By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 20 May 2024 at 2:12 pm
ALBION – A law enforcement torch run will return for the second year on May 31 and will have a different route in the village as well as a chance for the public to be part of the 2.7-mile jaunt.
Members of the Albion Police Department carried the torch for the Special Olympics last year on June 5. The Albion PD wanted to host the run to offer another chance for law enforcement between Erie-Niagara counties and Monroe to be part of a torch run. (Batavia also hosts one in Genesee County.)
“We wanted one in Orleans County,” Albion Police Chief David Mogle said last year. “We welcome more agencies to be a part of it.”
Albion has invited other law enforcement agencies, as well as community members to be part of the run on May 31.
It will start at 11 a.m. on South Platt Street at the municipal lot, go to Chamberlain Street and take a left to Route 98, then a left on 98 to Route 31, then a left on 31 to the school campus, then a left on Clarendon Street to Crimson Drive, then a right on McKinstry Street, a left on Chamberlain and lastly to the municipal lot on Platt Street.
To participate in the run, be at the Albion municipal lot at 151 Platt Street by 10:30 a.m. to register. This lot is across from Dunkin’ Donuts. There is a $25 charge for a short sleeve shirt or $30 for a long sleeve.
ALBION – The Orleans County Legislature has joined with others across the country in celebrating May 19 through May 25 as National Emergency Medical Services Week.
National EMS Week brings together local communities and medical personnel to honor the dedication of those who provide the day-to-day lifesaving services of medicine’s frontline. This marks the 50th anniversary of this recognition.
“We want to thank all of our EMS personnel for the great job they do on behalf of our residents,” said Justin Niederhofer, Director of the Orleans County Emergency Management Office. “These folks are out there responding to all sorts of emergency situations and, thanks to their talent, experience and dedication, are saving lives every day.”
The Orleans County Legislature passed a proclamation into honor EMS personnel across the county – first responders, emergency medical technicians, paramedics, emergency medical dispatchers, firefighters, police officers, educators, administrators, pre-hospital nurses, emergency nurses, emergency physicians, trained members of the public, and other out-of-hospital medical care providers – to recognize their important work for our residents.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 20 May 2024 at 9:11 am
ALBION – The Albion Rotary Club welcomed Sylvia Goodstine as a new member last week during the club’s meeting at the Tavern of the Ridge. She is joined up front by membership chair Kelly Kiebala, left; President Doug Farley; and Bonnie Malakie.
Goodstine, a retired nurse who worked at Orchard Manor in Medina, has helped keep up the garden the past decade at the Point Breeze sign that was installed by Rotary.
The Rotary Club also heard from Marina Medeiros, a 27-year-old lawyer from Brazil. She is spending time in Canada and Western New York through Rotary’s New Generations Service Exchange. She has observed the court systems in both countries and has been job shadowing attorneys.
By Ginny Kropf, correspondent Posted 20 May 2024 at 8:39 am
Pam Wadhams will step into role for Bonnie Malakie at Community Action
Photo by Ginny Kropf: From left, Renee Hungerford, executive director of Community Action, and Bonnie Malakie, retiring director of Head Start’s Children and Youth Services, stand outside the Head Start office on east State Street in Albion with Pam Wadhams, who will replace Malakie when she retires June 30, and Ryan Lasal, recently hired as strategic director of children’s services and special projects.
ALBION – Community Action of Orleans and Genesee has announced some changes in its Head Start program.
Bonnie Malakie is retiring on June 30 after 24 years as Head Start’s director. Before stepping into the director’s position, Malakie spent eight years as a consultant for Head Start.
Filling the director’s position at Head Start will be Pam Wadhams, who has been associate director of the program.
Stepping into a new role is Ryan Lasal as strategic director of children’s services and special projects.
Hungerford explained the chain of command will be Wadhams reporting to Lasal and Lasal to Hungerford.
The Head Start program has been a vital part of Community Action’s services to the community since 1965, with Head Start for children aged 3 and 4 and Early Head Start for 18-month to 3-year-olds in Medina, Albion and Batavia, and universal pre-K in Kendall.
Early Head Start Childcare Partnership partners with day care facilities for infants and toddlers.
A childcare resource and referral program connects parents with daycare and subsidies.
“We also help people start their own daycare facilities,” Hungerford said.
In addition, there is a small home-based program with six slots available.
