Category Archives: retired
OPERATION BUILD UP
New to this year’s celebrations, we have joined forces with an organization that goes by the name of Operation Build Up. They are a non profit organization based out of Avon, NY. They are a team of former marines that come together and rebuild vehicles for veterans in need.
Their mission is “to have an impact on the 22 veteran suicides per day and homelessness statistics by surprising veterans with the basic items needed for survival in a civilian lifestyle. Our goal over the next year is to surprise over 150 veterans with vehicles and complete home furnishings all across New York state!” Operation Build Up has not only given cars away but this past Christmas they gave a veteran and his family a home to live in rent free for four months. OBU came together as a team and collected donations from near and far and was able to make a dream come true for this veteran during a time of need.
Excerpt from CEO and Founder of Operation Build Up, Justin Cogswell:
Many people do not realize how difficult of an adjustment it can be to move from military life into civilian life for many veterans. Most of our heroic veterans return home from service with just enough personal belongings to fit in their vehicles. Many also have skill-sets that are strictly combat related making the transition into civilian life a challenge. Veterans are brave, dedicated, selfless people by nature.
Anyone that has met a hardened military veteran understands that they are the last people in the world to ask friends and family for help, or express their troubles. They are expected to be able to figure it out because “He or she is a Marine!”, “Or a Soldier!”…. This attitude adds more pressure to our already overwhelmed veterans. Yes there are many programs offering needed assistance, most of which have requirements based upon percentage of disability, discharge classifications, discharge dates, and many additional criteria that further complicate assistance.
Operation Build Up is here to change these circumstances. Regardless of the criteria. We will help every veteran that we can with the necessary tools for survival in a civilian atmosphere, young and old. Whether you have served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, Vietnam, or any other conflict; we will do all we can to come to your aid.
Imagine if we could have an Operation Clean Out To Build Up warehouse in every major city! By giving restored vehicles and furniture we give them a comfort, sense of belonging, and the tools necessary to create stable lives. The effect on Veteran’s homelessness and suicide statistics would be dramatic.
We Won’t Leave You Behind, Our Team Strives To Simplify The Process Of Getting Resources To Our Veterans.
Operation Build Up will be joining us this year in surprising one of our local veterans with a car of their very own right here in Waterloo.
Illumination Ceremonies held at the American Civil War Memorial
Friday, May 24, 2019 7:30 PM
Some photos from past ceremonies
Roll Call of Waterloo Fallen – Gen. George B. McClellan, a.k.a John Goloski
Taps – Jim Goloski, Past Commander, 148th NYVI, SVR
US Engineers during the Civil War
The role of the engineer was extremely vital for the Army to move across the land and fight on the battlefield. The engineers were instrumental in clearing paths through woods, laying down “corduroy roads” on muddy surfaces, building wooden trestle bridges and transporting / deploying pontoon bridges over rivers. Defensive works needed the guidance of the engineers to construct gabions (three foot tall, round wicker containers filled with dirt to place around artillery batteries), and direct the building of field fortifications especially towards the middle through the end of the war when trench warfare was more prevalent. Chevaux-de-frise (or Friesian horses) were anti-cavalry defensive pieces built by engineers that were often logs with projecting sharpened spikes alternating every foot out of the timber. When placed in front of defensive works they acted as a barrier or obstacle for both cavalry and infantry offensives. Abatis were large branches that were placed in front of works as well to serve as a obstacle to slow down an advance of troops. Also in front of such works were shallow rifle pits (much like foxholes) that the defenders would use to repel the offensive forces. Signal towers were often constructed behind the lines for both observation of the enemy and use by the signal corps to transmit semaphore messages with flags. Lifting gins, with their pulleys, were used to lift heavy objects such as cannon barrels.
During the course of the “School of the Engineer / Pioneer”, the public will be able to witness participants rotating through 45 minute learning sessions on how to build gabions, chevaux-de-frise, lifting gins, dig rifle pits and a construct a signal tower. The Engineers’ Tool Depot will feature hand tools, entrenching / felling implements and cartography (map making) equipment. Witness history yourself, see their camps, examine their personal belongings, food and equipment. The school located at the Oak Island encampment will commence on Saturday at 1pm following the Memorial Day Parade.
