Community News

Onondaga Community Living (OCL) is partnering with iHeartOswego to create the iHeartOswego Ambassadors Group.

This new group will have many “Posts” that will be comprised of two to ten participants from organizations like Onondaga Community Living aka Post OCL. OCL is an agency helping persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities individually and located at 4 Tower Dr. in Fulton, NY. Each Post, open to any group such as schools, others, is aimed at learning the skill of photography using various devices such as, cameras (35mm or digital), smart phones, Polaroid camera, iPad, or tablets.

Each Ambassador Post will go out into the community either as a group or individually, in order to hone their skill at taking pictures. The emphasis will be on learning simple photo techniques such as landscapes, portraits, architecture, wildlife, people, black and white, and more. They will also work occasionally with community leaders in photography from all over central New York.

“Melissa Salazar of OCL approached us here at iHeartOswego in order to collaborate on a project that would both entertain as well as educate, her clients.” said Victoria Usherwood Gailinas, founder at iHeartOswego. “Volunteers taking photos is what we do best, so it made perfect sense to create an Ambassadors Group, that any organization can join.”

The iHeartOswego Ambassadors Group, Post OCL, will receive official “ID” badges and their photos will appear on iHeartOswego.com as well as on social media. Anyone wanting to create a new Post should call iHeartOswego directly at 315-532-5056.

“With a new year comes new opportunities and we are excited to be working with the volunteers at iHeartOswego. This year we are expanding our online presence to better engage with our communities, so this partnership fulfills a part of that mission.” Salazar stated. “Additionally, we're hosting OCL's first “Virtual Art Meet Series” with Zoom. We will paint, draw, color, using crayons, markers, or whatever supplies participants have on hand. We are ready to have fun, get creative and get involved with our communities!”

# # # About Onondaga Community Living:

The OCL is an agency that has been supporting people with disabilities for over 30 years. They can be found working in Onondaga, Oswego, and parts of Cayuga, Cortland, and Madison counties encouraging the people we support and collaborating with families, friends and the local community. For more information visit them at www.OCLinc.org or visit them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Onondaga-Community-Living