LIVERPOOL — If crystals entrance you. If fossils fascinate you. If you dig marvelous minerals and jazzy jewelry, you’ll want to make the scene when the Gem and Mineral Society of Syracuse celebrates its 70th anniversary as a variety of vendors display their wares this weekend at the Ramada Inn (formerly the Holiday Inn), 441 Electronics Parkway, in the town of Salina.
The gem show had originally been scheduled for July 2021 but was canceled in light of the pandemic.
“So we’re calling this our Replacement Show on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 25 and 26,” said show chairwoman Cheryl Brown.
The hotel’s Convention Center and Cotillion Room will host 30 rock, gem, mineral, fossil and jewelry retail vendors from around upstate New York and five other Northeast states.
Gem Society member Judy Cook explained the rescheduling process.
“Last year due to COVID we had to cancel our July show taking place at the Center of Progress building at the State Fairgrounds. This year as the deadline approached at end of April, we again decided to cancel the show due to building-use restrictions and COVID protocol,” Cook said. “We have vendors coming from all over the country, so we wanted to do what was in everyone’s best interest.”
The society’s popular 25 cent Straw Draw will be conducted at the GMSS Club Booth where people can win polished stones and other prizes. Also available for purchase at the booth will be sluice bags for kids to take home and discover the enclosed minerals and fossils.
The show will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 25, and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 26. Suggested donation is $5. Scouts in uniform and children ages 11 and younger will be admitted free.
Crystal aficionados will enjoy the specialties of several vendors including Crystal Cove, Crystal Mine, Mister Crystals and Crystal Utopia. Gem-hunters seeking something more exotics will enjoy perusing displays by Village Morocco, Unique Russian Minerals and Ethiopian Gems.
Fossil fanatics will relish impressions of once-living things from past geological ages at Past and Present and Hartstein Fossils.
The Gem and Mineral Society of Syracuse was established in March 1951. Richard Sylvester, an employee of NY Central Railroad, was tired of taking the train to Rochester for mineral club meetings, so he met with six like-minded people in Lyman Hall at Syracuse University and formed the Central NY group.
The club now meets at Unit 15 in the Ponderosa Plaza, 209 Oswego St., in Liverpool on the third Monday of most months at 7:30 p.m. Visitors of all ages are welcome; syracusegemsociety.com.
