HOLLEY – Voters in the Village of Holley go to the polls today to elect a mayor and two trustees on the Village Board.

Mark Bower is unopposed for mayor. He is running under the “Historic Holley Party.” The trustee candidates are both incumbents. Jessica MacClaren is running under the “Four Holley Party” and John Morriss is under the “Family Party.”

Voting is from noon to 9 p.m. in the village office foyer.

Holley’s terms of office used to be for two years but this election they will be for four years. The board voted to increase the terms on Jan. 10, 2023. This is the first election it takes effect.

Bower was elected mayor in June 2022. He is a retired school administrator. MacClaren is a fourth-grade teacher in Brockport. Morriss is a retired teacher and former Murray town supervisor.

Leigha Walker, ‘our angel,’ praised for doing compressions on man who had heart attack

Photos by Tom Rivers: Holley school district leaders present “Soaring to New Heights” awards to Leigha Walker, a Holley senior, and teacher Renee Wolf. From left include district superintendent Brian Bartalo and Board of Education President Anne Winkley. Walker performed compressions on a man who went into cardiac arrest and crashed into a pole outside the Brockport Subway where she works. Walker received training in CPR at Holley in a class taught by Wolf.

HOLLEY – The school district this evening presented a “Soaring to New Heights” award to Leigha Walker, a Holley senior who rendered aid to a man who had a heart attack.

The district also recognized Renee Wolf, teacher of the class where students learn CPR, the Heimlich maneuver and first aid.

The wife and two sisters of Jack Brennan also attended the Board of Education meeting in Holley to show their appreciation for Leigha and her teacher. Brennan, 67, of Brockport is the man who had a heart attack and became unconscious on June 9. He crashed into a pole outside the Brockport Subway where Leigha was working.

She heard the crash and immediately called 911 at about 10 a.m. Leigha grabbed a wooden rod so a bystander could break the passenger window of Brennan’s pickup truck and then unlock the vehicle.

Leigha and co-worker got Brennan out of the truck and onto the ground. Leigha checked his vital signs. When the Brockport Fire District ambulance pulled up, a medic urged someone to start CPR.

Leigha did more than 30 compressions to keep Brennan’s blood moving. Then the Brockport ambulance personnel used an AED to get Brennan’s heart restarted. He was then transported by ambulance to a hospital.

It was an intense 12 minutes or so. Then Leigha went back to work for four more hours.

“Leigha is our angel,” said Kathy Conner, one of Brennan’s sisters.

Leigha Walker is joined by the family of Jack Brennan, a man she provided aid to on June 9. From left include Brennan’s wife Caroline Rodriguez, and Brennan’s sisters Maureen Close and Kathy Conner. They attended an award presentation for Walker at the Board of Education meeting this evening.

Brennan is now in stable condition and will have open-heart bypass surgery tomorrow.

His wife, Caroline Rodriguez, said Brennan is very fit. He works out, runs regularly, and stays busy in retirement, sealing driveways and painting. For the past 25 years he has been a softball umpire in Section 5, and has done games where Leigha was the catcher for Holley, with Brennan only a few inches behind her, calling balls and strikes. He also is a volleyball referee.

Brennan has run many marathons. He had already knocked out a 1 ½-mile run the morning of June 9 before he was stricken with a heart attack.

Rodriguez said Leigha’s actions and those of other bystanders saved precious minutes for the medics who arrived later.

“They got him out of the truck, set up and she started CPR,” Rodriguez said. “Those were critical moments when every second counts.”

Leigha has been featured in the media in the past week, including the Orleans Hub, Rochester television stations and has been widely praised on social media.

She prefers to keep a low-profile, said Brian Bartalo, the district superintendent.

“Leigha is a very humble and kind person,” Bartalo said this evening, in presenting her with an award from the district. “I know she doesn’t want this type of attention.”

Provided photo: Leigha Walker is the catcher for Holley’s varsity softball game. In this photo Jack Brennan is the umpire.

The district also presented an award to Renee Wolf, teacher of the Sports, Safety and Fitness class where students learn CPR and other first aid.

Leigha was one of 15 Holley students to take the class last year and become certified in CPR.

Wolf learned CPR when she was 15. But she has never needed to use it. Wolf is also Leigha’s soccer coach on a team that won Sectionals and advanced to the state tournament.

“Leigha is a great young woman,” Wolf said. “I’m super proud of her. She doesn’t want the attention. She just thinks it’s something anybody would do.”

Bartalo said the elective class led by Wolf will stay in Holley, “so more kids can help their community.”

