Through two-plus decades of existence, the Cicero CanTeen has undergone many phases of transition, but never had to worry much about its very survival — until now.
Shut down since March 16 when New York State closed all schools in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the CanTeen, located in front of Cicero-North Syracuse High School, has gone all-virtual, relying on various social media platforms to stay in contact with the students that normally go there.
A far bigger challenge, though, is seeing its annual sources of fund-raising disappear, none bigger than this week’s announcement that the Cicero Gus Macker Basketball tournament, normally held in August, was postponed.
Traditionally, said town of Cicero youth services coordinator Toni’lyn Brauchle, the Macker tournament, held since 2010, raised approximately 50 percent of the CanTeen’s operating funds each year.
Not only has that event gone away, so did two other community fundraisers for the CanTeen — a spaghetti dinner in March and a “Bowl-A-Thon” at Flamingo Bowl that was set for this week.
Brauchle said that asking area businesses for any sorts of funds is difficult because they, too, face immense challenges during a pandemic.
“No one has revenues or discretionary funds,” she said. “Everybody’s suffering due to a lack of business. To ask them for money is unreasonable and unfair. We have to be reasonable.”
Thus, the CanTeen will need to get by on its reserves, but even that could hinge on the remaining percentage of its operating budget that comes from the area’s four municipalities — the towns of Cicero, Clay and Salina, plus the village of North Syracuse.
As of now, said Brauchle, North Syracuse has said it will make its annual contribution from its village budget. But Cicero, Clay and Salina do not do their town budgets until later in the summer, and their ability to fund CanTeen might be affected by their own possible austerity measures related to COVID-19.
The other main factor is when, and how, C-NS High School will reopen. As the largest high school in Central New York in terms of enrollment, it could get greatly affected by possible restrictions on classroom attendance due to social distancing.
If, said Brauchle, the high school operates on a rotating schedule with morning and afternoon sessions, it could mean the CanTeen is only open during the morning, or might remain all-virtual, as it is now with Zoom meetings, Instagram and Snapchat, among other devices.
“This is a very fluid picture,” said Brauchle, who added that kids with whom she has been in contact all have their own mental health issues related to the crisis and miss the chance to go to classes and hang out at the CanTeen.
