On Friday, April 22, the Town of Webster will officially rename North Ponds Park to the Charles E. Sexton Memorial Park, in honor of the former director of Webster Parks and Recreation.
Sexton was hired in 1962 as Webster’s first Recreation Director, and served in that capacity until his retirement in 1996. He was also the first African American Recreation Director in New York State. He passed away in June 2021.
During his tenure, Sexton introduced the town’s first programs for senior citizens and launched the recreation department’s first summer youth camps. Many programs which began under his direction are still operating today. It is this legacy which led to the town’s decision to rename one of Webster’s best-known parks in his honor.
Current Webster Parks and Recreation Commissioner Chris Bilow said,
North Ponds Park is one of the most utilized parks in all of Webster. Whether it’s people walking, running, enjoying the water or attending one of the many events in the park, I am confident that Mr. Sexton envisioned this type of use when the park was being built. More importantly, Sexton loved North Ponds Park, a facility which he saw come together to be owned and managed by the Town of Webster. (from press release)
The official renaming ceremony will take place at North Ponds Park (soon to be known as the Charles E. Sexton Memorial Park) at 4 p.m. Friday, April 22. There will be brief remarks and a sign unveiling.
The Greater Rochester Peep Show returned to the Webster Recreation Center Saturday, live and in-person for the first time in three years, since COVID made them postpone, then ultimately cancel the show in 2020.
And I gotta say, it’s outstanding.
About 120 families, businesses and community agencies created displays for this year’s show, colorful and creative dioramas depicting everything from sports events and TV shows to schoolrooms and Broadway plays. I especially liked the ones which were made almost entirely of Peeps, like Marge Simpson pictured here.
In addition to the displays, there’s a children’s room, plenty of snacks for purchase, raffles and vendors, all spread through five rooms at the Rec Center. Visitors are encouraged to purchase tickets to be used to vote for your favorite displays. All proceeds benefit the Webster Community Chest.
When I was there Saturday afternoon, I was surprised by how many people were there admiring the displays. It seems like everyone’s excited to get back out and do things like this again, and jumped at the chance to bring the family out for some free entertainment.
I’ve posted a slideshow here of many of the displays, but there are SO MANY MORE you’re going to want to see, and there’s still plenty of time. The Peep Show continues Sunday April 3 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Webster Recreation Center on Chiyoda Drive (just off of Phillips). There’s plenty of free parking.
And, I’m told that Coldstone Creamery is going to be there Sunday to hand out FREE ice cream!
A few days ago I received my Friends of Webster Trails digital newsletter, one of the perks I get as a member. And like always, it kept me captivated for an hour, reading all of the updates and newsy articles about our local trails, what the Friends are doing to maintain them, and their plans for future enhancements.
I read about the Friends’ plan to purchase a mower, but will then need a volunteer or two to run them (which would only be a commitment of three or four hours a month). I read about the very successful scavenger hunt the Friends organized in conjunction with the Webster Recreation Center at Gosnell Big Field which raised $600. I read news about all of the work the Friends have had to do to clean the trails after our recent windstorms, removing fallen trees, and sometimes even rerouting trails due to the damage.
I found out that there’s a trailhead now at the new State Rd. Nature Preserve, and there are plans to expand the John Ungar Nature Trail and add new trails at Four Mile Creek. And the newsletter provided lots of information about the future of open space in Webster and the Friends’ ReTree project.
I was especially pleased to see the report from Denise Bilsback, the membership chair. She wrote that there’s been a steady increase in memberships, and even a few outright donations, including more than $2,000 over the holiday season.
That news more than anything made me smile. The Friends of Webster Trails’ volunteers put in thousands of hours each summer planting, creating, maintaining and expanding our beautiful trail system. It’s a thankless job, and I don’t think they get nearly the attention they deserve. So I’m glad to hear that people are stepping up and showing their support.
Everybody who uses these trails should become a Friends of Webster Trails member and support their efforts. It only costs $10 per person, $15 for a family membership, for THE WHOLE YEAR.
One of our town’s most creative and fun FREE family events — the Great Rochester Peep Show — returns this weekend! For the last couple of years, the show was a shell of its former Peep self thanks to COVID, but it’s back big time for 2022.
If you’ve never heard about this really fun event, you’re going to want to keep reading, especially if you like eating those yellow (and now pink and purple and whatever other colors) marshmallow chicks and ducks.
I’ve never been a big fan of Peeps. I put them in the same category as those faux-orange circus peanuts. They squeak when you bite into them. But I LOVE the Peep Show. This is a two-day event at the Webster Recreation Center, where at least four entire rooms are filled with incredibly creative sculptures, dioramas, and various other works of art created with Peeps. It’s simply the cutest thing ever. (Click here for a small photo gallery from 2019.)
This year’s show is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday April 2 and 3 at the Webster Recreation Center on Chiyoda Drive (right off of Phillips). In addition to the Peeps, several entertainers and community groups will be performing.
This is a must-see family event, folks, and it’s all free. Click here to find out more about the Greater Rochester Peep Show.
