Alfred State Fraternity at Fassett Greenspace Project

Kalvin  Hodgson

WELLSVILLE: Under a cold and constant rain, a group of Alfred State students brought their strength to the Fassett Greenspace Project to move heavy blocks, pull celery plants, hoist buckets of compost, spread peat moss and dig 6 large holes in what looked to be soil but turned out to be stone and mud.

                Kalvin Hodgson (Brooklyn NY, BA in Business explained that he was with a group from Psi Delta Omega Fraternity. Hodgson said that the brothers focus on activities that would be defined as philanthropy and youth service. In Alfred they often help the Hornell Humane Society.

Brothers and pledges spread compost in
the outer ring.

                They meet with young people in Hornell, interacting with them and playing basketball or other activities but through that they present to their young friends the idea that they too can go to college. It’s always easier to aim high when someone pays attention and tells you it’s possible.

                Kalvin said that he hasn’t heard this from someone yet but he knows others in the fraternity who has been thanked by kids who decided to go to college.

Celery roots are long, fine and extensive.
They hold tight to the soil. It's surprising how
difficult it is pull the plant out.
Quinn and Santos were surprised.

                While this group often goes to Hornell to work, on October 27, they traveled to Wellsille to do some heavy lifting at the Fassett Greenspace Project, ignoring the rain and cold of an early nor’easter.

Jason Boden, Aleczavier Cowans, Jonathan Betances, and
Tariq Yusuf helped dig the holes to place forms for the
Freenotes Harmony Sculptural Instruments.

                These brothers pledge to give 60 hours a year in community service. Jason Bodden (Building Trades, Construction) said that he looks to the group to make life long connections and says that the structure of the house encourages leadership skill development. Fraternity brothers with academic skills share those while others share their athletic skills. He described a defined governing structure that they adhere to with the goal of building character.

                Aleczavier Cowans has a degree in Culinary Arts already but he is still in Alfred working now to get a Bachelor’s in Business and in Tech Management. His family is from Jamaica and they all do a lot of gardening so he was interested in the goals of the Fassett Greenspace Project.

Santos Guevara, Brailen Tejada, Quinn Verpoten
mixing peat moss in with soil and compost.

                10 volunteers from Psi Delta Omega Fraternity spent one of October’s nastiest days helping the Wellsville community along side of four members of the Board of Directors of the project: Andy Glanzman, Cassandra Bull, Murph  Other members of Psi Delta Omega are Robert Smith, James Martin, Santos Guevara, Brailen Tejada, Quinn Verpoten, Tariq Yusuf, and Jonathan Betances.

Axtell and this reporter.

June Update on Fassett Greenspace Project

Green spaces, flower beds
White paths between flower beds
brown covered seating area
gray performance space
black circle, fountain

WELLSVILLE: There’s activity on the corner of Main and Fassett in Wellsville. People who haven’t been in Wellsville in a while will notice that something looks different but even people who walk past weekly will register a change.  So, what is going on?

Lauryn Sherwood

            The corner was a site of community business in the early 1800s when Wellsville town meetings were held there. Decades of commerce took place there until interrupted in 1867 when fire leveled the wood framed buildings of Wellsville’s Main Street. Isaac Fassett announced he would build a solid hotel on that corner with brick exterior walls and thick interior firewalls. He didn’t intend to have Fassett House tumble down in any fire. He wanted it to endure and endure it did from 1870 until 2005.

Andy Glanzman

            The lot was emptied when Isaac Fassett’s dream was torn down (fire and water damage were too expensive to repair) and now the lot is owned by Andy Glanzman who has given it to create a dynamic new type of community center.

            On weekends, you can find Glanzman, Andrew Harris, Cassandra Bull, Jim Lemkin as well as other community members, business owners,  high school students, and this reporter shoveling rock, moving blocks, pounding, gluing and building to make the Fassett Greenspace Project.

