- Tonight on WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories, the Marionette Magic Theater in Oswego takes you back to a time when imagination brought out originality and artistry plus Earth Day 2025 is right around the corner.

Discover how one person's love for trees is growing roots across the community.

Also, career Coach m Michelle Nadon is back with tips to create a perfect resume that stands out from the crowd.

Your stories, your region.

Coming up right now on WPBS Weekly, inside the stories, - WPBS Weekly inside the stories is brought to you by - When you're unable to see your primary care provider.

The Carthage Walk-in Clinic is here for you, located off Route 26 across from Carthage Middle School, comfort and Healing close to home when you need it most - North Country Orthopedic Group is there for your urgent ortho or sports related injuries.

With our onsite surgical center and same or next day appointments, we're ready to provide care for patients of all ages.

Your health matters to us North Country Orthopedic Group, keeping healthcare local.

- We are the north country where protecting one another like family is who we are and where our tomorrow will always be worth defending.

Find out how we keep the North Country strong at claxtonhepburn.org Today, - Select musical performances are made possible with funds from the statewide community Regrant program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the office of the Governor and the New York state legislator administered by the St. Lawrence County Arts Council.

- Good Tuesday evening everyone, and welcome to this edition of WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories, I'm Michael Rickey.

Step into a world of wonder at the Marionette Magic Theater in Oswego, New York.

Regina Schaefer and her family used puppetry to create mesmerizing displays of imagination and artistry.

They have delighted people of all ages.

With over a thousand live performances all across the country, - Our show runs on imagination, not batteries.

It, it takes your, your mind to make it happen.

- In our increasingly online digital lives, sometimes we forget to make ample time for tactile analog experiences.

We journeyed to Oswego New York to sit down with Regina Schaefer of Marionette Magic Theater to tap into the wonders of creativity and imagination.

- My aunt gave me marionette from Mexico when I was about 10 years old, and I remember my brother got the, the boy and the two of us would try to create shows and, and play with them.

So that was my first introduction into puppets.

And I like the idea of the marionette - For Regina.

Artistic life and family life have always been intrinsically intertwined.

- I had five children that I wanted to have them create something together.

And I was reading the story one night from a Walt Disney book, the Story of Pinocchio, and it showed an actual picture of Walt Disney standing there with a marionette next to him.

And I looked at that puppet and I knew I could make one that year built Pinocchio Jato Stromboli and the Blue Fairy and gave it to 'em for Christmas that year.

And my kids started doing shows for the neighborhood and in festivals, and we went to the state fair with it.

It was something that they had to use their imagination to create.

When we first started, my kids grew up with a stage sitting there built in their dining room and puppets hanging all over the house.

It was just a natural thing for us.

My son was the builder, and it's funny, he turned into an engineer.

My daughter helped with the paintings and scripts.

She's an art teacher.

I think that a lot of what they grew up with helped them also in their careers.

It's been a joy watching them grow up in doing the puppetry.

My youngest was the one who really caught the bug.

So it's, it's been a joy watching them grow with the puppets and, and working with 'em too.

I don't think that we're doing our children any benefit in putting 'em in front of all the screens.

You're taking away all the possibilities of their own imagination, of the things that they could create, the things that they could think of to get back to the basics again.

I feel so much more important with our children.

You can get as fancy as you want with all your AI and tech in it.

You're stealing the art of what the craft is.

It is live.

It is performed by a live puppeteer.

It's not something you want to just digitally anybody can do.

It's part of the puppeteer bringing that alive, and it's through imagination that that can happen.

- The puppet shows put on by Regina and her family are not only meant to entertain, but also to inform.

- We're located here on 1 0 4 in between Swego and Saba.

We've been here now for going on 18 years.

We do a performance for the children on Sunday afternoons and during the evenings we have the variety show.

It's an wonderful evening performance and it's more of an adult comedy.

Lily's show is a story of a little fairy that grows up in Lily, in search of herself self-identity.

And in the end she does learn the lesson of, of finding who you are.