I anticipate writing longer blogs about a few of these events in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, here’s a tease so you can get them on your calendars.
One of our town’s most creative and fun FREE family events — the Great Rochester Peep Show — returns Saturday and Sunday April 2 and 3 to the Webster Recreation Center on Chiyoda Drive (off of Phillips).
This fun, completely free, family-friendly event features at least four entire rooms filled with incredibly creative sculptures, dioramas, and various other works of art, all created with marshmallow Peeps candies. In addition to the displays, several entertainers and community groups will be performing.
Hours are 10 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, 10 to 4 on Sunday.
Community Arts Day returns the following weekend after a two-year COVID-induced hiatus.
This year’s event will take place on Saturday, April 9 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Webster Schroeder High School, 875 Ridge Rd. This very family-friendly festival showcases Webster CSD students’ creative talents and involves the entire community in a day to celebrate the arts.
Dozens of activities are planned throughout the day, including art displays, carnival games, sweet treats sale, plant sale, crafts, community group exhibits and more. Musical groups and demonstrators (dancers, gymnastics, etc.) perform free all day, and you can even grab lunch and snacks.
This is one of my favorite events of the whole year.
Webster’s next American Red Cross blood drive is coming up in just a few weeks. Here are the details:
Tuesday April 5, St. Martin’s Lutheran Church (813 Bay Rd.), 1 to 6 p.m. (Click here to make an appointment) Wednesday April 6, American Legion (8181 Ridge Rd.), noon to 5 p.m. (Click here for an appointment)
Anyone who donates at one of these drives will receive an exclusive Red Cross t-shirt, while supplies last.
The need right now is critical, so please consider donating!
The Webster Public Library, is hosting a meet-and-greet with new library director Adam Traub on Wednesday April 27 from 3 to 5 p.m. Snacks will be served!
And since we’re talking about the library, next time you’re there, make sure to check out the Webster Museum’s current display. It features square-dancing fashions provided by the Copy Cats Western Square Dance Club, currently celebrating their 50th anniversary. The group was started by Xerox employees.
At the museum itself, at 18 Lapham Park in the village, a new exhibit looks at women’s nineteenth century garments, occupations, voting and working rights efforts, and the story of the “Great Women’s Uprising” of 1910.
The museum is open 2:30 to 4:30 pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
This is exciting news.
The Webster Business Improvement District (BID) is sponsoring a FREE Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday April 16 at the Webster Firemen’s Field on West Main St.
Our local merchants will be providing the eggs, filled with prizes and surprises. Children will be divided into three different age groupings for the hunt, and there will be an extra prize basket for the child in each group who finds the golden egg.
The hunt will begin at 10 a.m. More details to come!
This great event is just the first in a long line of special events the Webster BID is working on for this spring and summer, which include a Beer Walk, Bourbon Bash, Family Games Nights, the Trick or Treat Trail, Jazz Fest, Wine Walks and more. Watch for more details about these in an upcoming blog.
“Envision the Possibilities” will showcase approximately 250 quilts, plus special displays of quilts created for Breast Cancer Coalition, Quilts of Valor, Bivona Child Advocacy Center, Asbury Storehouse, and Meals on Wheels. Other activities include vendors, boutique table, and book and pattern sale. The guild will also be collecting non-perishable food items in support of the Webster Backpack Food program.
The show will be held April 23 and 24 at Holy Trinity Church, 146 Ridge Road. Tickets will be $5, available at the door.
Amy Stringer, owner of The North Bee gift shop in the Village of Webster, has found a very creative way to support the people of Ukraine: through the end of the month, she’s making and selling beeswax sunflower ornaments, with 100% of the proceeds going to support ROC Maidan, the charitable arm of the Ukrainian Cultural Center of Rochester.
Sunflowers, or sunyashniki, are the national flower of Ukraine. Amy has created three different designs, each being sold for $10 apiece. Funds raised will be donated to ROC Maidan, who will distribute them to where they’re needed to help refugees and soldiers and offer humanitarian aid.
Her efforts have been very well received so far, and recently got some notice one of our local television stations. Last week, Spectrum News posted a story about the sunflowers, which you can see here.
Amy is calling her three designs the Full Sunflower, Monet Sunflowers, and the Dinner Plate Sunflower. She was thrilled to report that she’s already sold almost 250 of the sunflowers, and the event isn’t over yet.
Click here for more information about this special event and ROC Maidan. The North Bee is located at 27 North Ave. in the Village of Webster.
The Webster Thomas Players’ spring musical, Little Shop of Horrors, takes to the stage in just a few weeks, Thursday, Friday and Saturday April 7, 8 and 9.
I’m sure you’ve heard of this classic show. Little Shop of Horrors is a sci-fi horror musical with a 1960s pop/rock score by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. It tells the story of meek floral assistant Seymour Krelborn, who stumbles across a new breed of plant he names “Audrey II.” The egotistical, sweet talking R&B-singing carnivore promises unending fame and fortune to the down-and-out Krelborn as long as he keeps feeding it, blood. Over time, though, Seymour discovers Audrey II’s out-of-this-world origins and intent towards global domination.