            Roughly, the project will include a labyrinth of raised beds with a water fountain in the center. Plantings aren’t fully defined yet but will involve a mix of perennial flowers and edible plants along with annual vegetables. On the side furthest from the street there will be a covered seating area for people to enjoy outdoor performances and classes in art, gardening, exercise and more.

Layer 2 on the second ring.

            Grant applications are in progress to get funding to pave the walkways both to preserve the labyrinth on this sloped corner and to make it wheel chair and stroller accessible. Another grant seeks funds to purchase outdoor musical instruments.

            On Saturday, some high school students spent time working toward their community service requirements. Lauryn Sherwood put in a few hundred plastic pins. She plans to study nursing after graduation, a career area that became of interest to her because of the TV series Gray’s Anatomy.    

Jacob Beirman and Nick  Lakatosh

            Nick Lakatosh has done community service for the SPCA and at the fire hall but spent his Saturday morning moving several hundred pounds of blocks and caps at the Fassett Greenspace. He worked with Jacob Beirman and Isaiah Plank to move the blocks and while there is a wheel barrow to help, it is no easy task to move anything over a deep layer of loose stones. Other volunteers built a sort of wood pallet-road but the last several feet have to be carried by hand.  

            Isaiah Plank has done some community service with the MS Walk, the Lions Club Cleanup and the Maker’s Fair prior to helping at the garden. After he graduates he hopes to study at Alfred State in Wellsville to become a gourmet cook. Isaiah thinks that people feel good when they help their community. Jacob Beirman thinks the Greenspace will be great when it’s finished.  He spent some of his other community service time at the SPCA and at the United Way golf tournament.

Roxanne Blouvet

            Roxanne Blouvet has lived in Wellsville off and on for about 30 years. She has helped at 3 work sessions at the garden after seeing a post about it on Instagram. She does a lot of community service for friends, neighbors and at Arbor Development where she brings meals on holidays. Blouvet said, “This is a great idea for the community and will bring beauty downtown. It’s great to share the work together and I hope other people will come to help.”

Jim Lemkin and Cassandra Bull

            Jim Lemkin drives over from Black Creek to help in part because of the influencer of his neighbor, Cassandra Bull, president of Art for Rural America, the parent organization that is building the garden. It wasn’t just being neighborly though. Jim realized right off the potential that the Fasssett Greenspace has for Wellsville saying, “I’m honored to be a small participant in this amazing project. I believe that people will travel great distances to experience what will become a majestic destination.”

Andy Glanzman and Isaiah Plank

            The project is huge and needs help - physical and financial - to move it toward that majestic goal. Tax deductable donations are welcome. Send checks made out to Fassett Greenspace and mailed to AFRA , 130 North Main Street, Wellsville 14895. Feel free to stop and talk with anyone working there if you pass by.

            To learn more about the project, go to www.ArtForRuralAmerica.com or to Fassett Greenspace Project on Facebook. You can contact board members at either site. Occasionally you may find a note on the Facebook page announcing work times when you could stop by and earn the right to say, “Hey, I helped build that!"

Box: It takes a village of workers and a bank of funding to create such an ambitious project.

Some donations to date include:

Grant Awards.

The Garman Family Foundation through the Community Foundation of Greater Buffalo - $15,667

 The Allegany County Area Foundation - $750

Donations

·         ​ALCO Federal Credit Union - $1,000

·         Steuben Trust Company - $1,000

·         L C Whitford & Company, Inc. - $2,000

·         The Searle Family Estate - $400

·         Wellsville Citizens for Responsible Development - $500

·         Patricia Ann Kuzman - $95

·         Sheila Kalkbrenner - ongoing 

·         Allegany Arts Association - $100

·         Giant Food Mart - $1,000

In-Kind Donations

·         Kevin LaForge Disposal 

·         JR. Green Trucking Company

·         The Village of Wellsville

·         Tim Shea

·         Lehman's nursery

·         East wind Landscaping Nursery

·         Southern Tier Concrete Products, Inc. 

