SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Dake Foundation for Children has announced their 2023 Board of Directors slate, welcoming three new members to its ranks. Founded by Gary Dake, President of Stewart’s Shops, the Foundation has provided grants to local children with disabilities since 2009 with a focus on inclusion, independence, and fun.

The Dake Foundation’s Board, comprised of 15 community volunteers, will welcome Pam Fisher – Director of Community Relations for Hudson Headwaters Health Network, Linda Miller – pediatric Doctor of Physical Therapy, and JoAnne Starks – Director of Marketing for AAFCPAs.

“Having grown up with progressive hearing loss, the mission of the Foundation is personal to me,” said Fisher of her new role. “I know firsthand that equipment and technology exist that can provide people with greater access to fun. It’s heartbreaking to me that people may opt out of fun activities because they can’t access adaptive equipment. I look forward to connecting young people with these opportunities and furthering the mission of the Foundation.”

Miller joins as a full board member after serving on the Medical Advisory Panel for the past year – a group of specialists and medical professionals who help steer the grant giving process. Starks brings with her over 20 years of marketing experience, and loves to support projects that foster education, youth development, and diversity and inclusion.

“We are a very volunteer-driven organization, and we are incredibly blessed to have Pam, Linda, and JoAnne joining the team,” said executive director Sarah Burns. 

The full 2023 Board of Directors line up can be found at www.dakefoundation.org.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Lemery Greisler LLC, a leading Capital Region business law firm, has announced the promotion of Claire E. McRae to Member. 

 McRae has been with the firm since the start of her legal career, first in 2011 as a summer clerk and then in 2012 as an associate attorney. She concentrates her practice in the areas of corporate and transactional law, including mergers and acquisitions, as well as the formation and day-to-day operation of corporations, limited liability companies and other business entities.

McRae also practices estate planning and estate settlement, which includes the drafting of wills and trusts as well as the representation of fiduciaries, beneficiaries, and creditors in estate probate and estate administration.

“We have been proud of Claire’s professional development and the skill and knowledge she brings on behalf of our clients,” said Paul A. Levine, a managing partner with the firm. “Lemery Greisler looks forward to Claire’s continued contributions and the perspective that she will add to the management and strong future of the law firm.” 

Prior to graduating law school at Boston College, McRae interned with the Albany County District Attorney’s Office and the Schenectady County Probation Department. She is admitted to practice in the State of New York and is a member of the American Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association, and the Saratoga County Bar Association.

QUEENSBURY —  Southern Adirondack Independent Living (SAIL) has appointed Tyler Whitney as their new Executive Director. 

Marti Burnley, the current Director, is retiring. Whitney has been employed at SAIL for the past three years as Deputy Director and brings an abundance of academic and non-profit work experience to his new role.

“SAIL is a premier agency serving 16 counties and assisting those living with disabilities to live more independently. I am looking forward to continuing the great work of the agency and elevating the importance of independence alongside the incredible staff of this organization,” Whitney said. 

SAIL provides an array of advocacy, health insurance, and nursing home transition services to individuals with disabilities and their families. They also loan out medical equipment at no cost.

MALTA — The Sugar Fairy Bakes, a from-scratch bakery in Mechanicville, will be opening a second location in the Ellsworth Commons in Malta this March. And for owner Stacie Blair, it’s been some time coming.

Blair founded The Sugar Fairy Bakes in 2019, and initially ran the business out of her home. Blair had planned for the company’s initial storefront to be located in Malta, but the plans were tabled after the COVID-19 pandemic struck in early 2020. 

Shortly after, Blair found an opportunity to establish her bakery in Mechanicville. Now, she’s expanding her horizons back to Malta. 

“It’s been a great year,” said Blair of the bakery’s time in Mechanicville. “We’re staying in Mechanicville, but I’m not utilizing my equipment to its fullest potential. All the equipment I got with the building is factory, and Mechanicville just cannot put forth the demand that my equipment can take care of.”

Sugar Fairy Bakes will be baking items at the Mechanicville location, and delivering them to be sold at the Malta storefront, Blair said. Their location in the Ellsworth Commons is slightly over 2,000 square feet.

And for residents of Malta, Blair said that Sugar Fairy Bakes will offer “old-fashioned, from-scratch” bakery items to the community. Blair emphasized that “99.9%” of their food comes fully from scratch.