Photos by Tom Rivers

HOLLEY – Holley Elementary School celebrated Flag Day in a big way on Friday with its patriotic parade from the school down North Main Street, to Route 31 and the Public Square before gathering for a ceremony in front of the Murray-Holley Historical Society.

About 500 students were joined by teachers and parents in the parade. This was the 67^th annual Flag Day celebration. The parade and ceremony started in 1957,. The school presents citizenship awards for each grade level.

Brian Bartalo (left), the district superintendent, rides with Don Penna, a maintenance supervisor. They are playing music from the golf cart, including “This Land is Your Land” and “Born in the U.S.A.”

Bartalo, who is retiring June 30 after six years as Holley superintendent, said the Flag Day ceremony is a big highlight in the school year.

“I have never seen anything like it until I came here,” Bartalo said about Holley’s Flag Day celebration. “Patriotism and love of country is evident here.”

These elementary students walk along Route 31 through the Public Square.

Fifth-grader Olivia Rebis wore red, white and blue while serving as one of the student emcees during the ceremony. Grayson Kelley, another fifth-grader, also was an emcee. They are joined up front by principal Karri Schiavone, left, Brendan Keiser, the district’s director of teaching and learning, and Sal DeLuca, vice president of the Board of Education.

The elementary band and chorus performed several patriotic songs.

Principal Karri Schiavone presented the Catherine B. Press citizenship awards went to fifth-graders Mya Gerringer and Chase Lasher. These students demonstrate honesty, compassion, respect, responsibility and courage. Schiavone will start as Holley’s district superintendent on July 1.

Good Citizens from last year’s Flag Day ceremony were able to walk near the front of the parade, wearing their “Good Citizen” shirts.

Opening celebration, dedication Mass set for July 11

Press Release, Orleans Niagara East Catholic Community

HOLLEY – The Orleans Niagara East Catholic Community (ONE Catholic) has announced that the opening and dedication of the Saint Gianna Molla Pregnancy Outreach Center will take place at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Holley on July 11 at 4 p.m.

“The St. Gianna Molla Pregnancy Outreach Center in Holley will be the 8th center in the Diocese of Buffalo,” said Father Mark Noonan, Pastor of ONE Catholic. “We are grateful to be able to serve families by providing material, emotional and spiritual support to mothers, fathers and families in need during and after pregnancy.”

The July 11 opening celebration will begin with a dedication Mass at 4 p.m. in St. Mary’s Church, followed by the blessing of the new center in the St. Mary’s Parish Ministry Center next to the church. A reception will follow, and all are welcome.

The namesake of the outreach center, Saint Gianna, was born in 1922 in Milan, Italy.  As a young woman she became a pediatrician and wife. She and her husband, Pietro, had three children, and yet Gianna was able to balance the demands of motherhood, wife and doctor.

In 1961 she became pregnant with their 4th child, but learned early in the pregnancy that she had cancer. Gianna, herself a doctor, refused to take any steps that would place her child in danger. Accepting the risks that carrying her child to term meant for her, she insisted in the days prior to giving birth, “If you must decide between me and the child, do not hesitate: choose the child – I insist on it – save him.”

On April 21, 1962, Sr. Gianna gave birth to her daughter, Gianna Emanuela, and despite all efforts to treat St. Gianna, she passed away a week after giving birth. She was canonized a Saint by Pope St. John Paul II on May 16, 2004.

The daughter for whom she gave her life, Gianna Emanuela Molla, will be attending the dedication Mass and opening on July 11 in Holley.

“We are so incredibly blessed to have St. Gianna’s daughter be a living witness to the heroic virtue of her mother at our dedication and opening,” said Kathy Schumacher who, with her husband Bob, are directors of the center. “We hope to provide a caring and compassionate atmosphere to assist families from pregnancy through the first years of life.”

Once the Holley center is established, ONE Catholic plans to open a satellite office to meet with families at Holy Trinity Parish in Medina.

Leigha Walker to be recognized by Brockport Fire District for quick response

Photo by Tom Rivers: Leigha Walker is shown today outside the Holley Junior-Senior High School, where she is an honors student and three-sport varsity athlete.

HOLLEY – Leigha Walker, 18, is used to staying calm and being decisive in stressful situations.

Leigha is a three-sport athlete at Holley, a team captain. She also rides horses. She can decide in a millisecond whether to pass the ball or fire off a shot, or whether to guide a sprinting horse to the left or right an obstacle.

