By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 20 June 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers – Linda Redfield, an English as a Second Language teacher, is pictured with a former student Jose Iniguez, who became an American citizen last October.
WATERPORT Thirty years ago Linda Redfield started going to local migrant labor camps, meeting with farmworkers to teach them English. They would sit at picnic tables after the workers often had long days in the field.
Redfield in three decades has developed a family literacy program for the workers, welcoming women and children to the World Life Institute school on Stillwater Road.
Students learn English while using computers, making pottery and learning the guitar. They study citizenship as well. Some of her students have gone on to college.
One former student, Jose Iniguez, became a citizen last October. He is an orchard manager and part-owner of the 500-acre Lamont Fruit Farm. He first started meeting with Redfield in 1995, when he knew very little English.
“She’s very passionate about it,” Iniguez said about Redfield and her role as teacher. “Working with her was an important first step for me. She does a lot for the community that people don’t know about.”
She is well known by members of the New York State Association of Adult Continuing Education Programs, which named her “Teacher of the Year” during a ceremony in Albany last month.
Redfield was nominated for the award by Sue Diemert, the literacy coordinator for the Orleans-Niagara BOCES. She praised Redfield for developing the program that includes families, and teaches many skills.
“She is the glue that makes this all happen,” Diemert said before a graduation program this evening. “She holds it all together.”
Some of the pottery created by ESL students at the World Life Institute in Waterport.
There were 35 students who received certificates for learning English and other skills during the graduation program. They learned the skills after working at local farms and Intergrow’s hydroponic tomato site in Gaines. The workers were from Mexico, Puerto Rico, China, the Ukraine, Indonesia and Brazil.
They meet for class at the WLI site on Stillwater Road or at Hoag Library in Albion.
Redfield pushed for a broadened family literacy program so more women and children could learn with their husbands and fathers. In 2004, she partnered with BOCES and the Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council to offer pottery for women. They would learn English while creating art.
“The whole families come and are served,” Redfield said. “It’s wonderful getting to know the people.”
The program is unusual, especially in a farming community, Redfield said.
“The workers are very happy they can get these services in a rural area,” Redfield said.
MEDINA – Eric Mietz, a 2009 graduate of Medina High School, graduated summa cum laude from Canisius College this May as a triple-major in International Relations, German, and European Studies, and was a member of the All-College Honors Program. During his undergraduate career, Mietz was inducted into the National German Honor Society, studied the Arabic language in Fez, Morocco, and spent a semester abroad in Eichstaett, Germany.
Mietz is most notably the recipient of a J. William Fulbright fellowship grant to Austria, which will fund the first year of his graduate studies in International Relations at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna. Mietz is also the recipient of a scholarship grant offered by the Chair of Polish Culture at Canisius College, which will partially fund his experience this summer as an intern performing international relations and defense policy research at the Polish Institute of International Affairs. That think-tank in Warsaw, Poland, advises the Polish government on foreign policy issues.
The Fulbright experience and work in Warsaw will be a continuation of Meitz’s Canisius honors thesis research, which focuses on maintaining transatlantic relations, as well as the development of European security and defense policy via the European Union and NATO.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 13 June 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – Allen Sanford has turned an old hay wagon into a mobile performing arts stage as part of his Eagle Scout service project.
ALBION – Allen Sanford and his band, Route 98, have played on lawns and makeshift stages in Albion.
Sanford, 17, is grateful for the gigs, but he wants to give musicians a better showcase for their talents. He has spent the past 18 months researching, designing and building a mobile performing arts stage.
Sanford has transformed a 16-by-8-foot hay wagon into a 28-by-8-foot mobile stage. He’s nearly done and will soon turn it over to the village of Albion, which can use it for concerts downtown, at Bullard Park and other locations in the community.
“It’s to advance music in the community,” Sanford said this evening while overseeing some finishing construction work on the stage.
Sanford chose the stage for his Eagle Scout service project. He designed the plans using a CAD program. He connected with donors for the project, met with village officials, and mobilized teams of Scouts and friends to build the stage.
Allen Sanford recruited his friends Charlene Olick, left, and Amber Smarpat to help build the stage that will be given to the village of Albion.
“I saved and recycled as much as I could without jeopardizing the integrity of the stage,” Sanford said. “Part of being a Boy Scout is being thrifty.”
He found used parts and cleaned them, for some pieces of the project. He negotiated a deal on wood from Stockham Lumber, and then sized and stained the material.
Sanford will graduate next week from Albion High School. He will study physics and engineering at Rochester Institute of Technology. The project let him put his engineering and leadership skills to use.
A member of Troop 60 that meets at the First Presbyterian Church, Sanford said Scouting has been a critical program for him, teaching many life skills. He has spent three years on the National Youth Leadership Training program through Scouts, and has worked on the staff at Camp Dittmer.
“Becoming an Eagle Scout is such an honor,” he said. “I have learned so much through the Scouting program.”
