In our community and with area schools, Sylvester Cleary has always had a song to sing. Recently, the Forestville resident and school board member hit a new milestone — his first album.

“Love is the Way” is an anthology of 22 songs that he and his fellow musicians recorded throughout the 1970s and into the early 1980s in Buffalo. It is now available through Amazon. As OBSERVER reporter Mary Heyl noted, each track of the double disc album tells a story: Cleary’s journey from the East Side of Buffalo to the Marine Corps, to owning his own construction company to running the computer department at Dunkirk Ice Cream.

Cleary has definitely found a home in northern Chautauqua County — and has been a familiar face with students in Forestville for years, often performing with them and making them part of a music video, like he did with “Word to the Bully” that can be found on YouTube.

He is an excellent role model — and even better citizen.