Photo by Ginny Kropf: George Bidleman of Medina holds a plaque presented to him by United Way of Orleans County after he stepped down as president of the board.

MEDINA – George Bidleman believes in giving back to the community which has given and continues to give to him.

An owner of car dealerships in Orleans County and one in Auburn, Bidleman is being honored by United Way of Orleans County for serving as its board president for the past two years.

He recently stepped down from that position and to become president of the board of the Medina Railroad Museum.

Serving the Railroad Museum is nothing new to Bidleman who was its president several years ago and brought it out of debt into the black.

Dean Bellack, director of United Way of Orleans County, recently presented Bidleman with a plaque for his support of the agency.

“George Bidleman’s help, generosity and friendship has been invaluable to Orleans County United Way,” Bellack said.  “George donated office space for our office, which we still occupy. In addition, Orleans Ford raised an additional $9,000 for us last year, on top of personal and workplace donations in their ‘Raising of the Green’ promotion. The ads seen during the last year for digital literacy and the United Way have also been through the generosity of George and his dealerships.”

Bidleman personally and quietly supports not just the United Way, but other charities which touch his heart, Bellack said.

Bidleman grew up here and gives back, Bellack said.

“His uncle Porter once told him,’ Give back, get back,’” Bellack said. “He lives by that motto and I personally thank him for his friendship and support.”

The Medina Varsity Guard consists of 17 students in grades 10 thru 12.

Photos and information courtesy of Medina Mustang Band Boosters

JAMESTOWN – Medina competed on Saturday in Jamestown for their last performance before the championships on Saturday, which will be hosted in Medina.

In the Scholastic A class Medina came in 3rd with a score 80.30, bested by Orchard Park in 1st with 83.84 and Jamestown Express in 2nd with 82.68.

Winners in the other classes were Hinsdale Starliners in Novice with 59.53; Jamestown Caboose in Cadets with  68.02; Gates Chili in RA with 74.97; Lancaster in A1 with 80.98; and Gates Chili in IA with 85.80.

The WG season comes to a close on April 2 with the championships in Medina.

The entire Medina marching band also has already begun practicing for their spring season.

The Medina JV Winterguard consists of students in grades 5 thru 9.

Photos by Ginny Kropf: A group of business people share conversation during Thursday’s networking event. From left are Kelly Kiebala, director of Orleans County Job Development; Kellie Schrader of Waterport with SeeNewYorkWithUs; Skip Helfrich, director of Leadership Orleans; and Peter Bartnik of Waterport, founder of SeeNewYorkWithUs.

MEDINA – Now that restrictions have been lifted with the Covid pandemic and businesses can return to normal, the Medina Area Partnership is planning monthly events throughout the Medina area for its members.

On Thursday night, MAP sponsored a business card and networking event at Leonard Oakes Estate Winery.

“We want to keep the business community together,” said Bonnie Heck, chair of MAP’s membership committee.

Prior events include a holiday mixer at Harvest Restaurant in December, and similar themed events are planned for various other holidays.

Thursday’s gathering focused on Leadership Orleans, whose leader Skip Helfrich shared the program’s success. MAP recently started to sponsor two individuals to the class, and one, Catherine Holland, shared how the class helped her.

Former Assemblyman Charles Nesbitt from Albion and Kelly Kiebala, director of the Orleans County Job Development Agency, were instrumental in starting Leadership Orleans in 2018. Kiebala is a graduate of Leadership Genesee and helped facilitate a focus group to form a class in Orleans County.

The fifth class is in progress and each class has included about 25 members.

At left, Bonnie Heck, chair of Medina Area Partnership’s membership committee, welcomes guests to a business card exchange and networking event Thursday night at Leonard Oakes Estate Winery. Clockwise, with Heck, are Cindy Robinson, Barbara Outten from Maple Ridge Storage and Heather Smith, director of Orleans Community Health Foundation.

Nesbitt shared about helping to get Leadership Orleans off the ground and what it does for participants. It is an active group of people who come through a leadership program, learning how to interact with each other to get results when opportunity comes along, he said. Leadership Orleans helps people who are potential or current leaders become better.

“This is a great program and well supported by the county,” Nesbitt said.

He said more than 30 businesses and individuals contribute to make the program a success.

“It is well managed and skillfully directed by Skip,” he said.

Helfrich said the class meets on the second Thursday of every month, beginning in January. There is a different theme each month, which gives a variety of learning. To date, 99 people have been through the program.

“That means we have 99 alumni who can now make a different and apply their learning to make this county better,” Helfrich said. “Sixty-one businesses have been involved, 10 of them new this year.”

Former Assemblyman Charlie Nesbitt of Albion talks about Leadership Orleans at MAP’s networking event Thursday night. With back to camera is Barbara Outten and at right are Skip Helfrich, Leadership Orleans’ leader, and Gloria Brent, owner of Modern Mercantile in Medina.

Catherine “Kat” Holland was introduced to share her story of taking the Leadership Orleans class. Holland is the retail manager at Leonard Oakes Estate Winery. She was encouraged to pursue Leadership Orleans by Wendy Oakes Wilson, president of winery.

