BARRE – A photographer from Barre is offering to take professional portraits of pets with proceeds to be donated to the WNY Heroes’ Pawsitive for Heroes Program.

Ashley Bringenberg is organizing her second annual Pooch Playoffs Fundraiser. A pet portrait is $125 with 100 percent given to WNY Heroes. The pets will be photographed at Bringenberg’s studio at the Harvester building in Batavia.

Ashley Bringenberg

“The past few years have been especially hard for charities,” Bringenberg said. “So a group of photographers and I got together and decided to host a competition to find Western New York’s Ulti-Mutt Cutie as a way to help out WNY Heroes and have fun in the new year.”

Bringenberg wants to photograph 32 pooches which would raise close to $3,500 for Pawsitive for Heroes. This donation includes a custom portrait session, photo keepsake keychain, and a swag bag of goodies.

WNY Heroes’ Pawsitive for Heroes program provides service dogs for veterans in our area. The cost to train one service dog is $5,000, Bringenberg said. She would like to meet the cost of training a service dog, knowing the dog would change the life of a veteran.

She welcomes sponsors as well as entries in the Pooch Playoffs.

That contest is a bracket-style competition that starts on March 19 with 32 dogs competing for prizes from local businesses and the title of WNY’s Cutest Canine. Each round, dogs are be placed in pairs and will face off in an online vote. The winner moves forward with the goal to be voted the “Ulti-mutt Cutie of Western New York” and go on to compete in the national competition.

“It’s funny. Our pets are such important members of our families yet most of us don’t think to have a professional portrait taken of them,” Bringenberg  said. “Pooch Playoffs gives everyone a fun way to get a portrait of their pet made, by a professional who knows how to photograph pets, while also supporting Pawsitive for Heroes.”

Contact Bringenberg by Feb. 29 to sponsor the event or to enter a pet. Competition spots are filled on a first come, first served basis.

For more information, check Ashley Bringenberg Photography’s Facebook page. For more on Pawsitive for Heroes, click here.

Photo and information from Medina Mustang Boosters

BATAVIA – Batavia Central School held a winterguard competition on Saturday, in a well-attended event with 25 guards performing in seven classifications.

In Scholastic A, Medina came in 4th place with a score of 58.55 while Victor earned 1st place with 68.36 points.

First place winners in the other classifications included Greece Cadets with 51.56; Gates Regional A with 56.21; Greece A1 with 62.36; Batavia Independent A with  70,40; and Luminosa in Senior class with 73.98.

Medina’s next competition is Saturday, Feb 10, in Victor.

Crystal Hand volunteers as PTA president, Girl Scout leader and Music Booster

Photo by Tom Rivers: Crystal Hand is shown Friday even with her husband Matt and their three daughters, from left: Sam, 18; Al, 17; and Rianne, 12.

ALBION – Crystal Hand was driving home to Albion on Nov. 21 after an appointment in Brockport. It was a rare ride by herself. Usually, she has at least one of her children with her, and often some of their friends.

But at 11:12 a.m. on the day before Thanksgiving, she was driving a Chevy Impala alone on Route 31A in Clarendon. She was nearing a notorious curve in Clarendon, when another car came at her from the opposite direction – in her lane. A collision was unavoidable.

Hand, 40, was badly injured in the crash with a shattered right leg, a left arm broken in two places, a concussion, bruised collarbone and nerve damage in both arms. She has had six surgeries, including putting a rod in her leg from the kneecap to her ankle.

“I’ve been in pain since Nov. 21,” Crystal said during an interview at her home in Albion on West State Street. While she talked she had a bag of frozen vegetables on her aching knee.

She is grateful to be alive, and to have been by herself in the car that day.

Two people in the other car were killed. Justin S. Christmas, 32, of Rochester and Autumn Lynn Dercqu, 22, of Medina didn’t survive. Christmas was driving the car, a Buick. He was eastbound when he crossed a double solid line at a curve, where one of the property owners keeps a sign noting the accidents.

Hand stayed awake after the impact. She turned her car off so it wouldn’t burst into flames. A good Samaritan was quickly on scene to check on her. She directed him to her phone and had him call her husband Matt to let him know she had been hurt in an accident. Matt was working from home and took off to see his wife, but in a blur he first forget his car keys, then his phone.

