Mountain Home, May 2025 by Mountain Home

GlassFest

Dynamic Duo of by David Higgins

Coleen Fabrizi

REIMAGINED

CARDIAC & VASCULAR CARE

REIMAGINING: ACCESS

Access expert cardiovascular care at any of our 14 locations with convenient scheduling options, including online booking and virtual visits, while benefiting from a team-based approach and personalized care.

REIMAGINING:

INNOVATION

Innovative treatment options such as TAVR, cutting-edge hybrid operating rooms with real-time imaging, and specialized programs such as the Heart Valve Clinic deliver precise care and safer outcomes. On-site clinical trials provide patients with access to research on treatments for conditions such as atrial fibrillation, congestive heart failure, and lipid disorders.

REIMAGINING:

PATIENT-CENTERED CARE

Recover more quickly in a supportive care environment with private rooms and nearby ICU and maintain your long-term heart health with support from one of our comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation programs.

Choose Guthrie, where heart care is truly REIMAGINED.

Over 3,600 Cardiovascular Procedures Last Year

Largest Cardiovascular Team in the Area:

• 20 Cardiologists

• 5 Vascular Surgeons

• 3 Cardiothoracic Surgeons

• 33 Advanced Practice Providers

Karey

Lilace Mellin Guignard

Karey

Dynamic Duo of Glassfest

By David Higgins

Gayle Morrow

By Lilace Mellin Guignard

By Carolyn Straniere

Cover photo and this page (top) Coleen Fabrizi and Chris Sharkey by Wade Spencer. (middle) Richard Petty and Marcos

Helping people buy houses in communities we call home. For 150+ years, C&N has helped individuals and families to purchase a home. Today, we continue to offer great rates, same-day prequalification, low/no down payment options and the personalized service you expect from C&N.

*Subject to credit approval.

Banik A ccounting Amy Packard

c ov E r d E sign

Wade Spencer

c ontributing W rit E rs

David Higgins, Karey Solomon, Carolyn Straniere c ontributing P hotogr AP h E rs

Eric Parks, Lynne Rusinko, Matthew Stevens, Carolyn Straniere d istribution t EAM

Dawn Litzelman, Grapevine Distribution, Linda Roller t h E b EA gl E

Nano

Cosmo (1996-2014) • Yogi (2004-2018)

ABOUT US: Mountain Home is the award-winning regional magazine of PA and NY with more than 100,000 readers. The magazine has been published monthly, since 2005, by Beagle Media, LLC, 39 Water Street, Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, 16901, online at mountainhomemag.com or at issuu.com/mountainhome. Copyright © 2025 Beagle Media, LLC. All rights reserved. E-mail story ideas to editorial@ mountainhomemag.com, or call (570) 724-3838.

TO ADVERTISE: E-mail info@mountainhomemag.com, or call us at (570) 724-3838.

AWARDS: Mountain Home has won over 100 international and statewide journalism awards from the International Regional Magazine Association and the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association for excellence in writing, photography, and design.

DISTRIBUTION: Mountain Home is available “Free as the Wind” at hundreds of locations in Tioga, Potter, Bradford, Lycoming, Union, and Clinton counties in PA and Steuben, Chemung, Schuyler, Yates, Seneca, Tioga, and Ontario counties in NY.

SUBSCRIPTIONS: For a one-year subscription (12 issues), send $24.95, payable to Beagle Media LLC, 39 Water Street, Wellsboro, PA 16901 or visit mountainhomemag.com.

Dynamic Duo of

GlassFest

Coleen Fabrizi and Chris Sharkey

Are the Wonder Women Behind

Corning’s Unique Street Fair

by David Higgins

It’s a Memorial Day weekend delight: music, food, arts and crafts vendors, fireworks. Some of the best glassblowers on the planet are on the outdoor stages, using open flame to create dazzling shapes. Little kids marvel at the street entertainers. All along Corning’s historic five-block Market Street, wine lovers sip Finger Lakes offerings at streetside tables, shoppers explore charming boutiques, and hungry folks find a variety of sustenance. GlassFest is a unique celebration of glass and the fire arts, a one-of-a-kind shopping mecca, and one of the best hometown fairs in the entire country.

Yes, it’s magical, but it was created through determination and sheer hard work. Think of the logistics required: parking, traffic protocols, restrooms, lining up vendors, booking entertainment, obtaining legal clearances, and then managing the eventual cleanup. It’s not quite Eisenhower on D-Day, to be sure, but it’s a lot of responsibility and an awful lot of stress. And what about that great variable, the weather?

Courtesy Gaffer District

“Although I haven’t figured out how to manage Mother Nature, we always focus on the safety of our guests and work around weather conditions accordingly,” says Coleen Fabrizi, outgoing Gaffer District executive director. The weather has generally been excellent—knock on wood (or maybe glass)—but GlassFest has specifically been designed to be a joyful experience, rain or shine.

Now in its sixteenth year, GlassFest wishes to pay a fond farewell to Coleen and to Christine Sharkey, two women who largely helped envision and build this friendly family carnival. Coleen, a former president of the Corning Area Chamber of Commerce, has led the Gaffer District since 2008; she will retire in June. Chris, formerly a Gaffer District board chair and then president of Corning Enterprises, retired in 2024 after forty-three years of working in and for the Crystal City. Together and with their capable team, they’ve spent thousands of hours to make GlassFest the event it has become. Their reward is not monetary.

“I love watching the experience unfold on people’s faces,” says Coleen. “There’s something magical about watching a child's eyes as they see the hot glass show on Centerway Square stage, and then explore the many kids’ activities sprinkled throughout the weekend.”

Exit ArtFest and LPGA

Heart of GlassFest

Hot glass demonstrations on the street (top) and at Corning Museum of Glass where Coleen Fabrizi MCs (below) are the core of this event.

GlassFest had its roots in an older street festival, called ArtFest, held in mid-July from 1993 through 2007. It was a fun festival, but, over the years, turnout sagged, and by 2007 there was no longer much enthusiasm from either vendors or organizers for another go-round. Coleen had assumed leadership of the Gaffer District in January 2008, and she saw the writing on the wall.

“Attendance had been waning for years and…(ArtFest) just wasn’t working,” Coleen told the Ithaca Times. Perhaps it was too similar to other street fairs in the region, such as the Park Avenue Festival in Rochester and other events in Penn Yan, Orchard Park, Canandaigua, and Binghamton, many of which shared the same circuit of vendors.

And there was another disappointing situation at hand: in 2009, the Corning Classic portion of the Ladies’ Professional Golf Association Tour had also quietly come to an end. Held in late May since 1979, the Classic had showcased some of the finest golfers in the world at the lovely Corning Country Club. It brought booming trade and friendly consumers to local businesses, and also raised huge amounts for charity, but had reached a point of diminishing returns that was strained even further by the economic crisis of 2008. Its longtime sponsor, Corning Incorporated, struggled with LPGA management over issues including prize money and revenue, and made the difficult and reluctant decision to cancel the event. For a small town that depends hugely upon tourism, Corning was suddenly bereft of an important holiday weekend event, and local merchants, hotels, and restaurants were deeply and negatively affected. Something needed to be done; the cavalry needed to be called in. Enter Coleen and Chris, and enter GlassFest.

History Takes Center Stage

The first task in creating an appealing street festival was to make it special, to separate it from the pack. That was the easy part.

“We are the city of glass,” says Coleen. “Not just in innovation and science, but also in art.” A street fair to specifically honor Corning’s heritage? Perfect. The aptly labeled Crystal City was built on glass manufacturing; to this very day, an old steam whistle that once summoned artisans to work remains a part of the fabric of the town’s daily life: it blows at 8 a.m., at lunchtime, and at 5 p.m., and there are retired glass workers who still pace their daily routines to it. And then, Coleen explains, a mighty partner stepped up.

