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Fishermen are back for big salmon, trout in local tributaries
Visitor spending in Orleans County sees steady increases
Photos by Tom Rivers
CARLTON – Donte Bovani, left, and his friend Dillon Washington both made the 5-hour drive from Scranton, Pa. on Sunday to fish in the Oak Orchard River.
The area is seeing its annual influx of visitors to the local Lake Ontario tributaries to try to catch big brown trout and Chinook salmon.
Fishing is the county’s top tourism draw. The county is seeing a steady increase in spending from visitors.
Donte Bovani and Dillon Washington could see the trout and salmon swimming updtream in the Oak Orchard River on Sunday.
Visitor spending in Orleans County
- 2025 – $44.7 million
- 2024 – $43.3 million
- 2023 – $41.9 million
- 2022 – $37.4 million
- 2021 – $30.9 million
- 2020 – $23.9 million
Source: Tourism Economics. Revenue from lodging, recreation, food & beverage, retail & service stations, transportation, and second homes.
The $44.7 million in tourism revenue breaks out to $2.7 million spent on lodging /accommodations; $7.9M spent on recreation/entertainment; $15.2 million spent on food & beverage; $5.9 million spent on retail goods and services; $800,000 on local transportation; and $12.1 million spent on vacation property/second homes, according to Tourism Economics.
This angler hopes for a bite from a Chinook salmon in the Oak Orchard River.
Chris Washington caught this brown trout on Sunday. He said the fish was foul-hooked on its side so he let it go.
Washington traveled five hours with his father and four of their friends from Mansfield, Ohio. They are spending the week in the county, trying to catch trout and salmon.
They have been coming here for 10 years.
“It’s relaxing,” Washington said.
Chris Washington has a Chinook on the line at the Waterport Dam.
More photos will be posted soon of anglers at the Oak Orchard on Sunday.
N-O League celebrates its 100th anniversary
This is a very special and significant school year for the Niagara-Orleans League which is celebrating its milestone 100th anniversary.
The league was organized in early December 1927 by six area schools including Barker, Gasport, Middleport, Newfane and Wilson from Niagara County and Lyndonville from Orleans County.
The new N-O League had interscholastic competition in both boys and girls basketball for the 1927-28 winter season and baseball for the 1928 spring season.
Middleport had the distinction of winning the first boys basketball championship defeating Barker 21-20 in a special playoff game held at the Medina armory after the two teams finished the regular season with identical 9-1 records.
Newfane won the inaugural girls basketball championship with an 8-0 record. (Lyndonville did not have a girls team that first year).
It is noteworthy that the N-O continued to have girls interscholastic basketball competition until the mid 1930’s when the sport was reduced to intramural competition. It remained that was until the early 1970’s when the Supreme Court’s Title IX ruling reinstated girls interscholastic sports competition.
Interestingly of the original six schools only two – Newfane and Wilson – have been continuous members since the N-O was founded.
Gasport and Middleport merged in 1944 to form the Royalton-Hartland School District.
Lyndonville left after 1948 to join the Genesee Orleans League which is now the Genesee Region League.
Barker left in 1969 to join the G-R but returned to N-O competition in 1980.
The league quickly expanded to eight teams for its second year (1928-29) with the addition of Holley and Youngstown.
Holley was in the league for just that one year but certainly made the most of it winning the boys basketball championship with a 14-0 record.
Lewiston replaced Holley in the N-O lineup the next year (1929-30).
Lewiston and Youngstown merged into the Lewiston-Porter school district in 1952. Lew-Port remained a member of the N-O until 1961 when the Lancers left to join the Niagara Frontier League (NFL).
The N-O saw a real period of growth in the mid 1950’s as Akron joined at the start of the 1953-54 school year as did Medina in 1955-56 and Starpoint, which was a new school district, came on board in 1956-57.
Akron joined after being in the Erie County League (ECIC) while Medina moved from competing in Section V to Section VI.
Starpoint, which was a rapidly growing school district, left the N-O after the 2003-04 school year to join the ECIC.
Albion also moved from Section V to Section VI to join the N-O for the 1961-62 school year replacing Lew-Port in the league lineup.
Another new Niagara County school district – Niagara-Wheatfield – also got its start in the N-O League from 1958-59 to 1964-65 before joining the Niagara Frontier League because of its rapidly growing size.
