The Red Hot and Blue Band performed a porch concert for about 100 village residents Saturday afternoon.
I have come to realize that one of the main things I miss most during this pandemic is the opportunity to see live music.
Fortunately, those opportunities have begun to present themselves again in the last several weeks. For example, the Village of Webster held three Friday night concerts at the gazebo, and Barry’s Old School Irish is back to hosting its regular traditional Irish music sessions every Saturday night.
I consider yesterday’s live music event a bonus, however. It was a village block party held on Park Ave., just around the corner from my house (OK, two corners).
A portion of Park Ave. was blocked off for the party.
I’m not sure who organized the event, but I’m sure my Park Ave. neighbor Doug Pucci had something to do with it. It was on his porch that his rockin’ Red Hot and Blue Bandperformed for almost three hours to an appreciative audience of almost 100 adults and children.
The organizers distributed flyers all over the surrounding neighborhoods, but everyone in the village was invited, regardless of whether they got one of the “invitations” before they ran out.
The sun was shining, the children were dancing and making chalk drawings in the middle of Park Ave., and neighbors were meeting neighbors. It was a quintessential village experience.
Thank you to everyone who helped pull this together. It was exactly the thing all us music-starved and socially-deprived people needed.
At one point, almost 100 adults and children were watching the concert, dancing, or playing in the street.
Friday marked the 19th anniversary of the awful events of Sept. 11, 2001, the day when the world changed forever.
On that day, 2,977 people lost their lives, including 412 first responders. Among them were 343 firefighters from the New York City Fire Department.
Every year since that awful day, the Village of Webster has held a remembrance ceremony on Sept. 11 at Veterans Memorial Park. But like pretty much everything these days, that ceremony was canceled this year. But there was no way that Chief Robert Boutillier was going to let the occasion pass unnoticed.
So he organized a small event of his own, asking all of his WVFD firefighters to gather at the Enderlin Station on South Ave. last night for a short ceremony.
The occasion was not about “pats on the back, speeches, etc.,” he said. “It’s about the sacrifice that was made responding to an alarm as we do each and every day.”
The Chief reiterated those thoughts last night at the station. It was “appropriate and necessary” that we continue to recognize the sacrifice those 343 firefighters made that day.
Chief Boutillier saying some words before inviting all to share a moment of silence.
“We’re not here for speeches or to look sharp in our class A (uniform)s,” or “for people to say ‘thank you for your service,'” he said. They gathered simply to honor those who lost their lives and to offer a moment of silence in respect.
The event was not widely advertised, so only a handful of community members attended. But the fact there were no large crowds did not minimize the evening’s significance. It was just an opportunity for our local firefighting brothers and sisters to honor their own: dedicated New York City firefighters who went to work that morning. not knowing they would not make it home that night.
Among the gear placed outside the station last night in honor of the fallen firefighters was a helmet, emblazoned with the number of firefighters who lost their lives. It was commissioned just a few months after 9/11.
Plank North Principal “Mr. B” greets a young student
“This is like Christmas Day, and the presents are going to keep coming until 3:00.”
That’s the way Plank North Elementary School Principal Craig Bodensteiner put it yesterday morning, as he greeted students arriving for the school’s pre-opening-day meet-and greet, a chance for the kids to drop off some supplies and check in with their new teachers.
That feeling was evident in room after room as teachers enthusiastically welcomed their students back into their classrooms. You could almost feel the entire school heave a huge sigh of happiness as rooms were — finally — filled with laughter and chatter once again.
Some of Plank North’s youngest students check out their new kindergarten room.
As Plank North Assistant Principal Heather Balsamo said, “We’ve been waiting for this day since March 16.”
Teacher and student smiles were so big, they almost burst through the masks. Clearly the students were as excited as the teachers to be back.
Things are going to be different this year, in so many ways. But one main thing will not have changed: how much our teachers and staff members love our students, and how dedicated they are to making sure every single one gets a quality education this fall, whether they’re in a classroom or studying remotely.
Plank North’s kindergarten students even got a chance to check out a school bus during their visit.
Count on the Webster Public Library to come up with yet another creative idea to bring the excitement of reading directly to young children.