“(GlassFest) was actually a joint venture between Corning’s Gaffer District and the Corning Museum of Glass,” she says. “The museum came to us and said, ‘We know glass, you know event planning’—and the rest is history.” Save for a much smaller glass fair on the West Coast, there’s nothing like it in the country, and over Memorial Day weekend some of the most noteworthy glass artists and aficionados on the planet will flock to Corning.

The more difficult part—as always—was to find financial backing. Someone, namely Coleen and Chris, had to shake that tin cup and politely ask local businesses for sponsorship. It was a difficult time for “the ask,” as the country was still emerging from recession in 2010, but Coleen found some willing attitudes among those they spoke with.

“Fortunately, when I met with our prospective sponsors, there was no hesitation. Corning Inc., Chemung Canal Trust Company, CMoG, and Simmons-Rockwell have been spectacular supporters from day one, and I could not be more grateful.”

Getting to Know Corning, Glass, and Gaffers

Coleen, a Finger Lakes native, is one of six children, and credits that in part for her work ethic and organizational skills. As the daughter of home-based small business owners, she helped answer the home/work phone by the time she was in elementary school and, like her siblings, pitched in with house and farm chores throughout childhood.

“Growing up on a farm was a wonderful place to develop a reality-based work ethic that included equal parts determination and innovative problem solving,” she recalls. She wasn’t very familiar with Corning when she first visited with a friend in 2002. Upon seeing Market Street’s beautiful architecture and shopping options, she had a “Mary Tyler Moore” moment, referring to the iconic TV show’s opening credits where a bright young ingenue falls in love with a new city and its possibilities.

“I stood in Centerway Square and did a little twirl, like Mary did, though I didn’t literally throw my hat in the air, and I thought, ‘I could move my career here.’”

And Coleen did just that. She served as president of the Corn ing Area Chamber of Commerce, then, in 2008, assumed leader ship of the Gaffer District, a special long-term project of Corning Enterprises.

“The first thing that crossed my mind (on joining the Gaffer District) was, ‘How fortunate we are to have Enterprises behind us!’” recalls Coleen.

GAFFER DISTRICT

When delivery chains just can’t cut it, and you want a savory

So…what is Corning Enterprises? Think of it as a benevolent hand, behind the scenes, that boosts the local economy, schools, and quality of life for all who live, work, and enjoy the region. It was organized and funded in 1983 as the economic development subsidiary of Corning Glass Works (renamed Corning Incorporated

Photo: Joe Carroll

A Sharp Salute

GlassFest ends with a Memorial Day tribute at Riverfront Park Sunday at noon.

in 1989). Put another way, a major company like Corning Inc. must compete with other corporate giants to recruit and then keep the best talent in the industry. While Steuben County can’t offer all the amenities that a big city can, it does offer some things that are pretty priceless: a genuine hometown, a great place to raise kids, no gridlock, no smog, no sprawling subdivisions. Two world-class art museums and an art-friendly ethos. Due largely to Corning Enterprises, Corning has an authentic downtown. It’s healthy and vibrant, with about 200 small businesses—almost all owned and operated by local people.

“Each one started as someone’s entrepreneurial dream,” says Coleen. With tactful understatement, she adds, “You can’t deny the difference between Corning and other small towns without that helping hand.”

And…what’s a “gaffer,” anyway? It’s a centuries-old term for the head glassblower in a hot glass shop, possibly derived from “grandfather” in the sense of an experienced,

steady hand in charge of a close-working unit, and often making crucial decisions on the fly. (That’s Coleen and Chris!) The Gaffer District organization became official in 2004, and represented the historic downtown business community with restaurants, retail, services, salons, and more along both Market Street and Bridge Street. Events under the Gaffer District umbrella include Crystal City Christmas, farmer’s markets, Summer in Downtown, Harvest, Sparkle, Music in the Parks, and Cruisin’ on the Bridge. Corning has been named “Most Fun Small Town in America” by Rand McNally and one of the American Planning Association’s “Great Places in America.” GlassFest itself has been named by the American Bus Association as one of the Top 100 Events in North America. But just like in any good story arc, when things are running swimmingly with no hint of trouble, along came the waking nightmare known as covid-19, which collapsed economies all over the world in towns large and small. Once again, the Fabrizi-Sharkey team rose to the challenge

by creating an innovative “buy now, shop later” plan, which offered a dollar-for-dollar match that ultimately distributed about $500,000 in cash to nearly ninety struggling local businesses—and not a single one closed. Tarrah Seaver, owner of Laurabelle’s A Scratch Bakery, had opened just two months before the pandemic, and credits this program with helping save her business (which thrives to this day). “A lot of folks are coming out to support us and it’s been amazing,” Tarrah told WENY in 2020. “It’s definitely brought the community together, and it’s helping Market Street stay alive.” GlassFest went virtual in 2020, and, still plagued with restrictions and uncertainly, bravely returned in a smaller, hybrid version as GlassFest Fusion in 2021. Its full-scale comeback in 2022 was a joyous occasion, “a welcome return to normalcy after a long two years,” recalls Chris. “GlassFest 2022 wasn’t just putting the toe in the water to test the temperature,” she says. “It was a much needed dive into the deep end to embrace

Duo continued from page 9

Courtesy Gaffer Distrct

the start of a more normal summer.”

Chris had first visited the Crystal City after joining Corning Incorporated in 1980. She has family roots in New England—her dad even had a lobster boat at one time—but moved all over the Northeast as her father was transferred from job to job. Her experiences as “new kid” in diverse locations helped her become adaptable, resilient, and open-minded. Leaving eighth grade in Massachusetts for high school in Owensboro, Kentucky, was a bit of a culture shock, but she remains fond of both places. She graduated from Kenyon College in Ohio, a small, prestigious liberal arts school described as a “Little Ivy,” where she rode for the equestrian team. Her first impression of Corning was that “it was very much a factory town.”

“But I could tell there was a wonderful preservation movement afoot and gaining momentum.”

Of her tenure with Corning Inc., Chris says it was “really sort of two different careers.”

“I was in finance for the first half of my career, working for a number of different businesses. Then I moved over to Corning Enterprises in 2001.” She was instrumental in the consolidation and rebranding of Corning’s downtown—Corning’s Gaffer District—in 2004.

“Market Street’s rebuild after the flood [in 1972] was the country’s first Main Street revitalization. Launching the Gaffer District was the next logical step,” Chris recalls. In her time since, she is proudest of the work she has done in the fields of education

Duo continued from page 10

Cut to It

and childcare. The Corning STEM Academy, largely her creation (2017), has helped to advance college and career readiness for thousands of young people across the region; notably, 60 percent of its graduates are female. She organized covid-19 response efforts in regional school districts, garnering $180,000 in grants to support connectivity solutions, including resources for students in virtual learning environments. She was the catalyst that brought together relief agencies in response to an August 2021 flood that battered many small communities in the region. And she was even the driving force behind the Wineglass Marathon, a 26.2-mile race held every October at the height of fall foliage; it has been named one of the top ten destination races in the world by RaceRaves.

Chris and her husband, John, now split their year between winters in Florida and summers on a gorgeous farm in Troupsburg, a rural community a half hour west of Corning. She continues to chair the Wineglass board, assists the Fund for Women (an organization she helped found in 2009), and has been an integral part of the United Way’s response to the 2024 flooding from Hurricane Debby.

At the start of 2024, the Corning Enterprises moniker was retired, but its work continues under a more efficient new umbrella organization called Community Impact & Investment—yet Chris knows Corning Inc.’s commitment to the community will continue.

“It’s just going to take a different shape going forward,” says Chris. “I think the company remains committed to the community it’s called home for more than 160 years.”

Courtesy Gaffer Distrct

Chris Sharkey prepares to cut the glass "ribbon" to start the festival.

A Winning Design

The Hot Glass team at Corning Museum of Glass has created a trophy with the top showing the outline of the WGI track (left), and the side view evoking the region’s waterfalls.

