Kelly Ricker

ALBION – A community event on June 25 will celebrate the life of Kelly Ricker and also raise funds for a scholarship in her name at Albion Central School.

West Bank Street will be closed that day to traffic from Main to Liberty streets for dance performances, food trucks and other events including a live auction where people can bid on services provided by community members. People are asked to sign up for offering a talent – it could be yard work, washing a car, a photo session, a home-cooked meal, handyman repairs, babysitting or many other options, said Amy Sidari, Gotta Dance owner. (Click here for more information.)

Her studio will host a basket auction that day. Ricker for 25 years worked alongside Sidari as stage manager. Ricker was critical in making the many recitals go smoothly, Sidari said.

“She was such an important part of the community,” Sidari said. “She was so committed behind the scenes. You didn’t realize because everything was so perfect but she was right there behind the scenes.”

Ricker passed away at age 50 on Oct. 10 after a fight with cancer. A 1989 graduate of Albion, Ricker was a lifeguard at Albion for more than 30 years and was the school’s assistant swim coach.

She was an active Girt Scout leader, assisting girls including her daughter Laiken. For 15 years she was actively involved with the board for Sandstone Park. Her son Patrick played on the team for many years. She also was very involved at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Albion.

“Kelly Ricker connected people, took the time to know them, and was always willing to help,” Sidari said. “She volunteered so much of her life selflessly.”

Proceeds from the June 25 event will go to Kelly Ricker Memorial Scholarship. The first scholarship for $1,250 will be awarded in June to a graduating senior who demonstrated a passion for swimming by striving to be their best through hard work and dedication to the swim team.

Sidari said the acts of service that will be up for bid on June 25 are a fitting tribute to Ricker who was a key volunteer to many organizations in Albion.

“She was always giving of herself,” Sidari said. “She just loved people.”

The three-person race for Albion mayor, plus four people seeking two other board seats, brought out 23.4 percent of the registered voters or 710 of 3,031.

Angel Javier Jr. was elected mayor with 378 votes to 195 for Vickie Elsenheimer and 137 for Kevin Graham.

Tim McMurray and Joyce Riley were elected trustees with 440 votes and 326 votes, respectively. Other trustee candidates included Dan Conrad with 301 votes and Sandra Walter with 206.

The candidates bought ads, put out yard signs, sent mailers and many went door-to-door. That 710 voter turnout was up from 614 in March 2018 when there was also a three-person race for mayor that was won by Eileen Banker over Joyce Riley and Kevin Doherty.

One of the trustee candidates in Tuesday’s election, Sandra Walter, said during a candidate forum that she would support moving the village election to June, like in Holley and Brockport. She thinks there would be a bigger turnout in warmer weather and candidates could more easily connect with voters.

In Medina, the turnout was only 1.2 percent for the election with 39 voters out of 3,389. However, the candidates were all unopposed with Mayor Mike Sidari and Trustees Marguerite Sherman and Tim Elliott.

They were also unopposed on the ballot in the previous election in September 2020. That election was moved back six months due to Covid restrictions.

There was a write-in campaign in that election that brought more people to the polls with Sidari winning 104 to 59 for Mary Hare. Sherman had 124 votes and Elliott received 118, to 56 for Charles Hartway.

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Christine Robinson is pictured with some of the kids at Little Leapers Childcare Center, which celebrated its 20^thanniversary today.

Robinson secured her state license for the center on March 18, 2002. Back then the site was on Hamilton Street near the railroad tracks. Then it moved to East State Street near the Elks’ Lodge.

Robinson moved into the former Tiny Shoes location at the corner of Allen Road and Hamilton Street in 2011.

“The kids make you feel like a superstar,” Robinson said. “If you walk in, they’re grabbig you and hugging you.”

The kids are so excited to see Robinson and the employees if they are out in community, even if it’s years past when they were at Little Leapers.

