Hayley's Dream

SCROLL DOWN

Hayley's Dream

In 2015, National Women’s Hockey League was founded as the first league in North America to pay its players. Chicago-native Hayley Williams jumped at the opportunity to make her dreams come true by earning a spot on the Buffalo Beauts in Buffalo, N.Y. After the first season ended, however, the Beauts didn’t sign her for the following season. She entered the Canadian Women’s Hockey League draft, an unpaid league with five teams in Canada, and signed with the Brampton Thunder.

Behind the Goal - Podcast

Behind the Goal

A podcast by Jenn March sharing the stories of RIT varsity athletes in the final year of their college careers.

Episode 3 - Jetta Rackleff

May 2, 2016

Jetta Rackleff is RIT’s senior women’s hockey goaltender. She finished her season at RIT with 484 saves and 4 shutouts and was named College Hockey America goaltender of the month for December 2015 for coming back onto the ice after two months from an injury and stopping 58 of 62 shots against Lindenwood on Dec. 4-5. She is a chemical engineering major and helped lead inline hockey Team USA to 3 Gold Medals in the FIRS (Federation International of Roller Sports) championships of 2009, 2011, and 2013.

Jetta Rackleff (35) receives flowers from friends and family on senior day.

For more episodes in Behind the Goal, click here.

Carol the Great

Carol the Great

Carol the Great

Carol the Great

Carol the Great

Carol Heveron, a Rochester-local artist and singer, was diagnosed with cancer in her late fifties and beat it. In March 2015, however, the cancer came back as terminal and Heveron was diagnosed by oncologists at Strong Memorial Hospital to live only two more years. Determined to not let terminal illness define her, Heveron lived her life as she had always lived it. She enjoyed time with loved ones, left everything in her will to her two children, Margaret Heveron and Gabe Sloan. That spring, she held Easter at her house and invited many friends and family. "I've accepted it," she said. Heveron chose to not go for treatment and instead lived her life to its fullest until she passed away April 7, 2016.

Carol Heveron laughs as she tells a story while sitting on her porch at her house in Rochester, N.Y., Friday, April 3, 2015.

Carol places her head on her friend Erik Lacelle's knee after having a tube removed from her lungs at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester on Thursday, April 2, 2015. "Erik's a good guy," she said. "Sometimes he comes over on the weekends and we have doughnuts."

Carol makes a joke as she discusses treatment options with a doctor at Strong Memorial Hospital. She had received chemo therapy the first time she had cancer and had lost an unhealthy amount of weight as a result.

Carol Heveron reacts to doctors removing a chest tube that was inserted for lung drainage after a biopsy. Heveron had received the biopsy two weeks prior where surgeons removed a part of her lung for a wedge resection.

Carol is shown the chest tube that was inserted for lung drainage after a biopsy by her surgeon after it is removed.

Carol walks home after picking up some Friday evening takeout.

Carol shows a relative her collection of trinkets and artwork on a bookcase in her house on Easter Sunday, Apr. 5, 2015.

Gabe Sloane (left) pretends to play a roll of tin foil like an instrument at his mother, Carol Heveron, during a celebration of Easter at her residence.

Photos of Carol's two children, Gabe Sloan and Margaret Elizabeth are among many wall hangings at Carol's house.

Carol Heveron (far left) watches over her relatives and grandchildren as they watch TV at her house on Easter Sunday.

Carol's son, Gabe Sloan, hugs her before he and his family depart the Easter celebration.

Carol talks with her friend Sue Engel following an Easter dinner shared with friends and family.

Carol rests on her couch following a long, busy Easter Sunday filled with emotional goodbyes.

Veteran feeds elderly Vermonters

Dec. 24, 2016

Vermont veteran Garry DuFour began a project four years ago to visit and feed elderly shut-ins during the holidays. He built a list of people by visiting the town clerk’s office and paid for gourmet dinners from the Dorset Union Store for everyone on his list. He takes the afternoon on Christmas Eve to deliver them across the Dorset-Rupert area.

Lake George Polar Plunge one of the coldest yet

Two women dash out of the waters of Lake George during the Lake George Annual Polar Plunge on Monday, New Years Day of 2018, in Lake George, N.Y. Temperatures dropped to a frigid 4-degrees for the event.

LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. -- Jan. 1, 2018

As the air temperatures plunged to a record low, the number of participants also dropped drastically for this New Year’s Day Lake George Polar Plunge charity event. The plunge has had more than 1,000 participants in previous years with about 300 or 400 running into the water at a time. But the number of swimmers braving the frigid waters at the 12th annual plunge dwindled to roughly 400 as the temperature stood at a stubborn 4-degrees.

Firefighters, police, and other volunteers broke up the ice and kept a watchful eye on all swimsuit-clad participants as they stood shivering on the shoreline. Organizer Linda Duffy, who’s been involved with the event for 18 years, said that a firefighter measured the surface temperature of the water at 8-degrees when they broke the ice.

“The fire department has been very cooperative this year,” said Duffy. “They took it upon themselves to make sure we have enough people here for the conditions.” This is the first year the plunge has had a heated tent for the swimmers’ comfort.

Despite the arctic weather, which forced the cancellation of similar events in the Northeast, the bright sunshine on Shepard’s Park Beach evoked summer sentiments for some. Oscar Turpin, dressed in swim trunks and a beach pullover, rocked barefoot in the powdery snow, playing air guitar to Metallica's Enter Sandman, which blared over the event PA system.

"You've got be reborn every year," said Turpin, a 54-year-old South Boston, Mass., resident. This was Turpin's first time to the Polar Plunge in Lake George. He's participated in similar events 13 times in the Boston area. "This is colder because you don't have the ocean saltwater.”

Among local participants included three high school girls from Chestertown, one of whom had participated in the event since age 9. The three have made it a New Year’s tradition for five years.

Grafton, N.Y., local Marcy Pfeiffer has also braved the plunge for the last five years. “It’s a tradition,” she said. “Most people think it’s crazy, but it’s a great way to start the year.” Pfeiffer has brought friends to the plunge in the past, but no one has wanted to return until this year when she came with her boyfriend, Kyle Sweet of Cropseyville, N.Y. The two vow to return next year, but not without hope for warmer temperatures.