Their latest brainstorm is outdoor, in-person storytimes at the amphitheater at Harmony Park on Phillips Rd. This month, the library will host six storytimes — three on Tuesday afternoons and three on Thursday mornings — each lasting a half hour. The event is geared to children up to age 5, but all are welcome.
The storytimes are scheduled on Thursdays Sept. 10, 17 and 24 from 9 to 9:30 a.m. and Tuesdays Sept. 15, 22 and 29from 2:30 to 3:00 p.m. The events are free, but registration is required, and spots are limited.
The Harmony Park amphitheater is better known as home to our Webster Village band.
Social distancing guidelines will be enforced at each storytime. Please bring a blanket that is large enough for all family members to sit on. Masks are required for all adults and children over 2. Please register all children in your group, including babies. Walk-ins will not be permitted.
These special events are being made possible in large part through the support of our village trustees. Usually the Village of Webster charges $50 each time a group wants to use the amphitheater, but the village has waived that charge for the library.
Harmony Park and the amphitheater are located on Foster Drive, off of Phillips Rd. just south of Ridge. For more information and to register, click here.
It pains me just a little bit to post this first notice, because it’s a tacit admission that winter is not too far off, but it’s a very important message.
The Webster Public Libraryis hosting its second annual COAT DRIVE, to benefit Homeless Connect Rochester.
A large box has been placed in the library’s lobby, where you can donate your gently used (and clean!) coats of all sizes and types. The collection will run through Sept. 15 and the coats will be distributed to those residing in shelters and on the streets of Rochester.
Beginning Sept. 8, the Webster Public Library will have new hours, Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Here are a few other updates/reminders about the library’s services:
Curbside Service continues to be available whenever the library is open. Contact the library with questions by email at webster.reference@libraryweb.org or by phone at 585-872-7075.
Online programs are being offered. Check the website calendar for details. Any updates will be posted on the website slider and the WPL Facebook page.
Donations of books, DVDs, and music CDs are being accepted, but NO magazines, textbooks, or computer books. Two boxes maximum per day.
NO DMV at the library for the remainder of 2020.
Remember to wear your mask!
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Webster Parks and Recreation has cooked up a fun way to say goodbye to summer.
It’s a socially-distanced food truck picnic on Wednesday, Sept. 9 (the day before school starts) from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Miracle Field playground, 1000 Ridge Rd., Webster. Kid-friendly meals will be available from The Meatball Truck and Wraps on Wheels. The playground will be open, so you can buy lunch, relax on your last day of summer freedom, and play.
Picnic tables will be socially distanced or bring a blanket to sit on. All ages are welcome and registration is not required. Please note: Masks are required, however, while ordering.
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More good food will be on the menu when St. Martin Lutheran Church hosts its fall drive-through chicken BBQ on Saturday Sept. 19 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Dinners of half-chicken, salt potatoes, coleslaw, roll, and butter are available for $10. The event this year will be drive-through only. Cars will enter the parking lot, follow the signs, and purchase tickets using exact payment. Cars will then proceed to the front entrance to pick up boxed dinners. Dinners will be assembled according to CDC recommendations. Due to current health restrictions, pie slices and other desserts will not be available.
Proceeds will support St. Martin’s our Christmas Stocking Project, which reaches more than 500 local youth in Monroe and Wayne counties.
St. Martin Lutheran Church, is located at 813 Bay Rd. in Webster.
I could probably fill a small notebook with everything I love about living in the village. But no matter what’s on that list — music, shops, pubs, neighbors — one underlying theme ties them all together: people.
That fact was reinforced yesterday when I went for a long-overdue eye appointment.
We were in between optometrists when we moved to the village last year, so we decided to sign on with Webster Eye Care Associates. The office, at 81 East Main St., is about an 8-minute walk from my house. (I LOVE being able to walk to places!)
The place was bustling with activity, and much larger than it appears from outside. The staff members were friendly and efficient, and Dr. Hochreiter, who handled my exam, was very professional and thorough, and patiently answered all of my questions.
But I especially enjoyed my time with the big teddy-bear of a technician who helped me choose my new pair of frames and took the appropriate measurements. We laughed and joked throughout our entire visit. We even discovered at one point that we both used to live in small-town Owego, in the Southern Tier, and shared memories of our old hometown.
My new friend Mike Gustin and me
Only toward the very end of our time together (after learning that I was a new customer) did this very friendly and jovial gentleman introduce himself. All that time, I had been joking with Webster Eye Care co-owner Mike Gustin.
