A moment in history…
Fonda Landmark Destroyed – Night Porter Injured While Escaping
 Hotel Roy Fire - Fonda, NY - 1909 Syracuse Herald, Syracuse, NY, 26 Jan 1909
Fonda, NY – Jan 26 — The most disastrous fire that has visited this village since 1899 was discovered about 2 p.m. yesterday in Hotel Roy. The fire was first discovered by Miss Agnes Miller, an employee of the hotel, and before she could give the alarm, the entire building was filled with smoke. The fire is thought to have originated in the laundry, which was located in the cellar of the hotel. The Fire department was called out and shortly afterwards word was sent to Fultonville for assistance, and the firemen from that village – were soon on hand to give their help. The firemen worked faithfully, but all their work only seemed to help the blaze, and at 1 o’clock the entire structure was a roaring furnace.
When it was seen that the hotel could not be saved, streams of water were turned on the buildings on the opposite side of the street and they prevented the fire from spreading.
Shortly after the fire was discovered, John McMaster, who was the night porter in the hotel, and who was asleep in his room on the third story, on the west side of the hotel, was awakened and being unable to enter the all, opened the window and hung by his hands on the window ledge for several minutes, when the bricks became so warm that he lost his hold and fell to a roof below. He received a bad gash across his forehead, a badly burned arm and a broken hip. He was taken to Amsterdam hospital on the 4:52 train. Hotel Roy was erected by John V. Borst in 1836, and was one of the old land marks of the village. In 1892 Wells and Ward Streeter of Gloversville purchased the hotel of the late Jacob Snell and have since conducted the same. The building was destroyed and the loss is estimated at about $40,000 with an insurance of $25,000.
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By Daily Mail Reporter – Last updated at 1:47 AM on 3rd May 2010
 Trim: Jane Fonda launches World Fitness Day at the weekend looking as fit as ever It takes more than hip and knee replacement surgeries to stop the queen of the workout video. Jane Fonda defied her 72 years at the weekend, sliding into her 1980s leotard to host the first annual World Fitness Day in Atlanta, Georgia. The Oscar-winning actress looked as trim as ever as she demonstrated her trademark exercise moves in the tightly-fitted yellow and black number.
‘I’m part of a demographic that’s kind of ignored,’ She said. ‘We have to go into it with guns blazing and be as healthy as possible.’ The appearance comes just a year after she was photographed being pushed round New York’s JFK Airport in a wheelchair. Fonda had knee replacement surgery last year after wearing of the cartilage in her left knee left bone rubbing on bone. The surgery followed a hip replacement five years ago and years of painful back problems. In the past she has succumbed to plastic surgery, going under the knife for breast implants and cosmetic surgery to remove the bags under her eyes. But more recently she has insisted she is determined to grow old gracefully and naturally and has spoken out about cosmetic surgery.
Fonda became a Hollywood star after her appearance in Barbarella in 1968. But she is arguably more renowned for her vast exercise empire, making millions in the Eighties and Nineties from her gyms, keep fit books and videos. She famously encouraged her viewers to ‘go for the burn’ – which they did, by the millions. Her first exercise video, ‘Jane Fonda’s Workout’ released in 1982, remains one of the highest selling fitness videos of all time.
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Empire Super Sprints – April 25, 2010 – by Dean Reynolds
The “Track of Champions” continues to thrive in Upstate, NY under the promotions of Ric and Laura Lucia and the race directing of Marty Beberwyck. While many tracks are pulling back the reins with the state of today’s economy, Fonda Speedway goes on the offensive by adding bigger events with a very aggressive schedule for 2010.
 Be prepared to experience real racing action and actually feel the thunder at the track of champions! Fonda Speedway boasts over 50 years of championship dirt track racing just off exit 28 of the New York State Thruway at the Montgomery County Fair Grounds; less than 30 minutes from Albany. This famous egg shaped half-mile oval has seen the likes of Richard Petty, Bobby Allison, Shirley Muldowney, Pete Corey, Steve Kinser, Brett Hearn and Jack Johnson just to name a few. Fonda’s history dates back to 1927 since the AAA days. NASCAR Grand National division toured Fonda in the 50’s with Petty, Baker, Johnson and others visiting the small hamlet. The ¼ mile dragstrip opened in 1958 (Closed in 1969) with the legendary Shirley Muldowney starting her career in Fonda.
