November Meeting of Lockport College Women’s Club

Our November meeting of College Club will be held on Thursday,

November 6, 2025 at 80 Main. The doors will open at 5:30 for registration

and socializing. There will be a cash bar and soft drinks are free of charge

as they are included in the price of dinner. Our dinner will be served at

6pm. The dinner includes chicken and biscuits, vegetable, rolls and butter,

coffee, tea and soft drinks with assorted cookies for dessert. The cost of

dinner is $25.00. Please make your reservation with the telephone

committee or Marybeth Wilson by Thursday, October 30, 2025 before 7PM.

Our hostesses will be Judy Cummings and Darlene Loffredo. Sue Grigg

will take email reservations and her email address is smmgrigg@aol.com.

Dues of $40.00 can be paid at the November meeting or mailed to our

treasurer Anna Beth Kinyon,7259 Clarkview Drive, Lockport, New York

14094. Dues increase to $50.00 if paid after December.

During this year of celebrating the history of Lockport, we are pleased to

welcome Ann Marie Linnabery who serves as the Assistant Director and

Education Coordinator at the History Center of Niagara as our November

speaker. Ms. Linnabery has an M.A. in American History from SUNY

Buffalo and has worked for 30 years at museums in Buffalo, Lewiston and

Lockport. She also writes a weekly Niagara County history column for the

Lockport Union Sun and Journal. Her topic is “Mr. Kenan’s Neighborhood”.

She will share the fascinating life and legacy of William Rand Kenan Jr.

who went to Niagara Falls after graduating from the University of North

Carolina at Chapel Hill to work at what later became Union Carbide. He

and his wife moved into the Kenan House on Locust Street in 1913 after

renovating the home. One of his many interests was his herd of Jersey

cows kept behind their home! Come and learn more about the many and

varied interests of William Rand Kenan Jr., his neighborhood in Lockport,

and how his home became a cultural facility for the community we now

know as the Kenan Center.

At the October meeting, the College Club budget for 2025-2026 as

presented by Treasurer Anna Beth Kinyon was accepted by members

present. Leslie Tobin introduced two new members to College Club. We

were pleased to meet Karen Young and Heather Hare and look forward to

seeing them at future meetings. We also enjoyed the correspondence

shared by Scholarship Committee treasurer Daniele Priest from a number

of our scholarship winners. We currently have eight bright young women

receiving $1000 a year from College Club as they earn their college

degree. We also enjoyed the program about the construction of the new

Kenan Community Center and programming available there as presented

by an enthusiastic Mr. William Patti, Executive Director of the Kenan

Center.

A heartfelt thank you goes out to members and friends of Lockport College

Women’s Club for the generous and thoughtful donations to our

Scholarship Fund in memory of longtime member Rae Greco and my late

husband Bob Russell. A combined $875.00 was donated to our

Scholarship Fund including $200.00 from the Grigg Lewis Foundation in

memory of Rae who is the mother of Grigg Lewis Foundation board

member Joan Aul.

Our Annual Scholarship Fundraiser takes place in April. We are looking for

volunteers to serve as Co-Chairmen for the event. The basic format is in

place. The co-chairmen would choose the date at the Country Club and

decide on the menu. We also need a committee to help set-up the Basket

Raffle the day of the fundraiser. Working on a small committee is a fun way

to get to know other members of College Club! Please call Patty if you

would like to help out.

Members of the board would welcome anyone in College Club interested in

becoming more involved in College Club. Call us and consider joining us at

a board meeting to find out more about ways you can help. We enjoy

dessert and coffee and set up our meetings and speakers.

Our thanks to Ann VanDusen for maintaining our blogspot. The email

address is : lockportcwc.blogspot.com.

BRING A BOOK AND TAKE A BOOK! We are all readers in College

Club. We would like to encourage everyone to bring a book they are

finished with to our November meeting and take a new book home.

Look for the sign on the front tables at 80 Main in November!

See you at our November meeting. Make your reservation by October 30th.

We do not have meetings in December or January. The next Megaphone

comes out in January with all the news about our meeting on February 5,

2026.

Our next Board of Directors meeting will be on January 8, 2026. It will be

hosted by Anna Beth Kinyon. The meeting will begin at 2pm. Please let

Anna Beth know if you are unable to attend.

 September 2025 

Please join us on October 2, 2025, at 6:00 PM at 80 Main Street, Lockport for our first meeting of the year! Our speakers will be William Patti and Leah Sobrieski from the Kenan Center. Mr. Patti is the Executive Director of the Kenan Center and Ms. Sobrieski is the Sports and Recreation Manager at the Kenan. Mr. Patti is a Lewiston native and has a long history with theater and the Arts; he has a BFA in Theater and BA in English from Niagara University and MFA from Kent State. He has served as a teacher, Arts Administrator and Producing Artistic Director for other organizations before returning to Western New York. Before arriving at the Kenan Center, Mr. Patti served as the General Manager at Shea’s in Buffalo. Ms. Sobrieski is a graduate of LHS, SUNY Geneseo and has a Masters Degree from Daemen College. She has served as the Academic and Operations Coach for the Women’s Basketball team at Canisius College. Both are delighted to speak to us about the upcoming construction at what will be the new Kenan Amphitheater and the plans for the future of the Kenan Center and its programming as we move into the future. The meeting will be a dinner meeting with a menu of turkey, mashed potato, vegetable, tea and coffee. The cost is $30.00 and includes coffee, tea and soft drinks together with the room reservation and gratuity. Hostesses are Mary Beth Caswell and Barbara Feidner. Reservations must be made by Thursday, September 25, 2025 at 7:00 PM by calling the telephone committee. Sue Grigg has agreed to continue to take email reservations as well and her email address is smmgrigg@aol.com. 

The Budget will also be presented at this meeting for the approval of the club. 

Treasurer, Anna Beth Kinyon will be accepting payment of Dues at the meeting. Dues are $40.00 and will increase to $50.00 after December. Dues can also be mailed to Anna Beth Kinyon, 7259 Clarkview Drive , Lockport, New York 14094.  

Please note that Madelene Angelo has a new phone number and is no longer using the land line number in the directory. The new number is – 716-471-3451 

If you have an email address, we would like to send the Megaphone to you through email to save postage. Please provide your email address to Judy Johnson-Paonessa (jljgesq@aol.com) or to any Board member. 

We are in need of volunteers to act as the Co-Chairs of the Spring Fundraiser! Not much work there, but lots of fun – the primary duty is to set the menu for the Luncheon. We are also looking for two people willing to be Co-Chairs for the Basket Raffle - duties to include setting up the baskets on the day of the Luncheon, deciding what to do with the Door Prize raffle tickets, announcing ticket and basket winners and delivering the baskets to the winners. Any Board member would be happy to take your name! 

And speaking of volunteering, there is always room for new volunteers to serve on the Board of Directors. An important job is that of our Program Coordinators. This person or persons considers what programs and speakers would be of interest to the Club. It always is nice to have people willing to work on developing interesting programs for our meetings. 

The next Board Meeting is scheduled for October 9, 2025 at the home of Mary Beth Caswell 5886 Marion Drive, Lockport, New York. Please contact her if you will not be attending.