The school is hosted by two Western New York engineer reenacting units. Capt. Ray Ball of Co. A of the U.S. Regular Engineers has been reenacting since 2010 and is a veteran of the Army Corps of Engineers. Capt Alex Johnson of Co. F of the 1st N.Y. Volunteer Engineers, has reenacted since 1992 and is a descendant of an immigrant sergeant of the original New York regiment. If you’re so intrigued to, join in on the fun and enlist in either Co. A of the U.S. Regular Engineers or Co. F of the 1st N.Y. Volunteer Engineers. 
Photos courtesy of Dennis Luthart
The boating experience that should not be missed!
Depart Oak Island, Waterloo, aboard the Seneca Lake Reel Tours, a 50-foot catamaran, and travel down the Cayuga-Seneca Canal passing through the Waterloo lock and descending 15 feet.
Drinks and snacks available for purchase. Bathroom on board.
Boat departs at 10am, 12pm, 2pm, 4pm Saturday and Sunday. Pre-sale tickets from Stivers Seneca Marine 315-789-5520 bstivers1@hotmail.com
Tickets will also be available for purchase prior to departure. Tickets: Adults $15.00 & Children $10.00 (ages 10 and up).
Historical dialogue featuring Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Portrayed by Dr. Melinda Grube
We are proud to have Women’s Rights National Historical Park as a sponsor again this year. The M’Clintock House on East Williams Street was the home of Thomas and Mary Ann M’Clintock from 1836-1856. The family were active Quaker abolitionists, actively engaged in the Underground Railroad, and were major organizers of the first Woman’s Rights Convention held in Seneca Falls, NY, in July of 1848.
In honor of Memorial Day, Women’s Rights National Historical Park will offer an open house at the M’Clintock House from 10:30 AM – 4:00 PM on Saturday May 25 and Sunday May 26. A ranger will rove Lafayette Park 1-3 p.m. Saturday and 1-3 p.m. Sunday.
On Saturday at 1:15 AND Sunday at Noon, The beautiful harmonies and songs of Merry Mischief from by gone times will set the mood in advance of the characterizations of Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Step back in time with music and learn from the wisdom of those who have tread the stairs of politics and women’s rights at this historic museum.
At the M’Clintock House at 1:45 pm and 3:00 pm Saturday, May 25th and 12:30 pm and 2:00 pm Sunday, May 26th, there will be Historical dialogues on women’s rights and women’s suffrage featuring Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Portrayed by Dr. Melinda Grube.
Kids will have an opportunity to join in the fun, playing lawn games or writing their own Kids’ Declaration of Sentiments in the M’Clintock House yard.
Melinda Grube focuses on the life and work of suffragist and freethinker Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who helped to organize the first Woman’s Rights Convention in her hometown of Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. Melinda Grube is an adjunct lecturer in history at Cayuga Community College in Auburn, New York, and a longtime interpreter of regional women’s-rights history
Here is a sample from the 2017 dialogues:
Federick Douglass
The most Prolific and Highly Regarded Frederick Douglass Presenter to Attend
Frederick Douglass / aka Michael Crutcher Sr.,
will speak on Abolition and Human Rights at
2:30-3:30 Saturday at Pavilion 1, and
at 11:00-11:45 Sunday at Pavilion 1.
Frederick Douglass – “A fugitive slave who rose from bondage to become a foremost orator, writer, abolitionist, and the most influential black leader of the mid-nineteenth century. Douglass was instrumental in convincing President Lincoln and the U.S. Army to raise regiments of former slaves and free northern blacks to help fight the war and liberate their enslaved brethren in the South.” Douglass was a Martin Luther King Jr. type of that time! A well-known Frederick Douglass message to us today: “Without a struggle, there can be no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will”
“Michael Crutcher Sr. is perhaps the most prolific and highly regarded Frederick Douglass presenter in the world!”
“His greatest honor to date was representing Douglass at the request of Frederick’s descendant family at the unveiling of the new Frederick Douglass statue in Emancipation Hall at the Nation’s Capital in Washington, DX, on June 19, 2013.”
