Alice Gerard

It was Valentine’s Day. It was cold and snowy outside.I was still healing from the sudden attack of influenza. It was to be my last day of my self-imposed quarantine. Fortunately, I was feeling better and my appetite had returned. My sister Diane brought me these carrots. One of them looked like a mutant, and I […]

Note:  This is a series of five blog posts, based on a weekly series of talks at the Lenten luncheon series, sponsored by the Grand Island Minsterium. Each of the five churches that belongs to the Grand Island Ministerium was asked to provide a lunch and to provide a speaker to talk about aspects of

Sunday, February 7th, in Cleveland, at North Presbyterian Church.  The service was full of music and hope. Pastor Charlie Hurst shared the story of Ida B. Wells (1862-1931). Ida Wells was a journalist, sociologist, suffragist, and an early leader in the Civil Rights movement. She had many accomplishments. One of them was to help bring

This week’s update to the 366-day photography project: Saturday morning, I ran my own little private bakery, as I got ready to co-host coffee hour at church. My two baking projects were pineapple brownies and craisin-oatmeal cookies. Sunday at St. Martin in the Fields church with a guest priest, Father Isaac Ihiasota. He talked about

It’s time for another fun creative writing exercise! When I was at Huth Road school a week ago, I took pictures of the third-grade writers club to share with the families belonging to the PTA. The students were writing narrative poems. I thought that was pretty cool, especially later, when I read the poems, which

I started my 366-day photography project on a radiant summer day. I celebrated this new project by spending the day at Buckhorn Island State Park. Back on August 1st, this is what the park looked like. It was green and alive. The waters were warm and inviting. There was so much color!  The bees were

Glenn Colton came to offer a positive, encouraging, and entertaining message to the students and teachers at Huth Road Elementary School. He is revisiting a performing career from which he retired in 2012.  Glenn Colton said that he “started with an idea in 1985 and became full-time in 1993.” He performed in libraries, elementary schools,

Feet. We love our feet. We like to have a pedicure and to paint our toenails. We put shoes on them. Sometimes, they aren’t the best choice of shoes for our feet but they look good. Some ladies can dance in their high heels and look graceful. Me? Well, I can’t even walk on high

The Niagara River has existed for about 18,000 years. It was a product of the last ice age. The river connects Lake Erie with Lake Ontario. It is part of the North American watershed that connects the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. The Great Lakes contain about 18 percent of the world’s fresh water.For

On Sunday, Jay Burney, who writes a column called “Greenwatch” for The Public in Buffalo, came to the Riverside-Salem Environmental Chapel in Grand Island. He said, “We are one of the most biodiverse regions in the world.”  He described the biodiversity of the Niagara Region as being “truly first class.” For example, nineteen species of