Gov.

Hochul leads emotional day of healing

Officials promise East Buffalo: ‘We’re here for the long haul’ | PAGE C1

Elam facing tough

tests in camp already
Bills first-round rookie learns
on the job against some of the
NFL’s best receivers Page D1

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BUFFALO
NEXT:
RETAILING Flight 3407 families made flying safer;
By Samantha Christmann
12 years later, airlines are still pushing back
Prospective By Jerry Zremski The Federal Aviation Administra- 13 years after this crash occurred blaming the flight cancellations and

pot sellers N E W S WA S H I N G T O N B U R E AU C H I E F
tion, often a friend and sometimes a and with landmark safety legisla- delays at the nation’s airports this
foe to the families as they’ve pressed tion and a sterling safety record as summer on a pilot shortage that they
WASHINGTON – Twelve years for safety regulations, will dedicate a the results of our relentless advoca- say stems from the most controver-

still looking
after then-President Barack Obama plaque in their honor at the agency’s cy – that there are still efforts afoot sial provision of that 2010 aviation
signed the aviation safety law they headquarters. And afterwards, the to undercut everything that we have safety law: a measure that requires
won through sheer force of will, the families will do what they’ve done fought for,” said Scott Maurer of Pal- pilots to have 1,500 hours of experi-
Families of Continental Flight 3407 dozens of times over more than a metto, Fla., whose daughter Lorin, ence before they can fly a passenger

for guidance will return to Washington on Mon-

day to see their achievement rec-
ognized – and to resume a battle it
seemed they won long ago.
dozen years: head to Capitol Hill to
defend key provisions of the law they
pushed to passage.
“It is certainly bittersweet – over
30, was one of 50 people killed in
that crash in Clarence on Feb. 12,
2009.
To be specific, some airlines are
plane. Meanwhile, some smaller air-
lines are seeking ways to skirt the

See Airlines on Page A13

Legal dispensary details
remain elusive for many

One year after ALS diagnosis,

Hopeful cannabis retailers have
a lot of ideas and a lot of questions,
but they are short on answers when it
comes to the nitty gritty of how things

Crawley continues to set new goals

will work day-to-day in the retail can-
nabis space.
With the industry still evolving and
regulations still being written, it’s hard
to make a plan. Much of what would-be
participants will be able to do and how
they’ll be able to do it is unclear – and
that’s if they can get their hands on a
retail license amid stiff competition.
While hopeful operators can look to
other states for an idea on how some Dennis Crawley embraces his
things may shake out, New York is writ- daughter Ashley during an
ing its rules in a way it hopes will avoid impromptu father-daughter
some of the common pitfalls that have dance at his son’s wedding
happened elsewhere in places that le- July 9. Crawley was diagnosed
galized pot first, such as California and with ALS last July and wasn’t
Colorado, where high taxes have damp- sure he’d see another summer.
ened the legal market.
Here are just some of the issues op-
erators face going forward.
There’s still a stigma. Will con-
sumers feel just as comfortable enter-
ing a recreational pot store as they are
a liquor store?
Though society has become much

See Cannabis on Page A13

Trained,
armed and
ready to teach
More educators carrying
guns to protect students
By Sarah Mervosh
N EW YOR K T I MES
Second part of an based on deep appreciation for
RITTMAN, Ohio – Mandi, a kin-
...
occasional series the family she was joining.

