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.

MEDINA – The Village Board is looking into a community mass alert system where residents would be notified of watermain breaks, road closures and other urgent situations or critical events.

The village could use part of its federal American Rescue Plan Act for the system, which would be about $4,000 a year through Hyper-Reach, a company based in Rochester.

Medina village officials have reached out to town leaders in Shelby and Ridgeway to see if they want to be part of the system. The alerts could be tailored to each community if they are specific to Shelby, Ridgeway or Medina, said Jessica Marciano, a Medina village trustee who is spearheaded the effort.

Residents could select their preferred option to be notified: by text, phone call or email.

“It wouldn’t be for chicken barbecues,” Marciano said. “It could be watermain breaks, road closures, weather-related emergencies. Things where your life is affected.”

She cited a recent watermain break on Park Avenue on a Saturday. Many in the community wondered what was going on and the village office was closed because it was the weekend.

Marciano expects it will be a learning curve with the system as the community decides how frequently it wants a notice. Perhaps public hearings and government meetings could be included.

She is hopeful the village and town governments will decide soon about the alert system. The company has offered to do trainings and distribute information on signing up.

This photo – “Medina Falls Sunrise” – of the Erie Canal includes the waterfalls on the north side of the canal near Horan Road and the aqueduct allowing the Oak Orchard Creek to pass under the Erie Canal. The photo was taken by Neil Ferguson of North Tonawanda and won second place in the “Along the Trail” category of the 2021 Erie Canalway Photo Contest.

Courtesy of the Orleans Renaissance Group: A mockup of the marker that is planned for Medina’s Canal Basin.

MEDINA – A new historical marker will highlight one of the great engineering feats along the Erie Canal: the aqueduct in Medina where the Oak Orchard Creek goes under the Erie Canal with the creek then plunging in a waterfall north of the canal.

The Orleans Renaissance Group will be putting up the marker, with assistance from the Medina Sandstone Society, which provided a $500 grant for the project. The Village Board has agreed to allow the marker in the Canal Basin.

“ORG felt that recognition of this engineering marvel was way overdue,” said Chris Busch, ORG president. “During the widening of the canal to create the Barge Canal, the problem of carrying the canal over the gorge at the Oak Orchard was the most studied engineering issue of the rebuild.

“The concrete wall that holds back the canal is actually a dam and is longer than the Hoover Dam,” Busch said. “At one point, engineers had considered removing the loop and moving the canal to a straighter path across the Oak Orchard, using a steel truss system. That idea was abandoned and the result is what you see today – an engineering marvel.”

There isn’t a timetable for when the new marker will be erected. It needs to be fabricated.

This is the second marker that ORG has pushed for in medina. The first one was dedicated on April 24, 2015 and highlights Frederick Douglass, the famed abolitionist who visited the area several times in the mid-1800s.

Douglass lived in Rochester and was a powerful orator and newspaper editor. The historical marker on Main Street in Medina highlights two speeches he gave in Medina.

These photos show construction of the aqueduct. This portion of the 1905-1918 expansion of the canal was completed in 1914-1915.

Medina’s winter guard performs on Saturday in Lancaster.

Photo and information courtesy of Medina Mustang Band Boosters

LANCASTER – Medina’s Varsity Guard competed for the fourth time this season on Saturday at the Lancaster High School.  They competed in the Scholastic A class and came in 4th with a score of 72.43, bested by Victor in 1st place with 77.81 followed by Orchard Park in 2nd at 74.97 and Jamestown in 3rd at 73.62.

Winners in the other classes were Hinsdale Starliner in Novice class with 51.80; Victor Cadet with 65.41; Greece in Regional A with 70.92; Lancaster in A1 with 74.30; Gates Chili in 1A with 78.30 and Luminosa in Senior with 76.53.

Medina’s next competition is the home show on Saturday, March 12^th, at the Medina HS gym. Doors open at 4 p.m. and the show starts at 5 p.m. with 12 guards performing. Medina JV is scheduled to perform in an exhibition at 5 p.m. with the Medina varsity guard to perform at 6:41 p.m.

Photo by Ginny Kropf: Nicole Tuohey holds one of the heart cutout cookies her mother made at Case-Nic Cookies to benefit the Arc Glow program. The promotion is in observance of March as Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month.

MEDINA – March is being observed nationwide as Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month, and a Medina mother and daughter are again honoring those with disabilities.

