55 Plus of Rochester #93: May - June 2025

DON ALHART AND FOUR OTHER RETIREES TALK ABOUT GIVING BACK

Issue 93 – May-June 2025 For Active Adults in the Rochester Area

roc55.com

survivor

music

DEBORAH FOX: On a Mission to Promote Baroque, Renaissance Music

FROM STAFF NURSE TO CEO Kathy Parrinello, the first female president of Strong Memorial Hospital and Highland Hospital, is about to celebrate one year in the position.

She talks about her career.

Musical Instrument Repair Technician, Cancer Survivor, Rower Meet Jennifer Nicoletti

visits

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CON TE N TS MAY/JUNE 2025

The Rochester Gay Men's Chorus delighted the audience during a March 22 concert at The Hochstein School.

Features 18 Golfing for Health

Why hitting the links can improve your health. We asked health professionals

20 Survivor

Jennifer Nicolleti is a musical instrument repair tech (she owns Thomas Music Inc. in Rochester) a cancer survivor and a rower: She talks about how she balances her life

26 An OASIS in Rochester

Ann Cunningham helps the Rochester area’s older adults live richer, more fulfilling lives as the executive director of OASIS Rochester 6

55 PLUS – MAY / JUNE 2025

28 Retirees Give Back

Five retirees — people like Don Alhard, the outsized TV personailty — talk about ways they give back to the communiy

34 Cover Story

The remarkable career of Kathy Parrinello — from staff nurse to CEO of Strong Memorial Hospital and Highland Hospital

40 Edible Landscaping

You don’t have to own a farm to grow food. Tips on how to grow an edible garden

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More Contents

10 Savvy Senior Is a reverse mortgage a good idea?

42 Gardening

You may have a green lawn, but is your lawn environmentally green?

12 Dining Out

East Izakaya in Victor: Come for the endless sushi, stay for the robot cat server.

44 Visits

Why spend thousands on foreign tours when you can spend a day or more touring our own region?

46 Take a Hike

Rochester abounds with pleasant places for enjoying a fine spring day.

12

16 Financial Health

Tariffs: How they work and potential economic effects.

64 Addyman’s Corner

48 Arts for All Flower City Arts Center: a space to create and learn.

52 Chorus

When it comes to cooking, there are three types of guys. Find out what they are.

The Rochester Gay Men’s Chorus delights audiences.

66 Last Page

Rebecca Leclair reported the news from the field and the anchor desk for WHEC-TV for more than 30 years. She is now a one-person public relations shop that provides a variety of services for clients.

56 Baroque Music Deborah Fox: on a mission to promote baroque, renaissance music.

60 Calling Called back to the pulpit.

62 Final Planning It’s more than writing a will.

44

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THE ULTIMATE ROAD TRIP:

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roc55.com

ROUTES 5 & 20—AVON TO

SKANEATELES P. 42

PAY OFF THE MORTGAGE OR INVEST? P.10

Issue 88 – July-August

2024

For Active Adults in the Rochester Area

roc55.com

On the Cover

G RUNNIN WITH KELLY

PEDALING WOMEN P.31

WAY BROAD N HELPS VETERA LIFE INTO E R BREATH NEW THEATE

A Life in

Music INSIDE

ts of •Don Alhart: studen A Legacy on the Air of local thousands jazz •Turning 55? Get These Screenings •Upstate Picnic Food to has taught and love splurge on Bill Tiberio how to play Saxophonist all ages learn

DON ALHART AND FOUR OTHER RETIREES TALK ABOUT GIVING BACK

STAYCATION No big plans to travel this season? No worries, Western and see (like the Watkins Glen State Park in the Finger New York has plenty of thing to do Lakes). See p. 38 for more ideas.

Scan image to subscribe to 55 PLUS magazine.

Issue 93 – May-June 2025 For Active Adults in the Rochester Area

roc55.com

survivor

music

DEBORAH FOX: On a Mission to Promote Baroque, Renaissance Music

FROM STAFF NURSE TO CEO

Musical Instrument Repair Technician, Cancer Survivor, Rower Meet Jennifer Nicoletti

visits

TOUR ROCHESTER

Why spend thousands on foreign tours when you can spend a day or more touring your own region?

Kathy Parrinello, the first female president of Strong Memorial Hospital and Highland Hospital, is about to celebrate one year in the position.

She talks about her career.

Kathy Parrinello, CEO of Strong Memorial Hospital and Highland Hospital.

8

55 PLUS – MAY / JUNE 2025

48

Story ideas?

Info on advertising?

Email editor@roc55.com or call 585-421-8109.

585.349.8100

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MAY / JUNE 2025 – 55 PLUS

9

savvy senior

By Jim Miller

F

Reverse Mortgage: Is it a Good Idea?

or retirees who own their home and want to stay living there, but could use some extra cash, a reverse mortgage is a viable financial tool, but there’s a lot to know and consider to be sure it’s a good option for you.

Let’s start with the basics.

A reverse mortgage is a unique type of loan that allows older homeowners to borrow money against the equity in their house (or condo) that doesn’t have to be repaid until the homeowner dies, sells the house or moves out for at least 12 months. At that point, you or your heirs will have to pay back the loan plus accrued interest and fees (usually by selling the home), but you will never owe more than the value of your home.

It’s also important to understand that with a reverse mortgage, you, not the bank, own the house, so you’re still required to pay your property taxes, homeowners’ insurance and upkeep. Not paying them can result in foreclosure.

To be eligible, you must be 62 years of age or older, have at least 50% equity in your home, and currently be living there.

You will also need to undergo a financial assessment to determine whether you can afford to continue paying your property taxes and insurance. Depending on your financial situation, you may be required to put part of your loan into an escrow account to pay future bills. If the financial assessment finds that you cannot pay your insurance and taxes and have enough cash left to live on, you’ll be denied.

Loan Details More than 90% of all reverse mortgages offered are home equity conversion mortgages (HECM), which are FHA insured and offered through private mortgage lenders and banks.

HECM’s have home value limits that 10

55 PLUS – MAY / JUNE 2025

vary by county but cannot exceed $1,209,750 in 2025.

How much you can actually get through a reverse mortgage depends on your age (the older you are the more you can get), your home’s value and the prevailing interest rates. Generally, most people can borrow somewhere between 40% and 60% of the home’s value. To estimate how much you can borrow, use the reverse mortgage calculator at ReverseMortgage.org.

To receive your money, you can opt for a lump sum, a line of credit, regular monthly checks or a combination of these.

But be aware the reverse mortgages aren’t cheap. You’ll have to pay an origination fee, which is the greater of $2,500 or 2% of the first $200,000 of your home’s value plus 1% of the amount over $200,000. HECM origination fees are capped at $6,000.

You’ll also be charged an initial mortgage insurance premium, which is 2% of the loan amount, along with closing costs that will likely run several thousand dollars. Any amount you borrow, including these fees and insurance, accrues interest, which means your debt grows over time.

To learn more, see the National Council on Aging’s online booklet “Use Your Home to Stay at Home” at NCOA.org/article/use-your-home-tostay-at-home.

Also be aware that because reverse mortgages are complex loans, all borrowers are required to get counseling through a HUD approved independent counseling agency before taking one out. Most agencies charge between $125 and $200. To locate one near you, visit Go.usa.gov/v2H, or call 800-569-4287. n Local Nonprofit Resources: • The Housing Council at Pathstone: 585-546-3700 — (see ad on page 15).

• CCCS of Rochester: 585-546-3440.

roc55.com Editor and Publisher Wagner Dotto

Associate Editor Stefan Yablonski

Writers & Contributors Deborah J. Sergeant John Addyman, Mike Costanza Linda Quinlan, Grace Scism Joe Sarnicolla, Lynette Loomis Columnists John Addyman, Laurie Haelen Jim Miller, Jacob Pucci Advertising Anne Westcott • 585-421-8109 anneIGHsales@gmail.com Linda Covington • 585-750-7051 lindalocalnews@gmail.com Office Manager Mary Trepasso-Auyers Layout & Design Angel Campos-Toro Cover Photo Photo courtesy URMC

55 PLUS – A Magazine for Active Adults in Rochester is published six times a year by Local News, Inc. at PO Box 525, Victor, NY 14564, which also publishes In Good Health — Rochester's Healthcare Newspaper.

Subscription: $30 a year; $40 for two years © 2025 by 55 PLUS – A Magazine for Active Adults in Rochester.

No material may be reproduced in whole or in part from this publication without the express written permission of the publisher.

How to Reach Us P.O. Box 525 Victor, NY 14564 Phone: 585-421-8109 Email: editor@roc55.com Editor@cnyhealth.com

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DINING OUT RESTAURANT GUIDE

EAST IZAKAYA IN VICTOR

Come for the endless sushi, stay for the robot cat server

By Jacob Pucci

S

ampling the entire menu at East Izakaya is impossible to do in one visit. But it sure is fun to try.

The all-you-can-eat Japanese restaurant opened in Victor last fall.

While there is an a la carte menu available, the main draw is the all-you-can-eat menu, a dizzying selection of over 160 items, including everything from sushi and sashimi to noodle dishes, stir-fries and grilled meats.

Yo u m i g h t r e c o g n i z e t h e circular bar in the center of the main dining room as a holdover from the building’s past life as the home of City Tavern, though the bar, like the rest of the restaurant, was given a modern makeover that feels far more refined. The giant TVs flanking either side of the bar have been replaced with a robust display of Japanese sakes and other wines and spirits.

Our dinner began with our server explaining the ordering process, which is all done using a tablet computer at each table.

The learning curve is low — each menu item, complete with photos and descriptions, is listed by category. Drinks, which include bottled and about a dozen draft beers; wines; sake and other Japanese wines and a variety of conventional and Japanese-inspired cocktails, are also ordered via tablet.

Oh, and if you see a cute catshaped robot patrolling the dining room, don’t be worried. That’s just the robot server. Most of our dishes were delivered by hand from real-life humans, but on a few occasions, we

12

55 PLUS – MAY / JUNE 2025

had the pleasure of having the robot, a tall, cylindrical machine with three tiers of trays for carrying food, stop at our table.

Just make sure to only take the food from the illuminated tray, otherwise, you’ll make one of your fellow diners waiting for their food not too happy.

For the most part, the serving sizes of each item are intentionally small, which allows diners to sample a little bit of everything.

When our order of beef takaki arrived as a single paper-thin slice of seared beef with a few springs of spring lettuce dressed in a citrusy soy ponzu sauce, we realized a single order really does mean one. It was an oversight we quickly remedied on our next order, which included several pieces each of beef, tuna and

LEFT: Rocky shrimp: Tempura-fried tiger shrimp is garnished with a creamy chili sauce and scallions.

MIDDLE: Exterior: East Izakaya is located at 4635 state Route 96 in Victor in the former home of City Tavern.

RIGHT: Hand rolls: A pair of Big Hand Rolls are filled with salmon, avocado, barbecued eel, tempura bits, fish eggs, mayo, barbecued eel sauce and rice in a seaweed cone.

salmon tataki.

Like the tataki, orders of seafood and vegetable tempura come by the piece. Of the ones we tried, the rocky shrimp was easily our favorite. The colossal tiger shrimp were plump and juicy, the airy tempura batter was light and crisp and the creamy “rocky” sauce (think bang bang shrimp) added a little spice. After scarfing down our order of two, we quickly ordered four more.

The notable exception to the small portion sizes are the sushi rolls, which are served as full six- or eight-piece rolls. As we learned, if you’re trying to try as much of the menu as possible, ordering multiple full-sized rolls, which were a bit heavy on the rice to boot, might be a daunting undertaking.

Ordering rolls by the individual piece might be asking too much, but a switch to half-roll portions would be a great improvement that would allow more flexibility for diners and, presumably, less food waste for the restaurant.

I see dining at a buffet partially MAY / JUNE 2025 – 55 PLUS

13

Crunch Shrimp Tempura Roll: The Crunch Shrimp Tempura Roll is one of many specialty sushi rolls on the menu.

as a value proposition. The cost is the same, whether you load up on rice and noodles or meats and seafood. As much as I love a warm bowl of rice, I’d rather have salmon sashimi.

Finding room for everything on the table feels a little bit like playing Tetris, though that's just a symptom of my ambitious order sizes. A plate of takoyaki octopus balls was squeezed between platters of barbecued eel sushi, yellowtail tuna, spicy scallop and salmon rose sushi, bite-sized blooms of sliced raw salmon garnished with a dollop of tobiko fish roe and Kewpie mayo. Soon, plates of beefwrapped enoki mushrooms, stirfried clams with sake and butter and mussels in black bean and garlic sauce arrived, requiring yet another shuffle of plates to fit the growing feast.

In case that’s not enough, servers armed with long skewers of grilled meats and vegetables roam the dining room, offering morsels from the yakitori grill. A little coaster at the table that reads “I Need More” on one side and “I Am Full” on the other lets the servers know if you want them to visit your table. Make sure to save room for the miso-glazed pork belly.

There’s a sushi pizza section on the menu, which might sound like a cursed fusion cuisine no one asked 14

55 PLUS – MAY / JUNE 2025

for, but have no fear. It’s actually just a crispy hash brown patty topped with a fish of choice, spicy mayo, eel sauce and crispy tempura bits. The contrast between the hot and crispy hash brown and the cool sliced fish turned out to be an unexpected delight.

Desserts include ice cream, a variety of cheesecakes, crème brulee, and in case you didn’t get enough tempura already, fried Oreos, tempura chocolate bars and other fried sweets.

It’s tough to do, but it’s worth saving room for a little sweet treat.

At around $40 per person for a dinner of unlimited freshly prepared seafood, meats, sushi and so much more, the price undoubtedly feels like a value.

The modern, comfortable atmosphere is welcoming to all. At the booth next to us, a couple on a date dined on a la carte oysters on the half shell and sipped martinis. Meanwhile, a young child’s birthday dinner was going on in an adjoining dining area.

