Each year we select one individual as “Volunteer of the Year.” This year we recognize a long-time member and volunteer Sandy Peck.
Left Bill Sauers, Middle Sandy Peck, Right Bill Peeck
Sandy Peck is a member of the Board of Trustees, is on the Society’s Finance and Audit Committees, and she also volunteers in the Gift Shop. As she is the second volunteer on the finance team, it allows us to maintain separation of duties between the person recording the deposits in the finance system and the person counting money received by GHS and depositing it in the bank. As a member of the Audit Committee, she greatly assisted that committee in conducting the 2023 internal audit in February of 2024. Sandy is the main person processing bank deposits on a periodic basis.
Always responsive in getting the deposits in quickly at the end of the month and monitoring any buildup in volume of financial transactions, she facilitates mid-month or weekly deposits during the membership drive to keep cash on hand to a minimum and to maximize the interest income on our accounts. She volunteers in the gift shop at least once a month or more if necessary and contributes ideas on items to sell with the gift shop manager. Sandy also regularly volunteers to head up ticket sales for the Strawberry Festival and other fundraising events.
On July 10 we lost one of our long-time members and volunteer, Betty Fetter. Betty passed away peacefully at the age of 102. She was born in Rochester, graduated from Charlotte High School, and was a proud resident of the Town of Greece for decades. Betty was a longtime employee of Eastman Kodak who also volunteered at the Greece Historical Society, the Charlotte-Genesee Lighthouse, and the Greece Public Library. She was a life member and former officer of the Rochester Lapidary Society and was a member of Greece Baptist Church. Throughout her life Betty touched many lives with her kindness, zest for life, and love of local history. We agree with her obituary “Betty was a marvel, living independently to age 100, and she served as a wonderful example of a life well-lived.” She enjoyed traveling, especially to the Adirondack Mountains with family.
Here at GHS, Betty was our volunteer registrar, coming every Monday to sort through and catalog our collection. Before the days of computers that meant handwritten entries in the registry and typing catalogue cards. She also attended training seminars on collection care and the duties of a registrar. She would be seen attending nearly every program and event held by us and would join a group of fellow volunteers every Monday for lunch.
Betty at Greece Historical Society
Charlotte-Genesee Lighthouse from the Rochester Public Library Historical Division
Betty was at the Charlotte Genesee Lighthouse almost every Tuesday reviewing many documents and filing them and then met others at a restaurant where she shared local history. In later years a bus would drive her to and take her home from her volunteer duties and lunch outings.
When Secondhand Prose, operated by the Friends of the Greece Public Library, opened in a small room just inside the library entrance, Betty was a volunteer almost from the beginning. She helped sort donated books twice a month. She participated in their twice-yearly sales at the Greece Town Mall, on location at the library, or at sorting areas. She was always a cheerful and willing helper whether sorting or selling books.
Because of her community volunteerism, she received the Greece Historical Society Volunteer of the Year award in 2011 and a certificate of Merit from Senator Joe Robach in 2012.
However, with her tendency to downplay her own accomplishments, Betty had another highly significant volunteer “career,” about which few apparently knew. For nearly 25 years she was on the Race Communications Committee at Watkins Glen, performing vital services for the race organizers, in those glorious years of Formula One (from 1961 until 1980) racing at Watkins Glen. She was much appreciated for her devotion and skill and probably knew many of the drivers and race organizers. She may have met drivers like Geoffrey Eli Bodine, Brett Bodine, and Todd Bodine, from Chemung, New York and she was there from inception of “Six Hours at The Glen” in 1968 and would run until 1981, helping with the “Six Hours at The Glen” endurance race featured top drivers such as Mario Andretti, Jacky Ickx, Pedro Rodríguez, and Derek Bell.
Betty was the sole grandchild of Rochester residents John Kannewischer, a German-born tailor, and his wife, whose six children continued to live in Rochester/Greece their entire lives (1880s-1980s). A remarkable and extensive archive of Kannewischer family memorabilia was preserved by Betty and will be donated to the University of Rochester’s Rush Rhees Library Department of Rare Books, Special Collections and Preservation. Our April 2024 program by Cynthia Howk on the family was based on these materials.
Thank you, Betty, for your service to the community. We will all miss you.
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