Interestingly, the N-O’s membership has also included a bit of an unusual member in the DeVeaux School from Lewiston (a Military Academy style of school) which competed in the league from the 1944-45 to 1950-51 seasons. The Cadets captured the N-O boys basketball championship during the 1947-48 season becoming the only non traditional public school to accomplish the eat until CSAT (Charter School for Applied Technology) did it during the 2012-13 season.
CSAT competed in the N-O from the 2007-08 to 2015-16 school years.
The N-O League’s lineup of sports has grown dramatically since that original lineup of just three sports during the early years.
On the boys side, football was added in 1946 first as six man teams and then as 11 man squads beginning in 1953. Track was also added in the late 1940’s, cross-country in the late 1950’s, wrestling, golf and tennis in the 1960’s and swimming in the 1970’s. Football became a Section VI Federation sport in the early 1970’s.
On the girls side, basketball, softball, volleyball, field hockey, swimming and cross-country all got going in the 1970’s following the historic Title IX ruling.
The league’s boys and girls soccer competition was organized in the early 1990’s.
The recent trend across the state of merged sports teams has also been very evident in the N-O League lineup. Barker and Roy-Hart are now merged for football, wrestling and swimming while Barker has merged with Lyndonville for boys and girls soccer.
Interestingly, that later merger has brought one of the N-O’s original six – Lyndonville – back into the league as the girls soccer team competes in the N-O while the boys squad is a member of the G-R League.
It has been a century of a good number of membership changes but a steady growth in the number of sports offered for the N-O League’s student-athletes.
Medina band wins 1st in division at Victor competition
VICTOR – The Medina Marching Band competed on Saturday in Victor and won first place in its division, Small School 2, edging Le Roy with a score of 78.85 to 78.55.
This was the fourth competition of the season for Medina.
Their next competition is Oct. 17 in Webster followed by Oct. 24 in Greece with the season concluding in Syracuse at the Dome on Sunday, Nov. 1.
Other scores on Saturday include:
- SS3 – Marcus Whitman 72.20 and Falconer Frewsburg with 69.05.
- LS3 – Rochester 68.20
- LS2 – Greece, 82.35; Lancaster, 80.35; and West Seneca, 79.35
- SS1 – East Irondequoit, 85.1; Central Square, 81.65.
- National – West Genesee, 88.65; Cicero North Syracuse, 85.70; and Webster, 84.225.
Volunteers played big part in Walk to End Alzheimer’s
Photos by Ginny Kropf: A group of students from Brockport Cheer Club volunteered at the Walk to End Alzheimer’s on Saturday at State Street Park in Medina. The students cheered on the participants as they finished the 2-mile walk.
MEDINA – The annual Walk to End Alzheimer’s in Orleans County took place Saturday, starting and ending in State Street Park in Medina.
Donna Bushover places a flower in memory of her mother Izara Bauer in the Promise Garden which was part of the Walk to End Alzheimer’s Saturday in State Street Park.
Prior to the walk, emcee Randy Bushover welcomed the crowd and shared facts relating to Alzheimer’s. A poignant feature of the event is the Promise Garden, in which loved ones plant a flower they have purchased to support the fight to end Alzheimer’s.
Flowers come in assorted colors, which each representing a different stage of the dreaded disease. A blue flower is carried by individuals currently living with the disease. A purple flower means they have lost someone to Alzheimer’s. Yellow means they are supporting or caring for some with Alzheimer’s. An orange flower signifies that person is supporting the cause and vision of a world without Alzheimer’s.
The white flower represents the hope for a future without Alzheimer’s disease. It is the symbol of the first person to survive Alzheimer’s.
Another feature of the day is the annual basket raffle sponsored by Mary Lou Tuohey, who lost both her parents to Alzheimer’s. When she owned Case-Nic Cookies, she displayed the baskets in her store window, and new owner Hans Rosentreter is continuing that. This year, tables were set up in front of the store with pictures of each numbered basket, to allow last minute supporters and walk/run participants to stop during their route to buy tickets.
Mary Lou’s daughter Nicole also continued her annual effort of making elephant links to join together and stretch down the block of Main Street. On Saturday, they were strung out on the lawn of State Street Park.
It takes a lot of volunteers to make the event successful, and this year they were fortunate to have students from Brockport State College come to help. The students in the Brockport Cheer Club attends sports and other community events, including Camp Good Days.
DJ Tom Shuh of Cheektowaga played music throughout the morning.
The Walk to End Alzheimer’s in Medina raised at least $12,000.
Volunteers put up props for the annual Walk to End Alzheimer’s on Saturday.
