The Webster Parks and Recreation Center has got a couple of fun and entertaining events coming up this week.
The first is the Rec Center’s next Music in the Parkconcert at the gazebo at the Arboretum, 1700 Schlegel Rd. This week’s concert will be presented by Doctor’s Orders, featuring my good friends Dave and Patty Wyble.
Doctor’s Orders is an acoustic folk and pop duo playing a variety of songs from the Beatles to John Prine, and pretty much everything in between. They’re a delightful duo which everyone will enjoy.
The concert will be held Thursday Sept. 15 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Arboretum. It’s free and open to the public. Bring a chair or a blanket, fill a cooler with dinner and drinks, and enjoy a pleasant evening of music.
Click here to find out more about Doctor’s Orders.
Then, don’t forget that this Saturday Sept. 17 is the second annual Webster Recreation Center Mud Run.
The Mud Run is a a non-competitive, untimed, one-mile run/walk along the Recreation Center’s obstacle course/fitness trail which loops around the back of the facility. Some of the run will be through water and mud, and there will be some challenging obstacles. What’s really neat about it is that kids and their adults can do it together. It’s only $5 per person, and the organizers promise that there’ll be swag, fun and food.
Click here to register. You can sign up for any 15-minute wave between 10 a.m. and noon. The Webster Recreation Center is located at 1350 Chiyoda Drive, off of Phillips Rd.
Get out your calendar, ’cause this mailbag is a packed one.
The annual Webster ROCKS Music Festival is back in town this weekend.
The festival is held to raise awareness for ALS in memory of Kacie Jones. Proceeds will benefit organizations that fight to change the standard of case and empower people with ALS. (Visit www.healingals.org or www.teamgleason.org for more information.)
The festival will be held on Saturday Sept. 10 at the Webster Firemen’s Field on Ridge Rd. There’ll be food trucks and plenty of liquid refreshment. Doors open at 2 p.m. and an incredible music line-up starts at 3 p.m., featuring State Line, Brass Taxi, Jumbo Shrimp, Judah and M80s. (Check the Facebook event page for more details about the schedule.)
Tickets are $20 in advance (available from the Coach Sports Bar, 19 W. Main in Webster) and at Eventbrite (but they charge fees, so stop by the Coach to save money). Cost is $25 the day of the festival. Admission is free for ages 12 and under.
The Village of Webster would like YOUR opinions on how the village can be improved.
The Webster Economic Development Alliance, in conjunction with the Webster Business Improvement District, is competing for a $4.5 million grant from the NY Forward community revitalization program. As part of the competition process, Webster must submit an application on how we intend to spend $4.5 million in our community.
So the coalition is asking for community input. They’ve put together a quick, 5-minute survey, hoping to gather thoughts about things like
• your vision for the downtown area • where you’d like to see the money invested • how projects should be prioritized
But if you’d like to present your ideas in person, stop in to the Main Street Revitalization Open House on Tuesday Sept. 13 in the Village Board Room, 29 South Ave. Representatives will be there from 6 to 8 p.m. to hear what you think!
This two-day event will feature entertainment from the Auslanders, the Adlers Band, the Frankfurters, and yodeler Richard Brandt, who comes straight from Germany. Swan’s Market and Helmut’s Strudel of WNY will be serving up some authentic German food, along with Nancy’s Fried Dough and beer and wine from Cobblestone on Main.
The next St. Martin Lutheran Church’s Drive Thru Chicken BBQ will be held Saturday, Sept. 17 beginning at 4:30 p.m. at the church, 813 Bay Road, Webster.
Dinners of a half chicken, salt potatoes, coleslaw, roll, and butter are available for $12.00 – cash or check only. The event is drive-through only, and there will be no advance sales.
Dinners will be served first come/first served. Cars will enter the parking lot, follow signs, and purchase dinners using exact payment. Cars will then proceed to the side entrance to pick up boxed dinners.
Proceeds will St. Martin’s Christmas Stocking Project reaching over 500 local youth in Monroe and Wayne counties.
