Jenn Stuczynski's hometown over the bar with excitement
BEIJING, China - Take Exit 59 off the New York State Thruway and you come to Fredonia, a friendly town of 10,000. Drop by the elegant White Inn for a breakfast of Eggs Benedict. Check out the Practically New to You shop if you’re looking for a bargain. Visit the Barker Museum for a look back into local history. Stop off at the Fredonia Food Mart for supplies.
Just don’t expect much service between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. this Monday morning.
Assuming all goes well in Saturday’s qualifying round, the town will shut down to watch American Record-holder Jenn Stuczynski compete in the Olympic pole vault final. Jenn grew up in Fredonia, and parents Mark and Sue own that food mart.
Stuczynski mania is in full swing read a recent headline in the Fredonia Observer. (The Observer website offers categories of News, Sports, Opinion and US Olympian Jennifer Stuczynski.) Its sports editor, Craig Harvey, wrote: “I have seen great events happen in a community that brought everyone together before. But I don't ever remember an event like Stuczynski going to the Olympics that has drawn so much excitement to a community like this before. The excitement has truly brought the community together.”
It certainly came together on the evening of Aug. 5, when Jenn – who now lives about two hours away, near Rochester – came back home to sign autographs at the town’s annual National Night Out on Barker Common. Scheduled to last an hour, the session stretched to 2 ½ to accommodate everyone.
“It was crazy,” said Jenn.
Driving into town, Jenn and her coach, Rick Suhr, were greeted by hundreds of “Fredonia’s US Olympian, Jenn Stuczynski, 2008” lawn signs. “You would have thought she was running for office,” said Suhr. T-shirts were everywhere. Both the signs and shirts were sold as a fund-raiser to send Jenn’s parents to Beijing, and that’s why Jenn came back: to thank everyone for their support. “I appreciate what everyone has done for me,” Jenn told a Buffalo TV station that covered the event. “To know that everyone is cheering for me, I feel so lucky right now.”
Since arriving in Beijing on Aug. 8, Jenn has spent most of her time at either the Athletes Village or Beijing Normal University, where the USA teams train. There, she and Suhr have visited so many practices of the wrestling team that Jenn has become something of an unofficial mascot. Even that pastime has roots in western New York: Suhr was a New York State high school wrestling champion out of Spencerport in 1986.
“It takes her mind off pole vault for awhile,” explained her coach.
So does playing ping-pong in the village. There, she beat Suhr so often that he took advantage of a chance meeting in an elevator to recruit a ringer, sending a member of the USA ping-pong team over to casually ask Jenn if she wanted to play. End of winning streak.
She hopes to start a new one on Monday, but the people of Fredonia will be remain her biggest fans regardless of the outcome. As Harvey wrote in the Observer, “Though we all hope to see her bring home the gold, if she doesn't, we are all still very proud of what she has accomplished. As the Olympics begin, it usually reminds us how proud we are to be an American. Right now, there has never been a better time to be a resident of Northern Chautauqua County.” |
