Paul Szmal: And welcome back to FLX Morning. It is 8.39 and we are at 56. And I'm happy to be joined by Samantha Maslin from the Seneca County Chamber of Commerce and Discover Seneca. Good morning, Samantha. How are you this morning?
Samantha Maslin: I'm good. How are you?
Paul Szmal: Ah, enjoying a beautiful day today. It'd be a great day to be able to get out and enjoy some stuff in Seneca County, I'm just saying.
Samantha Maslin: Yes, definitely. It's been so hot.
Paul Szmal: Yeah. And now today's like the last break we get before the heat and the humidity come back. Let's talk about a couple of the upcoming events that are happening. First off, Seneca County continues to offer the in-person driver safety program and the next one is coming up.
Samantha Maslin: Yeah, so that's happening this Saturday, July 26th from 9 to 3.30. It's $40 per person or $35 for chamber members and veterans. And I actually have the next couple of dates. So there's another one in August and it's split between the 27th and the 28th. So you just have to attend both nights and the next Saturday one is on September 20th and you can register right here at the chamber and pay ahead of time.
Paul Szmal: And I always recommend these if you have a point on your license or you're looking to maybe possibly get a little bit of a break on your car insurance. These classes are certainly helpful. And one of the big chamber fundraisers of the year, the Chamber Golf Tournament is on the horizon.
Samantha Maslin: Yeah, so that's happening on Tuesday, August 19th and this year it's at Big Oak Golf Club on Packwood Road in Geneva. You can register online for that as well at senecachamber.org and registration is currently open but it's filling up fast.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, the tournament usually I think fills all the way up by the time you get there, doesn't it?
Samantha Maslin: Yes, usually it's filled well before the tournament starts. So we have tons of different options for teams or sponsorships and they're all right there on our website.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, and that's if you can't actually participate in the tournament, a great way to participate if you're not going to golf is to sponsor one of the holes or sponsor one of the special features that happens as part of one of these golf tournaments. It's always a good thing to do. I want to slip a quick plug in here before we talk about some pretty exciting tourism news. We have started a Chamber Spotlight program with the Seneca County Chamber that you'll hear right here on Finger Lakes News Radio and other FLX local media stations. You may have heard the first one already that we did with Chuck Hinkle from Laundry Depot talking a little bit about how he got the business started, what the business is about, and the benefits of being a member of the Seneca County Chamber of Commerce, what it's done for him and for his business. And Samantha, you know that's one thing we can't stress enough is that being a member of a chamber does have not only its privileges but also its advantages.
Samantha Maslin: Yes, definitely. So I'm really glad that Chuck got the opportunity to do that and that's just one more benefit to being a chamber member.
Paul Szmal: Absolutely, and we'll have those continuing throughout the coming months here on Finger Lakes News Radio and other FLX local media stations. Samantha Maslin from Discover Seneca and the Seneca County Chamber of Commerce joining us here this morning on FLX Morning. I want to get to the big tourism news because when I saw this my eyes kind of popped a little bit. There were some Seneca County properties that were featured in National Geographic.
Samantha Maslin: Yeah, so tourism. I love talking about tourism so this is my favorite topic but we had two properties in National Geographic. So one was Deer Haven Park in Romulus on the old Seneca Army Depot spot and then the other was DNK Ranch which is a horse ranch in Interlaken and both things are really really fun and so I was really excited that this was featured because I believe I took a trip. I've taken multiple travel writers through both of these places but it was just really exciting to see like the white deer and all of the things that are offered in these like the south county areas featured so I'm hoping that it definitely helps more people want to go to these places. They're two of my favorite places.
Paul Szmal: Deer Haven is absolutely one of my favorite places to go.
Samantha Maslin: Yeah, that's one that's on my local bucket list. I've got to find the time to actually go and take the tour there at Deer Haven Park.
Paul Szmal: Yes, it's so much fun and I think that the majority I can't guarantee it every time but I have been told by my tour guides that the majority of the time you do end up seeing white deer which is what the whole tour is about but you also get to see a lot of the old buildings and the things that are left behind the igloos so it's really fun with both the history and the nature.
Samantha Maslin: Yeah, absolutely and also there's another trail that is reopening and I hope I pronounced this right the Ludovico Sculpture Trail. Did I get that right?
Paul Szmal: Yes, you got that right.
Samantha Maslin: Yeah, so that's in downtown Seneca Falls right along the canal. It's very close to the George Bailey Bridge but they had their ribbon cutting grand reopening last week and they have a few new sculptures on the trail some of which are from the Cayuga Nation and I went there. It's beautiful. It's very well kept. I'm excited to walk the whole trail and there's just even more to look at now than there was before and it's free.
Paul Szmal: Wonderful. Well, that's even better. It's something definitely worth checking out and also we had, I believe this was a visiting event, the cycle, the Erie event that came trolling through the area?
Samantha Maslin: Yes, so this happens every year in July. It's anywhere from 500 to 800 bicyclists that start I think in like the Albany area and make their way all the way to I believe Buffalo so they follow the entire Erie Canal and they stop at different places and so this year they stopped and camped out at the Elks Club and we were able to go and meet and speak with a lot of these people and hold a wine and cheese event for them but it brings a lot of economic and tourism stuff to the county so it's really great because they can travel to downtown Seneca Falls and learn all about the women's rights and they can go shopping and it's just a lot of fun. It's a good night and it gets really busy and it's exciting.
Paul Szmal: Now, I know you mentioned that Deer Haven Park is one of your favorite activities here in the region. Is there an activity that you've done or a place that is a part of the Seneca County tourism hemisphere, if you will, that you consider to be kind of the undervalued gem that maybe not enough people know about and is definitely worth a visit?
Samantha Maslin: I have to be honest, I really think that it's Deer Haven because it's just so exciting and they actually have started doing more in the summer months so I don't know if they've done it already this season but they did it last season and I know they were doing it again this year. They're inviting people to come and be there when they're opening some of these igloos that they have on site for the first time since it closed in the 90s. I believe last year it was empty and it probably will be empty but it's just so exciting to witness, you know, something that's so historically significant in our county being open. Just what if there was something in there? And it's really peaceful to see how the birds, because there's not just white deer, they have bald eagles, they have different types of birds so bird watchers would have a lot of fun there and they also have like a little museum on site as well for you to look at kind of the history of Deer Haven before it was Deer Haven Park.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, absolutely. All right, well I appreciate it, Samantha. Thanks for joining us here this morning.
Samantha Maslin: Yeah, thank you. It is 8 48 on FLX Morning.