A
dergarten teacher in Ohio, had already It was a vivid example of
done what she could to secure her father-daughter dance what Justin describes as a pas-
classroom against a gunman. at a wedding re- sionate Crawley philosophy:
She positioned a bookcase by the ception is hardly If you care enough about
doorway, in case she needed a barri- unexpected. Even something you dream of
cade. In an orange bucket, she kept dis- so, Dennis Crawley Jr. had
Sean Kirst down the road, stop waiting.
trict-issued emergency supplies: wasp no clue earlier this month COMMEN TA RY
If there is a way, get it done.
spray, to aim at an attacker, and a tube that he would be called to the Because you never know
sock, to hold a heavy object and hurl at floor to dance with his equally astonished – none of us can know – when that chance
an assailant. daughter, Ashley. might disappear.
But after 19 children and two teach- The surprise grew out of this: They were It was a year ago this month that Justin’s
ers were killed in Uvalde, Texas, she felt Dennis Crawley heads into Dent there to celebrate the marriage between dad sat with Dr. Bennett Myers, a special-
a growing desperation. Her school is in Neurologic Institute in April to receive Dennis’ son Justin and Samantha Fermo,
an older building, with no automatic an infusion of an experimental drug. who came up with the idea of the dance, See Crawley on Page A8
locks on classroom doors and no police
officer on campus.
“We just feel helpless,” she said. “It’s P H O T O S B Y H A R R Y S C U L L J R . / B U F F A L O N E W S

See Armed on Page A14

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A8 The Buffalo News/Sunday, March 13, 2022 A9

A NEW KIND OF ‘IRON HORSE’ CONFRONTS ALS

Harry Scull Jr./Buffalo News

Dennis Crawley receives a spinal infusion of Tofersen, an experimental drug that
specifically targets the genetic mutation carried by the Crawley family, at Dent
Neurologic Institute in September.

CRAWLEY’S
STRAIN OF
ALS MOVES
VERY FAST
“IRON HORSE” • from A1

“THERE ARE Crawley was 11 when he lost his moth-

er, Mary Ellen Weaver Crawley, to amyo-
Dennis Crawley coaches 15- and 16-year-olds in the Aces Baseball league at Garnet Park in East Amherst in September. He’ll return to coach baseball at Depew High School this year, and he is a coach and volunteer at the Athlete Factory in Depew.

trophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS – the illness

STUDENT- often known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, syn-
onymous with the life and death of a Yan-
kee great whose strength, endurance and
ATHLETES bearing during irreversible struggle are all
part of his nickname as the “Iron Horse.”
That disease, a creeping paralysis that
WHO MIGHT eventually involves the entire body, took
the life of Deneane Chiplock – Crawley’s
sister and the subject of Justin’s tattoo
NOT HAVE – who died at 41, about 18 months after
doctors told her of the condition. It also

GRADUATED claimed Crawley’s grandfather and two

aunts, including his mother’s twin.
“It is a very fast strain,” Crawley said,
WITHOUT HIS speaking of the lethal velocity of this ge-
netic form of the disease, which leaves
each family member with about a 50%
INFLUENCE chance of inheriting it. Over three genera-
tions, beginning long before Crawley grew
into a husband, father and baseball coach
ON THEM who now runs the varsity program at De-
pew and a teen travel team, the disease
claimed 26 others in his extended family.
OFF THE At 52, Crawley hoped that 50-50 chance
was breaking his way – and even last

DIAMOND.” spring, when he started having trouble

with his leg, he told himself at first it was
typical for a guy his age.
Above, left to right, Dennis Crawley golfs with childhood friends Jay Drenning, Jason Wade and David Roncone at Glen Oak Golf
– Depew For decades, he had declined to take a
test that would have told him if he carried Course last summer; Crawley uses a pair of golf clubs to assist his gait; Crawley and his daughter, Ashley, pet the family dog Titan
the gene, a hard choice that every mem- in September. Titan had to be euthanized due to a cancer diagnosis. At left, Crawley cheers on the Buffalo Bills during the AFC
High School ber of his clan must confront. Late in the wild card game against the New England Patriots on Jan. 15 at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park.
school year, his knee gave out while he ref-
Athletic Director ereed a high school basketball game be-
tween Timon and Nichols. Crawley put off
P H O T O S B Y H A R R Y S C U L L J R . / B U F F A L O N E W