ALFRED, NY, June 2013 – Dr. Stephen J. Havlovic, provost & vice president for academic affairs at Alfred State, has announced the Dean’s List of students for the spring 2013 semester. Students from both the Alfred campus and the School of Applied Technology campus in Wellsville are selected for the Dean’s List if they maintain a 3.50 grade-point average (GPA) out of a possible 4.0. The 4.0 GPA or straight “A” students are indicated with an asterisk (*).
The following Orleans County students were among those recognized:
Kenneth Boyer*, Albion
Bram Davies, Albion
Jason Javier, Albion
Michael Levandowski, Kent
Noah O’Kussick, Kent
Derek Howes, Lyndonville
Andrew Hydock, Lyndonville
Ryan Schepis*, Medina
Alfred State offers associate degrees in 50 programs in the fields of agriculture, health, business, vocational, and engineering technology, as well as liberal arts and sciences. There are also 19 baccalaureate degree offerings.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 5 June 2013 at 12:00 am
Reynolds, Gerbig and Brakenbury all honored
Photo by Tom Rivers – Kendall coaches with legendary accomplishments and reputations – Dick Reynolds, Ben Gerbig and Carol Brakenbury – pose for a photograph after being inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame.
KENDALL – Three Kendall coaches with long careers and numerous league and sectional titles were inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame during a banquet tonight attended by about 200 people.
The coaches – Ben Gerbig, Dick Reynolds and Carol Brakenbury – are part of the HOF’s second class. Basketball great Roosevelt Bouie went into the HOF as the inaugural inductee last year.
Gerbig was a math teacher whose career spanned four decades, including eight years at Albion. He oversaw a boys soccer program that earned 18 Genesee Region League Championships, appeared in Sectional finals eight times, and won two sectional championships. He is Kendall’s all-time wins leader in boys soccer (297), and was recognized as Section V Class B Coach of the year four times. Gerbig was inducted into the Section V Hall of Fame in 2000.
Dick Reynolds coached basketball and baseball for about four decades. In his 20 seasons as the KCS varsity baseball coach, the team won 10 Genesee Region championships, made five Sectional finals appearances, and racked up 152 wins.
Reynolds was basketball coach during Kendall’s most glorious run, highlighted by undefeated seasons with Bouie. Reynolds coached the team from 1963 to 1977 and amassed 186 wins and only 72 losses. During his tenure, Kendall won five Section V championships and held the Section V record for consecutive wins with 57. Reynolds also oversaw the KCS athletic program from 1967 to 1992, serving as the longest tenured athletic director in KCS history.
Brakenbury was a pioneer coach at Kendall. Her career began in 1964, and she worked as a physical education teacher at KCS until her retirement in 1998.
Brakenbury guided her soccer teams to three sectional championships, 13 Sectional finals, and 13 Genesee Region League Championships. She earned Section V Class B Girls Soccer coach of the year in 1982. Her team also won 42 straight games in the Genesee Region League. Brakenbury was influential in the development of Kendall’s sports program for girls.
There will be more coverage of the HOF ceremony on Orleans Hub tomorrow, including comments from the coaches.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 3 June 2013 at 12:00 am
Mary Miesner has taught hundreds of second-graders
Photos by Tom Rivers – Mary Miesner reacts after being named Albion’s ‘Educator of the Year’ for the 2012-13 school year. Miesner has been teaching in the district for 40 years. Margy Brown, BOE president, is at right.
ALBION – A teacher with 40 years of service to elementary school students, beginning at the former Waterport Elementary School, was honored tonight as Albion’s 2012-13 “Educator of the Year.”
Mary Miesner was praised for mentoring other teachers and showing so much dedication to her students, about 1,000 different kids over her career. She is retiring later this month.
Elementary School Principal Jim Wood called her “an outstanding team player.” Miesner has been nominated for the award several times over her career.
“She personifies respect, responsibility and optimism,” Margy Brown, the Board of Education president, said about Miesner and the district’s three guiding principles.
Miesner has welcomed firefighters into her classroom and the school to teach students about fire prevention and safety. Her son Lee is active with the Albion Fire Department.
Before she was named ‘Educator of the Year,’ Mary Miesner was recognized for her impending retirement by Elementary School Principal Jim Wood, left, and Michael Bonnewell, the district’s superintendent.
Wood said Miesner has been a quiet leader, and a dependable teacher for her entire career.
“I’m the luckiest person,” Miesner said after receiving the award. “I’ve had a job I love for 40 years. Every year is a new start, a chance to broaden your horizons.”
Miesner considered retiring about three years ago. Her husband Ron was battling cancer. He urged her to keep working. He died in October 2010.
Miesner said she immersed herself in her job after her husband’s death.
“I needed the students,” she said.
She praised her co-workers, who refer to her as the “den mother” of the second grade teachers. Miesner taught second grade her entire career, except for the year she was acting principal at Waterport, a year she also taught fifth grade.
