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October 20, 2008

By LOHR McKINSTRY The Press Republican Fri May 14, 2010, 10:27 PM EDT

CROWN POINT — Standing in line to get a cup of coffee at a Stewart’s Shop is getting more and more interesting.

The Lakes To Locks Passage group of Crown Point is showing one-minute videos at Stewart’s to promote local history in communities along Lake Champlain.

The videos were financed by the Stewart’s Shops chain of Saratoga Springs and produced by Mountain Lake PBS in Plattsburgh.

The clips, combined with a new Web site at www.lakestolocks.com, have proven popular, Lakes To Locks Executive Director Janet Kennedy said.

“We’re promoting individual communities themselves. It (the video set) features way-point communities of Lakes To Locks Passage.”

The clips vary from the early 1900s filmmaking history of Port Henry to the 18th-century British and French forts at Crown Point.

Each town along the lake has its own page on the new Web site, Kennedy said. The video project got started when she talked with Stewart’s Board of Directors Chairman William Dake.

“One of the things we did is we went to Stewart’s Shops and asked them for some corporate support.”

Dake told them he liked what they were doing to promote the Lake Champlain region.

“He said you need to get to them (tourists) through video, and he gave $5,000 to do a 20-minute video.”

But Kennedy discovered it costs about $1,000 a minute to produce professional video.

“Nobody’s going to watch a 20-minute video at Stewart’s. But they might watch a one-minute clip while they’re standing in line to buy a lottery ticket. That was our gold mine.”

So she contacted the WCFE-TV Public Broadcasting System station.

“They agree to work with us. We did one-minute clips of little stories, legends or fun factoids.”

They have about 100 stories so far for their video productions, she said, and are looking for more.

“We took these to the Dakes, and they said, ‘This is just what we had in mind.’ They gave us some more money.”

Stewart’s has more than 300 convenience stores in New York and Vermont that could be showing the videos.

They’ve also done the history of Rouses Point, Samuel de Champlain’s exploration voyage in 1609, and Fort Ticonderoga. Kennedy said many more are to come.

They’re (the clips) going to be great for classrooms. They’ll spark the kids’ imagination.”

E-mail Lohr McKinstry at:

lmckinstry@pressrepublican.com