Wednesday, Mar 29, 2006

Patrick Corbett
Observer-Dispatch

WHITESBORO — There's a new vision brewing for the Mohawk Valley, a vision from hundreds of minds aligning through Breakthrough Central New York.

While the vision may be of new jobs, clean streets, monuments and order, the man behind the initiative, Chuck Tomaselli, confessed to a more basic motive. Before the start of the second Convention for the Future Tuesday at Hart's Hill Inn, he said, "I have a commitment to be a source of joy in life. I get that from my mother."

A prosperous, happy community would bring that joy to a multitude of people, he said.

More than 200 people gathered for Tuesday's program, where for two hours, David Beurle, founder and managing director of Innovative Leadership Australia, challenged them to share their visions.

The challenge facing the region, he said, is arriving at a common vision to lead the area to a better future.

Tomaselli said Breakthrough Central New York wants to make that happen. More conventions are planned, he said, with the next from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday at Waterville High School.

Tomaselli noted many segments of the region's population attended the second session, from teens to septuagenarians and from new Sudanese immigrants to members of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

"That's what this is all about," Tomaselli told the crowd.

Young people have embraced the breakthrough concept. Stephon McCrae and his friends were selling "I (hearts) Utica" T-shirts to raise awareness and to raise money for The Underground Café, a teen coffeehouse set to open in April at Blessed Sacrament Church in Utica.

The Rev. Mary Webster of St. Paul's Baptist Church on Leah Street in Utica said she went to the first convention with an ulterior motive.

"I had a project in mind, and I thought this would be a way to foster it," she said.

As a result, she said, Tomaselli, an architect, drew the plans for the project, the Upthegrove Memorial Hall of Fame.

Sidi Chivala, Abdelshakour Khamis and Abdi Talas Hassan came to Tuesday's convention together, all recent immigrants from Africa eager to make a life in their new home and to help make their new home a better place. They found out about the program through the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees, but Chivala insisted, "I'm here for myself."

Joseph Fariello of New Hartford also had a personal reason for attending.

"I'm not looking for anything in particular, just something positive," he said as he registered for the convention.

Upcoming events include:

• Waterville, 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday in the Waterville Senior High School
381 Madison St. cafeteria,

• Sessions also will take place in
Old Forge Monday, May 15, and in Herkimer Tuesday, May 16.

• The programs are free and open to the public.