Local wildlife technician wins statewide award for conservation efforts
Denise Appleby works as a wildlife technician for the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation out of the the DEC’s sub office at the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge.
By Douglas H. Domedion
BASOM – Overall it is the New York Department Of Environment (DEC) that manages our wildlife and environment lands and there is a lot of work to that.
Other outfits also get involved and one of the leaders is the New York State Conservation Council (NYSCC) which is our oldest statewide non-profit conservation organization (founded in 1933). It advocates for sound policies and practices to protect, restore and manage forests, wildlife, fish and scenic and recreation areas.
The Conservation Council represents over 300,000 sportsmen and women across the State which includes county federations, rod and gun clubs and affiliated groups. It works to protect the rights of individuals to hunt, fish, trap and own firearms. It is a volunteer-run, non-government organization that receives no state or federal funding. Members meet annually and with legislators and the DEC on environmental issues.
An outfit that is a member of the NYSCC is WNY Delta Waterfowl. They are dedicated to land conservation, habitat restoration and supporting waterfowl and hunters in Western New York. Locally they have put up and maintained many waterfowl nesting structures and even have trash pickup throughout our Alabama Swamp.
Every year the NYSCC awards folks who have done outstanding work towards their goals. This year WNY Delta Waterfowl nominated an individual who is a DEC Wildlife Technical 3 that has done an outstanding job in her duties for many years at the four Wildlife Management Areas (WMA) in our area (Tonawanda, Oak Orchard, John White and Braddock Bay).
So what are the duties and responsibilities of a wildlife technician 3? There is not enough space in this column to list them all but here are a few.
- Duck and goose banding which is a dirty and rough job. Issuing trapping and waterfowl permits.
- Managing the water levels to provide the best conditions for wildlife and marsh maintenance.
- Bird surveys and monitoring which include eagle, osprey, waterfowl, shorebirds, marsh birds, grassland birds, prothonotary warblers etc.
- Fall pheasant stocking (twice a week) throughout the hunting season (another duty requiring a lot of endurance).
- Nuisance wildlife work (mainly deer and goose) which includes issuing permits and onsite visits and advise.
- Then there is the job of keeping track and coordinating removal of them which again be a very difficult job.
- Assist Operations (the part of local DEC that does grassland, dike and access road maintenance) with posting of boundaries and certain restricted areas.
- Maintaining the information on all the kiosks (over 10) in all the WMAs which contain a lot of information for the public.
- Come deer season there is the aging of deer at many butcher shops and the collection of deer parts for disease checking such as CWD and EHD.
- Then there is the periodic assigned regional phone duty and also at the local office phone too. This duty requires a vast amount of knowledge about wildlife and DEC regulations.
- Maintaining historical data of all marsh history and maintenance activities is a big and important job, too.
- Then there is the coordinated use of a couple hunting blinds on the WMAs. This is also the person who has to coordinate volunteers and supervise and train the local Wildlife Technician 2.
- There are often requests for information or appearances at sportsmen shows, fairs, field days and schools, too.
There are many more smaller duties but I’m running out of room! So who got this award for outstanding work in conservation field for performing all these duties? Why our own Wildlife Technician 3 Denise Appleby who works out of the DEC sub office at the INWR headquarters!
I have worked with this gal as a volunteer for 26 years and I can tell you no one deserves this award more than she does. I know how hard those duties can be out in the field and she has done them all in a very professional way and with great knowledge of what she was doing. Her dedication is top of the line.
One her pet projects was the coordination with Operations of the revamping of the Education Center on the Oak Orchard WMA. Another has been the coordination of the spread of a special insect that has helped control the spread of the invasive Purple Loosestrife plant in our WMA’s. Congratulations Denise, you deserve this award for all the professionalism work you have provided us in the Alabama Swamps for all these years! Thank you!
Douglas Domedion is author of the Great Outdoors column.
Families welcomed chance to create scarecrows at Fairgrounds
Photos by Tom Rivers
KNOWLESVILLE – Mark and Jennifer Skurzewski of Batavia and their children, Sam and Patty, made a scarecrow on Saturday at the Orleans County 4-H Fairgrounds.
The place was hopping with many families coming to make scarecrows in the annual Scarecrow Fest organized by the Medina Lions Club.
The Lions Club had enough straw, clothes, faces and other supplies for about 200 scarecrows.
Lions Club members Don Colquhoun and Julie Keller served at the operating table and stapled and tied the scarecrow together to give it some hardiness in the outdoor weather.