Best in Glass

The Watkins Glen International NASCAR Trophy

By Lilace Mellin Guignard

The NASCAR Sprint Cup series came to Watkins Glen International in 1986.

In this event, stock cars race ninety laps in a 221-mile race, and at the end some lucky—and highly skilled—driver gets to take a trophy home. NASCAR aficionados are aware that some races are known as much for their trophies as for their racetracks. They run the gamut from clunky to fun, including a live lobster in the twenty-pound range for winning at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. There’s a trophy, too, but no one cares. The most iconic is Roanoke’s Martinsville Speedway, which partnered with Grand Home Furnishings in 1964 to award a full-size grandfather clock to the winner. The idea was that the driver’s wife would let him keep this trophy in the living room. (Richard Petty has twelve of them. To date no woman has won there, so who knows how husbands feel about it as a trophy.)

In 2010, when WGI President Michael Printup spearheaded the initiative to develop a distinctive trophy embodying the track and Finger Lakes region, he went to Corning Museum of Glass and said, “Let’s make a trophy that nobody will ever forget.” And they did. The final design incorporates the shape of the racetrack (minus “the boot” section that is not a part of the NASCAR laps), the signature blue of the guard rails, and glass.

It took two years to create the design and figure out the best way to execute it. The center is the blue glass racetrack, the outline clearly viewed from the top, which gets stretched out all the way to the bottom. Glass does not like to be in an asymmetrical shape, so stretching it and keeping that shape throughout is a challenge. At first, they made a mold to pour the glass in, but that didn’t work. They ended up creating a mold that shapes half the track, and the other half is shaped by hand.

Hot Glass Programs Manager Eric Meek has been involved since the beginning and is justifiably proud of the design and his team of six. Glassmaking is always a team endeavor, he explains, “but when a project gets bigger and heavier you need more people.” When they are working on it, the piece starts at sixteen pounds, and during the process they cut eight pounds off during cold work.

First, they gather clear glass by dipping a metal pipe into a furnace of molten glass. Next, the iconic blue glass is added and then pushed and molded into the shape of the racetrack. This gets coated three or four times in layers of clear glass, like a candy apple but with a really long metal stick. When the clear glass encasing the track-shaped blue glass has made a nice round shape, they alternately heat and pull it into what Eric describes as “this beauti-

ful, elegant, triumphant form,” which flares at the top and bottom. The glass trophy rests on a base of Finger Lakes bluestone.

Another element of the design is how the flow of the blue glass inside recalls the many waterfalls around Watkins Glen that flow into Seneca Lake. Eric describes it as “embodying the region, the town of Watkins Glen, and the Watkins Glen International track.” Each one takes about forty-five minutes to make. Out of every ten or so they get four good ones because “the variables are such that it’s really difficult to hit it on the head.” Over the years, the shape has evolved to be more elongated.

“No trophy is truly exactly like another,” Eric adds.

Eric’s appreciation for the nature of this collaboration has also evolved over the years. “I’ve realized how important this is to community identity and community pride,” he explains. “What brings me the greatest satisfaction is how the folks at the track like to talk about it.”

Current WGI President Dawn Burlew brags about the trophy, saying it “has significantly enhanced the track’s reputation and elevated its connection to the region. This trophy helps to create a buzz around our event.”

This year the NASCAR race weekend, known as Go Bowling at the Glen since 2018, is on

August 10 (more information at theglen.com).

For years there have been three events, and the other two trophies are a glass bowl and a chalice, also incorporating the guardrail blue. For 2025 the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series has been added as a fourth event. “Events such as Winning Wednesday [July 9] celebrate the partnership between the Corning Museum of Glass and Watkins Glen International, further promoting awareness among drivers, fans, and our region.”

Before becoming WGI president, Dawn was an executive at Corning Incorporated, the company behind the 1982 purchase of the racetrack after it had been abandoned. It’s due to Corning Enterprises that NASCAR returned to Watkins Glen, therefore the glass trophy is also a nod to the company that rescued the track. A glass trophy stands out from the other NASCAR trophies and looks just as good in the living room as a grandfather clock. Eric likes watching the winner’s reaction to the trophy, and it’s important to him that it be there in the winners circle.

“We’ll make a new one if it gets knocked over,” he says.

So far so good.

Hot Stuff

Eric Meek forges the core of the NASCAR trophy, which is the iconic blue of the guardrails.

Get Bead Up

With his vibrant creations in mixed media— including glass—Paul Spencer is on fire.

Frit Happens

Corning’s Paul “Bead” Spencer Creates Serious Glass His Own Way

By Karey Solomon

Alove for creating and appreciating art has always run deep through Paul “Bead” Spencer’s life. Entranced and inspired by the art and writings of postImpressionist painter Vincent van Gogh, he works to infuse that kind of sensitivity to energy, color, and movement in his own paintings and glasswork.

Paul’s work as a psychotherapist was enriched by his work as a painter. “I supported myself as an artist with my work as a clinician,” he says. He often encouraged patients to express their inner landscapes by drawing and painting them. Art could be a “creative, kinesthetic, experiential form of therapy,” he observes, quickly adding that he is not an art therapist but a lifelong painter whose art has given him much joy.

Twenty years ago he began taking glassmaking classes in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania. When he retired, he moved from Philadelphia to Corning to become part of the glassmaking community here.

“I fell in love with it,” he says of glassmaking. “It was the color and energy and the medium of fire.” He set up a home-based

glass studio and began creating those small works of portable art known as beads. But Paul’s beads aren’t simple. They often contain worlds of meaning and symbolism in a tiny space. Sometimes they’re commissioned in colors with particular significance to the wearer, perhaps representing that individual’s subtle aspirations. Glass beads can also sometimes be the repository of fragments of the cremated remains of a pet or loved one the wearer wants to keep close. Objects that can be strung on a chain of precious metal and worn have long been treasured in a variety of cultures.

“I wanted to work small, wanted to create things people could wear. I wanted the art, the color of the glass, to be something that could be close to their pulse points, to make them feel good, when it was a part of them.”

For nearly two decades, most of his beads have been sold online and at museum shops, including at the Corning Museum of Glass. His work was well received and sold well until he abruptly reached his own inner impasse. Having neglected painting in favor of his fascination with glass, he abruptly

found himself dissatisfied with his work, particularly the traditional methods of glassmaking at a torch. He returned to painting, and suddenly, “I felt I was either going to have to give up glass or turn it into more of a plastic medium, something freer, something less predetermined, something more akin to painting,” he says now. But how to do it? The idea worried him, even in his sleep, until the strands came together in his mind and he woke in the small hours one morning knowing what he had to do.

He needed to “paint” with glass, to use its properties in the way of the highly textured and layered impasto painting technique. Some of his beads have raised trails of applied glass. For others, the complexity is encased within the fire-polished sphere of a bead. The point is not simply to have a single bead but rather several of them, strung together, to tell a story the way a painting does.

“I thought originally it was [meant to be] a single bead, to take a painting and turn it into a bead,” he says now of his inspiration to make beads more like painting. “No—it’s

See Frit on page 20

(2)

Courtesy Paul Spencer

Canyon Country Fabrics

as if you would lay the strand of glass beads onto the painting. You’d find each part of the painting would be one of the beads. Imagine taking a picture of painting and cutting a strand of circles around the painting. That’s what I did. The strand could lie atop a painting and blend in. So you wouldn’t see where the glass strand of beads ended and the painting would begin.”

To do this, he worked on creating a painterly method of mixing colors in glass, based on the glassmaker’s tradition of adding frit (tiny shards of colored glass) to a bead in progress, sometimes melting several colors together, blowing it into a thin-walled bubble and smashing it to create his own complex shards.

“Then I’ll layer colors,” he explains. “When I’m working, my table is full of colored shards.” Metals might also be combined with the colors before the whole is encased in clear glass.

