To market, to market…

6 Jun

Don’t pay attention to the calendar. Summer has officially begun.

A typical Saturday at last year’s market

I know this, because Webster’s Joe Obbie Farmer’s Market opens for the season on Saturday at Webster Town Centre (Target/Kohl’s Plaza) on Holt Road.

The market will run from 8 am – 12:30 pm every Saturday through November 2, AND Wednesday evenings from 3-7 pm, rain or shine.

The market is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, and it keeps getting bigger and better, especially since it moved from its village location to the plaza a year ago. Varying with the season, you’ll find baked goods, pies, meats, poultry, goat cheese and goat cheese products, flavored nuts herbs, spice blends, honey, maple syrup, cider, soap and body care products, plants and cut flowers, jewelry, crafts and of course a wide variety of fruits and vegetables.

Don’t forget to bring the kids, too, because the Girl Scouts host a children’s activity area each week in the gazebo.

Special events and entertainment are scheduled every week; this weekend a grand opening celebration will be held at 10 am, kicked off by a flag ceremony presented by the Girl Scouts. Live music by the Callanach Band will keep your toes tapping all morning.

Check out the Joe Obbie Farmer’s Market website for details. See you Saturday!

 

 

 

Bonus mailbag!

5 Jun

BONUS BLOG!

I wanted to waste no more time in passing along information about a few events coming up in the next several days.

The first is the annual Webster Museum Barn Sale which will run from 9 am to 6 pm, Thursday June 6 (tomorrow!) through Saturday June 8, at 394 Phillips Road.  The ladies at the museum tell me that they’ll have a “Picker’s Paradise, lots of old tools, antiques, garden art, plants and collectibles.”

All proceeds will benefit the Museum’s ongoing programs and efforts to preserve and celebrate Webster’s history.

* * *

The Webster Marching Band’s semi-annual (or is it bi-annual…in any case, two times a year) Bottle and Can Drive returns this Saturday June 8.  This is a time when more than 150 dedicated student and adult volunteers scour Webster for donations, and end up collecting and sorting more than 250,000 bottles and cans.  This is the band’s biggest fund-raiser of the year, and they’d really appreciate your help, because they have some very exciting — and expensive — trips in the works.

Chances are you received a flyer in your door this week telling you about the bottle and can drive. Simply collect all your returnables in a garbage bag and place them at the curb by 9:30 am for pick-up. You can also drop them off at Schroeder High School between 9:30 am and 4 pm.

You might also consider supporting the band’s “Just $5” campaign to raise funds for aging uniforms and equipment. You can get more information about that at webstermarchingband.org.  If you have any questions, or want to schedule a pick- up, call 234-8684 Option 1.

 

 

Working out in Webster just got more fun

4 Jun

CrossFit has come to Webster.

If you’re not familiar with this diabolically torturous, yet strangely enjoyable fitness regimen, allow me to enlighten you.

CrossFit  is a strength and conditioning program comprised of short, intense workouts including any or many of the following activities: running, rowing, jumping rope, weightlifting, flipping tires, carrying heavy objects, push ups, sit ups, ring pull-ups, chin-ups, box jumps, medicine-ball throws…and those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head.  The chosen activities are done repeatedly, at top intensity, for 15-30 minutes straight.

Now you understand why I called it “torturous.”

But CrossFit is also addictive.  That’s why CrossFit training facilities — or “boxes” as they are affectionately called — have been cropping up all over the States ever since the brand was created 12 years ago.

The newest of those boxes is CrossFit Webster, which opened up just last week at 1847 Empire Blvd.  Last Friday as part of their grand opening celebration they held a free workout.  Actually, they called it a “bootcamp,” which more accurately reflects the intensity that typifies CrossFit training.

I have some CrossFit experience (thanks to friends who host regular workouts in their garages), so I jumped on the chance to try a session in a real “box.”

Before the bootcamp began, I chatted with Laura Rice, CrossFit Webster’s owner.  She and her husband Jeff have owned Flower City CrossFit in Brighton since 2010.  Even back then they had an eye on Webster with thoughts of opening a second gym. Finally, when the time seemed right, Laura took the leap and left her full-time IT job.

CrossFit Webster was born.

Laura found what she calls “prime CrossFit space” in a warehouse tucked back off of Empire Blvd. next to Delta Sonic. For two solid weeks, family, friends and Flower City CrossFit members worked day and night to transform the 7,000-square foot warehouse space into a gleaming workout facility.  Then they stocked it with enough equipment and apparatus to keep 48 people busy and sweating at once.