For the better part of four decades now, big block modifieds have called this half-mile, odd shaped oval home. Lazzaro, Corey, Johnson, Lape, Coville, Romano are names of Fonda lure with names such as Varin, Delorenzo, a second generation Johnson, Trombley, Camara and others play host to big crowds weekly.
In 2010, Fonda will once again kick off and close the full point season for the Lucas Oil Empire Super Sprints with the 7th annual Earl Halaquist Memorial on May 29th and the crowning of the 27th Anniversary champion on Sept. 25th as a part of the historical McDonald’s Weekend. Also, Fonda will play host to the All-Star Circuit of Champions sprint cars, where many ESS teams will be on hand to support, for the first time ever the Lucas Oil Late Model Tour, the Thunder Series for mods with Utica-Rome Speedway and tribute nights for the late Lou Lazzaro and Dave Lape.
ESS drivers of local interest will be Cory Sparks, Jami Russell, Jessica Zemken, Warren Alexson, Jared Fink, Mark Zemcik, Tyler Rice and many-time Fonda Speedway champion Bobby Varin who will make another appearance in a winged sprint car on each night. Fonda is also the closest to several New England racers such as Anthony Cain, Russ Bennett and Billy White.
ESS Facts – Fonda Speedway:
ESS Events Run: 8
Different Winners: 7
Most Wins: Justin Barger (2)
Last Event Run: Sept. 26, 2010
Most Recent Winner: Lance Yonge
Fonda Facts:
Location: Exit 28 off of I-90, Montgomery County Fairgrounds
ESS Date(s): May 29th and Sept. 25th
Track Promoter: Ric Lucia
Track Phone: (518) 853-4235
Website: www.fondaspeedway.net
Sites of Interest:
Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown (45 min. away).
The famous Howes Caverns in Howes Cave (30 min. away)
Historical Fonda Speedway display at the local McDonald’s right in Fonda
City of Albany just 30 min. away.
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Gioia Fonda transforms gutter garbage into art
By Stephanie Rodriguez on 4-22-2010
Ordinary hurricane fence morphs into happy orange flowers, familiar green baskets that once held strawberries transform into whimsical city skylines and forks found abandoned in Sacramento’s gutters glisten brightly. These are Sacramento City College assistant art professor Gioia Fonda’s recycled treasures. And her art. “I feel that people aren’t being as creative as they could be with their trash,” Fonda says. “There are possibilities in objects. A lot of things could be repurposed.”
 Sacramento City College professor Gioia Fonda snuggles to one of her quilts, some of which are made with repurposed plastic bags. Fonda’s den of creativity once filled a large space in Verge Gallery and Studio Project at 19th and V streets, but now is awaiting construction of walls before its move into a new location downtown near S and Seventh streets. Her studio brims with random objects found during her daily bicycle commute. While seated at her workstation, Fonda appears wholly comfortable surrounded by a world of recycled bliss.
On the ground, a white ceramic owl anticipates a fresh coat of paint. Boxes labeled “froo-froo fluff” and “Valentine crap” rest neatly on shelves. Hand-painted sheets of construction paper wadded into balls, then pierced with string, hang over a doorway. There’s more: A patch of cotton-candy-pink fur is pinned to one wall. A tin caboodle chock-full of gel pens beckons even the most artistically challenged. A small table bears an assortment of dull and bent silverware. A tiny pile of snipped paper bits lay interwoven on her desk.
Scanning the entire room, Fonda jumps up and grabs an object she proudly presents as a “weed tiara.” “Everything looks better with spray paint,” Fonda says, matter of factly, while holding what appears to be a chunk of flattened tumbleweed. “One day, I just decided to spray-paint it pink and then, another day, I decided to glue a little sequin on the tip of every [branch].”