Clothing and accessories for the scarecrows are donated by the MAAC Thrift Shop. This includes shirts, blouses, hats, belts and pants.
Straw is donated by Ed Neal of Albion and Brian Dunham in Knowlesville.
The faces are made by Medina art students while Barden Homes donates the wood for the bodies.
Stormy and Paul Feitshans of Medina made a muscle-bound scarecrow with their children, Ry and Owen.
Dean Bellack and Pete Kaiser of the Medina Lions Club operated on a scarecrow, getting it put together for its outdoor duties in the fall.
Roman Solomon and Elizabeth Giarla of Lyndonville had fun making a scarecrow together.
The Orleans County Master Gardeners also had a station for people to paint and decorate pumpkins. River Cogovan of Lyndonville paints a pumpkin in a Frankenstein theme with some help from his cousin, Kenzie Muck of Lyndonville.
Elaine Clute, a master gardener, decorated this pumpkin with gourds for eyes, the stem for a nose and flowers for hair.
All of the pumpkins were donated by Panek Farms in Albion.
These pumpkins were carved and decorated by Alyssa Thomas, left, and her son Roen Thomas, age 9, on the right.
Weekly High School Sports Schedule
Weekly Schedule
Monday
Boys Soccer – Kendall at Fillmore, 11 a.m.; Holley at Aquinas, 5 p.m.
Girls Soccer – Oakfield-Alabama vs. Roy-Hart/Medina, 6 p.m. at Medina; Notre Dame at Kendall, 7 p.m.
Tuesday
Boys Soccer – Byron-Bergen vs. Lyndonville/Barker, 5 p.m. at Lyndonville; Kendall at Wheatland-Chili, 6 p.m.
Girls Soccer – Albion at Depew, 7 p.m.
Field Hockey – Barker at Newfane, 5 p.m.; Wilson at Medina, 7 p.m.
Volleyball – Lyndonville at Medina, Kendall at Attica, Byron-Bergen at Holley, 6:30 p.m.
Wednesday
Boys Soccer- Holley at HAC, 4:30 p.m.; Roy-Hart at Wilson, Akron at Newfane, 6:45 p.m.; Albion at Medina, 7 p.m.
Girls Soccer – CSAT at Barker/Lyndonville, 6 p.m., Wilson at Roy-Hart, Newfane at Akron, 6:45 p.m.; Wheatland-Chili at Kendall, 7 p.m.
Volleyball – Medina at Roy-Hart, Albion at Wilson, Akron at Newfane, 6:30 p.m.
Thursday
Boys Soccer – Kendall at Northstar, 4:30 p.m.
Girls Soccer – Pembroke vs. Barker/Lyndonville, 5 p.m. at Lyndonville; Notre Dame at Albion, 6:45 p.m.; Holley at Oakfield-Alabama, 7 p.m.
Field Hockey – Akron at Barker, 4:30 p.m.; Roy-Hart at Medina, 7 p.m.
Volleyball – Lockport at Roy-Hart, Holley at Kendall, Notre Dame at Lyndonville, 6:30 p.m.
Friday
Football – Amherst vs. Albion/Medina at Medina, Barker/Roy-Hart at Alden, 7 p.m.
Boys Soccer – Medina at Park, 5 p.m.; CSAT at Albion, 6:45 p.m.; Akron at Lyndonville/Barker, 7 p.m. at Barker
Girls Soccer – Kendall at Greece Olympia, 6 p.m.; Wilson at Akron, 6:45 p.m.; Attica at Holley, 7 p.m.
Volleyball – Holley at Albion, 6 p.m.
Saturday
Cross-Country – N-O All League meet at Lakeside State Park, 11 a.m.
N-O Standings
Boys Soccer – Wilson 9-0, Akron 7-2, Medina 5-4, Newfane 4-5, Roy-Hart 1-7-1, Albion 0-8-1
Girls Socer – Wilson 8-0, Akron 7-1, Albion 5-5, Roy-Hart/Medina 4-5, Barker/Lyndonville 3-7, Newfane 0-9
Field Hockey – Akron 9-0, Barker 8-1, Kenmore 4-5, Wilson 3-5, Newfane 2-5, Medina 2-6, Roy-Hart 2-8
Volleyball – Newfane 7-0, Akron 5-2, Wilson 5-3, Roy-Hart 3-5. Albion 2-6, Medina 1-7
Boys Cross-Country – Barker 6-0, Albion 5-1, Akron 4-2, Medina 3-3, Newfane 2-4, Roy-Hart 1-5, Wilson 0-6
Girls Cross-Country – Akron 6-0, Newfane 5-1, Albion 4-2, Roy-Hart 2-4, Barker 2-4, Medina 1-5, Wilson 1-5
High School Football Weekend Recap
Weekend Notes
West Seneca East (5-1) took a narrow lead in the tight B1 Division title race with a 35-34 win over Albion/Medina ( 4-1) Friday as McKinley also improved to 4-1 with a 54-14 win over Lake Shore.
