I often head down Dunning Ave. in the village on my morning and evening walks. Shortly after we moved to the village, I began to see fairy doors propped up against several trees in front of the house at the southwest corner of Dunning and Elm, complete with fairies frolicking on the doorsteps. They charmed me so much that two years ago I mentioned them in one of my blogs, where I also wrote about the porches, flowers and other beautiful and whimsical things that make our village so charming.
It wasn’t until a year or more later that I found out the fairy doors are the work of a friend of mine, Peter Elder.
Peter described the fairy-door-making project as an “evolution” which began several years ago with his decision to ring all of his trees with soil and stones. The next step was to plant flowers and various other growing things in the rings. As those gardens matured, he had another idea.
“There are these legends in Irish and Scottish folklore about fairies coming through trees,” he said. So, “I thought it would be a cool idea to do fairy doors.”
That was about five years ago, and the doors stood by themselves for a few years. It was actually his wife Pam’s idea to place fairies near the doors.
What was just a few doors back then has grown to a fairy village of ten doors. Most of them are propped against trees, one is actually nestled in a knot about head-high, and one adorns a butterfly bush in the side yard. Some of the trees have doors on two sides, and most of the doors have fairies in front of them, much to the delight of the adults and children who walk by each day.
Peter tries to get everything planted and set up by Memorial Day, and takes the fairies in at the end of October to protect them from the winter. He’d like to continue adding more doors, perhaps placing a second one at each tree that doesn’t already have two, and finding more hollows to tuck small doors into. There’s always room for more fairies, too.
So keep an eye on the fairies as you make your way down Dunning, because their little village will continue to grow.
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Here’s a nice story about an easy way to bring joy to the men and women who are fighting for our country all around the world, far away from their homes and families.
It’s the Adopt-a-Platoon initiative, begun in 2016 by the Webster Rotary Club. Its goal is to send care packages stuffed with snacks, toiletries, beverage items, writing supplies and more, as often as possible to as many soldiers as possible.
Pretty much since it began 16 years ago, the effort been coordinated by Rotary member Rich Comins, who latched onto the project the moment it was proposed. He remembers,
(Rotary member) Herb Gauch saw an article in the paper saying that Fort Drum was sending people to Iraq. I had a brother in the Navy, and you could see how lonesome he was. I was never in the military but I said if there’s any time that I can do something I’m going to do it. So when Herb announced it at the meeting I said I want to lead that.
Rich likes to ship his care packages at least every couple of weeks, but it all depends on how many donations he gets. For example, a month ago he only had enough donations to send out seven boxes, but last week he was able to ship another 12. Over the course of the program, he and the Rotary Club have packaged and shipped 978 boxes to more than 20 platoons.
Each Adopt-a-Platoon package is different, but candy, snacks, popcorn and cookies (especially Girl Scout cookies) are especially popular. Basically, Rich just packs as much as he can into a USPS Flat Rate box before shipping it off.
Right now Rich is relying on donations from friends, neighbors and acquaintances to purchase items for the care packages. He also puts in a lot of his own money, and the Rotary Club covers the shipping cost of $20.35 a box. Right now they’re collecting items for 185 men and women from the Rochester area who are serving with the Army National Guard in Kuwait.
And if there’s ever a moment he wonders if the effort is worth it, he need only read back through the emails he gets from grateful soldiers. One wrote, “I had a real bad day, and I came back to headquarters and there was a box for me. It lit up my day. It meant that somebody back at home likes me.”
In short, this is a very easy way for us to let our soldiers know that we here at home have their backs, and we appreciate the sacrifices they are making.
How you can help
Cash donations and/or donations of items for Adopt-a-Platoon care packages are greatly appreciated. Click here to see a list of suggested items provided by officers at Fort Drum, and email Rich Comins at richecomins@gmail.com to arrange drop-off. If you’d prefer to write a check, please make it out to The Webster Rotary Foundation, Inc., and contact Rich for a mailing address.
The Webster Rotary Foundation, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, so all your donations are tax-deductible.
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Today’s blog is for everyone who’s been following the story about Bob Freese and Peggy Schaefer and their goodwill trip to Newfoundland.