I know that for a fact, because I was one of those 48 people last Friday night.

For 18 minutes, plus rest breaks which were nowhere NEAR long enough, we sweated through a workout comprised of ring rows, situps, rowing, slam ball, jump rope, and the ever-popular burpees.  (If you don’t know what a burpee is, suffice it to say that EVERYBODY groaned when we were told they were part of the workout.)

I am pleased to report that I did not die.  In fact, once I powered through the “I-hate-every-single-trainer-in-this-room” phase of the workout (which usually occurs at or about burpee #20), it was kind of fun.  There’s a certain satisfaction to pushing your body to the edge and coming out stronger for it.

But more than that, CrossFit workouts are fun because you feel like you’re part of a community. I knew very few people in that room, but that didn’t keep us from cheering each other on, high-fiving as we walked to the next station, and exchanging words of encouragement during rest breaks.

So in that regard, CrossFit Webster has nailed it.  Great people, great equipment, great workouts.

But all this still didn’t make it very easy. But as Laura reminded me, “It never gets easier. It just sucks less.”  That is so true.

Find out more about CrossFit Webster: click here to go to their website, or click here to see their Facebook page.

Bay View’s new Adventure Complex shows what a community can accomplish

2 Jun

George Romell, CEO of the YMCA of Greater Rochester, speaks at the dedication ceremony.

On Saturday morning I was pleased to be in the crowd as George Romell, CEO of the YMCA of Greater Rochester, and Mike Stevens, Director of the Bay View Family YMCA, officially dedicated Bay View’s new “Adventure Campus.”  The beautiful new climbing complex replaces the very popular climbing tower which was destroyed by arson a year ago this month.

And it is a thing of beauty. The new Adventure Campus features a dual zip-line tower, bouldering playground, and of course a brand new, 5-person, 36-foot tall climbing tower.

But the YMCA didn’t stop there when they planned out the new complex, and that’s one of the things I like best about it all. Everything about the Adventure Campus is completely handicap-accessible. A series of new gravel pathways leading to the campus — and even to the end of the zip-line — allows easy wheelchair access.  The bouldering playground was created with sensory-friendly material in consideration of the many autistic children who attend camp there every summer.  The zip-line tower is even equipped with a lift system, so those who cannot walk or climb stairs can be raised to the top of the tower and enjoy the exhilaration of a ride down the zip-line.

At the end of the dedication ceremony, Joe Gerard was given the honor of taking the first ride down the zip-line.  You may remember Joey; I wrote a blog or two about him.  He’s the young man who single-handedly raised more than $6,000 for the cause, $5 at a time, simply by selling hand-made woven bracelets.

There’s a plaque attached to one of the big rocks in the bouldering playground with the names of people and corporations who helped Bay View YMCA realize its dream to rebuild the tower before the 2013 camp season.  But there’s no way that plaque could include the names of every individual or business who donated money or raffle prizes, everyone who served on committees to plan special events, every preschooler who put their pennies in a jar. Because as Mike Stevens said Saturday morning, this was a community effort.

Bay View YMCA Board Chairman Wendy Latko also added something which I thought was very true. And I paraphrase (a.k.a., not getting the quote exact, but it’s pretty darn close):

My children couldn’t understand why someone would burn down the climbing wall. I tried to explain that sometimes people do bad things. It was a sad lesson. But my kids have learned an even better lesson today — that when bad things happen, people will come together to make things right.

New Bay View YMCA Climbing Complex has risen from the ashes

30 May

Today I am pleased to bring some good news.

The new Bay View YMCA climbing complex. Click on the photo to see a few more.

You may remember the awful morning about a year ago when we woke up to find out that vandals had torched the 40-foot climbing tower at the Bay View Family YMCA.  It was completely destroyed, including all of the equipment that was stored inside, and the very popular zip line.

That happened on June 22, the day before summer camp was to begin. It was a devastating blow to the Bay View community, and especially the camp kids who used it every day during and after camp.  What was particularly depressing is finding out that insurance would not completely cover the cost of replacing the tower.

But if there’s one thing I have learned about the Webster community, it’s that we pull together big time when we sense a challenge.

The YMCA pledged not only to rebuild the tower bigger and better, but to do so before the start of the next summer’s camp season. They set a seemingly unreachable fund-raising goal of $100,000.

Immediately, donations started coming in, from pennies collected by preschoolers to large donations by local businesses. There were car washes and dunk-a-counselor events. We held a food truck rodeo in the middle of a hurricane and people still came out to support the cause. And young Bay View camper Joey Gerard raised more than $5,000 single-handedly by selling hand-crafted bracelets (see a previous story I wrote about Joey here.)

