Honeoye Falls- Mendon Rotary Club officers (L to R) Treasurer Barry Kissack, Membership Chair Linda Goodman, Vice President Chip Raines, Past President Jeff Klein, Sec. Lauri Hofmann, Pres.-Elect Amy Harris, Pres. Sheldon Boyce Photo by Tim & Deb Smith
BY DEB AND TIM SMITH
The logs are on the fire, the ornaments are on the trees, and Breakfast with Santa is on the calendar. Our local Towns, Villages and Hamlets have all been adorned in festive fashion for the upcoming celebrations. The holiday season has arrived in Sentinel-land. How ‘bout we spend some time with the Ghosts of Christmas Past and Present and see if we can’t whip up some of that frenzied holiday spirit.
LET’S GET DECORATIVE ~ We’d like to bring everybody into the loop on the multiple activities available during this season’s holiday in Honeoye Falls. Let’s lead with something that’s new this year. The Village of Honeoye Falls and Honeoye Falls-Mendon Rotary Club are proud to be sponsoring the 1st Annual Village Business Holiday Decorating Contest. The goal is to have businesses “Help us Light up the Village Business District and Celebrate the Spirit of the Season.”
So if you notice some extra decorations in HF this year, they may well have been inspired by the collaborative efforts of the Village and Rotary Club. The winners will be announced on December 10th after the annual Honeoye Falls Fire Department Christmas Parade.
PARADE PARTICULARS ~ Moving on to the parade, the lining-up process begins at 5:00 on both sides of West Main Street up by the Market Place. Starting time is set for 6:00 sharp and you should expect to see the street fully lined all the way to the 4 corners. Next, we’ll share some HFFD stats from past and present.
Amongst the anticipated crowd of about a thousand, expect to see many children in their high-anticipation mode, anxious to find themselves on the receiving end of 200 pounds of candy donated by Rotary Club. What will all of these onlookers witness as the parade proceeds before them? Look to see about 15-20 local fire companies, and approximately 25-30 overall floats, contributing to the festive holiday ambiance. The cherry on top is always the final Rotary float with Santa officially waving in the Christmas season to Honeoye Falls.
If you’d like to get personally involved on some level the Village Hall has begun the collection of non-perishable food items. Contributions will be accepted through December 19th when the village will donate everything that has been collected to F.I.S.H., our local food pantry.
ROTARY ROUNDUP ~ HF-Mendon Rotary Club is also very involved in the charitable Christmas initiative on multiple levels. We had the opportunity to speak with Club President Sheldon Boyce who shared some of the details. One project they undertake is to provide and deliver Christmas trees to needy families in the community. Sheldon shared that he considered this his “favorite Rotary service project.”
He told us some great stories about how impactful these efforts have been. He’s been doing this for two decades now and particularly poignant are memories of making these deliveries with his own kids when they were younger. As they would drive up to the homes of the benefactors, he would hear the children gleefully shouting, “Mommy, Mommy, the Christmas tree’s here!”
Photo by Tim & Deb Smith
BREAKFAST WITH THE BIG GUY ~ Rotary also collaborates with Flaherty’s to offer their annual “Breakfast with Santa” to the community. Flaherty’s donates all the food for the event with Rotary also contributing with a donut run to the Market Place.
This year that event will be held on Saturday morning December 17th and Flaherty’s manager Lindsay Creager told us that service will begin at 9:00 with Santa’s arrival scheduled for 10:00. Don’t tell the kids, but Santa bears a striking resemblance to local legend Tracy Main whose annual efforts should certainly be acknowledged. We have more on Tracy later in this article.
Rotary President-Elect Amy Harris, said, “We do not charge for the event, but ask participants to bring food to donate to the local pantry and collect monetary donations to support polio eradication and local Rotary initiatives such as the tree donation, school lunches and more.”
INTERACT INITIATIVE ~ For this event Rotary also recruits the assistance of its satellite high school organization, Interact Club. If you’re not familiar with it, the concept of Interact Club was initiated in 1962 with the purpose of instilling in high school students the Rotary mission statement values of “Service above Self.” Rotary club sponsors, mentors, and guides Interactors as they carry out projects and develop leadership skills. Club members Jeanine Lupisella and Lauri Hofmann serve as liaisons between Rotary and Interact and Lauri shared the following two paragraphs of information regarding the high school club.
“Rotary Interact Club has been a part of Honeoye Falls-Mendon Rotary since its early days. It is a student-centered committee with a board just like the Rotary board. There is a Rotary member liaison who helps guide the students with service activities during the school year. There are always a variety of activities to participate in. Some activities are just for Interact members but often the activity includes other school students, and the overall community.
This year, the students have gathered for a park cleanup day, they organized a Halloween parade at Pinehurst and trick-or-treating through the village. For the Christmas holiday they will be helping with the Rotary float that is included in the holiday parade on December 10, and they coordinate and work at the Breakfast with Santa at Flaherty’s on December 17. All of these activities help our students connect with our community from young to old. They have more plans for the winter and spring, and of course, will host Mr. HF-L at the end of the school year.”