Currently, 173 children are served in Head Start, 58 in the Childcare Partnership and 38 in Early Head Start.
Head Start’s new leadership brings several decades of experience to their jobs. Lasal spent the last 10 years at CRFS.
“I found there has been an extremely solid foundation built here,” Lasal said. “This program serves a lot of kids and does extraordinary things in the community. I’m looking forward, along with Pam, to continuing to build on that foundation and move it into the future.”
Wadhams has worked more than 30 years with Head Start.
“I see us being a strong presence in the community and continuing to support families and their children,” she said. “We are in the process of expanding the pre-school program to a full day, something families want and need. I love being able to make a difference in the community I grew up in.”
“I am doing some restructuring of our children’s services to reinvigorate these programs and increase enrollment,” Hungerford said. “I aim to put new focus on our Head Start programs to ensure children are truly getting a head start and enter the public school systems fully prepared. We can do more with technology and innovation to set our students up for success.”
Malakie said she plans to spend the summer relaxing and doing more with her husband Larry.
“This will include volunteering,” she said. “I’m taking a new path and looking forward. I will continue to support Community Action. I will be leaving a piece of my heart here.”
She added that through the years, there has been one constant at Community Action, and that is change.
“But we’ve been able to keep up with required changes, expected changes and positive changes,” Malakie said. “I’m leaving everything in good hands with a very dedicated and committed staff with strong leadership and two new directors. The difference we make in the lives of children and families every day is what has kept me here all these years.”
By Ginny Kropf, correspondent Posted 20 May 2024 at 7:59 am
MEDINA – Medina’s trail of interpretive panels just became a little larger with the addition of two new panels in State Street Park.
Installing interpretive panels throughout Medina’s downtown historic district was a project conceived more than 10 years ago by the Orleans Renaissance Group and The Print Shop owner Ken Daluisio, said Chris Busch, ORG’s president.
Medina was seeing a growing number of tourists and it was felt something was needed to provide visitors with a more meaningful experience, according to Busch. The interpretive signs would tell the story of historic people, events and architecture – interpreting local history and giving visitors a further reason to explore downtown and the village, Busch said.
The 2013 project was spearheaded by the ORG and Print Shop, with backing from the former Medina Business Association, now Medina Area Partnership. Several sponsors paid for the sign bases and The Print Shop donated the panels. The panels themselves were researched and designed by Busch.
Since then, visitors from around Western New York and the country have been observed lingering over the 11 sign panels, immersing themselves in the rich history of Medina’s people, events and architecture, Busch said.
The panels, now 10 years old, were beginning to show signs of wear and needed to be replaced. Again, ORG, working with Daluisio and The Print Shop tackled the job, ensuring the story of Medina’s culture and history would continue to be preserved and told. ORG has underwritten the cost of replacing the panels with fabrication being done by The Print Shop and installation by the Medina Department of Public Works.
“The new panels will be exactly as the originals, with a few minor corrections,” Busch said. “It’s really gratifying to have seen so many visitors enjoy them over these past 10 years. The panels tell the incredible story of a 19th century boom town on the Erie Canal – and that is a story worth telling. People who visit Medina and experience that remarkable story will come away from their visit knowing this place truly matters.”
This interpretive panel just installed in State Street Park, tells the story of Silas Burroughs Jr. and his contributions to Medina and Orleans County.
In addition to the 11 original panels on the trail, Panel No. 12 recently installed in State Street Park features the World War I monument and field gun. Panel No. 13 describing the Burroughs family and estate which once existed on the site, will be installed soon.
“These two new panels tell the story of the British field gun and World War I memorial, along with the remarkable story of the Burroughs family, whose mansion once stood in what is now State Street Park,” Busch said. “The story of the Burroughs family’s contribution to the history of our state, nation and the world is one of Medina’s little known, but greatest tales.”
Each year, the panels are removed for the winter and reinstalled in the spring by the DPW, Busch explained.
“To save on wear, tear and damage throughout the winter months, the signs are removed and stored by the DPW until they are reinstalled in the spring,” Busch said. “The guys take great care of the signs and we’re extremely grateful for it. Their efforts have added years to the life of these signs.”
Over the past 10 years, the signs have generated tremendous community pride and have boosted awareness of Medina’s historic, architectural and cultural resources – all of major significance, Busch said.