So many people helped reach that goal that it would be impossible to thank them all. But the goal WAS reached, and now all those people, and the entire Webster community, are invited to see the result.

On Saturday, June 1, the Bay View Family YMCA will officially open its brand-new climbing complex. You may have seen the new wall from a distance already.  And from a distance, it doesn’t look anywhere near as imposing as did the old tower. But drive down the road to the Y and get a closer look.  You’ll be lots more impressed.

The new 32-foot climbing wall is just the centerpiece of a bigger climbing complex, including a separate zip line tower with dual zip lines (so a parent and child can go down together) and a natural boulder playground. It is very beautiful and very exciting, and it’s all handicap-accessible.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place at 10:30 a.m. at the Bay View Family YMCA, 1209 Bay Road, Webster (across from Wegmans).  Joe Gerard will be there to take the very first zip line ride.

 

Community blood drive is back

29 May

One of my two favorite blood drives of the entire year is back — with a twist.

It’s Webster’s Community Blood Drive, and it’s held twice a year,  usually in June and October.  It’s always a two-day event, and for as long as I can remember (and I’ve been a blood donor for many years) it’s been held on a Wednesday  at St. Paul’s Church on Hard Road, and the following Thursday at the West Webster Fire House.

But I recently found out that the Community Blood Drive has outgrown the fire house, and so Thursday’s donation location will be the Webster Recreation Center on Chiyoda Drive.

This is actually a great problem to have — so many donors they overwhelm the space.

I’ve written about this particular two-day drive several times before, and I’m not at all kidding when I say it’s my favorite ever.  It’s sponsored by a long list of Webster businesses, which is why you see all those big white signs popping up all over town. Each of these businesses contributes a coupon, which are all collected into a packet and distributed to each presenting donor.  My favorites from past years have been the free ice cream cones from Bruster’s and Abbott’s and Hank’s.  But there are plenty of other coupons as well; previous ones have included free Empire Lanes bowling and a free flower from Kittelberger’s.

So if you’re a regular blood donor, I’ll probably see you there. If you’ve never donated blood before, I also hope to see you there. This is a great donation event to start with.  The Red Cross folks are always very pleasant and professional, and they’ll understand if you’re a bit nervous.  Just think about all the great coupons you’ll get, and the cookies and juice they force on you after your donation.

And of course, you’ll be saving lives, too.

Here are the details:

Webster Community Blood Drive

Wednesday June 5, noon – 7 pm
St. Paul’s Church, 783 Hard Road

Thursday June 6, noon – 7 pm
Webster Recreation Center, 1350 Chiyoda Drive (off of Phillips)

Call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) to make an appointment, or just stop in.  It only takes about an hour.

 

Photos from yesterday’s Memorial Day Parade and ceremony

28 May

The weather couldn’t have been better for yesterday’s Memorial Day Parade and ceremony, and a big crowd lined Main Street to watch as the parade made its way to the Webster Rural Cemetery.  The day’s events were dedicated to all of Webster’s first responders who put their lives on the line for us every day. “Chip” Chiapperini and Tomasz Kaczowka were posthumously named honorary Parade Grand Marshals.

Click on the photo or click here to go to a Facebook gallery of photos from the morning.

 

 

Brand new Webster Folk Festival joins summer scene

22 May

Yesterday afternoon I had the pleasure of attending an organizational meeting for Webster’s newest festival, the Webster Folk Festival, scheduled for Saturday August 3 in Veterans Memorial Park on North Avenue.

In my recent blog about the summer village events sponsored by the Business Improvement District, I put the Folk Festival on the accompanying calendar, but neglected to provide any details. Mostly because I didn’t have any.

Well, now I do.

The Webster Folk Festival will run from 1-8 pm on Saturday August 3.  It will feature seven headlining bands performing on the gazebo stage — most of them home-grown Webster musicians — each playing a 45-minute set. In between each headliner, small acoustic folk groups or individual musicians will perform in front of the stage. So that means the music will be flowing for seven straight hours.

Three bands have already committed: Barry’s Crossing, Sweet T and Johnny B, and Everheart. Organizers are also hoping to attract several vendors, and food and beverages will be available for purchase.  A large tent will be set up in case of rain, and a “jam” tent where any musician who’s packing an instrument will be invited in to sit and jam.

Cost of admission is still a little up in the air, but the promise is that it will be very “family-friendly.”

“The idea for the Webster Folk Festival came about only a few months ago, as friends Tracy Holley and Gordon Clarke were chatting at a school concert.