The tablet keeps track of everything ordered and in the end, we ordered 60 items, a figure that includes multiple pieces of individual items, before we had to tap out. But that only scratched the surface of what East Izakaya has to offer. I guess we’ll just have to go back and tackle the rest.

East Izakaya 4635 state Route 96, Victor, NY, 14564 Sunday to Thursday, from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.

585-505-8898 Reservations: Yes, encouraged.

Available online at eastvictor.com Cost: All-you-can-eat menu is $30.99 for lunch Monday to Thursday and $32.99 Friday to Sunday for adults. Dinner is $40.99 Monday to Thursday and $42.99 Friday to Sunday for adults. Seniors are $1 off for lunch and $2 off for dinner. Kids aged 10 to 12 are $18.99 for lunch and $23.99 for dinner. Kids ages 6 to 9 are $13.99 for lunch and $16.99 for dinner. Kids aged 3 to 5 are $6.99 for lunch and $7.99 for dinner. Kids under 3 are free. www.facebook.com/profile. php?id=61562995613227 www.instagram.com/east.roc/

SOCIAL SECURITY

Q: How are my retirement benefits calculated?

A: Your Social Security benefits are based on earnings averaged over your lifetime. Your actual earnings are first adjusted or "indexed" to account for changes in average wages since the year the earnings were received. Then we calculate your average monthly indexed earnings during the 35 years in which you earned the most. We apply a formula to these earnings and arrive at your basic benefit.

This is the amount you would receive at your full retirement age. For more information, read our publication, Your Retirement Benefit: How It’s Figured, at www. ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10070.pdf.

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REVERSE MORTGAGE IS IT RIGHT FOR YOU?

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MAY / JUNE 2025 – 55 PLUS

15

financial health

By Laurie Haelen

Tariffs: How They Work and Potential Economic Effects

I

t has been a few years since tariffs have been a daily presence in the headlines. This year certainly has brought them to the forefront.

As a result, many investors may be confused about the purpose and effectiveness of tariffs.

As of this writing in early April, markets are experiencing volatility as a result of higher-than-expected tariffs being imposed by the U. S. on many trading partners, creating fears of inflation and even recession.

Here is a brief primer on tariffs and the possible effects on the global economy.

A tariff is a tax on a particular class of imported goods or services that 16

55 PLUS – MAY / JUNE 2025

is typically designed to help protect domestic industries from foreign competition. However, the Trump administration is also using tariffs as leverage for other goals.

Although the U.S. Constitution specifically grants Congress the power to levy tariffs (also called duties), Congress has delegated much of that authority to the president over the last 90 years. This has led to numerous trade agreements that have created a low-tariff, rules-based global trading structure, with tariffs applied on selected products. Over the past 70 years, tariffs have seldom accounted for more than 2% of federal revenue and were just 1.57% in fiscal year

2024. Prior to the recent actions, about 70% of all foreign goods entered the United States duty-free, according to Congressional Research Service on Jan. 31.

Tariffs are collected by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at U.S. ports of entry. The tariff is paid by the U.S. company or individual who imports the goods. Put simply, if a U.S. company imports $1 million of foreign steel with a 25% tariff, that steel costs the company an additional $250,000 for a total of $1.25 million.

The U.S. company might then absorb all or part of the additional cost or pass it to consumers who buy products made from the steel.

Alternately, the foreign steel exporter might lower its prices in order to maintain access to the U.S. market, in which case the U.S. company would still pay the 25% tariff, but the total price would not rise by the full 25% over the pre-tariff price.

The other factor in this equation, which is the traditional purpose of tariffs, is that the U.S. importer might buy steel from a U.S. manufacturer, thus avoiding the extra tax. The questions then are: 1) Will the U.S. manufacturer raise its price because it no longer has to compete with cheaper foreign imports? 2) Will there be enough U.S.-manufactured steel to meet demand?

There have been numerous studies of the 2018-19 tariffs, which were not as restrictive as the new program but offer some possible answers to these questions.

Almost all of the steel and aluminum tariff costs in 2018-19 were passed directly to U.S. companies in the form of prices that rose by about 22% and 8% respectively. However, many foreign producers received exemptions from the tariffs and U.S. steel and aluminum production — which represented more than twothirds of the U.S. market before the tariffs — grew moderately to meet demand, rising by an annual average of $2.8 billion over the period from 2018 to 2021. Even so, companies that had depended on cheaper imported metal struggled and overall production of goods that use steel and aluminum decreased by an annual average of $3.4 billion, according to U.S. International Trade Commission in May 2023.

U.S. importers also bore near the full cost of the broader tariffs on Chinese goods but generally passed only part of the costs to consumers, according to National Bureau of Economic Research in October 2019.

However, a separate tariff on washing machines added $86 to the retail price of a washing machine and $92 to the price of a dryer, ultimately costing consumers over $1.5 billion, according to a study in 2019 by the University of Chicago.

Broadly, a 2024 analysis found that the 2018–19 tariffs (many continued by the Biden administration), combined with retaliatory tariffs by other countries, reduced U.S. gross domestic product by a little more than 0.2% and cost about 169,000 full-time jobs,

according to the Tax Foundation on Feb. 13.

Trump has also ordered a study of reciprocal tariffs, which would set tariffs based dollar-for-dollar on the tariffs each country charges on U.S. goods, as well as nontariff trade barriers. As with most issues related to tariffs, there are differing opinions on this. At best, reciprocal tariffs could lead to negotiating lower tariffs and removing barriers that prevent U.S. businesses from operating in a foreign country. At worst, they could lead to a global trade war, with ever-increasing tariffs and barriers, according to a Feb 13 report in The Wall Street Journal.

Along with the 10% tariff on Chinese goods, Trump excluded China from the de minimis provision of U.S. customs law that exempts goods valued at less than $800. This would make cheap goods from Chinese online retailers, which are often shipped directly to consumers, subject to existing tariffs plus the new 10% tariff.

The exclusion was suspended recently to give the U.S. Postal Service and Customs and Border Protection time to develop a plan to collect the tariffs.

It’s unclear how this change will affect consumer prices, but processing could slow delivery times, according to a Feb. 5 AP News report.

Inflation Most economists believe that tariffs cause inflation and President Trump admitted there might be shortterm price increases. The potential for tariff-driven inflation is of particular concern in the current economy; two recent surveys show a significant decline in consumer confidence due to inflation fears, according to news report. The full economic impact will depend on how the tariff program plays out — how much is intended as a negotiating tool and how much turns into long-term policy.

For now, it would be wise to maintain a steady course and keep an eye on further developments.

Laurie Haelen, AIF (accredited investment fiduciary), is senior vice president, manager of investment and financial planning solutions, CNB Wealth Management, Canandaigua National Bank & Trust Company. She can be reached at 585-419-0670, ext. 41970 or by email at lhaelen@cnbank.com.

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Golfing for Health

Why hitting the links can improve your health

By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

I

f you love playing golf, keep it up.

And if you’re curious about the game, why not start?

A study published by the National Institutes of Health indicates that “golf can provide moderate intensity physical activity and is associated with physical health benefits that include improved cardiovascular, respiratory and metabolic profiles, and improved wellness.”

R e s e a rc h p ro m o t e d b y t h e American Stroke Association states that in a decade-long study, people who regularly golf have a death rate of 15.1% compared with 24.6% among people who don’t golf.

Michael Gagnier, a cardiologist for Highland Hospital and Coronary Care Unit at Strong Memorial Hospital, has enjoyed the game and its benefits since he began playing in high school.

“I think that there are two types of golfing: the healthy and unhealthy,” 18

55 PLUS – MAY / JUNE 2025

Gagnier said. “The healthy golfer is the one that goes out to enjoy their time outside with friends. They walk the course pushing a cart or carrying their clubs. They’re not drinking alcohol on the course. The unhealthy golfers are the people who ride the carts, smoke cigars and drink while golfing.”

The average weight of a bag of golf clubs is 35 lbs. Gagnier said that carrying them for a four-mile course can provide a pretty good workout. Walking has long been touted as an excellent way to improve cardiovascular health.

“If engaged properly, the golf swing itself takes a good amount of flexibility and strength to have good club head speed,” Gagnier said. “If you engage in it regularly, you stay flexible.”

He also touted golf’s mental health benefits. Players who can put away their phones stay in the moment, which helps reduce stress and anxiety.

Golfers can play with friends to make it a social outing and enjoy some fresh air.

“You’re outdoors, engaging in something that’s extremely enjoyable,” Gagnier said. “It teaches patience and have things roll off when they don’t go your way. You can learn how to accept bad outcomes and move on.”

Malcolm J. Lickers, a sports medicine physical therapist and athletic trainer (retired) with Finger Lakes Health, has worked in the golf industry for 20 years. He noted that walking represents one of the biggest health benefits of golf; however, “most golf courses now require you to use a golf cart. That does not mean you cannot walk. Take turns driving.

One walk, the other drive. Switch between driving and walking every other hole. This has a great benefit for cardiovascular fitness.”

Like Gagnier, he touted the benefits of the golf swing for strengthening core

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Although rare, golf-related head injuries can have the most severe outcomes.

To minimize the chance of injury, receive a healthcare provider ’s clearance before playing. Warm up muscles before beginning and do a few gentle stretches. Stop playing if you experience pain and see a healthcare provider. If you hear another player shout “Fore!” immediately seek cover.

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Jennifer Nicoletti, owner of Thomas Music Inc. in Rochester, holds a saxophone that came to her shop to be fixed. She joined her father at the shop in 1999 and later became the owner.

survivor Musical Instrument Repair Technician, Cancer Survivor, Rower Jennifer Nicoletti, who owns Thomas Music Inc. in Rochester, has found a balance between her work life and her health

By Linda Quinlan

A

musician recently stopped in, saying his saxophone sounded “stuffy.”

Jennifer Nicoletti found a Hot Wheels-style toy car stuck inside.

Another customer, the parent of a child, told her that the child was experimenting with putting different sizes of balls into his baritone horn when one became stuck. The child started banging the bell of the horn on a table to get the ball out. As one might expect, the bell ended up mangled.

Another customer found a sousaphone hanging on the side of a barn and wanted to know if it could be restored.

“We’ve seen it all,” Nicoletti said with a laugh. “It’s like going to the doctor ’s office …you might come in a little embarrassed, but we can diagnose the problem and fix it.”

That “we” would be Thomas Music Inc., the company her late father, J. Russell Thomas, founded the year she was born, 1968.

While her father died in May 2019, Nicoletti has not only kept the business going, but also growing.

At the same time, she has balanced treatments for a second bout of breast cancer and challenged herself to stay strong by participating in activities through organizations supporting cancer survivors.

At 56, Nicoletti has been diagnosed with and survived, cancer five times since age 20.

Nicoletti has now grown Thomas Music to include two other repair technicians. The three operate out of a large space on East Ridge Road in Irondequoit.

“I think my dad would be extremely proud; we have always had a very strong work ethic,” Nicoletti said.

The reason Russ Thomas started fixing band instruments, she explained, is that as a fairly new music teacher at the East Irondequoit School District’s Ridgewood School in 1963, he became frustrated when a student’s instrument needed repair, that it was often gone for weeks at a time. He could not effectively teach instrumental music when the students did not have their instruments.

He started by learning to do a few adjustments himself, but eventually realized he needed and wanted to know more, she said.

He learned that one of his suppliers, Allied Supply of Wisconsin, was running summer workshops on how to make instrument repairs. So from the time So from was 5 or 6 years old, their family would pile into a camper and “vacation” in Wisconsin.

Dad would be at school during the day but come back for dinner and campfires, Nicoletti recalled.

“Those were our big family vacations for a number of years,” she said.

A s h e r f a t h e r g a i n e d m o re

knowledge in the instrument repair business, he also started attending conventions hosted by the same supplier. Out of those conventions grew NAPBIRT, the National Association of Professional Band Instrument Repair Technicians. Her father was a charter member in 1976.

NAPBIRT today is an international organization and Nicoletti and her employees still attend the annual conventions. She was its president in 2010-11.

While she had followed in her parents’ footsteps and attended SUNY Fredonia, Nicoletti earned a degree in sociology with a criminal justice minor. After an internship at a prison south of Buffalo, she decided a career as a corrections officer was not for her. Instead, she said she “fell into” human resources and started working in corporate America.

After several years, “I was becoming continually frustrated,” she recalled.

One day, a simple question — “What about working with your dad?”

— from her mother, Kathy Thomas, led her down her current path. It was a lightbulb moment, she said and is grateful her mother put the idea into her head.

Nicoletti had studied piano from an early age and played French horn in concert and marching bands throughout her school years in East Irondequoit but had not considered MAY / JUNE 2025 – 55 PLUS

21

Thomas Music Inc. added repair technician Byron Ford in 2009, due to business growth.

anything in music as a career before.

She had met her future husband, Dave Nicoletti, an engineer, at a summer job during her college years and the two were married in October 1991. He was incredibly supportive of the switch in careers, she said.

“So, I brought it up to my dad and asked if he thought instrument repair was something I could learn,” she said.

“He had a huge grin on his face,” she added and replied that they had to make sure she had some mechanical aptitude.

It turns out she did.

“He always said I took to it like a duck to water,” Nicoletti said.

He also told her there would be pain involved with this job, since technicians use a lot of sharp and sometimes dangerous tools. She recalls that she told him that would not deter her as she had a high pain tolerance.

Still, she needed a plan, Nicoletti said.

“I knew I’d be taking a cut in a pay while I was starting out in a new career,” she said.

In 1999, she started training in 22

55 PLUS – MAY / JUNE 2025

Trevor Roberts joined Thomas Music about three years ago.

her father’s business. The shop at first was operated out of the family garage on Hartsdale Road in Irondequoit and later out of the basement of the large, historic farmhouse on Portland Avenue that her parents had moved to when her father retired in 1997.

Still, Nicoletti continued working fulltime. She spent one night a week and Saturday mornings training with her dad. She also took classes through the same supplier her dad had used and at the repair association’s conventions.

After six months, Nicoletti felt ready to take the plunge to leave her full-time job. She continued to work part-time as they were building the business and decided to supplement her income by offering private piano lessons in her home. She taught eight to 10 students after school and had annual recitals at her parents’ Portland Avenue home.