Here’s a preview of a pile of Webster Rec programs that you and your family are going to love:
Saturday Sept. 17: Family Mud Run, from 10 a.m. to noon, a non-competitive run/walk through mud and obstacles, concluding with snacks and swag. Much fun guaranteed for all ages. Cost is $5 per person, which includes lunch. Registration is required. (Program #301202)
Saturday Oct. 29: The ever-popular Pumpkins on Parade returns from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Drop off a carved pumpkin and then come back to walk the trail of illuminated Jack-o-lanterns. Free cider and donuts at the end. No charge.
Friday Nov. 18: Pajama Party, from 6 to 8 p.m. Dress in your favorite jammies and come hang out for a night of games, music, dancing and more. Bring a blanket and a pillow and get ready for the weekend. No charge.
Saturday Dec. 10: An Evening with Santa, 6 to 8 p.m. Get your picture taken with Mr. Claus himself, enjoy a sweet treat and make a holiday craft. No charge.
More information to come about all of these family-friendly events.
Finally, this isn’t an event, but an FYI.
For a long time now, there’s been an pharmaceutical drop-box location at the Webster Police Department, a convenient place to dispose of unused or expired prescriptions, instead of flushing them down the drain.
The remote drop box was supported by CVS Pharmacies, but the conmpany has discontinued that support.
So as of Sept. 1, there’s no longer a drop box at the Police Department. However, the CVS store at 935 Ridge Rd. will have an in-store collection bin. So please, keep being good citizens and continue to dispose of your expired medications properly.
Beginning this month, I’ve taken over the job of writing the monthly “Bit of Webster History,” a short feature produced by the Webster Museum highlighting interesting historical tidbits from around our town.
For the last six years, these “Bits” have been researched and written by Webster Museum volunteer Kathy Taddeo. She’s a great writer and I always enjoyed seeing what gems she came up with every month. Needless to say, I have some big shoes to fill.
Here’s my first stab at it:
A Bit of Webster History — Rules for Teachers
In honor of the first week of school and our hard-working teachers, this month’s History Bit takes us back to a time when school was held for all grades in one room heated by a wood stove, writing was done on slates, and the drinking fountain was a metal pail and cup.
The first school recorded within the township of Webster was a log cabin at the corner of Salt and State roads in 1813. In those days the school year was typically divided into summer and winter terms. Usually a woman would teach girls and young children in the summer, and a man would teach the older boys in the winter after they were released from farm work.
It was a tough job with some pretty strict rules – and not just with regards to classroom management. Consider this list of Rules for Teachers from 1872:
Teachers each day will fill lamps, clean chimneys
Each teacher will bring a bucket of water and a scuttle of coal for the day’s session
Make your pens carefully. You may whittle nibs to the individual taste of the pupils.
Men teachers may take one evening each week for courting purposes, or two evenings a week if they go to church regularly.
After ten hours in school, the teachers may spend the remaining time reading the Bible or other good books.
Women teachers who marry or engage in unseemly conduct will be dismissed.
Every teacher should lay aside from his pay a goodly sum of his earnings for his benefit during his declining years so that he will not become a burden on society.
Any teacher who smokes, uses liquor in any form, frequents pool or public halls, or gets shaved in a barber shop will give good reason to suspect his worth, intention, integrity and honesty.
The teacher who performs his labor faithfully and without fault for five years will be given an increase of 25 cents per week in his pay, providing the Board of Education approves.
See the list for yourself at the Webster Museum, where it’s posted just outside the museum’s classroom, which emulates how an actual one-room schoolhouse might have looked in the early 1900s.
The museum, located at 18 Lapham Park, is open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 2 to 4:30 p.m. Visit the website for more historical tidbits about our town’s schools and teachers.
(P.S. The photo above pictures one of the district’s earliest schools, the District No. 7 school on Schlegel Rd., circa 1846.)
The return of the Webster Firemen’s Parade was met with beautiful weather and an appreciative crowd Thursday night as thousands watched it make its way down Main Street.
This year’s parade, which lasted around 75 minutes, wasn’t as long as others have been, and the crowds were lighter than I would have expected after a two-year hiatus. But otherwise, the event was the same loud, colorful, musical spectacle that we have come to know and love.
