ESSEX — The Essex Community Fund (ECF) has awarded over $21,000 to community organizations dedicated to improving the quality of life in this Champlain Valley town.
A total of nine organizations received funding in 2022. A component fund of Adirondack Foundation, ECF awards grants yearly to projects serving residents of Essex through community services, beautification, historic preservation, culture, the arts, education, and programs for youth and senior citizens.
Essex Initiatives is pleased to announce the 43rd annual Essex Day celebration is happening this Saturday, August 6 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Main Street in historic Essex, NY on Lake Champlain.
This family-friendly event is sure to have something to offer everyone. Attendees are welcome to enjoy live music from James Coleman, Too Tall String Band, and Marie Marie, peruse the shops on Main Street, participate in family-friendly games, and explore more than 40 unique vendors from surrounding towns.
The event also features food trucks, a town-wide yard sale as well as a book sale, watercolor class, photography class, and much more.
What is it like to experience the wonder the northern lights from a remote section of the state of Maine near the Canadian border?
Essex Theatre Company in Essex, New York, will explore this in John Cariani’s romantic comedy, Almost, Maine, in a pay-what-you-can preview on Friday, July 8 at 7 pm, and then July 9, 15, and 16 at 7 pm and July 10 and 17 at 5 pm at the historic Masonic Lodge, located at 2756 Essex Road in Essex.
The author points out, “Almost, Maine takes place over a period of about ten minutes. Each scene starts at around 8:50 pm and ends a little after 9 pm on a Friday night in the middle of winter. The plot of each scene in Almost, Maine includes some sort of ‘magical moment’. These magical moments are all happening at exactly the same time – at 9 pm. The northern lights and the magical moments give rise to one another.”
ESSEX — Longtime Essex volunteer Ron Jackson received the Francisca Irwin Award for Community Service at an Aug. 24 ceremony. The award, named for Francisca “Frisky” Paine Irwin, was presented to Jackson by the Essex Community Fund at Adirondack Foundation.
Jackson was recognized for over seven decades of selfless service to his community. As part of the award, he was given $1,000 from the Essex Community Fund to donate to a charity of his choosing — the Essex Volunteer Fire Department.
“I caught community service from my family,” Jackson said, “and it has stuck.”
Over 60 of Jackson’s friends and neighbors joined him for the reception, hosted at the CFES Brilliant Pathways Center in Essex. He is the third recipient of the Irwin Community Service Award since it was established in 2019; Donna Sonnett and Sally Johnson are previous recipients.
The 2021 Decentralization (DEC) Grant application process is now open for eligible arts organizations and individual artists residing in Clinton, Essex, Franklin, and Hamilton Counties. Artists may submit up to three direct requests of up to $5000 in any combination of two categories: Community Arts and Arts Education projects.
The requirements for submission include reading the guidelines for whichever category you are applying in and attending a free informational seminar with a Grant Coordinator. Seminars will be held online via Zoom between now and January 15. The deadline for the online application process is January 31.
The Essex Community Fund at Adirondack Foundation announced the “Lawson and Clint Allen Scholarship and Educational Program Fund” is now accepting applications for graduating high school seniors within Essex and Willsboro. Eligable applications will be enrolled in public, private, or home schools with plans to attend post-secondary education at a 2 or 4 year college, or through trade certification.
Cloudsplitter Foundation has awarded Whallonsburg Grange Hall in Essex a $10,000 grant for the next phase of the project to renovate and re-purpose Whitcomb’s Garage, the historic building and riverfront lot that sits directly across the road.
The Grange bought the property in December 2018 with the goal of developing it as commercial space for small businesses, artisans’ workshops, community space, retail store and parkland on the Boquet River. Cloudsplitter Director Chenelle Palyswiat delivered the check while touring the site. » Continue Reading.
Champlain Area Trails (CATS) is set to host a hike led by Audrey Hyson, Saturday, August 17, on the Flying Squirrel Trail, between Westport and Essex.
Hyson writes the “Everyday Naturalist” column for Adirondac magazine and is an experienced naturalist. » Continue Reading.
Champlain Area Trails (CATS) has announced plans to preserve 35 acres in the Town of Essex, NY, on land that features 400 million-year-old fossils — part of an ancient coral reef — as well as a type of forest considered globally rare and an historic stone quarry.
The Essex Quarry Nature Park will be located on the southern edge of the hamlet, a short distance from the Essex – Charlotte, Vt. ferry landing. » Continue Reading.
The Whallonsburg Grange is set to present a panel discussion on the growing problem of ticks on Tuesday, June 25 at 7:30 pm. “A Ticking Time Bomb: The Tick Crisis in the Adirondacks” will include the latest scientific and medical information and time for participants to tell their own stories. » Continue Reading.
An all-day festival of music and art for young people has been set for Saturday, May 18th at the Whallonsburg Grange Hall in Essex.
The “Music with a Message Children’s Music Festival” focuses on the songs of the late folksinger Pete Seeger, whose 100th birthday is being celebrated around the world in May. » Continue Reading.
The Essex Community Fund, a component fund of Adirondack Foundation, has invited local nonprofits, schools, churches and municipalities to apply for grant funding. Eligible projects must serve Town of Essex residents through community services, beautification, historic preservation, culture, the arts, education, or programs for youth and senior citizens. » Continue Reading.
The late folksinger Pete Seeger had a long connection to the North Country, beginning as a 20-year-old member of the Vagabond Puppeteers, according to Whallonsburg Grange board member Mary-Nell Bockman. In the summer of 1939, the group traveled to rural communities all over Upstate New York, including St. Lawrence, Franklin and Clinton counties, performing in support of dairy farmers on strike against the big milk monopolies.
Seeger was good friends with the artist Rockwell Kent and his wife, Sally, and visited Asgaard Farm several times. After meeting Adirondack folklorist Marjorie Lansing Porter at a folk festival in Schroon Lake, he worked with her to record an album of traditional regional tunes called Champlain Valley Songs in 1960. He performed at Plattsburgh State, Clarkson University, and other colleges in the region numerous times in the 1960s. » Continue Reading.
The Whallonsburg Grange Hall in Essex, is set to welcome historian and author Amy Godine to the Lyceum lecture series on Tuesday, April 23 at 7:30 pm. Her lecture will focus on the history of minstrel shows and blackface performances in theaters, Grange halls, churches, schools and other venues in the North Country, and the impact of this and other racist imagery. » Continue Reading.
Champlain Area Trails (CATS) has announced the route for the 2019 Grand Hike on May 11 which includes revisions to last years route. For the last few years, the final stretch of the 14-mile Grand Hike from Westport to Essex included a three-mile walk along Route 22.
This year, though, the route leaves the highway for all but 500 feet and instead crosses scenic pastures and forests before connecting with Blockhouse Road into Essex. » Continue Reading.
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