The Pirate show teaches children the value of reading, of how the true treasures in life are found within the pages of a book where you can go anywhere and learn anything you want.

And the lessons that we try to hope to bring to our shows and to our audiences.

All stories I have try to give a message a good message through - Puppetry from the Marionette Magic Theater in Oswego, New York for WPBS Weekly, I'm Guy Carlo, - The marionette magic theater's captivating shows can be seen every Sunday from June through August.

Well, earth Day is just around the corner.

April 22nd is a day to advocate for the protection of our planet's natural resources and highlight the importance of environmental conservation.

Trees provide oxygen, shade and beauty to our communities, but they have many more benefits that most of us don't realize.

We visit with Watertown city planner, Michael DeMarco, whose love for trees is growing roots across the entire community.

- We don't just plant trees, but we maintain them - For city planner.

Michael DeMarco.

Urban forestry isn't just his job title, it's his passion.

This is a really, really interesting tree.

This is ginkgo baloba.

Not only can he identify these trees, he can tell you all kinds of fun facts.

One family, they - Look like little crab apples and they smell like rotten lindberg cheese.

Okay, - DiMarco's passion for trees is contagious and it can really inspire others to be mindful of the beauty and importance of them.

- This is tulip trees.

So around June, this tree will have these teacup sized flowers just really, really beautiful.

Wow.

Yeah.

This is Osage Orange.

Osage orange is from Midwest.

So you might find, you'll find this in Oklahoma.

- It's easy to overlook the trees we pass by every single day.

They give life to the city of Watertown in many ways.

But DeMarco says they have a huge impact on the city's water and storm drainage issues.

- Trees are a big help with the city's water quality issues that we're having.

They help to slow down storm water from reaching our sewer systems and making their way to our treatment facility.

They collect storm water on their leaves, twigs and branches and, and and such.

And trees equal water quality.

- It's a win-win benefit for the community.

Trees soak up and catch excess water from the sky and their roots keep sediment from reaching streams and absorb nutrients that would otherwise pollute waterways.

And in return, they grow and thrive in the moisture and nutrients.

- We're always trying to educate our, our, our public on, on on trees.

People like the, the arboretum.

It's an interesting way to learn about trees.

- The Downtown Arboretum aims to show residents and visitors the unique variety of trees located in the downtown area.

And anyone can stroll through to learn more about the history of these trees and the impact they will continue to have for years to come.

- Look to my left.

This is one of my favorites.

This is Dawn Redwood.

It was over 38 species in our downtown arboretum.

In around 2000 year, 2000 members of Tree Water Town said, Hey, we have a unique thing here.

We have over 35 species of trees, over a hundred different specimens, so we should really highlight this and show people what what we have here.

And so far it's been a success.

We're we're getting requests for tours.

It's, it's been pretty, it's been pretty cool.

It's been pretty cool.

That's awesome.

Arbor Day and the volunteer planting events that happen throughout, throughout the season, our community really has grown to expect it.

And I think there's nothing more rewarding as a volunteer than getting a chance to see what you do impact the community.

And you can really see that with, with trees.

You can plant a tree years later.

Wow.

Like, wow, you know, we, we did that.

So it's an amazing thing, especially when you can, you can plant, you know, a few dozen trees all, all at all at one time and really make an impact.

- Volunteer planting events like the Arbor Day celebration happen throughout the seasons and bring the community together over their shared love of trees.

We - Typically celebrate a person or a place highlight the importance of either the individual or the space that we're, that we're celebrating.

But really it's, it's a moment where the city of Watertown pauses and celebrates trees for all the great things that they do for us and the way that they impact our, our community.

It's a real special day, a really fun way that citizens can get involved, get their hands dirty, make a difference within in the community is joining friends at Thompson Park for their monthly, sometimes bimonthly events at Thompson Park where we're doing things like removing brush, doing cleanup.

And it, it's, it's just a wonderful program.

And we work toward a sustainable urban forest and a resilient urban forest for the future.

- Whether it's Earth Day, Arbor Day, world Environment Day, or any day, residents can make a difference no matter the time of year.