going to Dr. Bennett Myers, a specialist at

Robert Skoczylas, Dent Neurologic Institute, until an MRI
showed a tear in his meniscus and Craw-
on Dennis Crawley ley noticed twitching in his thigh.
He was pretty sure of the truth, even
She joins Myers in describing Crawley as
“bullheaded,” always blunt, a guy who tells
“If it gives me one more day, one more DiLeo, for whom baseball is also heart and
week, one more month, I’ll take it,” Crawley soul. A few months ago, Crawley quietly ap-
before Myers confirmed it was ALS. his friends, players and co-workers exactly said of the drug. proached Wozniak and said, “I think maybe
“For about two weeks, I hated every- what he thinks – which means we probably That was six months ago. Sure, he has Joe should take this job.”
body,” Crawley said. His wife, Jen, speaks should not even bring up umpires. made concessions to ALS, such as moving Crawley is hardly retired. He will return
of how there were “a lot of tears” as they Then again, in what veteran ump and old from Depew to a new home in West Seneca to coach at Depew this season – “There are
told their kids and others close to them, friend Wally Bissett sees as kind of a reveal- where he no longer has to climb a flight of student-athletes who might not have gradu-
including Crawley’s players, what was go- ing tribute, many of those who know all too stairs. He walks now with a cane, and a mo- ated without his influence on them off the di-
ing on. well the sound of Crawley shouting “Hey, ment when his knee buckled as he tried to amond,” said Athletic Director Robert Skoc-
Before long, Crawley came to a decision blue!” either donated to a GoFundMe page hit routine grounders led to his most diffi- zylas – and he remains at the Athlete Factory
in line with who he is. set up by friends for Crawley or showed up at cult decision. as a coach and volunteer. But Crawley is
“He’s a South Buffalo tough guy,” said a benefit in his honor in October that packed Crawley had spent most of his working frank about the magnitude of what he lost.
Anita Crawley, who is not only the center every room at an Elks Lodge in Lancaster. life in a steel plant or driving a truck. He “The one job I wanted forever,” he said of
of family knowledge on ALS, but the atten- Crawley has no illusions about how he was on the road one day a few years ago the Inferno, “and now I can’t do it.”
tive older sister who inspired her brother is perceived. when he took a call from Richard Wozniak, He took a breath, then willed himself to
to become a Yankees fan, the sister who “I don’t take any baloney,” he said, though owner of the Inferno Baseball program, shift perspective. Here it is – seven months
joined with Deneane to help raise Crawley he uses a far more colorful word. where Crawley for years had brought his past diagnosis – and he is still driving his
after their mother died. Still, in the days after learning he had Depew team to hit indoors. truck. Not long ago, he went out and hit golf
Years ago, she took the test and learned the disease, he thought hard about his wife, Wozniak wondered: Would Crawley want balls on an unusually warm February day
she has the gene. Anita said the chance his children and the players he coaches. He a full-time gig? with the childhood buddies from South Buf-
she will contract the disease is “probable, thought of how Justin is getting married Crawley had always seen a job as a ne- falo who remain his closest friends.
rather than possible,” and she disciplines next summer, while he and Jen are coming cessity, rather than a passion. This felt like All told, Myers said Crawley “is doing
herself to embrace this attitude: up on their 25th anniversary. a miracle, a chance to earn a paycheck do- considerably better than expected.”
“We get up every morning and thank “Those are his milestones,” Jen said, and ing what he loved. He began a new career Crawley is not one for nuance, for gentle
God for every day.” Crawley intends to see them all. at the Athlete Factory in Depew, where his negotiation, which kicks off sparks some-
Her focus, right now, is on her broth- When Myers suggested an experimental duties were to coach youth travel teams and times, even with those he loves. He knew
er. Compared with the speed with which drug called Tofersen, one that specifically teach baseball, which felt as though he had Jen when she was a kid and he delivered the
ALS typically moves through her family, targets the SOD1 mutation carried by the hit life’s lottery. paper to her house, and the childhood crush
he is doing well, and she prays a medical Crawley family, Crawley did not hesitate – ALS swiftly convinced him he could she had on the paper boy exploded into ro-
breakthrough might occur in time for him even though it requires spinal injections ev- no longer meet those demands. Wozniak
to benefit. ery month. had already hired a part-time coach, Joe See “Iron Horse” on Page A10
A10 The Buffalo News/Sunday, March 13, 2022

A NEW KIND OF ‘IRON HORSE’ CONFRONTS ALS

At left, Dennis Crawley supervises the move from his family’s home in
Depew to a home in West Seneca that is more accessible to him as his
disease progresses. Above, Crawley holds hands with his daughter,
Ashley. Below, Crawley and his wife, Jennifer, embrace while stand-
ing in the empty living room of their home in Depew as they prepare to
move to their new home.