Provided photo: Leigha Walker juggles a busy school schedule with shifts at the Brockport Subway. She has worked there since February. On Sunday she did CPR on a man who was unconscious after crashing into a support beam in front of the Subway.

On Sunday morning, while working at the Brockport Subway, she faced a life-or-death situation. She had just put bread in the oven at the Subway at 10 a.m., when a man crashed his blue pickup truck into a support beam for an overhang outside the Subway.

Leigha immediately called 911. Then she ran outside the store to check on the man. Two customers and a co-worker joined her. Another driver got out of his car.

The driver, an older man, was unconscious at the wheel. But the truck was locked.

Leigha ran back in the store to get a wooden rod used to prop open the back door when employees take out the garbage. That rod was used to smash in the passenger side window. Another man reached in and unlocked the vehicle cutting his arm from the jagged glass.

Another Subway employee grabbed the driver and pulled him out of the truck. Leigha had his feet. They set him down carefully. Leigha rolled up a blanket as pillow underneath his head.

He gasped for air. She checked his vitals. He had a slight pulse.

Firefighters soon arrived from the Brockport Fire District. While they were getting out an AED, a firefighter urged someone to do CPR.

Leigha started doing compressions. She is certified in CPR. She did at least 30 compressions.

Then the medic from the fire district shocked the man with the AED. Monroe Ambulance arrived and transported him to a hospital.

The whole response took about 12 minutes, from the 911 call to the man being taking away by ambulance. Leigha put her headset back on and was greeted with irate customers who were in the drive-through, angry about the wait. They didn’t realize what was going on.

Leigha took their orders, pulled the bread out of the oven and worked four more hours.

Later, she received a message from the driver’s brother-in-law, thanking her for his quick action. He told her the man is alive, recovering in an ICU.

Leigha received another message from the man’s granddaughter, thanking her for making a difference for her grandfather.

Leigha is still processing what happened. It was all so fast.

“I just jumped into action,” she said today during an interview at the school. “It helps to know he is doing OK.”

She is grateful she received training in CPR at Holley. It was part of the Sports, Safety and Fitness class taught by Renee Wolf, who is also Leigha’s soccer coach.

Leigha was one of 15 Holley students to take the class last year. She is certified in CPR. She also learned the Heimlich maneuver and other first aid.

Jose Medina, chief of the Brockport Fire District, said Leigha improved the outcome for the driver in the accident. She and the other people got him out of the truck, saving firefighters time in the response. And the CPR also was likely critical, Medina said.

“The measures that she and other people took made a difference in him being alive,” Medina said.

The chief said if there are bystanders at a scene they are typically gawking, and not offering any assistance.

The Brockport Fire District wants to recognize Leigha for her “outstanding acts.”

Medina said he was able to do life-saving CPR on a person a couple years ago. He was trained to do it and felt like it was his responsibility as a firefighter.

He was amazed on Sunday to see a high school student working at Subway step forward and render aid.

Leigha is planning to attend Morrisville State College to play soccer and study equine management. The response on Sunday makes her want to take more EMT classes so she can better respond if there is ever an incident at a horse show or in the horse barn.

Dan Courtney, the Holley assistant principal, said the district feels very proud of Leigha and her response. Holley has been offering the CPR training through the Sports, Safety and Fitness class for about a decade.

“With CPR you never know if you’ll need it,” Courtney said.

Leigha had this advice for others: “Learn CPR.”

HOLLEY – The school district is looking to fill two vacancies on the Board of Education after two recently elected members notified the district they won’t be taking the volunteer positions when the terms start on July 1.

Sal DeLuca Jr., the board’s vice president, was elected to a three-year term on May 21. But he is not going to take the new term.

Shannon Brett was elected to a two-year term but was informed after the election that she would have to give up a security position in the district if she takes go on the Board of Education. Brett, a retired Sheriff’s deputy and investigator, wants to stay in the security position in Holley because she said she has built many strong relationships with students, teachers and administrators. She doesn’t want to commute a half hour to another district.

The BOE will fill the two vacancies by appointment. Candidates will be considered and possibly interviewed, according to a notice from the district.

For more information about the duties of being on the BOE, click here. For further questions contact District Clerk Connie Nenni at 585-638-6316 X: 2003 or cnenni@holleycsd.org.

Photos by Tom Rivers

MURRAY – A train from Genesee Valley Transportation hit a flatbed tow truck at about noon today. The truck from A & M Transmissions and Complete Automotive Center had just left a parking area north of the railroad tracks when the truck stalled on the tracks as a train was rounding the bend to the east.