The panels, now numbering 13, feature a wide scope of the village’s history – its sandstone; Erie Canal and railroad prowess; its notable characters, entrepreneurs and community leaders; the impact of immigrants who worked on the canal, in the foundries and in the quarries; and now the World War I monument/British field gun and the Burroughs family story.
“This is one of the best projects I have ever been associated with,” Daluisio said. “It’s been an absolute success and I think people have been quite pleased, not only with how they look, but with the incredible stories they tell. They illustrate how Medina matters in both our regional and national history. It’s a point of community pride.”
Sponsors of the original 2013-14 project include the former Medina Business Association, Gabrielle and Andina Barone, Andrew W. Meier, ORG, David and Gail Miller, Hartway Motors, Rita Zambito/Zambito Realty, Medina Sandstone Trust, the late Marcia Tuohey, Christopher and Cynthia Busch and the Medina Fire Department Local 2161.
The new World War I monument panel was sponsored by Butts-Clark American Legion Post No. 204, under commander Jim Wells. The Burroughs family panel was sponsored by the Medina Sandstone Society, Christopher and Cynthia Busch and the Hon. James P. Punch.
Text and photos for the Burroughs panel were contributed in part by British author Julia Sheppard, who has authored a book on Burroughs.
Information Busch shared from lutterworth.com states, “Julia Sheppard graduated in history from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and has spent her career working with military and medical archives. She was recently chair of the British Records Association, and as head of the research and special collections at the Welcome Library, she was instrumental in the acquisition of Burrough’s papers. He has fascinated her ever since.
“I am personally grateful to Julia, not only for her contributions to this project, but for her encouragement and support,” Busch said. “Her assistance was invaluable. She was a true champion of this project and of the Burroughs story.”
The Burroughs family home is pictured on one of the latest interpretive panels to be installed in State Street Park, site of the former Burroughs estate. The mansion was considered one of the finest residences in Medina.
By Ginny Kropf, correspondent Posted 20 May 2024 at 7:42 am
MEDINA – When Medina’s Canal Village Farmer’s Market moves from North Main Street to its summer location on West Center Street and West Avenue and the end of the month, it will have a new business to serve customers.
Scott Gypson of Gasport will be there selling breakfast sandwiches and smoked meats.
Gypson is a native of Middleport and son of Lowell and Wendy Gypson, having grown up there and graduating from Royalton-Hartland Central School. He entered Roberts Wesleyan College to study music, and for several years, playing bass in a band was his livelihood.
He had started taking violin lessons in third grade, but switched to bass to play in Roberts Wesleyan’s band. He played music all over the country during the summer of 2008. He returned to college and was sitting in algebra class, when the thought came to him, “What am I doing here?”
Scott Gypson of Gasport stands in his food truck, which he recently started to sell his smoked meats. He will be set up at Medina’s Canal Village Farmers’ Market for most Saturdays during the summer.
He had visited Nashville and fell in love with city, and in 2009 he moved there, where he played music for 14 years. He also was on Broadway and made some recordings.
Gypson comes by his musical talent naturally. His mother was music teacher at Roy-Hart and was accompanist for all their musicals. His dad was pastor of Hartland Bible Church.
Gypson’s wife Brooke was his high school sweetheart. They were married in March 2018 after breaking up for 10 years and then reconnecting. They moved back to New York in December 2022 and now live on Earnest Road with their two children.
“When you grow up in the country, like Middleport, and then live in an urban city like Nashville, you can’t get out of there fast enough,” Gypson said.
They moved back to the Middleport area in October 2023.
Gypson became familiar with smoked meats while living in Nashville.
“I started it as a hobby after a weekend barbecue in 2014, and fell in love with it,” he said.
His first efforts were using a pellet smoker, but in 2016 he acquired an offset smoker, which burns real wood, rather than pellets.
“How peaceful it is, to get up early in the morning, tend the fire and smell the aroma of the big hunks of meat,” he said.
When he took some smoked pork shoulder into work one day, it was such a hit he knew he had something big in the works.
“That was my ‘ah ha’ moment,” Gypson said. “Here I was in Tennessee serving pulled pork sandwiches off the tailgate of a pickup truck and everyone raved about it.”
In 2018, he started taking orders. His favorite meat is brisket, but he also smokes beef short ribs, pulled pork, pork ribs and chicken wings.