By 2006, the business, which specializes in brass and woodwind instrument repairs, was rapidly growing and she realized she needed to be in the shop more, so she went fulltime. A year later, they needed more

space and she found Thomas Music’s current home at 1908 E. Ridge Road (behind Vittorio’s Tux Shop).

Nicoletti, her father and her husband did renovations to the building to make it suitable for their needs. The building now includes a reception area, large repair shop, areas for heavy equipment, a room for cleaning instruments and more.

Her husband has designed and built some of the diagnostic tools they now use and he sells them to other band instrument repair technicians in the U.S. and around the world.

“Not many people do what we do and there are even fewer who do it well,” Nicoletti said.

Today, they are one of the largest band instrument repair facilities around and do work not only for numerous school districts, but also for a large population of adults who play in numerous community groups throughout the area, students from the Eastman School of Music and a number of other area colleges and even members of the Rochester and Buffalo philharmonic orchestras. They

Nicoletti, second from right, stands with the other members of ROCCREW (Rowing Over Cancer Crew) that participated in an exhibition race in October last year at the prestigious Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston.

also do subcontract work for a couple of other stores and instrument rental companies who do not have their own repair facilities.

The father-daughter operation added repair technician Byron Ford in 2009, due to business growth.

The pandemic years were rough, Nicoletti said. But grants available to businesses during that time kept them going.

“The only good thing about the pandemic was that there were no ‘emergency’ repairs needed, since no one was performing,” Nicoletti said.

She explained that it is common for someone to come in and need a very quick turnaround, which puts a lot of pressure on a technician.

Three years ago, though, business had picked back up so much that she started looking at adding another technician.

Ironically, Trevor Roberts was hired to join Thomas Music about the same time as her most recent cancer diagnosis.

“It was devastating,” Nicoletti said of the diagnosis. “But I knew what I

was in for, to a certain degree.”

She ended up having to be out of work eight weeks, but she did not have to worry about her business because she had Byron and Trevor to take care of things.

“It worked out beautifully because they are so awesome. I knew the shop was in excellent hands and that took a great deal of stress off my shoulders to allow me time to recuperate,” Nicoletti said.

She had three surgeries in 2022.

After her first bout of breast cancer at age 41, Nicoletti had become involved with the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer effort. Her team, called Enough is Enough, ended up being one of the most successful private fundraising teams and she became a spokesperson for Making Strides at several events.

She participated for five years but then decided it was time to move on.

The business was her focus.

“We tell people to have their instruments checked every year, so we can find little things before they become big things,” Nicoletti said.

She stressed, “Our customers are

the best. They are very loyal and so many have become friends. And it is heartwarming when people come in and say they had my dad as a music teacher.”

They continue to find everything from marbles to candy — and even a stuffed animal once — inside instruments.

Ford said there is a lot of precision to what they do, especially with higher end instruments.

Ford was a clarinet major in college and Roberts was a music business major including playing trombone at college. He said he does a lot of trombone alignment.

“I just feel lucky to get in here,” Roberts added. He worked in Buffalo for 13 years before joining Thomas Music and getting a much shorter commute.

Nicoletti did play the French horn in the Irondequoit Concert Band for 11 years, while her father was conducting, but stepped back when she was going through cancer treatments. That was, coincidentally, around the same time he stepped down from conducting MAY / JUNE 2025 – 55 PLUS

23

the band.

She can play all the instruments they repair, as can Ford and Roberts. All three repair both brass and woodwind instruments.

“You have to know how to play them to learn to fix them properly,” Nicoletti said, adding the only one she does not play is the bassoon.

The shop is open six days a week.

“We are a great team here and we consult with each other,” Nicoletti said.

They also try to be conscientious and get instruments back in the hands of their owners in a reasonable amount of time, she added. They are usually “slammed” in the summer and fall, especially as students and teachers are gearing up to go back to school.

While Thomas Music is not a fullservice music store, they are a repair shop, Nicoletti stressed. They do carry a selection of common accessories, such as reeds, swabs, mouthpieces, etc. and can order more unusual items.

Nicoletti also remains active in the community.

She was involved with Irondequoit Presbyterian Church, where her

mother was music director for 40 years and was the treasurer for 13 years. She was also a member of the church choir and session (governing body).

She and her family, which also includes brother Jim Thomas, a retired Irondequoit High School French teacher, have also maintained close ties with exchange students they hosted over the years.

Nicoletti has visited Chile, where her brother and mother traveled in January, twice. She and her husband have even hosted the daughter of the family’s former exchange student, Mario Valdivias.

“We’ve had a 45-year relationship with the Valdivias,” Nicoletti said.

“We are one big family, living on two continents.”

Nicoletti also has a new interest — rowing.

“After my second breast cancer, I heard about Naiades Oncology Rowing,” Nicoletti explained. “I wanted to try something outside my comfort zone … test myself; try new things.”

Naiades name was changed in 2023

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to ROCCREW. It stands for Rowing Over Cancer as well as designating that the team is in Rochester.

After being invited to visit a practice, then consulting her doctors, Nicoletti joined ROCCREW and started working out with the group in January 2023.

“When you’re on the water, you can’t think of anything else; you have to pay attention — not be thinking about your next doctor’s appointment — at all times,” she said.

She had never rowed before in her life.

Last year, just her second on the team, they were invited, through a partnership with the international Survivor Rowing Network, to do an exhibition race at the prestigious Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston.

Their crew of nine, including their coxswain, who directs the team, started practicing three times a week and traveled to Boston in mid-October 2024.

“We came in last, but not by much,” she reported.

The team was just thrilled to

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Members of ROCCREW pose in front of the HOCR (Head of the Charles Regatta) in Boston.

have participated and completed the particularly challenging course.

Again, Nicoletti found herself with a “spokesperson” role as local news stations did pieces on the team and she was also asked to give a short speech in Boston.

She does not plan to go back to Boston this year, however.

“The experience there was just so

phenomenal — even the weather was perfect — I knew it could never be replicated,” Nicoletti said.

She is still rowing.

“It’s really comforting, being around people who have gone through similar [medical] experiences,” Nicoletti said. “It’s a pretty special group.”

She admits she has a somewhat

“love-hate” relationship with the sport, since it is hard.

“It’s much harder than it looks!” she said. “It’s both exhausting and exhilarating.”

“But rowing is like playing an instrument,” Nicoletti added. “There’s always something to learn and improve upon.”

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Helping Enrich the Lives of Older Adults

By Mike Costanza

A

s the executive director of Oasis Rochester, 62-yearold Ann Cunningham helps the Rochester area’s older adults live richer, more fulfilling lives.

Under her direction, the nonprofit offers a broad range of benefits for those 50 years old and older, including classes in the arts and humanities, fitness and wellness programs and opportunities to volunteer in the community.

The nonprofit has just two employees — Cunningham is one of them — and about 60% of its instructors are volunteers.

About 750 older adults, whom Oasis Rochester calls “participants,” enrolled in one or more of its programs in 2024 alone. The local nonprofit is part of the Oasis Institute, which is 26

55 PLUS – MAY / JUNE 2025

active in more than 250 communities nationwide.

Cunningham, a married Irondequoit resident and mother of two daughters, spoke to 55-PLUS about Oasis Rochester and the path that took her to her current position.

Q: In a few sentences, what is Oasis Rochester’s mission?

A: Our mission, really, is to help older adults live vibrant, healthy, productive and meaningful lives. We do that by promoting healthy aging through lifelong learning classes, active lifestyles and volunteer engagement.

We have classes in anything from history to the arts, humanities, music, tours in the community, personal development. We have exercise and music classes as well.

Q: As executive director, how do you help your nonprofit accomplish its goals?

A: It’s really kind of my role to steer the ship as an agency. I’m kind of a jack-of-all-trades. I help put the classes and the catalogues together, help set the budget. I do development, I do grant writing, I connect with aging service providers in the community and I also serve on the Monroe County Aging Alliance, which is a consortium of aging service providers. We help support older adults in the community.

I’m also trained in reframing aging.

Q: What is the Monroe County Aging Alliance?

A: We are a consortium of service providers in the aging services field. We come together and talk about the needs of older adults in our community, and

how can we push those areas of need forward and support older adults in our community.

Q: You say you’re trained in “reframing aging.” What does that mean?

A: It’s kind of changing the narrative on aging. It’s using the correct terminology. It’s trying to help people realize that we are all aging.

This is a natural process. It’s trying to look at the aging process in a healthy way. This is very much research based, but really the connotation that is set up when you use “senior” is a negative connotation, so we use “older adults.”

Q: Your background and original training were in audiology. Before coming to Oasis Rochester, you first worked as an audiologist for the Rochester Hearing and Speech Center, then as the senior audiometric technician at Monroe #1 BOCES in Fairport. What led you to enter an entirely different field?

A: I worked as an audiologist for 11 years and I took some time off to help raise my kids. During that time, you used to be able to serve as an audiologist with a master’s degree, which is what I have and that changed to a clinical doctorate. To get back into the working world as an audiologist, I would have had to have gone back to school. I wasn’t really prepared to do that at the time. My husband was downsized in 2009, so I went to work for BOCES. I worked there for about six years, but then decided I wanted something different. I loved working with students, but I also loved working with older adults. This position here at Oasis opened up and it kind of melds everything I have done in my adult career, kind of brings it all together.

The needs of older adults, I understood that from my work in audiology, but also continuing the love of learning that I saw in our students.

Q: How did you feel on your first day as executive director?

A: I very much felt welcomed, like I was a part of the community. It felt like the right place for me to be.

Q: What challenges did Oasis Rochester face when you first walked into your office?

A: Our classes run on a trimester basis. Every three-and-a-half-months

we have a new registration process and that was all done by paper. I was told when I interviewed that Oasis would never go to online registration and I just knew that that needed to be changed. It was a big challenge.

Q: Why was going to online registrations such a big challenge?

A: We needed to change our thinking. Our older adults are very vital, know how to take on new skills and learning how to register online was one of those things. We started training them on how to register online. We helped people who needed help accessing their computers or registering online.

Q: What challenges does Oasis Rochester face now?

A: We are still trying to recover from COVID. During COVID we switched all of our classes to Zoom, as many as our instructors would allow.

Some just didn’t want to teach on Zoom. We knew how important that was to provide those classes.

Q: Did the pandemic affect enrollments?

A: We absolutely did drop by about 50%. We’re probably between 60% and 70% [now]. So were slowly creeping back. We’ve got seven Oasis ventures like ours across the country and it’s all been slow to come back.

Q: From 2011 to 2023, you sat on the board of education of the West Irondequoit School District. Why take such a responsible position while running Oasis Rochester?

A: I grew up in and received a great education in Irondequoit. We settled in Irondequoit, and raised our kids in the Irondequoit school district. I decided to serve on the school board to give back to the community that gave me and my children so much.

Q: Can you tell me of some of the school board’s accomplishments while you served on it?

A: We did a lot of advocating for our district and for public education.

That meant sitting down with our area legislators. We were able to work towards a fuller funding of public education. We went to a full-day kindergarten and also made some significant capital improvements for our buildings. I’m proud of that.

Q: Since 2024, you’ve held a seat on Irondequoit’s town board.

What led you to run for that seat?

A: There was an opening and I put my name forward. There was a resignation midway through a term and I was designated to fill part of the vacated term by the Irondequoit Democratic Committee. That was for one year of a two-year vacated term. I ran in November for the second year of that vacated term. Hopefully, we’re going through the process right now to put me on the ballot this November for my own four-year term.

Q: What would you like to accomplish in office?

A: I put my name forward because I wanted to be of service to the community. Monroe County is an agefriendly, livable community and we are working towards making our towns and our villages age-friendly, livable communities. Our neighborhoods, our towns, our cities are great places for people of all ages to live and so we want to make sure that we are providing safe, walkable streets, that we provide age-friendly housing and transportation, that we have access to needed services and that we have opportunities for people of all ages to participate in the life of the community.

Q: On your off time, what do you do for fun?

A: I love Americana music. It’s a blend of folk, country and rock. I go to a lot of concerts, not only locally but I do a little bit of traveling with that.

One of my favorite bands is The Avett Brothers. I also love Brandi Carlile and going to Abilene [a downtown Rochester club]. I love spending time with my family. I have two adult daughters. One is living here in the community; one is still in college.

When they’re in town, we like to spend time together.

Free Membership Membership in Oasis Rochester is free. Its programs are relatively inexpensive and scholarships are available for those who cannot afford to pay for them.

For more information, go to https://rochester.oasisnet.org

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volunteering

RETIREES GIVE BACK TO THE COMMUNITY

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By Mike Costanza

ive of the Rochester area’s older adults enthusiastically spend their free time giving back to the community. One uses his well-known voice and visage to raise support for good causes.

Another helps a local theatrical company’s productions make it to the

stage. The third encourages a local museum’s plants to grown and its flowers to bloom every year, while the fourth teaches his students a new language. The fifth helps create exhibits that make kids and adults go “Wow!” and “So, that’s how it works.”

Alhart speaks during a fundraising event at at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church. Photo courtesy of Catholic Courier, photo by Mike Latona,

DON ALHART TV personality continues intense volunteer work as a matter of principle

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on Alhart has long been guided by a kind of principle he learned as a child.

“If you want to feel good, do something for someone else and do more than they ask,” said the 80-yearold former television news anchor, newsman and executive.

Alhart has acted on that maxim down through the years, giving his time and energy to many nonprofits and worthy causes even while working full-time in television news.

He retired last June as the associate news director of 13WHAM, but hasn’t stopped volunteering for a host of local nonprofits.

“A lot of the obligations, charity-wise, that I have done, that’s continued,” Alhart said. “If anything,

they’ve probably increased a little bit.”

On Tuesdays, you can find Alhart doing an entertaining “newscast” for fellow members of the Rochester Rotary at their regular lunchtime meeting.

