Photo by Tom Rivers
ALBION – Orleans Hub held an awards program on Thursday evening at the Hoag Library, presenting plaques to “Outstanding Citizens” from 2023. We also presented two from 2021.
Pictured from left in front includes Susan Walders, Jenn Thom, Joe Gehl, Scott Christ and Annette Finch. In Back: Gary Kent, Brooke Kemblowski (accepting for her father Gary Derwick), Melisa and Jovannie Canales, Brett Sobrieski, Diane and Neil Valentine (parents of Evan Valentine). Missing from photo: Susan Oschmann.
Orleans Hub used to have an annual awards program to recognize our Outstanding Citizens that we pick for each year. These are people who pulled off a major community project or inspired others to take action on pressing issues.
We stopped having the awards program in 2020 due to Covid restrictions. Last night we were thrilled to have the winners back for a gathering. We also presented the awards for Annette Finch and Evan Valentine from 2021. Back then there wasn’t a bigger gathering and we wanted to give out those awards in front of other people.
Annette Finch retired in 2021 after working 44 years on the front lines of helping local people in need work through a crisis. Finch worked as director of emergency services for Community Action, a high-stress job where she managed food drives, toy drives and other events to bring in resources for people served by the agency.
Finch did a lot behind the scenes in helping people to not have utilities shut off and find emergency housing. She was a steady presence, a voice of encouragement and master problem solver for people in very challenging predicaments.
Evan Valentine of Holley pushed to finish his Eagle Scout project, despite being hospitalized with leukemia. He fought the disease for 2 ½ years and inspired the Holley community with his optimism and perseverance through it all.
Evan would pass away from leukemia on Feb. 21, 2021. His Eagle Scout project was dedicated on June 5, 2021. A team of scouts and volunteers follow his instructions and built a veterans’ wall around the war memorial in Holley by the Post Office and the American Legion. The stone wall includes a sitting area in front with an inscription, “Forever Remembered – Forever Missed.”
2023 Outstanding Citizens
• Three of the directors of the Albion Betterment Committee worked about a decade to raise money and work out the details for a new bronze statue in Albion in honor of Charles Howard, who started a school for Santas in 1937 that continued in Albion until his death in 1966. The school, which is now in Michigan, continues in Howard’s name.
Gary Derwick, Joe Gehl and Gary Kent launched an ambitious project to honor Howard with a bronze statue, which was unveiled on June 10 last year during the Strawberry Festival with many of Howard’s family members present. The Albion Betterment Committee has spent years honor Howard’s legacy, putting up “Believe” signs, convincing the state to name a portion of Route 31 in memory of Howard, and backing other projects promoting Howard, including two Santa murals in Albion.
The bronze statue was the biggest effort. They raised about $80,000 for the project and hired Brian Porter to create the statue in a likeness of Howard in his Santa suit.
• Pastor Jovannie Canales of the Oasis Church in Medina wants students to be well-stocked with supplies when the school year starts. He also wants their families to be connected to agencies and churches that can make their families stronger. For six years Canales has organized a Family Fun Day at Butts Park in Medina. The event attracted 600 people on Aug. 5. It has grown from the first one in a parking lot. Now there are musicians, many non-profit organizations, lots of free food, BMX bikers and skateboarders, many from the faith community, and numerous school supplies.
• Susan Oschmann pushed for two years to get new basketball courts at Bullard Park in ALbion, lining up fundraising and support for the project. Oschmann rallied the community, including basketball legend Roosevelt Bouie of Kendall, in getting two new courts complete. They opened on Oct. 26.
• Jenn Thom of Medina leads an organization – Operation Honor – that raises money for veterans. She has put on a 5K on Veterans’ Day on Nov. 11 since 2018 as one of the group’s biggest fundraisers.
Thom hasn’t served in the military. She runs an accounting business. Operation Honor is her way of serving veterans who she said sacrificed so much for the country. Many of those vets often find themselves in financial stress. Operation Honor is able to lighten that load whether covering utility bills, car payments, or purchasing heating pellets for veterans in need.
• Susan Walders has been determined to help senior citizens, especially those in nursing home and other care facilities, get outdoors and connect with nature. She sees bike rides as a great way to meet that goal.
Last year she was able to raise $12,000 for a new tri-shaw, a 3-wheeled bike with cushions for two passengers. She has formed a non-profit organizations, Cycling Without Age in Orleans County, with a board of directors.
The bike arrived in late August and Walders took it to The Villages of Orleans on Sept. 27 for the first bike rides, taking residents on a path behind the nursing home. She and her group of volunteers expect to be busy this year going to nursing homes and other care facilities for senior citizens and people with disabilities.
• Scott “Spanky” Christ brought back the Murray Tractor Pull last year after a four-year absence. There was a record-setting crowd of about 1,600 that watched the pulls on July 22, and raised $8,500 for the Ronald McDonald House, which provides hospitality for families with children fighting a serious illness.
Christ is part of a three-generation family that competes in tractor pulling. Christ drives “Just For Fun” in the Super Farm Class and is regularly among the points leaders in that class for the Empire State Pullers. His father Lloyd drives his Heavy Super Stock tractor, “It’s Only Money,” and Scott son’s Travis also competes in the Super Farm Class with “No Expectations.”
• Brett Sobieraski ran a marathon every day for 50 straight days, honoring the memory of Rochester police officer Anthony “Maz” Mazurkiewicz, who was killed in the line of duty on July 21, 2022.
Sobieraski, a retired Rochester police sergeant, lives in Kent. He started his “8 States for Maz” jounrey in Florida and worked his way up to Rochester, going 26.2 miles a day.
Sobieraski sought to raise $100,000 for Mazurkiewicz’s family and topped that goal. Along the way he inspired people in the eight states.
Sobieraski said he wanted the officer’s family to feel love and respect from the community, and know Maz’s life of service is deeply appreciated. The response was far more than Sobieraski could have imagined. In the last 5K of the final marathon, 850 people joined him in Rochester.
