Town Board celebrates councilman’s service as his term endsWhile the Town of Tonawanda Board addressed matters such as approving the opening of bids, correspondence and open floor comments. They also took the time to celebrate Councilman Dan Crangle's 17-years of service to the town and board by the awarding of a plaque and sharing of kind words.
Crangle plans to continue to be a strong civilian activist in town government, but will be stepping down as Councilman due to term limits which he helped establish in 2006. True to his nature, Crangle ended his farewell speech by advocating for a project he feels strongly about: “Before I leave, I just want to make a statement, a short one, on the recreation project which I have been a strong advocate for. Our future is right here, in the next generation … This project is a 50-year investment,” Crangle said. “Our young families came here because of the facilities, the churches, the schools. The recreation facilities … we have to keep up with them.”
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St. Timothy’s crèche tradition for Misiura family, entire communityNo matter what challenges the Misiura family faces during the year, they always come together near Christmas to honor their family tradition and assemble the family créche that Bernard Sr. hand-crafted. The créche is housed at St. Timothy's, 565 E Park Dr, Tonawanda, which has been its home since Bernard Sr. started the tradition back in 1962. This was the first year in a long time that Bernard Jr's entire family was able to come together to help assemble the créche. You can find my complete article above as well as a link to Bernard Jr's blog which he updates each year to tell the story of his family's créche and tradition in his own words. “This is a parishioner thing, not a Misiura family. Things like this are not any good unless they’re shared.” -Bernard Jr. Mitten Memory Tree offers opportunity to heal, help those in need this winterJanine Szymczak and her husband, Heath, have placed the Christmas tree of Janine’s late father at the Clarence Hollow Farmers Market to collect mittens and honor the memory of loved ones who have passed away. Szymczak and her husband love the Clarence community, after only being residents of Clarence for a few years, they noted how welcoming and accepting the people are. Janine and Heath wanted to honor Janine's father but giving back to the community they appreciate so much. Janine hopes that the Mitten Memory Tree will help other community members to heal from losing loved ones by honoring their memory through helping others. Neighbors create ‘Ethan and God,’ share comfort, quilts with hospitalized childrenLinda Swanekamp has been creating quilts and donating them to those in need for years. She started "Quilts for Comfort" as a way to use her talents and passions to help others who are sick, lonely and in need of a little comfort. In each package she donates, Swanekamp includes a book that provides written, support and comfort without false security and promises that can be made such as saying 'everything will be OK.' For her adult referrals, Swanekamp uses "50 Days of Hope" by Lynn Eib. For children, however, she was having difficulty finding a book that provided comfort without making empty promises or relying on silly cartoon characters that the child couldn't relate to. To resolve this, Swanekamp partnered with her neighbor, Sandra Brese Rice to write, "Ethan and God," a story of comfort that reassures the child and family they are not alone and it's OK to not be happy all the time. Currently Swanekamp and Rice are purchasing their own books to include in these donation packages, if you would like to help fund their work to provide comfort to those in need you can email Sandra at [email protected]. Zonta Club raises awareness to end child marriagesZonta International was established in 1919 in Buffalo, New York and has grown since to include over 1,000 different chapters in 67 countries. The Cheektowaga-Lancaster chapter has planned a variety of different events during their 16 Days of Activism to take a stand against child marriages and the cycle of poverty and decrease in education that follows them. “Child marriage impacts their education and their ability to be economically independent,” Salvo said. “It impacts everything.” According to the 2017 UNICEF report, the countries with the highest rate of child marriages are: Niger: 76% Central African Republic: 68% Chad: 67% Bangladesh: 59% Mali: 52% |
Samantha FlavellI am a journalist and graphic designer. I began working for The Bee Group Newspapers in August of 2019. Archives
January 2020
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