‘It’s baseball and his family,’ daughter says

“IRON HORSE” • from A9

mance when they met again, in their 20s.

In June, they will celebrate that 25th anniversa-
ry. Crawley said he has a new understanding of the
most precious of gifts, how in a world where things
can unravel or go wrong so quickly, nothing means
as much as being able to bring your family together
at one table.
Justin is now a police officer in Charlotte, N.C.,
while Ashley is a graduate student in mental health
counseling who also works full time, driven by a fe-
rocious ethic she saw in her father. Both have their
own emblematic stories, such as when Justin de-
scribes a day when he played shortstop in MUNY
ball and his dad suited up to pitch a couple of in-
nings, just so father and son could be together on
the field.
Ashley remembers playing in a teenage softball
tournament in Watertown while Crawley was at
a faraway tourney in the Carolinas – and how she
looked up, just before a game, to see her dad climb-
ing out of his truck after driving straight back.
“It’s baseball and his family,” Jen said of her
husband, who now makes himself available for
any ALS test or study, conscious of doing anything
he can that might someday help his children or
grandchildren.
As each day becomes a step into the hardest
kind of knowledge, a great childhood hero feels
less and less like history and instead takes form
as a true presence.
Crawley, who began collecting Gehrig memo-
rabilia as a kid, is especially conscious of how Dennis Crawley and his family – son Justin, wife Jennifer and daughter Ashley – at a benefit in his honor that
the great first baseman carried himself in 1938. filled every room at the Elks Lodge in Lancaster last October.
Gehrig was already suffering from what the doc-
tors would later identify as ALS. Even as he felt
strength draining from his body, he somehow bat-
ted .295 with 29 home runs. O N B U F FA L O N E WS . COM Photography by
Dan Joseph, whose book “Last Ride of the Iron Harry Scull Jr.
Horse” chronicles those challenges, considers it Buffalo News
one of the highest examples of grace and courage
in baseball history.
Illness puts focus on life’s most precious gifts
“How do you hit 95 mph fastballs when your See more photos of Dennis Crawley’s fight against amyo- Harry Scull Jr. is a Spring-
body is breaking down?” Joseph said. “You have trophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS – the illness often known ville native, a Buffalo State
to have incredible will to keep moving forward.” as Lou Gehrig’s disease. His battle has been documented graduate, an award-winning
Eighty-four years later, Dennis Crawley is hav- by Buffalo News staff photographer Harry Scull Jr. Visit photojournalist with The
ing that kind of season. go.buffalonews.com/ConfrontingALS Buffalo News since 1996.
A8 The Buffalo News/Sunday, July 31, 2022 A9

