Contacts:

Mercedes Niess, H. Lee White Maritime Museum Executive Director, P: 315-342-0480, E: Mercedes@hlwmm.org

Megan Cochran, New York Sea Grant Great Lakes Outreach Coordinator, P: 716-270-2490, E: mk2236@cornell.edu 

Kara Lynn Dunn, NYSG's Great Lakes Publicist, P: 315-465-7578, E: karalynn@gisco.net 

Oswego, NY, May 15, 2026 - The H. Lee White Maritime Museum and New York Sea Grant have announced a full slate of family fun for the 2026 Lake Ontario Waterfront Festival on Saturday, June 6th in Oswego, New York. The festival will be held from 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the City’s Historic Maritime District along the 1 West First Street Pier. Admission is free. The children’s activities at the festival are sponsored in part by Oswego Elks Lodge 271.

The Happy Pirates theatre troupe with Captain Gully, Scuttle and Sharkbait invite festival visitors to laugh, sing, and dance along with their seafaring songs. Costumes are encouraged! Under the big tent, children may create a maritime themed t-shirt (one per child). 

Sailboat Sprint! races will take place with prizes for different age groups. Free kits to make and decorate a wooden toy sailboat to race in a water tank on the pier at the festival are available at the H. Lee White Maritime Museum (daily 1:00-5:00 p.m.), the Oswego Downtown Visitors Center (Wednesdays-Fridays 12:00-4:00 p.m.) or at the Children’s Museum of Oswego (Tuesdays-Sundays). Boats may be available to build and race on festival day, as supplies allow. The Sailboat Sprint! is sponsored by Raby’s ACE Home Center, the Oswego Middle School wood shop, the Children’s Museum of Oswego, the City of Oswego Visitors Center, and H. Lee White Maritime Museum.

The story of “Colonel Meacham’s Giant Cheese,” as written by H. Lee White Maritime Museum founder Rosemary S. Nesbitt, will be read at 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. in the historic Derrick Boat No. 8. The first 100 families participating in the “Giant Cheese” activity will receive a free copy of the book. 

The first 50 families or teachers to visit the New York Sea Grant booth will receive a free copy of Enviro-Time Storytime: Recommended Environmental Reading Lists for Children Pre-K to 12. New York Sea Grant curated the lists with assistance from the Park School of Buffalo, the University at Buffalo, Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and Wisconsin Sea Grant. Environmental-theme coloring pages will also be available at the booth.

New York Sea Grant will also have information on how to properly size a flotation vest for every member of the family and the family dog, and on how to reduce exposure to harmful algae by dogs. Beach and boating safety tips will also be available. 

The Great Lakes Institute will have festival activities that include making origami boats; coloring pages of ships, fish, and lake depth levels pages, and knot tying to make a key chain to take home. The Institute is housed at SUNY Oswego. 

“Ronny Raindrop” coloring books will be available at the Oswego County Soil and Water Conservation District booth for take-home fun.

If not called into service, the U.S. Coast Guard and Oswego Fire Department Marine One unit will be at the festival with their water rescue units.

Celebrate America’s 250th Anniversary! The National Historic Landmark World War II U.S. Army Large Tug, LT-5, one of the last vessels of its type that participated in the D-Day June 6, 1944 landing of Allied forces in France, will be featured in an activity for children. Those completing the activity will receive a free giveaway item. On and near Derrick Boat No. 8, amateur radio operators will be talking with “hams” on historic museum ships around the world. 

The Lake Ontario Waterfront Festival is sponsored in part by Eagle Beverage and Adventure at Burritt’s Marine and Powersports in Oswego, and hosted by the H. Lee White Maritime Museum with assistance from New York Sea Grant. The museum and its Treasure Chest gift shop will be open during the festival, www.hlwmm.org. New York Sea Grant integrates research, education, and extension services focused on coastal community economic vitality, environmental sustainability, and citizen awareness about New York's Great Lakes and marine resources, nyseagrant.org.


More Info: New York Sea Grant

New York Sea Grant (NYSG) is a university-based, statewide Federal-State collaboration between the State University of New York (SUNY), Cornell University, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It is one of 34 university-based programs that connects research, extension, and education with the needs of coastal communities, environments, and economies through NOAA. 

Since 1971, NYSG has supported science-based solutions for a wide range of water-related challenges and opportunities across the state. Through NYSG’s efforts, university scientists and extension specialists help develop and transfer science and technical information to educational institutions, businesses, agencies, and industries; federal, state and local governments; the media; and the interested public. The program is administratively based at Stony Brook University (SBU) and Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS). 

NYSG historically leverages on average a 5.5-fold return on each invested federal dollar, annually. The State benefits from this, as these resources are invested in Sea Grant staff and their work in communities right here in New York.

New York Sea Grant, one of the largest of the state Sea Grant programs, maintains Great Lakes offices at Cornell University, SUNY Buffalo, Rochester Institute of Technology, SUNY Oswego, the Wayne County Cooperative Extension office in Newark, and in Watertown. In the State's marine waters, NYSG has offices at Stony Brook University and with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Nassau County on Long Island, in Queens, at Brooklyn College, with Cornell Cooperative Extension in NYC, in Bronx, with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County in Kingston, and with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Westchester County in Elmsford.

Established in 1966, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s National Sea Grant College Program promotes the informed stewardship of coastal resources in 34 joint federal/state university-based programs in every U.S. coastal state (marine and Great Lakes) and Puerto Rico. The Sea Grant model has also inspired similar projects in the Pacific region, Korea and Indonesia.

For updates on Sea Grant activities: www.nyseagrant.org, follow us on social media (Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, Bluesky, LinkedIn, and YouTube). NYSG offers a free e-list sign up via www.nyseagrant.org/nycoastlines for its flagship publication, NY Coastlines/Currents, which it publishes quarterly.