Defending champion Barker/Roy-Hart stayed undefeated at 5-0 in the C North Division with a 51-18 win over Akron. The Bulls remain a game ahead of 4-1 Springville.
B1 Division
Game Results
West Seneca East 35, Albion/Medina 34
Maryvale 31, Williamsville South 26
McKinley 54, Lake Shore 14
Amherst 28, Lew-Port 0
Standings (Division, Overall)
West Seneca East 5-1, 5-1
Albion/Medina 4-1, 5-1
McKinley 4-1, 5-1
Williamsville South 4-2, 4-2
Maryvale 3-2, 4-2
Lake Shore 1-5, 1-5
Amherst 1-5, 1-5
Lew-Port 0-5, 0-6
Friday’s Schedule
Amherst vs. Albion/Medina, 7 p.m. at Medina
Maryvale at McKinley, 7 p.m.
Williamsville South at West Seneca East, 7 p.m.
Lew-Port at Lake Shore, 7 p.m.
C North Division
Game Results
Barker/Roy-Hart 51, Akron 18
Alden 28, Tonawanda 7
Springville 37, Cleveland Hill 14
JFK 50, Eden/North Collins 44
Standings (Division, Overall)
Barker/Roy-Hart 5-0, 5-1
Springville 4-1, 5-1
Cleveland Hill 3-2, 3-3
JFK 3-2, 3-3
Alden 3-2, 3-3
Eden/NC 2-4, 2-4
Akron 1-4, 1-5
Tonawanda 0-6, 0-6
Thursday’s Game
Tonawanda at Springville, 7 p.m.
Friday’s Games
Barker/Roy-Hart at Alden, 7 p.m.
Akron at Eden/NC, 7 p.m.
Saturday’s Game
JFK at Cleveland Hill, 2 p.m.
Albion youth football teams score 3 wins
Albion youth football teams won three of four games against Batavia Saturday to close out the Niagara Orleans Football Association (NOFA) regular season.
Batavia downs Albion Beginners
The Albion Beginners fell to Batavia 34-12 despite a solid effort on both sides of the ball.
Myles LaBarge led Albion’s rushing attack with 57 yards and a touchdown, while James Mahoney Jr. added 52 yards and a score of his own. Jaxon Nashburn contributed 28 rushing yards, followed by Levi Purnell with 12 yards and Tanner Beecher with 2 yards.
Contributed Photos – Romen Allport picks up yardage for the Eagles.
Defensively, Nashburn led the Eagles with 6 tackles, while Beecher added 3. Purnell, LaBarge and Mahoney also contributed tackles for the Albion defense.
Nicholas Gifaldi came up with a big defensive play, recovering a fumble for the Eagles.
The Beginners Eagles will have a playoff game Saturday at Bullard Park, time TBD.
Mini Eagles post 7-0 shutout
The Albion Mini Eagles ended their season on a high note Saturday, earning a hard-fought 7-0 shutout victory over Batavia behind a late fourth-quarter touchdown and a strong defensive performance.
With the game scoreless late in the fourth quarter, Patrick Westlund broke free for a 34-yard touchdown run to give Albion the lead. Arlen Beecher added the point-after attempt to secure the 7-0 victory.
Westlund led the Eagles’ rushing attack with 82 yards and a touchdown on nine carries. Lexington Pridgen added 21 yards on seven carries, while Elijah Cornick contributed nine yards on four attempts. Hudson Palmer rushed for six yards on two carries and added an 11-yard reception. Xavier Weis chipped in four yards on three carries, and Beecher added two yards on one attempt.
Quarterback Gunner Jackson completed two passes for 11 yards.
Defensively, the Mini Eagles turned in one of their strongest performances of the season, keeping Batavia off the scoreboard and coming up with key stops throughout the contest.
