Photos by Ginny Kropf: A group of students from Brockport Cheer Club volunteered at the Walk to End Alzheimer’s on Saturday at State Street Park in Medina. The students cheered on the participants as they finished the 2-mile walk.

MEDINA – The annual Walk to End Alzheimer’s in Orleans County took place Saturday, starting and ending in State Street Park in Medina.

Donna Bushover places a flower in memory of her mother Izara Bauer in the Promise Garden which was part of the Walk to End Alzheimer’s Saturday in State Street Park.

Prior to the walk, emcee Randy Bushover welcomed the crowd and shared facts relating to Alzheimer’s. A poignant feature of the event is the Promise Garden, in which loved ones plant a flower they have purchased to support the fight to end Alzheimer’s.

Flowers come in assorted colors, which each representing a different stage of the dreaded disease. A blue flower is carried by individuals currently living with the disease. A purple flower means they have lost someone to Alzheimer’s. Yellow means they are supporting or caring for some with Alzheimer’s. An orange flower signifies that person is supporting the cause and vision of a world without Alzheimer’s.

The white flower represents the hope for a future without Alzheimer’s disease. It is the symbol of the first person to survive Alzheimer’s.

Another feature of the day is the annual basket raffle sponsored by Mary Lou Tuohey, who lost both her parents to Alzheimer’s. When she owned Case-Nic Cookies, she displayed the baskets in her store window, and new owner Hans Rosentreter is continuing that. This year, tables were set up in front of the store with pictures of each numbered basket, to allow last minute supporters and walk/run participants to stop during their route to buy tickets.

Mary Lou’s daughter Nicole also continued her annual effort of making elephant links to join together and stretch down the block of Main Street. On Saturday, they were strung out on the lawn of State Street Park.

It takes a lot of volunteers to make the event successful, and this year they were fortunate to have students from Brockport State College come to help. The students in the Brockport Cheer Club attends sports and other community events, including Camp Good Days.

DJ Tom Shuh of Cheektowaga played music throughout the morning.

The Walk to End Alzheimer’s in Medina raised at least $12,000.

Volunteers put up props for the annual Walk to End Alzheimer’s on Saturday.

Photos by Tom Rivers

MEDINA – Kyle Webb of Albion and his twin sons, Wyatt (in sunglasses) and Elias, near the finish line in today’s 2-mile walk in Medina to end Alzheimer’s. Webb’s older children, Colin and Keara Webb, also were part of the walk.

There were about 200 participants in the walk who raised at least $12,000 for the Alzeimer’s Association of Western New York.

Hayley Schmidt and her mother Beth Schmidt of Albion completed the walk. Beth is the Walk to End Alzheimer’s Committee for Orleans Committee. Hayley and Beth raised $2,175 for the Alzeimer’s Association. Nicole Tuophey was the top individual for fundraising, at $2,037.

The SUNY Brockport Cheer Club congratulated the participants for completing the 2-mile walk.

The Brockport Cheer Club formed a “Thank You Brigade” for the first time at the Walk to End Alzheimer’s. The walk started and ended at State Street Park.

There were about 30 Cheer Club members near the finish with signs, bells and loud cheers for the participants.

One of the last stretches of the walk was along East Center Street before a final turn at State Street Park.

Lynn Hughes, the staff walk manager for the Alzheimer’s Association of WNY, rang bells and thanked the participants for their efforts.

Photo by Ginny Kropf: Officials and personnel of the Downtown Browsery in Medina gathered for a ribbon cutting on Friday morning to celebrate the store’s expansion. From left are Sharon and store manager Erik Sinkora; vendor Ruth Higgins; Medina mayor Deb Padoleski; vendor Julie Sanford; Dave Sevenski, member of the board and vendor; building owner, Tom Snyder; and Marlene Seielstad, candidate-at-large for County Legislature.