Color Outside the Box

To see the end result as jewelry is to see only a fragment of his meaning. These are not simply pretty beads. The whole is intended to deepen the wearer’s connections to their inner being and the natural world in the way of prayer and meditation. In a variety of cultural traditions around the world, these practices are enhanced with beads intended specifically for spiritual practice.

Two years ago, Paul visited the Netherlands for the first time, immersing himself in art museums and eventually meeting other artists, including glass artists, and eventually finding a second home in Amsterdam. “I’d been wanting to come all my life,” he says. “It’s heartbreakingly beautiful with canals and beautiful canal houses, little bridges that go across everywhere. A wonderful atmosphere for anyone who really loves history. And it’s filled with art, and they so appreciate it. For me, it’s like being in a dream.”

Invited to use a studio space at NDSM, a neighborhood in a former Amsterdam shipyard whose warehouses have been converted into artists’ workspaces, he set up a second glassmaking studio and found a warm welcome. There he works at both painting and glassmaking, his work further influenced by cultural, climate, and practical differences. “The propane there is more expensive and purer,” he says. This means he can run his torch on lower heat with less danger of thermal shock. The beads he makes in his studio at NDSM weigh a little less and are more translucent, he notes.

Paul plans to divide his time between the Netherlands and upstate New York, soaking up the unique colors and light in each for part of the year, painting from nature, and making glass he describes as more personal art, easily portable in times of change. “Gone are the days when people moving around will carry large canvases in frames,” he says.

Besides, unlike painted canvas, glass can last, and outlast, millennia. Perhaps several thousand years from now someone will discover some of his beads and find their own inspiration and meaning there. Paul intends it to be worth the wait

Karey Solomon is the author of a poetry chapbook, Voices Like the Sound of Water, a book on frugal living (now out of print), and more than thirty-six needlework books. Her work has also appeared in several fiction and nonfiction anthologies.

(3) Courtesy Paul Spencer

Paul Spencer’s unusual art combines painting and glasswork.

BLOSSBURG COAL FESTIVAL

Celebrating the history and heritage of the mining industry in Blossburg and the surrounding communities.

In 1792 coal was discovered in the Blossburg area during the building of the Williamson Road.

Blossburg was home to William B. Wilson, the first US Secretary of Labor. After Wilson’s death in 1934 the family farm was sold to the American Legion Post No. 572 of Blossburg and is still located there today.

The first Coal Festival was held Memorial Day weekend in 1993, 201 years after coal was discovered in Blossburg.

We invite you, your family, and friends to help us celebrate.

May 22—May 24

**More activities will be added as details are confirmed.**

THURSDAY MAY 22

6:00 p.m. Tioga: From River to Railroad – the history of location coal transportation (held at the Blossburg Memorial Library)

FRIDAY, MAY 23

5:00 p.m. Vendors and all activities open

5:00 p.m. General Store opens

6:00 p.m. The Force Baton Group demonstration

SATURDAY, MAY 24

9:00 a.m. Car and Bike Show Registration begins on the Island

11:00 a.m. Parade (lineup at 10:00)

12:00 p.m. Chicken BBQ (sold on the Island)

12:00 p.m. Car and Bike Show

12:00 p.m. Vendors and all activities open

12:00 p.m. General Store opens

12:00 p.m. Quilt Show

1:00 p.m. Southern Tioga Jazz Ensemble Performance

2:00 p.m. Alexis Bradford Performance

2:30 p.m. The Force Baton Group Demonstration

3:00 p.m. Car Show Judging

6:00 p.m. Live Band - Under the Covers

9:00 p.m. Fireworks (dusk)

TBA Caricatures with Randy Owens

*Tentative schedule. All times and activities are subject to change.

An Erie Past

This boxcar that once ran through Elmira will be on display at Eldridge Park on May 24.

Everyone Loves a Well-Trained Park

Elmira’s Eldridge Park Hosts Its Third Train Day

By Gayle Morrow

Almost thirty years ago, Rob Piecuch thought it would be a good idea if the Elmira area had its own organization dedicated to railway history. He says he got the idea after visiting Steamtown in Scranton.

“Nobody in Elmira was doing anything at the time,” he says, but there was a city official who had the same idea. One thing led to another, as things often do, and the Chemung Valley Railway Historical Society came into being. After a few bumps in the road, or maybe twists in the ties, the group has “kind of settled into a pretty good structure now.”

“There’s a core group keeping things running,” Rob says. So much so that CVRHS, held in conjunction with the Eldridge Park Carousel Preservation Society, is having its third Train Day on May 24 at Eldridge Park, 96 Eldridge Park Road, Elmira. It’s a free event, Rob points out, one the whole family can attend. It will include vendors, food trucks, miniature train rides, model train displays, and local historical society exhibits.

“The Horseheads Historical Society is not the only museum that will participate in the Train Day,” says Eva Nelson, a selfdescribed train history enthusiast and a member of CVRHS. “We are planning on bringing Erin’s, Big Flats’ [historical societies], and, of course, Chemung County Historical Society.”

She characterizes CVRHS as “a group of train fanatics, but not the NorfolkSouthern/Conrail kind. We love history, and the Northern Tier and Southern Tier used to have quite impressive number of rail lines.

“Some are still operational, like the (former) Erie that runs through Elmira. Other ones, like the recently ripped up Tioga Central, met their demise for various reasons, covid being the nadir of the tourist Wellsboro line. CVRHS is doing our best to preserve the history of the railroads that are no longer with us.”

Norfolk-Southern is still a part of Train Day since one of the displays is a boxcar that, in its former life, belonged to that line.

“It was donated to us in 2006 from

Norfolk and Southern,” Rob says. “It was in their railyard in Elmira. It’s a very rare car. We saved it at the eleventh hour, and then had to work to find a place to put it.”

That place ended up being Eldridge Park.

“It needed a lot of work,” he continues. “We’ve been gradually restoring it as close to the original as we can get.”

Climb on board at noon, and you’ve got until 6 p.m. to enjoy the festivities.

“We hope that the weather cooperates,” Eva says. “Last year everyone went home early because of a downpour—it was bad. We are hoping that many kids of all ages will attend our event and leave happy, with lots of exciting things to talk about. We’d love our Train Day to become a force to be reckoned with.”

Train fanatics are welcome to contact Rob at latemorning88@gmail.com or visit CVRHS on Facebook.

“There is some big planning going on,” he says.

On the Flip Side

Charlie Hunter shows the pizza oven ready for evening hours at the Garage starting in August.

Bakery by Day, Bar by Night

The Garage Wakes Up This Elmira Neighborhood

By Lilace Mellin Guignard

Charlie Hunter, owner of the Rye Bar and the Garage at Rye, grew up in the neighborhood of Second and Davis Streets, went to the Arthur W. Booth School on the corner (closed more than twenty years and soon to be transformed into an apartment complex), and roamed these streets freely as a kid. Ever since moving back to the area, he’s doing his part—actually, a lot more than that—to make this neighborhood one that people let their kids walk around in again. He owns the buildings on the corner, which are being renovated as long-term corporate rentals and long-term residential rentals. In the historic building at 365 Davis Street where in 2019 he opened the Rye Bar (once Horigan’s), he revamped the bar and

renovated three two-bedroom condos upstairs, now listed on Airbnb.

Charlie left the area for San Francisco to be in a big city environment and returned five years ago to buy his family home when it went on the market. “I have cousins in the area,” he says. He knows there have been problems in the past but feels the neighborhood’s bad reputation is no longer deserved. “I’ve been here for five years,” he says, “and had almost zero issues.”

There are other investors in the neighborhood, but Charlie is the main force behind the renaissance, building by building, bar by bakery. On Valentine’s Day last year, he showed his love by opening the Garage at Rye, a coffee shop at 357 Davis Street across

the spacious courtyard from his first venture. “Food and style are my thing,” Charlie says. Both businesses have “the same attention to detail—always using fresh ingredients and providing top customer service,” but “it’s a younger crowd at the Garage.”