He has been in several television commercials and training videos and was a stand-in actor in the movie Seabiscuit and can be seen in the movie Dreamer, with actors Dakota Fanning and Kurt Russell Douglass’ statue is the first to represent the District of Columbia and the third of an African-American at the Capitol. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks from the modern civil rights era also have statues, as do abolitionist Sojourner Truth
In early 1863 Brigadier General Lorenzo Thomas Sr. was sent to the Mississippi Valley by the Honorable Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War to organize self-emancipated “slaves” into regiments of United States civil war troops. On April 12th while at Milliken’s Bend, Louisiana headquarters of General Grant, he was satisfied that 20,000 troops alone, could be organized on the west bank of the Mississippi in answer to Douglass’s Call to Arms at the time.
”Freedom to the slave should now be proclaimed from the Capitol, and should be seen above the smoke and fire of every battle field, waving from every loyal flag.”—Frederick Douglass, 1861
SELF-EMANCIPATION ABOUNDED IN THE MISSISSIPPI “RIBBER” VALLEY IN FREEDOM SUMMERE 1863 AS EX-SLAVES SOLDIERS FOUGHT FOR FREEDOM’S GLORY ON THE BAYOUS
In April U. S. Colored Troops fought Confederate Armies at Pascagoula Mississippi and won. In May they lost in battle at Port Hudson near Baton Rouge, while proving they could and would fight their “masters.” In June they won in battles of Fort Butler in Donaldsonville and Milliken’s Bend, Louisiana. On July 4, they won in battle at Helena Arkansas. These battles were for Union control of Mississippi River and victory at Vicksburg.
In Freedom Summer 1863, Vicksburg fell to the Union Army on July 4th, four days later Confederates at Port Hudson surrendered. Then thousands upon thousands of enslaved African Descendants self-emancipated (runaways) “in ways that showed once and for all they were not content to be held in bondage.”
Up and down the Mississippi River and her tributaries, thousands of able-bodied African Descent males joined and were recruited into the Union military as freedom fighting soldiers, sailors and cavalrymen. Thousands of other African Descent men, women and children served the cause for freedom as spies, scouts, nurses, cooks, laundresses, servants, teamsters, stevedores, foragers, wood choppers, general laborers, field hands, blacksmiths and builders of forts, breastworks and roads.
Flag Education and Retirement Ceremony – Sunday May 26th, 2019 at Noon
This will truly be one of the finest Flag Retirement Ceremonies you will ever see!!
Please join us!
Tribute To The Fallen – 5K Run/Walk 5-25-19 8:30 AM
USAT Certified Course!
Saturday, May 25, 2019 8:30 AM
Join us for a morning run at 8:30 AM.
You will have the rest of the day to enjoy all of the Memorial Day Celebration activities around Waterloo.
You can even make the big parade that starts at 11:00 AM.
Hundreds of runners are expected to participate in the 14th annual Celebrate/Commemorate 5k walk and run.
$100 Prize Money to the 1st Place Male and 1st Place Female
New This Year-Top Finisher shirts.
Age Group Champion/ Age Group 2nd Place/ Age Group 3rd Place shirts
Visit us on Facebook for frequent updates!
Click to enlarge the image
Waterloo has a fairly flat, fast course for the competitive runner. You could get your PR here. The family-friendly atmosphere includes runners of all ages. Doug Daeffler, Race Director, says “This is a real fun run on a competitive course. I have seen entire families do this run together. It is a really fun time!”
We are continuing the series of shirts, started in 2016. Keep coming back each year to collect a set of them.
The course begins and ends at Tom Coughlin Stadium at Waterloo High School. Daeffler said the course will go through historic Waterloo and will no longer cross Virginia Street. Runners will pass historic cemeteries, St Mary’s Church and the VFW on Wright Ave. and is fairly flat, Daeffler said.
Celebrate Commemorate Memorial Day one of 30 NYS Events sponsored!!
GREAT NEWS!!! Celebrate Commemorate Memorial Day 2019 is among 30 festivals and events sponsored by the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor and the New York State Canal Corporation in 2019. These family-friendly community events give visitors more reasons to explore and enjoy New York’s canals and Canalway Trail, while celebrating our state’s unique heritage.
Click here for a full listing of sponsored festivals:
2019 Erie Canalway Festival and Event List
Kid’s Korner & Tee Shirts! (Located on Williams Street behind the Main Street School)
Kids Korner Printable Schedule
Stop in the Kid’s Korner tent. Get busy and create. It’s fun.
And – for $5.00- you can design and take home your very own souvenir tee shirt, decorated with colored markers.
As always there will be games, treats and even an obstacle course!!