Jaxon Sloper led the defensive effort with 10 tackles, followed closely by Westlund with nine and Palmer with seven. Cornick, Weis and Pridgen each recorded six tackles, while Zavier Richardson added five.
Wyatt Snyder, Landon Stalker, Kaydence Harper, Artavion Lewis, Beecher, Jackson and Quinton Gottberg also contributed tackles.
Sloper and Weis each recorded a sack, while Cornick came up with a fumble recovery to help preserve the shutout.
The victory was a fitting way for the Mini Eagles to close out their season. Despite finishing with a 3-5 record, Albion showed determination and continued improvement, battling until the final whistle and ending the year with a hard earned victory over Batavia.
The Mini Eagles finished their season the way every team hopes to together, playing tough defense and walking off the field as winners.
JV Eagles win 19-6
Jayce Torres rushed for 208 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Albion JV Eagles to a 19-6 victory over Batavia in their regular-season finale.
Cayden Farrell added 43 rushing yards, Conor Murphy 27, Jai’Kaih Drisdom 25 and Kairo Bennett 10. Through the air, Farrell added 14 passing yards, while Elijah Warren had 13 receiving yards and Harrison Froman 11. Murphy also added a point-after conversion.
Defensively, the Eagles were relentless, forcing four interceptions on the day. Torres picked off two passes, Parker Gardner added another, and Farrell came up with one of the game’s biggest defensive plays, returning an interception 57 yards for a touchdown.
Bennett led Albion’s defense with 11 tackles, followed by Kaydence Russaw with seven. Arkell Lewis and Mason Cornick each recorded six tackles, while Froman and Kyle Schomske added five apiece. Warren, Zion Richardson, Farrell and Gardner each finished with three tackles.
Owen Beecher heads up field for the Eagles.
Torres, Khrystopher Wilston-Jones, Jaidyn Harper, Chase Armer, Wyatt Purnell, David Parcell and Tyler Patten were also in on defensive stops.
The Eagles will now turn their attention to the postseason as they prepare for a playoff game Saturday at Albion High School, time TBD.
Varsity Eagles roll to win
The Albion Varsity Eagles put on an offensive show Saturday, rolling past Batavia behind a powerful rushing attack, big plays on special teams, and a strong defensive effort.
Jeramiah Hildreth led the Eagles’ ground attack with 146 yards rushing and two touchdowns. Damareon Shine added 57 yards rushing and three touchdowns, while AJ Lewis broke loose for a 45-yard touchdown run.
Jace Wright contributed a 38-yard touchdown run and provided one of the game’s biggest highlights with a 74-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.
Camden Holt added 30 yards rushing and a touchdown, while Matthew Colmenero chipped in 8 yards and Romen Allport added 4 yards.
Quarterback Jace DiMatteo also got the passing game involved, connecting with Shine on a 25-yard touchdown pass.
Defensively, Holt led the Eagles with 8 tackles, followed by Wright with 5. Shine, Ryan Gardner and Lewis each recorded 3 tackles.
Conner Hinkley, Allport, Hudson Armer, Owen Beecher, Hildreth and Harrison Galloway were also in on tackles. Colmenero added a tackle and an interception to help the Eagles’ defensive effort.
The Eagles will have a post season game Saturday night at Albion High School, time TBD.
Christmas at the Lighthouse celebrated today at Golden Hill State Park
Photo by Ginny Kropf: The 30-Mile Point lighthouse at Golden Hill State Park will be decked out for the holidays today when Friends of the Lighthouse sponsor their annual Christmas at the Lighthouse.
BARKER – Christmas at the Lighthouse has been an annual event at Golden Hill State Park for more than 25 years.
From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. today, Friends of the Lighthouse will again open the lighthouse – decorated for the holidays – for tours by the public.
The day will also feature a barbecued pulled pork dinner, hot dogs and chili, as well as pop and coffee.
Renee Campbell, park manager, said she has been employed there 27 years and the event had already taken place for several years. It was an idea of Tom Harris as a fundraiser by Friends of the Lighthouse who were raising money to refurbish the landmark, Campbell said.
A basket raffle is also part of the day’s activities, and Santa is set to arrive about 1 p.m. The Gift Shop will be open and crafters and vendors will be set up on the grounds.
The lighthouse is a special place for Mike and Kathy Dreyfus of Medina, whose daughter was married there. Since then, they have been supporters of the lighthouse – especially Mike who makes magnets which are sold in the Gift Shop – just one of the many unique items to be found there.
All funds raised go back to continue upkeep of the historic structure.