To call the Garage a coffee shop doesn’t capture its uniqueness. The space was once an electrician’s building. Charlie worked with the industrial feel, adding warm elements like bright red mod corner chairs near the stocked coolers, a long community table, four intimate bistro tables, and a bar-height counter with stools against the glass garage door that gives a view onto the courtyard. When no one’s at the counter, the laughter

Lilace Mellin Guignard

welcome to ELMIRA

coming from the open kitchen mixes with the background tunes and sunshine to brighten anyone’s mood.

College students and locals drop by for breakfast, a snack, lunch, or to fuel up on Forty Weight Coffee from Ithaca roasters. “I like to do things as hard as I can apparently,” Charlie laughs, and clarifies, “the right way. Our baker arrives at 3 or 3:30 a.m. so we’re ready to open by 7.” All breads, croissants, and pastries are made there, and the morning bun—croissant dough wrapped up like a cinnamon bun with a hint of orange—is a big hit. You can order online at thegarageatrye.com or call ahead at (607) 731-6607.

The Garage wasn’t always going to be a bakery and coffee shop. While visiting Italy in the summer of 2023, he decided to use the space to open a pizzeria and tequila bar. (Why pizza and tequila? “It’s what I like,” says Charlie.) He came home and built a copper bar on one wall and bought a pizza oven, but soon realized that in order to do this “the right way,” he needed to find an authentic pizza maker who cared about people and quality ingredients. However, the neighborhood needed a coffee shop, so he went to Plan B, using the large pizza oven as a warmer.

Meanwhile, the copper-front bar with whisk-style hanging light fixtures stood watch over his dream from one end of the Garage.

Now, Charlie has found his authentic pizza maker—he won’t say who until all details are finalized—and is getting ready to open the pizza bar in August. This gives him time to collect more tequila and mescal options. “I like to learn,” he says, “so to have just one mescal isn’t interesting. To have twenty and be able to try them is interesting.” He already has thirty or more. Tequila flights will be available, though it’s a full bar where customers can order their favorite cocktails. The coffee shop won’t go away, but Tuesday through Saturday, when it closes at 4 p.m., the space will take on a new persona.

The liquors will taste especially good on summer Sunday evenings with live Latin music in the courtyard from 4 to 7 p.m. On every other Sunday, Latin music will alternate with different genres, filling the neighborhood with good tunes and great vibes. Dogs can’t come inside but are welcome in the courtyard, where there are water bowls. “We’re going to start making dog biscuits,” Charlie says.

Another new initiative is the virtual bodega, where coolers in the Garage are stocked with homemade takeaways. Both restaurants will supply the bodega with snacks and meal-makers such as hummus, lasagna, shepherd’s pie, soups (perhaps fresh tomato or Manhattan seafood chowder), alfredo sauce, salads, and garlic bread. A variety of bottled and chilled lattes—chai, oat milk—along with overnight oats with fresh fruit are ready for those on the go. Just one more way the two places can support each other.

Charlie will never run out of ideas (future initiatives might include catering), but he is slowing down after having worked a lot the last four years. Recently he took the season of Lent off. “I have the best team I’ve ever had in the five years of being open,” he says. “I have three managers that make it all work. For the first time, I can guide and let others take the lead.”

Empowering his staff goes hand-in-hand with empowering his community. Whatever new ideas Charlie has, they will definitely center around quality ingredients and quality people.

2025 Endless Mountain Music Festival

Friday, July 18

Opening Night – “The Wheel Spins, a PA Premiere”

In memory of Keith Cooper

7:00 p.m. – Steadman Theatre, Commonwealth University at Mansfield, Mansfield, PA

Paint the Town

Youth created their own murals on the lawn across from the professional artists at the "Elmira Shines" Railroad Avenue Wall, some of which were included in the "Elmira Infinite Canvas—Youth Mural Panels" 2024 installation in The Przygoda Gallery at Community Arts of Elmira.

Mural, Mural on the Wall

Changing Concrete to Canvas at Elmira’s Mural Fest

By Karey Solomon

Murals can transform a city’s plain vanilla infrastructure into a dazzling story of its history, aspirations, and cultural heritage—moving things, as they say in Elmira, “From Blight to Brilliance!” That is the hope and intent of the third annual Elmira Infinite Canvas—Mural Fest 2025, Saturday, May 31 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

About a dozen muralists will be on hand to bring their drawings to life with color at the Lackawanna Rail Trail on Lake Street in the former Big Lots parking lot at the intersection of Lake Street and Washington Street. The event is enhanced with food trucks, live music, a wealth of children’s activities including face-painting by Jen Sekella, and more.

The murals are a project of Elmira Infinite Canvas, a public art program of Community Arts of Elmira, in collaboration with groups, organizations, businesses, and the City of Elmira, and funded by donations, sponsorships and grants, according to Lynne Rusinko, president of CAE’s board of directors.

“It’s great, it’s almost like an awards ceremony for public art,” says Dion Brown, who will be returning with another mural painting this year. “It’s an atmosphere of togetherness and creativity.” Dion’s design is currently in process.

Each artist has a lot of wall to cover— there are seventeen panels, each about thirty by fifteen feet. Tall ladders, cranes, and scaffolding are involved—and a great deal of paint. The concrete wall is prepared up to a week earlier with an underlayment of paint to smooth it, cover years of dingy grime, and create a better paint adhesion surface. Some artists begin their mural as soon as the prep work has dried, a few wait for Mural Fest to get started. It takes considerably more time than the festival afternoon to complete their work—but these folks are dedicated.

Muralist Filomena Jack (filomenajackstudio.com) came up with her design last fall when she was asked to create a panel for the local fashion show, Runway for a Cause, that could afterwards be translated to a mural. Filomena painted a skyscape wash of blues, yellows, and peachy pinks with vines twin-

ing across it reaching for the sun. “I always try to put an uplifting feeling in the design,” she says.

“There’s so many layers [to a mural],” she continues. “It tells a story of people who have hope, imagination, and energy to put into our community. We want our community to be vibrant and welcoming. And then each piece tells a story the artist is trying to communicate, whether it’s about history, artisans of colors telling their story, or historical places and people.” In a prior year, she had painted a happy wooly mammoth, having researched local history and discovered the name Chemung comes from the Delaware Indian word for “big tooth” or “horn in the water,” referencing mastodon remains found in and around the Chemung River.

Jharmi “Cuba” Leach’s panel is called “Black Aura” and was also originally created for Runway for a Cause. “I do black art,” he says, explaining that his work, which will have four black faces that look like flowers emerging from the earth, is about “how black people of all shades and binaries grow in abundance in the community, flourishing

Lynne Rusinko

through adversity, full of vibrance and motion that pulls every organism around them into their gravity.

“The majority of my pieces are inspired by my community, especially the black community,” he continues, adding that the diversity of people working together is at the forefront of community revitalization.

Brent Stermer is a founding trustee of CAE, a real estate agent, and active in local government.

“The thing about Mural Fest is that it really tells the story of Elmira’s history, culture, identity, and what people envision our community to be,” Brent says. “It’s a very fun day! There’s music, people can dance, they can shop, there’s food trucks—this day is just full of energy. People want to know what stories we’re telling, they want to ask about the artists’ inspiration. People of all ages are really excited about the artwork. It’s transformational.”

Because Mural Fest is both free and family-friendly, many residents and visitors come from surrounding communities to picnic, enjoy the music, talk to the artists, and soak up some inspiration of their own. In fact, the artists themselves find the interaction with other artists and community members to be inspirational for them as well. Some observers bring water and snacks to the artists and ask lots of questions. The artists might consult each other and trade brushes from time to time.

“I feel so incredibly lucky,” Filomena says. “There are worldclass artisans in our community, and getting to paint alongside them is an honor and humbling.”