A simple weed, flattened by numerous cars and blown into the gutter in front of her art studio, now sparkles with new purpose. “When things are cheap, I’m more likely to take a risk and try something new than if I spend a lot of money on art supplies,” explains the blond 36-year-old of her attraction to found art and collage. She says that her family always looked at things “a little differently.” “For me, it’s second nature.”
She points out a deity sitting on a shelf lined with orange lace, safely surrounded by an old picture frame, silently surveying the studio. An artificial-grass fan is attached to the deity’s back, forming a green aura, while an old ink pen and pair of scissors stand guard at its sides. Multicolored paint chips, scraped from Fonda’s palette, lay as an offering at the deity’s feet.
“[My mom] thought it would be funny to give me this little goddess, my ‘studio goddess,’” Fonda says, smiling. Her mother, Chloe Fonda, is also an artist. “Most of the paintbrushes I have were hers when she was in school. She kept good care of them, and I take OK care of them, and they are still usable 50 years later. “I think there’s a sense that you should use things and take care of them for as long as you can.”
Students in Fonda’s collage-and-assemblage classes quickly learn this lesson, too, and items such as an ordinary gum wrapper, lying in a crumpled-up ball on the ground, becomes their art. Fonda’s intention is to show students that they can save money by visiting thrift stores or by simply taking a second look at, say, the plastic bag bread comes in. “My motivation isn’t always saving the Earth, although that’d be nice,” Fonda admits. “[But] everything could be useful somehow. It could be turned into something.”
Fonda’s passion for recycled collage and assemblage has produced notable projects. “Gioia is one resourceful woman,” says Sacramento City College’s art department chairwoman Emily Wilson. “A piece that comes to mind is a quilt she made entirely out of used plastic shopping bags. She created a piece of artwork with intricate pattern and vivid color made entirely out of what most of us would consider trash.”
Fonda started collecting plastic bags from different bodegas around Brooklyn during her studies at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. She saved them by making a book of plastic pages. Two years later, they reappeared as the quilt. “When I use plastic bags, I can kind of experiment, and it’s freeing to me,” Fonda says while unfolding her plastic masterpiece, which rustles softly. Certain squares of the quilt are very familiar: the swirly “S” of Safeway, red Target circles, even the intense yellow of a Sacramento City College bookstore bag. “I was just thinking I had so many plastic bags, and they were such beautiful colors … what could come of it?”
Fonda says that her fear of driving is the reason she commutes by bike, but that pedaling through Sacramento puts her at the street level, which makes it easier to find objects for future art projects. “I used to go on walks with a friend [and] her dog, and she would be laughing at me for how many times I bent down to pick things up,” Fonda says. “My pockets would be full by the end of the walk.”
Fonda, who has also participated in state fair competitions for recycled art, feels everyone is capable of repurposing an object, but everyone should also push the aesthetic potential a little more. “If somebody wants to start out, just look around,” she advises, thinking. “Like all those AOL discs that come in the mail all the time. We gotta think of a project for those!”
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Cal Poly Pomona Campus News – Week of January 14, 2002 (older article, just found it)
 President Bob Suzuki accepts a check for $10,000 from Animal & Veterinary Sciences professor Edward Fonda. The donation will fund a new endowed scholarship at Cal Poly Pomona. Ed Fonda remembers how his mother influenced him and his sister to pursue advanced degrees. Each eventually obtained a Ph.D., degrees that opened doors of opportunity in both their lives.
Mary McNellis Fonda passed away in February 2001. Ed Fonda, in his 20th year at Cal Poly Pomona where he is presently professor and chair of the university’s Animal & Veterinary Sciences Department, has chosen to honor his mother’s memory by establishing the Mary McNellis Fonda Scholarship.
“My mother was so supportive of education. The mother of two kids, she came from a farm, became a nurse, earned two masters degrees and eventually became head of nursing administration for a large hospital in New Orleans,” says Fonda. “She encouraged me and my sister to continue our education. I see this as a wonderful tribute, establishing a memorial that will enable other students to further their educational dreams.”