It was great to see many of our old favorites return, like the Towpath Volunteers and the Marion Red Caps. As usual, there was terrific representation from many of our neighboring towns’ fire departments and first responders. It was also a delightful surprise to see a brand new parade entrant, the Sodus Home School Marching Band, who performed with the best of them. I hope to see them again in future parades.
There were a TON of kids in the audience, and I’m not sure what they enjoyed most. It might have been the abundance of huge trucks and fire trucks who were all more than happy to blast their horns whenever they saw a child pumping his or her arm.
But it was probably the candy, being handed out or tossed from floats by the bushel basket full, that made the evening almost as lucrative as Halloween. And most of the kids came well prepared, with Wegmans bags or buckets in tow. Others pressed their baseball caps into service, or just piled their spoils on the ground next to them.
With the return of the Firemen’s Carnival and Parade, it almost feels like life is finally back to normal. Thank you to the Webster Volunteer Fire Department for helping make that happen.
Click here to see a full gallery of photos from before, during and after the parade.
Recently, when I was hanging out my American flag for Flag Day, I noticed that it wasn’t looking too great. It wasn’t tattered or torn, but it was stained and very faded, the result of years of use in bright sunshine. I knew it had to go.
I also knew that, once I had replaced it, the old Old Glory needed to be disposed of properly, and certainly NOT thrown in the garbage. I knew of one flag collection box in Irondequoit, but was very pleased to find out recently that Webster has one as well.
It’s located in the main reception area of Town Hall on Ridge Rd., and is accessible during normal office hours. It’s basically a recycled mailbox where community members can deposit their old, worn-out flags.
The box was placed at Town Hall in the summer of 2019, thanks to the efforts of former supervisor Ron Nesbitt and his staff. It was donated by the Webster Post Office and painted by Vital Signs, who transformed it from what was an average blue mailbox to the bright, patriotic box it is now.
Whenever the bin is full, a Town Hall staff member empties it and takes all of the flags to Webster American Legion Cottreall-Warner Post 942, where they are properly disposed of.
This is a great resource to know about, especially at this time of year when we tend to fly our flags more often. It’s such an easy way to make sure our old American flags are shown the respect and dignity they deserve.
In the years I’ve been writing this blog, I’ve met countless wonderful people; business owners, residents, special event chairpeople, grass-roots organizers. Together, they comprise the fabric of our community.
Through those years, and all those people, there’s always been one constant: the Special Police.
At every one of our town’s special events, I’d invariably see these dedicated volunteers helping with crowds and traffic control, and directing traffic at accident scenes. I’ve always appreciated their expertise, professionalism and good nature.
That’s why I was saddened to hear that Webster’s Special Police Department was being eliminated.
I heard rumors a while ago that such a decision was in the works, but I guess I was hoping I’d heard wrong, or at least something could be worked out with the Town to salvage this important service. But then, a few days ago, I got an email from Michael Charland, the most recent Chief of Special Police, confirming that the department is truly gone.
Michael gave me some background about how the whole thing went down. I’m not going to get into detail about that and the politics that were involved. (To read more of the story, check out the letter to the editor in last week’s Webster Herald.) But he did include some history which I thought was interesting.
He wrote,
Our unit began as the Webster Auxiliary Police under NYS Civil Defense guidelines back in 1953, and evolved into a Special Police organization in 1997 when the NYS Town Laws were changed. We generally had about 25 volunteer officers that served the Webster Police Department in law enforcement roles whenever called upon to do so. All of our officers were trained at the Monroe County Public Safety Training Facility and certified as NYS Peace Officers.
The town never fully utilized all of the powers that NY State granted to us over the years. Typically they utilized our members to do more routine duties such as traffic control, some patrol details, or provide security at large public gatherings, which we were happy to do. Other duties included providing court security to the town justice court, and 24/7 emergency response to fatal MVAs, storms, crime scenes, etc. where we generally provided a secure perimeter for the WPD to conduct their work.
I’m going to miss not seeing Special Police officers at our special events. Like the upcoming Memorial Day Parade; they’d always be there in force, on bike and on foot, and they were always happy to smile for my camera.
Thank you for your service, Special Police officers.