Mary Lou Tuohey owns Case-Nic Cookies in Medina, and annually, with the help of her daughter Nicole, sponsors fundraisers to benefit The Arc.

Nicole was born with Triple X Syndrome, and doctors told her parents at 3 weeks of age she may never walk, talk, read, write or do math. Her mother said at that point the family was determined Nicole would never be labeled “disabled” and would live as normal a life as possible.

Nicole is now 31 and has done all of what doctors said she wouldn’t do – and more. She has danced for 26 years, plays baseball, bowls, rides a horse, swims and rides a bike. She volunteers for different events at the Arc and takes part in fundraisers at her mother’s store to benefit the agency serving people with disabilities. This includes links she makes at the holidays to sell and string together down the block.

Nicole attended Rainbow Preschool from the age of 3 months to 5 years and currently attends Day Hab through the Arc GLOW.

Now, during March Case-Nic Cookies is selling frosted cutout heart cookies for $1 in their “Have a Heart Campaign” to benefit the Arc GLOW programs. The campaign runs through March 31. A basket raffle is also taking place through March 18 and tickets are on sale at Case-Nic for $10 for a sheet of 25. Items are on display in Case-Nic’s window.

During the pandemic, Mary Lou designed the basket raffle so people could sign up for tickets outside the store and drop their name and money through a slot in the door.

Mary Lou urges everyone to support Nicole’s fundraiser and in honor of Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month.

“Until you have walked in the shoes of those with a disability, don’t judge them by the way they look, the way they do something or the way they might communicate their needs,” she said.

Heart cookies may also be ordered by calling (585) 798-1676.

MEDINA – The Village Board on Monday evening approved a 2 percent increase in most of the ambulance rates.

That follows a 2 percent increase a year ago when the rates were upped for the first time in two years. The new rates are effective March 1.

Fire Chief Matt Jackson said the rates are in the middle of the pack among ambulance providers.

The new rates include:

• Treat and release (MVA signoffs) – from $336.60 to $343.33
• ALS treat & release – from $448.80 to $457.77
• BLS non-emergency – from $645.91 to $658.82
• BLS emergency – from $870.76 to $888.17
• ALS non-emergency – from $904.77 to $922.86
• ALS emergency – from $1,169.99 to $1,193.38
• ALSS 2 – from $1,371.99 to $1,399.42
• Paramedic intercept – $990.70 to $1,010.51
• Specialty care transport – $1,301.38 to $1,327.40

These rates are unchanged:

• Mileage at $35
• Bariatric surcharge at $850
• Out-of-district surcharge at $75

MEDINA – The Medina Village Board is giving residents a chance to send in a letter of interest to the village office if they want to be part of a group of visionaries that will brainstorm ways to improve many facets of Medina, from housing, neighborhoods, parks, the downtown and business districts.

The board welcomes letters of interest to be part of the Strategic Planning Visionary Committee to be sent or dropped off at the Village Office, 119 Park Ave. The group will be tasked with leading public meetings to get residents’ feedback on current and future needs in Medina, and brainstorm ways to make the village more attractive to residential and business development.

Mayor Mike Sidari said a visioning group can make a big difference for the community by focusing on initiatives to move the community forward.

The Village Board on Feb. 14 was presented with the idea of a visioning group. Kathy Blackburn during that meeting suggested creating a new Waterfront and Community Development Committee. Blackburn, chairwoman of the Medina Local Waterfront Revitalization Program, said the group would expand on the efforts of the waterfront committee that identified ways to boost business, recreation and tourism from the Erie Canal and Oak Orchard Creek.

Blackburn was among nine people whose names were submitted to the Village Board to consider for the new committee. The others included Chris Busch, Andrew Meier, Mark Zambito, Chris Goyette, Gloria Brent, Jake Hebdon and Scott Robinson.

The board wants to open up the chance to serve on the committee to the community, before naming members to the group.

Trustee Owen Toale said he wants a diversity of opinions and ideas from village residents.

“I don’t like to see the same names come up all the time,” Toale said.

Blackburn said the group will make it a mission to get a range of viewpoints and ideas.

“We just want to get a big picture and get peoples’ ideas,” Blackburn said.

Picking the members of the group will be put off until residents have a chance to drop off or mail their letter of interest.

The group also won’t be the Waterfront and Community Development Committee but instead will be the Strategic Planning Visionary Committee.

That’s partly because the waterfront committee needs to stay until the state Department of State gives the final OK to the LWRP, the plan for the waterfront that includes about 20 projects to better utilize the waterfront.