Fellow organizer Dave Wyble explained, they got to talking about how “there doesn’t seem to be anything like an outdoor family fun thing” like a folk festival.  The atmosphere at folk festivals is so unlike anything else, even Webster’s very popular Jazz Festival. “We love folk music and we wanted to promote the feeling you get from a festival like this.”

So now Wyble, Clarke and Holley are scurrying to pull all of the necessary details together to build the festival from scratch. This first year, they’re keeping their expectations realistic and setting their sights low, with just a one-day festival. But if it’s successful, and it looks like people like what they see, they’re hoping to expand next year to two days, invite more musicians, and offer a more interactive music and folk experience, including storytellers and a “instrument petting zoo.”

More details to come. In the meantime, stay up to date on the plans by checking out the Webster Folk Festival website at websterfolkfestival.org, and “like” their Facebook page.

If you’re interested in becoming a vendor, email info@websterfolkfestival.org.

A personal invitation to participate in Relay for Life

21 May

If you still haven’t heard about Relay for Life, then you’ve been living under a rock.

The Relay is an annual fund-raiser for the American Cancer Society in which teams pledge to walk around a track for 12 straight hours in honor of those who have fought or are still fighting the battle against cancer.  This year’s event is being held June 1-2 at the Webster Thomas High School track. A lot of teams have signed on so far, but more support is still needed.

I am pleased to pass along this notice from Robyn Whittaker, Webster’s biggest Relay for Life cheerleader and CRO (Chief Relay Officer) for the village’s Relay for Life team:

If you haven’t ever been to the Relay because you think it’s a race, you should know the the only “race” is to the cure.  We invite the community to come out that night and see what we are all about.

The evening starts out by celebrating our survivors and then our caregivers as they start off the laps before the teams take the track. Each team differs in their numbers but not in their quest to help fight cancer. Entertainment , games at the team campsites along with fun ways to raise money fill up the time until 10pm when the Remember ceremony starts. The ceremony is heartfelt and touching and the silent lap led by a bagpiper in the darkness, lit only by luminaria honoring or remembering our loved ones, brings out many tears.

Fun laps take over and continue through the night to keep those who are not catching a few zzz’s in their tents on the track and having fun. Midnight brings on the Fight Back ceremony as participants learn how they can help fight cancer with lifestyle changes.

The event wraps up at 6am with those who chose to stay the whole night, packing up and feeling good about what they did. After all, cancer never sleeps.

Please come out to Thomas High School on June 1st at 6pm and join the event!!

Couldn’t have said it any better myself. For more information about Webster’s Relay for Life, click here.

 

Public input requested on planned village traffic improvements

20 May

The Village of Webster is considering making major improvements in traffic patterns for pedestrians, bicycles and automobiles, and is now inviting residents to weigh in on the plans.

A public meeting will be held on Wednesday June 5 to provide the public with a chance to review and comment on draft recommendations for suggested improvements to West Main and North Avenue.

The public meeting will include a presentation by study consultants about the village’s transportation characteristics and conditions, and evaluations of traffic flow, parking, and pedestrian and bicycle safety.  It will be followed by a discussion of village transportation needs as expressed by area residents.

Finally, recommended strategies and improvements will be presented for public comment. Preliminary recommendations include major changes at the Route 104/ North Avenue interchange and changes to East and West Main Streets. (Scroll down to see renderings of the proposed changes.)

This meeting is part of a major study of transportation in the village being funded by the Genesee Transportation Council in conjunction with the village’s new Comprehensive Plan. Its purpose is to improve circulation, accessibility, parking, and safety for pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists in the village.

According to the release I received, during the development of the Comprehensive Plan,

the public expressed considerable concern about the lack of vitality and limited consumer buying opportunities in the business district; the location of parking and the perception of too little parking; generally increased traffic, as well as event-related congestion; poor signage; and the pedestrian and barrier and safety issues created by Route 104. Moreover the continued expansion of commercial activity in the Town of Webster outside the Village is creating increased competition for Village businesses and pressuring business owners and the Village government to seek changes that will keep and attract business investment and people.

The workshop will be held Wednesday June 5 at 7 pm in the Community Meeting Hall, 29 South Avenue. For more information on the Public Workshop, contact Glenn Cooke at info@WCCED.net or by calling (585) 269-4939.

 

Plans are to put dedicated bike lanes on West Main. Click on the image to enlarge.

 

Major changes in store for the Rt. 104/North Ave. interchange. Click on the image to enlarge.

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