Here are some of my photos from previous blogs, and a few provided by Michael.
It’s called the Family Fun Night. From 6 to 8 p.m., there’ll be food trucks, concessions, and tables set up by local community groups. It looks like it’s going to be a very nice night weather-wise, so bring the whole family! Registration is NOT required.
Speaking of Webster Parks and Recreation, I got some news a short time ago that the Rec Center’s awesome Mud Run will be back again this September.
Last year’s first-ever Mud Run was so well received, they started making plans almost immediately for this year’s event. They promise it’s going to be even bigger and better (that might mean messier) than the first. It’s scheduled for Saturday Sept. 17, with the first wave going off at 10 a.m.
Here are a few pictures from last year. Stay tuned for more details, but make sure to get this one on your calendar now!
Don’t forget about Saturday’s Webster Wine Walk, from 4 to 7 p.m. in the Village of Webster. Glass pickup will be at Webster Interiors, 975 Ebner Dr. from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.
Tickets are $15 (plus sales tax and fees) and are available here. For more information, visit the Webster BID website.
The Friends of Webster Trails invites concerned nature-lovers to join them for a Trail Work Day this Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon at Four Mile Creek Preserve, at the corner of Phillips and Lake roads.
They’ll be working on creating a new trail in the preserve. If you have them, bring along a shovel, wheelbarrow, lopper and/or mattock. Make sure to wear gloves, long sleeves and long pants.
Also this Saturday, don’t forget about the second annual Duck Derby hosted by Webster Comfort Care Home.
You can read this blog for more details, but basically, participants purchase rubber duckies for $5 each, and each has a number on it. At the appointed time, the ducks are dumped into Mill Creek, where they leisurely float down towards the lake. The “owners” of the first three ducks to cross the finish line win cash prizes.
Because the ducks take a while to meander downstream, there will be other activities to keep everyone busy while you’re waiting.
The race will begin at the Webster Park Beeches Pavilion at 10 a.m. on Saturday May 21. There’s plenty of parking. Ducks can be purchased online here, by calling 585-872-5290, emailing Director@webstercomfortcare.org, or by stopping by the Webster Comfort Care Home at the corner of Holt and Klem. Payment is accepted by cash, check or credit card, and PayPal online. Tickets are available now.
Need pancakes? The Williamson Flying Club’s annual Pancake Breakfast takes place this Sunday, May 22 from 7 a.m. to noon at the club, 5502 Rt. 104, rain or shine.
In addition to a great breakfast, there’ll be airplane and helicopter rides. Cost for $6 for kids, $10 for adults. Presale tickets are available by clicking here.
You can fly in or drive in, but if you drive, please enter from Centenary Rd.
You’ll want to enter the museum very cautiously for the next few months, because Godzilla is waiting to greet you in a BIG way.
He’ll glare at you (and perhaps even growl at you) from a striking poster provided to the museum by Lenny Schwartz, long-time manager of the much-missed Empire Drive-in theater. In the new exhibit, you’ll learn more about Lenny and the drive-in, and read memories of Webster residents who took their pajama-clad kids to the drive-in from March through December in years gone by. (Maybe you were one of them?)
Check out the impressive exhibit at the Webster Museum, 18 Lapham Park in the Village of Webster. The museum is open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 2 to 4:30 p.m.
Change can be hard. Especially when that change involves something you’ve known your whole life. For that reason, the announcement that the Town of Webster was planning to rename North Ponds Park was for some an unwelcome surprise, leading to the obvious question, “Why?”
I asked that myself when I first learned about the Town’s plans to rename North Ponds Park as the Charles E. Sexton Memorial Park. I’d never heard of Charles Sexton, had no idea how he was connected to Webster or why he was so important that the Town would choose to rename one of our most popular parks in his honor.
Then I started reading more about him and his accomplishments, and I began to understand the impact Charles Sexton had on a professional level. Then, at Friday’s official renaming ceremony, I got to know him on a personal level as well.
The event was held Friday afternoon under very sunny skies, on the cool and breezy shores of North Ponds. About 75 people attended, including friends, current and former Parks and Recreation staff members, government officials and many members of the Sexton family, some of whom had traveled from as far as California and Georgia.
