT company. And a few years back,
we actually did some Microsoft Office training
for all of the AmeriQ did you really leadership.
We did multiple sessions in your Liverpool Center
and then at MVCC. But I got to meet to some degree,
a considerable portion of your team and incredible
people. Friendly, just fun, smart. It's nice
to be able to train some people on things and
they are swift enough to pick it up and it's
just such a great, great group of people. So
good for you. that you get to work with a team
like that. Not everybody's quite so lucky. So
are you based out of the Rome headquarters? I'm
on the marketing team is in Yorkville and commercial
drive, a very busy, lovely financial center there.
But I live here in Syracuse, so I kind of go
back and forth. I have a home office, which is
really nice. And I think that's why I really
kind of gravitated to this role because we're
so spread out. And it's interesting because Mohawk
Valley is an area that I haven't really explored
much of all of the areas we've talked about.
What an unbelievable area that's coming back,
Utica in particular. You know, you talk about
our little cities kind of going through a revitalization.
The Mohawk Valley is one of them. I know this
is going to be controversial. I'm a big foodie
here in Syracuse. The food in Utica. I mean,
every place I've gone, I'm like, why have I not?
It's not controversial here, I'll be honest.
I'm from the valley. I believe I've said for
the longest time, the one thing they do the best
in Utica is food. People don't don't understand.
I'm a believer now. Again, I just never had gone
very much, you know, my personal life and everywhere
we go, someone takes me and I'm like, oh, my
every place is better than the next better than.
Yeah. So, yeah. Go to the Mohawk Valley. Go to
Utica. Go to room for food. It's unbelievable.
Utica is one of those towns that you can go to
the sort of well -known on the main strip restaurants.
They're great. They make phenomenal food. You
can also go down random side streets and find
some little old Italian restaurant and spend
there for 20 years that will just blow your mind
and cost you a fraction of what you expect to
pay for dinner these days. It's incredible. But
yeah, see, now I'm getting hungry. Talking about
Utica. We start getting into half moons. We're
in real trouble. Vanessa, this has been great.
I really appreciate you taking some time to tell
us a little bit about what you're doing, what
America is doing out in the community here all
across New York state. As much as we're talking
about central New York, you really got a footprint
in helping people all over, all the way to Fort
Drum, which I don't think people realize is almost
Canada. And the only financial institution on
Fort Drum, we've been there for 35 years. I mean,
you know, it's pretty remarkable reach. That's
incredible. One more time, if you could, just
the plugs, the socials, the website where folks...
You can check everything else. Yeah, MeriQ .org,
MeriQ Charitable Foundations, salute to the troops.
You can find that all on MeriQ .org and donate,
get involved, come to salute to the troops this
summer. We'd love to see everyone up there. We're
so excited. That's great. And come see everybody
at Winterfair, this coming up. You get to park
for free on a MeriQ. You get to see some reindeer
on us. It's going to be great. Good News York
will be recording. Ideally, internet willing
broadcasting live from there, but definitely
recording a lot of really cool things. Steve
has set us up with a bunch of different things.
We're going to actually be talking to some of
the acts that are performing on stage as well
as being set up. Last year we set up in our booth
and basically had a set for the podcast and did
everything out of there. That's awesome. We'll
do that again. But it's going to be fun. It's
going to be a big celebration for us. It's going
to be a little bit of celebration of our new
expansion that we've been talking about a little
bit. that will be in full -fledged swing by that
time. And guess what? The weather doesn't matter.
Isn't that the best? Exactly. Don't need a weather
forecast. Exactly. To go. Gonna be nice inside
the Expo Center. Nice and toasty. Yep. With that,
this is Good News York. Vanessa, thank you so
much for joining us. Come back any time to tell
us about all the good things, especially as it
gets closer to the concert specifically. We'd
love to hear about that. I will take you up on
that offer. And we have a phenomenal concert
photographer on staff that... would love to come
and get you some great photos too. That would
be great. But with that, peace out.