The train hit the front side of the truck which then was pushed into a railroad crossing sign, knocking it down.

A state trooper on the scene said the driver of the truck initially was “shaken up” but is OK. No one else was injured  and no violations will be issued, the trooper said.

The train is expected to be stuck on the tracks, blocking Fancher Road (Route 387) for extended period of time while GVT waits for a mechanic to fix an air leak in the engine.

Press Release, Holley Central School

Karri Schiavone

HOLLEY – The Board of Education has selected Karri Schiavone as the next superintendent of the Holley school district. She will succeed Brian Bartalo who is retiring on June 30.

Schiavone has worked for Holley for 26 years, including the past 12 years as the principal of Holley Elementary School. Prior to that she served as the director of instruction and special programs in Holley. Her educational career also includes work in Medina, Brockport and Buffalo.

“Karri brings an unmatched wealth of knowledge, experience and dedication to Holley that shined through our search. Her passion for education coupled with her love for the Holley community will bring growth and success to our school district. We look forward to collaborating with her to support the needs of the district,” said Holley Board President Anne Winkley. “We are thankful for the outstanding leadership Superintendent Bartalo has given to our district these past six years and wish him a happy, healthy retirement.”

The Board will formally appoint Schiavone at a special board meeting on Thursday, June 6. Schiavone will assume her new role July 1.

“I am humbled and honored to have been selected as the next superintendent of the Holley Central School District, a place I call home,” Schiavone said. “I look forward to working with the Board of Education, staff, students and community as we continue our journey toward excellence. Together, we will further build on the district’s successes and ensure that every student has the opportunity to achieve their highest potential.”

Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES District Superintendent Jo Anne L. Antonacci assisted the Holley Board of Education as search consultant throughout the process.

Terms for office increased from 2 to 4 years

Mark Bower

HOLLEY – Three names will be on the ballot for the June 18 village election and all three are current members of the Village Board.

Mark Bower is unopposed for mayor. He is running under the “Historic Holley Party.” Two incumbent trustees also are unopposed. Jessica MacClaren is running under the “Four Holley Party” and John Morriss is under the “Family Party.”

Voting will be from noon to 9 p.m. in the village office foyer. Holley’s terms of office used to be for two years but this election they will be for four years. The board voted to increase the terms on Jan. 10, 2023. This is the first election it takes effect.

Bower was elected mayor in June 2022. A retired school administrator, he wants to see projects to completion, including with street repairs. White Street is the first on the list for upgrades.

“There are a lot of unfinished things I want to bring to closure,” Bower said.

In the past two years some new businesses have opened in Holley. Bower said other projects are close, including a new Dollar General in the former Jubilee and Save-A-Lot grocery store building.

“We’re just waiting on that,” he said. “I’m trying to be a champion and an advocate for the businesses in Holley.”

Bower said the board members have a good working relationship, and respectfully disagree at times.

“We have a very good board,” he said. “It is a pleasure working with them. We don’t agree on everything.”

MacClaren is a fourth-grade teacher in Brockport. Morriss is a retired teacher and former Murray town supervisor.

Photos by Tom Rivers

HOLLEY – Shannon Brett, right, gets ready to sound the horn to start the Jim Ferris Memorial 5K on Saturday in Holley. It was the first event of the day for Holley’s June Fest celebration.

Brett and the Holley Rotary Club brought the race back after an absence in recent years. The race started on North Main Street Road, just north of the elementary school.

There were 91 participants in the race.

Ferris was one of the top runners in the Rochester region in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He died at age 53 from a sudden heart attack on May 7, 1994.

Lucas Lyons, 22, of Rochester was the first overall finisher in 20:57, just ahead of Jose Quiros of Medina.

Emma Brady was the first female to finish the race. The 17-year-old from Holley ran the 3.1 miles in 24:02. She finished ahead of Tyler Moore, 15, of Holley, who was done in 24:10.

(Left) Matt Feldman, the Holley Jr./Sr. High School principal, heads to the finish line. He completed the 3.1 miles in 27:25. (Right) Holley students painted these rocks which were given to the top 3 finishers in the different age groups.

Carsyn Mogle, 13, edged her father David Mogle down the stretch in the race. Carsyn finished in 27:46, 2 seconds ahead of her father, who is the Albion police chief. Kathryn Berner, no. 152, finished in 27:52.

Brian Bartalo, the Holley school district superintendent (in red), was among the runners in the race. Bartalo is retiring in June after six years of leading the school district. He is next to Grace and Tom Torpey of Holley.