“We still do a ‘news update’ every Tuesday, give a few of the headlines and the weather and stocks and share a funny story,” the longtime Rotarian said. “I’ve been doing that, probably, since 1977.”

He also gives longer talks on important subjects to Rotary clubs around the area and supports the service organization’s many projects, especially the Rochester Rotary Sunshine Camp. Last February, he appeared on social media as part of Sunshine Valentine, a fundraiser for

the 157-acre Rush, New York, camp that serves adults and children with disabilities and Rochester youth.

“You…buy a valentine for your sweetheart and raise money for the camp,” Alhart said. “I did a little video for that.”

Alhart also showcased the Rochester Rotary Sunshine Camp in some of his “Bright Spots,” the short, uplifting features with which he ended almost all of his television newscasts at 13WHAM. In recognition of his longtime support, the camp’s recreation center now bears the name “Don and Mary Alhart Bright Spot.”

Mary is Alhart’s wife.

Alhart has also emceed fundraising events for Advent House, a Fairport hospice and for the HUGS Foundation, Inc., which sends volunteer surgeons to Ecuador, Vietnam and Guatemala to treat children who have congenital facial deformities. Last October, he was the guest speaker for the annual ladies’ luncheon and fundraiser at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church.

Alhart said he wore his Penfield High School jacket to the Greece church’s event, which featured music from the 1950s and 1960s, records hanging from the ceiling and a DJ. Other nonprofits have also benefited from Alhart’s assistance or support as well. In 2020, he selfpublished a children’s book, “Sibley's Christmas Adventure.” Sibley, the principal character, is a mouse who lives on the fourth floor of the nowdefunct Sibley’s Department Store.

All of the proceeds from the book’s sale go to The Arc of Monroe, which serves those who have intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families.

The desire to give to others has even taken Alhart back to his old job, in a way. Though he’s left 13WHAM, he still records the station’s Community Connection broadcasts, though he does it in his home studio for free.

“It’s a short, 10- to15-second public service announcement,” Alhart said. “Keep the voice out there on the station.”

When asked if he intends to continue volunteering for nonprofits and good causes in the coming years, Alhart spoke as if it is his duty to do so.

“I attribute a lot of whatever success I enjoy to being involved in the community,” he said. “I think I still need to fulfill the obligation.”

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JACKIE AMIGONE For nearly 24 years, she has volunteered behind the curtain at Blackfriars Theatre

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f you looked behind the curtain of a Blackfriars Theatre production, you might see Jackie Amigone back there helping to make it 55 PLUS – MAY / JUNE 2025

a hit.

For nearly 24 years, the Rochester resident has volunteered for the midsized professional theatrical company

as the stage manager or assistant stage manager of various works.

“I have been involved in almost 50 productions,” said the 61-year-old, who gives as much as 25 hours a week to Blackfriars while working her fulltime job.

Amigone developed a desire to work in the theater while a student at SUNY Fredonia. After acquiring a Bachelor of Arts degree in stage production, she headed to the New York City area, intent upon making her career in that field. Though she had some successes, after four years she realized that she couldn’t make a living in her chosen field and decided to seek work of a different kind.

Amigone eventually moved to Rochester and was impressed by Blackfriars’ production values. In 2001, the theatrical company gave her the chance to stage-manage “The Heiress,” a play by Augustus and Ruth Goetz.

“The stage manager is the director’s assistant and coordinator during the rehearsal process,” Amigone said.

“Once the show opens, then they run the show and coordinate backstage operations.”

Since then, she’s thoroughly enjoyed volunteering for the theatrical company as a stage manager or assistant stage manager.

“You get the opportunity to be part of something that you can really be proud of,” she said. “That’s something that’s always been very important to me.”

She’s particularly proud of having stage-managed Blackfriars’s 2021 production of “Silent Sky,” a fictional play that’s based upon real events in the life of the astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt. Leavitt conducted astronomical research in the early 1900s, the results of which allowed other astronomers to measure the distances to faraway stars.

“Her work and her research essentially allowed us to determine the size of the universe,” Amigone said. “She was a very independent and strong and intelligent woman who was not recognized for her contributions because of her times.”

In addition to working full-time and giving her time and energy to Blackfriars, Amigone also sits on the board of the Astronomy Section, Rochester Academy of Science.

“I’m an astronomy enthusiast,” she said.

MARCIA DAVIS Hands in the soil: Former town of Ogden personnel director now part of a team that cares for the gardens at George Eastman Museum

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ack in June of 2018, Marcia Davis had just retired from her job as the town of Ogden’s personnel director and was wondering what to do with her days.

At the suggestion of some friends, she applied to become a volunteer for the George Eastman Museum, hoping to help care for the nonprofit’s extensive gardens.

“I’m not an expert on plants,” the 70-year-old Henrietta resident said.

“When I volunteered, I said ‘You just point me in the right direction. I’m

good with manual labor.’”

She started giving her time and energy to the nonprofit that July.

Just about every week since then, the married mother of one grown daughter has spent eight hours or more helping to keep its gardens in top shape.

Located on East Avenue, the George Eastman Museum offers visitors extensive exhibits of photographs and photographic equipment, the chance to watch classic films in the Dryden Theatre and the opportunity to tour the mansion that photography

pioneer George Eastman once called home. During the growing season, they can stroll through gardens filled with many species of colorful, fragrant flowers and other plants. On a warm summer day, just the scent of them can lift you from the doldrums.

Davis and about 100 other volunteers plant flowers, weed, prune plants, rake up leaves and perform other tasks from April through November to keep the green spaces beautiful.

“We do anything that you would do at home gardening, except on a different scale,” Davis said.

Each October, she helps prepare tulips for Dutch Connection, an annual event that celebrates Eastman’s love of flowers. As part of the preparations, the volunteers pot the large numbers of tulip bulbs that had been imported from Holland.

“We set up an assembly line with about 15 volunteers.’ Davis said. “We pot those in a couple thousand clay pots and we put them in cold storage.”

The tulips are then taken to a nursery in Avon and kept in cold storage. At the right time, they are warmed and forced to sprout, then prepared for display in the historic mansion.

This year, the building was filled with thousands of colorful tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, amaryllis and other flowers from Feb. 7-23. Davis was on hand to help water and tend to the plants and serve the thousands of visitors who came to see them.

But for the time they spend on Dutch Connection, almost all of the volunteers who work on the museum’s gardens go home in November. Davis and one other stay to clean and sharpen gardening tools, help with snow removal and do other jobs during the off season.

In reward for her services, Davis gets free admission to the museum for herself and two guests and to the Dryden for regular films, but that isn’t really the reason she gives the nonprofit her time and energy.

“The gardens are so nice and the people are so appreciative of your help that it motivates you to come back,” she said.

She also enjoys just working in the museum’s gardens.

“I love getting my hands dirty digging into the soil and seeing the final product afterwards,” she said.

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KEVIN FINNIGAN The ideal job: Former French teachers still working with students, at Rochester OASIS

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fter more than eight years with Rochester Oasis, Kevin Finnigan still gets a thrill from working with

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his students.

“I get energized by my students,” said the 77-year-old Fairport resident who teaches French for the nonprofit.

“It’s just the joy of imparting the knowledge and seeing the other people respond to it.”

Rochester Oasis offers classes in the arts and humanities, wellness, fitness and travel at relatively low cost.

Membership in the nonprofit is free for those who are 50 years old and older and live in Monroe County or one of its surrounding counties.

Finnigan has given his life to teaching. He majored in French and minored in the classical languages at SUNY Albany, from which he graduated in 1970 with a Bachelor of the Arts degree. He went on to teach French in public schools in Bainbridge, Fairport, Williamsville and Skaneateles before retiring in 2010.

After a time, Finnigan found he missed working with students and began volunteering for Rochester Oasis. Since then, he has taught as many as three classes per trimester for the nonprofit. Most have been in French, though he has also taught Latin. From the time that the COVID-19 pandemic passed through the area, he’s taught all of his classes remotely.

One group of Finnigan’s students has taken his French classes again and again since he first joined Rochester Oasis. Some in the group, which he calls “The Finnigan Groupies,” didn’t know any French at all when they began taking his classes, but recently did very well on a test. A few of them also demonstrated how well their studies have gone while on a trip to France.

“It gave me great pleasure to see that they were able to get around and meet basic needs without the help of an interpreter,” Finnigan said.

In addition to French, Finnigan is fluent in Spanish and Latin and has a working knowledge of Italian.

“I can make my way through a store and a restaurant in Italy, but I’m not what you would call fluent,” he said.

That came in handy when Finnigan led tour groups to Italy. He has also led groups to France, spent one summer living in the French-speaking part of Switzerland and has visited Holland and Luxembourg.

Asked what his plans are for the next few years, Finnigan said he intends to continue volunteering for Rochester Oasis.

“I have the ideal job right now,” he said.

Jim Meyer with the model of two canal locks that he helped build for the RMSC.

JIM MEYER Retired Kodak’s chief technical officer for Kodak making a difference at Rochester Museum and Science Center

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hen the Rochester Museum and Science Center wants to create an ex hib it using inhouse resources, it turns to its allvolunteer technical advisory group (TAG).

Using their knowledge and technical skills, the group’s members design and build the kinds of interactive, hands-on exhibits that draw visitors to the RMSC year-after-

year.

“We do something creative for the community and we get a lot of personal satisfaction for it,” said Jim Meyer, TAG’s 81-year-old founder and de facto leader.

Located on Rochester ’s East Avenue, the RMSC offers visitors of all ages three floors of colorful and educational science and historythemed exhibits, along with the opportunity to enjoy demonstrations

of different parts of the sciences. Meyer began volunteering for the nonprofit in 1990, when he joined its board of trustees. After retiring from his job as the director of research and chief technical officer for Kodak in 1998, he decided that in addition to serving on the board, he wanted to attack a problem the RMSC was experiencing.

“We could not afford back then to pay what exhibit houses were charging for hands-on physical science exhibits,” the Fairport resident said.

Meyer convinced four or five craftsmen, scientists, engineers and other skilled individuals that he’d come to know through his job to volunteer to help him build such exhibits.

“I was creative and I was good with my hands. I like to build things,” Meyer said. “I attracted a lot of people who had similar interests and that’s how TAG came about.”

Almost all of TAG’s members have been retirees. Down through the years, they’ve designed and built more than 100 unique, hands-on, interactive exhibits. Of that number, one allowed visitors to remotely control a model of an underwater robot, another featured a rocket that was powered by the electrolysis of water and a third was an interactive veterinary lab. TAG worked with Lollipop Farm, the Humane Society of Greater Rochester’s animal shelter, to create the lab.

One longtime favorite of visitors is the Erie Canal Locks exhibit. Located in the Water Worlds Gallery, it features two working scale models of canal locks that control passage on an oval stretch of “canal water.” Visitors can remotely run a tug through the waterway while operating the locks.

It’s a particular hit with kids.

“It works just exactly like the real thing,” Meyer said. “The kids have to figure out what doors have to be closed, what valves have to open to flood the lock and to drain the lock.”

The Erie Canal Locks exhibit first appeared at the RMSC more than 15 years ago. Meyer and his team have improved it since then and it’s in its third iteration.

Nowadays, as many as 20 members of the TAG give their time and energy to RMSC each week. Meyer would like to raise that number.

“I would be happy to continue to bring in new people, retired or otherwise,” he said.

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CEO Kathy Parrinello speaks at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Strong Expansion Project in September 2023. Photo by Matt Wittmeyer.

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cover

FROM STAFF NURSE TO CEO Kathy Parrinello, the first female president and CEO of Strong Memorial Hospital and Highland Hospital, is about to celebrate one year in the position

By Mike Costanza

K

athy Parrinello makes light of being the first woman in history to become the CEO and president of UR Medicine’s Strong Memorial Hospital and Highland Hospital.

“I think there many, many, many qualified women that could have been in this job,” she said. “It just so happens I’m the first.”

The promotion is just the latest step in a long career that has taken Parrinello from staff nurse to the upper echelons of hospital administration.

On July 1, 2024, she became the head of Strong Memorial, a teaching hospital.

With nearly 900 beds and more than 13,000 employees, the hospital is the largest in the area. In September, Parrinello took on the same roles at Highland Hospital, which has more than 260 beds and almost 3,330 people on its roster.

Parrinello took the reins of Strong Memorial and Highland from Steve Goldstein, who was the hospitals’ president and CEO for nearly 30 years.

But for a brief stint with a Chicago hospital in the late 1980s, she has spent all of her working life with UR Medicine.

Parrinello grew up in Elyria, Ohio, the second oldest of eight children in a family that valued the work ethic and taught the older siblings to care for the younger kids. She did well in high

school, where she acted upon her love of the sciences and set her sights on a career in nursing.

“It allowed me to blend, kind of, my interest in the sciences, particularly anatomy and physiology, with the care provider role,” the 71-year-old said. “I think being one of the oldest in a large family probably contributed to that.”

A f t e r g r a d u a t i n g f ro m t h e University of Rochester School of Nursing in 1975, Parrinello became a staff nurse at Strong Memorial. After providing direct care to patients for five or six years, she was promoted to nurse manager.

“That was a combination of clinical work as well as leadership, because as the manager on an acute floor, you’re taking care of patients as well as leading the team,” Parrinello said.

She continued to advance in her career and in 1995 became Strong Memorial’s senior director of hospital operations. The new position allowed her to make greater use of her experiences and skills.

“The ability to solve problems at the organizational level and bring new initiatives to light or bring new initiatives to practice was much easier, given my background,” she said. “I think having a good sense of how health care is provided is very useful in hospital administration.”

While in that position, Parrinello

helped develop a number of programs and was a driving force behind the construction of the new eight-story Golisano Children’s Hospital.

“We always had pediatric service,” she said. “When we knew we needed to expand beds, I was able to work with colleagues and say, ‘Why don’t we build a children’s tower instead of just expanding beds.’”

The Golisano Children’s Hospital, which opened its doors in 2015, currently boasts 124 beds, including the 68 in its neonatal intensive care unit. The facility treats about 85,000 patients each year.

