Tag Archives: Webster NY

Overstuffed Webster community mailbag

20 Apr

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 Shredding Event 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
  • Miracle Field Fun Night on May 20

Stay tuned!

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Webster BID Easter Egg Hunt a great success

19 Apr

Cold and drizzly weather didn’t deter more than 500 kids and their parents from attending last weekend’s Easter Egg Hunt, sponsored by the Webster Business Improvement District (BID).

The event was held Saturday April 16 at the Firemen’s Field. Excited children and their parents started arriving shortly after 9 a.m. and were split into three age groups. At 10 a.m. everyone was released to the field to hunt for plastic Easter eggs and various other surprises. Not that there was a whole lot of “hunting” required; business owners had donated so many eggs (about 5,000) and prizes that they simply had to be scattered around the grassy field for the children to find.

Two lucky children in each group found tickets which could be redeemed for special prize baskets. But all of the other eggs held something pretty great, too, because the participating businesses were very creative and unbelievably generous with their donations. There were gift certificates and coupons, dental floss and lapel pins, small toys and rings, and Kelly at Burke’s Grill even stuffed $1 bills into her eggs. There were even a lot of prizes that were too big to hide in eggs, like toothbrushes, sunglasses and fidget spinners.

The Easter Bunny himself was even there to greet the children.

The event was a terrific follow-up to February’s Fall in Love With Webster festivities, demonstrating how committed our business owners are to collaborating on outstanding community events. More than 45 businesses participated in the hunt by providing filled Easter eggs and/or items for the grand prize baskets.

An event like this cannot be pulled off without a lot of help. A huge thank you to:

  • the team of dedicated volunteers, led by Lisa Scholnski and Jody Laurer, including Rhonda Gefell, Ray Gefell, Evan Gefell, Karl Laurer, Steven Schlonski and Stephen Vitello
  • Dennis Montgomery and the Webster Volunteer Fire Department
  • Jake Swingly, Superintendent of Public Works
  • Jake’s son Kyle (“Mr. Bunny”) Swingly
  • Brian and Nolan Bernardi and Robyn Whittaker

Kudos to everyone who helped organize and run this event, and gave our young people a special Easter memory.

Here’s a short slideshow of more photos from the morning, courtesy Jody Laurer:

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Webster community mailbag

16 Apr

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.

Here’s what’s happening at the Webster Public Library this month:

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.

St. Martin’s Lutheran Church’s spring chicken BBQ is coming up Saturday April 30 beginning at 4:30 p.m.

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!

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

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Beauty is all around us

15 Apr

It’s so easy to plod through our daily lives with our heads down, our minds heading in different directions at once, backwards to troubles that came before, forward to difficulties we know are on the horizon. But these days especially, for our own emotional well-being, we need to pause and notice the beauty around us.

I got to thinking about that several days ago when I happened to be at Webster Thomas High School. As I was leaving, I walked by an incredible mural.

Well, I ALMOST walked by it. Because it stopped me in my tracks.

The large mural is a close-up of a young man’s face, peering directly at you with a wary, almost accusatory expression. Not being a artist myself, I couldn’t tell you what kind of paints or techniques were used to create it. I just know that it captivated me.

It was then I remembered — from the many years I worked at Thomas — that this was not the only mural splashed across the school’s walls. They started appeared perhaps 10 or more years ago, and new ones are added every year in an ongoing beautification project. And they are beautiful.

So before I left, I strolled through a few more halls and took some photos so I could share some of the incredible art that can be found there.

That very same day, I also made a point to swing by the Webster Recreation Center. The folks there recently installed some art of their own — sort of.

Along the walls leading to the community rooms at the back of the Rec Center, there’s a stunning new mural comprised of about 350 miniature, 4″ by 4″ canvases, created by kids, adults and businesses. Hung together, they’re an explosion of color and whimsy.

There’s still room for more of the 4×4 art pieces, so if you’re interested in adding to the project and having your artwork displayed for all to see, stop by the Rec Center to get your canvas.

In the meantime, make sure to stop sometime in your day, every day, to notice something beautiful.

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

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Gentlemen (and ladies), start your ducks!

12 Apr

You’re gonna want to get your ducks in a row for this fun family event coming up in next month, to benefit Webster Comfort Care Home.

Webster Comfort Care Home’s second annual Duck Derby will take place Saturday May 21 at Webster Park.

The idea is simple: 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.

Since the ducks like to take their time, activities and refreshments are available while you wait. But you don’t have to be present to win, so you don’t have to hang around if you don’t want to.

At last year’s event, participants floated 526 ducks, raising almost $3,500 — pretty good for its first year. For this second annual derby, organizers hope to raise twice that, and would love to see more than 800 ducks floating down the creek. Proceeds go directly back to Webster Comfort Care to support their mission to provide provide end-of-life care to residents of Webster and the surrounding communities.

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.

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

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Webster Quilt Guild’s annual show coming soon

10 Apr

The Webster Quilt Guild invites community members to “Envision the Possibilities” at their 2022 Quilt Show, scheduled this year for Saturday and Sunday April 23 and 24 at Holy Trinity Church.

The show will showcase approximately 250 quilts, plus special displays of quilts crafted for the Breast Cancer Coalition, Quilts of Valor, Bivona Child Advocacy Center, Asbury Storehouse, and Meals on Wheels. So even if you’re not a quilter, it’s worth coming just to see these beautiful creations.

