NORTH ELBA, N.Y. - The National Volunteer Week Committee is accepting nominations for North Elba/Lake Placid's 2015 Distinguished Volunteer of the Year. National Volunteer Week began in 1974 when President Richard Nixon signed an executive order establishing the week as an annual celebration of volunteering. The Town of North Elba and the Village of Lake Placid will both sign proclamations declaring the week of May 12-18, 2013 as National Volunteer Week, an event that celebrates and thanks one of the communities’ most valuable assets; its volunteers. The NVW Committee is planning a celebration on Thursday, April 30 with a tree planting ceremony in honor of all community volunteers followed by a ceremony and reception at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts, recognizing the 2015 Distinguished Adult and Youth Volunteers of the Year. The Committee is now accepting nominations from any individual or organization for this award. Nominations must be received by Tuesday, April 7, 2015. Any previous candidates may be re-nominated. The committee also retains and reviews all past nominees. A Distinguished Volunteer award will be given in recognition of a lifetime of activity and effort on behalf of the Town of North Elba and/or the Village of Lake Placid. Volunteers do not have to reside in North Elba/Lake Placid but the Organization that they have been nominated for, and where they have performed their services, must be within the boundaries of North Elba. The committee will accept nominations for a separate youth category for those 18 years of age and younger. The same criteria will be used. Nomination criteria: o Any individual or organization may nominate a candidate (s). o Previous nomination does not disqualify person for another year. o Please keep nominations confidential. All nominees will not necessarily receive an award. o Include as much pertinent information to support your nomination as you can. o Please provide at least 1 contact in support of your nomination. Be sure to include name and number where support person can be reached. o Additional letters of support are encouraged. Submissions: Nomination forms are available by phoning Bethany Valenze at the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism office 636-0096 or emailing her at bvalenze@lakeplacid.com, or stop in the office at 2608 Main Street, Lake Placid. ### Download: NVW Nomination Form

The Ticonderoga Area Chamber of Commerce (TACC) is pleased to announce the schedule of Spring 2015 Business Seminars that they will be hosting in coordination with their partners and members. Registration is required! Contact TACC at 518.585.6619 or chamberinfo@ticonderogany.com for more information or to register. TACC Spring 2015 Seminars

Kudos to greater communities of Tupper Lake and Hamilton County...you've had a direct impact on the promotion of your communities as visitor destinations! In large part due to local businesses' and residents' (and according to comments, former residents') active participation in social marketing campaigns, both AdirondackExperience.com and TupperLake.com received more than 233% and 113% (respectively) their normal site traffic in the last 30 days. Local business and organization participation drove 5 times and 18 times (respectively) the normal social media engagement on those destinations' social media accounts. This, my friends, is how to "go viral." Tupper Lake Facebook share example - thanks Wild Center! This popular Facebook post drove traffic to adirondackexperience.com Awesome, compelling website content + community pride + sharing that content with friends and family = outstanding reach and amplification! How does this really affect visitation? Often, it is part of the dreaming/inspiration phase of travel planning; consistently reminding potential visitors and existing ambassadors to keep your destination on their to-visit list. Some of the comments on the Adirondack Experience blog "7 Weird Adirondack Things" indicate that the content inspired future travel, too! But sometimes, it has an almost immediate impact. Check out this anecdote: My colleague Jess Collier attended the Brew-Ski event in Tupper Lake on March 7th, and reported that she talked to someone from Connecticut who saw the lumbersexual blog that was shared by their friends on Facebook. They subsequently clicked through and read it, then went to the events page on tupperlake.com to see if there were any cool happenings to make it worth coming up, saw the Brew-Ski listing and made the trip! Share the love Are you participating in the promotion of your destination? Be sure to "LIKE" your destination social media accounts, and "SHARE" the love! Lake Placid: Twitter: @LakePlacidADK www.facebook.com/LakePlacidAdk Instagram: LakePlacidADK Schroon Lake Region: www.facebook.com/SchroonLake Whiteface Region: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Whiteface-Visitors-Bureau/424823390412 Lake Champlain Region: www.facebook.com/AdirondackCoast Hamilton County: Twitter: @ADKExperience www.facebook.com/AdirondackWild Saranac Lake: @SaranacLakeADK www.facebook.com/pages/Saranac-Lake-ADK/168446703317167 Tupper Lake: Twitter: @TupperLakeNY www.facebook.com/tupperlakeny Adirondacks: Twitter: @ADKSUSA www.facebook.com/AdksUSA

Our destinations in the media ROOST partnered with I Love New York to host Michael Riegelman during this year's Adirondack Winter Challenge. Michael produced these pieces for Socially Superlative that mention his great experiences with a number of local businesses. READ PART 1 READ PART 2 READ PART 3 READ PART 4

ROOST in the news The Lake Placid News covers the Legislative Roundtable Discussion ROOST co-hosted with the New York State Hospitality & Tourism Association at the Lake Placid Club Boat House. READ THE ARTICLE