Josh Mitchell and his dog cross the finish line, just ahead of Makenna Seaward, 11, of Holley. Mitchell is co-owner of Mitchell Family Cremations & Funerals. He brought his dog Charles along for the race. Charles is a Golden Doodle grief therapy dog. Mitchell was impressed Charles conquered the course.

“He is a stallion,” Mitchell said.

There were 49 craft, food and other vendors along the canal trail in Holley for the June Fest celebration.

Holley also unveiled a “Telephone of the Wind” in memory of Helene Gleason Calleri.

“This phone is for everyone who has lost a loved one,” according to the plaque with the phone. “This phone is an outlet for those who have messages they wish to share with friends and family. It is a phone for memories & saying the goodbyes you never got to say.”

Photos by Tom Rivers

HOLLEY – Sierra Apicella and her brother Xander are asked to look into a body bag where their younger sister Jasmine was pretending to be dead. Jasmine had makeup on her face to look like blood.

Chief County Coroner Scott Schmidt is at right. Holley police officer A.J. Fisher is at left.

Holley first responders staged a driving while intoxicated accident in front of the junior-senior high school. There were six students who were in the accident. Five had injuries and Jasmine was pronounced dead at the scene.

Sierra Apicella, 22, is overcome with emotion after seeing her sister lying motionless and pretending to be fatally injured in a car accident. Her brother, 25, also said it was difficult to see their younger sister in such a state.

“It was shocking,” Sierra said after the simulation. “It was a lot more than we thought.”

Lance Babcock has a neck brace as he led to an ambulance. About 75 Holley students watched from bleachers in the parking lot.

Holley did the simulation this morning. The junior-senior prom is tonight at the Ridgemont Country Club in Rochester.

Students were strongly encouraged not to drink and drive, and to be careful in the upcoming season of graduation parties. That includes any distracted driving, including texting and being overly tired.

Holley and Clarendon firefighters take the windshield out of a vehicle to try to extricate two students inside.

Gallo’s Performance Auto Parts donated an Infinity and Mazda to simulate the crash. The Village of Holley DPW brought a loader over this morning to smash up the vehicles to make them look like there had been an accident.

Holley police officers have Noah St. John do a field sobriety test to see if he can walk in a straight line. The Holley officers Jacob Buzard is at left and AJ Fisher is at right.

St. John said he considered it an honor to be part of the simulation, showing the serious consequences that can occur from drunk driving.

Lorenzo Zaragoza is taken by stretcher to a Monroe Ambulance to be transported.

Before going outside to see the simulation, Holley students saw a video that showed where some of the students pretended to be at a party, drinking alcohol. One student tried to stop them from getting in a car and driving.

The video then went to black, and then there was a 911 call about a two-vehicle accident in Murray with serious injuries.

Murray Fire Chief Rick Cary told students to show respect and look out for each other. Cary said car accidents with teen-agers are very difficult for the volunteer firefighters, who often have children of their own. He said the accidents are often avoidable.

“Guys, it’s up to you,” Cary told the students.

Holley has doing the simulation around prom and graduation season nearly every year for about 25 years, Cary said.

There also was a court proceeding in the school auditorium where St. John was arraigned on charges of felony aggravated vehicular homicide and driving while intoxicated, facing likely imprisonment when he is sentenced.

Orleans County District Attorney Joe Cardone acted as the judge with assistant district attorney Susan Howard, left, the prosecutor and Elizabeth Ogden, an assistant district attorney who served as public defender. Holley police officer A.J. Fisher is at right.

Photos by Tom Rivers

HOLLEY – The top of a new historical marker includes artwork by Holley teacher Kayla Thrower. The marker was unveiled and dedicated today for the 9 “Holley Boys” who were killed during the Vietnam War.

Those young men include: John P. Davis, age 30: David Duane Case, 20; Ronald P. Sisson, 23; Howard L. Bowen, 20; Gary E. Bullock, 24; Gary Lee Stymus, 26; George Warren Fischer Jr., 23; Paul Scott Mandracchia, 18; and David States, 21.

Nick D’Amura, a former middle/high school history teacher at Holley, gave the keynote address. He is shown taking a photo with his phone. D’Amura now works for the Genesee Valley BOCES in Le Roy.

He taught at Holley for 10 years and his classes researched the Holley men who died in the Vietnam War.

Holley suffered one of the highest casualty rates in the country during Vietnam, and D’Amura said the losses are still felt deeply in the community.