“Nothing comes out of a box or a can,” Blair said. “A lot of my ingredients are locally sourced.”

Sugar Fairy Bakes receives eggs from a farm in Melrose, honey and maple syrup from a farm in Cobleskill, and meat from a farm in Schaghticoke, she said. Many of the company’s recipes have been handed down through family members of Blair and her employees, with some over 100 years old.

“We’re just your old-fashioned, small, community bakery,” said Blair.

Sugar Fairy Bakes offers items such as cakes, brownies, cookies, pies, cinnamon buns, quiche, eclairs, cannolis, breakfast sandwiches, and more. 

“We have our signature chocolate chips, and then we do a cookie of the week,” Blair said. “I make over 250 different cookies, so this is a good way to get each one out there. … Every Wednesday is scone day. Thursdays are sweet roll day, so instead of a cinnamon bun, you’d have a raspberry, or strawberry, or blueberry.”

Blair cited the growth of the Malta community as a reason for the expansion, saying the Sugar Fairy Bakes will help fill a need in the area.

“With the Malta community just really growing, I’m giving them something that they don’t have easily accessible,” said Blair. “I’m putting in their hands fresh-made, cracked-egg breakfast sandwiches and baked goods that they don’t have anywhere else.”

Blair also hopes that the opening of her second location will begin a trend for the company. Blair said her plan is for Sugar Fairy Bakes to be franchised in the next 10 years.

“I have a 10-year plan. Within 10 years, we will be franchised,” Blair said. “That’s the plan. We have Mechanicville, we have Malta. … But I will never get so big that I can’t do from-scratch, and I can’t do what makes me, me.”

But first comes the opening of the Malta location, which offers something “real” to the local community, Blair said.

“When you’re cooking from scratch, you’re using real butter, you’re using real eggs, you’re using flour, you’re using sugar,” said Blair. “You’re combining all these ingredients together to produce the end product. You’re not using processed, chemically-preserved cheap alternatives to create it. In the end, not only do you have a healthier product, but you have a better-tasting product. The quality just speaks for itself.”

CLIFTON PARK — A new opportunity for kids to learn to swim will be coming to Clifton Park this summer. Goldfish Swim School, which has a location in Colonie, will be opening a school in the North Country Commons in Clifton Park. 

Goldfish Swim School offers year-round swimming lessons to kids ranging from four months to 12 years old. They also offer family swims, party packages, and more. 

“We want to make it convenient and easy for families to get their kids into regular, high-quality swim lessons at a place like Goldfish,” said Courtney Richardson, operations manager for the Colonie and Clifton Park locations.

Clifton Park was selected as the company’s second Albany-area location, with Richardson saying this is due to the large number of families in the area.

“Given the success of our Goldfish Swim School Colonie location, it made sense for us to add an additional learn-to-swim facility to serve more families in the community,” said Richardson. “We know that Clifton Park and Saratoga County families want to make sure that their kids learn to swim, as it is a critical life skill.”

The company will be constructing a 25 by 68-foot pool in their location at the Commons. The total space is 6,800 square feet, Richardson said. The pool will be heated to 90 degrees, and is large enough to accommodate multiple lessons at once. 

Students work with “highly-trained instructors,” in small class sizes, Richardson said. Families can enroll in the lessons at any time.

The school will also have an air-conditioned viewing room for parents, as well as a snack bar and retail shop. There will be private changing rooms and a blow-dry station for swimmers, Richardson said.

Students are sorted into classes based on their skill level. Goldfish begins with caregiver/baby classes for children starting at four months old. The company also has a recreational swim team, Swim Force.

“Because we use a perpetual model versus sessions, students process through our curriculum at their own pace, and they can move to the next level of classes at the same lesson time slot when they have mastered the skills in their current lesson level,” said Richardson.

Richardson said Goldfish not only allows kids to learn to swim, but helps them build life skills and connections with fellow students and instructors. 

“Swimming is an essential life skill. All kids need to learn how to be safer in and around the water,” Richardson said. “However, kids learn so much more at Goldfish Swim School. …Ultimately, Goldfish is a place that both kids and parents want to come to each week while kids put in the repetition and practice to learn this critical life skill.”

SARATOGA COUNTY — The Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce has released insights from January to November of 2022, saying the county collected “a record amount of sales taxes when compared to the last three years.” The report also states that unemployment rates in the county “remains consistently lower than ever before” even with limited local workforce reductions.