He came upon the scene with the other car in a field and his wife on a stretcher, being put in an ambulance. She was taken to Strong Memorial Hospital.

Crystal said the pain in her leg that day was the worst she has ever felt, much more intense than giving birth to any of her three children.

In the ambulance she was told the two people in the other car did not survive. “When I heard that my heart broke,” she said.

Hand was hospitalized for about two weeks. She pushed herself to get out in time to see her youngest daughter’s middle school holiday concert. Crystal made it for that Dec. 7 event, positioned up front in a wheelchair.

“I’ve never missed one of their concerts and I wasn’t about to start,” she said.

Rianne, 12, is the youngest of the daughters. Al is 17 and Sam is 18. All have been very involved in the school musical programs.

Their mother is the treasurer of the Albion Music Boosters. She is president of the PTA that serves the elementary school, and also is a Girl Scout leader.

‘Always willing to help anywhere’

“She is all about her family and her kids,” said Rose Allen, the previous PTA president. “Anything with her kids she is all in.”

Allen has known Crystal and Matt for several years now through the PTA and Music Boosters.

“We have done many book fairs and craft nights through the PTA,” Allen said. “I can always depend on her and her husband. They are good people.”

Crystal is very dedicated and reliable to the organizations that serve the local students, and she does it without seeking any attention.

“She is very meek and doesn’t toot her own horn,” Allen said. “She is always willing to help anywhere.”

The Hands have a welcoming home to their children’s friends. They often have movie nights and kids like to hang out there. Allen’s daughter is among the kids who like to visit the Hand family.

Spaghetti dinner benefit at QWL on Feb. 10

Allen is leading a benefit for the family on Feb. 10 with a spaghetti dinner, basket raffle and 50/50 from noon to 3 p.m. at the QWL Building at 3623 Washington St., Albion.

There are 300 tickets available for the dinner and they are $15 each and pre-sale only. Allen is selling tickets (contact her at 585-298-8377), and any PTA or Music Boosters member also has them. Allen also can be reached to donate a basket or they can be dropped at the QWL on Saturday at 8 a.m.

Anyone interested in donating to the family can do it directly through Venmo at @Matthew-Hand-109.

Hand has been receiving in-home nursing care, and occupational and physical therapy. That is ending and she will be going to outpatient clinics for OT and PT, to learn to walk again.

She said she appreciates the many encouraging text messages and cards from the community. Crystal has to do the hunt-and-peck method to respond to texts, and several times a day she drops her phone because she can’t grasp it firmly due to the nerve damage.

She and her husband are thankful their friends formed a food chain right after the accident, frequently dropping off meals for the Hands.

“The community has been an absolute godsend,” Crystal said.

MEDINA – The Medina Area Partnership’s Wine About Winter has proven itself to be a crowd-pleaser, regardless of the weather. When temperatures last year plummeted to near zero, people still made the trek for the annual wine-tasting event.  When 800 tickets went on sale for this year’s event, they didn’t last very long.

Wine About Winter has grown from 350 tickets sold for the first one in 2009 to the 800 now sold. MAP members say they could probably sell more, but feel that 800 is a manageable number. Tickets are sold for $30 each for two start times, 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., to minimize the congestion from the crowds, said Ann Fisher-Bale, former events coordinator with MAP.

Registration takes place at the Medina Senior Center, where participants get a wristband, free bag of goodies and a wine glass. There they also purchase tickets for the many baskets which are raffled off during the event.

Sponsors who provided gift items for the goodie bags and the wine glasses were Albone’s Spray Foam Insulation, Bent’s Opera House and Generations Bank.

Photos by Ginny Kropf: (Left) Medina Area Partnership member Laura Gardner stands in the Medina Senior Center, where hundreds of goodie bags and wine glasses were lined up to give participants of Wine About Winter. (Right) Members of MAP ready wristbands for the 800 participants for today’s Wine About Winter in Medina. Clockwise from left are Sarah Fisher, Ann Fisher-Bale, Wendy Oakes Wilson, Dawn Borchet, Cindy Hewitt and Amy Crandall.

People come from throughout the Western New York region for Ale in Autumn and Wine About Winter, but on Saturday, it seemed like there were a lot of locals who participated, Fisher-Bale said.

