Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Jake Stinson, right, and Mark Johnson cook sausage today outside the former Keding Automotive, 309 East  Ave. The sausage sales went towards a memorial scholarship in honor of John Keding, who owned the auto repair shop for 46 years at the location and also was a long-time member of the Lions Club.

Today’s event also was an opportunity for people to share memories of Keding, who passed away at age 85 on January 18, 2021.

The Lions Club members, friends and family wore buttons with Keding’s photo.

The sausage sold out, and Lions also cooked many hot dogs for customers. Many people stopped by to make donations for the scholarship that will go to someone pursuing a career as a mechanic or in the trades.

Dan Conrad, left, and Kevin Howard take a turn on the grill. Keding was a member of the Lions Club for 52 years.

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – An 8^th annual car show was held today at Bullard Park in a benefit for Supportive Care of Orleans County, formerly known as Hospice of Orleans County. The top photo shows at 1971 Chevelle with a skunk theme.

There were 77 cars, many of them vintage models, in the car show which also included live music, a 50/50 raffle, food and a cash cactus.

Becky Karls organized the event, which include Christopher Mitchell Funeral Homes  as a major sponsor.

This 1981 Delorean had a “Back to the Future” theme, including a life-size model of Dr. E. Brown or “Doc” from the famous movie series. Doc was the inventor of the first time machine, built out of a 1981 DeLorean sports car.

Ed Doran of Medina brought a 1968 Chevy Pickup that he has painted and decorated as a tribute to the 343 firefighters who were killed during the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Doran used to be a firefighter for Medina, Shelby and East Shelby. Mark Weld, an Middleport artist, did the artwork on the truck.

The older cars were shined up for the car show, and many included whimsical stuffed animals or other decorations, including this panther resting on an engine.

Many of the vehicles also displayed American flags on the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in the United States.

Photo by Tom Rivers: John Keding is shown outside Keding Automotive in Albion when he celebrated his 80th birthday on Sept. 2, 2015.

ALBION – The Albion Lions Club will be serving sausage on Sept. 11 at the former Keding Automotive at 309 East  Ave. with the proceeds going towards a new scholarship in memory of John Keding.

The scholarship will go to a graduating senior pursuing a career in the trades. Keding worked for 70 years a mechanic and owned Keding Automotive for 46 of those years.

He passed away at age 85 on January 18, 2021. He retired in August 2020.

Keding also was a member of the Albion Lions Club for 52 years. He enjoyed cooking sausage with the Lions at many community events, including the Strawberry Festival. Many of the Lions will be tending the grill from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sept. 11, outside the former auto repair business on Route 31.

The event will also be a chance to celebrate Keding’s life. His daughter, Christine Buongiorne, encourages the community to “bring your appetites and your stories!”

The Lions Club expects the scholarship will become an annual award for a graduating senior.

Department will purchase thermal imaging cameras and combination spreader/cutter rescue tool

ALBION – The Albion Fire Department has been approved for a $37,150 grant through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The department plans to use the money to purchase three thermal imaging cameras and one combination spreader/cutter rescue tool.

The funding was announced by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer and U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and was among $11,499,044 in federal funding for fire departments across New York State.

The funding will be used to provide protective gear, training, and supplies to emergency personnel across more than 90 fire departments. This federal funding was administered through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG).

“From the peak of the pandemic to now, our brave firefighters have always been on the front lines, risking their lives to protect their communities,” Schumer said in a news release. “These courageous first responders deserve all the federal support possible to help them do their jobs. I will always fight to bring more federal resources to support our heroic firefighters, and I’m proud to deliver this funding so New York’s fire departments have essential support they need as they keep New Yorkers safe in emergencies.”

“New York’s firefighters have worked tirelessly throughout the Covid pandemic to protect our communities,” said Senator Gillibrand. “This funding will provide them with the equipment, training, and resources they need to stay safe as they respond to emergency situations. I will continue fighting to ensure that New York’s fire departments have what they need when they enter the line of duty.”

Press Release, Hoag Library

ALBION – New school year, new library hours! Hoag Library is extending hours to accommodate the needs of Albion Central School and GCC students.

Beginning Tuesday, Sept. 7, the Library will offer the following hours:

• Monday to Thursday: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
• Friday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Saturday: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Students can reserve meeting rooms for study space during and outside of building hours. Visit www.hoaglibrary.org for reservation forms.

Computers and laptops with internet access are available for up to 90 minutes per day, and free Wi-Fi is available to use with your own device.

