After serving as the key to various community projects, Rose “Cookie” Butcher received the key to the city at last week’s Common Council meeting.
Ask aldermen, past and present, about Butcher, and they can’t say enough about her commitment to service.
“She’s like a fairy godmother,” said Kathryn Fogle, 4th Ward alderman, describing Butcher’s contributions to beautification. “She’s a hard worker.”
“A very well-deserved award,” said Margaret Lupo, former 5th Ward alderman. “We spent a lot of time on Summit Street doing cemetery work. I was there at least once a month. She is an amazing community volunteer. That cemetery was in terrible shape and she kept saying, ‘There are Civil War soldiers here and they do not deserve to be resting in the place like this.’”
Butcher is so busy with service projects that it was difficult to find a date to receive the key to the city.
“I guess it was supposed to be a couple of weeks ago, but I had a Roswell function,” she said. That function recognized Butcher as a top 10 fundraiser for the Ride for Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Institute. Butcher raised $32,000 this year, beating her total for last year of $27,000.
“I have to thank all my supporters,” she said Monday. “I couldn’t do this without them. It’s all for good causes. We wouldn’t have some of that stuff we have without the research.”
After 15 years of maintaining the Mount Calvary Cemetery on Summit Street, Butcher makes it sound so simple.
“I’ve gotta keep busy,” she said. “It keeps me young. I just can’t sit still. I’ve always had to be doing something.”
Butcher is eager to share the credit for bringing the cemetery back into shape, praising Dave Darlow for being a regular at the site and helping with tree maintenance.
Butcher said she got involved with the cemetery because, “It looked like it was neglected, and living on the street, you had to see it all the time. It took me a couple of years of working on it. I cut the grass, had a guy helping me trim the trees. I just wanted to open it up and bring some light in there, and bring new life to it.”
She became particularly passionate about the project after discovering that four Civil War veterans were buried at Mt. Calvary.
“I’m a big supporter of our veterans,” Butcher said. “We just want to take care of our vets. They needed to get some recognition.” While working at the cemetery, Butcher said she was approached by a member of the Pomeroy Foundation, who was aware of the Civil War soldiers buried there. Butcher learned that the foundation provided historic markers, and worked with them to have one installed at the site.
Butcher also approached Lockport’s Rotary Club about providing funding for a solar flag pole, which has been installed with flowers planted around it.
“It has been a labor of love for a long time,” Fogle said.
At the city’s Tri-Way Bridge over Transit Road, Butcher worked alongside Navy veteran Charles Winters to beautify the small boat, which has become a symbol of downtown. Officially known as Buoy Boat 110, Butcher said it is an original canal boat.
“I started doing the flowers,” she said. “My daughter was about 5 years old and she wanted to play in the dirt. She got to liking it. We did it quite a few years together. Now she’s involved in community service, too.”
When Winters passed away, Butcher stepped in to handle whatever the site needed.
“I kind of took over with trying to maintain it. It’s part of history. I refurbished it, sanded it, cleaned the inside, (rust-proofed) the inside and put plexiglass in the windows.”
A Boy Scout Eagle project provided a new flower bed for me and she said she is receiving a donation for perimeter poles.
Butcher said she spends “a couple hours” here and there to keep the projects on track.
When it comes to city recognition, Mark Devine, former 3rd Ward alderman, said, “Cookie deserves it. She’s done a lot.”