DONATION OPPORTUNITY ~ Honeoye Falls Mendon Rotary Club will be collecting donations for $25 gift cards to HFMP Marketplace for local families in need at the holidays. You can contact Lauri Hofmann at hofmann65@yahoo.com or make a donation by Venmo to HFM Rotary Foundation@HFM-Rotary. Thank you in advance. We have more than 50 families district wide who are in need of assistance this holiday.
FIRE DEPARTMENT FINALE ~ After the parade be sure to take all the kiddos to Santa’s Workshop which will be set up inside the firehall. Honeoye Falls Fire Department President Mark Hansen has assured us that the workshop is in tip-top condition this year.
Also available for Santa’s guests are free cookies (provided by Vanilla Lane in Lima), hot cider and hot chocolate. It’s a great way for families to top off their evening at the Honeoye Falls Christmas Parade.
So there’s our Sentinel summary of Christmas Present and all the wonderful events that will be taking place in Honeoye Falls this holiday season. We’ll finish this piece up with our best story from Christmas Past.
SENECA FALLS SOJOURN ~ This one goes back five years when we were blessed with some of the craziest Christmas karma this couple has ever commemorated. It was Thanksgiving Eve of 2017 and an ambitious day had been scheduled for your hardworking Sentinel staff writers. We had been booked for a double assignment in Seneca Falls. At this point your first thought might be, “Why in the world would the Sentinel send the Smiths to Seneca Falls?”
Well, there are actually two great reasons. Turns out that small town of 6,000 people is the home of two historical attractions you cannot find anywhere else in the world. Going sideways just a bit, if you’re looking for a unique family outing this holiday season you really should consider Seneca Falls. What are you going to find when you get there?
It is the home of the National Women’s Hall of Fame and also the It’s a Wonderful Life Museum. We’ll share one quick fun fact on each establishment. Since our first visit in 2017, the Women’s Hall has moved from a cramped just-one-doorfront location on the main drag to a huge 3-story vintage building across the bridge from the former location.
And regarding the museum for the classic Christmas movie, its location is based upon the fact that Seneca Falls was actually the inspiration for Bedford Falls, which is the setting for Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life. The bridge that the women’s museum moved across was the impetus for the bridge from which George Bailey contemplated suicide in the movie.
HEADED HOME TO HF ~ But right now let’s return from Seneca Falls to our own Honeoye Falls. When we made that same return trip in 2017, a magical moment was about to befall us. And everyone knows that the holiday magic in the Falls happens at Flaherty’s. Returning from our Seneca sojourn with two very productive museum interviews under our belt, we decided to reward ourselves with a visit to Flaherty’s Three Flags and then it becomes a “God thing.”
We pull out two bar stools, sit down, slide back in, and as Christ is our witness, we find ourselves sitting down smack dap next to Santa Claus. As writers, we feel like any time you can smoothly work God, Christ, and Santa Claus into two consecutive paragraphs of your Christmas piece you’ve achieved what is known, in literary circles, as the tasteful but terribly tricky trilogy of holy trinity triumph.
All alliteration aside, let’s circle back to the bar as we are oft inclined to do. Of course we don’t know we are sitting next to Santa Claus, at least not at first. Hey! It’s only Thanksgiving Eve so the jolly jovial dude isn’t even in uniform yet. And who spends a day at the It’s a Wonderful Life Museum, walks into a bar, and bellies up right next to Santa Claus; that sounds more like the beginning of a bad joke.
NAUGHTY OR NICE ~ We only realize we are sittin’ with Santa when he leans over and mentions that, “I’ve been making a list and checking it twice.” Then he discretely opens his laptop and says, “I want you two to know that my ‘Naughty or Nice’ spreadsheet enables me to confirm that you’ve had a very nice year.”
Based upon that line, along with his jocular nature and rotund build, we pick up on the Santa Claus-is-sitting-right-next-to-us vibe. While acknowledging that this is a distinct honor, we do throw cautious glances at one another, mutually coming to the conclusion that Santa may need to stop by the Apple Store for a checkup on his “Naughty or Nice” software app. If you read our material on a regular basis, you probably know where we are going with this. Truth be told, there’s been a few times this year when we have been very naughty.
At any rate, as sometimes happens during the holidays, one thing leads to another, and before the revelry is retired, Santa has excitedly extended to us the offer to join him on his float in the Honeoye Falls Parade of Lights. Plans are made to meet at the Marketplace on that Saturday; let the festivities begin.
SEE YA THERE! ~ So there’s our tales of Christmas Past and hopefully we’ve set the mood for Sentinel readers to get excited about Christmas Present and what Honeoye Falls has in store for everyone this year. Hope to see you at the parade!