When Strong needed more beds for cancer patients, Parrinello advocated for the construction of the 84-bed James P. Wilmot Cancer Center.

“I was able to work with our leaders in cancer and say, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we had not only our outpatient cancer treatment but out inpatient cancer programs in one tower,’” Parrinello said.

The center, which is the flagship of the Wilmot Cancer Institute, offers patients and their families c o m p re h e n s i v e i m p a t i e n t a n d outpatient services.

Parrinello was promoted in 2000 to chief operating officer of Strong Memorial, where she continued making her mark.

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Parrinello with Peter Robinson, URMC vice president for government and community relations; NYS Gov. Kathy Hochul; and Mark Taubman, former URMC CEO at the Strong Expansion Project demolition kickoff in 2023. Photo by Adam Fenster

development of community-based programs that brought state-of-theart medical care closer to home, ensuring more patients could access the care they needed in a familiar and supportive environment," she said.

When asked what challenges local hospitals face, she pointed to a decline in the number of local treatment beds due to hospital closures.

“Monroe County used to have seven hospitals and now it has four,” Parrinello said. “Over the years, due to financial duress or whatever, hospitals closed.”

The closures have left the Finger Lakes region with no more than 1.68 beds per 1,000 people. In contrast, New York state has 2.4 beds and the U.S. as a whole has 2.2 beds per 1,000. As a result, hospitals can be strained.

“You have COVID, you have a bad flu season and an aging population, all of a sudden all the hospitals in the region, the four hospitals remaining, we get more than 100% occupied,” Parrinello said.

Strong Memorial and Highland have taken a number of steps in recent years to respond to the scarcity of local hospital beds.

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In June of 2023, Highland cut the ribbon on its Southeast Tower Project, a $70 million, 80,000 square foot modernization project. Patients are able to undergo several types of surgery in the addition and, if necessary, stay overnight in one of 58 new private rooms. Parrinello is leading an effort to put another 26 overnight recovery beds in the facility.

“Adding beds is going to be really, really important, I think, in this community,” Parrinello said.

Strong Memorial is seeking a way to treat more patients outside of its grounds.

“We’re exploring a hospital-athome program where we actually admit a patient with all the technology in their home,” Parrinello said.

Using electronic devices, Strong Memorial’s staff could take care of the patients without always being present.

“We have Zoom and cameras and electronics and all sorts of ways to connect with people,” Parrinello said.

Treatment providers in a central hub would watch and monitor their patients and visit them periodically.

Parrinello said the program is in its early stages and that the hospital hopes

to launch it by the late summer.

Unique role After acquiring her degree in nursing, Parrinello went on to obtain a Master of Science degree in medical surgical nursing from the University of Rochester School of Nursing and a Ph.D. in administration in higher education from the university’s Warner School of Education.

In addition to running two hospitals, she precepts students and lectures at the University of Rochester’s School of Nursing, Simon Business School and School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Though Parrinello doesn’t make too much of being the first woman to head Strong Memorial and Highland, she admits that the distinction carries responsibilities.

“Any time you’re in a unique role, you want to make sure that you represent whatever group that is well in the role, so there is an added dimension, I guess, in terms of really wanting to do the job well,” she said.

She Remembers People’s Names

University of Rochester Medical Center CEO David Linehan: “[Kathy Parrinello] leads with integrity, decisiveness and a deep respect for the teams she oversees.”

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ichael Parrinello is impressed by the way his mother treats her employees, though she’s in charge of thousands of people.

“She remembers people’s names, she says ‘Hello,’ she greets them warmly, and this is whether they’re wearing a white coat or whether they’re pushing a waste can,” said Parrinello, who is one of Kathy’s three children.

He has striven to treat the others he meets on the job in much the same way.

“I have made it a point in my career to sort of do the same,” said Parrinello, who is the chief growth officer for the top accounting firm The Bonadio Group. “Everyone deserves your kindness and your attention in that way, if only for a small piece of time to acknowledge, frankly, your very existence.”

He also admires his mother’s other qualities.

“My mom is great. She is dedicated, smart, hardworking, disciplined,” he said. “[She] has been, I think, certainly from a professional standpoint, a great role model for both me and my brothers.”

Michael Parrinello is one of Kathy Parrinello’s three sons” [She] is a great role model for both me and my brothers,” he said.

Parrinello Draws Praise from Her Boss

URMC CEO says she leads with integrity, decisiveness and a deep respect for the teams she oversees

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e asked University of Rochester Medical Center CEO David Linehan the following questions about Kathy Parrinello, the newest CEO and president of Strong Memorial Hospital and Highland Hospital.

Linehan, a physician who has worked with Parrinello since 2014, provided the following: Q: What qualities does Kathy Parrinello have that make her the right person to be the president and CEO of Strong Memorial Hospital and Highland Hospital?

A: Throughout my time at URMC, I’ve seen firsthand the depth of her leadership skills, her unwavering dedication to patient care and her ability to navigate the complex challenges of academic medicine. Her clinical background as a nurse gives her an innate understanding of what it takes to deliver high-quality care at the bedside, while her experience in hospital administration has shaped her into an exceptional strategist

and problem solver. She leads with integrity, decisiveness and a deep respect for the teams she oversees.

Q: In a June 2023 press release, you said that since COVID-19 the challenges of running UR Medicine have grown more intense. How might Kathy Parrinello’s skills and other attributes help her overcome those challenges?

A: The healthcare landscape has changed considerably since COVID-19 and leading an institution like Strong or Highland requires someone who is not only experienced but also adaptable, resilient and innovative.

Kathy is exactly that leader.

She understands the evolving demands of hospital capacity and the increasing complexity of patient care.

Her deep knowledge of operations, combined with her forward-thinking approach, has helped us navigate critical challenges. She is proactive rather than reactive — she anticipates problems before they arise and puts solutions in place that will strengthen our hospitals for years to come.

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Why Sleep Gets Harder With Age And How To Sleep Better

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ossing and turning more as you age? You're not alone — and experts think they know why.

Shelby Harris, a sleep psychologist in White Plains, explained that stress, sleep structure and hormonal changes can impact sleep as people age.

"As we start to move into our 60s, 70s, you have more issues with the depth of your sleep, so your sleep is just lighter in general," Harris told CBS News. "There's sleep disorders, like insomnia, that happens, and then you have to go to the bathroom more at night."

Research shows up to 70% of people 65 and older have chronic sleep problems, and hormonal shifts play a big role in that, especially for women.

"We have more hot flashes, night

sweats. You actually have more sleep apnea in women as well, and just more insomnia too," Harris said.

There may also be some evolutionary reasoning behind why older adults get less deep sleep, Harris added.

"The deepest stage of sleep is where your muscles are repairing, you're growing — and as you're getting older, you don't need that ideally as much as you do when you're younger," Harris said, adding that younger kids get a lot of deep sleep. "[Older adults] just wake up a lot more because of pain and movement and having to urinate," she added.

What's more, Harris told CBS

News, it's a myth that older adults don't need much sleep.

"If a doctor tells you that is normal to get a lot less as you get older, definitely seek some other advice," Harris said.

Along with keeping a cool, dark and quiet sleep environment, she offered these tips: • Meditate during the day. “If you have a busy brain, meditating five minutes during the day can help to actually ease your brain more at night,” Harris said.

• Limit daytime sleep.

To try and get better sleep at night, you can also try spending less time in bed during the day, Harris added.

That means reducing naps.

• Stick to a regular bedtime.

If sleep issues last more than a few weeks, it's important to talk with a doctor, Harris urged.

"We do have a lot of treatments like cognitive behavior therapy for insomnia, you might need a sleep study, medication," she said. "We have lots of options."

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MASKS ARE STILL REQUIRED. Due to Covid-19, strict safety policies are in effect and apply to EVERYONE. We cover our styling chair in disposable vinyl. I also wear protective coverings. There is no way an operator could be three feet apart from a client while working, which is why the client and I are covered. You will receive foot coverings, vinyl gloves, and a sheer vinyl cape which you will wear out to your car and discard at your convenience. Temperature will be taken at the door. No wigs are touched by bare hands. ONLY THE CLIENT IS PERMITTED INSIDE!

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edibles

Consider Edible Landscaping

By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

Y

ou don’t have to own a farm to grow food. If you have a bit of land or even a porch or patio, you can grow a few things that are edible — and that look good with your current landscaping.

“It's doable,” said Sarah Van Eenwyk, general manager at Grandpa's Nursery & Gardens in Sodus. “I have a friend who plants a tomato plant in her landscaping bed every year with a tomato cage. Even the ones you buy at a garden store that are galvanized, you can paint a pretty color.”

Just as with any other planting, growing plants for food requires learning about how large the plants will become and what other needs they may have such as a trellis or fence for training vines or canes. It also helps to use attractive mulch around them to suppress weeds, help retain moisture 40

55 PLUS – MAY / JUNE 2025

and make it easier to mow around them.

Shrubs that bear fruit are an easy choice for Van Eenwyk.

“People are putting blueberries in their gardens and landscaping,” she said.

Deer like to eat the bushes, so planting blueberries closer to the house may help ward them off. But allow space on all sides of the bushes so you can harvest all the fruit. That’s tough if the bushes are flat against the house.

Consider fruit trees instead of ornamentals. However, note if the trees are self-pollinating or require male and female trees to bear fruit.

Follow the nursery’s directions for fertilizing, pruning and spraying for pests. It also helps to promptly pick up any dropped fruit so it does not attract pests and disease.

“Customers are doing a lot more container gardening, too, like sage,” Van Eenwyk said. “It’s a perennial crop you can grow in your perennial flower garden. It’s easy to grow. Rosemary is a little touchy. Many grow it in a container and bring it inside as it won’t survive the winter. Basil and parsley do very well in container gardening.”

Many herbs can become invasive so it’s wise to harvest them often. You can always dry it if you can’t use it fast enough as fresh. Or give it away.

Strawberries can grow in containers or hanging baskets. Van Eenwyk said that strawberries can even make pretty groundcover.

Plants such as tomatoes and cucumbers look good in landscaping, especially if you use fertilizer that includes calcium. Use horticultural oil to help prevent blight and powdery

mildew, since these plants are very prone to these diseases.

Since the pandemic, Kyle Van Putte, president and CEO of Van Putte Gardens in Rochester, has noticed an uptick in people interested in hobby gardening — not growing and preserving a lot of produce, but raising a bit for fresh eating.

“Even the most novice gardeners buy cherry tomato plants in a threegallon pot,” he said. “It will bear fruit a month later. Another popular one is the jalapeno plant. It’s the ‘guacamole combo’ with a tomato plant, bell pepper and jalapeno. They aren’t necessarily putting in gardens in the ground, but container gardening. They want plants that will bear fruit in a few weeks, not two months.

“We’re also seeing a huge desire for blueberry bushes in pots. A lot want dwarf apple trees or pear trees. We are

seeing a big push for people wanting to grow some food.”

Raised beds near pools and porches have become a trendy way to make growing edibles easier.

Before cultivating food plants, have the soil checked for lead, especially if near buildings. Root crops such as carrots, potatoes and turnips are especially prone to lead contamination if the soil has unhealthy lead levels. Don’t use salvaged wood for creating raised beds, fences or trellises around food plants. These may be contaminated with lead.

To find a lab to test soil for lead, visit https://apps.health.ny.gov/pubdoh/ applinks/wc/elappublicweb/.

You can also excavate and bring in purchased garden soil that’s safe for growing food to use in the areas where you plan to grow fruit and vegetable plants.

Kyle Van Putte, president and CEO of Van Putte Gardens in Rochester: “[Costumers] want plants that will bear fruit in a few weeks, not two months.”

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lawns

Top Tips for a ‘Green’ Lawn

By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

Y

ou may have a green lawn, but is your lawn environmentally green?

If you’re concerned about the effects of your lawn on the environment, you can keep it weedfree and reduce water use with a little planning.

A s c r a g g l y, w e e d y l a w n i s definitely unattractive. However, drenching it with weed killer can harm beneficial pollinators and contribute to runoff that harms waterways.

You don’t have to let weeds grow to feed pollinators. Consider planting butterfly bush, a wildflower area and other plants that attract pollinators.

If you’re starting a new lawn, select grass varieties that resist drought.

Sarah Van Eenwyk, general manager of Grandpa's Nursery & Gardens in Sodus, recommends low-water and low-nutrient fescues.

“A lot of times, we sell a seed that’s called Summer Green Supreme, a hard fescue blend,” Van Eenwyk said. “Those fescues will be lower maintenance grasses.”

The roots of fescue varieties can reach deep enough into the soil so that the grass can survive without much rain or watering.

How much grass seed you sow can also make a difference in how 42

55 PLUS – MAY / JUNE 2025

many weeds grow in your lawn. Van Eenwyk said that the thicker the lawn, the more likely it will choke out weeds and crabgrass. Err on the generous side when planting grass seed.

Feeding the lawn also matters in keeping it thick. Van Eenwyk sells Espoma, an organic brand that offers an entire lawn program and organic Milorganite, “which works well for lawns,” she said.

Kyle Van Putte, CEO and president of Van Putte Gardens in Rochester, said his center sells four- and five-step lawn programs, but he also believes that “a well-irrigated and well-fertilized lawn without all those other inputs will keep pests and weeds at bay. If you have a lush lawn, then there’s less opportunity for pests and weeds to attack it.”

Mowing the lawn too short is not good for the environment. It requires more frequent mowing and thus more opportunities to generate lawnmower emissions. If yours is a small plot, consider investing in a reel mower.

Van Putte recommends mowing to 2.5” to 3” high. Frequent mowing means the grass is so short that it requires more watering.

“You don’t want it so short that you’re constantly having to irrigate it,” Van Putte said.

Some areas of the country struggle with a low water table and must institute watering bans to make it through the summer. Typically, Rochester is cool and rainy enough during the summer that watering isn’t a big issue. But drought years sometimes can mean watering is necessary to keep the grass green. “ Yo u s h o u l d i r r i g a t e y o u r lawn once to twice weekly in the summertime,” Van Putte said. “It’s a very natural way to keep weeds and pests away. Make sure you’re leaving your clippings. That will naturally feed your lawn and provide some moisture retention more often rather than constantly removing those clippings.”

