Albion Rotary welcomes new member, visit from exchange student from 25 years ago

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – The Albion Rotary Club welcomed Marlene Seielstad as a new member of the club today during its meeting at the Tavern of the Ridge. Club President Doug Farley, right, is pleased to have Seielstad in Rotary.

Seielstad is an associate broker with Snell Realtors. She is a former member of the Albion Board of Education and has been involved in many community organizations, including the Albion Music Boosters and local robotics team through the Cornell Cooperative Extension.

The Rotary Club also was visited today by former exchange student Aline Lyra and her son Joaquin Caparroz, who are from Brazil. Lyra was a student at Albion in 1999-2000 and stayed with host families, Chris and Pat Haines and Nancy and Ron Good.

Lyra now works as an orthodontist. Her son has been an exchange student at Southwestern High School, staying with host families in the Jamestown area.

Lyra said her sisters were also exchange students, one in Australia and the other in New Zealand.

Lyra’s family also has hosted several students, and she strongly supported her son spending this school year in Western New York.

“The Rotary exchange has been such a great part of our lives,” she said.