It’s not often that you can walk into a medical office for the first time and leave an hour later feeling like you’ve joined a family. That’s how the folks at Webster Eye Care Associatesmade me feel yesterday. That’s what small-town hospitality and neighborliness is all about.
If you ever wished you could get some professional singing lessons, but didn’t know where to go, or were afraid of what they’d cost, here’s some great news:
Rochester Rhapsody Chorus, a Webster-based non-profit a cappella women’s chorus, will offer a free singing education workshop to men and women musicians, singers and choral groups to expand their musical knowledge and vocal skills.
The workshop, called “Enrich Your Voice: A Cappella Singing Workshop,” will be taught via ZOOM on three consecutive Monday evenings in September from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Participants may attend one or all classes.
The schedule is:
Sept. 14, “A Cappella 101: From Basics to Brilliance”
Sept. 21, “Voice Building: Techniques to Improve Your Singing”
Sept. 28, “The Heart of Singing: Authentic, Emotional Performances”
The workshops will be conducted by musical clinician Sue Melvin, Director of Rochester Rhapsody.
The workshop is free, but registration is required. To register go to facebook.com/RochesterRhapsody/events. Participants will receive a confirmation email with the ZOOM meeting link. For questions please email info@RochesterRhapsody.com.
Rochester Rhapsody Chorus is the Rochester chapter of Harmony, Incorporated, an international organization of female a cappella singers. Their focus is to empower women through vocal performance education. In addition to performing frequently for both public and private functions, Rochester Rhapsody is a competing ensemble and has qualified for International competition each year since inception. Friendship and FUN are also an important part of the group. The chorus welcomes women singers to contact them at info@rochesterrhapsody.com for information about visiting one of their Monday evening rehearsals.
There’s a new cookie shop in town, and be forewarned: it’s downright dangerous. (At least for anyone trying to stay on a diet.)
It’s called Kiss Me Cookie, and it opened on July 1 in the small plaza at 696 Ridge Rd., Webster (where The Garlic Pit is located). And if you like cookies even a little bit, this is going to become one of your favorite shops — EVER.
Webster residents Pam and Steve Bouteiller run Kiss Me Cookie, both juggling full-time jobs and a one-year old son to do so. While Steve comes in to manage the shop most days, Pam does the baking. It’s something she’s done for a long time, and for the last several years she’s been selling her baked goods wholesale, online and at festivals.
But it was only recently that the young couple decided to take the leap and open a physical storefront.
“I was always way too cautious to do something like this,” Pam said. (Steve’s) been wanting to open a store for years now and I was always too nervous. So we discussed it and we decided that when we had enough money saved up from just our cookie enterprise to open a store then we would open a store.”
As it turns out, that happened right in the middle of the pandemic. Undaunted, however, they started looking for a place in April or May, considering opportunities in Fairport and downtown Rochester before discovering their current location, which is conveniently just down the road from their home.
Then the real work began.
“This kitchen had to be built from the ground up,” Steve said. “We painted, did ceiling tiles, I put in 50 to 60 hours a week in June, but we got it done in a month and opened July 1.”
The Webster community has enthusiastically welcomed Kiss Me Cookie. And for good reason; the variety of baked goods they offer and the creativity and love that clearly go into each one is making everyone who walks in an immediate fan.
Just the aroma that fills your senses when you enter the shop is enough to make your mouth water.
Right now, Steve said that their most popular cookies are the Golden Dough, Salted Caramel and Big Reveal Peanut Butter Cup (this last one is a chocolate chip cookie with a peanut butter cup inside). They’ve got plenty of traditional favorites, like snickerdoodles, chocolate chip and butterscotch oatmeal, but if you’re not afraid to try something new, I recommend the magic bars (graham cracker crust with white chocolate, marshmallows, coconut and fruity pebble topping), Oreo bars, s’mores bars, or any one of a dozen another fanciful varieties.
“We’re trying to keep it fun,” Steve said. “We have a few traditional flavors but we’re always trying to do something new, innovative….We have a lot of flavors that people haven’t seen before but nothing that’s unapproachable and strange. We’re trying to make an experience where people can come in and have fun.”