He started pursuing smoking seriously as a job in 2019, doing catering and serving meat from his driveway. Then Covid hit and he had to wear a mask.
“Tending a fire wearing a mask in the intense heat was terrible, but it was fun,” Gypson said.
In 2020, he began visiting farmers’ markets.
“It was always my dream to grow a barbecue business,” he said.
His smoker is built from a propane tank and it took him a year to get it working, he said.
Gypson said Brooke, who is a wealth planner, is incredibly supportive of him.
He is also grateful for connecting with Chris Busch, president of Orleans Renaissance Group, who offered him the opportunity to set up at the Canal Village Farmers’ Market, which ORG sponsors. It turns out Chris’ wife was Gypson’s kindergarten teacher and now she is their son Hans’ pre-K teacher.
In addition to being at the farmers’ market on most Saturdays, Gypson will be at various summer festivals and once a month plans to do a collaboration pop-up at Terroira General Store on Market Street in Lockport. Last month there, he said the line was out the door for his menu of barbecued beef shortribs, French onion soup and pulled pork. On Memorial Day, he will be set up at Middleport’s parade.
With his menu of smoked meat, he offers two sides, such as macaroni salad and broccoli salad.
Anyone who wants to order smoked meats can contact Gypson at www.tnsmokehouse.com.
By Ginny Kropf, correspondent Posted 19 May 2024 at 9:49 pm
KNOWLESVILLE – For many years United Ways across the country have set aside one day a year to do special projects for the agencies they serve.
In Orleans County, the annual Day of Caring was Friday and about 50 volunteers from several businesses volunteered to do special projects for eight locations in the county.
The volunteers were treated to breakfast at Orleans County 4-H Fairgrounds, where United Way director Nyla Gaylord welcomed them and thanked them for their volunteerism.
“We are pleased to have so many people here,” Gaylord said. “All our agencies are stretched thin and your help means a lot to them.”
These volunteers helped give Camp Rainbow a cleanup on Friday.
Gaylord thanked the businesses who sent volunteers, including Takeform and Baxter, who had 12 employees who participated in the Day of Caring. Other volunteers came from Orleans Correctional Facility, Orleans County Mental Health, Pathstone, Velocitti, UConnectCare (formerly GCASA) and M&T Bank.
Several volunteers, including Karen Krug from Orleans County Mental Health, were there for the first time. Krug heard about the day from Melinda Rhim, coordinator of Care Management Services at Mental Health, and a former board member of United Way.
“We’re part of the community and I’m proud of where we work,” Rhim said. “This is us giving back to our community. I’ve been volunteering for United Way for at least 10 years.”
Krug said she likes helping people and when the opportunity comes up, she takes advantage of it.
“I’m going to Camp Rainbow and I love kids, so I’m looking forward to it,” Krug said.
PathStone employees and volunteers did some weeding and mulching at Hospice.
Volunteers at Camp Rainbow were assigned to paint and do cleanup.
Angela Johnson is also an employee of Orleans County Mental Health, and said she volunteered last year.
“I thought it was a great way to help out in my community, and it was very fulfilling,” she said.
Other projects were mulching and weeding at Orleans Enterprises; mulching, weeding, painting, organizing and cleaning at GLOW YMCA; mulching, trimming and helping create container gardens at Cooperative Extension; landscaping, cleanup and removing garbage at Ministry of Concern; window washing, mulching and gardening at Hospice of Orleans; cleaning, landscaping and painting at Oak Orchard Health Center in Medina; and planting bushes and plants at Oak Orchard Health Center in Albion.
Photo by Ginny Kropf: Grace Ryan, standing, helps Orleans County United Way director Nyla Gaylord at the registration desk for Day of Caring on Friday. This is the third year Ryan, an employee of Baxter Healthcare, has volunteered for the event.
Grace Ryan, an employee of Baxter Healthcare, was volunteering for the third year. She was assigned to the YMCA in Medina. An immigrant from the Philippines, Ryan said she loves helping people.
“And I love my life in this country, and when I get my citizenship in about a year, I promise to be a good citizen,” she said.
Another volunteer was United Way’s new intern, Claire Squicciarini of Albion.
Gaylord added that United Way is very important to our community.
“They support many agencies which help people in need in our county,” she said. “One of our biggest accomplishments was to create collaborations with other agencies in the county. That resulted in a warming center being opened in Albion. Housing is also a big problem in Orleans County and the role of United Way is to bring people together to solve those problems.”
