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40-year elementary teacher named Albion’s ‘educator of the year’

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.

Mustang Band named grand champion at Gorham Pageant

Posted 3 June 2013 at 12:00 am

Provided photo – Medina Mustang Band co-directors Jim Steele and Cheri Pritchard are pictured with seniors in the program and the trophies the band won on Saturday after the Gorham Pageant of Bands.

Press release, Medina Mustang Band

MEDINA – The Mustang band completed its season on Friday and Saturday, taking many first- and second-place awards in several categories at the 52nd Gorham Pageant of Bands. The Medina band won grand champion in the parade.

This year’s parade was spectacular with 10 schools strutting their stuff down the street for all to see. Besides winning grand champion, Medina took first place in Class A with a score of 96.75, the highest score of all parade participants. They also received a Specialty Award for Best Colorguard in the High School class and Class Champions.

The pageant is an opportunity for students from several school band programs to come together and perform in a number of different venues. Medina has been participating in this pageant since 1967.

As a year-ending event the students have worked hard to polish their performance and show their skills. It’s a day of pride and accomplishments. For the seniors it is the last time they will perform together.

Medina’s Middle School Jazz band took second place with a score of 93.5. The High School Jazz band took second place with a score of 98.25 only to be bested by a narrow margin by East Irondequoit with a score of 98.75.

Specialty awards in Jazz went to Medina for Best Brass and to Medina and East Irondequoit for Best Rhythm. Medina also won Best Soloist recognition for Trumpet and Vibes.

The Dance Team took first place with score of 79.5, first place in Twirling with a 94.6 and Scholastic A Color Guard with a 91.3. In Percussion Standstill Medina and South Seneca tied for first place with a score of 87.5.

In Concert Band the Middle School took first place in Class B with 176.5 and the High School took first with 198 in Class A.

The Medina Mustang Marching Band and all its components are under the co-direction of James Steele and Cheri Pritchard.

Views from above

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 2 June 2013 at 12:00 am

Photographer shares shots of Mount Albion, water plant

Albion photographer Bruce Landis rented an airplane and a pilot for a day last month and took numerous landscape shots in Orleans County, right when the fruit trees were in bloom.

Landis, owner of Photos by Bruce and Associates, shared photos of the tower at Mount Albion Cemetery. The 68-foot-high tower was built in 1876 as a memorial to the 500 people from the county who died in the Civil War.

Landis also flew over Carlton by the Lake Ontario shoreline and captured this photo of the Village of Albion Water Treatment plant on Wilson Road. The bubbles in the water are at the end of the intake pipe that draws in the water for the plant.

Parade rolls through Public Square

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 2 June 2013 at 12:00 am

HOLLEY – In my scramble to get to Holley’s parade on Saturday, I arrived only to have a camera without a memory card.

I snapped a few photos with my iPhone, which I’m still getting used to. Here are a few pictures with the camera phone. (I needed some help from my wife to get them off the phone.)

It was a great parade featuring fire trucks, marching bands, Little League players, Scouts and local dignitaries.

I think the Public Square setup in Holley makes it one of the best laid-out downtowns in the area, an ideal setting for a small-town celebration.

Quick Questions with Janice Keppler

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 2 June 2013 at 12:00 am

Medina resident is fourth-ranked U.S. woman in pole vault

Photos by Tom Rivers – Janice Keppler competes in Friday’s pole vaulting competition in Lyndonville. She cleared 14 feet, 6 inches, which was good for second place.

Keppler has been able to focus full-time on pole valuting since graduating from the Univeristy of Arkansas two years ago, and has added about 18 inches to her personal best since then.

MEDINA – Janice Keppler was an eighth-grader when she tried pole vault for the first time. Keppler was at track practice in Medina when her coach was looking for runners. He also wanted someone to try the pole vault.

Keppler wanted to avoid a sprint so she gave the vault a try. She is now the fourth-ranked pole vaulter in the country, and one of only eight American women to ever clear 15 feet in a competition.

Keppler, 26, graduated from Medina and was the state champion in the pole vault, clearing 12 feet. She was a star at the University of Arkansas. She graduated as a sociology major two years ago. She continues to train and compete, and raise the bar. Her personal best is now 15 feet, 1 inch.

She lives in Medina and helps her father Phil on the family’s beef farm when she isn’t training and competing.

She talked with the Orleans Hub on Friday after finishing second in a pole vaulting competition in Lyndonville. Keppler’s 14-foot, 6-inch vault was second only to Olympic Gold Medalist Jenn Suhr, who cleared 15 feet, 7 inches. The two train together in Churchville.

Question: Is it harder to stay in shape post-college?

Answer: Actually, I think it’s easier. Now I can focus more on my diet and what I need to get done. I can really hone it on it. I find it easier.

Question: Is pole vaulting your full-time job?

Answer: Yes it is. It takes a lot of training. I tried working before, working in the mornings and training in the afternoon. I found my body was drained.

Janice Keppler waves to the crowd at the White Birch Golf Course when she was introduced on Friday. The vaulters will be back in action at the White Birch on Friday with a competition beginning at 5:30 p.m.