Timing matters when it comes to watering the lawn. Mike Nolan, owner of Green Acres Garden Center in Liverpool, advising watering during the first part of the day so that the lawn isn’t wet overnight.

“You can get more diseases that way, especially when it’s in the heat of summer,” he said. “If it gets a disease, you may need to treat it with chemicals.”

Watering early enough also prevents excessive evaporation, which wastes water.

Always follow package directions when using any lawn amendments.

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People have fun on Rochester Pedal Tours while exploring different areas of downtown Rochester.

Tour Rochester

Why spend thousands on foreign tours when you can spend a day or more touring your own region?

By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

T

he Rochester region offers numerous options for guided tours that engage, entertain and enlighten. However you want to explore the area — land or water — region tour leaders have an option for you.

Rochester Pedal Tours requires up to 15 passengers and a sense of adventure to power a bike around the city. Book it for a pub crawl, architecture tour, progressive dinner or dream up your own itinerary of what you want to see and do in Rochester. The pedalpowered vehicle includes a bench for resting or for a member of the party who can’t pedal. https://rochesterpedaltours.com Corn Hill Navigation in Pittsford and Rochester operates Sam Patch and 44

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Riverie tour boats for public cruises and chartered events on the Erie Canal and Genesee River. Enjoy refreshments on board as you see the canal from a whole new viewpoint.Check the website for special events and themed cruises. www.cornhillnav.org The Colonial Belle in Fairport also tours the Erie Canal with themed tours and dinner tours. Whether you choose Corn Hill’s vessels or Colonial Belle, book tours in advance to ensure a spot.

These tours are very popular. www.colonialbelle.com Costa Flying Service in Painted Post, a village in Steuben County, provides bird’s-eye views ranging from a short flight over Painted Post and Corning Glass Works to a tour that covers the

entire Finger Lakes region. www.costaairservice.com/our-services/ tours Sip Back & Relax Tours LLC in Rochester plans tours of the area’s wineries, breweries, cideries and d i s t i l l e r i e s a n d o ff e r s c u s t o m tour options. Tour plans include tasting appointments, itineraries, transportation and lodging. https://sipbackrelaxtours.com Crush Beer and Wine Tours in Victor guides public and private tours in Rochester and the Finger Lakes. Sip, sample and savor the region’s vino and brews while learning about how they’re made. Crush offers three- to four-stop tours and options with lunch. https://crushbeerwinetours.com

Corn Hill Navigation in Pittsford and Rochester operates the Riverie tour boats for public cruises and chartered events on the Erie Canal and Genesee River. It also operates the Sam Patch boat.

People in one of the Colonial Belle tours.

Flower City Food Tours in Rochester, Fairport, Pittsford, nosh their way through the city’s top restaurants with scenic walks between each stop. Enjoy food tastings and points of interest on each tour. It’s a great way to rediscover the city or introduce it to your out-oftown guests. www.flowercityfoodtours.com RocTours provides door-to-door transportation and a host around town to view the sites, cruise the hotspots for beer and wine, and stop at the little gems that make Rochester special. If you like to let others do the driving so you can imbibe and relax, this is the tour for you. www.roc-tours.com

InnoQuests (Rochester) offers an app-based game with real-life clues throughout the city. Feel like a detective as you explore with your family or guests, solving the mystery as you learn about Rochester’s points of interest. Even if you’ve lived in Rochester all your life, you’ll probably learn something new. www.innoquests.com

Erie Canal Bike Tours books national bike tours, but also local trips. Cyclists can select from the Full Erie cycling the entire 363 miles from Buffalo to Albany in 12 days or the half-tour of either Buffalo to Syracuse or Syracuse to Albany, all while supported by a tour guide and crew. www.cycletheusa.com/post/the-incredibleerie-canal

Rochester Candlelight Ghost Walks leads tours all summer on select evenings — not just during spooky season. If you can’t wait for Halloween or feel curious about the supernatural, book a haunted bus tour, haunted pub crawl, ghost walk or ghost dinner. www.rochesterghosts.com

Lazy Acre Alpacas in Bloomfield welcomes visitors for private, public, youth and corporate tours. Learn about the docile camelids and how the farm cares for them, how they’re sheared and how artisans process and use the fleece fiber. The farm also offers self-guided tours, alpaca yoga and classes. www.lazyacrealpacas.com MAY / JUNE 2025 – 55 PLUS

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Genesee Riverway Trail offers great angles of downtown Rochester.

Take a Hike!

Rochester abounds with pleasant places for enjoying a fine spring day

By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

W

hether you’re an avid hiker or occasional s t ro l l e r, g e t t i n g o u t to experience nature provides many benefits. The Rochester region offers plenty of venues to walk.

Here are some of them: Webster Park in Webster offers 550 acres and views of Lake Ontario and a true forest hike, along with creeks, bridges over swamps and a fishing pier. www.monroecounty.gov/parks-webster Mendon Ponds Park in Rochester boasts 30 miles of trails, Sharon’s 46

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Sensory Garden and Nature Center. w w w. m o n r o e c o u n t y . g o v / p a r k s mendonponds Turning Point Park in Charlotte spans 275 wooded acres near the Genesee River. Explore the 2,968-foot former railroad bed trail, a 3,572-foot bridge over the Genesee River Turning Basin and a 3,406-foot trail through the park adjacent to the Genesee Marina.

The park is ideal for river views and birding. www.cityofrochester.gov/locations/ turning-point-park Corbett’s Glen in Brighton provides flat, two-mile hike that’s easy on the knees. The loop trail includes views

of Allens Creek, a meadow, cattail marsh, forest and a private residence, the circa-1896 house built by Patrick Corbett. https://corbettsglen.org Eastman Durand Park in Rochester includes part of the Irondequoit Lakeside Trail, as the park perches on Lake Ontario. Expect hilly terrain and excellent views. w w w. m o n r o e c o u n t y . g o v / p a r k s durandeastman Kent Park Arboretum in Webster boasts lovely blooms tended by area volunteers. The circa-1909 park also includes wooded trails with moderate hills. www.websterviridarium.com

Channing H. Philbrick Park in Penfield includes two trails, Honey Creek Trail leading into the Four Corners and Philbrick Park Trail, skirting Irondequoit Creek and Panorama Valley. www.penfield.org/detail_T12_R46.php Abraham Lincoln Park is 182 acres of recreation space and 3.5 miles of trails.

It’s a good park for bringing along young grandchildren, as the trails are short and there’s a playground as well. www.monroecounty.gov/parks-bayeast Genessee Valley Park in Rochester trails include a 6.9-mile loop that boasts an elevation increase of 114 feet.

The park’s sprawling 800 acres taps into numerous other trails and flanks the Genesee River. www.cityofrochester.gov/locations/ genesee-valley-park Ellison Park in Rochester is a historic-fort-turned 447-acre park.

Bring along your pooch for a romp in the off-leash dog park. And while back on the leash, you can both get your hearts pumping as you navigate the five trails with moderate elevation gains. View wetlands, a stone quarry and forest. www.monroecounty.gov/parks-ellison Plan your hike by knowing each trail’s rules. Some allow dogs, for example, and some don’t. Prepare by wearing weather-appropriate clothing and comfortable walking shoes. If you want to bring your grandchildren, think about their age and fitness level compared with the length of the trails.

Consider wearing a hat, sunglasses and SPF 30 sunscreen to protect you from UV rays. Apply bug repellent after applying dried sunscreen.

Check your clothing for ticks and shower after hiking. Remaining on the trail can help you avoid ticks, as typically they wait on vegetation for potential hosts. Pay attention to any “trail closed” signs, as these are erected for your safety. Bring along water and a charged cell phone. If you hike alone, let someone know where you will be hiking and how long you expect to be gone. This is especially important if the venue has poor cell phone reception.

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47

Flower City Arts Center is located at 713 Monroe Ave. It has 67 studio artists and 73 associate artists using the studio and teaches more than 500 students each year.

arts Art for All Ages

Beginners to accomplished artists find a safe space to create and learn at Flower City Arts Center

By Grace Scism

48

55 PLUS – MAY / JUNE 2025

LEFT: Student pottery for sale in the Flower City Arts Center gallery.

RIGHT: Kate Whorton, program coordinator and ceramics director, in the Flower City Arts Center gallery.

I

t’s a Tuesday morning and eight participants of different ages and backgrounds have gathered in front of their pottery wheels to learn the art of wheel throwing at Flower City Arts Center in Rochester.

Introduction to the wheel is just one of the many classes offered at this historic building at 713 Monroe Ave. The nonprofit was established in 1970 as The Genesee Center for the Arts on Genesee Street. A few years later, Genesee Pottery and the Community Darkroom moved to its current location, a former firehouse that was built in 1895. The side of the building that now holds the Printmaking and Book Arts studios was added in 1905. Inside, one can see where the fire pole was once located and it appears that the kiln room is where the fire hoses were once stored.

S u e To o m e y, w h o t e a c h e s Introduction to the Wheel, has a picture of her grandfather, William Jaeger, a fire captain at the same firehouse, standing in front of his fire truck in the front bay that is now the gallery.

“To this day, I will walk up the stairs and there is a smell in the building that all I can think of is the smell of my

grandpa’s clothes,” Toomey said.

Toomey started renting studio space at Flower City Arts Center in 1978 after completing her undergraduate degree in art education.

“I was trying to get my portfolio together for grad school at RIT, so I did that here,” she said.

In the meantime, Toomey landed a job teaching art in Webster — the start of a 36-year teaching career. When she retired in 2016, her colleagues gave her a gift certificate to Flower City Arts Center. She came to sign up for studio space, but was soon recruited to teach.

“I have called this my happy place,” said Toomey. “It’s just one of those, you come in and people are just so relaxed. And it’s a joy to be in here, in this space.”

Leslie Kazak is taking Toomey’s Introduction to the Wheel class. “Way

back in high school, I did some pottery making and I really enjoyed it,” she said. “And so I’m getting close to retirement and I read this article about how to be successful in retirement. It said to find those hobbies now, maybe go back to something you liked to do before and it might stick. So here I am.”

A coworker was taking a class at Flower City Arts Center and mentioned it to Kazak, piquing her interest. “I’d like to create a few good pieces of pottery, but I also enjoy meeting new people who have similar interests,” she said. “And who knows where that may lead. It could lead to new friendships.”

Lynn Musgraves is also new to Flower City Arts Center.

She heard about the Introduction to the Wheel class from her friend, Greg Robbins, who encouraged her to sign up. Musgraves is fairly new to MAY / JUNE 2025 – 55 PLUS

49

the Rochester area, moving here to be closer to her son and thought the class would be a good place to meet people.

“I’m a true beginner and I’m not an artist, but I appreciate art and would have loved to have been an artist,” said Musgraves. “I also enjoy learning new skills and think I will continue to explore new art classes.”

Center offers 24/7 access Flower City Arts Center has 67 studio artists and 73 associate artists using the studio and teaches more than 500 students each year. In addition to pottery classes, the center offers classes in photography, printing, audio engineering, book binding, drawing and painting and much more.

Generous studio hours allow students ample time to practice their craft outside of class. There are also many offerings for children and teens.

VIVA (Vitality in the Visual Arts) classes are open to adults over 55 who are interested in exploring the arts.

“Our instructors are artists, some professionally and some have other careers,” said Kate Whorton, program coordinator and ceramics director.

“Our instructors must have experience and proficiency, and embrace our mission of art for all people.”

Greg Robbins, a retired t h e a t r i c a l d e s i g n e r, h a s t a k e n several classes at Flower City Arts, including Handbuilding Pottery, Creative LinoCut, Introduction to Screen Printing, Gelli Plate Printing, Printmaking, and now Introduction to the Wheel.

“Sue Toomey is an excellent instructor,” said Robbins. “She is familiar with common mistakes and has solutions to offer…she gives individual attention to everyone in the class and meets the student at whatever level they’re at.”

In addition to classes, the center offers a residency program where two to five artists from around the country spend a year immersed in their field of study and infuse the

students with new ideas, energy and techniques. They have an exhibition at the conclusion of their residency that showcases their body of work.

The center also offers studio artists 24-7 access to the 4,000 square foot space for $75 per month. Associate artists may use the studio spaces during office hours for $15 per month.

Both require a yearly membership.

Membership is $50 per year for students and seniors, $60 for individuals and $80 for a household.

Members receive discounts on classes and workshops and have the opportunity to showcase their work in the annual member’s exhibition. Class tuition assistance is available to adults and youth.

The center also partners with Writers and Books just down the street on University Avenue for its SummerWrite program for youth.

SummerWrite provides youth with experiences combining storytelling, hands-on art making and social justice.

Most recently the center partnered

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with Lollypop Farm for the “Little Free Pet Pantry” doghouse located outside of Flower City Arts Center.

Donations of pet food and supplies can be made and are available to those in need.

“Just how much this place means to so many people in Rochester is always amazing to me,” said Whorton.

“People that have had long histories in the area and people that just move into the area and find us.”

Those interested in learning more about Flower City Arts Center may tour the facility during office hours.

“You don’t know what’s going on behind these doors until you come in and see all of the classes and artist talks and gallery shows and everything that’s going on,” said Whorton.

Visit FlowerCityArts.org for office hours and more information about classes, workshops and events.

Free street parking is available on Monroe Ave. and the surrounding side streets and in the lot across the street at Blessed Sacrament Church.

Overview of a pottery class at Flower City Arts Center

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The Rochester Gay Men's Chorus delighted the audience during a March 22 concert at The Hochstein School.

RAISING THEIR VOICES

in Song

About 60% of the Rochester Gay Men’s Chorus’ members are 55 years old or older.

Though almost all of them are gay, the chorus also has a lesbian, a transsexual and a heterosexual in its ranks

By Mike Costanza

LEFT: Jeff Elsenheimer, Jr. is the chairman of the Rochester Gay Men's Chorus's Board of Directors.