Another very important accomplishment of United Way was hiring a grant writer, free to any non-profit in the county. This was the result of Dean Bellack’s contact with foundations in Buffalo and Rochester when he was director during the pandemic.
Gaylord also stressed that every dollar contributed in Orleans County stays in Orleans County.
Takeform employees helped the Cornell Cooperative Extension move containers that will be used for gardens to grow food.
Velocitii workers helped at the Oak Orchard Health Center in Medina by trimming bushes, raking and weeding flower beds.
Volunteers from Baxter helped the YMCA with organizing and cleaning inside.
Baxter employees also did mulching in the outside garden area at Orleans Enterprises in Albion.
Baxter also had volunteers painting indoors at the Oak Orchard Health Center in Albion.
By Ginny Kropf, correspondent Posted 19 May 2024 at 6:34 pm
Tim Wendel will give presentations May 28 at Author’s Note
Rebel Falls is a book of fiction based on actual facts and people in the Niagara Falls area. Tim Wendel, a Lockport native, will be in Medina for a book talk and signing on May 28.
MEDINA – A Lockport native and noted author will launch his newest book at a book signing May 28 at Author’s Note in Medina.
Tim Wendel grew up in Lockport, where his parents lived on Canal Road, and graduated in 1974 from Royalton-Hartland Central School. He has always loved to write and during high school he was correspondent for the Niagara Gazette.
Now a resident of Charlottesville, Va., Wendel is writer-in-residence at Johns Hopkins University and the author of several books, including Summer of ’68, Cancer Crossings (featuring cancer doctors at Roswell Park), High Heat and the historical novels, Castro’s Curveball and its sequel Escape from Castro’s Cuba.
Rebel Falls is fiction, set in the late summer of 1864and based on actual, yet long-obscured events and people of the Civil War in the Niagara Falls area, including Medina, Orleans and Niagara counties, Wendel said.
He became interested in the Civil War after reading Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals and Carl Sandberg’s Lincoln. Wendel discovered while most of the fighting was going on in the south, espionage and spying was taking place all along the Canadian border. At the center of it were two spies, John Yates Beall and Bennet Burley, whom President Lincoln had refused to pardon for their crimes.
Their goal was to seize the USS Michigan, the only warship left on the Great Lakes, and create enough dissension that people would blame Lincoln and he would lose the election, which was to take place the day after the spies planned crime. They also planned to bomb Buffalo, Cleveland and Toledo.
Wendel said he was a history buff, yet he had never heard of Beall and Burley.
“The more research I did, the more I realized there was more going on than what history has reported,” he said.
He also learned John Wilkes Booth had been accepting money from a bank in Montreal, and a bank note was found in his pocket when he was apprehended about two weeks after assassinating President Lincoln.
Wendel’s book also hits on the role the Cataract Hotel played in the Underground Railroad in Niagara Falls.
The author said it took him three years to write the book. He said Niagara Falls is such a beautiful area, he is considering to focus it in his next book.
Author’s Note has scheduled two sessions with Wendel on May 28. One is at 6 p.m. and the other at 7 p.m. Anticipating a large turnout, Author’s Note owner Julie Berry said they are selling tickets for $5 each to reserve a seat at either presentation. The $5 will then be deducted from the cost of purchasing a book. She encourages purchasing tickets in advance at the store or online.
Attendees are asked to be in their seats 10 minutes before their scheduled session. Those not there by five minutes before will lose their seat.
Those unable to get a ticket can still come and meet Wendel and have their book signed. They are asked to arrive just before 6 or just before 7 so if anyone couldn’t make it, a seat might be available. People waiting for just the signing will be allowed in at 7:45 p.m. Berry said Wendel will only sign books purchased at Author’s Note.
Wendel will also give his presentation at 6 p.m. May 29 at Woodward Memorial Library in Le Roy.
Photos and information courtesy of Christa Bowling, Troop Leader
ALBION – Kendall’s Girl Scout Troop 82257 surprised PAWS Animal Shelter in Albion today with over $800 in animal care donations.
The Kendall Girl Scout troop is made up of 34 girls from kindergarten to grade 4. This year when the troop members discussed all of the fun things they could do with their money earned from selling Girl Scout cookies, the first thing they said was “Help an animal shelter.” Today they did just that.