“I like that people are interested and they’re going to ask questions,” Dion says. “Kids are the best. I take pictures with them and if they’re artistic I encourage them to keep going. It’s such an atmosphere of togetherness and creativity. People take pictures, news broadcasters do interviews, we get words of encouragement. It’s really a positive atmosphere.”

Cuba says he can happily multitask and talk with festival goers and his fellow artists all day. “You get a lot of outreach from it, the artist’s impact is incredible,” he says.

“Some of the most compelling comments from community members have been ‘Wow!’” Lynne says. “The businesses that partner with us really do care about people in Elmira. The murals uplifted not only the spaces but community members’ spirit and increased their feeling of pride that they too are part of something very special. This addresses blight in a creative way and it’s supportive to the creative economy.”

Most of the murals will be completed in the weeks after Mural Fest. When the final protective coat is applied they’re ready to be enjoyed for years to come. Brent often hears people say they want to come to Elmira to see the public art—there’s a map at the CAE website, communityartsofelmira.com—and they want to see what new public art is occurring.

“That always strikes me as a good sign of our ability to transform,” he says.

Dine, Stay or Just Get Away

35 Rooms

Restaurant and Tavern (Traditional American family style)

Catering Great Rates, GreatFood, Great Attractions

54 Main Street, Wyalusing, PA 570-746-1204 www.wyalusinghotel.com

Pastured eggs, chickens, pork and beef Greenhouse plants & farmstand Weddings - Concerts - Workshops Let us host your next event! greenerpasturesfarm.net • 570-337-0815 The Harris Family 177 Douglas Road, Troy, PA

UPCOMING EVENTS

Friday Farmer’s Market May thru September

Howard Elmer Park 10:00am - 2:00pm

Wednesday Evenings June 18 - August 20

Howard Elmer Park 6:30pm

Delizioso

Guy Ruggiero shows off the dessert case at Giuseppe’s new location on Market Street in Corning.

The Go-To Guy When You’re Hungry

Guy Ruggiero Opens His Fourth Restaurant—This One on Market Street

By Carolyn Straniere

When it comes to business ventures, Gaetano Ruggiero, knows a thing or two about success. Together with his wife, Beth, Guy (as he’s known) owns three restaurants and a bakery. And not just any bakery, but one that has been in existence for over eighty-four years.

So how does a kid who grew up in Elmira come to own four successful businesses? For that, we need to head to Calabria, Italy, where Guy was born. Situated in the southwest region of Italy, often referred to as the “toe” of the boot, Calabria is known for rugged mountains and picturesque coastline filled with beautiful beaches along the Ionian and Tyrrhenian Seas. But, when Guy was a young child, he left Calabria and traveled with his mother to the United States.

“I was six years old when I was imported to New York,” he says with a laugh. He learned to cook from his mother, who brought the seafood and pasta dishes of Calabria to their new residence in Elmira.

As a teen, Guy worked in area pizzerias and restaurants, gleaning pieces of wisdom from each one. With that knowledge, his first endeavor, Giuseppe’s at 1020 South Center Street in Horseheads, was born. Classic homemade Italian food from his hometown in Italy was at the heart of the restaurant, with perennial favorites like chicken parmigiana and lasagna. Giuseppe’s offered an array of pasta dishes, specialty pizzas, and seafood dishes. Shrimp and sausage arrabbiata (sautéed shrimp, Italian sausage, hot cherry peppers, and sweet bell peppers tossed in a spicy tomato sauce with fettucine), frutti di mare (a combination of calamari, mussels, clams, and shrimp in a marinara sauce over a bed of pasta), and Giuseppe’s Choice (bay scallops and shrimp with penne pasta, served with a marsala and fire-roasted tomato sauce then topped with aged Pecorino Romano cheese) are highlights on the menu. “We make everything from scratch,” Guy explains. “My goal is to

provide an authentic Italian dining experience by sharing these recipes with diners.”

A second restaurant, Louie’s, at 102 South Main Street in Horseheads on Hanover Square, was the next venture for the Ruggieros. Like Giuseppe’s, Louie’s served delicious, fresh food but in a slightly more upscale atmosphere, and found its niche among patrons.

But it was Guy’s homemade spaghetti sauce that people went crazy for. So much so, that they wanted him to bottle it and sell it. “I found a co-packer and we started production. We ship about 9,000 jars of our regular spaghetti sauce and our roasted garlic spaghetti sauce,” he explains. Currently you can find Giuseppe’s Famous Sauce in stores like Wegmans in Elmira, Jubilee, and Hurley’s, with plans to expand to other outlets.

Through it all, Guy’s wife, Beth, whom he met at the bank where he did business, has supported him in his entrepreneurship.

Wade Spencer

They’ve been married twelve years and have one son (Guy also has four grown children from another marriage).

One could say his next venture was unexpected, but it couldn’t be called half-baked.

After more than three decades of running the show, Julie Skroskznik, owner of Light’s Bakery at 211 West Second Street, Elmira, was looking to retire, so she put the business up for sale. That was in 2018. When it was still on the market in 2022, Julie’s daughter, Jody, joked that Guy should purchase the bakery. It took him a year, but eventually Guy bought the bakery in February 2023, and, with the help of the former owners, the transition was seamless.

“I wanted to keep the tradition that Light’s had but enhance it with an Italian touch,” Guy explains. Biscotti, assorted Italian cookies, and ricotta cookies soon joined the display case next to the ever-popular Half Moon cookies (a chocolatey devil’s food cakecookie topped with half vanilla and half chocolate buttercream icing). Cannoli and various kinds of Italian breads were delicious additions as well.

The support from the community for the new owners was almost overwhelming. “Light’s has very loyal customers so we were busy right from the start when we took over,” he says.

The bakery has proven to be an asset for the Ruggieros’ Italian restaurants. “Our bread is made fresh every day, and it’s what we serve at our other establishments,” says Guy. “Even some of our desserts come from there.” Tempting treats such as cheesecake and eclairs are among the delicious offerings one can find at any of his businesses, which now number four.

At the end of 2024, a vacant storefront on Corning’s Market Street, where Cugini Café, had been became the Ruggieros’ next endeavor. “I saw the opportunity to expand into Corning, and what better address than Market Street?” Guy continues, “We opened the second Giuseppe’s in February 2025 and haven’t looked back since. We continually sell out of our desserts that we bring in from the bakery. It’s been good.”

Part pizzeria, part fine Italian cuisine, at the Corning location there are specials such as margherita slider appetizers drizzled with balsamic and shrimp carbonara. Here he also sells beer and wine, which customers sip with a view of Market Street.

In need of having an event catered? Giuseppe’s and Light’s Bakery are available to assist with all your needs. “We do everything from weddings to corporate lunches, and everything in between,” says Guy.

For More Information

Giuseppe’s—

Corning: (607) 973-2024, giuseppesitalianeatery.com

Horseheads: (607) 524-5373, giuseppesmenu.com

Louie’s—(607) 739-4555, louieshanoversquare.com

Light’s Bakery—(607) 732-5600, lightscoffeeshopandpizza.com

Born in the Bronx, Carolyn Straniere grew up in northern New Jersey and has called Wellsboro home for over twenty-four years, where she enjoys spending time with her grandkids and traveling. Carolyn lives with her four-legged wild child, Jersey, and daydreams of living on the beach in her old age.

GAFFER DISTRICT

WA Proper Topper

Christine Moore sketches design ideas to share with Janusz Pozniak for their glassinator collaboration.

World’s First Glassinator Artists’ Collaboration Will Glimmer at GlassFest

By Lilace Mellin Guignard

hat’s a glassinator? It’s what you get when a milliner and a hot glass blower collaborate on something special for GlassFest! Specifically, Christine A. Moore, featured milliner of the Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup, and Janusz Pozniak, a finalist on the hit show Blown Away. A fascinator is a type of formal headpiece designed purely for ornamentation. Often attached to a band or clip, it serves no protective purpose, neither shading nor keeping noggins dry in a spring rain shower. But the linguistic mashup of glass and fascinator was too good to resist.