MEDINA – The Downtown Browsery at 413 Main St. celebrated the store’s expansion into an adjoining space with a ribbon cutting on Friday morning. Taking part were store manager Erik Sinkora and his wife Sharon; board member and vendor Dave Sevenski; Ruth Higgins and Julie Sanford, vendors; Deb Padoleski, Medina mayor; Tom Snyder, owner of the building; and Marlene Seielstad, candidate-at-large for county legislature.

Padoleski cut the ribbon, thanking Tom Snyder for his support and saying she and the Village Board are pleased with business in Medina.

“I am happy to see that the Browsery was able to add on to their business,” Padoleski said. “This establishment is a gem for our downtown – a favorite of Medina residents and visitors. This neat little shop is chock full of goodies – literally something for everything. Congratulations on your expansion.”

One happy vendor is Julie Sanford of Albion, who sells industrial lighting made by her husband, and vintage items.

“I like the community, the people of the town and the visitors,” Sanford said. “And I enjoy rescuing and repurposing items that would otherwise end up in a landfill.”

Tom Snyder, who also owns Medina Lumber, added his appreciation of business in Medina.

“It’s exciting that a local downtown business is expanding,” he said. “It’s a feather in our cap that we have a bustling Main Street.”

The expansion brings the number of vendors to the Medina location to 36, according to Sinkora. The Downtown Browsery started in Albion in 2004. The Browsery now occupies three store fronts in Albion. Between Albion and Medina, the stores now accommodate 75 vendors.

MEDINA – Fans of old-time horror films will be delighted to learn they have returned to the Medina Theatre at 603 Main St.

Continuing every Friday night in October, the Orleans Renaissance Group is sponsoring Legends of Fright, a horror classic from the past. The first on Oct. 2 was “Frankenstein.”

“This is something we has wanted to do for several years,” said Cindy Robinson, a member of ORG. “This is the first I’ve had time to do it. These are the movies I grew up with. My dad used to watch them. We have this nice theater here and I always thought we should use it for what it was intended to be. Doing these movies seemed like a good way to start.”

Robinson said theater owner Joe Cardone was on board with the idea, and the first movie shown on Friday night was “Frankenstein” starring Boris Karloff. Future movies will be “Dracula” this Friday, starring Bela Lugosi; followed by “The Mummy” on Oct. 16, starring Boris Karloff; “The Invisible Man” on Oct. 23, starring Claude Rains; and “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein” on Oct. 30.

Tickets are $7. All movies start at 7 p.m.

Robinson said people who attended the first showing were thrilled to be in the theater again.

Cardone opened the concession stand for the evening, and people were happy not to pay the high prices charged in other theaters.

ORG is looking at another series in February – Film Noir series.

ORG is thankful for five local sponsors, Medina Veterinary Clinic, English Rose Tea Shoppe, WSM Elder Law, Bent’s Opera House and Cooper Funeral Home.

Photo from shopgarage.com: Medina’s ladder truck is shown on an online site that sells fire trucks, emergency vehicles and equipment. The site lists the truck as being sold. It was listed on the site on May 19.

MEDINA – The Village of Medina has sold its ladder truck for $2.1 million to the Village of Wilmette, an Illinois community of about 28,000 people near Chicago. Wilmette has a median household income of $190,662.

Medina has a population of 5,855, according to the 2025 population estimates from the Census Bureau. Medina’s median household income is $59,231, just a fraction’s of Wilmette’s.

“They are a wealthy community,” said Medina Mayor Debbie Padoleski. “It’s a beautiful truck. I would have loved to keep it, but it’s more truck than we need and it’s more truck than we can afford.”

Wilmette officials on Monday were in Medina and hand-delivered a check for $2.1 million. They also gave the truck a final inspection. The ladder truck is expected to leave Medina next week and be transported to Wilmette. The ladder truck is currently being kept in the former compost facility on North Gravel Road near Boxwood Cemetery.

With new ladder trucks having a 3- to 5-year wait due to a backlog of orders, Wilmette wanted Medina’s because it was available right away, Padoleski said.

