’12 Days of Christmas’: Looking back at our stories from this year

Taylor Liberti News10NBC

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The end of a calendar year often serves as a time of reflection, and a certain holiday tune is stuck in everyone’s head: The 12 Days of Christmas.

The newsroom doesn’t have French hens, maids a-milking, or any turtledoves. But we do have plenty of investigations, sports highlights, and stories that’ll make you smile. Each day until Christmas, we’ll highlight a different area of our coverage throughout 2024.

11: Consumer Alerts

News10NBC’s Deanna Dewberry has been a consumer investigator for decades. From hot deals and recalled products to scams and best used cars – Deanna has done it all this year. Here are 11 of her stories from 2024:

10: Good Questions answered

News10NBC’s Emily Putnam sets out every week to answer your Good Questions about local businesses, construction projects, politics, special event plans, and everything in between.

Here are a few of our favorites from 2024:

If you have a Good Question you want answered, send us an email at GoodQuestion@whec.com

9: Guests on Rochester in Focus

Rochester in Focus airs on News10NBC on Sundays at 10 a.m., hosted by Lynette Adams. Lynette interviews hundred of people for Rochester in Focus each year – from authors and scholars, to community advocates or business owners.

Here are some great guests we’re looking back on from this year:

8: Facts Checked

News10NBC’s Brett Davidsen is our go-to fact checker. Here are a few of the facts he’s checked this year, some reigning true, and others quickly found to be false.

7: Feel-good stories

Highlighting stories that make people smile is one of our favorite things. Check out this list of a few feel-good stories from this year:

6: Stories that may make you shed a tear

Sometimes, we’re lucky enough to cover stories that tug on our heart strings – in a positive way. Here are a few of our favorites:

After a beloved teacher, Emily Casey, at Our Lady of Mercy High School died suddenly from a rare disease, the Mercy community and her family set out to honor her memory. In their grief, the students raised more than $150,000 for her children’s college fund and to setup a scholarship fund in their beloved teacher’s name at Mercy.

Months later, Emily’s husband presented the school with a $60,000 check to establish a scholarship in her name:

A lot of sisters have a special bond — but a pair of ladies from Clifton Springs have had that bond for more than a century. Meet Minnie and Dolly: now 103 and 101, they’ve lived in the Rochester region their entire lives. 

The sisters reflected on their bond, growing up together, and shared some wisdom.

In October, a fallen soldier was finally laid to rest, surrounded by family, after being unknown for decades. Those gathered around the casket did not know they were his family until seven months ago.

There are people in our community who make it a better place, and News10NBC loves telling their stories. The “Do The Right Thing” Awards are given out a few times throughout the year to kids who do just that.

To hear the inspiring stories of this year’s recipients, click here.

Each year, News10NBC highlights those who make Rochester a better place and are honor with an ESL Jefferson Award. To take a look at the recipients’ stories, click here.

Lat year, retired RPD sergeant Brett Sobieraski set off to run a marathon everyday from Florida to Rochester to honor the late Officer Anthony Mazurkewicz. When Sobieraski made it to Rochester, hundreds, if not thousands of others joined him for the final few miles, including Officer Mazurkewicz’s wife Lynn and their children.

This May, Sobieraski released a book reflecting on the experience. Take a look at our story:

5: Stories celebrating Rochester’s culture

This year was full of new and traditional events that celebrate Rochester’s culture.

A staple in Rochester every June is the International Jazz Festival. This year, the festival put on over 300 performances over nine days. The festival is coming back to Gibbs Street from June 20-28, 2025. Tickets are on sale now, through this link.

One of the most fitting celebrations of “The Flower City” is the Lilac Festival in Highland Park every May. This year, we had crews tasting treats from food vendors, speaking with musical acts, and warning you about the traffic delays and parking mishaps.

Rochester native Danielle Ponder headlined a packed show at the festival.

Rochester also hosted its first ever Frederick Douglass Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Football Classic. Central State and Albany State faced off at the Rochester Community Sports Complex, with Albany State taking home the win.

There was a tailgate party before the matchup and both university marching bands dueled in a traditional “Battle of the Bands.”

The annual Pride Parade stands as a historic pillar for Rochester, predating national Pride. Unlike most cities, Rochester celebrates Pride in July.

This year, the parade marched down a new route and ended with a festival in Highland Park.

You can find details for Rochester’s 2025 Pride Parade and Festival through this link, once they are released.

We can’t talk about Rochester’s culture without mentioning the winter. When the days are short and the temps are low, Roc Holiday Village brings the community together.

This year’s Roc Holiday Village started on December 6 and runs until December 29. The fun includes ice skating, trivia nights, paint and sip events, and more.

Click here for a list of everything the fest has to offer.

This year, News10NBC decided to have a little fun at the fest and test attendants’ Christmas song knowledge. Take a look:

4: Sports highlights

There were tons of memorable moments in the sports world this year from high school to the NFL, but here are some of our favorites:

Nations around the globe sent the best of the best to the Paris Olympics this summer. A handful of Rochester athletes even made the cut.

  • Brynn King – Pole Vaulting
  • Jason Turner – Shooting
  • Kevin Penev – Men’s Gymnastics
  • Lanae-Tava Thomas – Track & Field
  • Magnus Sheffield – Cycling
  • Matt Anderson – Beach Volleyball
  • Meghan Musnicki – Rowing

A local girls Flag football team won the first ever State Championships. Bishop Kearney took down Sayville (XI) 39-20 in Cortland to win the state’s inaugural Division 2 Championship.

The Rochester Red Wings debuted a new player on their roster – he has four legs, is a great catcher, and love belly rubs.

Meet Bruce the Bat Dog: named bat dog in December 2023, he had big paws to fill. He retrieved his first game bat on September 5. Every time Bruce snags a bat from homeplate, Flower City Group will donate $100 to the Bruce Bettering the Community Campaign fund.

And of course, we would never forget about the Buffalo Bills. In the team’s Week 13 win against the 49ers, QB Josh Allen was credited for two passing touchdowns, a rushing touchdown, and a receiving touchdown — bringing his total touchdown count up to 27 on the year. This puts Allen ahead of Bills legend Jim Kelly in total touchdowns in franchise history.

3: Extended interviews

When a story is so great, we can’t squeeze everything into a newscast. Often times, we post extended versions of our interviews to our YouTube channel. You can find them all in our channel in a playlist titled “Extended Interviews.”

Here’s a few from this past year:

2: Stories made global headlines

Rochester made global news quite a few times in 2024.

On April 8, Rochester was one of the best spots in the world to be for the total solar eclipse. News10NBC was your Eclipse Headquarters, and brought the community 6.5 hours of coverage from all around Monroe County.

In addition to our coverage on the day of, we did eclipse-related stories for months leading up to the astrological event. Fake eclipse glasses? Potential traffic jams in our area? How can you photograph an eclipse? We had you covered.

News10NBC was also the only station to sit down one-on-one with Monroe County District Attorney after her viral traffic stop in April. You can see our exclusive interview below:

1: Emmy-nominated story

News10NBC’s Deanna Dewberry was nominated for a New York Emmy Award this year for her story on teen vaping. She spoke with a 13-year-old girl who vaped daily and admitted she was addicted.