“Wendy handed me an application and said to fill it out,” said Holland, who was born and raised in Hamburg, lived in London and worked in Oregon. “Going to Leadership Orleans each month resulted in making a professional friend. I’m excited about what I can do. I found it so enriching.”

Holland and Medina trustee Tim Elliott are the two sponsored by MAP. Elliott is in the current class.

“We appreciate MAP’s support,” Helfrich said.

He said each Leadership class starts with a two-day retreat. Anyone interested in joining a class may contact Helfrich at (716) 417-3533 or on the program’s website.

Photos courtesy of Lt. Todd Draper: FBI Director Christopher Wray congratulated Todd Draper of Medina for completing a 10-week management/leadership program. Draper graduated from the FBI’s National Academy on March 17. Todd Draper is shown with his yellow brick after completing the fitness challenge, a grueling 6.1-mile run through a hilly, wooded trail built by the Marines. Along the way, the participants must climb over walls, run through creeks, jump through simulated windows, scale rock faces with ropes, crawl under barbed wire in muddy water, maneuver across a cargo net, and face other challenges.

MEDINA – Todd Draper, a member of the Medina Police Department the past 18 years, graduated from a 10-week management and leadership program hosted by the FBI.

Draper, a lieutenant with the Medina PD, was among 258 law enforcement officers from 32 countries who graduated on March 17. They learned advanced communication, leadership and fitness training. Participants must have proven records as professionals within their agencies to attend.

Draper completed six classes at the National Academy: Critical Incident Management, Essentials of Leadership, Physical Training/Wellness Breaking Barriers and Building Communities, and An Overview of Forensic Science for Law Enforcement Managers.

“I think all of these classes will help me improve as a leader, but I went into each of these classes with the approach of what can I bring back to our agency,” Draper said. “I hope to implement small improvements over time.”

The FBI National Academy is a professional course of study for U.S. and international law enforcement managers nominated by their agency heads because of demonstrated leadership qualities.

The 10-week program provides coursework in intelligence theory, terrorism and terrorist mindsets, management science, law, behavioral science, law enforcement communication, and forensic science.

The academy serves to improve the administration of justice in police departments and agencies at home and abroad and to raise law enforcement standards, knowledge and cooperation worldwide.

FBI Director Christopher Wray speaks at the graduation ceremony.

MEDINA – Village residents re-elected Mayor Mike Sidari and Trustees Marguerite Sherman and Tim Elliott. They were unopposed, just like they were in 2020.

Sidari received 36 votes, Sherman 39 and Elliott 30 in the election today. They were elected to two-year terms that start April 1.

They ran together under the independent “The Village Party” line.

Sidari has been mayor for nearly six years. He said recently that Medina has a great team on the Village Board, Planning Board, Zoning Board of Appeals and with the community organizations.

Those groups have been able to push Medina forward with its downtown business district, industrial park and other community initiatives. He cited citizens who led efforts for a new dog park, skate park, bluebird trail, an upgraded Pine Street Park with a splash pad, and much improved Boxwood Cemetery.

The community projects improve the quality of life for local residents, Sidari said, and also play a factor in whether a business chooses to come to Medina. The business owners want to see a community with pride, and strong schools, a vibrant downtown and thriving neighborhoods, Sidari said.

Photos by Ginny Kropf: Georgia Thomas of Medina shows off Ukrainian Easter eggs which are part of her collection. She will give a talk and demonstration on making them at the Medina Historical Society’s meeting March 28 at 7 p.m. at the Lee-Whedon Memorial Library.

MEDINA – The Medina Historical Society’s March meeting will have a different format this month, when it moves to Lee-Whedon Memorial Library.

Historical Society member Georgia Thomas will lead the meeting at 7 p.m. March 28 with a talk on the history of Easter eggs and demonstration on making Ukrainian Easter eggs.

With Ukraine being so prevalent in the news right now, Thomas thought it would be very timely to do a program on Ukrainian Easter eggs.

Thomas has a collection of several dozen Easter eggs of all kinds, including traditional American ones, porcelain eggs, a Faberge egg, Polish egg, an emu egg and even the plastic eggs which can be filled with goodies.

“It’s Easter and we all like Easter eggs,” Thomas said.

She said Easter eggs were first decorated thousands of years ago, and are symbolic because they signify rebirth, as chickens normally start laying profusely in the spring. The tradition dates back to pagan times, then early Christians picked it up and it has continued ever since.

Thomas said King Louis XIV had the first chocolate egg at Versailles. Nicholas II and Alexander III had Faberge eggs made from 1885 to 1917. She added that Cadbury made the first filled candy egg in 1875.

Former presidential wife Frances Folsom Cleveland, a one-time Medina resident, is credited with opening the White House to visitors for an Easter egg hunt. It is said the President’s hand was swollen from shaking so many hands.

Dolly Madison and Abe Lincoln also had Easter egg rolls on the Capitol lawn. World War I and II put an end to Easter egg hunts (or rolls), but President Eisenhower brought them back while he was in office. Thomas was a little girl of 8 when her family took her to Washington, D.C. and she joined in on an Easter egg hunt.

