10,000 Seaway Trail posters sent to schools around state

Students, at a glance, are gaining some insights into local history and geography.

In all, 10,000 Great Lakes Seaway Trail Maritime Heritage posters have been distributed to public schools in the 11 counties along the St. Lawrence River, Lake Ontario, Niagara River and Lake Erie.

The Federal Highway Administration and a New York State Scenic Byway grants administered by the New York State Department of Transportation provided funding for the posters.

"The poster is a great new learning resource that not only excites our students about history but has the added value of informing them that the Great Lakes Seaway Trail byway is a road to learning adventures in their own backyard," Jefferson-Lewis Board of Cooperative Educational Systems District Superintendent Jack J. Boak said in a press release.

Keli M. DiRisio of One Smart Cookie Productions in Victor, Monroe County, developed and designed the 17-inch-by-44-inch poster.

The posters, which meet educational standards for grades 4 to 7, have been distributed to public schools and BOCES systems. Homeschoolers may request a copy of the poster by visiting the Great Lakes Seaway Trail Discovery Center at Ray and West Main streets, Sackets Harbor, or the Lake Erie Seaway Trail Visitor Center, Hamburg, Green County.

St. Lawrence, Jefferson, Oswego, Cayuga, Wayne, Monroe, Orleans, Niagara, Erie and Chautauqua counties in New York state and Erie County, Pa., make up the 518-mile coastal region of the Great Lakes Seaway Trail.