The Jim Kennard presentation about shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, scheduled for May 1 at the Harmony House, has been postponed. I’m sure they’ll want to reschedule, so stay tuned for the new date.
The Genesee Valley New York Chapter of Heroes on the Water, a local organization chartered just a year ago, will be hosting an informational event for volunteers on Sunday March 27 at the Cottreall-Warner American Legion Post #942 (corner of Ridge and Five Mile Line roads).
Heroes on the Water was established nationally in 2007 as a veterans charity which
creates alternative wellness programs to serve veterans, active-duty military personnel, first responders and their families. These experiential programs incorporate structured activities proven to improve the lives of these men and women. Each experience reduces the impact of post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury while providing much-needed camaraderie and support. (from the Heroes on the Water website)
The primary therapy utilized by the program is kayak fishing, offered at free events hosted by more than 60 volunteer-led chapters around the country. Veterans, active military, first responders and their families are all invited to participate, free of charge.
Volunteers with various skills are needed to fill several support roles, including photography, fishing, administration, marketing and more. (See the poster for more.)
This Sunday’s event is kind of a “get-to-know-you” opportunity, a chance to meet the administrators, ask questions, grab some information and find out about volunteer opportunities.
The meeting will be held Sunday, March 27 from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Cottreall-Warner American Legion Post #942 (corner of Ridge and Five Mile Line roads). If you can’t make it and would like to find out more about Heroes on the Water and the Genesee Valley Chapter, check out their Facebook page here. You can also email them at GeneseeValley.NY@heroesonthewater.org.
And if you’re interested in learning more about why a group of Webster friends created this local chapter last year, read this blog which I posted last fall.
If you’ve been wanting to learn more about the brand new NEQALS facility on Jackson Rd., here’s your chance.
On Tuesday March 1 from 6 to 7 p.m., Northeast Quadrant Advanced Life Support will be hosting its first “Learn About EMS” meeting at the new headquarters, 1030 Jackson Rd.
Community members are invited to check out the brand new facility, take a tour, see the advanced life support equipment and ambulances, and understand how EMS works in Webster. Members of the NEQALS Board of Directors will be on hand to answer any questions.
Everyone is invited, and there’s no charge or need to register.
We’ve enjoyed dozens of special events and merchant discounts this month as part of the Village of Webster’s Fall in Love With Webster event, and there’s more to come this week (check the event’s Facebook page for a list), but this one is worth special mention.
This Thursday Feb. 24 is “Betty White Night” in the village, honoring the memory of our favorite Golden Girl, Betty White.
From 5 to 7 p.m., Lala of Webster, at 38 East Main, will celebrate this amazing lady with birthday treats and champagne. Betty’s special passion for animals will also play a part in the evening. Webster-based author Kate Spreter, who shares Betty’s passion for rescue animals, has donated two signed copies of her book A Home for Benny, which will be raffled off at the end of the evening. Raffle donations will benefit a local pet-assistance organization.
That same evening, Jojo Bistro and Wine Bar (next door to Lala) will host a “Golden Hour” from 4 to 8 p.m., with a Betty White-inspired cocktail menu. Stop in for a “Betty White,” a “Rose Nyland” or a non-alcoholic “Golden Girl.” There’s also live music by the very talented Amanda Ashley from 6 to 8 p.m.
Webster Hots, right across the street at 55 East Main, is also joining the fun. Since Betty also loved hot dogs, fries and Diet Coke, Webster Hots will be offering two speciality combo deals through the end of March. Click here for more information about that.
Wherever you land this Thursday evening, wear your pearls and get ready to make some Golden memories.
I love highlighting the great things our young people are doing for our community. This young man’s story is a great example.
Andrew Buttles, a sophomore at Webster Schroeder High School, has just embarked on a program called Students of the Year for Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS). It’s a “philanthropic leadership development program during which students foster professional skills such as entrepreneurship, marketing, and project management in order to raise funds for the LLS.” (www.lls.org)
The seven-week program runs from Feb. 5 through March 25, with the goal of raising money for LLS, and supporting the organization’s missions to find a cure for blood cancers and improve the quality of life for patients.
