Parishes in Park Saturday, and Masons mark 150
More than most civic groups, the Masons really respect and honor history. This weekend, the local lodge will celebrate some annals of its own. And as usual, the Masons will do it in style. The Liverpool-Syracuse Lodge No. 501 of Free & Accepted Masons will mark its 150th anniversary at 3 p.m. Saturday, May 11, by erecting a four-foot-tall obelisk monument in front of its building at 608 Oswego St., across from Johnson Park in the village. New York State Grand Master James Sullivan is expected to attend.
SAS holds first-ever Battle of the Bands at SRC Arena
Up-and-comers in the Central New York music scene will compete for prizes as well as the coveted title of “Best Band” this weekend, and they’ll support a good cause at the same time. Stand Against Suicide will host its inaugural Battle of the Bands on Saturday, April 20, at the SRC Arena at Onondaga Community College. Doors open at 11 a.m. and bands begin competing at noon. Tickets are $7 for students and $12 for adults. Eighteen bands will compete for a chance at the title as well as prizes.
North Syracuse Family Festival is May 25
The North Syracuse Family Festival will take place from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, May 25, in Lonergan Park, 524 South Main St. (behind Stickley furniture), North Syracuse with free entertainment for young and old.
An artist in our midst: Tom McLaughlin: Honoring the lives of people with autism
Tom McLaughlin calls himself a “bench jeweler,” a man who makes his living working with jewelry in all ways, repairs to jewelry crafting to jewelry design since 1985. He has been co-owner of Lennon’s Jewelers since 1988 when, along with Sheila Hovey, he opened the original store in Great Northern Mall in Clay. Twelve years ago Lennon’s Jewelers moved to Market Fair North, just across the road from Great Northern Mall. Designing jewelry is not just about finding and making beauty in object form, it is about crafting meaningful and beautiful symbols that demarcate key points in our lives. The jeweler is in part a historian.
An artist in our midst: Behind the Red Door: Meet Jenifer Herman
It was just over a year ago when Jenifer Herman, proprietor of Red Door Artisans decided to tear down the original farmhouse (childhood home of both her mom and grandmother) in order to build what was to become a new home for local artists and artisans to showcase and sell their creations. Sitting in the center of a parcel of land that holds the current homes of Herman and her siblings, the old farmhouse needed too much work to make for a suitable contemporary home, but it was an ideal spot to grow her family homestead into a small family business. When the property was being readied for demolition, Herman went through and found objects that would be of later use — old doorknobs, bric-a-brac and, the one most important piece, her grandmother’s original red door, which she had thrown into her garage waiting for the time when she would need it.
Town of Clay to host senior art class ‘Postcards from Paris’
Art and cultural activities aren’t just fun and personally enriching. Studies show participation in the arts has health benefits and promotes the physical, mental and emotional well-being of older adults. The town of Clay is hosting a four-week creative arts program that requires no experience, just a willingness to play. This French-themed creative journey will take participants on a different artistic adventure each week and will end with a lovely art show showcasing everyone’s works.
Sammys tap Spadafore
Former Liverpool High School band director Jim Spadafore will be honored as Music Educator of the Year this week at the Syracuse Area Music Awards show. Spadafore, who lives on Second Street in the village, will receive his special Sammy at the 2013 Sammys Hall of Fame Induction dinner, at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 7, Upstairs at the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, 246 W. Willow St. at the corner of North Franklin Street, in downtown Syracuse.
An artist in our midst: Whatever Works can be beautiful: Marybeth Sorendo
Marybeth Sorendo is an artist who weaves her personal ethic into her work. Six years ago, Sorendo lived in Eastwood. As is the case for many who are moved to create, her art was not a full-time endeavor. She studied painting as a graduate student and later worked in ceramics and mixed media, but she had, as we say, a day job. She also has a partner in her life — her beloved flat coat retriever, Mojo. It occurred to her as she and Mojo engaged in their daily constitutionals, that there was so much beauty discarded by folks. On garbage day the streets of Eastwood were lined with what would become Sorendo’s new medium.
An artist in our midst: Meet Debbie Florentino-Dlugolecki
For the past 30 years, Debbie Florentino-Dlugolecki has worked as a senior court reporter, in Syracuse covering both Onondaga County Court and Supreme Court. Her job, each and every day, requires her to record every word uttered verbatim at court proceedings, every last word, every utterance. She listens, records phonetically, archives and, she says, she learns. Often the ideas that emerge during the course of a trial strike her as new, something to think about, something to ponder or to study a bit later. But, in the course of her work life, as she puts it, she “has no voice.” She is solely the recorder of information.
First class of music practitioners set to play for patients as part of internship program
Six musicians, including a clarinetist who played for the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra (SSO), are poised to be among the first Syracuse-area residents certified as music practitioners through the national Music for Healing and Transition Program, now offered at Upstate University Hospital. As a final step to full certification, the six will embark on a 45-hour internship program, beginning in January, to providing
More and more, people ‘like’ ‘Life In Liverpool’
If you knew about the new longer Saturday hours at the local café, or if you penciled in the concert at the library, it may have been because you saw the information on “Life In Liverpool,” the blog about happenings and life in… Liverpool. Sarah Alamond started the blog as a “mental outlet.” As a parent, Alamond has great demands on her attention and energy. The at-home mom has three children, ranging in age from 2 to 8 years old, including a 6-year-old daughter who has special needs.
Last call for village bon vivant Bob Rotella
Bob Rotella was a real man-about-town. For more than 20 years I’d worked with Bob at WCNY-TV on Old Liverpool Road where I was a cameraman and he was engineer. Whenever something went wrong with my camera, Bob or one of his colleagues from Master Control would rush into the studio to fix it. Back in the 1970s, I’d run into Bob after work at Erie Boulevard East nightspots like Soo-Lin or Casa di Lisa where he enjoyed listening to jazz and rhythm & blues. Years later he became a fixture at the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que which was co-founded in 1988 by his son, Mike Rotella.
Rossi Memorial Dinner to take place March 16
Friends and family of Dominic and Patricia Rossi of Cicero will again host a dinner to honor Dom and Pat’s memory and raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Patricia Rossi served as the town clerk of Cicero from 1993 to 1998. Dominic served as a foreman in the Cicero Highway Department from 1975 to 1995. The St. Jude seventh annual Dominic and Patricia Rossi Memorial Dinner will be held from 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, March 16 at the Welch Allyn Lodge in Skaneateles. New York Times best-selling author and former NFL star Tim Green will be this year’s special guest. Previous dinner special guests have been SU greats Floyd Little, Dan Conley and Kris Joseph, as well as Vincent Pastore of the television series “The Sopranos.”
WCNY launches campaign to promote local causes
WCNY has launched a new effort aimed at helping local nonprofits. “Won’t You Help a Neighbor?” uses the public broadcast station’s many media resources and connections to promote causes near and dear to Central New York residents.
The Molly Project seeks to comfort women with cancer
More than 20 years after losing her mother to cancer, Kristin Atkinson is channeling her grief into helping other women. Atkinson of Cicero, Kristin Johnson of Cicero and Tara Polcaro of North Syracuse started The Molly Project as a way to provide comfort to women affected by cancer and their families. Named after Atkinson’s late mother, The Molly Project got its start a year ago when Johnson’s sister called her, looking for a way to help a co-worker with cancer.
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