The Mary McNellis Fonda Scholarship will be awarded each year by the College of Agriculture through the Cal Poly Pomona University Educational Trust. It will annually recognize a full-time student who is a U.S. citizen with a GPA of 3.0 or higher majoring in Animal & Veterinary Sciences. First preference will be given to a qualified graduate student.
“My mother had two graduate degrees and encouraged both her children to get graduate degrees, so I believe it’s fitting we try to recognize a graduate student with this award,” adds Fonda. “So many times scholarships are established for undergraduates and we may forget the importance of graduate training. I feel this is a good chance to create an opportunity for those students looking to continue their educations.”
Fonda’s $10,000 gift creates a continuing endowment for the scholarship. After one year, that endowment will qualify for matching funds provided by the Kellogg Foundation.
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Further details from Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (Ontario, CA) – May 3, 2002:
When Mary McNellis Fonda died February 2001, her son, Upland resident Ed Fonda, feared her passion for healing, education and animals would die with her. To perpetuate his mother’s fine qualities, which others shared, Fonda established the Mary McNellis Fonda Scholarship fund. The scholarship will be awarded each year to a Cal Poly Pomona student majoring in animal and veterinary science. Additional criteria for the scholarship include being a United States citizen and holding at least a 3.0 grade-point average. First consideration for the scholarship will be given to graduate students.
Fonda is a professor and the chairman of the university’s animal and veterinary sciences department. He started the fund with a personal $10,000 donation which was matched 50 percent by the Kellogg foundation. The first recipient will be chosen in late May by a committee made up of the agricultural department’s faculty. The amount of the annual scholarship will vary from year to year depending on interest earned from the principal, Fonda said.
He chose this type of scholarship because his mother was born on and raised on a farm; and Cal Poly’s picturesque setting, rolling hills and lush landscaping would make the perfect backdrop for his mother’s lasting tribute. “My mother would have loved this place,’ said Fonda about the university where he has taught for more than 20 years.
Fonda’s mother was born in 1913 and grew up on her family’s farm in Iowa. She was one of three children whose parents valued education. Though she was a young woman who became college age during the depression, her father insisted she further her education. She graduated from Iowa State University with a bachelor’s degree in nursing. McNellis married Ed Fonda Sr. and the couple had two children. She worked as an Registered Nurse until her husband died in 1953, then she packed up her kids and moved back to the farm.
She loved the outdoors and the animals. Fonda said his mother believed that her children would benefit greatly from growing up on a farm as she had. The Fondas raised cattle, pigs and turkeys. Their farm also grew such crops as wheat, soybeans and corn. “She was tiny and she was tough,’ Fonda said of his mother. “She could drive any type of farm equipment work any piece of heavy machinery. She was amazing.’
Though his mother valued the practical education her children were receiving from farm life, she held formal education in the highest regard and moved back to the city where she believed there were more educational opportunities, Fonda said. McNellis Fonda herself went back to school and earned two master’s degrees: one in nursing and the other in nursing administration. She eventually became the the director of nursing at a large hospital in New Orleans.
Her example influenced both her children. Fonda has a bachelor’s degree in biology from Tulane University in New Orleans, a master’s from Louisiana State University in reproductive physiology and a Ph.D. in animal science and reproductive physiology from the University of Georgia.
Fonda’s sister, Jean Westin-Legotic has a Ph.D. in art history from Pennsylvania State University and a law degree from the University of Florida. “My mother was a great lady and I miss her greatly,’ Fonda said. It was because of all his admiration for his mother that Fonda wanted to create a lasting memorial for her.
“There were so many things I could have done, but I wanted to do something that really represented what she was all about,’ he said. “I couldn’t think of anything better than something that helped students further their education especially in an area she held so dear.’
Diana Sholley can be reached by e-mail at d_sholley@dailybulletin.com or by phone at (909) 483-8542.
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