The childcare center has room for 70 children. There is currently a waiting list. The site opens at 5 a.m. and closes at 6 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Christine Robinson, owner of Little Leapers, is pictured with two long-time employees, Jamie Hickman (left) and Ethel Taylor (right).

Little Leapers has 18 employees and serves children ages 6 weeks to 12 years old.

Little Leapers follows a curriculum with kids being read to, learning sign language and vocabulary, and good manners are emphasized.

At Little Leapers, the motto is: “where your child leaps ahead.”

Christine Robinson works with her daughter Kourtni Mietlicki, who is the teacher in the one-year-old infant room.

Mietlicki said her mother does a great job managing the pressures of running the business.

“She can stay calm in any situation,” Mietlicki said. “She can figure out any type of issue, whether with a staff member, a kid or a parent.”

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – A cast of 27 Albion Middle School students will be performing Alice in Wonderland at 7 p.m. Friday, and noon and 7 p.m. on Saturday at the Middle School Auditorium. Tickets are available at the door.

This is the first full-length musical the middle school gets to perform since March 2019. The cast was a week away from performing Matilda when Covid closed the school in mid-March 2020. Last year the school did a scaled down show that wasn’t in front of a live audience. They also did a shorter show this fall.

“I’m so excited to be back and performing for an audience,” Carrie Kozody, the musical director, said today after the students gave a preview of the musical to elementary students. (The young students in the crowd giggled many times during the preview.)

This will be the first time many of the cast members, including the eighth-graders, perform in front of an audience due to the previous Covid restrictions.

There are 60 students total involved in the show, including the stage crew and production team.

Julia Button plays the lead role in Alice in Wonderland. She goes down a rabbit hole and meets many zany characters, including the The White Rabbit, Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum, the Mad Hatter, the Caterpillar, the Mock Turtle, the mysterious Cheshire Cat, the Queen of Hearts and many others.

Kozody has directed the musical several times during her character. She likes the message in the show.

“Don’t be afraid to hold on to the whimsy of being a child,” she said. “Don’t be in a hurry to grow up.”

Carrie Kozody speaks with the cast and crew after a preview today. They were getting ready to go over their bows.

Kailee Anstey is Tweddle-Dee, right, and Phoebe Allen is Teedle-Dum. They are two silly and childish Wonderland characters taking Alice on an adventure.

These cards include Cerenity Johnson as No. 7, Neveya Barnes as No. 2, and ChrisJen Winters as No. 5. They are performing “Painting the Roses Red.”

Kamryn Simmons (right) plays the Cheshire Cat, one of the magical creatures in Alice in Wonderland.

Some members of the stage crew rehearse their bows today for the first time. There wasn’t a musical in 2020 and in 2021 it was online only. This will be the first chance to perform a full-length show for a live audience since March 2019.

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Albion Rotary Club members were busy this morning making cole slaw, and prepping ham and potatoes for the return of the St. Pat’s Ham Dinner. The top photo shows Bruce Landis, left, and Doug Farley making the cole slaw.

The dinner was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid restrictions. The ham dinners will be served on Thursday from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church, but will be drive-through and take-out only.

The cost is $12 per dinner and are available while supplies last. Advance tickets also can be purchased through Albion Rotary Venmo @Albion-Rotary.

Brad Shelp puts the cloves in the hams in preparation for Thursday’s dinner. The hams were also dressed with dry mustard, brown sugar and crushed pineapple.

Most of the proceeds from the event support a project for the Interact Club at the high school. Those students are raising funds to assist a girls school in Pakistan. The Interactors are providing the desserts for Thursday’s dinner.

Don Bishop washes the potatoes before they will be cooked on Thursday.

The Albion Rotary Club is celebrating its 100^th anniversary this year.

ALBION – Angel Javier Jr. won a three-person race for village mayor, receiving 378 votes to 195 for Vickie Elsenheimer and 137 for Kevin Graham.

Angel Javier Jr.