Saratoga County collected $144.6 million in sales taxes from January to November, the report states. This is a 5.3% increase from the same period in 2021, and a 23.5% increase from 2019. Tax collections in the City of Saratoga Springs also increased to $15.2 million, up 16.3% from the previous year ($13.1 million).

In comparison to other local counties, Saratoga County’s sales tax collections increased at a higher rate than Schenectady County (4.2%), but at a lower rate than Albany and Warren Counties (11.2% and 8.3%, respectively).

The unemployment rate in Saratoga County in November 2022 was 2.1%, the report says, with 2,600 people considered to be unemployed. There were 120,900 people employed in the county in November, which the report states is the highest number of people employed in the county in the month. The report also states that the labor shortage is expected to continue into 2023, saying “there are still so many local jobs unfulfilled,” despite limited workforce reductions.

In terms of lodging, the report states that the county’s revenue per available room was $103.70, a 25% increase from the same period in 2021 and an 11.7% increase from 2019. Total occupancy for local hotels increased nearly 13% from 2021, says the report, and were 2% lower than in 2019.

The Greater Capital Association of Realtors reported that Saratoga County saw 2,776 closed real estate sales from January through November 2022. The report says this figure is “nearly identical” to numbers from 2019 and 2020, but is a 10% decrease from 2021 figures. 

The overall number of new listings has also decreased, “and as a result,” the county’s median sales price was $388,000, a 10% increase. Through the first eleven months of 2022, the report states that the amount of days a home is on the market continues to decline, and the percent of the original list price received is over 102%.

CAIRO — Stewart’s Shops, one of the area’s most beloved businesses, has spread its operations throughout New York State and Vermont. And one family has seen them all.

Kristin and Augie Freemann, along with their son Kody, spent 2022 traveling across the state to visit every available Stewart’s location. 

Augie Freemann said the idea came about after hearing of a couple who visited every Cracker Barrel location in the United States.

“I said to my wife, ‘Oh, that’s something we would do.’ And she said, ‘Yeah, we could go to every Stewart’s’,” said Freemann. “We looked into it, and it seemed feasible, so here we are.”

To up the challenge for themselves, the Freemanns decided they would visit every Stewart’s location within a calendar year. Residents of Cairo, the family began on Jan. 1, 2022, visiting nearby locations in Cairo and Greenville. 

They also received some assistance from Stewart’s themselves. Kristin Freemann said the company shared a spreadsheet with the family, containing information about all of their locations. 

“We’d pick a weekend and say, ‘Where do we want to go?’” said Kristin Freemann. “We would map out and also kind of decide how many we wanted to do in a given day.”

Stewart’s currently has 358 locations, the Freemanns said. While the Cairo and Greenville locations are relatively close to the family, some stores took quite a bit of driving. 

“Some we had to be a little more strategic with, like any that were out in St. Lawrence County, out in Potsdam, Malone, and the ones that were up by Plattsburgh,” said Kristin Freemann. “Those we actually did as a weekend trip.”

The family said it was “really nice” to be able to see parts of the state they typically would not have traveled to.

“Up by Plattsburgh and Lake Champlain is beautiful, and we hadn’t really ever spent a lot of time up there,” said Kristin Freemann. “Same with the St. Lawrence area, Thousand Islands, out that way was beautiful. So, it was really nice.”

They also reconnected with old friends along the way, with Freemann saying she met up with a friend who currently lives in Potsdam while the family was in the area. 

“It actually became fun,” Freemann said. “I know people think we’re crazy. It was kind of a silly, crazy thing to do. …We didn’t have any reason to do this other than it was a silly, fun thing to do as a family.”

As part of the challenge, the family had to purchase a product at each location. 

“All three of us had to physically go into every single store, and we had to purchase something at every store,” said Kristin Freemann. “Fuel did not count. We obviously had to buy gas or whatever, but we would buy a product of some kind, at least one, at every store. … (Kody) got to pick a lot of the snacks, that was the fun part.”

Kody said his favorite snack from the experience was the gummies. The family said a majority of the stores had mostly similar offerings but did note some variety throughout the state.

“Especially when it came to their hot foods,” said Kristin Freemann. “Some would have a specific kind of breakfast sandwich, or a specific kind of chicken sandwich. There were times where we would find things that we hadn’t seen in other stores.”