This Kendall troop sold over 10,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies this past cookie season. Their leader, Christa Bowling of Kendall, couldn’t be more proud of her girls and their big hearts ready to help. PAWS was a great shelter to work with, and enjoyed sharing the animals with the girls today.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 19 May 2024 at 5:03 pm
Provided photo
MEDINA – The Medina Rotary Club donated 125 pounds of meat worth about $500 last week to the Medina Food Pantry.
Pictured form left include Rotarians: Gary Lawton, Gloria Brent, Edee Hoffmeister, Cindy Hewitt, Peter Bartula, Joel Payne, Ben McPherson and Bill Bixler.
Rotary Club members also volunteer twice a month at the food pantry which is located at St. Peter Evangelical Lutheran Church on West Avenue in Medina.
By Ginny Kropf, correspondent Posted 19 May 2024 at 1:09 pm
‘We want people to know growing their own food is possible, no matter where they live.’
KNOWLESVILLE – A new program being developed by Orleans County Cornell Cooperative Extension on the 4-H Fairgrounds is intended to show people it is simple to grow their own healthy, nutritious fruits and vegetables at home.
Cooperative Extension’s director Robert Batt came up with the idea and got approval for a New York State SNAP Ed Program Community Growers’ grant.
He secured white plastic barrels donated by Mayer Brothers in Barker, which were cut in half to form container gardens for the Horticulture to Health Program, a project of Cornell Cooperative Extension.
Working in conjunction with the Master Gardeners and other volunteers, Batt and Katie Oakes, horticulture educator, have been filling the barrels with wood chips, topsoil and llama manure.
The barrels will be planted with a variety of seeds and plants, including berries, potatoes, asparagus, herbs, garlic, beets, carrots, greens, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, kale and peppers, and more.
“We want to show people in those simple raised gardens they can grow healthy, nutritious food at home,” Batt said.
Peter Beach deposits a load of mulch to the pile, which was used to fill container gardens, which will be used at the fairgrounds and sent home with participants of their nutrition classes.
Thirty barrels will stay at the fairgrounds, where they will be placed on the lawn near the Trolley Building, along with a row of raised garden beds created by the Master Gardeners, called the Veggie Variety Trail. Theme of the trail is “Cultural Roots of Eastern Europe.”
“When we harvest what we are going to grow here, we will weigh it and donate it to a food program, such as the OK Kitchen in Albion, or our Cooperative Extension food distribution,” Batt said.
Batt said 20 more barrels will go to community partners in each of four towns and the Community Action store.
“We are looking for partners in Medina, Lyndonville and Kendall to take a barrel,” Batt said. “Anyone interested can call me at (585) 798-4265, Ext. 130.”
Anyone who participated in nutrition classes led by Marie Gabalski will receive a three-gallon raised container garden.
“We want people to know growing their own food is possible, no matter where they live,” Batt said. “We hope they will continue year after year. The whole point is to show how easy it is and anyone can do it.”
At the fairgrounds, Batt said they are going to plant what is easy to grow and productive.
Oakes has always wanted to plant peanuts and they will try them in one of the gardens.
“If you have a shelf full of canned food and a pandemic comes along or a blizzard when you can’t get to the store, you are not going to starve,” Batt said.
The barrels containing perennials will be moved under the pavilion for the winter and then rolled back out in the spring.
These raised garden beds form Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Veggie Variety Trail along the lawn south of the Trolley Building at the 4-H Fairgrounds. They were created by the Master Gardeners.
This 1919 poster depicts a boy with a hoe leading a parade of “smiling” vegetables displaying an American flag. (Maginel Wright Enright, Library of Congress collection)
“I hereby declare and set aside Friday, May 11, as Garden Day, and urge all citizens to observe the same by putting in a home garden on said day.”
This declaration was made on May 9, 1917, by Dr. Warren E. Stocking, acting president, and subsequent mayor of the Village of Medina.
A poor harvest in 1917, the loss of agricultural workers due to military conscription, the sabotage of ships carrying food supplies, and the necessity of supplying food to soldiers, led to a food crisis for the Allied forces.
The U.S. Food Administration was established in 1917 to produce and conserve food for American and Allied troops as well as for war-torn Europeans. With slogans such as “Every War Garden a Peace Plant,” Americans were encouraged to plant “home gardens” or “liberty gardens” during World War I. These were the forerunners of the “victory gardens” of World War II. Food production and conservation were linked to patriotism.