The library requests the use of masks by staff and visitors regardless of vaccination status. Children under two years old are exempt from this requirement.

Hoag Library looks forward to welcoming back students!

Wedding and events site seen as draw to community

Photo by Tom Rivers

ALBION – State Sen. Rob Ortt on Tuesday presented a “Senate District 62 Small Business of the Month” award to Natasha Wasuck and her husband John Hernandez. They are shown inside the Lockstone at North Main Street, next to the Erie Canal. Natasha and John’s daughter Ephy joined them.

Wasuck and Hernandez bought the site three years ago. It was a former auto repair business. They have transformed the site into a wedding and events center. They also use the front part of the building for Tinsel, an ice cream business that opened in June 2019. The site also includes “The Kitchen,” a private event room used for celebrations and community meetings.

The Lockstone has hosted eight weddings so far this year and has 16 more scheduled for 2021, and 30 next year. The 30 weddings next year are expected to draw at least 3,000 people to Albion.

Ortt first toured the site on July 16 to see some of the locations receiving funds in Main Street grant from the state. Ortt said he was impressed by the couple’s vision for the property and their work in giving the building from 1875 a new purpose.

“It’s really cool what you’ve done with this spot,” Ortt told Wasuck and Hernandez.

Ortt previously served as mayor of North Tonawanda where he said small business owners were the key to driving innovation to the downtown. He praised Wasuck and Hernandez, who are from Brockport, for seeing the potential in the Lockstone location. He said “fresh eyes” coming into a community sometimes see what long-time residents miss.

Photos courtesy of the Lockstone: A bride gets ready in the bridal suite at the Lockstone, which features an eyebrow window looking out on Main Street and the lift bridge over the Erie Canal.

Wasuck has been involved in the Albion Merchants Association, helping to plan community events. She sees Albion’s connection to the original Santa Claus School, led by the late Charles Howard from 1937 to 1966, as a way to distinguish the community from other canal towns.

She tapped into that Santa history by naming the ice cream business “Tinsel.” She also led the effort to have a Santa mural painted next to the Lockstone at the Pennysaver building at 170 North Main St. She also raised money for a soon-to-be planed Christmas tree on the Courthouse lawn.

Ortt sees the historic canal downtown like Albion as irreplaceable treasures.

‘I’ve always felt people want to be in these downtowns,” he said. “You can’t replicate this.”

But he acknowledged it can be tough to make money these days for small businesses. That’s why he started his monthly award in February, wanting to highlight a business in his district, which includes Niagara, Orleans and part of western Monroe.

“My whole district is along the Erie Canal, from North Tonawanda to Spencerport,” Ortt said. “The canal is your ticket to development.”

He said Covid-19 restrictions made it even more challenging for business owners. Many had to close to in-person sales or face reduced capacity. There have been supply-chain disruptions and a shortage of workers.

“Covid has really emphasized the challenge of running a small business,” Ortt said. “These businesses never had a playbook for how to operate in a pandemic and then to have to deal with the restrictions.”

The Lockstone owners also created a grove for outdoor weddings on Orchard Street, a short walk from the Lockstone.

Wasuck and Hernandez said they feel more convinced the weddings and events site in Albion was a good choice. Most of the weddings have been couples from either Rochester or Buffalo, who like the location between those two cities.

The couples like being by the Erie Canal for their wedding, and Wasuck and Hernandez give the couples free rein of the facility, allowing them to decorate however they want and to bring in bartenders, caterers, DJ’s and other vendors.

The couples also like the industrial vibe at the Lockstone.

“It’s a unique location,” Wasuck said. “It’s not a golf course or a rustic barn. The people like it here. They are having a good time.”

Wasuck has been successful marketing the site to couples and her husband has done much of the construction work himself.

“We see this as an opportunity to ‘create the community you want to be a part of’ here in Albion,” Wasuck said. “We recognize the importance of the Erie Canal for tourism and appreciate the unique history this village has to offer.”

Photo by Ginny Kropf: From left, Katrina Chaffee, director of operations, reporting and community service at Community Action, case manager Michelle Figueroa and Annette Finch, director of public relations and fundraising, pose with school supplies and backpacks donated for their annual backpack giveaway. Deadline to register is 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

ALBION – Community Action in Orleans County will be taking applications for free school supplies through the end of business on Tuesday. The office closes at 3:30 p.m.

The giveaway is an annual event at Community Action, which normally provides free backpacks and school supplies to 50 to 60 families. This year, however, applications have been light, according to Michelle Figueroa, case manager.