Robyn Ottaviano of Medina and Kevin Hinckley of Lyndonville were among the local residents. Hinckley has attended every Wine About Winter, while Ottaviano has been to all but one.

“I love to try different wines and then go back and buy some,” Ottaviano said. “It always a lot of fun to see all the people. It’s exciting to visit the shops and discover things you didn’t know about, and it gets you out on the house in winter.”

Brittany Donovan and Jeffrey Stanton of Middleport are both first-time attendees.

“Our other friends had done it and had fun, so we thought we’d join them to enjoy the wine and have a good time,” Donovan said.

Holleigh Utley of Barker has done the wine event for three or four years.

“Is it fun. Heck, yeah,” she said. “I’m here with my sister and brother-in-law, a girlfriend and bunch of their friends.”

(Left) Brody George, a conductor on excursions at the Medina Railroad Museum, pours wine for Robin Ottaviano of Medina. The Museum’s wine selection was 999 Buffalo’s Chateau Buffalo, a red wine with loganberry. (Right) Holleigh Utley of Barker drops a ticket in the jar for a chance to win a wine basket at the Medina Railroad Museum. Raffle baskets were available at each of the participating merchants at Wine About Winter.

Stephanie Preston of Medina said this is probably her eighth time attending the event. She was with her sister-in-law Rachel Preston, friends Christina Baisley of Rochester and Alicia Barth of Akron, attending for the first time. The girls raved about the cheese and pickles they tasted at The Walsh Hotel.

Fisher-Bale said the MAP committee walked around town after everyone had been checked in.

“Not only was everyone seeming to have fun, but it is a wonderful way to get people familiar with our merchants, in hopes they will come back and shop,” she said.

Twenty-three businesses on Main Street, East Center and West Center participated, in addition to Medina Railroad Museum, the Walsh Hotel, Hustl House, Medina Historical Society and American Legion, all in close proximity to downtown.

Fisher-Bale said wine selections ranged from dry to sweeter.

Another feature this year was information in the goodie bags on an upcoming Murder Mystery event scheduled downtown on May 4.

Photos by Tom Rivers: Dr. Jim Robinson pours “Barry’s Red” wine from 21 Brix in Portland, NY for Sandy Kress of Royalton. She recognized Robinson as her veterinarian. He and his family also own The Vintage Cigar, which was one of 23 wine-tasting sites. He said Wine About Winter is a great way to get people inside and see what the businesses have to offer.

Sandra Baxter, right of Albion and friend Erica Miller of Albion try the wine from Brickstone Cellars in Hammondsport. It was served at Modern Mercantile by Anita Giles, left, and Lisa Mannella.

Nicole Montpetit and Anita Jones, both of Middleport, have fun at Modern Mercantile. Jones said she has been to several Wine About Winter events, and enjoys seeing a vibrant downtown Medina. “Just walking around Medina, it’s so nice to see it is so alive and thriving.”

Susan Howard

ALBION – The Orleans County Conservative Party is announcing its endorsement of Susan Howard for Orleans County district attorney.

Howard has been the first assistant DA for 12 years. Joe Cardone, the current district attorney, is retiring on Dec. 31 after 32 years in the position.

The Orleans County Republican Party earlier today endorsed John Sansone to the next district attorney.

Paul Lauricella, the county Conservative Party chairman, said the Conservative Party leaders met with both Howard and Sansone.

“Both candidates impressed the committee with their knowledge of the office and ability to do the job,” Lauricella said. “Susan and John Sansone are very capable candidates. The majority of the committee chose Susan. Good luck in the June 25th Primary.”

The Conservative didn’t endorse any of the local state legislators or Congresswoman Claudia Tenney.

“We have a 12-year term limit in our bylaws on any candidate that has been in any one position for that time or longer,” Lauricella said. “Assemblyman Steve Hawley reached out but was term limited out years ago.”

State Sen. Rob Ortt and Tenney didn’t not seek the local party’s endorsement.

“We are not going to chase after politicians that in many cases disappoint with their votes or spending sprees,” Lauricella said. “If they want an endorsement they can come in front of the full committee and answer questions. We would rather not endorse than have to be embarrassed by one of their liberal votes. This goes for local candidates also.”