Crawley sets goals after year with ALS

COACH’S AWARD
WILL BE GIVEN IN
CRAWLEY’S HONOR
CRAWLEY • from A1

ist at Dent Neurologic Institute,

and heard officially what Dennis
had already guessed: He was in
the early stages of a genetic form
of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or
ALS, an incurable neuromuscular
paralysis that eventually spreads
throughout the body.
The disease is often associated
with Lou Gehrig, a baseball Hall of
Famer and a Crawley family hero
who died of the illness more than
80 years ago. Dennis, an accom-
plished baseball coach, has already
lost 26 relatives to what is typically
a fast-moving strain of ALS.
His mom, Mary Ellen Weaver Dennis Crawley Jr. wipes away a tear during the WNY
Crawley, died when he was 11. His Athletics Baseball Day on April 30, the day he learned he was to
sister Deneane, who helped raise be inducted into the Western New York Baseball Hall of Fame.
him, was lost to the disease in her
early 40s. ment hall president Mike Hallinan
Six months after diagnosis, made early, as a surprise.
Deneane was in a wheelchair.
Last July, as Dennis walked to his
“You make the “Cry fests,” is how Crawley, with
his gravel laugh, describes such
truck following the conversation best out of things. events. That includes the WNY
with Myers, he thought of that Athletics awards gathering a few
stark timeline and had no faith he You live your life, weeks ago at Ilio DiPaolo’s Res-
would see another summer. taurant, where Crawley received
“What’s happened since?” he and family comes the organization’s inaugural high
said last week. “No way. I wouldn’t
have believed it.” first, and that’s what school baseball coach of the year
honor, a career moment in itself.
Ashley, 23, remembers her
dad’s state of mind. She models
keeps him going...” That was even before he
learned the award, from here on
her own style on his blunt person- out, will be presented in his honor.
ality, and she refused to let him – JEN CRAWLEY, ON “Pretty cool,” he said, “to know
fall into despair. When Dennis HER HUSBAND OF your name will be someplace for-
would say he might not be around 25 YEARS, DENNIS ever.”
for Father’s Day, Ashley would say, Those goals accomplished, he is
“Yes, you will. The medicine’s ob- ready with some new ones. His
viously working.” 15-and-under travel team is on a
She was referring to Tofer- said. “He talked about what base- roll, coming off a July tournament
sen, an experimental drug Myers ball means to him and what this win in Rochester, and there is
administers to Dennis, via spinal team means to him.” plenty of baseball left in a summer
injection, to target the strain of That goes to another realiza- in which he turns 53 in August.
ALS carried by his family. While tion: It is too easy to allow what He is also keeping his season
Myers said it is impossible to know matters to go unsaid. Dennis tickets at Highmark Stadium,
if the drug is having a direct effect, knows the disease is progress- where the Buffalo Bills soon begin
he is pleased that a patient whose ing, if slowly. He has considerable a season of high hopes, leaving
tenacity he admires is still driving, weakness in his right leg, and a Dennis to dream about big games
coaching and walking with a cane. lesser amount in his other limbs. in February.
For Dennis, head coach for both Every second of each long sum- “You make the best out of
the Depew High School varsity mer day takes on new meaning, things,” said Jen Crawley, whose
baseball team and an Aces teenage and he wills himself to keep his husband ignored his own wor-
travel squad, maybe the greatest focus on his family, his players and ries to throw her a surprise 50th
surprise is that he still is running the many friends at his side. birthday party. “You live your life,
the show from the dugout. Using “When I’m driving around,” he and family comes first, and that’s
his cane, he coaches third base said, “I look around more and look what keeps him going. He keeps
when his team is hitting, and he at things in a different way.” pushing, and I know our kids ap-
sometimes throws batting practice Crawley, mobile enough to preciate that.”
from a folding chair. golf 18 holes not long ago, often That was made clear a few
“He’s a great coach, he’s got a remembers the goals he set in the weeks ago, at Justin’s wedding.
great attitude and it’s amazing to bleak days after that first diagno- At one time, Justin and Fermo
see what he’s done,” said his older sis, when his mission became be- had planned a fall ceremony, but
sister Anita, who has tested posi- ing here for three milestones: they considered the situation and
tive for the ALS gene, lives with In June, celebrating his 25th chose to move it up.
the understanding of what that wedding anniversary with his The reception was held be-
could someday mean and has wife, Jen. neath a tent at Fermo’s father’s
been an anchor in her brother’s This summer, learning if the home in Clarence, where Justin
