Archive: Around Town

Last week the third annual Women's Expo introduced '20 Outstanding Women You Should Know.'  '20 Women' is the centerpiece of the exposition Cayuga Radio Group hosts each year to celebrate outstanding women in Tompkins County.  Over 80 vendors and more than 1,000 attendees came to the TC3 Sports Complex to be a part of the celebration.

"It's getting better and better every year," says WHCU's Dave Vieser.  "It's nice to be a part of something like this where everybody's smiling and everybody's got a great story to tell.  And the women's stories are amazing.  They're not just outstanding women of Ithaca and Tompkins and Cortland Counties.  They're 20 of the most outstanding women in New York State, if not the nation."

(Left to Right)Dr. Nancy Almann, Joan Barber, Christine M. Barksdale, Joan Bokaer, Marcia J. Fort, Maureen Fessenden, Vicki S. Mosgrove, Rachel Lampert, Kerry Quinn, Patricia Pesoli-Bishop, Sandy Schoenfeldt, Maura Stephens, Karen Ruston, Vicki Taylor, Anne M. Wingard, Melissa Thomas-Hunt  (not pictured: Carol Travis, Debbie Underwood, Susan Wiser, and Chris Xaver

Around 100 women were nominated this year and it was up to a group of Cayuga Radio Group employees to narrow them down to 20.

"They all touched me in some respect," says WNYY & WHCU Program Director & Cayuga Radio Group News Director Geoff Dunn.  "I think the dog rescue story, the children in Haiti story was very touching.  It's hard to single anybody out -- they were all great."


"Every one topped the other ones somehow," says Lite Rock 97.3's Brian Stoll.  "Every day it was another 'Wow I can't believe that they do that.'  The level of quality is women, and men, too is amazing in this community is great."

"They're all wonderful this year," Vieser says.  "Joan Barber, who has been tireless at feeding the hungry, especially in a time when the demand at those food pantries is higher than it's been in 60 years.  She doesn't blink.  I don't know where she gets the energy.  She's amazing, and she's always giving to others, and never expects something back.  This award is perfect for her."


Cayuga Radio Group General Manager Susan Johnston says that participation was up this year with 20 more vendors and at least 200 more attendees.  Vieser credits her for bringing the event to Tompkins County.

"A lot of it was Susan Johnston, our General Manager.  She saw something similar somewhere in the country, but then she put the Cayuga Radio Group stamp on it.  And you've got to give credit to Connie  Fairfax-Ozmun.  We get to come on the stage with the tuxedoes because we're the people on the radio.  Connie works behind the scenes -- she's our promotions director.  Her job was to organize all this.  She is amazing at it.  This is what she does so well, and she really is the best."

Honoree Rachel Lampert's experience was typical of the nominees, who didn't necessarily know they were being nominated.  Lampert is the Artistic Director of the Kitchen Theatre, a playwright, director, and choreographer.  "It came out of the blue," she says.  "Some of the folks at the Kitchen did this and I had no idea.  I purposely sat at the luncheon with women I didn't know.  It was nice to meet them and meet more of them today and finding out more about them."


The organizers agreed that a few tweaks to the format made the event flow better this year.  "We had two major changes in the program," Dunn explains.  "We shifted the location of the stage, which I think made for a nice opportunity for us to put some chairs out and a lot of standing room.  There is a lot of room for people to be here.  We put the food, the wine, the cheese, the chocolate fountain in the center. Another major change was presenting all 20 of the women at the same time.  The last two years we split them -- we presented ten and then after a half hour break we did another ten.  We found that we lost the momentum for the second group, and we lost some people."

Cayuga Radio Group is already looking forward to next year's Women's Expo.  "Who knows who's coming next year?" Vieser says.  "We'll have another 20 in 2010."

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