The price for the ladder trucks also has soared since Medina locked in its contract in March 2023. The Albion Joint Fire District on Aug. 14, 2025 voted to buy a new ladder truck at a cost of $2,480,698 from Pierce Manufacturing.

Padoleski is happy the Medina ladder truck is sold and at a nice profit for the village.

“It’s been tough to move forward,” she said about the ladder truck, an issue that the village officials have been wrestling with for several years now.

The village budget for 2026-27 included a $300,000 profit with the sale of the ladder truck.

The sale is about $400,000 more than Medina’s contract with Pierce Manufacturing back in March 2023 when the Medina Village Board voted to pay $1,698,995 for the ladder truck. But with the first interest payment, Medina’s cost is closer to $1.8 million.

The sale at $2.1 million also includes a $100,000 fee to the broker. Padoleski said the village won’t have to make the year one principal payment at $130,000.

The new truck was too big for the existing fire hall and the board at that time expected an addition would be built on the existing fire hall. The truck is about 13 feet high where the fire station bays only have a clearance of 10 feet, 6 inches. But the initial construction estimates put an addition and overhaul of the current station at about $6 million. Just doing a one-bay addition would be about $1.3 million.

A new majority on the Village Board deemed those costs too much for the village taxpayers. They declared the ladder truck as surplus on Feb. 9, about two months after Pierce delivered it. The truck was never put into service.

The fire truck was listed for sale at $2.4 million on May 19 on an online site that sells fire trucks and other emergency vehicles and equipment. The website, shopgarage.com, touted the 2025 quint fire truck with a 100-foot ladder. The truck was promoted as “brand new, never used” with only 1,095 miles.

Padoleski said there was a strong interest in the ladder truck from a community in Texas, from a private business and from nearby Brockport.

Wilmette made the best offer, and followed up with a check.

Padoleski commended Deputy Mayor Scott Bieliski for working with the broker and potential buyers to get a good price for Medina.

The mayor said the Village Board will shift to looking at the future of the fire department and its ambulance service. Bieliski is on the hunt for a smaller used ladder truck that would fit in the existing fire hall.

She said the village needs more buy-in from neighboring towns that receive the ambulance service. Medina is seeking an increase from $35,000 to $135,000 from the towns of Shelby, Ridgeway and Yates. But even at that level, the village taxpayers are paying more than $1 million a year towards its paid fire department.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous to expect the Village of Medina to pay for a service that goes outside the Village of Medina,” she said.

An Orleans County Shared Services Committee is looking at how to best fund and provide EMS and the fire service throughout the county. Padoleski wants to see a plan from that committee that shares the burden around the county.

“With EMS, it needs to be everybody’s problem,” she said. “It can’t just be Medina’s problem.”

Medina’s historic cemetery was lighted up and featured live music, docents in period costumes

Photos by Tom Rivers

MEDINA – This group gathers on the top of Boxwood Cemetery on North Garvel Road in Medina to hear Barb Gorham share about David Carr, the first person buried in the cemetery in 1849. Carr told people he wanted to buried on the hill just north of Medina.

Since his burial, about 5,000 others have been buried at Boxwood.

There were 290 people who attended the Boxwood at Night on Saturday, an event that raises money for the cemetery (with tickets at $20 apiece) and also highlights local history.

Barb Gorham was a docent for the second year, dressing in a period costume with a fake beard to portray David Carr.

“It’s a nice event and it’s good for the community,” she said.

She was one of 10 docents at Boxwood at Night.

The band, Together Again, featured Medina teacher Rachel Trillizio on vocals, retired band teacher Jim Steele and other musicians.

Megan “Marge” Furness created this display by her van, which she calls Cindy. Furness is owner of Hippiesque TieDyes, and makes custom tapestry and apparel. This was her first time featured at Boxwood at Night.