Question: As the fourth-ranked woman, you’re knocking on the door for the top three. Are you thinking Olympics in 2016? (The top three Americans go to the Olympics)

Answer: I’m hoping for it. It’s a ways a way but I’m definitely aspiring for it. I feel like on any given day you can have a chance at it. At the indoor nationals I went in with a PR (personal record) of 4.40 and came out with a 4.60 (15 feet, 1 inch).

Question: How hard is it to add another six inches to the vault?

Answer: It’s a lot of hard work, but it’s not out of reach. It’s very possible. It’s honing in on the stuff you need to fix and getting after it.

Question: You’ve got better since college?

Answer: Oh yes, definitely. I was a 13’6’ jumper in college so I’ve definitely come a long way.

Question: Was it strange to compete on the White Birch Golf Course tonight?

Answer: No (laughing). It’s like jumping at home.

Question: What is fun about pole vaulting?

Answer: Everything. The best is when you clear a bar. I get so amped up. I get such a sense of accomplishment. It’s an amazing feeling, especially on the third attempt. It takes extra concentration on your third attempt to really make it work.

Janice Keppler is one of only eight American women to ever clear 15 feet in the pole vault.

Question: What do you think people wonder about the pole vault?

Answer: People tend to ask about the equipment, the different poles – you can have carbon or fiber-glass poles.

Question: They are 15 feet long?

Answer: Fifteen, or 14’6’ or 14. They’re about eight pounds.

Question: It seems like it would be hard to run with a pole.

Answer: A little bit. You don’t even notice it because it’s right across your body.

Question: What was the connection that started you in this sport?

Answer: I did it to get out of sprinting. The coach said, ‘You can try vaulting or you can go run a 400.’ I said, ‘I think I’ll try pole vaulting.’

Question: You must have been reasonably good at it back then?

Answer: I was tall and could naturally get my way over the bar. I started out jumping maybe 7’6’. (When she graduated four years later, she was jumping 12 feet.)

New ‘old’ treasures added to museum

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 1 June 2013 at 12:00 am

Former church bell, quarrymen tools donated to Murray-Holley Historical Society

Photos by Tom Rivers – Dan Mawn, president of the Murray-Holley Historical Society, holds a century-old hammer that belonged to Italian immigrant Jack Nenni, who settled in Holley and worked in the local quarries.

The hammer and two boxes of Nenni’s tools were donated to the museum last week.

HOLLEY – A week ago a Holley resident handed Dan Mawn two heavy boxes full of old tools.

They weren’t ordinary tools. They were hammers, chisels and edges from a century ago. They belonged to Jack Nenni, an Italian immigrant who settled in Holley and worked in the local quarries. Many of the tools bear his name or initials.

Mawn, president of the Murray-Holley Historical Society, feels like the tools are like gold, tangible reminders of the trade that built Holley and drew many immigrants to the community.

The tools were sold at a garage sale for $3. Mawn praised resident Steve Gergely for buying the tools at a sale a year ago, for keeping them in the community and ultimately deciding to donate them to the historical society.

Mawn has been cleaning some of the tools. He is eager to give tours of the museum and let people, especially children, hold the hammers and chisels.

The museum has another new addition that members are excited about. The church bell from the United Methodist Church in the Public Square is now owned by the museum. The church closed when the congregation moved to Route 237 in Clarendon.

The Disciples United Methodist Church took the bell with them, but decided to give it to the museum.

This bell used to ring in the Public Square at the United Methodist Church. It was donated to the Murray-Holley Historical Society by the Disciples United Methodist Church on Route 237 in Clarendon.

“It’s a treasure,” said Marsha DeFillipps, the Murray-Holley historian. “It’s an important piece of our history.”

The bell was made by the McShane Bell Foundry in Baltimore, and cast on Oct. 31, 1894.

Now museum members want to mount the bell outside the railroad depot on Geddes Street Extension, where the local history collection is kept. It will take donations to set up the bell securely, DeFillipps said.

To help with the project, call DeFillipps at 638-8188 or Mawn at 465-3723.

World-class athletes compete in Lyndonville

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 1 June 2013 at 12:00 am

‘We wanted to bring the pole vault out here so people don’t have to travel and spend tons of money to see it.’
– Jenn Suhr

Photos by Tom Rivers – Jenn Suhr is the best women’s pole vaulter in the world. She cleared 15 feet, 7 inches today, the same height she topped to win a Gold Medal in the 2012 Olympics.

LYNDONVILLE – When he watched his sister-in-law win Gold in the 2012 Olympics, Harold Suhr had his own Olympic-sized dream.

He would use the second fairway of his golf course, the White Birch, for a pole vaulting competition featuring Jenn Suhr, who is married to Harold’s brother Rick. Harold pitched the idea after the Olympics, but Jenn first chose pole vaulting events at her hometown in Fredonia, her alma mater at Roberts Wesleyan College and with the Buffalo Bills.

On Friday, she made Harold’s dream come true, competing with five other top vaulters in front of about 300 people at the golf course as part of the New York Invite Series. The competition will be back this Friday beginning at 5:30 p.m. at the White Birch with 2 p.m. Sunday the rain date.