Three other former Waterport staff also are retiring after this school year. Kim Houserman was principal at Waterport, beginning in 1985, before moving to the middle school. Houserman worked 39 years in education, including the past 28 years at Albion in administration. Houserman said he has enjoyed a career mostly in the middle school, which he said “is full of energy and excitement.”
The following retiring teachers and staff were recognized by the Board of Education on Monday for the service to the district. The group includes, from left: Cathy Schwenk, Mary Ellen Gillard, Darlene Devine, Gail Nasca, Dan Shuler, Kim Houserman, Mary Miesner and Bonnie Adduci.
Darlene Devine, a music and art teacher, is retiring after 26 years at Albion. She also started in the Waterport school, which closed in 1989.
Cathy Schwenk, a special education teacher, is retiring after 33 years. She also worked in Waterport.
Miesner, Houserman, Devine and Schwenk are the last links to the school among the current staff.
“We can now say the Waterport school is officially closed,” Houserman said tonight at a reception for retiring teachers and others with milestone service anniversaries.
The district honored other retiring staff, including Dan Shuler who has worked 35 years with Buildings and Grounds, including 31 years as superintendent. He has been influential in a maintaining a beautiful, well-kept campus that is the envy of many other schools, said Michael Bonnewell, the district superintendent.
Gail Nasca is retiring after 18 years as a middle school English teacher. Mary Ellen Gillard is ending her career. She served in several roles in the past 11 years, including Even Start director, a third grade teacher and academic intervention service teacher. Bonnie Adduci also is retiring after six years as a nurse in the elementary school.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 31 May 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – Alison O’Hearn, a senior at Albion, will serve as Strawberry Festival queen during the June 7-8 event.
ALBION – The queen for next weekend’s Strawberry Festival is feeling a mix of emotions as she prepares to graduate from high school and begin college.
Alison O’Hearn, 18, was selected as queen after writing an essay about Albion. She has been active in the school as an honors student involved in sports and other activities, including vice president of FFA.
She will study biology at Grove City College beginning in the fall.
“I’m feeling sentimental,” she said about Albion. “For such a small school and small town we have so much to offer and so much going on. We have a lot of people who genuinely care about the community.”
O’Hearn will ride in the 10 a.m. parade on June 8 and will also help with the 2 p.m. turtle race in the canal, as well as performing other ceremonial duties during the festival.
Gabrielle Vagg, a sophomore at Albion, designed the poster that will be used to promote the Strawberry Festival. The festival is in its 27th year and features a canal theme this year.
An Albion student, Gabrielle Vagg, designed the poster that will be used to promote the 27th annual festival, featuring a canal theme this year. Vagg, a sophomore, highlighted the bridge collapse from Sept. 28, 1859.
That day more than 250 people crowded on the Main Street bridge over the canal to watch a wirewalker. The bridge couldn’t take the weight and collapsed. Fifteen people drowned and the calamity is noted with a historic marker on a patch of grass just west of the Main Street Lift Bridge.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 31 May 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers – A family with a Girl Scouting tradition was recognized Thursday during the “Court of Awards.” The Sidari and Ricker families have three generations involved in Girl Scouts. They include, from left: Kelly Ricker, Laiken Ricker and Carolyn Sidari.
ALBION – Forty-five years ago Carolyn Sidari joined a Girl Scout troop in Barre Center. Twenty years later, as a young mother, she would lead a Brownie Troop of 25 girls.
Sidari’s daughter Kelly Ricker has followed the Girl Scouting path for 35 years, volunteering as the Cobblestone service unit manager, which includes Scouts in the Albion area. Ricker has been a troop leader and outdoor program specialist.
Her 10-year-old daughter Laiken has been in the program for five years. All three of the Sidari-Ricker ladies were honored Thursday during the “Court of Awards” at the Elks’ Lodge. The Scouting program recognizes Scouts and adult volunteers for every five-year milestone in the program.
Sidari continues to help with the program, especially with the annual cake auction. She said Scouts has been good for her family and the community.
“I love the girls, that’s the main reason,” she said about her involvement.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 30 May 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers – Pictured, from left: Rotarian Chris Haines, Alessaundra Rivera, Christopher Reed, Brooke Bensley and Rotarian Bonnie Malakie.
The Albion Rotary Club awarded $2,000 in scholarships to graduating seniors this year. The scholarship winners attended today’s Rotary Club meeting at The Village Inn.
Brooke Bensley won the Dick Eddy “Service Above Self” Scholarship, a $1,250 award that is given to a student committed to community service and leadership, and who displays high potential for future accomplishment. Brooke will major in business this fall at St. Bonaventure University.
Christopher Reed won the $500 Edward Archbald Memorial Scholarship, given to a senior who shares Archbald’s love of sports, recreational activities, community service and work experience. Christopher plans to major in engineering and science at Monroe Community College.
Alessaundra Rivera was awarded the $250 Rotary Career Advancement Prize for a senior committed to community service, school activities and work experience. Alessaundra plays to study business administration at MCC.