In Watertown for WPBS Weekly, I'm Samantha Keeney.

- To get involved in Plant Your Own Tree, you can visit the Facebook pages of Friends of Thompson Park or Tree Watertown career coach.

And Michelle Nadon has been the leading provider of recruitment and cutting edge career coaching resources for Canadian media and cultural sectors since 2004.

Here she's back with tips to help you create a perfect resume that stands out from the crowd.

- Now, building your resume when you're a new market entrant can be quite daunting, but it is well worth the exercise.

And there's a few sections of resume that should not change and they should go in this kind of verbiage or use this kind of verbiage because applicant tracking systems are out there trying to ignore you or trying to screen you out.

So your resume starts with your name, your title, and your contact information front and center.

That goes on everything needless to say.

The next section is your profile.

Some individuals are taught by career departments or a little bit more sort of older school methodology to put an objective.

Please don't do that.

It screams Junior.

Okay?

You want a profile section and that profile statement is the hardest thing you are ever going to write in your life because it's about you and who likes to do that, right?

So I have a little formula for writing a profile, three sentences.

The first sentence is what you are doing now, who you are now I'm an entry level aspiring camera person, health practitioner, fill in the blank.

The second sentence is what you've done in the past, even if it's only been volunteer work or part-time, it doesn't matter.

Craft some kind of statement about what you've done in the past.

And then the third statement, if you've done your goals, you're ready for this one.

You wanna write about what you want in the future.

So who you are, what you've done, and most importantly, what you want.

Now, that first draft of your profile is gonna be awful, trust me.

Okay?

But it will grow and change along with you in your career.

So just, you know, when I say to students when I start them in school programs, I just say to them, get that first draft down.

I don't care how bad it is, you can fix it later, but you've got to sit down and draft that.

And think about this.

If you're going into any industry, you need to learn to create content.

You're going to be creating content for your job the rest of your life.

So why not get really good at creating content about yourself?

The only way to get good about with that is to practice it.

So you know, throw it down on the page, let it sit, go back to it later and adjust it over time.

But have your profile, who you are now, what you've done in the past, and most importantly, what you want in the future.

The next section of your resume addresses the hard and soft skills that you have.

Hard skills are the craft that you are learning.

And soft skills are the personality traits that you're bringing to the table.

Hard skills are not only the craft, but the knowledge area that you're working in.

Your knowledge area could be sciences, it could be finance, it could be hr, it could be media production, it could be anything.

But you need to know that it is in and of itself a giant knowledge area.

So once you know that, you can start learning about that area and being able to articulate it to others.

So understanding that hard skills are communications, administration, processing, scheduling, manufacturing, all these are all physically manifest as skills, whereas soft skills are personality traits and the values that you bring to the workplace.

So there's a real distinction between the two, but please don't make any mistake about this.

Everyone thinks that hard skills are the holy grail.

They're not Soft skills are the holy grail that support the hard skills.

So, and if worse comes to worse, just Google one or the other and see what they have to say about it.

So you can inform yourself a little bit and start to understand the, the vocabulary around hard and soft skills.

And then you will see which ones resonate with you.

They are the hard and soft skills to add to your resume.

Now, it's not just enough to add your hard skills and your soft skills, you should also be adding your technology skills and your technology platforms, okay?

Every industry uses particular technology to that given industry.

So in our case for media, you know, we work with movie magic, we work with Adobe Premier or whatever, you know, platforms that we have to operate on, Google Docs and what have you.

So try to make a list of what platforms you are adept at and list them on your resume because hiring managers are looking for, they wanna know what platforms you can operate on.

And last but not least, do not neglect to list your languages.

Doesn't matter what language.

As we move forward in this century, the the borders are disappearing.

International work is a little bit, you know, novel right now in 2022, but five years from now, international work is going to be the norm.

So whatever languages you can bring to the table are going to be worth their weight in gold for your career.

Don't neglect to mention them.

Next up on the resume is a list of your professional history, okay?

You can call it work history, you can call it whatever you like.

But applicant tracking systems are looking for either work or professional history or work or professional experience.