Javier, 32, ran with under the Republican line and independent “Better Together Albion Strong.” His four-year term starts when he is sworn into office on April 4.

He campaigned with Tim McMurray, who led four candidates for trustee with 440 votes. Joyce Riley, a Democrat, also was elected with 326 votes. Other trustee candidates included Dan Conrad with 301 votes and Sandra Walter with 206.

The newly elected board members will succeed Mayor Eileen Banker and Trustees Stan Farone and Gary Katsanis.

Javier said during the campaign he wouldn’t take the mayor’s salary, which is almost $10,000 a year. He owns the former Family Hardware building in downtown Albion and works at Rochester Gas & Electric as a pipefitter apprentice.

He said he has been connecting with businesses and residents during the campaign.

The new officials take office and face the pressing task of putting together a village budget by April 30. The current budget is about $7 million. The Village Board at its April 4 meeting also will approve appointments to village committees and some staff positions.

“I am fully aware that we have major fiscal constraints facing us as a Village, but I firmly believe that with an innovative and positive ‘can do’ approach, we can significantly improve the quality of life here in many ways – particularly for our youth,” Javier wrote in a letter in the Lake Country Pennysaver on March 13.

Press Release, Albion Central School

Photo courtesy of Albion Central School: A group of high school students from Albion were able to spend a week in the nation’s capital.

ALBION – Close Up students recently returned from a week spent in Washington, D.C. This year’s participating students were Miguel Aldaco, Jeffrey Brown, Belen Rosario Soto, Collin Capurso, Tyler Gibson, Leah Kania, James Beach and Nicolina Creasey with advisor Rich Gannon.

While in the nation’s capital, they had the opportunity to visit many monuments, memorials and museums. Among the sites toured were the Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument at night, the Eisenhower Memorial, FDR Memorial, Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, the Kennedy Center, White House, Capitol Building, WWII Memorial, Korean War Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National Museum of Natural History and Arlington National Cemetery.

“In my experience, I really enjoyed the expeditions to the monuments,” said senior Collin Capurso. “All these memorials featured descriptive writings from speeches or quotes and they all really stood out to me in a certain way.”

Senior Belen Rosario-Soto was impacted by many of the war memorials, particularly the Korean War Veterans Memorial.

“We got to see the anguish on the faces. It made it more realistic, honestly, being able to see those expressions,” she said. “It really just put a face to a name and made me think these are actual people that actually went here and did this, not just a little brief hour lesson that we usually learn in history class.”

While visiting Capitol Hill, Congressman Chris Jacobs met with the students from Albion to share his views and answer questions. The students were also able to watch a live debate.

“We got to witness a debate between a liberal and a conservative the first night that we got there,” said Rosario-Soto. “The way they behaved toward each other, they were passive aggressive but they still showed a level of respect.”

Fellow senior Nicolina Creasey learned a lot from watching the debate.

“The most interesting or shocking thing that I learned is that the two extreme sides of political debate can sometimes – actually very often – can meet in agreement,” noted Creasey. “I think we saw that a lot and that was really strange to see. I didn’t think that was possible.”

Albion students were immersed with other high schoolers from around the country, giving them an opportunity to learn about others’ beliefs, backgrounds and customs.

“My favorite part was meeting all the new people from Louisiana, California, Iowa, Ohio, Rhode Island,” said senior Leah Kania.

Capurso enjoyed the sense of community and connectedness of having Close Up students from all across the country join together for the week.

“I felt like it created a very nice sense of community,” he said. “There was some unity and interconnectedness amongst all of us. I really appreciated that because it taught me, essentially, that these are all different people from different backgrounds and locations, but we all came together for the same purpose and we all made the best of it.”

“We really learned how to actually be politically involved citizens,” added Kania. “We discussed our opinions on certain topics and we really discussed liberty, justice and equality a lot and how they were important to the different monuments.”