Andrew is the first Webster student to participate in this program. He’s leading a team of other Webster students, friends and family to increase awareness and raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
The team has set an ambitious fundraising goal of $15,000, and has planned several initiatives over the next two months to achieve that goal. So far, they include:
a partnership with Schutt’s Apple Mill, which will be donating 10% of the proceeds from their Valentine’s Day Bundle to the campaign
Nickel Back Can and Bottle Return will contribute to the campaign if you mention LLS when you drop off your returns
attend the Webster Youth Hockey Association players vs. coaches hockey game on March 19; all proceeds will benefit the cause
In addition to raising money and supporting this very important cause, Andrew’s also hoping to earn the prestigious title of Student of the Year. Every dollar raised counts as one vote for his campaign. Let’s see if we can help put him — and his team — on top.
share Andrew’s message and fundraising link with your contacts
donate a silent auction itsm for the Grand Finale Celebration auction
help secure a corporate sponsorship (they start at $5,000 and come with marketing benefits)
All donations are tax-deductible.
Click here to learn more about the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and click here to go to Andrew’s personal fundraising page. If you have any questions, contact rksbuttles@gmail.com.
We’re just a few days into the month-long Fall in Love With Webster community celebration, but I hope you’ve already been able to take advantage of some of the special deals and events happening at our local businesses.
If you haven’t heard much about it yet, click here to see my blog from earlier this week to get a run-down on what’s happening, including the events taking place this week.
The village is really looking spiffy in honor of this special event. You may have noticed, for example, all of the heart-emblazoned flags hanging from the light poles up and down Main Street. Thanks to Jake Swingley and his public works staff for doing that. There’s also a beautiful new banner hanging on the gazebo at that little pocket park at North Ave. and 104, and merchants are decorating their storefronts.
Lots more special events and merchant discounts are on store for next week, and new ones are being added pretty much every day. You can check the Fall in Love With Webster Facebook page for a complete list and details about all of them. You’ll also find there a boiled-down list of events which you can run off to put on your fridge for handy reference.
A couple of reminders as we head into week two:
❤ The trivia challenge is on! Each of the participating businesses is posting a trivia fact about their business or product in their front window. Your challenge is to collect all the trivia answers and on Wednesday Feb. 23, bring them to Barry’s Old School Irish for the weekly trivia contest. The week’s theme? WEBSTER! The questions will be based on all the trivia posted around town.
❤ Maplewood Art Project: Next time you’re at Lala of Webster gift shop (38 E. Main), check out the charming bookmarks created by the residents of Maplewood Nursing Home. Supplies were provided to the residents who lovingly crafted the bookmarks, which are now being sold for $1 each. Proceeds will be used to purchase new art supplies for the residents’ next project, embellished felt hearts.
When an emergency happens, like a car accident or a house fire, we’re always grateful and relieved to see our local first responders show up to take care of things. But during our day-to-day normal lives, when nothing awful like that is happening, we don’t give them much thought at all.
But rest assured, they’re always thinking about us.
The Webster Volunteer Fire Department (WVFD) and the West Webster Fire Department(WWFD) held a joint water rescue training session at the Webster Aquatic Center this morning. Several topics were covered including rescue equipment, techniques to retrieve a victim, and how to secure a victim who has been injured. The training session was capped off with some practice on the Fortuna rescue boat and it was discovered just how precarious it can be when several people try to climb on at once! … We’re here for when you need us, Webster!
The two departments are hoping to schedule joint training sessions like this at least four times this year. The next one will probably be a large area wildland search once the weather improves. In the meantime, the WVFD and WWFD hold weekly drills within their own departments. Recent ones for the WVFD have included search and rescue techniques, driver training, advancements in technology, hazmat, air consumption and many more.
Here are a few more photos from the morning’s exercise:
Thank you to Sarah Mossey for most of these photos.
The Girl Scouts are going all-in with their online sales this year, thanks in large part (I’m sure) to this never-ending pandemic. I don’t know about you, but I’m going to find it much easier to pull out a credit card for my cookie order than try to scrounge up cash. Which, of course, facilitates the purchase of more Girl Scout cookies than a normal body needs. (AND you can get them delivered right to your house in just about a week.)
I’ve had a regular cookie connection for many years, ever since we lived in North Penfield across the street from Annalise, who sold us cookies every year before we moved to the village.
But even though we weren’t neighbors anymore, I knew where she lived, so I still tracked her down when cookie time rolled around. This year it’s so much easier — all I have to do is visit her personal cookie-selling website to get my fix of Thin Mints and Shortbreads. Anna’s little sister Adelia is a Brownie now as well, so I’m going to have to split my order … or maybe just buy more.