It began with presentations to the family of a Town of Webster proclamation and a New York State Senate resolution, both recognizing Mr. Sexton’s history as Webster’s first Recreation Director, and the first African-American Recreation Director in New York State. His career spanned 34 years, from 1962 until 1996, during which he introduced the town’s first programs for senior citizens and launched the summer youth camps.
But those two resume bullets only scratched the surface of why Charles Sexton was deserving of this honor, and how he helped shape our community’s future.
Three more speakers followed, painting a heartfelt picture of the kind of man Sexton was, during his tenure as Recreation Director and retirement, before he passed in 2021. Sean Torriegano remembered his close friend, saying “No one had a more profoundly positive impact on my life,” adding that he was “one of the most selfless persons I have known.”
He continued,
Mr. Sexton wouldn’t have been comfortable with this, no matter how appropriate we all believe and know this is. It was not his thing. Accolades and recognitions were not what he was about. He would have rather had the names of the families that helped bring about and sustain his vision as a group, not as an individual but as one family.
Penny Soos recalled the two and a half-hour interview she had with Sexton for a receptionist job.
“He talked and he talked and he talked,” she remembered. “And I listened and I listened and I listened.” It was only later she found out the reason he talked so long was to see how well she listened. She got the job.
Retired Town Councilman Barry Deane helped everyone understand why North Ponds Park in particular was chosen to honor Charles Sexton.
There have been many folks over the years in this community who have had impacts, who have helped us become who we are, but I can’t think of anyone who’s had more of an impact than Charles….
(Charles) was a man of great vision. He started a new department from the ground up, and he made many improvements in the community. One of them was this park, which was part of his vision.
When he started, this park was just a couple of (undeveloped) bodies of water. We inherited this park and over the years we did a lot to improve it. … This was really his baby.
Earlier in the day, at a memorial servce held at Holy Trinity Church, Sr. Barbara referred to Charles Sexton’s legacy as “branches and vines.” Sean Torriegano expanded on that analogy in his remarks. His comments touched me more deeply than any others that afternoon, especially when he shared his opinion about what Mr. Sexton might think about the day’s events.
He’d say,
Hang on to your thank yous, keep your well wishes, signs and ceremonies. If you want to say thank you, then you do right by yourself, do right by your family, do right by your friends. When you do wrong, and you will do wrong, you own it, you learn from it and move on. Thank me by giving before taking. Thank me by speaking up for someone who can’t and when no one else will. Thank me by doing your best to make sure our branches and vines stay strong and continue to grow, and to keep trying.
Through all the proclamations and speeches, the same words kept cropping up. Beloved. Respect. Legacy. Vision. Charles Sexton was clearly a man who had a positive effect on more than just our town. He changed lives as well and seems to have made everything and everyone he touched a little bit better.
A lot of signs will need replacing, and it’s going to take a generation or more before the name “North Ponds Park” fades into memory. But now, at least, the memory of Charles E. Sexton — and what he did for our community — will endure forever.
The weekly Town of Webster newsletter is always packed with information, and I always get good blog ideas from it. But this week’s edition outdid itself. There are so many events mentioned in its 15 digital pages that it prompted me to post another mailbag, even though the last one was just a few days ago.
So here’s a quick list of what you can see in the newsletter, then I’ll tack on a few more events at the end.
The Town of Webster will hold a special ceremony this Friday April 22 to rename North Ponds Park to the Charles E. Sexton Memorial Park in honor of Webster’s first Recreation Director and the first African American Recreation Director in New York State. The ceremony will begin at 4 p.m. at the park. Read more about the event here.
The Webster Quilt Guild’s 2022 Quilt Show, called “Envision the Possibilities,” will take place on Saturday and Sunday April 23 and 24 at Holy Trinity Church, 1460 Ridge Rd., just east of the village. There will be several special displays and a raffle. Read more about the event in my blog here.
Your chance to meet Adam Traub, the new director of the Webster Public Library, is coming up Wednesday April 27 at the library’s Open House from 3 to 5 p.m. You can read more about Adam in this blog I posted after meeting him.
