2024 Year in Review in Photos: A historic solar eclipse and community triumphs, tragedies
Photos by Tom Rivers
Dr. Michael Richmond, an astronomy and physics professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, was at Hoag Library on Feb. 3 to discuss the upcoming total eclipse on April 8, the first total solar eclipse in Western New York in nearly a century. The last one was on Jan. 24, 1925. During the four minutes of totality, the sun may look like a halo with the blockage of the moon. “It’s unreal,” Richmond told about 75 people during a presentation at Hoag Library. “The sky will be completely dark, except the glowing corona. It’s one of the things in the natural world that makes people go, ‘Awesome!’”
It was a busy year in Orleans County in 2024, with many special events leading up to the rare solar eclipse experience. Orleans County was in the path of totality on April 8. It was a bit cloudy during the 4-minute eclipse that started at about 3:20 p.m.
Here are some other photos from 2024:
Ayden Coston, 14, of Albion takes a tumble on the sled at the bottom of the sledding hill at Bullard Park on Jan. 14. This was the first big snowfall of winter for people to go sledding and get on their snowmobiles. The sledders braved the hill despite strong winds and temperatures in the low 20s.
Chris Forrester, a volunteer at a Jan. 22 food distribution in Albion in the Platt Street municipal parking lot, carries a chicken to a car with two senior citizens. Forrester started volunteering at the monthly distributions about a year earlier. She tries to be high energy in greeting the people, even when it’s 20 degrees out like on Jan. 22. “Everyone deserves a smile,” she said.
Foodlink brought a truck of food from Rochester to Albion. Foodlink also does distributions at the Orleans County 4-H Fairgrounds in Knowlesville and in Lyndonville at the Presbyterian Church.
Small town Albion gave a huge show of support for Saul Harrison and his family on Jan. 27. About 1,000 people attended a benefit on his behalf at Dubby’s Tailgate to raise money to help Harrison offset some bills while he is treated for cancer. Harrison, 50, a popular youth sports coach, youth worker for the county DSS, and a deacon at Shiloh Church. Harrison greeted people at a benefit, shaking many hands and receiving many hugs. He said the outpouring of support was very humbling.
Laurie Banker of Albion has wine poured in her glass by Brittany Moden of Victorianbourg Wine Estate in Wilson during the Feb. 3 Wine About Winter in Medina. They are inside the Coffee Pot Café, one of 23 stops for people to get a wine-tasting. Banker attended the event with 14 of her friends. “It’s a fun way to break up the winter and the weather today is beautiful,” she said. The event was a fast sell-out in the dead of winter with all 800 tickets sold.
Nick Hollenbeck dances to “Twist and Shout” with his daughter Emma, age 7, during the Father-Daughter Dance on Feb. 16 at the Carlton Rec Hall. About 125 people attended the dance. The event returned after a four-year absence. “We have fun dancing together,” Hollenbeck said. “”It’s something that is fun to do that is just for us.”
On March 1, the back of Holley’s beloved restaurant, Sam’s Diner, collapsed in a pile of rubble today. The wall gave out at about 9:30 a.m. The diner wasn’t open yet and no one was injured. A special operations team from Monroe County was at the scene to check the stability of Sam’s. There are also many local firefighters, code enforcement and the Orleans County Emergency Management Office.
The Gitsis family has owned the diner for nearly 50 years. Sam Gitsis opened it in 1978. It is one of Holley’s most popular gathering places. George Gitsis, the son of Sam Gitsis, is the current owner. He has worked this year to rebuild and get the restaurant back open, which hasn’t happened yet at the close of 2024.
Justin Laureano, right, and Nick Picardo, the Kendall school superintendent, embrace on the basketball court on March 7 during a fundraiser for the Amy Laureano Fund. Amy, Justin’s wife, was a much-loved first grade teacher at Kendall. She passed away on July 30. Jason is an elementary school physical education teacher.
Picardo joined Laureano and his children in the starting lineup during a friendly basketball game featuring Kendall teachers vs. Holley faculty.
“She was magnificent,” Laureano said about his wife, a well-regarded mentor to younger teachers in the elementary school. “She was a spitfire woman who touched a lot of people.”
Loreli Ryan dances to “Maniac” with the Medina varsity winter guard team during the March 9 “Colorburst” show at Medina High School. There were 25 guard units competing at the event, up from 19 from a year ago at the Winter Guard Show in Medina. About 500 people attended the competition.