life since childhood. “At the same rumors were true about his induc- said “everything turned out per-
time, if you know and hate this tion into the Western New York fect,” a feeling epitomized by a
disease, it makes you sad to know Baseball Hall of Fame. moment before dinner.
what he’s going through.” And in July, watching with Jen The bride and groom already
As Anita often notes, Dennis is and Ashley as Justin, a police of- had been called out for their
by nature a South Buffalo guy. A ficer in North Carolina, exchanged dance, beginning a familiar se-
coach who historically is not ex- wedding vows with Fermo. quence that took an unexpected
actly prone to tears has choked up Looking back, Dennis was not twist: The DJ surprised the entire
twice while addressing his Depew simply present for those events. In place by asking Ashley and Den-
players. The first time was last each case, he was enthusiastically nis to come forward for a father-
summer, when he called them to- involved. daughter dance.
gether to tell them he has ALS, and Jen recalls how she and her Both were caught off-guard.
to say he was not sure he could husband went out for an anniver- Ashley is in graduate school, and
come back for another season. sary dinner and the kind of we’ve- until a year ago she assumed
The second time was in late done-this-forever conversation Dennis would be there to dance
May at Niagara University. Crawley that is suddenly like gold. They with her at whatever point she
had returned to coach, surprising agreed beforehand on the meal someday marries. But the family
even himself. While the Wildcats itself as their mutual present, and no longer banks on such assump-
had just lost to Medina in a cross- told each other they would not ex- tions, and it was Fermo, Justin’s
over qualifier for the state playoffs, change gifts. Dennis, being Den- fiancee, who came up with the
the greater Depew story – as every- nis, surprised Jen with a ring. surprise, based on the Crawley
one in Western New York baseball In late April, WNY Athlet- creed she has embraced:
understood – was that they had ics hosted its first “Baseball Day,” You do not wait.
made it that far in the first place. gathering 16 high schools for a So Tim McGraw’s “My Little
“He took a young team that slate of games in Niagara Falls. Girl” began booming from the
wasn’t expected to win its confer- The goal was a high-profile means speakers. Dennis handed off his
ence and they went on to win the of highlighting scholastic baseball cane, while the daughter who tries
section,” said Tom Prince, presi- while raising money for a larger to emulate her dad’s approach to
dent of WNY Athletics. Depew, by cause, and this year’s proceeds life joined him in a slow dance,
going 16-8 and capturing the B1 went toward defraying treatment head against his chest.
title, became the school’s first sec- costs for the Crawleys. They were crying. Everyone
tional baseball champion in more That was emotional enough. was crying. Their song lasted a bit
than a half-century. But the crescendo was a game-day more than three minutes, if you
Three of Dennis’ players – Nick announcement that Dennis would were going by the clock.
Karnyski, Justin Refermat Jr. and be enshrined in the Western New Then again, going by Crawley
lights-out pitcher Joshua Toolen York baseball hall, an announce- time, it was someplace forever.
– say the moment they particu-
larly remember occurred just after
that final loss. Dennis gathered his
team around him for his typically About the series: Harry Scull Jr. and Sean Kirst
blunt assessment of the game. He have been chronicling the story of Dennis Crawley,
abruptly told his players how much who is the 27th member of his family to be diagnosed
they matter in his life – and how
with ALS. Crawley knows he is dying. But that hasn’t
anything he accomplished was
based on how hard they played. stopped him from living. Scan this code with your mobile device
Depew High School baseball coach Dennis Crawley Jr., top, congratulates a player rounding third base during the inaugural Western New York Athletics Baseball Day at Niagara Falls High School on April 30. Last July, Crawley became the 27th person in his family “He got emotional,” Toolen to see both more of his story.
to be diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative neurological disease. He has considerable weakness in his right leg, and a lesser amount in his other limbs, but he is able to walk with a cane and continues to lead the team. Above left, Crawley talks to
his team during the Section VI Class B crossover game at Niagara University on May 30. While the Wildcats lost to Medina in a qualifier for the state playoffs, the greater Depew story – as everyone in Western New York baseball understood – was that they had made
it that far in the first place. At right, Crawley gives a kiss to his wife, Jen. They celebrated their 25th anniversary last month. Above, Crawley sometimes throws batting practice from a folding chair. P H O T O S B Y H A R R Y S C U L L J R . / B U F F A L O N E W S