If you’ve ever hiked the Four Mile Creek trails and noticed the old rotting cars in the woods, here’s a great chance to learn about them. The Friends of Webster Trails is holding a “Cars Along the Creek” hike on Saturday April 30 from 10 to noon. There are actually six old cars there (I’ve only seen three) and you’ll learn about all of them. I’ll be posting a blog about this soon, but more details in the flyer below.
Also on Saturday April 30, the Webster Health and Education Network is holding a Drug Take-Back Event at both the Holt Rd. and Baytowne Wegmans locations. No appointment is necessary. More details in the flyer below.
The Lions Club will hold a Mother’s Day Rose Sale from Thursday May 5 through Saturday May 7. Roses will be $20 per dozen and can be picked up any one of those days, but they must be ordered in advance. For more information, check the flyer below.
The Town of Webster will host a blood drive on Tuesday May 10 from noon to 6:30 p.m. at Webster Parks and Recreation on Chiyoda Drive. Call the Red Cross at 1-800-733-2767 or visit redcross.org (search for WebsterCommunity) to schedule an appointment.
More news from the Webster Public Library. The Friends of the Library will host their annual spring book sale from Thursday to Saturday May 12 to 14. Nothing costs more than $1. For more details, check the flyer below.
Got stuff to shred? Reliant Federal Credit Union is hosting a free ShreddingEvent on Saturday May 14 from 9 a.m. to noon at their Webster branch, 870 Holt Rd. There’s no quantity limits, but please remove file folders, binders and plastic bags. There will also be raffles and giveaways, refreshments and entertainment.
Don’t forget to get your ducks for Webster Comfort Care‘s second annual Duck Derby on Saturday May 21. Cost is $5 per duck, and all proceeds will benefit the home. Click here to read more about this event.
The Webster Museum is planning a whole month of programs in May highlighting the rich history of West Webster. I’ll be posting a blog about those events soon, but for some details right now, check out the flyer below.
The people of Ukraine still need our help. ROC Maidan is soliciting donations of new clothes and camping cots. Check out the wish list and drop-off locations on the flyer below.
Looking ahead, here are a few other things I’m working on for the coming weeks:
The West Webster Cemetery Tour on June 19
A new business coming to the Village of Webster
the second annual Luminaria Walk for our Webster CSD seniors on May 15
With the conclusion of Webster Thomas High School’s recent production of Little Shop of Horrors, the final curtain has come down on the high schools’ 2022 spring musical season. But each school actually has a spring drama in the works.
Mark Stoetzel, the drama director at Webster Thomas, emailed me not long ago with some exciting news about their production of The Neighbors, planned for late May: it’s going to be staged outside.
The Webster GeoTech Class is building an outdoor stage in one of the school’s courtyards, complete with a pergola. On May 27 and 28, students will hit the stage to perform several one-act plays they’re writing themselves, each set in a townhouse complex.
More details to come as the date approaches.
The Webster Schroeder Theater Company is also working on a drama, The Secret Garden. Shows are scheduled for Friday and Saturday May 6 and 7 from 7 to 9 p.m. Tickets are available now, but I’m having trouble finding a link or details on how to purchase them. If anyone can fill me in, please email me so I can share that information.
The Webster Museum has all sorts of programs planned in the coming weeks. They seem particularly excited about their upcoming exhibit focusing on the history of West Webster. The little hamlet had its very own zip code not too long ago (14581) and is currently anticipating a revitalization.
Among the materials the museum has collected are the two maps below. The first was drawn by Maguerite Collins around 1938, possibly as a class project. It shows the names of some of Webster’s earliest settlers and when they arrived. The second map, created in 1852, adds more names.
Descendants of some of these early settlers still live here today, and many of them never left. Interested community members are invited to “meet” some of them on Sunday June 19 from 2 to 4 p.m., when the Webster Museum hosts a West Webster Cemetery Tour. Costumed characters will on hand representing many of the hamlet’s former residents who are buried there, and guaranteed they’ll have some interesting stories.
More information to come about this fun event. (Teaser: I’m going to play a character!)