This lighted section is the potter’s field area on the other side of the hill at Boxwood. There were 107 people buried in the potter’s field. Of those 107, only 28 have head stones. The Friends of Boxwood Cemetery is working to install a monument listing all 107 people.

Cindy Robinson served as one of the docents. She highlighted the potter’s field and the monument that is expected to soon be installed.

Michael Zelazny sang and played his guitar near the start of the event at Boxwood. The start was near the Glenwood Lake boat launch.

These letters were lighted up for the event, which is organized by Friends of Boxwood Cemetery.

Jenna Papponetti created charcoal landscape drawings of Glenwood Lake and the waterfalls. This piece is called, “Still Water.” Papponetti went kayaking in the lake and near the waterfalls and took photos to reference the drawings.

Catherine Cooper, Orleans County historian, portrayed Amelia Bennett, who was buried in 1831 at a cemetery on Gwinn Street. That area is now a playground. The bodies and monuments were relocated to Boxwood in 1895. There weren’t any new burials at Gwinn Street after 1850, Cooper said.

The Vine Church choir sang hymns in the chapel of the cemetery.

The chapel with the people singing hymns was one of four stops with musicians. The chapel has been the focus of a restoration effort with extensive work on a stained-glass window and other interior improvements.

The chapel at Boxwood was built in 1903 with a $22,000 donation from the late Silas Burroughs, who was influential in the pharmaceutical industry. His father also served in Congress.

Reinhard Rogowski portrayed Silas M. Burroughs, who was a congressman and owner of the Burroughs mansion at State Street Park in medina. The mansion was built in 1850 and was one of the area’s finest homes. It burnt down in 1913. His son, Silas Mainville Burroughs, was a very successful entrepreneur in the pharmaceutical industry.

Mandee DeMarco arranges chicken-wire sculptures on the trunk of where a large tree that recently was taken down. DeMarco is part of a Paradise crew that does pop-up events with art and flood lights.

Kat McKinney portrayed May Howard, a survivor of the Titanic sinking on April 15, 1912. Howard was 27 when she was on the maiden voyage of the Titanic.

Howard, a native of England, was headed to visit her brother in Toronto and then her sister in Albion. She traveled as a third-class passenger and secured a spot on a life boat. May lived locally until she died at age 68 in 1958. About 1,500 passengers died after the Titanic hit an ice berg. Howard was one of about 700 survivors.

Shawna Baldwin, left, is dressed as a raven. Robert Keirn is at right. They shared poetry by the famous writer who died in 1849, the year of the first burial at Boxwood.

The read from The Raven, Annabel Lee and The Conqueror Worm.

The Orleans County String Band performed played Appalachian music while people strolled on the north side of the historic cemetery on North Gravel Road. This building recently received a new roof and could become a museum for the cemetery in the future.

MEDINA – New York Lottery is reporting that a winning $8,393 Take 5 ticket for the Saturday evening drawing was sold at the Walgreens in Medina. The winning numbers were 21, 22, 23, 28 and 29.

It was one of four tickets for the grand prize. Other tickets were sold at an Amoco in Yonkers (Westchester County) , a Conger’s Little Food Market in Congers (Rockland County),  and a 7-Eleven in Miller Place (Suffolk County).

Nicole Tuohey again selling elephant links for $1, which includes a cookie

Photo contributed: Nicole Tuohey stands next to a pile of elephant’s links, which she makes and sells in Hans’s Baker to benefit Alzheimer’s research. The links are sold for $1 and come with an elephant cookie. She strings them down Main Street the night before the Alzheimer’s Walk, which is Oct. 10.

MEDINA – Alzheimer’s disease has been a big part of Mary Lou Tuohey’s life for more than a decade – dealing with it, dreading it, fundraising for research for it and promoting awareness of it.

On Oct. 10, the annual Walk to end Alzheimer’s will take place in State Street Park, with registration at 9 a.m. The walk will start at 10 a.m. A basket raffle is currently on display in the window at Hans’s Bakery. The drawing will take place after the last walker finishes.

