WGRZ-TV Channel 2 anchor and feature reporter Kate Welshofer, meteorologist Heather Waldman and news anchor Maryalice Demler will participate in the 2018 Niagara County Peach Festival, to be held Sept. 6-9 at Academy Park in Lewiston.
Waldman will serve as the official starter for the Peach Festival 5K Run on Saturday morning in front of the historic Frontier House on Center Street. Waldman moved to the Buffalo area in January 2017 after spending three years broadcasting the national forecast with The AccuWeather Network in State College, Pennsylvania. Waldman is a graduate of Penn State University with bachelor's degrees in meteorology and telecommunications.
The 40th annual
Peach Festival 5K Run will be held on a course that has now attained USATF course certification. Proceeds from the 2018 race will go to the "Eliminate Project" as part of Kiwanis International and UNICEF partnering to rid the world of maternal and neonatal tetanus. The race is sponsored by Niagara's Choice Federal Credit Union, and the Kiwanis Club of Lewiston. Entrants can register at
www.racemanagementsolutions.com.
Welshofer, who joined WGRZ earlier this year, will be the Peach Festival Parade marshal at 11 a.m. Saturday. Welshofer, a native of Western New York who grew up in the Village of Perry, is a graduate of St. Bonaventure University. Before joining WGRZ, Welshofer spent 10 years as a weeknight anchor in Albany and has received recognition from the New York State Associated Press Association as well as the National Press Photographer's Association.
The Peach Festival Parade takes place on Center Street with 122 units and 13 marching bands.
The hostess for the Peach Queen finals at 8 p.m. Sunday will once again be news anchor Demler. The North Tonawanda native and Niagara University graduate has won numerous broadcasting awards, including two Emmy Awards from the New York Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. She's also received an Associated Press Award for Best Interview and over a dozen other New York Emmy Award nominations for her reporting work.