Stay tuned also for more details about the museum’s upcoming West Webster exhibit. Among the history to be shared will be photos and artifacts from the West Webster Fire Department. It was originally housed in Webb’s garage, then Brewer’s barn, then the former Goetzman Store, followed by its move to its current home on Gravel Road. A number of former West Webster residents have shared memories of turkey raffles, liverwurst sandwiches, craft shows and ice rinks in the firehouse parking lots.
Several programs have been scheduled in May to highlight West Webster history. I’ll tell you all about them in a future blog.
The Webster Museum, located at 18 Lapham Park in the Village of Webster, is open 2 to 4:30 pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
Beer lovers will want to be a part of a program scheduled for this Thursday April 21. Will Cleveland, former investigative reporter for the Democrat and Chronicle, will talk about the past and future of the Western New York beer scene, a beat which he has covered since 2014.
The program, called “Rochester Craft Beer: The History and Future of the Scene,” runs from 7 to 8 p.m. and registration is required.
Tweens and teens, you can make your very own hair scrunchies on Wed. April 20 from 1 to 2 p.m. Materials will be provided. Kids in grades 4 to 12 are welcome. Registration is required.
This month’s make-and-take crafts include recycled milk cap fish (for kids), clothespin peek-a-boo eggs (for teens) and a bead bracelet (made from magazines) for adults. Materials can be picked up at the library during regular business hours while supplies last.
This is a drive-through event. Dinners will include a half chicken, salt potatoes, cole slaw, roll and butter for $12. There will be no advance sales; cars can pay when they enter the parking lot, first come, first served. Signs will direct cars to the pay station, and then to the side entrance where you can pick up the boxed dinners.
Proceeds will support St. Martin’s Christmas Stocking Project which reaches more than 500 youth in Monroe and Wayne counties.
The Tour de Cure is returning to Webster on Saturday June 11, and even if you don’t plan on riding, you can still help out.
In this annual premier cycling event, riders sign up to cycle anywhere from 12 to 100 miles, to benefit the American Diabetes Association. It begins and ends in one of the old Xerox parking lots near the Webster Recreation Center. If you’d like to participate, you can sign up here. Or you can help the cause by becoming a volunteer. More information about those opportunities can be found here.
Finally (and this is especially for all of you who are still reading this long blog, because I know you appreciate local news) I want to draw your attention once again to what’s happening with the Webster Herald.
Our little town newspaper recently experienced another editorial change, when Colin Minster left in March. A new editor, Tim Young, has since taken the reigns, and accepted the daunting challenge of publishing a weekly newspaper.
And it is daunting. I’ve said this before, but it deserves repeating: with a small, hyper-local, weekly publication like the Herald, the editor has to be a Jack-of-all-trades, not only managing the layout and editing, but actively searching out and writing stories of local interest. It’s a 24/7 position from which you can never take a vacation.
The job is made that much more difficult without support from advertisers, contributors and subscribers. I think we can all agree that local news is a dying breed. The Webster Post isn’t around any more, and the Democrat and Chronicle couldn’t care less about Webster local news. The Herald is now one of the few places we can go to to find news about our community. So we need to do everything we can to make sure the Herald doesn’t go anywhere anytime soon.
Tim touched on a few of these concerns in the column he wrote a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, it’s not online anywhere, but you can click here to see a photo of it. In the column, Tim talks about how staffing issues are a challenge and that advertising is hard to come by. He also notes that people are actually complaining about all the legal advertising in the Herald, pointing out that those legals are the only things that are keeping the paper afloat.
It’s not fair to criticize the job a weekly editor is doing without being willing to help do something about it. Like make sure to renew your subscription every year. Encourage your friends to subscribe. Send in sports stories and photos, and your child can be pictured in the paper. Advertise your business. And how about stretching your writing chops and consider becoming a free-lancer? You’ll be paid for your work, and see your own byline in the paper.
Tim would love to hear from you. Email him at tim@empirestateweeklies.com. Let him know that this community is behind him and we still appreciate local news.
Do you know of any event coming up in Webster, or sponsored by a Webster organization, which you’d like publicized in my blog? Pretty much anything that comes across my email will find its way in sometime or another, so let me know about it!
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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