Last summer, Coleen Fabrizi, executive director of the Gaffer District, was talking with her friend Teresa Capuzzo, owner of Beagle Media, LLC, who shared that she has a friend in Wellsboro who is a celebrated milliner in the horse racing world (camhats. com). Being a wordsmith by trade, Teresa suggested that Christine could collaborate with a glass artist to create something really unique. “Teresa and I have a long history of ‘out of the box’ thinking,” says Coleen, “and so I immediately said, ‘I think I know the perfect glass artist.’” Coleen contacted Janusz, who’d moved to Corning with his

family the previous year, and he agreed. The Glassinator will be unveiled on the CMOG hot glass stage in Centerway Square stage during GlassFest on Saturday, May 24.

But what is a glassinator? We won’t know exactly till Memorial Day weekend when both Christine’s fascinator and Janusz’s glass version of the same design will be revealed. The collaboration process began with Christine studying Janusz’s work and style at januszpozniak.com and getting inspiration for shapes and designs that would work well in cloth and glass.

“I had never heard of a fascinator before and was immediately intrigued,” says Janusz. “I was curious and decided to give it a go.”

Watching the hot glass demonstrations and studying the exhibits at the Corning Museum of Glass set Christine’s brain spinning with possibilities on how to design a fascinator that would showcase Janusz’s style and the glass medium. She made some sketches and sent them to Janusz. After talking with him, she got to work on a second set, and third.

Janusz says, “After a little back and forth, we came up with something that I think is a little different, and although it is

still in prototype stages, I think it’s looking good.” They talk and share videos of their work, all in hopes of designing something that can actually be worn when created in glass. Weight is the main challenge.

“Any opportunity for two artists from different mediums to collaborate and step outside of their artistic lanes enriches the artists, the mediums, and the audience,” says Christine.

“I am happy to be working outside of my usual parameters,” Janusz agrees. “It’s fun to work with another artist and their different approaches.”

Coleen says, “As a fan of the art of glassmaking for the last twenty years and a person who has a passion for vintage hats, the idea of an artistic collaboration to create a glassinator was just too delicious of an idea to pass up. The extraordinary artistic abilities of Christine and Janusz are going to produce a magnificent creation, and I couldn’t be more delighted that GlassFest will be presenting it to the world!”

For more about these artists, see our cover stories for May and July 2024.

Fairy Tale Cabin in the Forest

• Embraced by a Stream and a Mountain.

• Nestled in a Gentle Valley outside Wellsboro.

• Over 10 acres with a 2-bedroom cabin with hardwood floors, custom cabinetry, and space to breathe and grow.

• Call Chris at (602) 751-3833

$325,000 w/ oil and gas rights, $300,000 without.

Didn’t you ever want to know what’s on the other side of the mountain?

Shangri-La

www.corningbldg.com

Turn No-Mow May into No-Sweat Summer

A lawn is nature under totalitarian rule.

By Gayle Morrow Mother Earth

—Michael Pollan

You’d think I’d be a fan of No Mow May. That’s the idea of giving lawns a whole month to flourish undisturbed, thereby giving pollinators and other living/growing things an opportunity to thrive without mower blades whacking them to bits or chemicals choking them. A UK group called Plantlife (plantlife.org.uk) came up with the idea in 2019. They have a terrific mission statement—they want to “secure a world rich in wild plants and fungi.” Great goal, right? But maybe not the best implementation.

Whaddaya mean? What’s not to love about a movement that encourages lawn worshippers to forgo that Saturday morning mower music?

Maybe the question is why do we have lawns, anyway? Well, it’s a history thing…

“A fine lawn makes a frame for a dwelling,” said Abe Levitt. Mr. Levitt and his sons, William and Alfred, were the creators of Levittown, one of several post-World War II planned communities (the first on Long Island), some bearing the same name, with assembly-line style homes and front lawns (lot size a seventh of an acre, two trees planted the same distance apart). With help from the G.I. Bill, Americans bought them, and their lawns, by the thousands. That wasn’t the beginning of lawns, however, just the beginning of marketing them as something the up and coming middle class homeowner couldn’t be without.

Several hundred years prior to that, about Medieval times, areas around living spaces, whether those were castles or thatched huts, were used for grazing livestock and growing food. Seems like a fairly practical thing to do, as managing vegetation (especially via animals) and cultivating land (again, with some help from animals)

has been ongoing for millennia (at least until the advent of homeowners associations and no-livestock-intown ordinances). Over time, though, land ownership and the accompanying social status it bestowed led to great big houses with expansive manicured grounds and formal gardens around them (think Palace of Versailles or Downton Abbey). The word “lawn,” meaning an expanse of dirt with mown grass, was introduced to the English dictionary in 1757, but the concept of lawns and the wealth needed to maintain them were already rooted (pardon the pun) in the European aristocracy.

Lawns showed up here in the 1700s, around the time cut-grass lawns at English and French estates were replacing those consisting of meadow plants. Immigrants to America as early as the 1600s had begun importing grass seed from Europe as the non-native cattle they were bringing with them couldn’t survive on the native grasses. Even today, most of our lawn grasses are not native species.

Maybe the “When are you gonna take care of that lawn?” question finally got to him, but an English engineer named Edwin Beard Budding was granted the first patent for a mechanical lawn mower in 1830 (it was blades on a cylinder, modeled after his own design of a machine used to cut cloth for making clothing), and lawn care was on its way to becoming a weekly ritual.

In 1868, Connecticut-born Frederick Law Olmsted (a landscape architect whose handiwork can be seen in New York’s Central Park and scores of others across the country), and his partner, Calvert Vaux, were commissioned to design one of the country’s first planned suburbs. The homes in the Riverside, Illinois, community, about nine miles west of downtown Chicago, would have no walls around them, but would have expanses of open, connected yards. Mr. Olmsted, though he designed landscapes with lawns, was also a conservationist

who believed in the value of public green space being accessible to all citizens.

Two years later, Elwood McGuire of Richmond, Indiana, designed a lightweight push reel mower. The lawn sprinkler was invented in 1871, and then, in 1935, Leonard Goodall, of Warrensburg, Missouri, came up with a power rotary mower. An abundance of post-World War II chemicals (no longer needed for weapons) made really green and really insect- and weed-free lawns readily available—almost a requirement.

According to a NASA study, lawns, including golf courses, are, in terms of surface areas, the single largest irrigated crop in this country. Lawn care is a multi-billion dollar industry (apply water/fertilizer/pesticides/ herbicides, mow, repeat). A commercial gas-powered leaf blower used for one hour produces as much smog-forming pollution as driving 1,100 miles in a car.

Yikes. So why wouldn’t leaving your lawn alone for a month be a good idea? There are a few reasons.

It is great for that month (it doesn’t have to be May, just the month you would typically begin mowing). The pollinators

say, hey, look at all these blossoms, let’s hang out here. And they do. Then, chop, chop, the grass is short, the flowers are gone, and the insects are in pieces. The weeds that you left alone for a month are likely flourishing, which may lead you to think you need to use chemicals to regain “control” of the lawn. Those weeds that grew tall might shade the grass, which could lead to fungus. And then there are the little critters who may have taken up residence in the quiet of an undisturbed plot of grass.

And, the neighbors might bitch.

A better plan of action is to establish permanent food and cover for bugs, especially bees and butterflies. Look around to see what grows naturally where you are and work with that—the North American Native Plant Society (nanps.org) and the National Wildlife Federation’s native plant finder site (nativeplantfinder.nwf.org) are good resources if you’re not sure what those plants might be. Worried about ticks? One study (granted, just one) showed that blacklegged ticks might prefer leaf litter to grassy areas, which are probably too dry for their taste (leaf piles tend to be damp at the bot-

tom). In any case, just take the recommended precautions like tucking pant legs into the tops of your boots and giving yourself a good once-over after you’ve been outside.