“I found an egg and it was not until I was older and started researching Easter eggs that I realized I was part of that historic event,” Thomas said.

During her program March 28, Thomas will show the entire process of making a Ukrainian egg with the art of pysanky. A small tool with a metal tip is put in beeswax, where it is sucked into the tip and used to draw on a raw egg.

“You can usually buy pysanky eggs at the Broadway Market,” Thomas said. “To me Ukrainian Easter eggs are the most beautiful, but they are also very expensive.”

She also said the Ukrainian custom is if one doesn’t make enough pysanky eggs a monster will be let loose.

“With what is going on now in Ukraine, I guess they didn’t make enough eggs, because a monster has certainly been let loose on the country,” Thomas concluded.

Everyone who attends the meeting March 28 will receive a token egg to take home.

Georgia Thomas holds one of her Ukrainian Easter eggs and a kiska used to decorate them. Making traditional Ukrainian Easter eggs is a painstaking process, as outlined in Georgia Thomas’ book on “Eggs Beautiful.” Her collection of Easter eggs includes Ukrainian ones, a Faberge egg, porcelain eggs and even an emu egg.

Photo contributed: From left, Anne Downey, a volunteer at Medina Memorial Hospital; Maggie Stewart, development coordinator at Supportive Care of Orleans/Hospice; and Heather Smith, director of the Orleans Community Health Foundation, hold bouquets of flowers Hospice donated to the hospital.

MEDINA – A donation to Medina Memorial Hospital from Supportive Care of Orleans/Hospice this past week brought cheer to staff and patients.

Hospice donated 200 bouquets to the hospital left from their annual spring fundraising flower sale. Heather Smith, director of Orleans Community Health Foundation, helped distribute the flowers to patients and department employees.

“It was pretty wonderful to see people leaving the hospital with beautiful bouquets,” said Scott Robinson, director of Marketing, Communications and Outreach. “This gesture definitely brightened the day of many. It is another example of how amazing our community is.”

Photos by Ginny Kropf: These pictures of distinctive women employees who formerly worked at Medina Memorial Hospital honor them with a display during Women in History Month during March. At upper left is Mary Williams, seated, and Jane Punch. Below is Jeanne Crane, who was supervisor of nurses. At right is the late Nancy Albanese, who spent 40 years as a recovery room nurse.

MEDINA – In the spirit of Women’s History Month during March, Orleans Community Health is highlighting women from the past and present who have held important positions there.

“A number of people currently working here have had mothers, grandmothers and aunts who came before them, and well over a majority of our leadership is female,” said Scott Robinson, director of Marketing, Communication and Outreach.

Three of those women shared their stories on Tuesday.

Nancy Callara, who is director of patient financial services; Kim Gray, chief nursing officer; and Kate Brauen, director of the pharmacy all have relatives who worked at the hospital, and all said it was their family member’s dedication which influenced them to work at the hospital.

Callara is a daughter of Jean Wetherbee, who has been a volunteer at the hospital for more than 20 years.

“She started volunteering because she needed something to do, and she loved working in human resources,” Callara said.

Callara started there in 1987 in medical records and has since worked in quality assurance, payroll, IT and revenue cycle before taking her current position in billing.

Kate Brauen, pharmacy director at Orleans Community Health; Kim Gray, chief nursing officer; and Nancy Callara, director of patient financial services; look at pictures of women who have held positions of distinction in the hospital during past years. A display of women employees’ pictures in the Foundation office is in observation of Women in History Month.

Gray is a daughter of Rosemary Pegelow, who was secretary of surgery for 20 years. Her great-aunt Ceil Spada worked in the hospital for more than 40 years and was an aide in the maternity ward. She also lived in house where the hospital first started.

Gray first started working at the hospital in 2003 as a medical/surgical nurse for a year, then became a surgical nurse for 11 years. She was director of surgery for six years until taking her current position as chief nursing officer.

Brauen grew up in Lockport and attended Royalton-Hartland High School, however she followed her mother’s footsteps in coming to work at Medina Memorial Hospital in 2002 as a pharmacist right out of college. She spent 12 years in the clinical staff pharmacist role and now is director of pharmacy.

Her mother, Mary Williams, worked at the hospital for 50 years, holding positions as an aide, registered nurse, supervisor of risk and quality assurance and assistant director of nursing. She retired last year as vice president of human resources.

In observance of Women in History Month, Heather Smith, director of Orleans Community Health Foundation, has arranged a display of photos of women who held prominent positions in the hospital in the past. These include long-time employee Jeanne Crane, who was nursing supervisor and is currently president of the hospital’s TWIG Association; the late Nancy Albanese, a 40-year recovery room nurse; the late Mary Jane Szczechowiak, who started her nursing career at Medina Memorial Hospital in 1953 and retired in 1988 as assistant director of nursing; Jane Punch, who was director of nursing; and Dawn Meland, who is still actively involved with the hospital as a member and former president of the Hospital Board. Meland was also actively involved with the TWIG Association as a member and past president.

Robinson said to end out the week, he hopes to get all the women employees together for a group picture.