The family also said one constant was the staff, who Kristin Freemann said were “so nice” at every location.

“All of the employees at every single store, across the board, were really friendly. That’s something that’s hard to say about a chain,” Freemann said. “Every single store we went into, everyone was really nice.”

The Freemanns finished their quest on the final day of the year, hitting eight stores on New Year’s Eve. Kristin Freemann said they saved six locations in Ballston Spa and two in Mechanicville for the final day of the journey.

“We strategically planned that as well,” said Kristin Freemann. “Because Saratoga County had the most, but they’re also very close together, we knew that if we left Saratoga County kind of to the end, that we would be able to make it work.”

The family’s final Stewart’s was on Church Avenue in Ballston Spa, where the original Stewart’s location first opened. 

“Kody was concerned though, when we went into our last store, he said, ‘So does this mean we can’t go to Stewart’s anymore?’,” said Kristin Freemann. “I said, ‘Nope, we just don’t have to drive really far to go to Stewart’s now.”

Ultimately, what began as the Freemann’s quest to visit every location of a beloved local chain turned into nearly a full year of quality time and fun as a family. 

“It was really nice that we could just do something that was silly and fun, for no other reason than just to spend time with each other,” said Kristin Freemann. “We were able to spend quality time together, do something fun, and see parts of the state that we never get to see.

“Even those weekend trips we did where we were away, we did other things than go to Stewart’s. We would make a point to go on a hike somewhere. When we were in the Thousand Islands, we went and visited Boldt Castle. … It was really nice spending quality family time together just for fun. There was no reason for us to do this other than that.”

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Rotary Club of Saratoga Springs has awarded the Saratoga Regional YMCA a $20,000 gift to support their Capital Project, in partnership with the Saratoga Senior Center. 

The Saratoga Springs Rotary Club consists of local community leaders and business owners who share a common goal to uphold their values of fellowship and service. To continue that mission, the Rotary Club offers a Major Gift Program yearly to support local community-based organizations. After reviewing a total of 7 worthy applications, the Saratoga Regional YMCA was selected for the Rotary Club’s 2022 $20,000 major gift award. 

This major gift will benefit the Saratoga Regional Y’s Capital Campaign with the Saratoga Senior Center. The Senior Center will be relocated from their Williams Street location onto the Y’s West Avenue Campus and provide the county’s ever-growing senior population a larger space and a greater number of services. 

This project will also expand the Y’s programs and services, with additions such as a new gymnasium, health and wellness offices and an indoor Adventure Center for more children’s play space. Their joint $8.8 million-dollar project broke ground in June of this year and is expected to be completed in the Spring of 2023. 

The Rotary Club’s Major Gift was presented by Club President Stephen Kyne and the Club’s Major Gift Committee Chair, Susan Rhoades. 

“The club and its members are proud to support the Y, and its ever-growing role in the Saratoga Springs community,” said Kyne. 

Chief Executive Officer of the Saratoga Regional YMCA, Scott Clark, accepted the Rotary Club’s gift on the construction grounds of the Y’s Capital Project at their West Ave. location. 

“We are incredibly thankful and appreciative of the Rotary Club’s support of our capital project with the Senior Center and look forward to using their gift so we may have a greater impact on the communities both young and old we serve at the Y,” said Clark.

BALLSTON SPA —This January, when you buy a Fight Hunger Bag at the Ballston Spa Hannaford on Rossi Way, you’ll be contributing to the Saratoga County Senior Nutrition Program.

The Saratoga County Department of Aging and Youth Services has been selected once again by local Hannaford store leadership as the benefiting organization in the Fight Hunger Bag Program for the month of January. Donations made through this program will directly benefit the Saratoga County Senior Nutrition Program, which provides healthy meals to participating seniors throughout Saratoga County.

The Senior Nutrition Program helps Saratoga County seniors remain independent while providing those individuals with daily nutritious meals. The home delivered meal program serves those who are primarily homebound and in need of nutritional support. The Gather and Dine program offers dining at eight meal sites throughout the county, giving seniors the opportunity to socialize with others in their community.

For every $2.50 reusable Fight Hunger Bag purchased, Hannaford sends a $1 donation to an organization local to the Hannaford in which it was purchased. During the month of January, the Saratoga County Senior Nutrition Program has been chosen to receive $1 for every Fight Hunger Bag purchased at the Hannaford on Rossi Way in Ballston Spa.