It’s a thank-you trip where Bob and Peggy are handing out candy bars as a small token of appreciation for the kindness the residents there showed on 9/11. The story about how Newfoundlanders opened their homes to almost 7,000 stranded airplane passengers was made popular by the hit Broadway musical Come From Away.(Click here to read my most recent blog about the trip.)
They’re calling it their “Soul Connection Tour,” and it has begun.
Bob and Peggy embarked on their journey on July 23, with more than 1400 wrapped and personally signed candy bars carefully packed away in their RV. Six friends and four RVs are joining them on the tour, and even before reaching Newfoundland they’ve had daily adventures, visiting historical sites, museums and castles, and sampling a lot of great food and beers.
Peggy Schaefer (right) with a happy brewpub employeeTwo more candy bars handed out at the pub
It took them only a few days for Bob and Peggy to start distributing their candy bars, and it happened even before they reached the province. The first ones went to some fellas from Newfoundland they met at a historical site. The first ones the entire Soul Connection group handed out were at the Secret Cove Brewing Company in Port au Port, NL. Bob reports that “Yes, there were some tears! One family had their 10-year old boy come up to say thank you and shake hands as they left.”
Thank you to everyone who donated money or candy bars, and helped wrap and sign the candy bars. Your efforts are going a long way to help spread our country’s appreciation to the residents of Newfoundland.
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The Soul Connection Tour is just about ready to leave the station!
That would be the thank-you trip that Bob Freese and Peg Schaeffer are planning to take to Newfoundland later this month, to hand out candy bars a small token of appreciation for the kindness the residents there showed on 9/11. The story about how Newfoundlanders opened their homes to almost 7,000 stranded airplane passengers was made popular by the hit Broadway musical Come From Away.
This is the second time Bob and Peg have made the trip. On their first, back in 2019, they handed out 600 Hershey Bars to strangers they met along the way, each wrapped with a personally-signed thank-you message. (Click here to read the blog I wrote about that trip.)
This time, Bob and Peg want to hand out at least 1200 candy bars. That goal in itself shouldn’t be difficult — they’re going to meet a lot of people on their travels. But buying and preparing all those candy bars? That’s another matter.
Fortunately, they’ve been getting a lot of help. Last Thursday they hosted a “signing party” at the Webster Chamber of Commerce office, and 15 folks showed up to sign and wrap. Most everybody came with an armload of candy bars to donate to the cause. By the end of the afternoon, 550 candy bars were ready to go. The wrappers, by the way, had been signed by people from more than a dozen states.
At the signing partyCandy bars ready to goBob and Peg’s “ugly sticks” ready for the trip
But the kindness of the Webster community is reaching well beyond that signing party. For example, Denise Baller and her Dancing With Denise dancers and parents are donating, signing and wrapping 500 candy bars on their own, and the staff at Webster Comfort Care have prepared another 180.
Like on their last trip, Bob and Peg will be distributing the candy bars across the country as they travel from town to town. They’re especially looking forward to attending a performance of Come From Away when they’re in Gander, where they hope to be allowed to present candy bars to all the actors and audience members.
Another highlight of the trip will be a potluck supper they’re hosting while in Gander. They’re inviting the whole town, and all of the “real” people whose stories are depicted in the play. It’s their way of celebrating the “soul connection” the world has with Newfoundlanders.
A family reunion of sorts took place Friday evening, when employees of the now-closed Hegedorn’s Market gathered for a good-bye picnic.
The event, held in a lodge at Charles Sexton Park, was organized by former front end manager Jeannie Uhl, with help from Cindy Frank and others to track down as many current and former employees as possible.
When I was there, the party was just getting busy. A few dozen people were already there, with more arriving every minute. They were seated inside and outside the lodge, enjoying a dish-to-pass dinner and visiting with their former colleagues.
They shared laughs, memories both happy and sad, and lots of stories — like how long-time customers would come to the store that final week just to take a stroll through the aisles. And how one more of the painted ceiling tiles had finally been claimed by its original artist.
But mostly they enjoyed one last chance to all be together as a family, like they were when they were working at Webster’s hometown grocery.
