Strawberry Festival and Essay Contest Celebrate Memory of Grace Hudowalski
Strawberry Festival and Essay Contest Celebrate Memory of Grace Hudowalski
On Sunday June 22,2008 the Schroon-North Hudson Historical Society will celebrate the Strawberry Festival at the Boathouse in Schroon Lake. Scores of people of all ages will enjoy stories of lore told by Bill Smith, and strawberry shortcake. The highlight of the event will be the awards ceremony of the Grace Hudowalski Essay Contest. It is a revival of a contest that Grace and Ed sponsored from 1957 to 1974.
This year Bill Smith will tell stories of lore and sing songs of the Adirondacks. Bill was born and raised in the “Featherbed” near Colton in the Adirondack foothills. The youngest of twelve children Bill grew up in a era when you milked the cows before the sun came up and split wood until the sun went down. His tall tales will take you back to a time when life was hard yet simpler, a time when your neighbours helped each other and you lived off the land. We guarantee that you will head for your home humming a tune or chuckling as you replay one of his jokes in your mind.
Grace Hudowalski #9, helped found the Forty Sixers of Troy. The “Trojans” later became the Adirondack Forty Sixers, a fraternity of hikers who have ascended the highest peaks of the Adirondacks. In the earliest days Grace established a requirement that hikers write an account of their adventure, on the reasoning that if a mountain were worth climbing it was worth documenting. This tradition remains a requirement of the club to this day.
Grace always appreciated good writing and clear thinking, and besides corresponding with generations of hikers as Historian of the Forty Sixers, she for many years sponsored an essay contest for high school students of the Schroon Lake region. Prizes were awarded for the best essay on a theme that celebrated the Adirondack Mountains. The Historical Society has assembled and preserved the original essays, which still make thought-provoking reading today. All of those essays are available in CD form from the North Hudson –Schroon Lake Historical Society or at the library.
When Grace died in 2004, she left her life’s savings to establish the Adirondack 46R Conservation Trust, which funds initiatives to preserve the mountains and promote the responsible enjoyment of them – such as the Summit Steward program, which places an interpreter on the most popular summits during the prime hiking season to educate the public about the need to protect the fragile alpine vegetation. On the fiftieth anniversary of Grace’s first essay contest in 1957, the Conservation Trust, in conjunction with, the Forty Sixers, the Pok-O-McCready Camps and the Schroon North Hudson Historical Society, undertook to run the contest again.
In 2007, before the awards were presented, the group was treated to a performance in story and song by Peggy Lynn and Sandra Weber about the exploits of famous women hikers in Adirondack history. A number of women were portrayed, including Orra Phelps, Mathilda Fielding, and others. The last character portrayed was Grace Hudowalski, and for a brief, transcendental moment Sandra Weber ascended from portraying and seemed to become Grace. There couldn’t have been a dry eye in the audience.
L. John Van Norden, resident of the Adirondacks and Trustee of the 46R Conservation Trust began the awards ceremony with a brief reading of Grace’s own words on writing and the mountains. Then master of ceremonies Doug Arnold of the Forty Sixers gave the names and titles of the thirty seven contestants in the fifteen to eighteen year old category and the single, excellent entry in the ten to fourteen year old category.
Doug then announced the winners. The winner in the ten to fourteen year old category was Amelia Botterbusch for her essay on The Leland House. She received a three week campership at Poke o McCready Camp, In the fifteen to eighteen year old category, the winners were: fifth place, Kellie Cruickshank for Lake Champlain’s “Champ”; fourth place, Cody Merrill for The Influence of Adirondack History on the Town of Schroon; third place Kawana Smith for Is There Treasure on Pharaoh Mountain?; second place went to Andrew Filler, for History of Schroon; and first place, went to Will Thompson, for When it Rains.
The top five contestants received valuable prizes, and the top prize was a $1,500 scholarship. All contestants received commemorative certificates and the applause of the audience.
Finally, thanks and warm applause were extended to Loris Clark of the Schroon North Hudson Historical Society, whose efforts contributed so much to the success of the latter day contest, as well as to preserving the records and the memory of the original one.
Those interested can obtain the original historical essays from the Schroon North Hudson Historical Society, by visiting the museum, 895 US Route 9, Schroon Lake, NY 12870-2411, United States, Phone: (518) 532-7615.
So many Mountains, too little time
#4693W
( the article above was written by John Barron #4945 after last years contest and edited to include this year)