So use those titles and then list your professional experience.

Okay?

Now, there might be some instances where you don't have any professional experience.

That's always possible too.

What you do there is you just go back into your past and you discover what it was that you were doing.

While you weren't getting exper professional experience, describe what you were doing.

I have a, a candidate who said to me, you know, well I've been on a work break for a year and it's gonna look bad on my resume.

And I said, well, what have you been doing in the last year?

And he said, well, I got my real estate license.

I said, boom, that's what goes on your resume.

So whatever you're doing can be made to bring value to the equation.

You just have to go through the mechanics of writing it down and figuring out how to represent it, whether you have experience or not.

The next section of your resume should include your education and professional development.

As a recruiter, when I see I, I will check a person's education, absolutely.

But what I'm really looking for is professional development.

And if there's no professional development listed on that resume, and I've got another candidate who's got a bevy of professional development listed on their resume, you know who I'm gonna prefer.

It's the better rounded individual has more expertise in differing areas that is a more rounded individual and therefore will be preferred in the workplace.

Finally, on your resume, you should have a section for volunteer work.

Now I object.

I really, I really do.

I object to the term volunteer experience because it's not reflective of what volunteer experience actually is.

Volunteer experience, in my humble opinion is public service.

And there's nothing small about public service.

But applicant tracking systems don't recognize they haven't grown and evolved enough yet to understand what public service is.

So if you gotta go with volunteer, go with volunteer.

But please do and make sure that you list, and I don't care what you've done in terms of volunteer experience, people have the perception that unpaid work is not as valued as paid work.

Not as far as I'm concerned.

I personally in my life, I have worked harder at public service than I have at my profession and I've got my subject matter expertise in my profession.

So stack on those volunteer creds and use them to your advantage in your job search.

And when it comes to your resume, a lot of people use, they close out their resume with a short statement where references are available upon request.

Personally, I feel that that is an extremely outdated practice and it needs to go because frankly it's assumed that references will be available upon request.

Now that is not to be confused with your actual references.

You can list your references on your resume or you can list them on a separate sheet or you can wait to be asked for them.

If you put your references on your resume, that gives the employer the opportunity to look you up.

Without your permission, you're giving them permission to look you up.

And when they do that, they may find a way to screen you out.

So I would prefer that you offer up your references more at the interview stage when they're looking for them.

But using the statement references available upon request at the end of your resume, I would use that space for other more important stuff, shall we say.

- That does it for this Tuesday night.

Join us next time for our fresh look inside the stories.

Easterseals offers a wide range of programs to provide the best possible care and opportunities for children with disabilities.

And Aqua an afterschool program teaches students traditional songs and dances.

Also, Laura Te Beru is back her review of the book series, Magnolia Parks by Jessa Hastings might just convince you it's your next must read.

Meantime, if you have a story idea you'd like us to explore, we would love to learn more.

All you need to do is email us at wpbs weekly@wpbstv.org and let's share it with the region and an important here, WPBS weekly.

It's just one of the many ways we provide programming and outreach that educates, informs and connects communities across the north country.

But these essential services are at risk.

Please go to protect my public media.org to learn how you can help.

Thank you.

Well, that's it for now.

Everyone have a safe night and we'll see you next time.

Take care.

- WPBS Weekly Inside the stories is brought to you by - When you're unable to see your primary care provider.

The Carthage Walk-in Clinic is here for you, located off Route 26 across from Carthage Middle School.

Comfort and Healing close to home when you need it most - North Country Orthopedic Group is there for your urgent ortho or sports related injuries.

With our onsite surgical center and same or next day appointments, we're ready to provide care for patients of all ages.

Your health matters to us.

North Country Orthopedic Group, keeping healthcare local.

- We are the north country.

We're protecting one another.

Like family is who we are and where our tomorrow will always be worth defending.

Find out how we keep the North Country strong at claxtonhepburn.org Today, - Select musical performances are made possible with funds from the statewide Community Regrant program, a REGRANT program of the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of the office of the Governor and the New York State legislator administered by the St. Lawrence County Arts Council.