The Close Up Foundation was founded in 1971 with Albion students involved in the program for decades. The program was built on the belief that young people from all backgrounds need a better understanding of the democratic process and their responsibilities as citizens.

Photos by Ginny Kropf: Pastor Albert Wilson and his wife Ykeeta stand by the refrigerator and food cupboard their church provided for the community outside Arnold’s Auto Parts.

ALBION – A new church which recently started offering services in Albion is showing its community support by helping to feed the hungry.

Greater Royal Body Shop Church, started by Pastor Albert Wilson and his wife Ykeeta, meets at 7 p.m. Fridays in the conference room at the Arnold Gregory Hospital Complex.

With support from Dan and Lisa DeCarlo of Arnold’s Auto Parts, Royal Body Shop Ministries has placed a refrigerator and cupboard full of food outside Arnold’s at 116 North Liberty St. Pastor Wilson dedicated the site at 1 p.m. Saturday, with Jack Burris from Hands 4 Hope, village trustee Stan Farone, local chef Jeff Holler, church members and other community supporters.

“While we worship God inside of four walls, he also wants us to be out in the community,” Pastor Wilson said.

While food in the refrigerator and cupboard is available to anyone in the community, it is hoped people will only take what they need.

Lisa DeCarlo, a member of Greater Royal Body Shop Church, shows a refrigerator stocked with food in front of Arnold’s Auto Parts at 116 N. Liberty St. The refrigerator and a cupboard will be kept stocked by the church and volunteers and will be available to anyone in the community who needs food 24/7.

Burris said his volunteers go to Rochester to get surplus food and sometimes they have a hard time getting rid of perishable items.

“It will be a blessing to have a refrigerator to put perishable food in,” Burris said.

The refrigerator and cupboard will be kept stocked by Royal Body Shop Ministries and volunteers from Hands 4 Hope when they have food available.

Local chef Jeff Holler will periodically prepare meals and have them in the refrigerator for families to take home and heat up.

Farone said this is a great thing the church is doing, and he is very happy about it. He said there is no doubt there is a need for such a service in Albion.

Village trustee Stan Farone, left, participates in the ribbon cutting with Pastor Albert Wilson and his wife Ykeeta, center, Dan DeCarlo from Arnold’s Auto Parts and other volunteers including Kevin Lemcke and Jack Burris of Hands 4 Hope.

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Connie Rodas serves a tasting of wine from Schwenk Wine Cellars to Lisa Girvins, who attended today’s Sip N’ Stroll in Albion with her friends Libby Bentley and Amanda Clemens.

About 300 people attended the event which included tastings from about a dozen wineries, distilleries and breweries.

Paul Swchenk, left, is the owner of Schwenk Wine Cellars in Kent. They were serving out of the Coffee Joint.

Today’s event was expanded up Main Street from the downtown to include Bloom’s Flower Shop, the Main Street Thrift Store, Dubby’s Tailgate and the Arnold Gregory Complex. A limo bus was available to shuttle people to the different locations.

Souvenir wine glasses were available at The Lockstone, one of two registration sites with the other at Dubby’s.

The event is a fundraiser for the Albion Merchants Association, a chance to highlight participating businesses, as well as offering a fun outing for the community.

Julia Fleming, right, serves for Yoga Pants Vodka which was hosted by Snell Realtors with a Mardi Gras theme. Karen Burke is joined by friends Halle Deuil and Krista Jurs.

This grape balloon display signified that the Downtown Browsery was one of the stops on the Sip N’ Stroll.

Stephanie Balk made these frosted cookies for the Sip N- Stroll. They were available at the Downtown Browsery.

Carrie Riley, second from left, and her friend Beth Stanley of Albion sample wine from Thousand Islands Winery, which was served by David and Nancy Mantle from The Parlour in the former Swan Library.

Lead singer Lonnie Froman and The Who Dats performed for a big crowd at the after-party at Dubby’s Tailgate.