Board Bios
Don Riling
President
Don Riling, SOS President, grew up spending summers on Lake Ontario and became a sailor and scuba diver. In the early 2000’s, he joined the Sodus Bay Yacht Club and began spending weekends on the bay. He now resides in Sodus Point full time.
Don comes to Save our Sodus from a background in building organizations and growing leaders in both the for-profit and non-for-profit sectors of international relief work. He later transitioned into work as an executive coach of leaders across industries from politics, to medicine, to construction, to media.
As president of Save Our Sodus, Don works with an amazing team of dedicated leaders, to not only protect the bay, but keep the larger ecosystems of watershed and Great Lakes healthy. Erosion, shoreline protection and healthy community development are all part of this picture. He believes the greatest reward will be the launching of the next generation of environmentalists.
Janet Halasinski
Vice President
Janet Halasinski, moved to Sodus Point 13 years ago from the Boston area. She enjoys living on Lake Ontario and watching the beautiful sunrises and sunsets from her deck. Joining the board of SOS aligns perfectly with her interests and values in preserving and protecting our natural environment.
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A self-proclaimed over achiever, she loves organizational development, building successful teams, and partnering/collaborating with others to reach common goals. She is a huge proponent and practitioner of training and development of people.
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Janet has over 40 years experience in construction management and currently works for Pike Construction Service in Rochester as the VP of Project Controls. She holds a master’s degree in Civil Engineering Project Management from Clemson University and is certified in LEED and is a construction Lean professional.
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She also serves on the board of Cracker Box Palace & Alasa Farms where she combines her love of environmental stewardship and historic preservation.​
Keith Smith
Treasurer | Sodus Bay Tours Director
Keith Smith was born in Columbus Ohio and grew up in Akron, frequenting Lake Erie as a boy and going fishing up in Canada with his grandparents. He graduated high School in Louisville KY and attended Purdue University studying Electrical Engineering. Keith spent 25 years with Eastman Kodak.
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In 1999, he started a telecom company that was one of the first in the unlimited long distance market space. Beginning in 2007, he spent another 17 years with Hillyard, Inc. first as a General Manager where he managed a $14M sales and distribution operation, achieving $1.5M+ of new business development in two years.
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Keith found himself on Sodus Bay in 1982 and has been there ever since. In 2014, he built his own home in place of the seasonal cottage where he first landed. He now lives in Sodus Bay year-round. In his 20’s Keith sailed around the great lakes for two and a half months and has always enjoyed boating. Having read Death and Life of the Great Lakes by Dan Egan, a flame began to grow for him to leave a legacy in advocacy for the Great Lakes.
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Having spent five years on the Planning board for the Town of Huron and now being semi-retired, Keith is excited to be part of the Save Our Sodus board.
Beth Palmer
Shoreline Stewards Director | CSLAP Coordinator
Born and bred east of Rochester, NY in the suburb of Penfield, Beth acquired a Bachelor degree in Organizational Management at a small local college. She and her husband moved to the Sodus Bay area in 1975. Besides raising two daughters on a small fruit farm, they acquired a small vending business and eventually expanded it until it outgrew their barn. Shortly after they relocated to a bigger house, in a bigger town moving their business into bigger facilities, Beth’s husband/business partner was killed in an auto accident. The next ten years was a decade of transitions, getting daughters through school and off to college and finally, retirement.
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Moving to Florida meant more mutual volunteer involvement in Rotary International for her and her second husband. This involvement developed into practically a full-time volunteer commitment for Beth, resulting in the establishment of Shelter Box USA, the first national affiliate of the parent organization, Shelter Box UK – a first responder organization for natural or man-made disasters internationally. Her acting Executive Director role became official in 2005 when Shelter Boxes were distributed to Katrina victims in the US. Beth’s last formal employment was for a women’s resource center in Sarasota as administrator of a specially-trained volunteer peer group.
This position also developed her involvement with the issue of gender equality and on a personal level, the practice of yoga. Currently, Beth continues as a diligent snowbird in two different environments with two separate life styles, depending on the time of year. But her heart home will always be beautiful Sodus Bay.
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Beth currently serves as the Citizens Statewide Lake Assessment (CSLAP) Coordinator for Save our Sodus, and in 2025, she directed the beginning of our new Shoreline Stewards Program. To find out more, click HERE.
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Nell Gardner
W3 Coordinator
Nell Gardner comes to the SOS Board with degrees in agronomy, ecology and horticulture. Most recently, she was the horticulturist for the Frank Lloyd Wright Darwin Martin House and Graycliff Estate and consulted with other farms and conservancies on landscaping, cut flower growing and environmental conservancies.
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From 2008 to 2010, she ran a boat tour operation on the Erie Canal in Spencerport and developed educational tours for schools. Nell is a dedicated community volunteer, serving on the Sodus Bay Lighthouse Board of Directors, the Friends of the Schooner Lotus Board of Directors, and is a past president on the Genesee County Farm Bureau and Regional Action Phone.
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Nell is the Save our Sodus coordinator for the Weekly Water Wellness program or W3 which is being re-activated after a hiatus due to the high water events of 2017 and 2019. Ann Ghyzel works with her to manage volunteers for the program.
Mary Fantuzzo
Board Member
Mary grew up in North Royalton, Ohio. She received her degree in Nutrition and Dietetics from Ursuline College and worked as a Clinical Dietitian in Cleveland, Ohio.
After moving to the Rochester area, she worked in the Webster Central School District as a middle school Health Aide and Teaching Assistant in Special Ed. Mary is currently retired.
She loves living on Sodus Bay because of its natural beauty, changing scenery, summer breezes and sunsets. Mary enjoys fishing and boating and spending time with my husband, children and grandchildren.