But Kiss Me Cookie is more than just cookies. There are cookie cakes, cookie pizzas, coffees, cheesecakes, homemade hot chocolate mix, even dog treats. And they’re trying to work with local producers as much as possible to keep the operation small-business oriented.
Pam and Steve also offer catering services and individually-wrapped cookies (the extra wrapping fee, by the way, is waived during the pandemic). This fall they hope to introduce fudge, pies and holiday treats as well.
Kiss Me Cookie is located at 696 Ridge Rd., Webster, in the little plaza just west of Hatch Rd. They’re open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, and are closed Monday and Tuesday.
Next Sunday Sept. 6 would be a great time to check them out, when they host a “Goodbye to Summer” party from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., with summer–themed giveaways, 20% off everything in store, free drinks, freeze pops and more, and a chance to win a gift card. To find out more, check out the Facebook event here.
If you can handle some super-glam cookie photos, check out their Facebook page here, and for a full list of their cookie selection, visit their webpage here.
If you happened to walk or drive by Veteran’s Memorial Park last night while the Friday Night Gazebo Concert was happening, you might have thought we were having a regular village summer after all.
That is, if you disregarded the fact that audience members were all grouped into individual, socially-distanced white squares spray-painted in the grass.
Regardless of how weird it looked, the arrangement didn’t seem to bother anybody; the large number of people who had gathered to enjoy the smooth jazz tunes from Judah Sealy just seemed very happy to be able to enjoy a Friday Night Concert again on a beautiful summer evening.
The last of this summer’s three concerts is scheduled for next Friday night, Sept. 4, featuring one of the Webster Jazz Fest favorites, the Bill Tiberio Band. The concert begins at 7 p.m., and you’re welcome to come earlier in the day to choose a square and set up your chairs.
Veteran’s Memorial Park is located on North Ave., just steps from the village’s four corners.
Audience members were asked to stay within spray-painted squares to encourage social distancing
No one seemed to mind huddling into squares; they just appreciated having a concert to enjoy.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to stop by Immanuel Lutheran Church last weekend to donate to the church’s food drive. Ed Huehn, one of the drive’s organizers, reports that it was a great success.
Immanuel Lutheran, located at 131 W. Main Street in the Village of Webster, has been a longtime sponsor of the Webster Schools’ Weekend Food Backpack Program, which provides bags of food for more than 70 children in all seven of the district’s elementary schools.
The church also is home to one of the town’s several Little Free Pantries. These tall cabinets, which resemble very large Little Free Libraries, are placed in parking lots or other public places, and packed with food and toiletry items. Based on a “take what you need, leave what you can” philosophy, community members in need can stop by at any time and help themselves to whatever they can use.
When the schools all closed in March, and backpack food deliveries could no longer be made, the church community shifted distribution to the Little Free Pantry in their parking lot.
Before last Saturday’s food drive, Ed said, both their pantry and storeroom were almost empty. But by the end of the day, they were full again thanks to the generosity of our Webster community members. All the donations will be used to restock the pantry daily, and start up the Weekend Food Backpack Program again when school buildings reopen.
WHAM-Channel 13 stopped by and posted a short story on the effort. You can see that here.
How you can help
If you missed the food drive but would still like to help out, the church continues to accept donations for their hunger ministry initiatives. According to their website,
Items that can be donated to the pantry include non-perishable foods such as pasta, cereal, pancake mix, soups, canned fruits and vegetables, peanut butter, sugar, and flour. Personal hygiene and toiletry items such as soap, tooth paste, deodorant, toilet paper and diapers. Children’s coloring books and crayons can also items that can help out a family.
Just recently, Immanuel Lutheran added a large produce stand next to their pantry. If you have an extra garden vegetables this summer, they would also be very welcome.
Immanuel Lutheran Church’s Little Free Pantry, located in the church’s parking lot, with a brand new companion produce stand.
Webster’s other Little Free Pantries are located at St. Martin on Bay Road, Webster Baptist Church in the Village of Webster and the United Church of Christ on Klem Road. Any one of these organizatons would greatly appreciate your donations.
I feature the people and places and events that make Webster the wonderful community it is — and throw in some totally-not-Webster-related personal ramblings every once in a while as well.
I love it when readers send me news about the great things happening in their schools or the community, so please email me anytime at missyblog@gmail.com
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