This poster created in 1918 by William McKee evokes the iconic Spirit of ’76. Wheat and vegetables replace the fife and drum. (Library of Congress collection)
In Medina, the Patriotic Committee on Home Gardens started a campaign in April 1917 to make every backyard in Medina a participant vegetable producer.
“The importance of this phase of war activity cannot be overestimated, as every family that provides itself, not only helps to bring down the cost of living, but also sets free for war uses much-needed foodstuffs, and a planter has come to occupy a place of importance in war secondary only to the soldier himself.” (Medina Daily Journal, April 25, 1917)
Committee members included Parke Davis, William U. Lee, Harry W. Robbins, Fred B. Howell, Robert H. Newell, Mrs. David White and Mrs. Eugene Walsh.
The committee campaigned to have every back yard in Medina produce vegetables for the home. Instructional leaflets provided by the Garden Club of America were distributed to schools and factories.
Students were encouraged to encourage their parents to participate. The Lyndonville Enterprise in 1918 proclaimed that “Every boy and girl that helps with the garden is helping win the war.”
The instructional leaflets outlined how best to use a plot of 20 by 30 feet for a succession of spring, summer and fall crops and how the suggested vegetables should be cultivated. It was estimated that working one hour a day on a 20 x 20 ft. plot would provide vegetables for a family of six. Sensibly, the Committee also arranged for the services of a horse and plow and an experienced plowman at a reasonable cost.
The Committee was “besieged by orders.” By May, it had received enough orders for seed potatoes to warrant ordering “a car of Maine potatoes.”
Nationally, the campaign was a success. Home gardens produced around 1.45 million quarts of canned fruit and vegetables, food which critically helped avoid starvation in Europe during the final two years of the war.
Good morning! Grab your favorite cup, fill it up & let’s start this day right… TOGETHER!!!
Hey friends, thank you for all of the feedback since the first part of my article ran two weeks ago. I’m going to pick up right where I left off so feel free to go back and read that if you haven’t already done so. Click here to see “A father with his own hurts often wounded his own son.”
After being filled with anger, bitterness, and resentment toward my father because of how he had bullied and neglected me for most of my childhood I ignored my mother’s plea to say goodbye to him before getting on bus that would take me to Central Christian College in McPherson, KS. If you don’t know where that is just picture the middle of the middle of nowhere. The irony is that, in spite of how my trip had started, my choice to go to school halfway across the country sight unseen was not just to get away from those who had hurt me but also to seek God and find out what it really meant to be a Christian. I wasn’t alone either, some others from church also made the trek including my good friend Tom Rivers. Yes, that Tom Rivers.
We had both been part of the youth group and Sunday School at a local church back in Gerry, NY.During that time, I had certainly grown in my walk with God but, like many others I knew, I had also learned how to look like a Christian on Sunday morning while still living like the world the rest of the week. I knew that there had to be more and, ever since my praying grandmother had passed, I was determined to find out what it was. So, I left my comfort zone and came to Kansas to find God which, as I often joke, was easy because there wasn’t anything else there.
Through a series of events, I found what I was looking for. Late one night while alone in my dorm room I had a long talk with God where I admitted those things I felt guilty and ashamed about only to find a sense of freedom through His forgiveness. If you are familiar with the Parable of the Prodigal son from Luke Chapter 15, I was the son coming home to his father, expecting wrath but finding grace. And in that very moment I sensed God whispering to me, “What about your father?” What about my father I thought. He didn’t deserve my forgiveness. It wasn’t fair. And then it hit me that just a second after asking for mercy myself that I was acting like the bitter older brother in the parable who wasn’t willing to extend that same mercy to another. I broke down and through tears I prayed, “Jesus, help me to have a relationship with my father and help him to have a relationship with you.”
Tom Rivers and Randy LeBaron at a recent high school class reunion at Cassadaga Valley.
From that day on I prayed regularly for my father and also chose to forgive him daily—not because he asked for it or even deserved it but because I understood that to be forgiven I myself needed to be forgiving. (Quick caveat – I am not endorsing staying in a relationship where abuse is taking place. I actually helped my mother to move out of the house and away from my father at one point.) So, after that first year of college I transferred to Roberts Wesleyan which was closer to home, and I started developing a relationship with my dad again. It was never really father son per se but more of a friendship.
