Paul Szmal: The United Way of Cayuga County has come in strong today. Not one, not two, but three different guests are joining us. Let me introduce everybody to you. First off, we have the Development and Engagement Manager at United Way, and that's Julissa Stone Spajer, one of our regulars. Hi, Julissa.
Guest: Hi, Paul.
Paul Szmal: And we also have Ed Thetke, the District Director at Scouting America's Longhouse Council. Ed, did I get the last name right?
Guest: You got the last name right, but my title's not right, but that's okay.
Paul Szmal: Okay.
Guest: I'm the Executive Director of the Longhouse Council.
Paul Szmal: Okay. And Enrique Hernandez is here. Enrique works for Perform for Purpose, who is one of the member agencies of the United Way. Enrique, good morning.
Guest: Good morning.
Paul Szmal: Okay. Now that we've established everybody here, Julissa, I want to start with you because we've got some different ground we're going to cover here. We want to talk about the Youth Opportunity Impact Grant program that the United Way of Cayuga County has.
Guest: Yeah. So that's kind of the formal name of what we're known for, where we go out into the community and we raise money on behalf of non-profits. So our funding is kind of split, half of it, or actually a little bit more than half of it, goes out to those impact grants that support agencies like the Scouting America Longhouse Council and Perform for Purpose, while the other portion goes to support our 11 programs. I know you talked with Lisa last month about youth success, but Youth Opportunity, these are specifically grants given to agencies supporting children from birth until the age of 21 in a variety of different ways, from childcare needs, before and after school care, summer camps, music and performing arts, scouting opportunities, and so much more. So it has a wider reach on what it can do because our agencies are set up to provide support for those different areas. So we're really excited. We're actually, later this week, we'll announce the official list of our 2026-27 member agencies, two of which, of course, are on air with us today, representing our youth opportunities pillar. And this is really what the true essence of the United Way is all about, is being able to obtain the funds to then share with member agencies for a variety of different programs.
Paul Szmal: Absolutely, and it's all thanks to donor support from all regions of Cayuga County and those who lived here but may have left, and just people who are passionate about these different agencies. And I want to turn to you and get a little bit of background on what the Longhouse Council is.
Guest: So Longhouse Council is formerly known as Longhouse Council Boy Scouts of America. We went through a name change in 2025. We're now called Scouting America Longhouse Council. The main reason for that is that our organization in 2019 opened it up to young ladies and girls to be part of our program as well. So it is not just a boy program anymore. It is open to both genders, pretty much removed any barriers to being part of our organization. And it's not necessarily a membership grab. It's an opportunity because a lot of families want to be part of one program altogether, and that's kind of what we're doing is trying to be very much a character education driven organization that is available for families, for everybody, not just little boys, but moms, dads, sisters, brothers, everybody.
Paul Szmal: And how does the Longhouse Council utilize the funding that it gets from the United Way?
Guest: So Longhouse Council is based out of Syracuse, but we encompass six counties, Kew County being one of them. And we take that money that we get from the United Way, which is one of the only United Ways that still support us. And we have a district director that is dedicated to the Kew County area. And that individual helps start units in the Kew County to get young people to join our programs, which gives them access to all the different character ed, outdoor skills, just a well-rounded plethora of things that they can get from being involved in scouting.
Paul Szmal: Ed, how does this partnership work beyond just the financial component?
Guest: So, you know, we've had a really good relationship with Kew County. You know, we go out and support their initiatives that they have in the county when they have give back days where people go out and do some things for different agencies. You know, I've done United Way asks at schools and other places. So the relationship with the United Way is a long standing relationship that is ebbed and flowed over the years for different reasons. But with Kew County, we've had at this point in time, I'm not sure that it's not over 100 years at this point in time, but it's close to 100 years of an association with an agency. So, yeah, we definitely enjoy the partnership we have with the United Way. And we recognize that Kew County is a unique county in both its geography and its economics and trying to work with them to try to bring things to young people in all corners of Kew County.
Paul Szmal: Over 100 years, I would call that a strong embedded partnership for sure. And if people want to find out more for their kids or grandkids or even themselves about what the Longhouse Council has to offer, how do they do that?
Guest: So the website is cnyscouts.org. So basically centralnewyorkscouts.org, but it's cnyscouts.org. You go there and you pretty much find all the information you need to know. It has a list of units. It has different stuff. There's also another website called Be a Scout. Be a Scout is someone that kind of gives you, you know, the whole country. So if you want to find something anywhere in the world, technically, you can find it off of Be a Scout. But for the local, it's cnyscouts.org.