Endorsements include 2 who seek to be new coroners: Dr. Julie Woodworth and Kevin Dann

MEDINA – The Orleans County Republican Committee has endorsed John Sansone to be the district attorney, succeeding Joe Cardone, who is retiring on Dec. 31.

John Sansone

Sansone and Susan Howard both work in the DA’s office, and both have been meeting with town Republican committees. Today they met with the full county committee. There were 79 votes this morning at the Knights of Columbus in Medina, and Sansone secured a majority of the votes.

“I think both the candidates are very talented attorneys,” said Skip Draper, the county Republican chairman. “It’s the committee’s job to vote for their first choice.”

Howard has been the first assistant DA for 12 years. Sansone also is an assistant district attorney.

Draper said he expects there will be a primary in June for district attorney, and may be as well for coroner.

Six people sought three positions for coroner. The committee endorsed incumbent Rocco Sidari of Albion, and backed Kevin Dann of Holley and Dr. Julie Woodworth of Lyndonville.

Scott Schmidt, the county’s chief coroner, did not get enough backing for the endorsement. Cassandra Boring, one of the owners of Mystic Dragon’s Lair in Medina, also sought the endorsement and so did former coroner, Dr. Eric Johnson. Charlie Smith of Ridgeway isn’t seeking re-election.

Dann, a former Holley fire chief, is an EMT for the Ridge Road Fire District and a 911 dispatcher at Orleans County Sheriff’s Office.

Woodworth is a member of the Department of Nursing and Allied Health at Niagara County Community College, where she has been recognized with SUNY’s distinguished teaching award. She has a PhD in nursing education.

Other endorsements today include Claudia Tenney for Congress, Rob Ortt for State Senate, Steve Hawley for State Assembly, and Nadine Hanlon for county clerk.

(Editor’s Note: This article was updated to include Dr. Eric Johnson as one of the six people seeking the endorsement for coroner.)

Photos by Loretta Clark: Mike Vanderjagt, a former kicker with the Indianapolis Colts, signed autographs Monday for students during his visit to the Iroquois Job Corps Center.

MEDINA – The Iroquois Job Corps Center hosted a very special guest on Monday, who brought an inspiring message to students, said Operations Manager John Thomas.

Mike Vanderjagt, a retired NFL kicker and a former first-team all-pro, toured the center and spoke with students and staff.

Vanderjagt has moved to the Lyndonville area, and has been mentoring young athletes, serving as the special teams coach for the Medina High School football team. He had attended a Medina Rotary meeting, where John Thomas met him and set up his visit to the Job Corps Center.

Vanderjagt’s message to students was about believing in themselves and to never give up on their dreams and goals in life. He shared the many challenges he had trying to get to the NFL, and was told he was not good enough. He said he believed in himself, and never gave up.

In 1998, he was signed by the Indianapolis Colts, and in 2003, he became the first kicker in the league’s history to go an entire season, including the playoffs, without missing a field goal or extra point.

Vanderjagt scored 1,067 points in a nine-year career during the regular season, including a league high 145 for the Colts in 1999. He scored 54 more points in nine playoff games.

He played for the Colts for eight seasons and then finished his career with the Dallas Cowboys in 2006. His streak of 42 consecutive field goals is the second longest in NFL history behind 44 by Adam Vinatieri.

Vanderjagt is among the nominees for the 2024 Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Mike Vanderjagt, center, record-breaking kicker in the National Football League, visited Iroquois Job Corps Center on Monday to talk to students. Here, he is presented with an appreciation award by center director Dennis Essom, left, and operations director John Thomas.

Elbert Johnson, 30, was married with 2 young children

Elbert Johnston married Pauline Skinner on June 4, 1913

By Catherine Cooper, Orleans County Historian

“Illuminating Orleans” – Vol. 4, No. 6

HOLLEY – Elbert Johnston, Part 2. In our previous column (click here), we read about Elbert’s move to Holley in 1907 from a journal that he wrote at that time.

Elbert settled in to life in Holley and continued to work at Hudson Canning, the fruit and vegetable processing plant owned by his uncle, Joseph B. Hudson.

When Hudson Canning acquired the Batavia Canning Company plant in Brockport in 1910, Elbert was appointed superintendent. Elbert also managed the Holley plant when his uncle went to Long Island to attend to the original Hudson Canning plant in Mattituck in Suffolk County.