RIGHT: Annika Bentley is the artistic director of the Mount Hope World Singers.

D

avid Knoll calls singing with the Rochester Gay Men’s Chorus a “win-win-winwin.”

“It’s the joy of making music, the joy of making music with gay peers and allies, the social component of meeting every week and building something together,” the 70-year-old Rochester resident said.

Knoll came together with the other members of the RGMC on March 22 for Divas of Empowerment, the concert the well-known chorus held at The Hochstein School, which provides music and dance instruction in Rochester. The group treated its audience to Cher’s “A Different Kind of Love Song,” Beyoncé’s “Freedom” and other uplifting selections, along with a love song and even a dance number. The show presented more than just RGMC’s artistic style.

“Our political environment is such that our identities are being challenged,” said Jeff Elsenheimer Jr., the 44-year-old chairman of RGMC’s board of directors. “We need to remind ourselves to stay strong and have hope for the future.”

The audience responded to 54

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the performances with resounding applause.

The RGMC was founded in 1982, when five friends gathered together to use music to spread the acceptance of social diversity.

“It came about in response to the AIDS epidemic and just a way for gay men to unite together and come together for a common cause,” Elsenheimer said. “Our mission is to create social change through excellence in the choral arts.”

The chorus grew to have 18 members and held its first concert on May 7, 1983, at a local church.

Nowadays, about 50 people make up the group, which performs three main concerts a year, generally in Rochester.

“We do everything from classic pieces to modern day pop songs, from Broadway tunes to songs that have a deeper meaning,” Elsenheimer said.

About 60% of the RGMC’s members are 55 years old or older.

Though almost all of them are gay,

NEXT PAGE: Once the Rochester Gay Men's Chorus left The Hochstein School’s stage in March, the Mount Hope World Singers stepped up to perform songs from around the world.

the chorus also has a lesbian, a transsexual and a heterosexual in its ranks.

Knoll helped found the RGMC because he loved singing, had watched gay men’s choruses form in other parts of the US and wanted to give local gay men a new way to socialize.

“At that time, the gay community needed alternatives to our limited social connections of gay bars,” he said.

RGMC’s performances also give “a face and a name to gay people and the broader LGBTQIA community that we now encompass,” Knoll said.

He went on to add that it is particularly important to give this community a face and name today, when “in particular my trans peers, if you will, are really under attack.”

LGBTQIA stands for “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/ Questioning, Intersex and Asexual.”

In addition to helping found RGMC in 1982, Knoll married his husband that year and founded the Genesee Co-op Federal Credit Union, which particularly serves those with low incomes. He went on to spend 35 years with the credit union, some of them as its CEO. Working alongside his husband, David Skinner, Knoll has also renovated and restored several neglected or abandoned homes in his Southwest Rochester neighborhood.

“A great joy in my life has been to see the quality of life for everyone in our neighborhood improve as we and others have worked to make homes livable again,” he said.

Dick Madden joined the RGMC about seven years ago in order to become more active in the gay community and act on his longtime love of music.

“I’ve played piano since I was 4 years old and guitar since I was 12,” the 69-year-old said. “I’ve sung in a church chorus before and decided it (the RGMC) was something I’d like to be a part of,” Onstage at The Hochstein School, Madden particularly enjoyed performing the song “I Love You More.” “’I Love You More’…is just a beautiful love song,” the Rochester resident said. “I can get emotional over some of the music we sing.”

The song is from “Tyler’s Suite,” which is dedicated to the memory of Tyler Clementi, a talented young musician who died by suicide in 2010 after being outed by his college roommate and bullied.

Madden who calls himself a retired “jack of all trades,” considers the RGNC a kind of family.

“We’re a group of people that spend a fair amount of time together rehearsing and supporting each other and applauding each other’s abilities and talents,” he said.

Once the RGMC left The Hochstein School’s stage, the Mount Hope World Singers stepped up to perform songs from around the world.

“MHWS seeks to build community and foster intercultural understanding through engaging, high quality, respectful performance of music in original languages from around the globe,” said Annika Bently, the group’s artistic director.

All three of the songs the MHWS

performed that evening were sung in their native tongues. “Wau Bulan” is a traditional Malaysian folk song and the lyrics of “The Island Itself” were written by Irish poet Joan McBreen.

In order to sing the group’s third selection, “Lua, Lua, Lua,” its members had to learn to pronounce Portuguese.

That was the kind of challenge that led Carol Santos to join MHWS back in 2014.

“I thought the idea of singing music in languages that were different and not familiar to me, might be a way to exercise my brain and also to be a challenge, which is also a good thing to do as you move into your senior years,” the married 79-year-old Brighton resident said.

She’s also glad that those who want to join MHWS don’t need to pass an audition.

“Everybody who wants to sing is qualified,” Santos said. “Out of all those willing voices, they have turned out really beautiful music.”

Santos is also a member of her church’s chorus and has sung in the annual Puerto Rican Festival and the Rochester Fringe Festival. Before retiring, she worked as a registered nurse and as an innkeeper.

When MHWS was formed in 2013, the group put an ad in a local newspaper seeking singers.

Dorothy Petrie was among those who responded.

“I had retired from teaching and was looking for a choral group,” the married, 74-year-old Pittsford resident

said. “It fit with who I am.”

Petrie has raised her voice in song since she was a child growing up on a small farm outside of Alexandria Bay in the Thousand Islands.

“I basically grew up singing in church choirs and then in school choruses,” she said. “As a young adult, I directed church choirs.”

Petrie went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in music and to become an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church. While working as a minister, she acquired a certification to teach instrumental and vocal music.

Petrie put that certification to use at the Greece Central School District, where she taught music to elementary school students for about 10 years before retiring.

After two to three years with MHWS, Petrie left the group to care for her elderly mother. She returned to the group in the fall of 2023.

“The music, as the group has developed, has been more and more challenging,” she said. “It keeps us on our toes, singing in different languages than what we’re accustomed to.”

The choir’s spirit is another big plus.

“We all sing from the heart,” Petrie said.

For more information on the Rochester Gay Men’s Chorus, go to https://thergmc.org.

For more information on the Mount Hope World Singers, go to https:// www.mounthopeworldsingers.org.

MAY / JUNE 2025 – 55 PLUS

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MAIN: Deborah Fox (right) with musicians David Morris and Christa Patton. Morris is the founder and musical director of the Bay Area baroque opera ensemble Teatro Bacchino. Patton is an early harp specialist with a particular focus on the repertoire of the early 17th century.

INSET: Deborah Fox is the artistic director of both New York State Baroque and Pegasus Early Music. She is a lutenist with a span of repertoire ranging from medieval to baroque music. She has performed with major early music ensembles and festivals from Newfoundland to Australia.

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55 PLUS – MAY / JUNE 2025

music Deborah Fox: On a Mission to Promote Baroque, Renaissance Music

By Joe Sarnicola

D

eborah Fox started playing guitar as a teenager and listening to the music of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and other folk singers.

Eventually she developed a lifelong love of early classical music and instruments, which led to her current position as the artistic director of both New York State Baroque and Pegasus Early Music.

As part of that work, she partners with the Eastman School of Music in Rochester and works with young artists who are interested in early music.

As a performer, Fox has played music ranging from medieval to the baroque and has performed in the United States, Canada, Australia and more. She graduated cum laude from Smith College and she received a certificate of advanced studies in early music at the Guildhall School of Music in London. She has also studied privately with Pat O’Brien, Paul O’Dette and Nigel North.

“When I was going to grad school I became very interested in the lute.

I liked the instrument because it combined my love music with my love of European history,” she said. “After grad school I started working and I was privileged to play all over the world. I developed a circle of friends who were interested in early music.”

Some of the people Fox has met or played with over the years have been invited to perform with NYS Baroque or Pegasus Early Music. The fall 2025 season will be the 37th year since NYS Baroque was founded by

oboist Peter Hedrick and his wife, Elizabeth, a bassoonist. NYS Baroque presents concerts of renaissance, baroque and early classical music on period instruments or handcrafted reproductions. The 2025-26 concert series will be announced in the spring.

Each season, which runs from September to May, features a series of weekend concerts. The Friday concert is held in Syracuse, Saturday’s is in Ithaca and the Sunday performance is in Rochester as part of Pegasus Early Music.

“In 2005 I was tired of traveling. I had been playing with NYS Baroque for a while and I wanted to start a Rochester-based concert series. That was how Pegasus Early Music began,” she said.

The two groups have separate boards, but they share the concert series and the expenses.

“This allows us to pay the artists more, which is very important to me,” she explained.

Being the artistic director of both groups has given her the flexibility to focus on the individual communities where the concerts are performed.

“I base the concerts on themes I am interested in and people I want to work with,” she added. “I like to collaborate with the artists. When you involve them, they feel more committed to the program. I try to offer a mix of musical periods and styles.”

In an attempt to reach broader audiences as well as to network with other musical groups, members of NYS Baroque have performed at the Skaneateles Festival, the Indiana Early

Music Festival and have accompanied the New York Baroque Dance Company and the choirs of Saint Paul’s Cathedral in Buffalo.

As with any nonprofit organization, funding is an ongoing process. NYS Baroque and Pegasus Early Music have been fortunate to have received grant funding from the New York State Council on the Arts, private foundations, sponsors, individual donors and the patrons of their concerts.

“Fundraising is a part of this job and we have been very fortunate. We can’t do this without our volunteers, our donors and our patrons,” Fox said.

NYS Baroque and Pegasus Early Music offer several creative ways to promote early music and the musicians who continue to play it and share it with the world. Donating to the general operating fund provides essential support to keep the programs going.

Sponsoring a concert is one way to honor a loved one or just to support the music. Sponsoring a musician provides money to pay the performers and helps the groups to attract top national talent, and in-kind donations are always welcome, such as expertise, resources or being a volunteer.

Legacy giving opportunities are also available.

Although her work as the artistic director of both groups can be demanding, Fox finds time to perform with each one. She is a very skilled performer on several types of lutes. A lute is an instrument with anywhere from six to 14 strings that has its origins in the ancient Arabic instrument called MAY / JUNE 2025 – 55 PLUS

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the oud (ood), meaning “the wooden one,” but it is similar in appearance to a guitar. She also plays the theorbo, which is essentially a lute with very long neck that produces a beautiful, full-ranging sound.

NYS Baroque has a companion project called NYS Baroque Young Artists, which its promotional materials describe as “a series of free concerts by the next generation of young emerging performers of early music.”

Fox is very proud of this series.

“One of my responsibilities is to nurture young artists. They must be committed to playing early music and they must apply and submit an audio performance. We select several of the applicants and give them a concert.

For some of them this is the first time they’ve been paid for playing music.

I try to involve them in every aspect of the show, including publicity,” she said.

The Pegasus Early Music portion of this concert series is called Pegasus Rising.

The remaining concerts of the 2024-25 season will be marches and minuets on the weekend of May

9 at the sanctuary located within the Downtown United Presbyterian Church, 121 N. Fitzhugh St. in Rochester. The church is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Free parking is available in the lot across the street. The church is ADA accessible.

The marches and minuet concert will feature a selection of music from the French court of the early 1700s.

Each performance is preceded by a pre-concert talk that provides more information about the pieces, their history and things to listen for.

“I have found that if people come to one of our concerts, they like it, even if they were not familiar with it,” she said.

To get tickets for the May 9 show “Marches and Minuets” at the sanctuary located within the Downtown United Presbyterian Church, 121 N. Fitzhugh St. in Rochester, visit www. pegasusearlymusic.org. For more information about the fall season and the NYS Baroque, visit https:// nysbaroque.com or email info@ nysbaroque.com.

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Reverend Susan Walters was called out of retirement to serve First Congregational Church in East Bloomfield. "When I stepped into this beautiful church and met the parishioners, I felt I had come home again," she says.

CALLED BACK TO THE PULPIT Reverend Susan Walters retired as a pastor after 35 years; when an East Bloomfield church came knocking, she decided to return to the pulpit

By Lynette M. Loomis

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55 PLUS – MAY / JUNE 2025

A

cross the country, churches are closing.

Aging parishioners and a mobile society have led to a decline in church membership.

Costly building renovations and insurance put pressure on church coffers, sometimes resulting in closure.

In East Bloomfield, the First Congregational Church, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, has a small but devoted congregation.

They needed an interim pastor.

Judson Rockcastle has been a member of the congregation for 40 years. He served on the pastoral search committee during 2019-20. This proved difficult due to the COVID-19 outbreak and the lack of qualified, interested candidates that the church could afford.

“At that point, Reverend Susan Walters served as our interim pastor.

After several discussions, she agreed to accept our offer to serve as our pastor. We were pleased since she is well-liked by all the members and has done an exceptional job leading, uniting our congregation. Her sermons are insightful and grounded in biblical principles,” he said.

“Pastor Sue leads a virtual prayer session on Thursday mornings, which is much appreciated. She routinely goes out of her way to track the members of our congregation and is incredibly supportive of members and friends who face illness or other stressful circumstances."

Walters, 70, retired as a United Methodist pastor after more than 35 years.

“I thought my service to God would be lived out in areas other than the pulpit, but I believed offering to help [the Congregational Church] was the right thing to do. I did not realize how much I missed ordained ministry and Bible teaching,” she said. “When I stepped into this beautiful church and

met the parishioners, I felt I had come home again."

As a congregational church, the parishioners own the building and select their pastor rather than having one assigned to them.

Mona Eddy has been a member of the congregation for more than 60 years.

"Pastor Sue is truly a gift from God to our church. She is always there when needed, day or night. I lost my husband during the COVID-19 pandemic, a time of isolation. I was blessed to be with him at the time of his passing. Within four months, my brother had a stroke. I called Pastor Sue and she was at the hospital within minutes. Not only did she wrap me in her arms, but she prayed over my dearly departed Richard. Her love and support held me together. This is the way she is," Eddy said.

Pastoral care is crucial for this small, mature congregation. Pastor Sue knows all of the families — even the out-of-town ones.