One thing Mary Lou has been adamant about over the years is instilling in daughter Nicole the impact the disease has had on their lives and the need to support efforts to combat it.

That is why Nicole every year has sold “elephant links,” which she fastens together and stretches down Main Street. Her goal every year is to sell enough to stretch them down the block of downtown Medina.

Nicole started making the links when her mom owned Case-Nic Cookies and she sold them for $1 in the store. They also come with an elephant cutout sugar cookie, formerly made by Mary Lou, and now by Hans Rosentreter, who purchased the store and runs Hans’s Bakery there.

The elephant signifies memory (an elephant is said to never forget) and memory is what Alzheimer’s destroys.

Along with the links, Mary Lou started a basket raffle, with items displayed in her store window, and now in Hans’s window.

Tickets for the raffle are currently on sale at the bakery, with a unique system Mary Lou developed where supporters can buy their tickets even when the store is closed. A bucket outside the door is filled with envelopes in which there is a sheet listing all the baskets, which are displayed in Hans’s window. Customers put in their money ($10 per sheet) in the envelope, mark how many tickets they want in their chosen baskets, and drop the envelope in the mail slot in the door.

Every year, Mary Lou shares a story of her family’s history of Alzheimer’s and how it has affected Nicole.

Nicole’s grandma and grandpa both died of Alzheimer’s.

“For a total of 27 years, my mom watched her mom and dad fade away,” Nicole’s message reads. “She saw her dad, who was an engineer for Harrison Radiator for 30 years, owned his own business, loved to fish, fix cars and golf, and took care of his family, become a man who forgot who he was, wore diapers and only said, ‘What’s on the agenda?’ He ended up in a nursing home when Grandma could no longer take care of him.”

A few years later, Nicole’s Grandma Bradley became increasingly forgetful, got lost when driving and couldn’t take care of herself any more. She, too, had to go in a nursing home, where Mary Lou took Nicole to visit.

“Gramma didn’t know who I was,” Nicole shares. “She spoke ‘gibberish’ and the only thing Gramma did was cuddle the doll, Andrew, that her four children got for her. She loved Andrew, but didn’t know who her four children or seven grandchildren were.  Mom cried every time we left.”

Nicole tells her story because she worries and wonders if her mom will get Alzheimer’s disease.

“If she does, what will happen to me,” Nicole asks. “ I love her and need her.. I don’t want her to fade away from life like Gramma and Grampa Bradley did. I don’t want her to not know who I am.”

That is why Nicole sells her elephant’s links for Alzheimer’s, and stretches them down Main Street the night before the Alzheimer’s Walk. All the money raised goes directly to Alzheimer’s for research to help find the “link” to Alzheimer’s.

“I pray my mom does not have to suffer through this horrifying disease,” Nicole wrote in her message.

File photo by Tom Rivers: People step inside the Mount Albion Cemetery chapel as part of a tour of the cemetery on Aug. 30. The chapel is getting a $225,000 restoration. The Medina Sandstone Society is helping to pay for a new floor for the building that was constructed in 1875.

Press Release, Medina Sandstone Trust

MEDINA – The Medina Sandstone Trust is accepting grant applications for programs that benefit the Village of Medina, Town of Ridgeway, and Town of Shelby communities.

Applicants must be a 501c3 nonprofit, municipality, or school district residing or working within Orleans County.

Consideration will also be given to projects within the entire Orleans County area that focus on the preservation of historical structures, especially those constructed from Medina Sandstone. Grant requests generally range from $500 to $1,000, but larger requests will be considered for preservation projects.

Grant application forms can be obtained electronically by clicking here. Please contact us at sandstonesociety@gmail.com to request a physical copy.

Completed applications are due by Nov. 7.  They should be mailed to:

Medina Sandstone Trust

PO Box 25

Medina, NY 14103

or emailed to sandstonesociety@gmail.com.