She and Katrina Chaffee, director of operations, reporting and community service, think it is because families have been uncertain as to what the schools were going to require or even if there would be in-person school due to Covid. Local school districts will all have in-person education without a hybrid or remote schedule.

Community Action has received piles of backpacks and school supplies donated by the West Barre United Methodist Church. Others have been purchased through a grant from the Emma Reed Webster Foundation.

Applications will be accepted at the Albion office at 409 East State St. for students in the Lyndonville, Medina and Albion school districts. Students in the Holley and Kendall school districts may apply at the Eastern Orleans Community Center, 75 Public Square, Holley.

Supplies can be picked up Sept. 1, 2 and 3.

Applicants must bring proof of residence, proof of income and identification (Social Security card or birth certificate) for all children in the household. Income guidelines apply. More information is available by calling 589-5605 or 638-6395.

Nolberto Martinez Maya, son of farmworkers, wants to serve others as a physician

Provided photo: Nolberto Martinez Maya graduated from Albion in June and now is at Harvard University, where he is majoring in molecular genetics and sociology as part of a pre-med track.

ALBION – A 2021 Albion graduate is on campus at Harvard University, pursuing his goal of a career in medicine.

Nolberto Martinez Maya graduated from Albion on June 25. He was the class vice president. He also earned his associate’s degree from Genesee Community College in May, juggling an extra full load of courses the past year in high school and at GCC, taking all of them online during the Covid-19 pandemic.

He took the GCC classes and earned a 4.0 GPA. At Albion, he didn’t want to coast through to the finish, even when many students backed off with their academics during the pandemic. He wanted tough classes, and completed AP (Advanced Placement) in biology, calculus and statistics, as well as the others at GCC.

“It was pretty challenging,” he said. “I’m not going to lie.”

Nolberto, 18, will be double majoring in molecular genetics and sociology at Harvard, and minoring in Spanish. He is on a pre-med path. He wants to be a surgeon or work as a physician.

He is the first Albion graduate to go directly to Harvard since Michael Patterson in 2013.

“I know it is uncommon for someone from Orleans County to go to Harvard,” Nolberto said. “I wanted to go medical and shoot for the best medical colleges.”

On April 6 it was “Ivy Day” when the elite colleges and universities notify applicants if they have been accepted. The schools send out the acceptance – or rejection – notifications at 7 p.m. that day. Sometimes the applicants are waitlisted, and still have a chance of being accepted.

Nolberto applied at eight colleges and universities. He already knew he had been accepted by the University of Rochester. But he also tried for several others.

He opened up the messages from Yale, Cornell and Columbia – they all were rejections. Johns Hopkins had him waitlisted.

Nolberto checked the application portal from Harvard, the private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Mass.

Nolberto took a deep breath and opened the applicant portal. He was greeted with computer-generated confetti on his screen and a message, “You have been accepted into the Class of 2025.”

He felt immediate elation.

“I screamed,” he said. “I was so happy.”

Nolberto will be part of an exclusive Class of 2025. Harvard had its lowest admissions rate ever – accepting only 3.43 percent or 1,968 students out of the 57,435 who applied.

He contacted his close friends in a group call and they joined in the celebration. He will be attending on a full ride scholarship.

Photo by Tom Rivers: Nolberto Martinez Maya accepts his diploma from Albion Central School during commencement on June 25.

Nolberto is the son of his father Honorato and mother Inocencia. They work trimming fruit trees and grafting them. Nolberto is the youngest of his siblings, who include Everardo, Lorena and Honorato.

Nolberto was born at the former Lakeside Memorial Hospital in Brockport. He attended Pre-K at the ABCD Agri-Business Child Development center in Holley. He then went to Albion from kindergarten through grade 12.

He helped his parents often at fruit farms, especially with grafting trees, where branches from two types of apple trees are cut and tied together to produce a different variety. He helped plant many of the trees and said he feels pride when he goes by them a few years later and sees fruit on the trees.

There is lots of biology involved in grafting trees and working on farms. Biology is a passion for Nolberto. In 8^th grade, he realized math and science were his strongest subjects. Near the end of that school year, he also was notified he was excelling academically. That’s when he found out he was ranked among the top 10 of his classmates.

When he was in eighth grade, a teacher had him and his classmates write a letter to their future selves. Nolberto, in his letter, urged his future self to “get the best grades possible and the be the best person possible.”

He made a list of elite universities and put Harvard on the list for his future education. He hadn’t thought of that letter until it was given back to the students near the end of their senior year.