Paul Szmal: We have guests from the United Way of Kew County and some of their member agencies joining us here on FLX Morning. I want to turn to Enrique Hernandez here. Enrique, tell us a little bit about Perform for Purpose.
Guest: Morning. So Perform for Purpose is a nonprofit organization that is aimed at gathering children and teenagers and teaching them the performing arts. They learn everything from like a beginner instrument. You can start out on any instrument you'd like and you gain the skills in performing and community involvement because every performance that this organization does raises money to benefit different causes. We've benefited different food pantries, other causes, women's shelters, stuff like that. And a lot of the time these benefits are just us going to perform, but the real meaning behind it is the money that we make that we make and we donate to different organizations.
Paul Szmal: Now I've had a chance to catch a couple of Perform for Purpose performances at some of the events in and around Kew County. Is there any particular experience that stands out for you as being rather memorable?
Guest: I think there's a lot of memorable things that I've done while working with Perform for Purpose. I've graduated now and I've become what they call a senior mentor. So once you age out of high school you kind of stop being so much as a performer as being a mentor to the younger children. And I think that's been what's most memorable for me is as I've gotten older I've gotten to see some of the younger kids and some of them have grown up so much and they've gotten so good at performing. And I think it's very endearing to see that there's still a younger generation out there that wants to perform and grow and that's very that's one of my most memorable experiences.
Paul Szmal: And even if you're a part of this program and you don't continue performing into your college and adult years, I'd have to think that a lot of the things that you learn will really prepare you for life after school.
Guest: Yes, so Perform for Purpose is very much about teamwork and collaboration. Those are two very important things when we perform and it's not just performances. It's set up all of the equipment, it's tear down all the equipment when we're done, make sure we didn't leave a mess, make sure that we're being respectful of the events that we're playing at. And I think all of that plays into your like professional development. So I'm very grateful for the skills that Perform for Purpose has given me and I think it will help a lot of students in the future.
Paul Szmal: Now you in particular along with your sister and a friend have written, recorded, and produced the theme song for the new video series Kyuga Connections that United Way is doing.
Guest: Yes, we were asked to form a little jingle, a little intro song and our friend Sam Del Favreau and my sister Mariella Hernandez, we all collaborated in Perform for Purpose's studio and that it was a very fun experience. It was something I'd never done before and I know my sister had never done it before either and it was very interesting. Sam is a very good sound engineer and he's very good at recording and he's very good at that kind of stuff and it's very interesting to see him work but it's also interesting because he's a very talented musician as well. So he's, while he's mixing and recording the track that we're playing, he's also playing on it. He was playing the piano and it was very, very interesting.
Paul Szmal: By the way, the website to find out more about Perform for Purpose is perform4purpose.org. That's perform4purpose.org. Angelisa, since we're talking about Kyuga Connections, we should explain now what this playlist is and where people can find it.
Guest: Absolutely. So we launched this new project in January and we're piloting it for a year and a half. We're inviting the agency directors of those 27 members who received the impact grants to come on and have like a quick 15 to 20 minute conversation with our executive director, Lisa Kaminsky, to talk about their program, to talk about the collaboration, things that they're seeing in, you know, the different needs that are coming and going and the successes of each agency. And each episode has two interviews. So the episodes themselves, they range between 30 to 40 minutes, depending on how long the interviews are, but it is done in collaboration with our friends over at ARMA, Auburn Regional Media Access. They premiere new episodes the third Wednesday of every month, but then our already aired episodes run throughout the week. So there's four times that you can catch an episode of Kyuga Connections on ARMA at various times during the day. But you can also head over to our YouTube channel. We do have a playlist special for the Kyuga Connections so you can catch up on all the past episodes. Our June was just released last week and we're already editing July, but it's a great opportunity to learn more about how your United Way gift supports those impact grants and what those member agencies are doing with those dollars to create a stronger and more beautiful Kyuga County.
Paul Szmal: And for more information on the United Way of Kyuga County, go to the website. It's unitedwayofkyugacounty.org. unitedwayofkyugacounty.org. Ed, Enrique, thank you very much for what you're doing for youth and adults around the area and continued success in that work. And Julissa, thank you for joining us this morning. We appreciate it.
Guest: Thank you.
Guest: Thank you.
