LeRoy Pennysaver & News

LE ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - JUNE 28, 2020 by Lynne Belluscio Believe it or not, we’ve done this before. In the beginning, the Jell-O Gallery would open for a couple of months and then close down for the rest of the year. It wasn’t easy, but we did it before and we’ll do it again. The Jell-O Gallery opened on June 1, 1997, when 4 year- old Abigale Graham walked down the Jell-O Brick Road dressed as the Jell-O Girl in a hand-made dress by Diane Sia. It took a lot of help from folks in this community to get ready to open and that’s an understatement! I think back to all the dedicated volunteers who invested a lot of time and energy, renovating the hundred-year-old Academic Building. Gary Wilcox was clerk of the works during that year. John Duddy, Dick Ladd, Bob Jones, Gary Graham, Don Fannon, Loren Wetzel, and Bill Jones refinished floors and wainscoting, took down plaster and put up plasterboard, strung electrical cable, repaired and replaced windows. It was a superhuman effort. Few people know that GED Brady built from scratch, the huge entry door that welcomes each and every visitor to the Jell-O Gallery. Only days before opening, I announced at Rotary that I needed help painting the stairs and entrance that had just been completed. That night, Don Cooney, June Dusen, Danette and Dave Grayson, Martha Tabone, Loren Wetzel and Gary Graham showed up and in an hour and a half, the new entrance was painted. This community made it possible to open the Jell-O Gallery which has welcomed thousands of people to LeRoy. The first summer, only the exhibit area and the museum shop were open to the public. The rest of the building was in pretty tough shape. After a couple of months, in September, the Gallery closed. The exhibit was packed up and sent to Florida, and we moved back to LeRoy House for the winter. When we reopened in the summer of 1998, we had to unpack the exhibit and paintings and reinstall them in the Gallery. In fact, we had to rent the exhibit back from the exhibit company. We unpacked Jell-O t-shirts and Jell-O souvenirs and put them back on the shelves. And we did that again the following year. In 2000, we received a grant from Kraft Foods to install restrooms, a furnace, and airconditioning in theAcademic Building and renovation was completed on the library and office space. When we unpacked the exhibit and all the stuff for the gift shop, we thought it was for the last time. Well not quite. A structural engineer told us that we needed to install I beams to keep the floors from collapsing, and so, this time, we packed up the Jell-O exhibit, the gift shop and the library and offices, and moved all the antique vehicles in the basement out to the lumber yard on West Main. And this was done in one of the coldest weeks in January. So, when I say, we’ve done it before and we can do it again, I speak from experience, however, this time, in 2020 it’s different. Before, we always knew that there would be summer tourists and senior citizen bus tours. This time I’m not sure who is going to come to see the exhibit and buy a t-shirt. Our visitors come from “away.” Half of our visitors are from out of state and the other half is from Buffalo or Rochester. In fact, the first visitors we had since we reopened, were from California. So, this timewhen we reopen, we don’t need the folks from LeRoy to refinish floors and put up drywall or paint. We don’t need you to help unpack the exhibit, or put t-shirts on the shelves. We’ve already done that. We have cleaned and polished. We’ve created better social distancing spaces in the gift shop and in the gallery. We’ve had to temporarily remove the children’s play area and for a while, the restrooms are closed. And we cannot in good consciousness use the wheelchair lift for a while. But the history of America’s Most Famous Dessert is ready to be explored. So what we need is for the folks of LeRoy to come and visit the Jell-O Gallery! Maybe you’ve been here before, but I have often said that if all the people from LeRoy who have never been to the Jell-O Gallery show up, we’re going to be in trouble. Nope. That’s not true! If all the people in LeRoy who have never been to the Jell-O Gallery show up, we’re going to be out of trouble! And even if you’ve been to the Jell-O Gallery, I’ll bet there’s something new that you haven’t seen. And did I mention, that for a while, there is no admission fee? That’s right. We felt that since we were able to secure a payroll loan - - which is your tax money at work - - we’d give you all a free visit to the Jell-O Gallery. So come see us. Look for the gelometer. Say “hi” to Sebastian the stuffed giraffe who used to live at Pontillos Pizza shop. Look for the squirrel Jell-O mold on the “Wall of Molds.” Even better buy a new Jell-O t-shirt or a box of Jell-O. And there’s always a pair of Jell-O boxer shorts - - “watch it wiggle see it jiggle.” We’re open Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10 to 4 and Sunday’s 1 to 4. Vote for your favorite Jell-O flavor and put your name in for a free Jell-O T-shirt that will be drawn each week. Remember – “If all the world were Jell-O and whipped cream filled the sea, then the only spoon from here to the moon, would have to belong to me.” Jell-O Gallery and Store Reopens Opening Day June 1, 1997.