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WNY Forward Fund grant applications due July 24

Community

The WNY Forward Fund, a group of local funders who joined together to support the Western New York community and the local nonprofit sector, is accepting grants through July 24 at 4 p.m. has announced its second round of grant opportunities for the exploration of strategic realignment and nonprofit resiliency in the WNY area. Grant awards, intended to spur reimagining of service delivery and innovation within the nonprofit sector, will be between $2,500 and $25,000 and will be awarded in early fall. Nonprofits in the eight counties of Western New York (Allegany, Cattaraugus, ...

Randolph Class of 2026 honored at commencement ceremony

Community

RANDOLPH — The Randolph Central School District celebrated the Class of 2026 during a commencement ceremony in the school auditorium recently. Jason Halpainy, high school principal, opened the ceremony by welcoming families, friends, and community members. Halpainy encouraged the ...

Dad calls shooting victim ‘strong family man’

Local News

Family and friends of Delani K. Williams want the community to know the 25-year-old was a caring father and family man. Their recollection of him comes days after he was identified in the OBSERVER as the shooting victim last month in the city of Dunkirk. “He actually got to the point where ...

Midnight Recovery to perform Sunday in Cassadaga

Community

CASSADAGA – The Citizens for a Better Cassadaga organization will host Midnight Recovery from 5 to 7 p.m. Sunday on the floating stage as part of the Cassadaga Lakes Summer Concert Series. Midnight Recovery is primarily a classic rock band that mixes in some new country hits. The band has ...

I’m not Tevye, but I like how he thought

Local Commentaries

One of my favorite musicals since it arrived on the stage scene in 1964, and hit the Big Screen in 1971, is Fiddler on the Roof, the story of a poor Jewish family struggling to maintain their religious beliefs and teachings in a settlement of Imperial Russia set around 1905, about the same time as the Russian Revolution. It is a tale based on a real-life milkman who author Sholem Aleichem, writer of a series of Yiddish short stories titled Tevye and his Daughters, once met somewhere 1894 and 1914, in a small Jewish-only settlement. When the story became a musical, the opening one-word ...