The Scouts are being encouraged to record promotional videos this year as well. I think that’s pretty neat in that it gives these young ladies a little public speaking experience. If you’re at all interested, here’s Anna’s video, and here’s Adelia’s.
I hope you also have a regular Girl Scout cookie connection. Or perhaps you wait until you can grab some boxes in March when they’ve set up tables outside local businesses. But if you can’t wait and really need a source, feel free to visit Adelia’s or Anna’s cookie ordering sites.
And if you really DON’T like Girl Scout cookies, there’s still a way you can support the organization’s goals and the opportunities they provide for the girls. It’s a program called “Cookie Share,” where you can purchase some boxes to be donated. Usually these go to local military organizations.
Thin Mint fan or not, I encourage everyone to support the Girl Scouts. They do so many neat things with these young ladies. Adelia’s mom Jess told me the trips her daughter’s been on already include visits to the Planetarium, Ginna and the George Eastman Museum. Plus, she’s taken an engineering class at the U or R and sampled karate and yoga.
I don’t remember having anywhere near that much fun when I was a Camp Fire Girls Bluebird back in the day.
One of the Village of Webster’s newest businesses is also one of its oldest.
Woodland Silkscreen & Embroidery joined the village’s West Main St. business corridor less than a year ago, but the shop at 5 West Main (lower level) is only the newest location for a business which has been around for more than 70 years.
You might recognize the Woodland name from its many years on Rt. 104 in Ontario. Owner Laurie Read operated the business there — in three separate locations near the Ontario Animal Hospital — for 30 years. But Woodland Printing was founded well before that, when her father Arnie started the business in his home on Shoemaker Rd. more than 70 years ago.
Laurie took over part of the business when she left Kodak, and got even more involved when Arnie decided to retire. She built the business through the years, including moving it out of the house to Ontario 20 years ago.
Her most recent relocation into Webster last March wasn’t her decision (her landlord in Ontario decided he needed the space for something else), but the move has turned out to be one of the best she’s made to date. Not only did it mean coming back to her hometown, but her highly visible, smack-dab-in-the-middle-of-the-village location facing Gazebo Park has been great for business.
“I love it here,” she said. “I was mad that I was being booted from my other place. I had fears, but since I’ve been here, it’s been great. Everyone is so nice and friendly, I love being part of the BID, I’m part of the Chamber now. I love being back here.”
The spicy side of Woodland
Visitors to Woodland will also discover a surprising, spicy side to the shop. When Laurie moved to her new location, she brought her OHHH, LORDEE! Everything Sauces with her.
Laurie can also thank her father Arnie for introducing her to homemade hot sauce — it’s his original recipe, which she’s been making on her own for years. But for a while now, Laurie and her best friend Denise Jones have been bottling the sauces, following a chance phone conversation they had one day when Laurie was cooking up a batch. Denise was immediately intrigued. When she eventually had a chance to try the sauce, she fell in love.
“She immediately said, ‘Oh my god, we’re bottling it,'” Laurie remembered. “We’re doing it, nothing’s stopping us.” With that, OHHH, LORDEE! was born.
The friends currently have five sauce varieties, ranging from mild (“Cloud 9”) to killer hot (“Devil’s Ecstasy”). Laurie describes the sauces as “different from anything out there,” with flavors that complement everything from chili and scrambled eggs to macaroni and cheese and Hawaiian pizza.
The sauces are available at Woodland Silkscreen, but also can be purchased at several locations in the area, including Hegedorn’s, Costanzas, Joe’s Meat Market in Ontario, Breens in Palmyra and Williamson, and others. To see a whole list and find out more, click here.
Today, I invite all my readers once again to check out my brand new, completely separate blog which I call East Extra Afterthoughts, where I’ll be reprinting some of my favorite columns from when I was the Our Towns East Extra columnist for the Democrat and Chronicle.
Today’s entry was not actually one of my columns. Instead, it was from a blog I wrote in December 2019. But it does have a nice follow-up story — or as I’m calling it, an afterthought. And for those of you who are new to my blog, it’s kind of a nice introduction to me and why I do what I do.
The power of words
I was a junior in high school when my English teacher said four words that changed my life.
She told me, “You’re a good writer.”
I still remember exactly where I was standing after class that day, and how proud those simple words made me feel. But I didn’t realize then how powerful they were, how much they would shape my future. Because from that day forward, I knew what I wanted to do with my life: I wanted to write. …
Click here to go to Afterthoughts and read the rest of the post.
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
The contents of this blog are presented under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial license.
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