Thomas A. Cross

Community Service & Volunteering · Plattsburgh, New York

Biography · Real Estate · Community Service · Consulting · Options Trading

Service to the North Country runs through the whole of Thomas A. Cross's life in the region — land given to his hometowns, medical mission work abroad, years of quiet volunteering with veterans, recovery services, and youth programs on Lake Champlain. This page gathers that record in one place.

Giving to his hometowns

Donated the land for Clock Park in Au Sable Forks to the Town of Black Brook — the corner lot at the hamlet's four-way intersection, cleared at his expense — now the town's gathering place for Christmas in the Forks and the Labor Day celebration, and the subject of a $125,000 state revitalization grant.
Donated a parcel on Route 9N to the Town of Jay for affordable housing (Essex County deed, Book 2184, Page 80).
Handpicked by Judge Penelope Clute to serve on the founding group for Plattsburgh's first drug court — community professionals from varying backgrounds brought together to advise on setting up the program — a court that monitors individuals to keep them in recovery, or start them on it, instead of punishment.
After September 11, attended the Governor's Ball as a guest of Senator Ronald B. Stafford, the North Country's senator for thirty-seven years and a close friend.

Medical mission work

Helped administer the medical program of the North Country Mission of Hope — the Plattsburgh-based relief mission to Nicaragua — under its medical director, Dr. Ronald G. Malseptic, during Sister Deborah Blow's leadership.
Traveled to Montego Bay, Jamaica, roughly half a dozen times as a volunteer administrator, helping set up health clinics and teaching local staff how to run them.
Volunteered in orphanages in Varna and Sofia, Bulgaria, and in Tel Aviv, Israel, on multiple trips.
Instrumental in organizing the volunteer trips to Israel led by his uncle, Christopher Cross, who has led pilgrimages there for decades.
Volunteered at Celebration Hospital in Florida and in underserved clinics there while completing a program at the hospital.

Veterans, recovery, and neighbors

Volunteered with Disabled American Veterans, driving veterans to the Albany VA Medical Center, and helped veterans and their families get checked into the Ronald McDonald House in Albany when problems arose with their care.
Volunteered for several years in Plattsburgh's addiction and crisis services — at Clinton County Mental Health and Addiction Services, the First Step Recovery House, Club 12, and the Intensive Crisis Stabilization Center on Dormitory Drive.
Volunteered with the Salvation Army in Plattsburgh, serving meals in its food kitchens for the homeless. A large benefactor of the region's SPCAs, including the Elmore SPCA, and of German Shepherd rescues across the region.
Member of the Rotary clubs in Au Sable Forks and Plattsburgh, and a member of the Sons of the American Legion.
His volunteering also runs through the region's lake and community organizations: adopt-a-trail and shoreline work with the Lake Champlain Land Trust, and volunteering with the Lake Champlain Committee, the Lake Champlain Basin Program, and Friends of Northern Lake Champlain — and in Plattsburgh, St. Joseph's Community Outreach Center, the Joint Council for Economic Opportunity (JCEO), and the Plattsburgh Interfaith Food Shelf.

Young people

Founded The Cross Sailing Club, a nonprofit on Lake Champlain, teaching youth sailing and boating safety for twenty years.
Through Fern Lake Transportation Company, he owned the Juniper, the large Lake Champlain tour boat he bought from Captain Frank Pabst, and gave underprivileged children and their families tours of Valcour and Gunboat Islands — and occasional trips across to Burlington, where the Juniper was too large for the dock, so families were brought ashore in a 26-foot center console.
A PADI-certified scuba diver holding an enriched-air nitrox rating, he has volunteered with youth groups in Key Largo, Marathon, and Key West, introducing young people to scuba diving.
Worked with Au Sable Valley Central School administrator Paul Savage — later the district's superintendent — on the school's seventh- and eighth-grade wrestling program and an after-school weightlifting program for its football players.
As an instructor at the Chesterfield Fish and Game Club in Keeseville, he trained children and adults to earn their firearms safety certification.

Full biography: Thomas A. Cross — Healthcare Executive · Plattsburgh, New York