Grand Island Chamber celebrating community pride

Article and Photos by Karen Carr Keefe

Senior Contributing Writer

The Grand Island Chamber of Commerce will celebrate its 58th annual Citizen of the Year Awards Dinner from 6-9 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 9, at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Niagara Falls. It’s a ticketed event that is open to the public. Islander Scott Swagler is general manager of the DoubleTree.

Pride of Grand Island – Part III

This year, in a new feature, the Grand Island Chamber of Commerce has decided to celebrate past winners from each decade of the Citizen of the Year event.

So, too, will this publication.

Here’s a cavalcade of winners, a snapshot in 2025 of honorees from nearly 60 years of the Chamber giving awards to Grand Island’s heroes. The biographies in various categories represent the achievements and zeal of the past winners. Some of these winners commented anew for this article. The intent is to provide an inspiration for choosing those honored this year and in years to come.

Charles N. DeGlopper Memorial VFW Post 9249 won Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year honors in 2003 in the category for organizations. From left at Post 9249 are Cmdr. Dale Berger, member Autumn Spinella and past commander and state Quartermaster Dan McMahon.

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•2000s: Charles N. DeGlopper Memorial VFW Post 9249, (2003): VFW Post 9249, at 2121 Grand Island Blvd., provides services and a meeting place for U.S. veterans. Cmdr. Dale Berger noted that membership is open to veterans who have served honorably in foreign combat areas.

The post donates to community causes, such as American Gold Star Mothers, Miracle League of Grand Island and WNY, and Dog Tags of New York – which connects veterans with shelter dogs.

The post also awards scholarships to young people and bestows honors upon Scouts and public servants. The VFW completes projects that highlight the contributions of veterans to the community of Grand Island.

Grand Island High School 2025 graduate Jolie Mondoux, sponsored by Post 9249, recently won first place nationally and a $15,000 scholarship in the VFW Auxiliary Young American Creative Patriotic Art Contest.

“To me, the biggest thing that this place does is things for children,” Berger said. He highlighted efforts by members Autumn and Joseph Spinella in organizing a free Easter egg hunt that is sponsored by local businesses as a fundraiser for the VFW Post.

Berger said the VFW will be looking toward holding more events for children during holidays such as the Fourth of July, when people gather at Post 9249 after the town parade. He said educating children about veterans’ service to their country is an important goal of the local VFW Post.

“We’ve got to have the community understand more” about veterans. “I think you’ve got to start that with the kids,” Berger said.

The DeGlopper post commemorates Pfc. Charles N. DeGlopper, posthumous Medal of Honor awardee who gave his life for his fellow soldiers in World War II. The unveiling of a life-sized statue of DeGlopper in front of a large hometown crowd on June 5, 2021, was a heartfelt, patriotic, military tribute to veterans. VFW Post 9249 and Auxiliary worked alongside members of the DeGlopper Memorial Expansion Committee in a multi-year effort to have the statue sculpted by Susan Geissler.

Relatives of 17 Grand Island soldiers killed in action expressed gratitude that day, as well, when plaques were unveiled that display the soldiers’ photos and narratives of their heroic actions on behalf of their country.

Elsie Martino, herself a Citizen of the Year awardee of 2023, is grateful for VFW and wishes more Islanders would know about and visit the DeGlopper Memorial.

“Although my recent undertaking with the DeGlopper Memorial Expansion Committee has been the most challenging of my volunteer projects, it has also been among the most rewarding,” she said. “After seven years of perseverance, hard work, and dedication – finally – a place of distinction and honor to those who have served our nation. Our work will serve to remind future generations of the sacrifices made by our Island residents to preserve our freedom.”

VFW Post 9249 and local American Legion Post 1346 were also instrumental in the production of the award-winning documentary, “Charles N. DeGlopper: An American Hero,” by Island native Jerry Cahill. Berger was an executive producer, along with American Legion Cmdr. Ray DeGlopper; VFW member Bob Lamb wrote the script and the magazine article that the documentary was based on.

Recently, the VFW has helped facilitate the “Hometown Heroes” posters that have gone up along Whitehaven Road. Families of hometown veterans can honor their loved ones with the large display of a photo and short biography through the program.

“Next year, we’re going to add to it,” Berger said.

Dan McMahon, VFW Post 9249 past commander and current state quartermaster, said the VFW is proactive in securing services for veterans.

“The VFW serves the community in a number of ways. First of all, we’re in Washington and Albany all the time,” with a mission to pass legislation that benefits veterans and their families, McMahon said.

One recent measure eases the process for veterans who have cancer to obtain the medical services they need without all the red tape. The VFW emergency relief fund also helps veterans in need. Berger said they get two or three calls a week from veterans seeking assistance.

•2010s: Gale Sander Podsiadlo: (2018) Community Service (By Isledegrande.com) Gale Klocke Sander has lived on Grand Island all her life, for more than 50 of those years with her husband, Richard. They have four children and 10 grandchildren who also call Grand Island home.

She is a retired nurse of 42 years from the Catholic Health System; most of those years spent at Kenmore Mercy Hospital. Her volunteer experience started with her role as a mother, having been a Cub Scout den mother, a Girl Scout leader for 10 years, as well as many other activities with her children at St. Stephen School, St. Stephen Church and Mount St. Mary Academy. St. Stephen’s is an integral part of her life. She is a Eucharistic minister, funeral liturgy planner and on the bereavement team.

Sander became involved in helping people with special needs learn to ice skate when her oldest child needed a service project back in 1982. What keeps her coming back year after year are the smiles and joy she sees on the faces of the skaters.

She was WNY coordinator of Gliding Stars and a member of the Gliding Stars national board of directors.

Her granddaughter with special needs, Ellie, pushed their family into being a two-sport family. In the summer of 2010, Gale, her daughter Teresa Hooper, Fran and Kim McMahon, and Joan Droit had a dream to have a place where people with disabilities could play baseball. This dream became a reality in 2011 when The Miracle League was built, in a very short amount of time, with the help of Grand Islanders Dan Drexelius and Larry Playfair. Not long after, an all-inclusive playground was built, where anyone with special needs could participate in the fun. Ellie played baseball with The Miracle League and even got to play on the new playground before she unexpectedly passed away in 2014.

The greatest joy in Gale Sander’s life is having her entire family volunteer with her in all she does.

•2020s: Neighbor’s Foundation, (2022), Civic Organization: (By David Conboy, president of the Neighbors Foundation of Grand Island) Three years after receiving the Grand Island Chamber of Commerce’s Citizen of the Year Award for Volunteer Organization, and 53 years after its founding, the Neighbors Foundation of Grand Island continues to focus on its core mission of combating food insecurity.

Over the course of each year, the Neighbors Foundation helps hundreds of individuals and families on the Island who are facing challenging times. Recent conditions have increased requests for our services, and so you will see donation bins in the community more frequently as together we do our best to support our neighbors in need.

Our longtime president, and one of our founders, Hank Kammerer, passed away in April 2024, but his legacy of service-above-self lives on with our current board of directors and volunteers, who represent a diverse cross section of the Grand Island community.

We deeply appreciate the board of the Grand Island Cultural Center (the former St. Stephen Old Church) for their continued generosity in providing space for our food pantry. The Neighbors Foundation also relies on the remarkable generosity of businesses, organizations and individuals who contribute time, funding and food. Thanks to this communitywide commitment, our all-volunteer organization is able to continue its mission of providing confidential food assistance to Islanders in need.

To learn more about the Neighbors Foundation, donate, or request assistance, contact us at 716-775-7998 or www.GINeighbors.org.