September 23, 2017 Awards of Merit Received

Occasionally, there isn’t a specific date for an item to be shared as a snippet. Today is one of those items.

New York’s museums and heritage organizations are many and diverse. These institutions collect and interpret art, history, natural history, science, technology and culture. These valuable organizations provide opportunities for inquiry, engagement, inspiration and education about the state’s cultural and natural heritage.

The Awards of Merit program acknowledges outstanding programs and individuals who have made the state's museum community richer and more relevant. They reward the innovative efforts of staff and volunteers and they provide encouragement for the development of new and remarkable projects. [Museum Association of NY website]

The Interlaken Historical Society and its volunteers have been recognized three times through the Award of Merit program. One of the interesting aspects revolves around the awarding organization. In 1989 the first Award of Merit was presented by the Regional Conference of Historical Societies; in 2007 the second was from the Upstate History Alliance, and the most recent Award of Merit, presented earlier this year, was from the Museum Association of New York. Over the years that organization has evolved and changed but has remained true to assisting and encouraging historical societies.

The Fall 2007 Between the Lakes newsletter had a short item noting the receipt of an Honorable Mention certificate for the Covert Historic Tour of 2006. [August 6, 2006 Snippet]

The article included a note that “This is the second time our Society has been honored…the first time the Covert Family book by Fischer, Patterson and Covert won an Award of Merit.”

The June 1989 historical society newsletter had a lengthy article [Vol 15 #3]

Under the headline, “R.C.H.A. AWARDS OF MERIT ANNOUNCED”

“The RCHA’s Awards of Merit program recognizes excellent achievement by institutions and individuals in local history. Of particular interest are projects that can serve as models to other institutions and encourage the development of activities of similar excellence.” These criteria are still in use today.

At the Annual [1989] Meeting in Elmira, five Awards of Merit were announced, four historical societies, and one individual. Interlaken’s Maurice (Pat) Patterson received an Individual Achievement Award.

Mr. Patterson has been active in the historical agency community of central New York for more than forty years. He has worked tirelessly as a volunteer and trustee for his own and other local historical societies 'and has served on the RCHA Board of Trustees. Most importantly he has, in the last fifteen years, made the Interlaken Historical Society a model of what a small, all volunteer historical society should be. With an annual operating budget of less than $1500, Pat has trained a team of loyal volunteers who have cataloged and indexed the Society’s collection of about 2,000 artifacts and housed all items in archival-quality materials.

In continuing the newsletter article, Pat noted, “The Award of Merit was really the result of the work of many volunteers over the past 38 years, beginning with the Interlaken History Society’s charter members who met at Dorothy Wickes' home in 1951.” After a list of the many people involved over the years, Pat summed his thoughts with, “The Award of Merit should go to all the trustees and volunteers who have served for the past 38 years.” [click here to see the full article.]

Those same words of thanks to all involved applies to the 2017 Award of Merit received for the Covert Memories 1950-2015 volume.

Slide from MANY power point program, "2017 Awards of Merit"
Provided by the Museum Association of New York 

Award of Merit received by the Interlaken Historical Society, April 2017.

The Historical Society submitted all the required paperwork in March, and we were delighted to receive a telephone call telling us that we had been given an Award of Merit in the Engaging Communities category. It is rewarding for all concerned to receive this recognition from the Museum Association of New York.

If you haven’t had a chance to read Covert Memories, copies are available from the Interlaken Historical Society and the Interlaken Public Library.

The 2018 Award of Merit application materials are scheduled to be released this month, and the Historical Society will again review the options for applying based on the three programs related to the Town of Covert Bicentennial.

Dewitt’s Diary, Monday, September 23, 1968

Temperature 62, clear.

Did some work under the barn. Cut some new posts for under the barn.

Mom washed.

Clouding up the afternoon. Continuing clear weather. This is eleven days of clear days.

Picked half bushel of tomatoes from behind the barn. They are badly cracked open but good size.

We cut the heads from the sunflowers to keep the birds from eating them all up before winter.