I think my father had at the very least realized I was making better choices than my brothers had and respected it. For years we hung out and played cards, I would talk about Jesus, and he would change the subject, I would give him Bibles and he would use them as doorstops.
Shortly after moving to Albion in 2004, I went back home to visit and found him there but without a vehicle. Since he lived out in the country on 88 acres of woods this seemed odd, so I asked what happened. Long story short I discovered that my father had been dealing with depression, as well as some early signs of dementia, and had his car had been impounded after a small fender bender. It was discovered that he had not renewed his registration or had insurance for over 3 years. I also found a box of unopened mail, mainly bills, and learned that his house was about to be foreclosed on. It seemed as if his world was collapsing around him.
I spent the next year paying his past due bills, working with the bank regarding his house, and bringing him to court since there were a lot of charges and fines involved with his driving uninsured. I would be asked by friends and family members why I was spending so much time, energy, and money to help him when he had not done those same things for me. My response was that it was my intention to treat him, not how he had treated me but, how I would have wanted him to treat me. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t easy, and I wrestled with it regularly, but ultimately, I wanted to be an example to my own kids of how to treat others.
Everything came to a head when at the final court hearing the judge told my father that he would drop all fines and charges if he would hand over his license and allow his son to move him to Albion so that he could care for him. I thought that, as the son in question, the judge could have given me a heads up, but I also figured it would never happen because it would mean my father letting go of the two things he prized most in this world—his home and his independence.And then he said yes.
I found an apartment for him at BoBak Estates not too far from us and I made a deal with him, knowing that this would be a stressful transition and that he had been a heavy smoker since he was 9 years old, that for the first year I would drive him down the The Rez to buy his cigarettes but that he had to come to my church. We both kept our ends of the deal and that next summer, after an outdoor service where I had preached a simple gospel message, I was driving my dad home when he said, “I heard every word that you said.”
This was the complete opposite of what I had heard throughout my childhood, when he would say he could never understand a thing I said, so I felt like it was prompt to continue the conversation. I spent the next 4 hours up in my father’s apartment listening to all the things that had happened to him that had kept him at an arm’s length from God. Things like being sexually abused by a nurse when he was hospitalized for the better part of 2 years as a child, and, while serving in the Army in Germany right after WWII, accidentally killing two of his close friends with a mortar blast after being forced to follow an order he didn’t agree with.
After he stopped speaking, I asked him if he wanted to be free from the weight of all he had been carrying around with him the past 70-plus years. He said yes and so we prayed together. He gave his life to Jesus and then he looked up and, probably for the first time since I was a toddler, told me he loved me. Thirteen years of prayers for me to have a relationship with my dad and for him to have a relationship with Jesus were answered that evening.
After that he became one of my biggest cheerleaders and a fantastic “Papa Fuzz” to my kids. I could have chosen bitterness all those years ago but, because I chose forgiveness instead, my relationship with my dad is not defined by our past but by our future. It has been over 12 years now since dad died but I know that I will have eternity to play catch up and I have no regrets.
LYNDONVILLE – The Houseman-Tanner Post 1603 of the American Legion will be performing our flag-in in preparations for Memorial Day on Thursday at 5 p.m. at the Lynhaven Cemetery. We have 445 flags to place and could use the help of any interested parties. We will meet near the flagpole & cannon.
Next I want to put out a friendly reminder. The markers that hold the flags (pictured) are purchased by the Houseman-Tanner Post. These markers are meant to be in the ground year round.
Occasionally, family members or friends take these home during winter months. Please note once they are placed in the ground they become property of the cemetery. If you have taken one please make sure it is returned by Thursday.
This is important because without the marker a veteran may be missed and not have a flag placed. Also the cost for the markers has gone up exponentially in the last 5 years. Bronze markers have been priced out of the post’s ability to purchase from $43 per marker in 2019 to over $145 each this year.
To combat that, the post is now purchasing bronze plated aluminum markers. I will add this, no one honestly taking one home, “for safekeeping” will have any problems from myself or the post, so long as the marker is returned to the proper grave.
That said, any person caught stealing markers (Yes, it has occurred elsewhere) will be prosecuted to the fullest extent. These veterans gave so very much for us to enjoy our freedoms that many take for granted, please help us honor them with the respect they deserve.