The six vaulters in the New York Invite Series are pictured after the meet. The group includes, front row, from left: Erin Champion, Jenn Suhr and Claire Dishong. Back row: Linda Hadfield, Janice Keppler and Heather Hamilton.

“I’ve been pushing for this since she won the Olympics,” said Harold Suhr, owner of the golf course since 1980. “It’s great for Orleans County. For Jenn, it’s about giving back to the community.”

Suhr’s brother Rick was a kid when he first tried the pole vault on the ninth hole of the golf course, setting up hay bales for the landing.

His wife won the competition on Friday, clearing 15, feet, 7 inches, the same height she surpassed to win Gold last August. She is gearing up for the USA outdoor track and field championships on June 20-23 in Des Moines, Iowa. She just won first place a week ago in New York City at the adidas Grand Prix.

“With Lyndonville, it fit into the schedule well,” Jenn said after the meet. “Here I can practice things with timing and different techniques and get ready for nationals.”

Jenn was greeted by many fans, and she accommodated their requests for autographs and photos.

“We wanted to bring the pole vault out here so people don’t have to travel and spend tons of money to see it,” she said. “It’s enjoyable to come and perform and put on a show, but also to work on some things before you go into a big meet.”

Friday’s competition was a first for Suhr and the vaulters – competing on a golf course with a chicken coop next door. Suhr said the setting was good for the athletes, making them work on their mental game.

“With people watching you get out of your safety zone,” she said. “Anytime you come to some place unfamiliar, you really have to focus. It puts more focus into the jump and you really have to concentrate.”

Jenn Suhr gets ready to vault in warmups before Friday’s competition in Lyndonville, on the second hole of the White Birch Golf Course.

Janice Keppler sprints down the runway in Friday’s pole vault competition in Lyndonville, where she was second behind Gold Medalist Jenn Suhr.

Janice Keppler of Medina finished second in the competition, which included the top Canadian vaulter, Heather Hamilton. Keppler is currently the fourth-ranked American woman.

The 26-year-old has been working on her family’s beef farm when she’s not competing or training. She tied her outdoor best with the jump of 14 feet, 6 inches. Her all-time best is 15’1’, an indoor jump. Keppler is only one of eight American women to clear 15 feet in pole vaulting.

“I’m very proud of her,” said her father Phil. “She works so hard. She has a rural work ethic, where she never says no.”

Keppler has travelled all over the country to watch his daughter compete. He brought along a contingent of family and friends to watch Janice on Friday.

“It’s cool that the Suhrs did this, bringing a world-class event to Orleans County,” Keppler said.

Albion junior Justyn Haines cleared 14 feet at Sectionals to qualify for the state meet next weekend. Haines praised all the vaulters at the Lyndonville event for their form, their technique and their core strength.

“They make it look like a walk in the park,” Haines said.

The event was capped by loud fire trucks escorting the Lyndonville baseball team up Route 63. The team won Sectionals on Friday. The victory was announced during the pole vaulting competition and drew loud applause and cheers from the crowd.

Music, horses and much more

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 1 June 2013 at 12:00 am

June Fest is in full swing in Holley

Photos by Tom Rivers – Rick Nicholson, center, and the group “Woody and Friends” perform during the Murray/Holley June Fest today at the village’s canal park. Musicians will be performing up until the fireworks show this evening.

Harrison Flanagan, 3, of Holley tries to pet “Princess” after he rode the horse at the Murray/Holley June Fest today.

HOLLEY – The fifth annul Murray-Holley June Fest is in full swing today.

The events began with a 5-kilometer race this morning. Community-wide garage sales are also today. After a parade through the Public Square, the festival action shifted to the canal park.

The festival for the first time includes wine-tasting from noon to 5 p.m. at the park.  Tickets are $7.

Organizers have a “Holleywood Idol” talent show planned for 5 p.m. at the Woodlands Soccer Field. A free Drum Corps Show is set for 7 p.m. at Woodlands and will feature the Drum Corps from the parade, plus the Hitmen Drum Corps, the Kendall-Holley Marching Band and Color Guard, and the Holley High School chorus.

Shuttle buses will run all day from the high school and elementary school parking lot and the Holley firemen’s field. Fireworks will be at dusk from the soccer field.

Albion FFA picks leaders for 2013-14

Posted 1 June 2013 at 12:00 am

Photo courtesy of Adam Krenning, FFA advisor

ALBION – The new team of officers for Albion FFA was installed during the FFA’s annual banquet on Tuesday. The group includes, from left: Kyle Smith, Parliamentarian; Miriah Pepe, Student Advisor; Logan London, Treasurer; Megan Rosato, Reporter; Sara Millspaugh, President; Kellie O’Hearn, Vice President; Riley Kelly, Sentinel; Aaron Burnside, Historian; and Abigial Maines, Secretary.

A landmark outside Lyndonville

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 1 June 2013 at 12:00 am

Photo by Tom Rivers

The Yates Baptist Church stands tall at 11365 East Yates Center Rd. The church is a striking landmark in the countryside. The stone sign up high on the church says it was built in 1867. I stopped by last night after the pole vaulting competition at the White Birch Golf Course.