·         Nate Piscitelli

·         Anna Joyce

·          

Volunteer Support

·         Alfred State College Department of Heavy Equipment with Vinny Grottanelli

·         Alfred State Department of Masonry with Steve Richard

Preparing to Grow a Community

Photo provided by Steuben Trust

Jim Knapp, SVP-Retail Sales Manager, Marcella Bledsoe, VP and Manager

WELLSVILLE: Starting 2018 with proof of generosity and community spirit, Steuben Trust Bank gave a $1,000 boost to Allegany County’s Fassett Green Space Project in Wellsville. Marcella Bledsoe, VP and Manager in Wellsville, said, “Steuben Trust is delighted to support the redevelopment of South Main Street in Wellsville.”

                That spot on South Main was a different place in 1870 when Isaac Fassett built his grand hotel there on a plot of land that had already seen 4 decades of commerce and was the site of some of Wellsville’s early town meetings. The Fassett house was meant to last, architecturally demanding to endure, proclaiming those demands with brick exterior walls encasing thick interior firewalls. Isaac Fassett didn’t intend to allow a repeat of the 1867 fire that devastated Wellsville’s Main Street. Having survived for over 130 years, the building was brought down in 2005 by leaky water pipes and, despite the 1870 efforts, a fire

                In the first centuries of the Village of Wellsville, community spaces were located inside of structures. In our time with this project, the community will be invited to an open space with crops, a living maze, and people sitting, talking and feeling at home.

                This project began as a community garden a few years ago but a garden without water is a Sisyphean struggle. There were a few crops planted in those early years but the project needed on site water, more people to share the effort, and funds. Once it was taken on by Art For Rural America (AFRA) all those things started lining up. Rescuing the project from its persistent and desperate thirst, K. S. LaForge installed water service and the Village of Wellsville pledged free water to the site.

                Cassandra Bull is president of AFRA and with Andrew Harris and Andy Glanzman makes up the energizing core of AFRA. Harris had the original idea for the community food garden, a shared growing space for crops and acted as water carrier for flowers, rhubarb, garlic and more catching the attention of AFRA. AFRA has changed the focus and now all board members are focused on creating a “greenspace” with a garden and with installations such as a meditation labyrinth, a mini theater area, and annual gardens to create a space that would be open to and welcoming of social gatherings and educational programming.

                At this point, support for the project has been voiced by WIC, the Wellsville Creative Arts Center, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Wellsville Central School, Wellsville YMCA, Total Senior Care, ASC, the Wellsville Chamber, Immaculate Conception School and the Village of Wellsville. In addition to today’s donation from Steuben Trust Bank, other sizable donations have been made or pledged by Alco Federal Credit Union. K. S. LaForge Disposal, Allegany County Area Foundation, the Wellsville Rotary, Patricia Ann Kuzma, The Searle Family Estate and the Garman Family Foundation through the Community Foundation of Greater Buffalo.

                More donations are needed for construction (slated to begin in April), operation and the unpredictable, surprise expenses that are part of any large project. Donations of any size can be made online at www.youcaring.com/thefassettgreenspace where more information is posted. Another source of information is on Facebook at The Fassett Greenspace. If you prefer paper over the internet, checks may be made out out to Art for Rural America ( or just AFRA Greenspace) and mailed to 130 North Main Street, Wellsville, NY 14895.

                 AFRA Board members are available to attend your group's meeting to answer questions and provide information. The Allegany Arts Association will host a presentation about the Fassett Greenspace Project at their January meeting. If your organization is willing to host a representative and learn more about the project, contact them through ArtForRualAmerica@gmail.com or at 585-808-0385. If you are willing to add some time and muscle to make this happen, get your work gloves ready and give us a call.

----http://www.wellsvilledaily.com/news/20180527/stronga-giant-donation-to-fassett-greenspace-projectstrong