Media Contact: Victoria Schmitt 585-509-8229

NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Issued July 2, 2011 Contact: President 585-509-8229 Page 1 of 4

IN BRIEF Title: Corn Hill Navigation Celebrates Milestone Anniversary with Community Events! Dates: Wednesday, July 13; Thursday, July 14 and Friday, July 15, 2011 Media Contact: Victoria Schmitt · 585-509-8229 · [email protected] Website: www.samandmary.org

Corn Hill Navigation Celebrates Milestone Anniversary with Community Events!

Rochester, NY – Corn Hill Navigation celebrates a milestone anniversary in the modern-day renaissance of Rochester and Monroe County’s celebrated Erie Canal with three special, public events on July 13, 14 and 15, 2011. The three-day celebration marks the 20th anniversary of the founding of Corn Hill Navigation, and the launch of commercial passenger vessel Sam Patch in July 1991.

Wednesday July 13, 2011 9am-3:30pm Flotilla of Boats, 20th Anniversary Celebration at Corn Hill Landing

The Sam Patch and Mary Jemison boats will lead a Flotilla of 10-12 private boats and New York State Canal Corporation working boats from Schoen Place in the Village of Pittsford to Corn Hill Landing from 9am-11:30am.

The boats will dock at Corn Hill Landing from 11:30-3:30pm and provide public tours. The “Rhode Island Sound” Navy band, in Rochester for Navy Week, will perform as the boats arrive, and there will be free

P.O. Box 18417 Rochester, NY 14618 585-662-5748 www.samandmary.org

of 4 family activities. Graduates of the Genesee Community Charter School who as 6th graders researched rewatering the Broad Street Aqueduct will be on hand to share canal information and lead tours of the RiverWalk from Corn Hill Landing to the Aqueduct.

Thursday July 14, 2011 10am Dedication of Curtis Point, Genesee Valley Park

The northeast corner in Genesee Valley Park where the Erie Canal and Genesee River intersect will be named for and dedicated in honor of Ted Curtis, founder of Corn Hill Navigation. A former City Manager, Chair of the Rochester Sesquicentennial, and leader of the Convention and Visitors Bureau (now VisitRochester), Ted Curtis is a leader and pioneer in recognizing the importance of Rochester’s waterways, particularly the Erie Canal.

The occasion will be marked by comments from dignitaries, music by the Smugtown Stompers, a cannon blast, and the official re-naming of the site. The event culminates the 2009 World Canals Conference announcement by Lt. Governor Robert Duffy, that the site would be dedicated to honor the man responsible for igniting a waterfront development renaissance that has brought the world to Rochester to study the Erie Canal an unprecedented two times in one decade.

of 3 Friday July 15, 2011 7:30-10:30pm 20 Years of Vision. Be Inspired! Reception in Honor of “Commodore Ted”

This exciting event will be highlighted with music by Gap Mangione and The Dady Brothers, boat rides to Curtis Point, fireworks, the opportunity to spend time with Ted Curtis at a grazing party complete with a “Commodore” Champagne Toast and a 20th Anniversary Celebration cake.

The event showcases Brooks Landing, one of the newest developments on the Genesee River Extension of the Erie Canal at the Staybridge Suites.

Proceeds will benefit Corn Hill Navigation. Tickets are $120 each. For Reservations please call 585-423-8235. For more information and Partnership Opportunities call 585-586-6906.

BACKGROUND

Rochester first grew to national prominence during the years following the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825. The canal provided accessible eastern markets for the agricultural products of the fertile Genesee Valley. And the canal brought thousands of immigrants westward – along with new ideas, religions and national reforms. Rochester became a new kind of American city – a port city built at the confluence of a river and canal, rather than on an ocean or great lake. New York became the Empire State, New York City became the nation’s largest seaport, and America’s borders expanded to the west.

In the 1890s, New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt, who as U.S. President would build the Panama canal, led an effort to preserve and redevelop the Erie Canal. In 1918, a widened, deepened Erie-

Barge Canal opened, re-routed to cross the Genesee River in Genesee Valley Park. A terminal to send and receive goods from the canal stood directly across from what is now Corn Hill Landing, on the east bank of the Genesee River.

By 1991 it had been 30 years since a commercial vessel docked at this harbor. Rochester visionary Edward P. “Ted” Curtis, who loved the river, the canal and the city, believed that the canal could once again become important to the region. He collaborated with the Corn Hill Neighbors to found a nonprofit organization, Corn Hill Navigation, convinced city officials to build a dock on the west side of the river and launched a passenger vessel, the Sam Patch. In 2005, as the Corn Hill Landing development and Frederick Douglass-Susan B. Anthony Memorial Bridge neared completion, the organization launched a second and larger vessel, the Mary Jemison, from this site.

Today, from the decks of Corn Hill Navigation’s boats, passengers from all over the world learn about the history of the legendary Erie Canal – and witness the economic development that is again being stimulated by the historic waterways of Rochester, New York.