Holley honors Samantha Zelent with Appreciation Award
Interact Club advisor leads students on many service projects in community
Photos by Tom Rivers
HOLLEY – Holley Mayor Mark Bower presents Samantha Heise Zelent with the Mayor Vaughn Appreciation Award for her efforts as a Holley school social worker and as advisor of the school’s Interact Club. The award was presented during Tuesday’s Village Board meeting at the American Legion. In back are village attorney John Sansone and village trustee Brenden Bedard.
Hundreds of students have tackled community service projects in recent years through the Interact Club.
Bower said he remembers when Zelent moved to Holley with she was a first grader. Her father, the late John Heise, was starting a job as Holley principal. John and his wife Sandy, and their children – Kevin and Samantha – settled into the Holley community.
John Heise was very involved in Rotary and served as the district governor. He pushed to start the Interact Club at the school. Interact is affiliated with Rotary.
Zelent has helped turn Interact into a powerhouse, connecting students to service projects throughout the school year.
Samantha Zelent addresses about 200 volunteers on May 17 for the annual “Day of Impact” as part of the Canal Clean Sweep.
The Day of Impact includes a huge group of students and community volunteers who pick up litter in the community, tend to landscaping by the tank at the VFW, clean blankets to be given to a homeless shelter and work on other service projects.
The Interact Club also cleans headstone at Hillside Cemetery, serves food at the Orleans Koinonia Kitchen in Albion, prepares meals for the Open Door Mission in Rochester, and helps in numerous other ways.
Mayor Bower said Zelent has given many years of dedicated service to students and the Holley community.
“She’s a force to be reckoned with,” Bower said. “She’s a get-it-done person.”
Samantha Zelent in March 2025 gives Holley students a pep talk before they served sloppy joes at the OK Kitchen in Albion. Clockwise from Zelent include MacKenzie Fiorito, Lily Moore, Brianna Pellegrino, Leon Wilcox, Charli Gearing, Madie Lowell, Kylie Dann, Joscelyn Underwood and the back of Erin Dibble.
The Holley community donated the food for a sloppy joe dinner, including 90 pounds of ground beef, 83 cans of Manwich, 83 jars of peas, 500 Little Debbie snacks and a $100 from Wegmans. The Holley school kitchen staff cooked the sloppy joes which were then reheated at the OK Kitchen and then served by the students.
Zelent said the Holley community eagerly steps up to serve others. She praised the Holley community “tribe” for their giving hearts.
“This tribe has come through every single time and it is so powerful,” Zelent said. “Be it donations, manpower or support, this community is always there. They are the reason all of this happens, including Interact.”
She praised her father for his example of service, and for pushing to start Interact in Holley. The students have embraced the Rotary mission of “Service Above Self.”
“It is for the 100s of kids who have come through Interact who inspire me and make me so incredibly proud,” Zelent said. “They make me know that the future is so bright and that the world is going to be left in pretty caring, determined, and hard working hands.”
Mayor Bower reactivated the Mayor Vaughn Appreciation Award in 2022. Since then the recipients have included: Charlene Sielaff in 2022, Sabir Khan in 2023, Sandy Shaw in 2024, Mark Scarborough in 2025 and Samantha Heise Zelent in 2026.
