[metaslider id=3835]
JORDAN PATTERSON
Special to The Leader
Fredonia recently hosted a happy reunion when Social Media Community Specialist at RIT Dan Howell and Events Manager at Geva Theater Center Scott Falkowski revisited their old campus.
The two men returned to Fredonia to take their engagement photos on campus a month ago. Engaged in 2013, they made the trip from Rochester this year to the place where they first met: Fredonia.
“It just made sense,” Howell said of the decision to take their photos here.
Both of them began attending school at Fredonia in 1999. Howell, a freshman, and Falkowski, a transfer student, did not know each other previously. In 2001, both Howell and Falkowski were attending Fredonia when they met one night. Falkowski was a stage manager for a student-produced show called Rumours. When he and his assistant stage manager went back to her dorm to get materials, Howell happened to be the assistant’s neighbor.
“There was a group of people in their common room watching TV, and Dan was in there, and when Dan was in there, he sort of caught my eye,” said Falkowski.
Howell sarcastically added, “I was literally sitting in the suite in my pajamas, because it was like at 10 [o’clock] at night, so I probably looked great.”
After being introduced, they went on a date at the Barker Brew Company, now known as the Ellicottville Brew Company, and later met up with friends to see Moulin Rouge at the Fredonia Opera House.
“I think Barker Brew Company was my idea. You know there’s not all that much to chose from,” Falkowski joked.
Although their engagement happened 12 years later, the relationship that started in 2001 lasted only five months — from October through March. The two then went their separate ways, but remained friends afterwards.
Falkowski moved to New York City, where he worked for a theatre company, and Howell moved back to Rochester. After staying in touch through email, and later on, Facebook, the two met up in 2008 when Scott visited Dan in Rochester after flying in from New York City.
“I was flying back to Buffalo for my friends’ 30th birthday party, and a friend of mine was attending the University of Rochester here, and so I flew into Buffalo, went to the birthday party, and then I drove to Rochester with her. I was leaving from Rochester so I could come visit Dan, so I could actually see him in person, and after that we started dating again,” said Falkowski.
After that visit, they then reconnected and pursued a long distance relationship for two and a half years from New York City and Rochester.
“We always stayed in touch and [were] always pretty good at communicating and everything. So when it started happening it was kinda exciting, so it was a little familiar and it was new again, which was exciting. It was fun. The distance was a challenge, but it wasn’t too terribly far,” said Howell.
“It was so much easier with cell phones and Facebook and you know, JetBlue was fairly cost effective. So it wasn’t the worst to book flights and it’s not [too] terrible of a drive, so I drove it two or three times. It’s kind of a fun way to start a relationship because it was kind of like forced travel, so we had to do things that we wouldn’t normally do in our own cities. The times in between were tough when we would go six weeks between visits, that was always a little rough, but it was worth it in the end,” said Howell.
Falkowski eventually moved to Rochester with Howell in 2011. Circumstances drove them towards Rochester; Howell’s sister had a baby and Falkowski’s grandmother, who lived in Buffalo, became ill. In November 2013 the two got engaged and on July 16, 2016, the two will officially be married at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School.
“If it wasn’t for Fredonia we wouldn’t have met … We love Fredonia, we love the school [and] we love the town,” Howell said of the reasoning behind taking their engagement photos at Fredonia.
“There was a lot of good memories there, and there is a lot of unique architecture there,” added Falkowski. “We had a lot of ideas in mind that we could possibly do with photos, so that on top of it being a place that we hold near and dear to our hearts.”
Photos by Andy Buscemi, Buscemi Photography