Then the fun really begins.
Shows will be held Thursday, Friday and Saturday April 7, 8 and 9 at 7:30 p.m., and Saturday at 2 p.m. Tickets are on sale now for $12, or $10 for groups of ten or more. Click here to get yours.
I really never know where my next blog idea will come from. In this case, it was an email from my friend Kathy Taddeo at the Webster Museum. She was writing about an unrelated topic but happened to mention something that really piqued my interest: the “Webster Women’s Hall of Fame.”
A Webster Women’s Hall of Fame? I’d never heard of this before, and I immediately wondered whether it still existed, where it could be found, and who’s been inducted. I clearly needed to do some research.
My first stop, of course, was the Webster Museum, as it always is when I need to find out something about our town’s history. Town Historian Lynn Barton was able to tell me a few things right away: the Hall of Fame was a program run by the Webster Business and Professional Women’s Club (BPW), and it no longer exists. Mostly because the club itself no longer exists.
Lynn had a box of records and papers from the BPW, and the museum had several other boxes filled with materials tucked in their back room. After about an hour poking through them, and with additional help from museum volunteers and my friend (and 2000 inductee) Shirley Humphrey, I was able to pull together a pretty good picture of what the Women’s Hall of Fame was/is.
The Webster BPW was established in 1964, but the Women’s Hall of Fame wasn’t created until 1975, which was officially designated by the United Nations as International Women’s Year. Its purpose was to “honor and perpetuate the memory of women in Webster, past or present, who have significantly affected the lives of those around them.”
Nominations were open to all Webster women and were solicited through notices in the Webster papers and forms posted at the library and at Town Hall.
The first inductee was Marie Stone, who taught history and Latin at Webster High School for 40 years, and was instrumental in establishing the Webster Historical Society. She was the best friend and colleague of Esther Dunn (author of Webster…Through the Years) and was part of the organizing committee which formed the Webster Museum at Town Hall in 1976.
The last woman to be inducted was Carroll Manning, in 2004. Carroll moved to Webster in 1973, where her husband Rob established the Webster Veterinary Clinic. She was very involved in the Webster Arboretum, and was also known for knitting hundreds of pairs of mittens to donate to those in need. Carroll passed away in September, 2021 at 90 years old.
The Webster BPW continued to meet regularly until 2014 when it was finally dissolved due to declining membership.
Below, you’ll find a list of all of the Women’s Hall of Fame inductees. (No one seems to know why there five honorees in 1999.) The Webster Museum has photos of them all, and hope to some day soon put together an exhibit honoring these amazing women. There’s a good chance you’ll recognize some of the names.
You may remember reading a short time ago about the Friends of Webster Trails‘ Re-Tree Project, the goal of which is to save our Webster forests from insects and disease.
If you’ve hiked the trails at Whiting Rd. Nature Preserve recently, you may have noticed some work being done there as part of that project. John Boettcher from the Friends recently explained what was going on, writing,
As part of the ReTree effort from the Friends of Webster Trails, we have had a contractor come in on two occasions to clear some of the invasive woody plants on the east side of WRNP. Thus far this work has been concentrated along the Blue Trail north of the parking lot. … In the future, we will replace the invasive species with native plants purchased or grown in a nursery to be constructed.
Signs have been posted along the trail explaining what’s happening.
Here’s more detail about the ReTree Project, from the Friends:
The forests of Webster are under attack. Insects and disease are going after the ash, hemlock, oak, and beech. As they die, they will be replaced by invasive and most times non-native trees unless we do something.
The Friends of Webster Trails has established a group to come up a plan and set it in motion. ReTree – Replanting Our Native Forest aims to do just that. Tree surveys have been completed of many of our trail areas telling us what trees are present and their number. You may have already noticed efforts to clear invasive plants along the Blue Trail in the Whiting Road Nature Preserve. In fall, potted trees of appropriate species will be purchased and planted in this area. In spring, we will be building a tree nursery to grow native trees from seeds for future planting.
If you’d like more details about the project or want to participate, contact the Friends of Webster Trails through the form on the website and someone will get back to you.
If you and your kids haven’t had a chance to complete the Clovers and Clues Scavenger Hunt yet, there’s still plenty of time to win a great prize!
This family-friendly scavenger hunt is sponsored by Webster Parks and Recreation and the Webster Health and Education Network (WHEN). Through Thursday March 17, participants hunt for clues placed in 13 locations all around the Town of Webster. Each clue consists of different letters, and when all the letters are collected, you’ll use them to decode a final message prompting healthy choices.
Completed answers can be submitted to Webster Parks and Recreation for the chance to win a beautiful gift basket.
Visit the WHEN website to get your first clue. Collecting letters will take about an hour or two, can be done anytime and is a great activity for all ages. A smart phone is encouraged to help find clue locations and to scan QR codes.
This is a fun family adventure, a great way to get a little exercise and learn about healthy choices all at the same time. (And keep your eyes peeled for leprechauns; who knows where they might be hiding at this time of year!)
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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