In November 2016, lifelong Watertown resident William P. \u201cBill\u201d Plante passed away after a brave three-year battle with cancer. Bill\u2019s community service accomplishments\u00a0for the past three decades were numerous, as he had been deeply involved in supporting the local community in many ways.\u00a0 Bill was a constant – always there, always dependable, and always dedicated to support his local church, local schools, youth lacrosse and any other community action that needed his help.\u00a0 Bill willingly donated his time, his common-sense approach to solving problems and his engineering expertise.\u00a0 He did it all – from the simple things, like fixing a broken fan belt for a friend, to complicated large-scale projects, such as the safe removal of asbestos insulation from a school classroom, the planning and installation of a playground, and even a complete sports field project.<\/p>\n
The William P. Plante Memorial Fund<\/strong> is being established with the Northern New York Community Foundation to honor Mr. Plante and to carry on his legacy of selflessly giving back to the area. The fund will support community projects and provide an annual scholarship that will be awarded to\u00a0local high school students who demonstrate a passion for contributing to the community.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A summer event is planned to establish and build the permanent fund. All proceeds raised will be used to augment the contributions from donors and sponsors.\u00a0 The first annual \u201cRock the River for Bill\u201d, <\/strong>a three-hour boat cruise and music festival, will be held on Saturday, July 15, 2017 <\/strong>and will depart from Alexandria Bay at 7 p.m. and return at 10 p.m. Two bands, Mugilla and Tough Luck, will perform on the main floor of the boat. There will be a cash bar serving beer, liquor and wine. \u00a0Only\u00a0250 tickets will be sold.\u00a0Tickets are $50 per person and are available at www.WPPMemorialFund.org<\/a>. Individuals, organizations and businesses wishing to sponsor the event should contact Michael Colello at (315) 778-0032. Any and all levels of sponsorship are greatly appreciated.<\/p>\n The Northern New York Community Foundation makes grants to support the work of non-profit organizations and provides scholarships to individuals in Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence Counties. The Foundation has been built and added to from gifts (both while living and through their legacy plans) by individuals and organizations committed to meeting the changing needs of Northern New York, as well as supporting specific charitable interests and passions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In November 2016, lifelong Watertown resident William P. \u201cBill\u201d Plante passed away after a brave three-year battle with cancer. Bill\u2019s community service accomplishments\u00a0for the past three decades were numerous, as he had been deeply involved in supporting the local community in many ways.\u00a0 Bill was a constant – always there, always dependable, and always dedicated …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["type-post","category-recent-news","entry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nnycf.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nnycf.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nnycf.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nnycf.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nnycf.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nnycf.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":693,"href":"https:\/\/nnycf.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692\/revisions\/693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nnycf.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nnycf.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nnycf.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}