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Thank you, my Webster neighbors, for the cowbells

2 Sep

My personal thank you to everyone who came out for Friday night’s First Responders 5K. This annual race takes runners on a 3.1-mile course from Webster’s Fireman’s Field through east-side village neighborhoods and back.

As usual, I ran the race — it’s one of my favorites since it runs right by my house — and am always appreciative of the families who set up lawn chairs and sit along the route to cheer us on, many with cowbells in hand. (I love cowbells. You can never have enough cowbells.) I especially like it when I can get children to give me high-fives as I pass; they always give me an extra boost of energy.

There were also plenty of volunteer road marshals, which I was happy to see since the call had gone out a few days earlier about the need for more volunteers. They were all smiling and friendly, cheering us on as they directed us down the next street. This race could not happen without them, so thank you very much to all.

I joined my friend Dave again this year for the race, and we both did very well. Could have been the perfect weather, could have been having a good friend at my side pushing me along, but I managed to beat my time from last year.

As usual, my husband and some friends set up a water and beer refreshment stand in the driveway, which I understand many runners took advantage of. The beer especially is a welcome distraction for a lot of participants near the end of the race.

I’m already looking forward to next year.

(Thank you to my friend Karen for the photo above.)

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email me  at missyblog@gmail.com. “Like” this blog on Facebook and follow me on Instagram and Threads (@missyblog)

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(posted 9/2/2023)

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There are fairies among us

1 Sep

I first noticed the fairies a few years ago.

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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email me  at missyblog@gmail.com. “Like” this blog on Facebook and follow me on Instagram and Threads (@missyblog)

You can also get email notifications every time I post a new blog by using the “Follow Me” link on the right side of this page.

(posted 9/1/2023)

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You can help Adopt-a-Platoon

9 Aug

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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email me  at missyblog@gmail.com. “Like” this blog on Facebook and follow me on Instagram and Threads (@missyblog)

You can also get email notifications every time I post a new blog by using the “Follow Me” link on the right side of this page.

(posted 8/9/2023)

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An update on the Soul Connection Tour

6 Aug

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 employee
Two 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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email me  at missyblog@gmail.com. “Like” this blog on Facebook and follow me on Instagram and Threads (@missyblog)

You can also get email notifications every time I post a new blog by using the “Follow Me” link on the right side of this page.

(posted 8/6/2023)

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Off to Newfoundland, 1200+ candy bars in tow

9 Jul

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 party
Candy bars ready to go
Bob 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.

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email me  at missyblog@gmail.com. “Like” this blog on Facebook and follow me on Instagram (@missyblog)

You can also get email notifications every time I post a new blog by using the “Follow Me” link on the right side of this page.

(posted 7/9/2023)

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Remembering old friends, great jobs and good times

8 Jul

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.

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email me  at missyblog@gmail.com. “Like” this blog on Facebook and follow me on Instagram (@missyblog)

You can also get email notifications every time I post a new blog by using the “Follow Me” link on the right side of this page.

(posted 7/8/2023)

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Streets light up for Fourth of July

5 Jul

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 helpers
Dougie 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.

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email me  at missyblog@gmail.com. “Like” this blog on Facebook and follow me on Instagram (@missyblog)

You can also get email notifications every time I post a new blog by using the “Follow Me” link on the right side of this page.

(posted 7/5/2023)

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Help wrap some candy bars

2 Jul

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!

Click here to see a flyer with more information.

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email me  at missyblog@gmail.com. “Like” this blog on Facebook and follow me on Instagram (@missyblog)

You can also get email notifications every time I post a new blog by using the “Follow Me” link on the right side of this page.

(posted 7/2/2023)

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38th annual Field Day a great success

1 Jul
Typical Field Day Station with Morse
Key Paddle and Mic
Pete 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: Elizabeth
Anna
Caleb
C J Converse, KB2BMS making her first contact
Raising the directional antenna

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email me  at missyblog@gmail.com. “Like” this blog on Facebook and follow me on Instagram (@missyblog)

You can also get email notifications every time I post a new blog by using the “Follow Me” link on the right side of this page.

(posted 7/1/2023)

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The last of the Hegedorn’s ceiling tiles have found homes

30 Jun
Kerri Goodman
Dave Grabowski
Chris DeBuck

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 mom
Carrie (Frank) Swain
Brad Francis
Adam Benfante
Santina Beachner
Erin Cantaben’s Dad
Webster Library Director Adam Traub

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email me  at missyblog@gmail.com. “Like” this blog on Facebook and follow me on Instagram (@missyblog)

You can also get email notifications every time I post a new blog by using the “Follow Me” link on the right side of this page.

(posted 6/30/2023)

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