Honor Roll Recognizing the accomplishments of Western New Yorkers
Assistant U. S. Attorney Aaron
J. Mango has received the U. S. Justice Department’s award for outstanding contributions by a new employee.
Since becoming a federal prosecutor in Buffalo in late 2007, Mango has specialized in environmental prosecutions and child exploitation cases, including the case of a Buffalo man who used a fake MySpace identity to meet teenage girls, U. S. Attorney Kathleen M. Mehltretter said.
She said Mango has also worked closely to coordinate cases with Canadian law enforcement.
Mango recently received the award from Attorney General Eric Holder at an awards ceremony in Washington.
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Brother Jude Holzfoerster has been re-elected to serve as the American regional superior and president of the board of directors of the Brothers of Mercy. It is the fourth consecutive time Holzfoerster has been elected to a six-year term.
As regional superior, Holzfoerster oversees the entire Clarence campus on the corner of Ransom and Bergtold roads in Clarence.
Brother Kenneth Thomas and Brother Fidelis Verrall were elected first and second assistant council members, respectively. They will serve six-year terms on the board of directors. They will be joined by newly elected members of the board of directors Brother Gabriel- Joseph Parisi and Brother Matthias Moller.
Holzfoerster made his first profession of vows and received his habit in 1952, and he made his final vows in 1960. He has worked at several of the brothers’ former facilities in Buffalo and Kansas City, and served in various leadership positions including assistant general between 1967 and 1973.
Thomas is the Brothers of Mercy Campus Foundation assistant. He also has held several positions on the Clarence campus, including cook, unit clerk and financial adviser. He entered the congregation in 1998.
Verrall became a Brother of Mercy 45 years ago. A nurse, he also has served the order in numerous capacities. Currently, he’s director of spiritual care at the 240-bed Brothers of Mercy Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.
Like Verrall, Parisi is in charge of spiritual care. He serves residents of the Brothers of Mercy Sacred Heart Adult Home. He has been a member of the congregation since 1995. Moller has been a member of the Nursing and Rehabilitation’s Center’s fiscal services team since 2008. He serves as fiscal assistant. Moller will make his final profession of vows in February.
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• The West Seneca Marching Band won the state title for similar-size schools in the New York State Field Band Competition last Sunday in the Carrier Dome at Syracuse University.
This year’s show, “Fire!,” included arrangements of “Summoning the Fire!” by John Blickwedehl, the marching band’s director, and Robert Mazierski, and “Firebird,” by Igor Stravinsky.
The band, which moved up to Class AAA this year, placed second Saturday in the Lakeshore Marching Band Association Championships in Erie, Pa. West Seneca also won the award for best woodwinds.
The 52-member West Seneca Marching Band comprises students in sixth through 12th grades, from both the East and West areas of the school district.
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Amherst Dance Club Presidents Bob and Mitzie Serafin announced the club’s new officers were installed at a recent dinner dance at the Brookfield Country Club.
The officers for 2009-10 include: treasurers, Susan Grelick and John Heffron; secretaries, Shirley and Gil Monacelli; hospitality/membership, Jim and Sue Sahlem.
The ballroom dance club was founded in 1958 by three couples who enjoyed dancing. Currently its membership includes 80 couples and it meets five times annually for dinner and dancing.
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Gail Seigel, research assistant professor in the University at Buffalo Department of Physiology and Biophysics, will belong to a group of researchers taking part in a new National Cancer Institute-funded Center on the Microenvironment and Metastasis, with a grant for $13 million over five years.
Seigel will be involved in one of three key projects — adhesion of tumor cells in the vascular microenvironment — led by Cornell University researchers Michael King, professor of biomedical engineering, and David Nanus, professor of medicine and urology and co-chief of hematology and medical oncology at Weill Cornell. Cornell will serve as the lead institution in a partnership with the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City and UB. Its center will focus on using nanobiotechnology and other related physical science approaches to advance the research on cancer.
Seigel, who also is affiliated with the UB Center for Hearing and Deafness in the College of Arts and Sciences, will collaborate on a project that will examine adhesive factors and the interaction between blood cells and cancer cells that that are hypothesized to play a role in tumor progression and metastasis.
“Results from these studies may lead to the development of new strategies to block the spread of tumor cells throughout the body,” said Seigel.
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The Darwin Martin House Restoration Corp. received a Wright Spirit Award last month from the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservatory.
The award, which honors organizations and individuals for promoting Wright’s works or rescuing a Wright-designed public building, was presented during the organization’s recent 2009 conference in Buffalo.
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