In addition to the quilts, the show will include vendors, a boutique table, and a book and pattern sale. There will also be dozens of “wee” quilts for purchase, miniature 10″ by 10″ quilts that make great gifts and are perfect for things like wall hangings, hot pads, mug mats, plant mats and more. About 60 of these were recently on display at the Webster Public Library (pictured below).

PLUS, you can take a chance on the beautiful “Quilter’s Patch” quilt created by Guild members, which will be raffled at the end of the two-day show. (That quilt is pictured at the beginning of the blog.)

The “wee” quilts

The guild will also be collecting non-perishable food items in support of the Webster Backpack Food program. 

The “Envision the Possibilities” quilt show will be held Saturday April 23 from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and Sunday April 24 from noon to 4 p.m. at Holy Trinity Church, 146 Ridge Road, Webster. Admission tickets are $5 and will be available at the door.

The Webster Quilt Guild’s mission is to share quilt-making experiences, encourage friendships, promote the history, art and skill of quilt making, and support community services.  The guild has 80 members and is celebrating its 47th year. The organization creates hundreds of donations each year for agencies in the Rochester area.

The photo below shows last year’s Quilt Show award winners:

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The Peep Show is better than ever

2 Apr

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!

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News from the trails

1 Apr

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.

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

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Greater Rochester Peep Show is this weekend

29 Mar

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.

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Local recording studio helps people with special needs find their voices

28 Mar

Tucked in the basement of an unassuming Webster village home, there’s a recording studio. It’s a very professional operation which features two studio booths, a recording room, podcasting space and a classroom.

At-home recording studios are not that unusual. But this particular one has found a way to stand out from the crowd. Cassano Studio, owned and operated by Chad Cassano, specializes in teaching voice and acting workshops to an under-served population: children and adults with disabilities.

It’s a calling, Chad readily admits, that he never actually went looking for. Instead, it kind of found him.

Chad Cassano has been interested in acting from a young age. He performed with the Webster Theater Guild in middle school, and continued working on his craft through high school and college. After graduation, life led him in a different directions for a while, including getting married and having five children.

Several years ago, though, he found his way back to acting, and also started to learn about the very different skills and techniques involved in voice acting. Then, one day out of the blue, he got a phone call from some friends who hired him to teach an acting class.

After completing that class, Cassano’s friends suggested he put an ad in KidsOutandAbout.com. He did, and a mother reached out. Her son has autism, and she was looking for an acting studio that would work with children with disabilities. So far, every other one she’d contacted had turned her down.

“She was desperate,” Cassano remembered.

I was honest with her. I’m not a speech pathologist, I’m not a Hollywood actor. I’m just somebody who can maybe teach him a few techniques that I learned and maybe some concepts.

That’s exactly what happened. It was magic. Because of his autism, and because of his interest in this kind of thing, it just stuck. He was speaking better, his intonations were better, his inflection, his volume control. He was able to do things he’d never done before with his voice. And that started the whole thing.

From that single student about five years ago, Cassano’s client list now numbers 80. They range from 9 to 45 years old, and 95% of them present some kind of special need, including autism, Down syndrome and brain injury. He teaches them in small groups, individually and even remotely, conducting online classes with students as far away as New York City.

A typical class begins with vocal warm-ups, where Cassano leads his students through a variety of vocal slides, tongue twisters (“I saw a kitten eating chicken in the kitchen”) and “shout phrases,” especially emphasizing inflection and diction.

After warmups, each student gets a turn in the studio, where they record songs (guided by a karaoke-like teleprompter), dramatic readings or multiple-actor scripts. Each exercise, from the warmups through recording, is carefully adapted to the student’s ability level and objectives.

Chad leading his students in warmup exercises
Meghan McElduff in the studio recording a script
Chad guides his students from the engineering studio

“Some kids just want to have an activity where they can express themselves, singing or yelling,” Cassano said. “Others have specific goals in voice or acting.” Those goals can be as diverse — or focused — as the population he works with.

That was especially the case with 13-year old Lorenzo, who had selective mutism. “He has autism,” Cassano remembered. Wouldn’t say a word. He would write everything down, just the same as he would do with his parents and his clinicians.” 

The goal? Just get Lorenzo to talk.

Cassano started with a rapid-fire, verbal/nonverbal word-for-word exchange with him. It took weeks, but finally he got Lorenzo to whisper the word “cat.” Eventually, he got Lorenzo to increase his volume to the point where he was fully speaking.

Cassano said, “That was the moment where I was like, ‘I don’t know what this is for, but clearly it has a purpose.'”

That calling to work with the special needs population had found him.

“I was not looking for working with kids with disabilities,” Cassano said. “I would have, but I just didn’t think about it. I was just going to teach acting classes, but once I found out that this had a therapeutic side to it, that this was helping kids be more confident and able to speak better than they’d ever spoken,” he knew he’d found his niche.

Cassano Studio became an acting workshop which concentrates on the voice for all people with all abilities.

“What I’m hoping will happen for each of my students is that they’ll find success in any of their acting endeavors, gain more confidence, and ultimately happiness in the way they communicate. … I realize not everybody is going to find a career in acting,  but whatever they decide to do, I hope their voice brings them joy.”

To learn more about Cassano Studio, check out the website here, or email ChadCassano@gmail.com.

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

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