By Ashley M. Casey

Staff Writer

The Banff Mountain Film Festival comes to the Syracuse area Feb. 7 as a fundraiser for the CanTeen. The annual film festival, which first launched in Canada 1976, features short films about sports, the environment and mountain culture.

Each year, about 300 films vie for awards and for a spot on the Banff World Tour, which travels across Canada, the U.S. and nearly 20 other countries.

“We’re the first leg of a journey throughout New York state,” said CanTeen Youth Services Coordinator Toni Brauchle. “They’re coming in from out of town and then they’re hitting the trail.”

While the CanTeen’s major fundraiser, the Gus Macker 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament, takes place each August, the center is looking for other ways to make money. Since Macker moved from Driver’s Village to Cicero-North Syracuse High School in 2015, sponsorship revenue has not recovered.

The CanTeen lost another source of revenue when its gift-wrapping program at Great Northern Mall ceased.

“There were no customers at Great Northern Mall,” Brauchle said. “That was a $1,000 fundraiser.”

In addition to the funding it receives from local municipalities and money raised by Macker, the CanTeen holds a spaghetti dinner twice a year.

“In order to supplement that income, we needed to come up with a fundraiser that didn’t require a lot of manpower,” Brauchle said.

Brauchle said her brother works at Rochester Institute of Technology, which has been a stop on the Banff World Tour for about 10 years.

“This would be a great fundraiser,” she recalled thinking.

“Years ago, Syracuse University used to host it, but it was student-run so it didn’t have a lot of consistency because students come and go,” Brauchle said.

Brauchle said she hopes hosting the Banff festival can become an annual event for the CanTeen.

“It’s a different audience than for Macker,” she said, “something different and something visually appealing. I might not be able to go snowboarding in the Alps, but seeing people experience this stuff [on film] is very cool.”

The Banff festival gives Central New Yorkers an option for an indoor cultural activity during the brutal winter.

“It’s February and there’s not a whole lot going on,” she said.

This year’s event, Brauchle said, is just about getting the idea off the ground and paving the way for an annual fundraiser.

“We’re building back up again,” she said.

Brauchle said the CanTeen is gearing up for this summer’s Macker tournament, which takes place Aug. 11 and 12, and will be sending out “partnership packets” to local businesses soon.

In the meantime, community members can support the CanTeen by purchasing snacks and other items — the CanTeen is working on an Amazon wishlist — and helping fund field trips.

“We’re always looking for folks to sponsor some of the kids for field trips during the summer,” Brauchle said.

In December 2017, the CanTeen welcomed roughly 60 teens each day for a total of 173 unduplicated visitors. Overall in 2017, there were 7,168 individual visits to the CanTeen.

“We’re seeing a lot of kids these days,” Brauchle said.