PAUL SMITHS — AdkAction held its Annual Meeting and Silent Auction that at the Paul Smith’s College VIC on Aug. 1.
Established in 2007 and operating as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation since 2011, AdkAction’s mission is to create projects that address unmet needs, promote vibrant communities and preserve the character of the Adirondacks.
The annual meeting was attended by AdkAction members, partners, and friends, and served as a celebration of accomplishments in 2019 and a fundraiser for continued growth. The winner of a Hornbeck canoe raffle was Allen Scott of Plattsburgh. The Hotel Saranac in Saranac Lake hosted the raffle all summer.
Notable 2109 accomplishments celebrated included the following:
¯ Through its Adirondack Pollinator Project, AdkAction built 12 community pollinator gardens across the Adirondacks with the Mobile Pollinator Garden Trailer and handed out 20,000 conservation-quality native wildflower seeds. The project also held the first Adirondack Pollinator Symposium in North Creek on July 5, bringing together experts from around the world to educate 75 Adirondack gardeners, landscapers and groundskeepers on the importance of planting native species to support pollinator conservation.
¯ With the Food Access Project, AdkAction secured $100,000 in funding to expand the Keeseville Farmacy, to open a second location and to build a toolkit for other communities to replicate the model. The second Farmacy location, Mountain Weavers Farm Store, opened in early July and is already serving Moriah and Port Henry residents.
¯ AdkAction has also cultivated strategic partnerships to advance our vision of ending the road salt crisis in the Adirondacks and offered training opportunities to plow truck operators in Clinton, Essex and Franklin counties. AdkAction continues to conduct outreach and education efforts to spread the word that 67% of private wells downstream of state roads are contaminated with sodium, chloride or both, above EPA drinking water guidelines.
¯ In May, AdkAction sponsored the first-ever Beyond the Peaks Student Film Festival, which engaged over 100 students from seven school districts, with 50 films being submitted. Other work to support the arts included Keeseville Plein Air, which is helping revitalize downtown Keeseville by bringing in over two dozen artists and 200 visitors to the community. AdkAction is now partnering with Tupper Arts to organize the first Tupper Lake Plein Air Festival Oct. 8-14.
¯ Finally, led by AdkAction members Tyler Merriam, Scott McKim, and board Chairman Tom Boothe, AdkAction has helped fund a feasibility study for the Whitewater Park Project in Saranac Lake and secured $411,000 in state Downtown Revitalization Initiative funding to ensure the implementation of the project.
Read the full article by Adirondack Daily Enterprise here.