Nolberto said some of his close friends pushed each other to apply to superior schools. That trio of friends encouraged him to aim very high. Nolberto said he is proud of his friends for also getting into top-ranked colleges. That includes Aisha Drisdom, the class salutatorian who is at Carnegie Mellon University; Ashley Ames, the class valedictorian who is at Geneseo State College; and Claire Squicciarini, who is at Alfred University.

Nolberto knows he has his work cut out for him at Harvard. It will be a steady journey, with years of effort to reach his goal. That is fine with him, a diploma that won’t come easy.

He credited his Albion biology teacher Sandy Climenhaga for instilling a love of the sciences, and for emphasizing students should try “hard things” even if it might knock down their GPA.

Climenhaga is encouraging, but also offers feedback on where students missed the mark, and what they need to do to improve.

Not all students want to hear that, or to see the teacher’s red ink on their papers. Nolberto welcomed the input from Climenhaga.

When he was accepted from Harvard, she was the first teacher he contacted with the news.

“In order to achieve at this type of level, it has to be innate,” Climenhaga said in an interview. “There has to be internally a drive to learn and I have seen that in Nolberto.”

Nolberto Martinez Maya (left), vice president of the Class of 2021, is near the front of the processional from the high school to the football stadium during commencement on June 25. He is followed by Olivia Morrison, class secretary; and Annalise Steier, class treasurer.

Climenhaga has her students in AP biology read two books, and Nolberto said both were influential in him wanting to pursue science. Despite a very busy courseload, Climenhaga had her students read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a book about a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells were taken without her knowledge in 1951 and were used to develop the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping and in vitro fertilization. The book highlights bioethics, race and medicine. Nolberto wrote about this book in his essay to Harvard.

He and his classmates also read The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story, a nonfiction book in 1994 about Ebola and other viruses.

Climenhaga said the two books are “real stories about real people.”

She praised Nolberto for an appetite for learning, and for wanting to educate himself and be of service to others.

“He is such a sweet, mild mannered kid,” Climenhaga said. “He is very selfless and always has been. He really wants to do good. He is a student who makes his community better and wants to pursue a career to make his community better.”

She would like to see more students take the more challenging AP classes at Albion and GCC courses while in high school.

“Hopefully it will encourage kids to get out of their comfort zone and try something hard,” she said about Nolberto’s enrollment at Harvard. “He had a goal and he put everything into it. You have to give him high marks for that. It wasn’t easy.”

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – The “Rock the Park” festival returned in a scaled-down format today at Bullard Park. The event, renamed “Albion Summer Festival 6.5,” featured two bands today and they performed at the new amphitheater at Bullard Park.

The top photo shows the band, Vette, performing “Nothin’ But A Good Time” by Poison. Vette includes, front, from left: Travis Mackie, Kole Moore and Alex Fitzak. Shelby Starr is the drummer.

There were 18 different food and craft vendors, including Pamela Jenks of Pretty Sweet Bakery in far back. The spot in foreground is Red Check Rustic.

The festival was cancelled last year due to Covid-19 restrictions, but returned today when Albion and Medina played youth football games.

Kyle Webb, right, and Matt Hollenbeck cook hamburgers at the Masonic Lodge’s food stand. The Masons will be at all of the Albion home football games this year at Bullard Park.

The splash park at Bullard was a busy place on a hot summer day today.

District won’t offer remote learning as option in 2021-22 school year

Mickey Edwards

ALBION – School district leaders are holding off on making a decision on mask-wearing for students until waiting to see if there will be a mandate about masks from Kathy Hochul, who takes over as governor on Tuesday.

Hochul has already indicated she expects there will be masking mandates from the state. That could be tied to the level of community spread of Covid-19. Mickey Edwards, Albion school superintendent, said what could be mandated by the state is currently “unclear.”

Therefore, the district is waiting to make a decision about masking for students until late August, “when it becomes clear what our new Governor will require,” Edwards said in a letter to the community today.

The new school year is scheduled to start for classes on Sept. 8. Today was the first day of practice for the fall sports.

Edwards said a decision has been made about remote learning and it won’t be an option this coming school year. Last year Albion had students on remote learning for Wednesdays, and an alternative schedule of two days in-person each week and the other two days remote for most of the school year. Many students also were fully remote every day of the school year.

“We have made it our priority to get our children back in school safely, in-person, every day,” Edwards wrote in the letter. “We appreciate your patience and support throughout the pandemic and look forward to working closely with all our Albion families as we reopen for the 2011-22 school year.”