Make paths through your yard with gravel or flat stones or bricks and line the paths with flowers. Go the English garden route (bees love foxglove). Naturalize your yard’s borders. Plant vegetables.

Get some fowl (Guinea hens are reportedly tick-eaters) and let them roam, or use a chicken tractor. Consider a fence and give a cow, a pig, a horse, or a goat a home.

Learn to love a smaller lawn. Mow less overall and set the blade higher. I love that I only mow my lawn about once a summer— the horse does a pretty good job the rest of the time. The grass is weird, anyway. The yard has to really work to be called a lawn, and I don’t encourage it.

To paraphrase my mother, who would sometimes say “use your head for something besides a hat rack,” use your yard for something besides a lawn.

Mon: 9am-6pm

Wed, Thurs, Fri: 9am-5pm Sat: 9am-2pm Sun: closed

Habitat Restoration

The ReStore is back in business after a fire, selling new and like new home furnishings and building materials to support Steuben's Habitat for Humanity.

Corning ReStore Is Restored… …And

Funds Steuben County’s Habitat for Humanity

By Gayle Morrow

Arecent Saturday at the ReStore on Route 414 in Corning was, in Manager Jonathan Wylie’s words, “crazy.”

“We sold at least a hundred pieces of furniture.” And what a good thing that is, since the store is “a 365-day fundraiser to help support the mission of Habitat.”

That’s the Steuben County chapter of Habitat for Humanity (habitatcorning. org), an organization seeking, as it says, to put God’s love into action by building homes, communities, and hope globally. The impetus for Habit for Humanity was nurtured in Georgia in the early 1970s by Millard and Linda Fuller and Clarence Jordan, and has since spread to all fifty states and seventy countries. It’s been building home, community, and hope in Steuben County since 1993. Habitat builds new homes, refurbishes old ones, and, in the process, gives people the security and dignity that comes with owning their own home. The ReStore, established in 2008, is the main source of revenue for Steuben County’s Habitat for Humanity, and can be reached at (607) 377-5524.

So it was devastating when a fire in July of 2023 destroyed the facility’s donation section and left other parts of the complex with smoke damage. ReStore was closed for

a year for repairs and reconstruction, but is back now, better than before.

“We decided to rebuild here, since people know we’re here,” says Jonathan.

At 10,000 square feet, the refurbished retail space is about 400 square feet less than before the fire. The area known as the annex/home improvement section has enhanced storage and display areas—it’s really easy to walk around and see the stoves, sinks, toilets, lawn furniture, plumbing fixtures, building supplies, and other odds and ends that might come in handy for a weekend home repair project or a full-blown bathroom or kitchen remodel. In the home décor/furnishings section, dishes and other housewares are neatly shelved, making browsing oh-so-easy. There’s a whole section devoted to Pyrex, Corelle, and Corningware. The furniture selection is wide-ranging—couches, chairs, end tables, dining tables, bed frames, dressers, and buffets. Now could be the time to change up that tired recliner in the corner of the living room or the table in the breakfast nook. There’s also lighting, books, albums, DVDs, VHS tapes (hey, some of us still have the player), electronics, old stuff (manual typewriter, anyone?), new stuff, and unique stuff. Like the Green Collection. Jonathan explains that the Colorado-based GreenSheen paint

(greensheenpaint.com) ReStore sells is old latex paint “turned into brand new paint.” It’s an appropriate partnership.

Since the reopening in August of 2024, ReStore has also opened the Steuben County Habitat for Humanity Tool Library. For a thirty-dollar annual membership fee, residents of Steuben, Chemung, and Schuyler counties can check out up to three tools for a week at a time.

It’s a money-saver, says Jonathan—you don’t have to buy an expensive tool you may only use once. And it’s helpful for those who don’t have storage space for that big air compressor or extension ladder. Donations of tools in safe, working order are accepted, so the Tool Library is a good opportunity to rehome that saw or drill nobody uses anymore.

ReStore is open Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Donations are accepted on Fridays from 10 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. If shoppers or borrowers can’t find what they’re looking for, that’s a good reason to come back soon, since the inventory changes all the time.

“We had ninety car-fulls [of donations] this past weekend,” Jonathan says.

Wade Spencer

welcome to WELLSBORO

Dog Grooming Salon

8am-5pm,

Team Effort

Both Coleen and Chris are adamant that the real heroes of GlassFest are “the very small but mighty staff of the Gaffer District and all of the volunteers that make it all possible,” as Coleen puts it, adding “GlassFest would not exist without the generous support of committed sponsors.”

“I was so lucky to have the opportunity to do this work, particularly in a community that has been my home for over forty years,” says Chris. “It wasn’t just being able to assist with the resources we had to work with, but it was the deep relationships with so many community partners that had the biggest impact on me.”

Over the years, a steady rotation of performers and vendors has enabled the festival to stay fresh and intriguing, including dancers, puppeteers, magicians, jugglers, sketch artists, and even a kid-size

“You never want an event like this to get old,” says Coleen. “We have entertainment and performances on every block, and glassblowing and other fire arts demonstrations throughout Market Street. It doesn’t matter if you’re there for one day or all days, you’re going to have a fabulous, fun time. All the activities are free, including the concerts and the fireworks. And I can’t thank our sponsors enough for helping us make that happen.” Free parking, so scarce at some other festivals, is also available within close walking distance.

Historic Wellsboro & Beyond

Hop aboard Tony’s Trolley for a charming ride through Wellsboro’s gas-lit streets and rich history. Take in iconic architecture, fascinating stories, and breathtaking views of the PA Grand Canyon. Planning a special event? Our trolley is perfect for birthdays, weddings, and more! Experience vintage charm, adventure, and unforgettable memories with Tony’s Trolley Tours!

The excitement begins at noon on Friday, May 23, in Centerway Square with the traditional Glass Ribbon Cutting ceremony. Gaffers draw a strand of glass across the stage and a representative of the presenting sponsor, Chemung Canal Trust Company, cuts the ribbon with a pair of shears (it feels like cutting a piece of taffy). Then, as Coleen says, “the crowd goes wild,” and the festivities begin.

Friday night, the legendary ’90s alternative rock band Vertical Horizon headlines the Rock the Park concert series in Riverfront Centennial Park. All weekend, for a fee, visitors can tour the Rockwell Museum, a Smithsonian affiliate, and the world-renowned Corning Museum of Glass (where those seventeen and under are always free). The Wineglass 8K is Saturday morning.

“They put on a fantastic race, and every single person gets a beautiful custom glass medal,” Coleen says.

This year, country star Tony Jackson performs in the park on Saturday night, with fireworks over the Chemung River at 9:45 p.m. The celebration ends, appropriately, with a Memorial Day tribute at Riverfront Park at noon on Sunday, with the arts fair on the street wrapping up at 4 p.m.

Current Gaffer District Vice President Courtney Woods says, “We wish Coleen and Chris nothing but the best in this next chapter of their lives. May it be filled with joy, well-deserved adventures… and sleeping in!”

For the most up-to-date information on GlassFest, visit gafferdistrict.com or call (607) 937-6292.

David Higgins is from the small town of Deposit, New York. He retired in 2021 from Corning Community College, where he taught art for thirty years.

Wade Spencer

Mountain Home SERVICE DIRECTORY

BACK OF THE M OUNTAIN

May Haze

By Matthew Stevens

Itook this photo just outside of Wellsboro on a morning that felt more like a memory than a moment. The fog was rolling low across the hills, and, as the sun broke over the ridge, it lit the land in a blaze of orange that stopped me in my tracks. There was a stillness in the air—like the world was holding its breath—and I knew I had to capture it before it slipped away. This image isn’t just about the sunrise; it’s about presence, about noticing the quiet power of the earth waking up. A magnificent reminder that today is here and it is ready for you and me.