With the waterfront committee staying, the Strategic Planning Visionary Committee will look at many aspects of the village and how to improve the quality of life.

Mayor Sidari said he read an article from the NYS Conference of Mayors that highlighted how a visioning committee can make a big difference in advancing a village, especially for economic development. Many prospective companies are looking at more than suitable land and infrastructure when deciding where to locate their business.

Those companies want to be in a community with vibrant schools, parks and neighborhoods, Sidari said.

Village may remove and put in something different for people to relax by waterway

Photo by Tom Rivers

MEDINA – The wooden gazebo in Medina’s Canal Basin is “getting very worn and dangerous,” said Village Trustee Marguerite Sherman.

She highlighted the condition of the gazebo during Monday’s board meeting. She was checking out the gazebo after getting a request from the Tourism Committee for an upgraded kiosk near the gazebo. That sign lists events and highlights local attractions. That signs also is showing wear and tear, Sherman said.

The Village Board asked Jason Watts, the DPW superintendent, his opinion of the gazebo. Watts said it needs lots of attention and he feels like it has reached its limit and should be removed.

“It would cost more to fix it,” he said.

He would prefer to see a concrete pad in that area with a pavilion.

Village officials believe the gazebo is at least 25 years old.

“I’d like to have a place for people to go and sit and enjoy the canal and be safe,” Sherman said.

The board will continue to discuss the issue and look at costs to replace the gazebo or put in something else for people to be able to sit by the historic waterway.

Super Cruise planned for Wednesday, Aug. 24, on Main Street

Photo by Tom Rivers: Terry Buchwald, an Elvis Presley impersonator, arrives in downtown Medina on a motorcycle (with a license plate, “ELVIS”). Buchwald performed for two hours on a stage as part of the Super Cruise on Aug. 28, 2019, the last time the event was on main Street. The Super Cruise was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid-19 concerns and restrictions.

MEDINA — The Cruise Nights will be back in 2022 on Friday evenings in Medina’s Canal Basin. That includes all Fridays in June and July, and the first three Fridays of August.

The fourth week on August will instead be the Super Cruise on Main Street. That is planned for Wednesday, Aug. 24.

The Medina Village Board approved the events during the board meeting on Monday evening.

Dave Green is the lead organizer of the events that typically bring in about 100 to 125 cars on Fridays, and 250 to 300 for the Super Cruise. Proceeds from the events are given to the Orleans County United Way.

The Cruise Nights were cancelled in 2020 but returned in 2021. However, there wasn’t a Super Cruise last year due to Covid concerns and restrictions on larger crowd sizes.

Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Cooper

Elizabeth Cooper

MEDINA – Elizabeth Cooper, a producer of one-of-kind dolls since 1980, has created a piece that depicts a protest seeking peace in Ukraine,a country that is under attack by Russia.

Cooper of Medina is best known for her dolls of fairies and Santas. She also has created popular series featuring immigrants and characters such as Peter Pan and Snow White.

She has been featured over the years in numerous doll magazines and won the award for “doll of the year.”

She sculpts her dolls out of clay and makes the costumes.

“Devastated by the state of the world, I direct my energies to making my clay talk,” she said about the latest effort showing a protest for peace in Ukraine.

MEDINA – The annual Lenten lunches at the First Presbyterian Church will begin on Thursday this week, according to Barb Hancock, a member of Medina Area Association of Churches, who sponsor the lunches.

The lunches will be served every Thursday through April 7, with a different local church preparing the meal each week. These include the First Presbyterian Church (ham or turkey sandwich, soup, fruit cup), First Baptist Church (beef on weck), Oak Orchard Assembly of God (lasagna and salad), Abundant Harvest Methodist Church in Millville (sloppy Joes, pie), the Grove Methodist Church in Medina (ham and scalloped potatoes) and Alabama Full Gospel Church (pulled pork).

The theme of the message each week will be “Jesus’ Suffering” from the Book of Hebrews. Messages will be shared by the Rev. William Wilkinson, Pastor Michael Stephenson, Pastor Dan Thurber, Pastor Garry McCaffery, Jim McMoil and pastor Russ Peters.

Serving begins at noon with a suggested donation of $5. Take-outs are available at 11:45 a.m.

Proceeds from the lunches will benefit Orleans County Meals on Wheels and Crop Walk, Hancock said.

Masks will be encouraged in and out of the building.