Photo by Sue HenningerDierde Cunningham, left, market manager accepted the business of the year award for the Trumansburg Farmers Market from the Trumansburg Chamber of Commerce. Cyndi Gessner, emergency medical technician-paramedic for the Trumansburg Fire Department, received the Chamber's person of the year award.

“Not many markets are able to achieve this level of success!” Monika Roth, Extension Educator for Agriculture Programs at Tompkins County Cooperative Extension, says about the Trumansburg Farmer’s Market being honored by the Trumansburg Area Chamber of Commerce as 2009 Business of the Year.

Nominating Committee member Neil Henninger says that the Farmer’s Market was honored for many reasons. “They provide a venue for small, home-grown businesses to offer their agriculture-based products to the community,” he explains. “They’ve also shown great growth since their inception and have given jobs to local kids through the Cooperative Extension’s Rural Youth Services program.”

Silver Queen Farm owners Gordy and Liz Gallup have been part of the Farmers Market since it formed in Trumansburg. Liz is proud to see the Market receive the award because, even though the market has had its ups and downs, the vendors have persisted in trying different things until they found a winning formula.

Liz believes that having a market manager has made a huge difference, especially one like current manager Deirdre Cunningham, who isn’t a vendor and has the time to focus on issues that need her attention. Gordy agrees, saying Cunningham has “done an amazing job with hot food, music, and adding more vendors.” Roth adds “The diversity of local products offered in Trumansburg has really expanded over the years from fruits and vegetables to arts and crafts, beverages, cheeses, and meats. The Market really complements our local CSA farms because each has different items that they offer.”

Gordy Gallup feels that the downturn in the economy has also resulted in a number of smaller produce vendors joining the market as a way to learn more about the business side of growing. Roth agrees that having established, long-term vendors alongside new vendors is a great combination and that, because Trumansburg isn’t as competitive as some of the larger markets, the local market gives new farmers a testing ground to see how their product is received.

Both Gallups are happy to see the previously empty park space filled with a “whole range of things happening” on Wednesdays. Liz remarks, “I’m so glad to see the community enjoying it, people are laughing and eating, kids are dancing to the music; it’s a happy scene.”

Says Roth, “The Trumansburg community deserves a round of applause for their support of the Market.” She also commends the Market for adding to the tourist experience by drawing visitors from the campgrounds and summer homes along the lake.

What does the future hold for the Business of the Year? Roth and the Gallups would like to see an open-sided, wooden pavilion constructed to keep the market viable even in bad weather. A feasibility study was completed and they just received a $25,000 Ag and Markets grant to help fund the pavilion construction.

Cyndi Gessner, a 20-year volunteer for the Trumansburg Fire Department, was selected as the TACC Person of the Year for 2009. Gessner’s official title is Emergency Medical Technician-Paramedic and she’s also the Central New York Continuing Educator Evaluator and CPR Instructor, an Advanced Cardiac Life-Support Instructor, and a member of the Tompkins County Continuing Quality Improvement Committee.

Gessner’s story is one of perseverance and hard work. She became interested in emergency medicine in her 40s after a family snowmobile accident. She recalls watching the female paramedic at work as they rode to the hospital in the ambulance and being impressed by the woman’s skill and caring manner.

Shortly afterward Gessner joined the Trumansburg Fire Department as a volunteer, became a basic EMT in 1990, and by 1994 she had become a paramedic. “I started out knowing nothing medical, which proves it’s never too late!” Gessner says. She encourages young people with an interest in emergency medicine to enter the field and make a difference.

Chamber member Paul Polce explains that Gessner was chosen by the Nominating Committee to receive the award because she cares about the Trumansburg/Ulysses community and the people in it. “She’s one of the reasons that I’m still here and my mother’s still here. She helps a lot of people and doesn’t get paid for it and she’s always trying to learn more about medicine through educational classes,” he says.

Polce also says Gessner always “pays attention and knows what’s going on”, along with going on over four hundred emergency calls a year and making follow-up calls to her patients to see how they are doing, something Polce feels is going above and beyond her volunteer duties.

Gessner was thrilled to receive the award saying, “I couldn’t believe it! It’s not just me though; the people I work with are wonderful. We’re like a well-oiled machine and we love what we do.”

TAGGED WITH: chamber of commerce, farmers market, Trumansburg