With the beginning of the new year, my email box is beginning to fill up again. Here’s the latest from my mailbag:
Woodside Nursery School will host a Prospective Family Open House on Thursday January 11 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the school, located at the back of the United Church of Christ, 570 Klem Rd. Meet the teachers, tour the classrooms and find out more.
Woodside will also be represented at the Webster Public Library’s Preschool Open House event on Jan. 8 from 6:30 to 7:45 p.m., in case you can’t make it to the school.
If you’re one of my many readers who were interested in finding out where to volunteer in Webster, here’s an event just for you.
The Webster Community Chest Volunteer Appreciation Event will take place on Tuesday Jan. 23 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the Webster Public Library community room, 980 Ridge Rd.
If you’ve volunteered at one of their events or for the Meal Center this year, or perhaps haven’t volunteered yet but have been wanting to start, this event is for you. Stop by, have some refreshments, meet the faces of the Webster Community Chest and learn more about your perfect volunteer opportunity with the organization. Please let them know you’ll be coming at webcommchest@gmail.com. (Or if you forget, just stop by anyway.)
The Women’s Club of Webster’s January meeting will be a pizza party at Proietti’s Restaurant, 980 Ridge Rd., on Thursday Jan. 18.
Festivities begin at 11:15 with a social mix-and-mingle, followed by a brief meeting at noon and lunch at 12:30 p.m. This month’s speaker will be First Vice-President Jean Loughridge, who will talk about the club and the charities it supports. Enjoy pizza, salad, a cannoli and camaraderie for $18. New members are always WELCOME!
Send your check made out to WCW by January 11 to Carolyn Rittenhouse, 405 County Line Road, Ontario, NY 14519. Questions? Phone Carolyn at 585-265-1303.
The Webster Chamber of Commerce has two events coming up this month, and business owners are all welcome, whether you’re a member of the Chamber or not.
On Thursday Jan. 11, the next Webster Chamber Eat Drink & Connect will be hosted by Chamber member Wireless Zone, 2157 Penfield Road (Wegmans Plaza).
Tour the new store, enjoy refreshments, Hear the story of more than doubling foot traffic and have fun working toward being a game winner. Chamber members and visitors are encouraged to attend. Please register here.
Then, coming up on Friday Jan. 26 is the next Monthly Breakfast Program meeting. Network with an many as 90 business and organizational leaders during the monthly Webster Chamber breakfasts. In addition to networking before and during the breakfast, an informative program is always planned, along with a time to “pass-the-mic” so everyone has an opportunity to be visible. Visitors and members are welcome.
These meetings are always held at 7 a.m. at the Webster Recreation Center. Please register here.
Also from the Chamber, news from the last breakfast meeting, when Marina Auto Group was recognized as Business of the Month.
Located on Ridge Road in Webster, Marina Auto Group president John B. Gabriele has led his business growth to become a significant employer in Webster, currently employing 85 people.
Over the years, Gabriele has added to the auto industry manufacturers they represent: Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Mitsubishi, and Ram. Early in his dealership career, he was located in West Irondequoit as Weller Motors. In May of 2001 the State acquired their property for the construction of the O’Rourke Bridge. At that point, Gabriele made the decision to locate his business to Webster. Twenty two years later, Marina Auto is fully entwined within our Webster community.
One member business is chosen every month to be honored as Business of the Month, chosen by a volunteer committee comprised of Chamber members. The award is presented at the monthly breakfast meeting.
Pictured above: (L-R) Marina Sales Manager Tony Gabriele, Jr., Webster Chamber President & CEO Barry Howard, Marina President John B. Gabriele, General Manager John Gabriele Jr., and Office Manager Vittorio Romantini.
Finally, some notes from the Webster Central School District:
Willink Lego Robotics Team Wins Engineering Excellence Award
Congratulations to Willink Middle School’s Lego robotics team for taking first place for Engineering Excellence at the First Lego League qualifier at McQuaid Jesuit High School, held Dec. 16.
The Engineering Excellence Award celebrates a team with an efficiently designed robot, an innovative project solution that effectively addresses the season’s challenge, and CORE values evident in all they do. At the competition, Titans Traigh Schroeder, Sai Abhiram Pathaneni, Kyle Hughes, Artem Leskiv, and Andrii Kravtsiv presented an innovation project, explained their robot design, and ran the robot game three times.
This is the first time since 2019 that Willink Middle School has competed in the First Lego League qualifier. The Titans put in more than 35 hours after school to prepare for the event where they faced off against 16 teams from the Rochester area.
Community Input Sought on School District Budget
Webster CSD welcomes feedback from all district community members when planning a budget for a school district that serves 8,100 students and 1,600+ staff members. Knowing the feedback of the school district community will help the district develop a budget that reflects community input for its students.
As some may remember, Webster CSD uses ThoughtExchange as one of its many communication tools. Thought Exchange is a collaborative, online discussion platform that is used to gain insights and feedback from the community to make decisions that impact everyone, including a proposed budget for next year. Participation is voluntary and thoughts are shared but identities are kept confidential. Participants may view and objectively rate others’ feedback.
The community is asked to please consider participating in the district’s latest ThoughtExchange by going online to www.websterschools.org and clicking on the link for the news story “Community Input Sought on District Budget” to answer the question: What are the most important things to consider as we begin to plan for our upcoming budget? This ThoughtExchange closes on Wednesday, January 31, so please visit the website soon.
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(posted 1/5/2024)
webster on the web 
Good job!!