If you happened to be driving or walking through the Finchingfield Lane neighborhood on Monday night, you would have seen a Fourth-of-July-inspired light display which you likely didn’t expect.
No, it wasn’t fireworks, although they were very much in evidence that evening. It was, instead, a series of 300 luminaria — little white bags, each with its own tealight candle — lining several of the neighborhood’s streets.
The display, which stretched for an estimated half mile along four streets, was the work of Canoe Birch Lane resident Mike Pauly, his wife, daughters, and several very helpful and enthusiastic young neighbors. It’s a project Mike has been doing every year around the Fourth of July for more than 20 years … but not always here in Webster.
Mike and Rachel Pauly (in back) with most of their young helpersDougie Gibson lights one of the luminaria
The tradition actually began when he and his family were making regular summer camping trips to Woodstream Campsite in Gainesville.
Mike remembered that a few other families would put about 20 candles out in front of their campers. His father liked the idea and thought they could do it, too. But they weren’t happy with just putting out a few dozen.
“We expanded on it,” Mike said. “It wasn’t long before we put 500 out and filled up most of the campground.” It became an annual project, with kids from all over the campground helping fill the bags and light the candles. After a while, the campground even started offering wagon rides so everyone could enjoy the spectacle.
They don’t make it down to Woodstream much anymore, so they haven’t put out the luminaria for a few years. But last year Mike’s wife Rachel had a great suggestion: why not continue the tradition in their own neighborhood?
And that’s what happened. Last year they started relatively small, putting out 200 luminaria. This year that number grew to 300. Young neighborhood helpers worked for several hours over a few days to fill the bags with sand and place the candles. Then, at about 7 p.m., Mike, Rachel, their two daughters and their team of helpers started working their way through the neighborhood to place the bags. Another trip through to light all the candles, and the streets were glowing. With everyone working together, the whole process only took about an hour and a half.
The result was beautiful, and the reactions have been very positive. “People have been saying, it looks great, thank you for doing it,” Mike said.
Unfortunately, it’s a short-lived display. The candles only last two to four hours, and Mike went around Tuesday morning to collect all the bags. So if you didn’t see them Monday night, you’ll have to wait until next Fourth of July.
Why does Mike continue to do this every year? I never actually asked him, but I can pretty much guess the answer: to bring joy to his neighbors and strangers who walk or drive by, and to bring a little light into everyone’s lives as we celebrate this important holiday.
What a very community-inspired, Webster-like thing to do.
Just a reminder today that your opportunity to help share some love and appreciation with the people of Newfoundland is fast approaching.
You may remember my blog about Bob Freese and Peg Schaefer, two Webster folks who are planning a trip to Newfoundland to hand out candy bars to the residents there as a small token of appreciation for the kindness they showed on 9/11. The story about how, for five days, Newfoundlanders opened their homes to almost 7,000 stranded airplane passengers was made popular by the hit Broadway musical Come From Away.
This is the second time Bob and Peg have made the trip. On their first, back in 2019, they covered almost 5,000 miles up one side of Newfoundland and down the other, handing out 600 candy bars (Hershey Bars, specifically) to strangers they met along the way. Each candy bar had a thank-you message wrapped around it, signed by a grateful American (mostly Webster-ites).
The very first “wrapping party”600 candy bars readied for the 2019 trip
Later this month, Bob and Peg will be returning to Newfoundland to hand out even more candy bars and reconnect with many of the new friends they made there.
You can help them share the love. On Thursday July 6 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Bob and Peg will be at the Webster Chamber of Commerce office, 1110 Crosspointe Lane (Suite C) for a candy-bar-wrapping-and-signing party. It’s a chance to add your personal thanks to the good people of Newfoundland. It would be great if you could bring some candy bars with you (1.55-ounce Hershey Bars). But even if you don’t, please consider stopping by and joining the signing fun. Bring the kids, too!
Typical Field Day Station with Morse Key Paddle and MicPete Fournia, W2SKY making a contact
The XRX Amateur Radio Club held their annual Field Day last weekend, and from all reports, it was a great success. The event’s chairman, Bob Karz, wrote that the club made more contacts than ever, meaning more points than ever, and they hope to finish in the top 11% of their class, which is a pretty big deal.