Elbert married Pauline Skinner on June 4, 1913. Born in Rochester on July 6, 1889, Pauline was the daughter of DeWitt and Stella Skinner. Pauline worked in the office of the Shinola Company, a Rochester based company which produced boot and shoe polish.

The couple was engaged on New Year’s Eve, 1912, following a courtship of six months. The wedding took place at Pauline’s home, 209 Flower City Park, in Rochester, on June 4, 1913, with about sixty guests in attendance. Elbert was then aged 26 and Pauline was 24.

“The bride wore a gown of white voile trimmed with ratine lace, made over white silk and carried a shower Bouquet of Bride roses and lilies of the valley….The groom’s gift to the bride was a gold monogram watch and pin.”

A wedding supper was served following the ceremony. According to a family story, an ice-cream maker set up on the front porch was snatched by  young boy, but the bride’s father chased him down the street and retrieved it.

Elbert Johnston photographed on Sept.1, 1918, with his daughter, Arietta Jean, born March 9, 1917.

The couple honeymooned in New York City and lived in Brockport at first, but later moved to Holley, to a house across the tracks from Elbert’s uncle’s home.

Pauline assisted with office work at the canning factory.

Their daughter, Arietta Jean, was born on March 9, 1917, at Park Ave. Hospital in Rochester. Pauline had stayed with her parents for two weeks before the birth, to be close to the hospital. Elbert visited frequently. Arietta was named for Elbert’s mother, Arietta Hudson Johnston.

Pregnant with their second child, Pauline went to stay with her parents in Rochester again, in September 1918. Arrietta accompanied her.

A letter, which Elbert wrote to Pauline on Wednesday, September 25, 1918, survives. It is full of the details of their everyday lives. Elbert wrote that he brought some wood home and set a fire in the kitchen as the house was damp, gathered dandelions for the rabbit’s breakfast and cleaned the hutch. Lad, their Irish setter dog, spent a lot of time at the office, sleeping at the back of the stove. He included a snippet of gossip: “Chet and his wife are separating.” Elbert enquired after Arietta Jean and wrote that he would see them on the coming Sunday.

Their son, Robert Walter, who was named for Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott, was born on Saturday, September 28, 1918. But when Elbert went to visit on Sunday, as promised, he was denied entry. Visitors were not allowed at the hospital on account of the Spanish flu epidemic.

Within a week, a quarantine was declared in Holley where the flu was rampant. Elbert contracted it. His Aunt Allie cared for him, but he died on October 18, 1918, just shy of his thirty-first birthday, having been ill for just one week. He was buried at Riverside Cemetery in Rochester.

His son, Robert Walter, was two weeks old. Elbert had not had an opportunity to see him because of the quarantine. Arietta Jean was nineteen months old.

Following Elbert’s death, Pauline remained in Rochester with her parents. She never returned to their home in Holley, which was sold. Later, since she needed to earn a living, and was an accomplished seamstress, she took a correspondence course in dressmaking and started a business.

This poignant tale is sourced from items graciously donated to the Orleans County Dept. of History by Gail Wadsworth, daughter of Arietta Jean. Considering the domestic upheaval surrounding Elbert’s death and the fact that Pauline moved house several times, it is quite remarkable that these items survived.

True, this material just provides details on the life and death of one individual. But from a local history point of view, its significance is that it helps us understand the great events of the time. It also points to the role of the local history entity in the preservation of such unique and irreplaceable documents.

In our previous column, we mentioned that Elbert and some friends attended a Political Suffrage program in Holley in 1907. It is apparent from Elbert’s comments following the event that he was not in favor of women’s suffrage, which is surprising, given that he was a modern young man from New York City who enjoyed the company of young ladies. His stance starkly indicates the daunting negativity and prejudice that faced the suffragists.

We can read that 65,000 people in the United States died from the Spanish flu, but when we read about a relatable individual, a healthy young man from Holley who succumbed having been ill for a week, we realize how virulent it was and the long-lasting impact it had on so many families.

Incidentally, at one point, Pauline and her family were neighbors of the Reverend Randall Kenyon family, whose housemaid was May Howard, a young English girl, one of the survivors of the Titanic, who is buried at Boxwood Cemetery, Medina…but that’s another story.