The marker is next to the former Holley High School, where eight of the nine soldiers graduated.

“They grew up in a small town,” D’Amura said. “They played sports. They were in the marching band. They revved up cars.”

Melissa Ierlan, Clarendon town historian, hugs D’AMura after his speech.

D’Amura’s Holley students helped with the wording on the marker. In addition to listing the names of the Holley soldiers, the marker states the following:

“This marker is to commemorate the nine young men who lost their lives in service to their country during the conflict in Vietnam. The ‘Holley Boys’ attended classes here at the high school in the heart of the village before war called them to adulthood. They grew up with stories of their fathers from battlefields past, and each of them served with distinction when the great battle of their age arrived.

“Holley sent her finest when called.”

The marker ends with a quote from Abraham Lincoln: “I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.”

Ierlan pushed for the monument and secured funding from the Elizabeth Dye Curtis Foundation, Clarendon Historical Society and Murray-Holley Historical Society.

Dan Mawn, president of the Murray-Holley Historical Society, was among about 150 people who attended the dedication ceremony in the rain. Mawn said he was born the same year as Mandracchia and rode the same school bus with Stymus and Bowen.

“This is long overdue,” Mawn said about the prominent display for the Holley soldiers.

Before the marker dedication, there was a Memorial Day service in the American Legion Post in Holley. Scott Galliford, the post commander, welcomes about 125 inside the hall for the service.

He noted the Legion post is named for Jewell Buckman, the first soldier from Holley to be killed in World War I about a century ago. Buckman’s life was cut short on June 7th, 1918, fifty miles northeast of Paris, at the Battle of Belleau Wood. He was 26 and a member of the Marine Corps.

Ron Ayrault, the Legion’s chaplain, shared the names of local veterans who passed away since last Memorial Day: Robert Stirk, Army; Alfred Pulcino III, Air Force; Paul Wright, Army; James Miller, Navy; James B. Coats, Navy; Garland Miller, Army; Robert Pinson, Army; Frank Mandigo, Air Force; Noel Zicari, Air Force; Neil Passarell, Army; Wayne Robinson, Navy; and Jerome “Jeff” Machamer, Army.

Kevin Foley, a helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War, received a Purple Heart and two Distinguished Flying Cross medals after being shot down and being determined to help his fellow soldiers.

He spoke to about 125 people inside the Legion hall. The service moved indoors because of the rain.

Mark James Morreall reads a poem he wrote, “The Cost of Freedom.”

Some of the poem’s lines include:

“He gave his life at Little Round Top,

At Valley Forge and Normandy,

In Flanders Fields and Iwo Jima,

At Pork Chop Hill and in Quang Tri.

“Sometimes we take this life for granted,

Do we forget the price they paid?

They say the freedom wasn’t free my friend,

It’s been paid for by the brave!”

Joyce Foley, a retired teacher and Kevin Foley’s wife, said she attended church with Ron Sisson, one of the nine from Holley killed in Vietnam. That United Methodist Church was in the Public Square and still stands, although it’s now used for apartments.

“He made everyone feel special,” Foley said about Sisson. “He had a smile that lit up a room.”

She recalled being on her senior trip with her classmates. They went to Gettysburg. They were having a great time, when news came that Gary Stymus had been killed. Two of his family members were on the senior trip.

She said the historical marker is ideally located next to the old high school.

“How fitting that they will be honored in front of the high school where they lived, loved, laughed and learned,” Foley said.

Foley said many of the Vietnam vets who came home suffered with missing limbs, PTSD, brain injuries, exposure to Agent Orange and other hardships.

She said the vets served “for love of family, for love of God and for love of country. It was their sense of duty.”

Before the service and rain these scouts stand in front of a 5-ton military dump truck from 1991. The truck is now used by Howard Farms. Todd Klatt brought it from the farm for its first parade. Klatt is a mechanic in the National Guard.

Mark Morreall rides his motorcycle in the parade followed by several fire trucks.

Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts ride in the parade to Hillside Cemetery. Scouts and veterans laid wreaths at Hillside and Holy Cross Cemetery. The Scouts are in Pack 62, and Troops 62 and 59.

Photo courtesy of Erin Anheier: Alvin Anheier, 97, of Brockport. sits in the passenger seat of his 1928 Ford Model AA. Anheier, a World War II veteran, wanted to be at the parade. Ross Sceusa is driving, Sandy Moy is in the second row seat and Kevin Bedard and Wally Sanford are in the top back seats.