Sixth Annual Benefit

Benefit

The Zadock Pratt Museum

Celebrates

It’s Sixth Annual Benefit

60 Years of Service to the Community

September 28, 2019

Villa Vosilla

Tannersville, NY 12485

5-6 pm Cash Bar

6-8 pm Dinner & Awards Ceremony

M.C. Joe Loverro / WRIP & John Young

LIVE ENTERTAINMENT: Pianist David Peskin

Located in Zadock Pratt’s Greek Revival home built in 1828, the museum opened to the public in 1959 as a research and historic preservation center. The founders, which included Hilda Moseman and Brayton Thompkins, envisioned the place as an edifice to honor Pratt’s legacy, recognized by then as a national leader and the founder of Prattsville, one of America’s earliest planned communities. Severely damaged by Hurricane Irene in 2011, the museum recovered remarkably with great support from the community and generous benefactors, which included The A. Lindsay and Olive B. O’Connor Foundation and Nicholas J. Juried Foundation.

The 2019 Honorees:

This year’s honorees are Janelle Conine Maurer, Donald B. Teator, Kevin Berner and Ginny Scheer, who will be awarded The Zadock Pratt Museum History Award in recognition of their outstanding work in the local and regional history of the Tri-County area of Delaware, Greene and Schoharie Counties.

Janelle Conine Maurer is a sixth generation Prattsville resident. Born into a prominent local farm family, Janelle has served two terms as President of the Board of Directors of the Zadock Pratt Museum. Once from 1994-1999 and again this year when she joined the Board for the second time during the Museum’s sixtieth year celebration. In fact, Janelle has been an active supporter of the Zadock Pratt Museum for over 25 years, through fundraising, membership, volunteering and managing the Museum’s gift shop. She has also raised money by selling museum-related gift shop items in the Prattsville Diner, which she owns with her husband, Kenny.

A lifelong resident of Freehold, Donald B. Teator has been the Town of Greenville’s Historian for thirty-one years. Highlights include: 25 local history calendars, 300 Greenville Local History Group meetings, 300 issues of the history newsletter, 3,000 scans of old photographs, 12,000 current photographs, plus storage and organization of vulnerable local history material.

Kevin Berner grew up in Cobleskill, Schoharie County. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Wildlife Biology from Colorado State University and a Master’s degree in the same field from the University of Montana. Kevin held wildlife jobs in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Nebraska. He taught within the Wildlife Management program at SUNY Cobleskill for thirty years before retiring two years ago. He conducted bluebird research for twenty-five years and was active in the Schoharie County, New York State, and North American Bluebird Societies for many years. He is also the Vice President of the Cave House Museum of Geology and Mining. His current passion is conducting research for the Jefferson Historical Society where he serves as President. He has published two volumes of the book Jefferson Then and Now, contrasting old photos of Jefferson with current photos taken from the same perspectives. He has also published a book based on the 1933 diary of Jefferson resident Willard Rising Stewart, and a photo book about the Maple Festival’s history in Jefferson.

Ginny Scheer grew up in Oklahoma and moved to Roxbury from New England in 1974 to teach at the Manhattan Country School Farm. She became director of the Farm in 1981 and retired in 2014, having seen the Farm through major developments in its educational program, its on-farm food and energy production, and its physical plant. While director, she founded the Catskills Folk Music Project, took a sabbatical to pursue a Master’s degree in folklore at Western Kentucky University, and wrote her thesis on “[Catskills] Farm Houses That Became Boarding Houses.” In 2007 she and Karyl Eaglefeathers founded Catskills Folk Connection, an organization designed to celebrate the folkways of the Catskill Region. Ginny was married to Roxbury’s beloved nature writer and wildlife photographer, Walter Meade, and collaborated with him on many projects until his death in 1993. She still lives on their farm in Montgomery Hollow.

Carolyn Bennett, the museum’s executive director explains: “This award is our way of saying thank you to the many individuals in the counties of Delaware, Greene and Schoharie who lovingly labor to preserve local history. This is our sixth annual benefit and our sixtieth year in the community. There are so many individuals in our region who deserve to be recognized that I fear we’ll run out of years before we run out of honorees.”

Menu:

First Course

Your choice of Kale Caesar Salad, Meatballs or Eggplant Rollatini

Second Course

Your choice of Beef Tournedos, Seared Salmon, Chicken Marsala, or Eggplant Parmigiana

Dessert

Cannoil Cake and Coffee & Tea

$60 per person

To reserve your seat and indicate your preference of the main course (beef, salmon, chicken, or eggplant), contact Suzanne Walsh at prattmuseum@hotmail.com.

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