Erin's Angels hosting Purple Party Fundraiser this Saturday to fight hunger in CNY
(WSYR-TV) — Volunteers with Erin's Angels have been working for years to ensure children have food to eat. With some upcoming fundraisers on tap, you can help them continue their mission.
Founder and director of Erin's Angels, Sheila Dion, and Baldwinsville Rotary Club board of directors member Katherine Reap, are spreading the word about what is coming up at the Purple Party Fundraiser/Battle of the Mayors event.
In this unique competition, Phoenix Mayor Brian Borchik and Fulton Mayor James Rice will go head-to-head in a Mayoral Mix-Off, showcasing their bartending skills as they vie to earn the most tips.
All proceeds from competition will support the Feed Our Future Scholarship Program, providing scholarships for deserving Oswego County students in 2025.
The event will feature an evening of fun, community spirit, and a chance to support a good cause. Each tip given to the mayors will not only boost their chances of being crowned the Tip Champion but will also contribute to funding educational opportunities for local students.
Joey Walker from 93 Q will also be a guest bartender to kick off the evening. Other guest bartenders include Megan Swidowski from the Bridge House Brats program and Phoenix Village Administrator Jim Lynch.
Sheila Dion shares seven ways you can make a difference in a child's life:
Phoenix Central School District Backpack Program-Erin's Angels works with approximately 100 students weekly to ensure they are sent home with food to supplement and provide meals while they aren't in school. Donate here.
Outreach Program- Providing food to school districts as needed and through partnerships with other nonprofits. This program has a positive impact through our collective efforts. Donate here.
Summer Meals Program- We ensure that children in the PCSD have access to weekend meals and snacks, allowing them to enjoy their summer and return to school ready to thrive. Donate here.
Ice Cream Program- We believe that if Erin's Angels children had an ice cream treat every now and again it would brighten their day and it could help them foster a new friendship or even just help them feel included. Donate here.
Scholarship Program- By investing in the education of our youth, we pave the way for a brighter future and empower individuals to make a positive impact on the world. Donate here.
Endowment Program- The Erin's Angels Endowed Fund at the Upstate Foundation will ensure that this critical mission will serve generations of schoolchildren in the future. Donate here.
The Purple Party Fundraiser/Battle of the Mayors event is this Saturday, February 1 Phoenix Veterans of Foreign Wars from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Admission is free, though donations are encouraged.
For more information, visit ErinsAngels.com or contact Sheila Dion at (315) 934-0181.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


9 News
10 minutes ago
- 9 News
PM defends sanctions against Israeli ministers
The prime minister has defended Australia's actions against two Israeli ministers who have been slapped with sanctions.


Time of India
10 minutes ago
- Time of India
Social media fuelling 'devastating' kids' mental health crisis: NGO
The report said what it termed "problematic" social media use was on the rise, with a direct link between heavy internet use and suicide blanket bans are not the answer, the group warned. Australia passed a law to ban social media use for under-16s. "Such blanket bans may infringe on children's civil and political rights," including access to information, said the report. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads The "unchecked expansion" of social media platforms is driving an unprecedented global mental health crisis in kids and teens, a children's NGO said Wednesday, calling for urgent coordinated action KidsRights report said one in seven children and adolescents aged between 10 and 19 suffered mental health issues, with the global suicide rate at six per 100,000 for those aged these high rates represent "the tip of the iceberg" as suicide is widely under-reported due to stigma, according to the Amsterdam-based group."This year's report is a wake-up call that we cannot ignore any longer" said Marc Dullaert, KidsRights chairman."The mental health... crisis among our children has reached a tipping point, exacerbated by the unchecked expansion of social media platforms that prioritise engagement over child safety," he report said what it termed "problematic" social media use was on the rise, with a direct link between heavy internet use and suicide blanket bans are not the answer, the group passed a law to ban social media use for under-16s."Such blanket bans may infringe on children's civil and political rights," including access to information, said the group urged "comprehensive child rights impact assessments" at a global level for social media platforms, better education for kids, and improved training for mental health report seized on the popularity of Netflix sensation "Adolescence", which highlighted some of the toxic content kids view mini-series "demonstrated global awareness of these issues, but awareness alone is insufficient," said Dullaert."We need concrete action to ensure that the digital revolution serves to enhance, not endanger, the wellbeing of the world's 2.2 billion children," he said. "The time for half-measures is over.
Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
People Are Asking ChatGPT for Relationship Advice and It's Ending in Disaster
Despite ChatGPT's well-documented issues, people are using it to advise them on relationship issues — and it's going about as well as you'd expect. In a new editorial, Vice advice columnist Sammi Caramela said she had been blissfully unaware of the ChatGPT-as-therapist trend until someone wrote into her work email about it earlier this year. Back in February, an unnamed man told the writer that his girlfriend refused to stop using the chatbot for dating advice and would even bring up things it had told her in arguments. Though Caramela was so shocked that she "nearly choked" on her coffee, the advice-seeker wasn't all that perturbed — and claimed that he found his girlfriend's ChatGPT use fascinating. "I was a bit floored by this confession. I had no idea people were actually turning to AI for advice, much less input on their relationships," the columnist wrote in her more recent piece. "However, the more I explored the topic, the more I realized how common it was to seek help from AI — especially in an era where therapy is an expensive luxury." Intrigued, Caramela found a friend who used the OpenAI chatbot for similar purposes, running relationship issues by it as a "non-biased" sounding board. Eventually, that person realized that ChatGPT wasn't unbiased at all, but rather "seemed to heavily validate her experience, perhaps dangerously so." Similar questions have been posed on the r/ChatGPT subreddit, and as Caramela explained, the consensus over there suggested not only that the chatbot is something of a "yes-man," but also that its propensity to agree with users can be dangerous for people who have mental health issues. "I often and openly write about my struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)," the writer divulged. "If I went to ChatGPT for dating advice and failed to mention how my OCD tends to attack my relationships, I might receive unhelpful, even harmful, input about my relationship." Digger deeper into the world of ChatGPT therapy, Caramela found multiple threads on OCD-related subreddits about the chatbot — and on the forum dedicated to ROCD, or relationship-focused OCD, someone even admitted that the chatbot told them to break up with their partner. "Programs like ChatGPT only speed the OCD cycle up because you can ask question after question for hours trying to gain some sense of certainty," another user responded in the r/ROCD thread. "There's always another 'what if' question with OCD." Like so many poorly-trained human professionals, chatbots aren't equipped to handle the nuance and sensitivity needed in any therapeutic context. Regardless of what OpenAI claims in its marketing, ChatGPT can't be truly empathetic — and if your "therapist" will never be able to have a human-to-human connection, why would you want it to give you dating advice in the first place? More on chatbot blues: Hanky Panky With Naughty AI Still Counts as Cheating, Therapist Says