Jimmie Swift starred as Gaston, an ultra-masculine villain who is determined to marry Belle in Kendall’s production of Beauty and the Beast. He carries his bumbling sidekick LeFou, who is played Mike Hallowell. Kendall performed the show on March 15-16. All five of the Orleans County schools performed musicals in the spring.
It got dark out on April 8 for about 4 minutes beginning at 3:19 p.m. for the solar eclipse. Many were disappointed by the cloud cover, but the sky got spooky and birds took off flying in wild directions. Darkness settled over downtown Albion in this photo looking from the First Presbyterian Church of Albion, which tailored the message on its sign to tie in with the historic event, the first total eclipse in Orleans County since 1925.
A pickup truck plunged into the Erie Canal in Medina on April 13. The truck was headed south on Route 63 (North Gravel Road) but failed to negotiate a right turn onto the lift bridge. The truck went straight and fell into the Erie Canal, which was drained. The driver wasn’t seriously injured from the crash. Automotive Solutions in Medina used a heavy wrecker tow truck to pull the pickup from the canal.
Albion Fire Chief Jeremy Graham and firefighters from several departments responded to a fire at Oak Orchard Estates just before midnight on April 14. Fire engulfed a trailer resulting in the death of William E. Christy, age 68. Several of his neighbors, firefighters and responding law enforcement officers tried to get inside and help him.
Members of the second grade Glee Club at Oak Orchard Primary School sang three songs to help celebrate the tree planting on Earth Day in Medina on April 26. Here they are singing, “This Land Is Your Land.” Medina continued its Arbor Day tradition by planting nearly 70 trees
Cheech, one of the pro wrestlers who competed April 26 in the Medina High School gym, acknowledges the crowd after he won a five-man scramble. It was one of the featured battles in the “Spring Smash,” a benefit for the East Shelby Volunteer Fire Company. Empire State Wrestling brought a group of pro wrestlers, including three with ties to Orleans County, for the event which was attended by 450.
Everett “Frenchy” Downey is shown on May 11, two weeks before he retired from selling and repairing televisions, stoves, laundry machines, refrigerators and freezers for six decades in Orleans County. Frenchy called it a career at age 94.
“I have loved what I’ve been doing every day,” Downey said in the showroom at Frenchy’s at 13576 Ridge Rd. “I got to know a lot of people. I always have thought of my customers as my friends. I want to help them if I can.”
Lisa Bower-Logsdon, owner of Lisa’s Dace Boutique for 47 years, is hugged by Kamryn Berner, one of her faculty choreographers, at the end of a May 11 recital at the Holley Junior-Senior High School Auditorium. Heather Kelley, second from right, and Caitlin Milizia, the other choreographers on staff, move in to congratulate Bower-Logsdon on her career. Kelley succeeded Bower-Logsdon as the owner.
“The dance studio became my second home, as I know it was for so many of our students,” Bower-Logdson said. “It was there that I met such wonderful families and made everlasting friendships. Bot now, it is time to pass the torch to capable hands and I am confident that this studio will continue to thrive.”
There were no injuries on June 6 after stalled truck was hit by a train in Fancher. A flatbed tow truck from A & M Transmissions and Complete Automotive Center had just left a parking area north of the railroad tracks when the truck stalled on the tracks as a train was rounding the bend to the east.
Father Mark Noonan, priest for a family of six Catholic churches in Orleans and eastern Niagara counties, met with about 35 parishioners on June 19 for about two hours at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Holley. Father Noonan went over recent data, showing a declining number of priests and church attendees in the 8-county Diocese of Buffalo. The Diocese would announce it was closing St. Mark’s in Kendall and St. Stephen’s in Middleport.
Daci Doward shakes hands with Albion school district superintendent Mickey Edwards on June 28 during Albion’s commencement, which included 130 graduates.
Gerald “Shorty” Nellist, a World War II veteran, served as grand marshal of the Fourth of July parade in Lyndonville. He is driven in a car by his son-in-law Harold Suhr. Nellist would pass away on Dec. 2 at age 97.
Heidi Franco-Lopez of Albion celebrated a quinceañera for her 15th birthday. It was a big party at the Elba fire rec hall on July 6. Many of her friends and family in Albion attended the celebration that is popular in the Latin American culture.
