January 11, 2010
On Friday, January 8, 2010, at the VT Police Academy, the PTO, Maclure Library and the Recreation Department cosponsored the first of three Family Fun Nights to be held this winter. The theme for this particular event was “All Aboard the Train” with approximately 100 people attending. The Maclure Library provided a handful of theme based arts & craft projects that children and their parents enjoyed constructing. The main attractions of the night were two bounce houses from Funny Business Entertainment, LLC. Why have two bounce houses one might ask? Well we do it for a couple different reasons, the most important one being for the overall safety of everyone; because of the large number of children that typically attend we like to have one house set up for the smaller and younger kids and a second house set up that’s designed more for the older participants. This keeps a natural age separation to some degree that really works well for us. Two it makes economical sense to have a second apparatus because it doesn’t cost that much more to have the second house brought in at the same time, since the contractor is already there. The Recreation Department provided other activities and games for the children to take part in, such as “Giant Connect Four, Checkers, Chess, & Dart Ball”.
Since the middle of October the Recreation Department has been gearing up for the current basketball season for both the Recreation Department and Lothrop Elementary School. On Saturday, January 2, the Recreation Department’s Youth Basketball program grades 1st – 3rd began. As expected, the number of 1st graders declined some from the 9 we had in 2009. The reason being there are only 10 children in the 1st grade at Lothrop right now. With only 4 1st graders signing up, we had to combine the 1st & 2nd grade into one team. There are 12 kids playing on the 1st/2nd grade co-ed team this season. This team is being coached by Bill Crossmon, Tammi Blanchard, & Carlo Falco. We had a total 8 3rd grade boys sign up. This team is being coached by myself with Tim Gallipo, & Ed Shannon assisting. For our program, it’s at the third grade level when teams play real games against other third grade teams. Up to this point the programs are skill development based. Only 3 3rd grade girls registered to play so they were asked to play with 4th grade girls. The 4th grade girls started practicing in December with only 7 girls signed up and that was only because Coach Poalino did a nice job recruiting three first time players. Once the 3rd grade girls joined the team it put their total at 10. A wonderful number to have. Lothrop’s 5th grade girls team only has 6 players, but after winning their fist two games coaches Andrea Winslow & Kayla Gallipo have them playing well as a team right now. Lothrop 5th grade boys team has 14 kids on the team and is coached by Tim Gallipo & Ed Shannon. This is a large number for any team to have, however it is not a surprise by any means. They have been playing with this many since the 1st grade. Over the years the Recreation Department has kept the team together giving them a chance to develop as a team. So far this season it has been a little more difficult for the team to figure out the substitutions cycles. Rick Hedding is coaching the Lothrop 6th grade girls team, which has 10 players on it. He has a mix of returning players and a few first time players as well. Dennis Riesterer and Tony Freson are coaching the 6 grade boys team. They too are experiencing a low turnout this season. They have only 5 players who play hard and play to have fun. Each game 2 to 3 different 5th graders play with the 6th boys team to help out any way they can. In all there are eight different basketball teams with a total of 73 kids participating.
On Thursday, December 17 (luncheons normally are scheduled for the 4th Thursday of the month), the Recreation Department and the “Pittsford Seniors” sponsored our monthly luncheon at the VT Police Academy. Over 36 people attended this wonderful program. Chef Bob did an outstanding job preparing the roast beef & twice baked potatoes. Each luncheon features a keynote speaker. In December Mr. Hazen’s 3rd grade class from Lothrop School sang Christmas carols to the seniors while they ate their lunches. Thank you to the music teacher at Lothrop, Paige Kaufman, for working with the Recreation Department setting up this program. After performing the students were treated to Christmas cookies, candy canes and milk. A wonderful time was had by all. The luncheons are meant to give local seniors a nutritious meal at an affordable price ($4.00 for people 60 and older & $4.50 for everyone else) so they can get out to socialize with neighbors and friends. The next monthly luncheon is scheduled for Thursday, January 28, 2010 @ 1:00 pm. The menu will be Ham, au gratin potatoes, green beans, w/onion & mushrooms; chocolate cake. A salad bar is always available. All foods are homemade, including the soup, bread, and desserts. The keynote speaker is going to be David Markowski, former Pittsford Selectman, business owner, and lifetime resident of Florence.
On Thursday, January 21 @ 6:00 pm I have a meeting scheduled with the Pittsford Day Committee. Two highlight of the meeting will be discussion of the 2010 date and finding more volunteers to sit on the committee.