“One of the benefits of a small congregation is our sense of community, of belonging. After each service, we share a snack and talk about our week. We have some amazing bakers, so snack time is delightful in many ways,” Walters laughs, "We break bread, strudel and cookies."

Like many pastors, Walters is a bi-vocational individual and holds secular roles. She is a substitute teacher in Bloomfield and Honeoye elementary schools, working with children aged 4 to 12.

"I enjoy children and find there is an overlap in the messaging. Children must be taught to accept other children who are different from themselves and not presume or judge. They need to treat each other with kindness and respect,” she said. “They also need to learn to be good citizens in the classroom and not lie or steal."

P a s t o r a l c a re i s i m p o r t a n t to parishioners. Walters performs weddings, in which those who moved away from the area come home to be married in the church of their youth.

Funerals and bereavement are part of her role and because she knows the parishioners so well, she can relay moments of joy and challenge from first-hand experience. She has office hours during which people can drop in or schedule an appointment.

Her Thursday morning prayers are streamlined on the church's website.

How does her husband, Joe, accept her on-call responsibilities?

As the owner of Call Joe Appliance Service, Inc., he is on call 24/7, so their days together can be interrupted on either front.

As a congregation member, he understands the importance of her position and the friendship they share with each member. He often accompanies her to offer moral support or a helping hand to a fellow parishioner. She enjoys cooking and he enjoys eating, so it works well.

They are grandparents of 13 and have two great-grandsons. They feel genuinely fortunate that some of their grandchildren are local, so they can watch the next generation grow.

First Congregational Church is a center for scouts and other community groups. It is also an emergency evacuation center for nearby Bloomfield schools. The church has a large kitchen and can prepare emergency meals if needed. The church's acoustics are exceptional, allowing the dozen or so choir members to sound like a much larger group. Pastor Sue is a member of the choir.

“I am privileged to be part of this congregation. Our members enrich my heart and we invite everyone to join us on Sundays for our free Last Friday Night Suppers,” Walters said.

“We would love to meet you."

MAY / JUNE 2025 – 55 PLUS

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planning

Final Planning

It’s more than writing a will

N

obody gets off planet earth without dying, yet only 32% of Americans have a will, according to the 2025 Wills and Estate Planning Study by caring.com.

In addition to this important document, it’s vital to have additional plans in place not only in case of death, but also in case of a short-term or longterm incapacitation.

Suppose you become ill and spend a few weeks in the hospital? What happens then?

“No one likes to think about it but it’s important to have contingency plans and power of attorney,” said Jeff Feldman, Ph.D., and certified financial planner at Rochester Financial Services.

“Have someone able to take money out of your account to pay bills for you.

Meet with an attorney to have a POA, appoint a medical agent, and have your will updated. It’s all important.”

These legal instruments can both protect your assets and the wellbeing of those you leave behind as well as help ensure that your wishes are carried out. If you designated your nurse son-in-law as your healthcare proxy years ago and he and your daughter divorced, you would obviously need to talk with your family as to who should take that role and to legally change your information.

“You hope your kids get along so there’s no arguing who takes on 62

55 PLUS – MAY / JUNE 2025

By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

what role and what responsibilities,” Feldman said. “There should not be reluctance on the part of an elderly person to discuss this with their children: assets, bills and what needs to get done if you’re incapacitated and what needs to happen when you pass away and what they can expect for an inheritance. There’s nothing wrong with talking with your loved ones about your finances. You can avoid a lot of conflict afterwards.”

He recommends naming one person to act as power of attorney and one for health care proxy, not a joint responsibility of all of the children, as that can lead to conflict.

“Make sure that you have the proper titling of your assets,” Feldman added. “IRAs need beneficiaries and non-IRA items can have beneficiaries to avoid probate. Look at all your investments so they have beneficiaries attached. Do some preplanning with titling things in both your names. Most houses are titled jointly. You can talk with an attorney about putting a house in trust or make it payable on death so it won’t go through probate.”

Having an estate go through probate can make financial information public and lengthens the process of distributing assets upon your death.

Record account numbers, IDs and passwords to these accounts as a hard copy and keep this with legal documents.

Who will care for your pets if you’re unable to? Ask friends and family members for their commitment and make sure that your healthcare proxy and power of attorney know who will step up to take on your pets.

The same goes for watering your plants or picking up your mail. If you’ll be in the hospital for a few weeks, who will stop by your house to take care of things?

People who run a business should cross-train employees and create a contingency plan for when they cannot operate the business in both short-term and long-term scenarios.

The “softer side” of final planning includes your personal effects of little monetary value but high sentimental value. Make a list of these items and who you would like to receive them.

If you’re close to when you want to downsize, offer home furnishings you no longer want to grandchildren furnishing their first place. Or perhaps you have friends whose grandchildren need items. Donate items to a homeless or domestic violence shelter. List items for free through https:// buynothingproject.org or on Facebook Marketplace.

If your plan is to remain in your home, begin building these features into your home any time you remodel.

For example, make sure renovations meet ADA guidelines. Plan for a firstfloor bedroom and full bathroom.

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Jeff Feldman, Ph.D., and certified financial planner at Rochester Financial Services: “It’s important to have contingency plans and power of attorney,”, he says.

These types of changes can help you stay in your home longer. Let your family know you want to age in place.

In the event of your death, your loved ones will have dozens of decisions to make.

“Obviously, it’s a stressful and mournful time,” said Greg Sullivan, funeral director at Thomas Funeral Chapels in Rochester. “They’re not only thinking about what their loved one wanted but they’re trying to make all of these decisions. They can have a blueprint in front of them.”

He said that most funeral directors will sit down with potential clients and help them understand all the decisions they can make in advance to ease their family’s burden of decision. Even if they don’t pre-pay for the funeral, this exercise can be helpful.

Planning can include funeral service details, burial or cremation, obituary wording, flowers and more.

“Jot it down in a journal and let someone know where it is,” Sullivan said. “A lot of people think Medicaid or Social Security or if they’re a veteran the Veterans Association pays for funerals. Then they sit down with me and learn there’s a couple hundred dollars and only a plot at the VA cemetery if you’re a veteran.”

Overall, organizing your key information and getting all in one place will make things easier for your family.

Many websites offer templates to download. Or you can make a binder of all the important information.

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addyman’s corner

By John Addyman Email: john.addyman@yahoo.com

Crock Pot Man! W

hen it comes to cooking, there are three types of guys.

Those who don’t cook at all - ever.

Those who cook but want simple.

And those who treat a meal like a symphony in development with lots of players and rhythms and nuances and falderal, using ingredients most of us have never heard of.

I’m in the second category. Ever since I can remember, I’ve been simple.

Ask my wife.

“He’s simple, all right,” she’ll agree. “Lord, is he simple. Want examples?”

Another time perhaps.

So, when I cook, and I like to cook, I do simple, which is why I have five crock pots of various sizes.

As I go through life, there are things that call out to me. In a grocery store, Oreo cookies and blueberry pie call my name as I cruise down the aisles. In a garage sale, it’s bread machines, records and crock pots. My wife likes to cruise the garage sale before I do so she can block my view of the crock pots and bread machines.

I came to a love of crock pots 64

55 PLUS – MAY / JUNE 2025

honestly. Years ago, my wife and I were both working, on slightly different schedules, and I had a chance to put a crock pot meal together before we were both out of the house.

And here’s where simple comes in. I like a crock pot meal that has very few ingredients. Very few. I don’t want to spend a lot of time sauteing or fricasseeing or braising or curing or doing whatever it is Gordon Ramsey does. I’ll cut some stuff up, sure.

I’ll open some packages. I’ll brown something, but that’s it.

Here’s an example: one of my favorite recipes, and I am not making this up, is “Pepsi Pot Roast.” Prep time for this is about 90 seconds. Oil-spray the inside of your crock pot, put salt and pepper on a slice of chuck roast, spread the contents of an Onion Dip (or Onion Soup) mix all over the roast, pour the Pepsi in carefully. Throw in potatoes and carrots. Cover the crock pot, set it on low. You’re done. Go play pickleball.

Or if you’re a little on the old side, go watch people playing pickleball. Or if you’re older than me, settle in a nice chair and think about pickleball.

By the time all that pickleball is

done, your spouse has come home and it’s probably time to eat.

For several years when I was working in Human Resources in corporate America, we employees would talk about diverse things, making sure to include everyone in the discussion, and make sure we heard from everyone equally because we were in excellent companies.

And when the subject got to easy meals, I had a lot to offer. So much, in fact, that I became Crock Pot Man. Under my wife’s watchful eye, I had begun collecting crock pot recipe books. In the early days of crock pots, those recipe books were pretty thin.

The first books I fell in love with were paperback that were half the size of a regular book — instead of being nine inches deep, they were four inches. I remember 5-cent comic books that size.

When someone in the office was looking for a crock pot recipe (this was long before you could do an internet search for them), I’d mention something I’d seen and bring in the book the next day.

“How about Greek chicken?” I was asked.

The next day I’d show up with

two or three cookbooks, and I had an opinion on which one was simplest.

My colleagues would ask me, “Is this is a simple recipe?”

“Of course,” I would reassure. “Do I look like I’m capable of anything but simple?”

A silence would ensue. Not for long.

“Yep — you’ve got a point,” my colleague would say.

The next day, I’d ask how the meal went.

“It was good,” I’d hear. “And it was simple.”

“Like…?”

“Yeah, like you, John. Simple. You know.”

For a long time, I thought this was a good thing. But the other day I got a note from someone who read one of my columns. She wrote a very nice note and I was enjoying it very much up to when she ended it with, “And I know you’re simple.”

Wait a minute, here. I’m not THAT simple. I’ve made six-item meals in a crock pot. Not often, but I’ve done it.

I’ve spent 30 minutes making a perfect roux for gumbo. I clean the fish I catch before cooking them. I put bananas on my muesli. I eat standing in the kitchen with my feet bare. I have all the records and CDs and 45s and tape cassettes in my music collection arranged alphabetically by kind of music and I can walk into the cave and step right up to where a particular record is and play it for you right then and there.

If I were that simple, my wife would have figured me out 20 minutes after we cut the cake at the wedding.

“What makes you think I didn’t?” she asks, reading over my shoulder as I write.

She pokes me in the back.

My wife is a poker. She enjoys letting me know when I’ve done something wrong or stupid by poking me. She has a very strong index finger.

The fact that my wife figured me out 56 years ago had me thinking: hasn’t it been boring knowing what I’d do and how I’d be every minute for all that time?

“Not really,” she said. “All this time I’ve been waiting for you to do something unexpected, and that keeps my interest up.”

“I guess that makes sense,” I said to her.

“Sure it does,” she said. “It’s simple.”

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MAY / JUNE 2025 – 55 PLUS

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last page

By Mike Costanza

“Genesee River Killer,” was convicted of murdering 11 women between 1988 and 1990, and died in prison.)

Q. Why did you decide to leave WHEC in 2017?

A. They were making changes that were not well thought out. I was proud of my career, and I knew that if I left then, I would have plenty of time to start a second career.

Q. You started Rebecca Leclair Communications about a month after leaving television journalism. What kinds of jobs did your firm take on in the beginning?

A. Initially, I did a lot of crisis communications. I was helping companies develop a media plan, like “Are you ready when the CEO gets pulled over for DWI?” Also, I was helping candidates to understand how to campaign better, how to handle the media as a politician.

From Crime Reporter to Entrepreneur

F

or nearly 30 years, Rebecca Leclair reported the news from the field and the anchor desk for WHEC-TV. Though she covered all kinds of stories, she particularly enjoyed reporting on local elections and crimes. After leaving the station in 2017, she founded Rebecca Leclair Communications, LLC, a one-person public relations shop that provides a variety of services for its clients.

The Perinton resident talks to 55PLUS about the path her life has taken Q. Why did you decide to seek a career in television journalism?

A. I always was interested in telling stories and letting people know what was going on. I would watch the nightly news and I was like I want to do that. I wanted to be the person telling the story.

Q. You got your first job with a television station right after graduating from Syracuse University’s S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. How did you feel when you first went before the camera at WETM in Elmira?

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55 PLUS – MAY / JUNE 2025

A. It was great, because I was hired as a reporter and there was no guarantee that I would be an anchor.

Within two months there was a change in personnel, so I was fortunate enough to get a job where I could report and anchor. I really enjoyed that. That fall it was a big election season, and I really enjoyed political reporting. I just found elections and crime to be very interesting. When I came to Rochester in 1988, I ended up being the court reporter most of the time. In those days, the assignment manager would send you to the trial the entire time. I found it fascinating to be in court.

Q. Can you tell the readers of a crime story you particularly enjoyed covering?

A. Arthur Shawcross, the most famous serial killer around. He was convicted, I believe, of 11 murders.

I’m pretty sure he probably committed at least 13, but they couldn’t pin him on that. I was the first reporter for Channel 10 on the scene of eight of the 11 bodies. One was on Thanksgiving morning, so heartbreaking.

(Note: Shawcross, nicknamed the

Q. What kinds of tasks does it perform for clients now?

A. A lot of promotions for events and press releases. Basically, a client comes to me and says “This is what I want. How do I get media attention, and what’s the strategy?” “Media strategy” is a really good term I use.

Q. You recently did a free promotion for Ping Pong Parkinson of Rochester, Inc., the new local chapter of the nationwide nonprofit Ping Pong Parkinson. Did you have a particular reason for doing that work?

A. My brother, Greg Johnson, has had Parkinson’s for 17 years. I am forever committed to using my skills to help him, and anyone else with Parkinson’s, combat this terrible disease. I’m on the board of the Parkinson’s Foundation New York chapter with Dan Rothschild [a cofounder of Ping Pong Parkinson of Rochester, Inc.] We were on a Zoom call, and we all were trying to figure out what are we going to do to promote Parkinson’s Awareness Month. Dan piped up and said what he was doing and I said “Oh my god that’s fabulous.

I’m ready. Just send me your flyer and I’ll write you up a press release, and then you guys can edit it with me and we’ll put it out to the media.”

I’ve also made many videos that the Parkinson’s Foundation uses.

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