Free solar-viewing glasses also will be available

Provided photo: Hoag Library will be distributing solar-viewing glasses on Saturday for free. The cost is covered by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Space Science Institute, through its Solar Eclipse Activities for Libraries (SEAL) program. The program is providing 5 million solar-viewing glasses to 10,000 libraries.

Dr. Michael Richmond

ALBION – Hoag Library will welcome a speaker at noon on Saturday about the upcoming solar eclipse. Orleans County is in the path of totality on April 8, when the moon will fully block out the sun from about 3:18 to 3:22 p.m.

In Western New York partial eclipse begins at 2:04 p.m. with the partial eclipse over at 4:32 p.m., according to NASA. Just before the near darkness approaches, the shade of the moon yields a sliver of light.

Dr. Michael Richmond, a professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, will discuss the significance and rarity of the total eclipse during a presentation at Hoag. Richmond teaches both physics and astronomy courses and runs the RIT Observatory.

Map courtesy of I Love NY and shows a path of totality for the solar eclipse on April 8. A map of the contiguous U.S. shows the path of the 2024 total solar eclipse stretching on a narrow band from Texas to Maine.

ALBION – The Albion Police Department today is announcing four people have been charged after a fight at about 9:20 p.m. on Jan. 21.

Police officers responded to a reported fight in the area of Caroline Street and Ingersoll Street. Upon arrival, officers found a victim with non-life-threatening stab wounds to her head, arm and back, said Police Chief David Mogle.

The victim was transported to the Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester for treatment and has since been released.

Throughout the investigation, the Albion Police Department arrested a 16-year-old female for assault in the 2nd degree (Class D felony) and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree with intent to use (Class A misdemeanor).

Additionally, the Albion Police arrested two other 17-year-old females and a 21-year-old male named Tyzion Henry for endangering the welfare of a child (Class A misdemeanors).

The 16-year-old female suspect was transported to Orleans County Court for arraignment in the Criminal Court for youth. The two 17-year-old juveniles arrested were released with appearance tickets referrable to probation. Henry was released on an appearance ticket returnable to the Town of Albion Court.

The Albion Police Department was assisted by the Orleans County Sheriff’s Office and the New York State Police.

ALBION – An Albion man was charged with third-degree robbery, a Class D felony, this morning.

Donovan J. Conner

Donovan J. Conner, 36, of Beechwood Apartments in Albion was at the McDonald’s on East Avenue this morning at about 8:30. Conner allegedly became upset because he believed he had been shorted on his change, Albion Police Chief David Mogle said.

Conner then argued with a manager, who advised Conner several times to leave the site.

“During the argument the customer pushed the manager of McDonald’s and entered the area behind the counter,” Mogle said. “The customer then took money from the cash register and left.”

Conner, in addition to robbery, also was charged with two counts of harassment, a violation; aggravated unlicensed operation in the second degree, unlicensed operator and trespass.

Conner was transported to the Albion Police Department for processing and then taken to the Orleans County Jail awaiting to be seen by a judge for an order of protection. Conner was issued appearance tickets for all the charges.

The Albion Police Department was assisted by the Orleans County Sheriff’s Office, the New York State Police, and the Orleans County Major Felony Crime Task Force.

MEDINA – The Iroquois Job Corps Center is teaming with the Medina Rotary Club in a project adding Buddy Benches to village parks.

Job Corps students are building four of the benches, with the cost of the materials covered by the Rotary Club. John Thomas, operations director at the Job Corps, is a member of the local service group.

Rotary also is paying for the materials for Adirondack chairs that students will build, with the chairs then sold to community members in a fundraiser for Rotary. Seven of the chairs are complete. The Rotary is finalizing the cost for the chairs.

“The chairs and benches are beautiful and very well constructed,” said Peter Bartula, Medina Rotary president. “It works out great for everybody. They learn a skill and the community benefits with new benches for the parks.”

(Left) Iroquois Job Corps’ carpentry student Jeremiah Caldwell works on one of the buddy benches which will be placed in four local Medina parks as a way to spread goodwill. (Right) Students in the carpentry program at Iroquois Job Corps Center work on Adirondack chairs, which the Medina Rotary Club will sell to raise money for the community.

Photo by Ginny Kropf: John Betts and Laura Scarantine from Medina Memorial Hospital’s Respiratory Services Department will be able to perform pulmonary function testing with the addition of that benefit to the hospital.

