Left to right, Back row: Chip White, Robin Blair, Carter Whitmore; Front Row: Carol Bennett Hinds, Mary Twardokus. Photo by Deb Smith
BY DEB AND TIM SMITH
For anyone unfamiliar with the hamlet of Ionia, a quick frame of reference would be to say that if you headed south from the four corners of Mendon, traveling toward Bloomfield, you’d be on Mendon Ionia Rd. and Ionia is 5 miles south of Mendon. It’s a hamlet with a rich history and we spent 5 weeks sharing that history in July-August of 2022.
On Sunday, August 28, we enjoyed a unique day of fellowship when we joined the congregation of the Ionia United Methodist Church for their post-service Sunday brunch. We had arranged to meet a team of Ionia dignitaries who were contributing their signatures to our charity fundraising project which is connected to the recent publishing of our 7th book Royally Regaling Greater Rochester ~ Taking Stock of the ROC.
We’ve tackled this topic in a couple of our articles over the past few months so here’s the long-story-short. We’ve set aside two copies of the book which we’ve taken around to be signed by people, businesses, or organizations that are in the book. The finished autographed projects will be donated to local charity auctions this spring. One of the goals in Ionia was to add to this project the signatures of…
Ionia Historian Mary Twardokus
Church Pastor, Rev. Dr. Robin Blair
Fire Chief Carter Whitmore
Locust Lawn family member Carol Bennett Hinds
White’s Farm Market owner Chip White
As the contingency of churchgoers gathered in the fellowship room, Mary Twardokus who has been our go-to Ionia connection for eight years now, orchestrated our collaboration with the other players in this piece listed above.
A significant conversation was sparked by the presence of Julie Geissler who taught at the Lima School in the years before the merger. Surprisingly, it turned out that Julie not only knew Deb’s parents but was also in their circle of party friends. We felt sure Deb’s parents Jack and Jackie Gonyea were raising their glasses in a heavenly toast.
An unexpected development of the day was that we were actually booked for our next radio gig. Turns out that Ionia church pastor Robin Blair has a second job hosting a radio show focusing on community news and events, and good neighbors in the Finger Lakes region, and she’s been on the air with WYLF (AM 850) for 8 years now! After hearing our story about the most recent book, Pastor Robin said she thought her audience would enjoy hearing us tell that tale, and we are now booked for an upcoming show.
Following the church gathering, we could not help but head down Mendon Ionia Road to White’s Farm Market to meet up again with Chip and have his staff share their suggestions on the best berries, sweet corn, and melons to be had in Western New York. At this point we’ll refer you to our article on the White family and the long history it has in the Mendon/Ionia/Bloomfield community which will appear next week.