A barge carried two sections of a bridge on the Erie Canal early in the morning of July 19. The barge is headed west near the curve in the canal in Gaines Basin. The transport of the bridge, in four sections that were 266 feet long, was featured prominently in the media during its three-week journey from Albany to Buffalo along the canal. The bridge was set in place in October over the I-190 near the Niagara Street exit.
Caleb Knoll, 7, of Lyndonville leads “Rose” around the show ring during the Clover Bud showmanship competition in the Dairy Show on July 23 during the Orleans County 4-H Fair. It was Caleb’s first time showing an animal at the fair.
Stacey Kirby Steward painted an agricultural theme on a fiberglass ox statue during the Orleans County 4-H Fair during the last week of July. The ox was painted as part of a celebration of the Orleans County bicentennial in 2025.
The band Tryst from Rochester closed out the Rock the Park 9 music festival at Bullard Park on Aug. 3. Tryst opened with “Shut Up and Dance” by Walk the Moon.
The concert by Tryst capped two days of music with about 1,000 people attending the festival.
Bill Lattin, retired Orleans County historian, speaks during an Aug. 11 tour of the cemetery for the Orleans County Alms House on County House Road in Albion. About 75 people attended the tour, which highlighted a once-forgotten cemetery. Lattin spoke at an Albion seventh-grade class in 2010, which spurred interest in the cemetery. The students helped to get the site cleared of overgrown vegetation and have the head stones reset.
Jim Kirby holds an apple that was battered by hail on Aug. 11. Kirby said 100 of his 170 acres of apples were badly damaged by hail. Several Orleans County apple farms experienced significant loss from the hail.
The community stepped up in a big way at benefit for Eli Howard on Sept. 21 at the Sacred Heart Club in Medina. Eli Howard, left, is shown with his family and other loved ones in the kitchen at Sacred Heart Club. He is next to his daughters Jelia and Kylee, and Eli’s wife Jana. Howard, 50, is battling stage 4 metastatic prostate cancer.
There were more than 200 baskets and gift cards in the raffle, as well as other items in a silent auction and 50/50 drawings. The 500 chicken barbecue dinners sold out and there was a line on North Gravel Road from the lift bridge to The Gallagher for the dinners.
“I’m never at a loss for words, but I am today,” Howard said. “It takes a community to help and that’s what we have today.”
The Holley school community dressed up as Disney characters for the annual parade through the village on Sept. 27. The freshmen class created a float with a theme from the Pirates of Caribbean.
A group gathers in the chapel at Boxwood Cemetery on Oct. 6 for the third annual Boxwood at Night event. The Friends of Boxwood Cemetery lit up many of the monuments, trees and other parts of the cemetery, inviting the public to “see the cemetery in a new light.” More than 200 people attended. The event included nine different docents who portrayed people buried in the cemetery.
Ernestine Freeman (right), a resident at The Village of Orleans Health and Rehabilitation Center in Albion, passes out treats to Tristan Streams of Lyndonville, who is followed by his mother, Mercedes Streams. They attended a “Haunted Hallway” at the nursing home on Oct. 26.
It was the first “Haunted Hallway” at The Villages, an effort to raise some money for the activities fund and also get people inside to meet some of the residents.
Medina High School student Riley Tompkins dressed as an elf and his classmate Logan Trillizio wore a Santa costume in the Home for the Holidays 5K in Medina on Nov. 30. They are sprinting at the end of the race on North Main Street near the American Legion. There were 150 participants in the event with temperatures in the low 30s.
Lyndonville lit up 82 Christmas trees on Dec. 7 in its annual holiday tradition at Veterans Park. Lyndonville started decorating Christmas trees in the community in 2013 with 26 the first year. Many families, businesses and organizations decorate the trees.
The Charles W. Howard Hometown Parade on Dec. 14 in Albion was capped with this float with Santa in a sleigh on a trailer with a band, Christmas trees and reindeer in flight. A group of volunteers tried to create a float with the flair of the late Charles W. Howard, who ran a Santa school in Albion from 1937 until his death in 1966. Howard also was the Santa for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and operated Christmas Park in Albion.
A construction worker who labored on the rehabilitation of the Main Street lift bridge in Albion takes photos of a 40,000-pound crane crossing the bridge at 4:30 p.m. on Dec. 27 as part of a final inspection before the bridge reopened to traffic. The bridge was closed for more than two years for an extensive rehab. About 80 percent of the steel is new on the bridge that was originally constructed in 1914.