MEDINA – Orleans Community Health has announced the latest addition to its comprehensive healthcare services at Medina Memorial Hospital, with the introduction of pulmonary function testing.

This service is now available through the hospital’s Respiratory Therapy Department, continuing their efforts to offer important services all in one location, according to Scott Robinson, director marketing, communications and outreach.

Pulmonary function testing is a crucial diagnostic tool that measures how well the lungs take in and exhale air. This advanced testing allows health professionals to access respiratory function, diagnose lung conditions and develop personalized treatment plans for patients with respiratory issues.

Key features of Orleans Community Health/Medina Memorial Hospital’s pulmonary function testing service are:

• State-of-the Art Technology. The Respiratory Department at Medina Memorial Hospital is equipped with the latest in pulmonary function technology. This ensures accurate and reliable results for healthcare providers to make informed decisions about patient care.
• Comprehensive Respiratory Care: With the addition of PFT, Medina Memorial Hospital expands on its comprehensive range of respiratory care services. The hospital’s experienced respiratory therapy team is dedicated to delivering high-quality care to individuals with a variety of respiratory conditions.
• Patient-Centered Approach: The addition of PFT services aligns with the goal of Orleans Community Health to make healthcare services more accessible and convenient for the community.

“The addition of pulmonary function testing to Medina Memorial Hospital brings a need to the community that previously was not accessible or convenient for the average individual,” said Kimberly Gray, chief nursing officer of Orleans Community Health. “Patients may come in for testing who have asthma, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, shortness of breath, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), constant coughing or other respiratory concerns their doctors might have.”

Orleans Community Health invites the community to learn more about the pulmonary function testing service and other healthcare offerings at Medina Memorial Hospital by contacting the Respiratory Therapy Department at (585) 798-8044.

Jeff Lewis served many years as a VP with PathStone

Photo by Ginny Kropf: Medina native Jeff Lewis talks about his vision for the future of the Medina Railroad Museum. He was named its executive director in January.

MEDINA – The new director of the Medina Railroad Museum is no stranger to Medina.

Jeff Lewis, now a resident of Carlton, was born in Lockport and grew up on Elm Street in Medina. After graduating from Medina High School, he spent 1969 to 1974 in the Navy, where he served on a submarine.

His career led him to PathStone in Rochester in 1976, where he was vice president of direct service operations, retiring in 2022. During his years there, Lewis led a group of more than 200 people in the Northeast, Midwest and Puerto Rico to provide job training, job development and placement and specialized training. He was also the IT director.

He was enjoying retirement buying and selling old bottles, coins and stamps, when he got a call from Nyla Gaylord, director of United Way of Orleans County, who told him the Medina Railroad Museum was looking for a director. In December he met with the museum’s board president, George Bidleman, and started in his new position after the holidays.

“What I hope to bring to this museum is professionalism to the staff, consistent policies and procedures and a level of excellence,” Lewis said. “I am also experienced in grant writing.”

He has already developed a work plan for employees and presented it to the board. Among all the employees and board members, they represent more than 200 years of experience in trains and model railroading, Lewis said.

“With their help, we will move this museum to a place where we are the best museum in New York, and certainly the best train museum.”

His goal is to create interactive displays so visitors get to do more than just look at static displays.

“The role of a museum is not only to protect and preserve the history of a community, but to share it,” Lewis said.

He plans to create relationships with area merchants to benefit them and the museum.

“If we can find partners in the community, we will be good neighbors,” Lewis said. “I lived in this community. I love this community. This is home.”

Staff are already busy archiving and cataloging everything in the museum.

Lewis will work alongside Dawn Winkler, who started at the museum in 2005, working with museum founder Marty Phelps and his fiancée, Linda Klein. Winkler eventually moved into the director position, until leaving in 2018, only to be brought back in late 2022. She has assumed the position of operations director/events coordinator.

“I look at Dawn as a partner in operating the museum,” Lewis said. “Not only do we need to focus on our collection and interactive displays, but to expand rail events.”

Currently the museum hosts an Easter train, Day Out with Thomas, fall foliage trains and Polar Express. With the recent purchase of a third dining car, dinner/murder mystery trains are a possibility.

Winkler said their combined events bring 32,000 people a year to Medina.

The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.