If little of what I just said made sense to you, keep reading. Bob sent along this very good description about what this interesting exercise is all about.
Amateur Radio Emergency Services and the XRX Amateur Radio Club held their 38th annual emergency preparedness Field Day June 24 to 25 at Kent Park in Webster. It’s not a field day in the usual sense, but rather an opportunity to try out our radios and hone our skills needed to provide communications to the outside world in the event of a real emergency.
Field Day involves over 30,000 amateur radio operators (or hams) in the US and Canada as well as a few from other parts of the world. This year we made over 1,000 contacts with stations in every state except Alaska, most Canadian provinces, Chile, France, and Puerto Rico all totally “off the grid” using power from generators and batteries with no internet or cell phones.
These days amateur radio is more than dots and dashes, although we did make several contacts using Morse Code. We also made contacts with voice and a computer mode called FT8 which is a little like the internet except over radio. FT8 is becoming increasingly popular for Field Day. This year for the first time we actually made more contacts using FT8 (420) than with any other method.
Field Day is an opportunity to try out new equipment and techniques. It’s also a chance showcase Amateur Radio to the public. We encourage visitors and even give kids (and their parents) a chance to make radio contacts. This year we had more than 30 people drop by including 12 kids who each made a radio contact with help from a radio “coach.”
Field Day is always the 4th full weekend in June. The next Field Day will be June 22 to 23, 2024. We will again be at the lower soccer fields in Kent Park. You are invited to drop by and see for yourself what some of your friends and neighbors are doing to help keep us safe in the event of a natural disaster. More information about the local amateur radio community can be found at www.rochesterham.org.
If you’d like to read more about Field Day, click here to read the blog I wrote about the one I attended in 2021.
Making their first contacts: ElizabethAnnaCalebC J Converse, KB2BMS making her first contactRaising the directional antenna
Webster has said its last, sad goodbyes to Hegedorn’s Market, but at least a small part of our hometown grocery will live on for much longer.
Regular blog readers have been following the story of the colorfully-painted ceiling tiles that for more than 30 years hung above Hegedorn’s check-out area. When the decision was made to close the store, Produce Manager Fred Palmer took it upon himself to make sure the panels were not only saved, but returned to the students who painted them all those years ago.
Thanks in large part to word spreading through social media, more than half of the 32 tiles were claimed, and Fred took photos of the artists with their panels when they came to pick them up (you can see many of those photos above and at the end of the blog). By the store’s closing day, 15 tiles remained unclaimed.
But even they have found homes.
Eight of the final 15 tiles have been donated to the Webster Public Library, where they’re currently on display. Library Director Adam Traub was very excited to adopt some of the tiles, saying,
Hegedorn’s has been a staple of the Webster community for generations; the Webster Public Library would like to thank Hegedorn’s for their contributions to this community by saving a piece of that history to share with generations to come. The tiles will be on display this summer in the main library (between Biographies and Graphic Novels), then hopefully find a permanent home in the ceiling of the children’s room.
This is actually a fitting end for some of the tiles since Adam and his classmate Greg Smalter created one of them.
The remaining seven tiles have been given to the Webster Museum. Museum Director Tom Pellett told me they’re considering installing several of them in the ceiling and/or walls of the toy room alcove.
He wrote, “We feel this is an important part of Webster. Not only because of Hegedorn’s history but also a reminder of the students who created them and Jack Morse, the art teacher who guided the project.”
Thank you to everyone who shared the blog and Facebook posts and helped find homes for these important pieces of Hegedorn’s — and Webster’s — history.
Here are more photos of the artists with their reclaimed ceiling tiles:
Ryan Johnson’s momCarrie (Frank) SwainBrad FrancisAdam BenfanteSantina BeachnerErin Cantaben’s DadWebster Library Director Adam Traub
Next time you’re driving along Hard Rd. by the Webster Highway Department, keep an eye on the sky and you might just catch a glimpse of one of the area’s most graceful residents: an osprey.
Ospreys are large members of the hawk family, with slender bodies measuring up to 24 inches, and long, narrow wings that can reach 71 inches across. They’re brown on top and predominantly grey underneath.
I recently got an email from Anne Clarkson, a school bus driver, who told me that for many years, a pair of ospreys has been nesting on the top of one of the communication towers located on the property line between the bus garage and the Webster Highway Dept.
Anne did such a great job of telling the birds’ story, that I’m reprinting her email pretty much verbatim. She wrote,
They first built their nest probably close to 10 years ago and have raised quite a few chicks over the years. When the summer ends and the babies are flying, the whole family does what all ospreys in North America do — they fly to South America or the Caribbean for the winter! Then in late April or so, they return and repair or rebuild their nest. They are really amazing birds!
Since they eat only fish, they can be seen diving into the lake and the bay (of course), but also in local ponds such as North Ponds and some of the ponds in local subdivisions. When they have youngsters, you’ll see them flying back to the tower carrying a fish in their talons. Unlike eagles who also catch fish that are at the top of the water, ospreys dive right down into the water — beak-and-feet first — and “fly” back up out of the water with their catch to a perch or to their nest.
As for info on our pair, I believe they first appeared in maybe 2013 or so. I took a brief retirement from driving over parts of 2015-2016 and I know they were there before I left and I was ecstatic to see that they were still there when I returned! They raised babies every year, but it’s almost impossible to know how many. That tower is so tall and the babies are only flitting around in the nearby trees for a few days after they leave the nest and before they are out really flying with their parents.
Many of the drivers were concerned last spring when the renovation of our fleet parking lot began. Virtually all of the existing trees were bulldozed and the whole area was paved. I assured the drivers that the birds would not care. They were very secure up on their tower, and since they don’t hunt in woods (they ONLY eat fish), they would not be affected at all by the noise and activity way down below them. Even the tower guys doing maintenance work on the tower, did not bother the ospreys. They just perched in different areas on the tower and periodically lifted off to circle the tower and/or change perching locations. Later in the year when the guys came along and tore down the massive nest, the birds were already on their way south. And, by the way, the logs used to build that nest looked a whole lot bigger when falling to the ground — especially with average-sized men standing right there tossing them down!
(The tower guys) always seem very careful and respectful of the birds… I would think that having a predatory bird with a wingspan of 5 feet or more quietly circling and watching as you work on ’their’ tower … could be a little intimidating. Or it could be the coolest thing they do all year — who knows?
Nonetheless, I was grateful and relieved when I heard and saw the birds returning this spring! One interesting note about ospreys is that the older babies that have spent a few years in the southern oceans will accompany their parents back to their birthplace. This year, I saw at least four or five extra ospreys flying around the tower. It looked like a typical family reunion — lots of conversations and what looked like happy greetings before the ‘kids’ started flying off to other destinations.
Once they got settled and the ‘kids’ were off to their own new homes, it took the parents several days to build their new nest. It looks just as big as the last one! It’s pretty cool to watch them building it. They fly through the nearby woods and break off branches as they fly, carrying them back in beaks or talons (depending on size) and weaving them into their gigantic nest.
I would absolutely love it if we could get some entity (DEC?, WWF?, Seneca Park Zoo???) to install a webcam up there at the top of the tower so everyone could see just how cool these birds are. The one thing they do all day long that impresses me is their takeoff from the tower. They do not jump. They do not flap their wings. They simply open their wings and are lifted silently and effortlessly into flight. They also make the sweetest chirping sound when talking to each other. Very different from birds like crows or the typical screechy sounds expected of hawks or eagles.
And don’t get me started on their amazing hunting skills! You can find lots of videos and still shots of ospreys literally diving underwater to grab a fish. They are under the water long enough to make the average observer nervous for their well-being! But these birds are so strong and so efficient they even catch the fish in such a way that it is oriented in line with the bird’s body with the fish facing forward for maximum aerodynamics when flying home.
Even though the tower is technically on the Highway Dept. property, and it’s the cell tower guys who bravely climb up to do maintenance (and every couple of years, remove the nest), we at the bus garage have kind of adopted them as “our ospreys.”
Thank you, Anne, for this terrific story! (And thank you Jerry Salamone for the photos, from 2019.)
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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