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General News: Quadricentennial Dedication in Village
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| Lydia Adams Davis sang three songs for the children. |
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| In the 4th-grade pageant, first the European explorers |
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| then the Native Americans broke their arrows in a sign of peace. |
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| Historians Colette Fulton and Janet Dempsey with the Quadricentennial flag. |
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| The students get ready to parade down to the playground. |
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| The new sign was unveiled at the dedication. |
October 01, 2009
The playground behind Cornwall-on-Hudson Elementary School was re-dedicated on Tuesday, 100 years to the day after it was first opened to the children of the village.
Both ceremonies were timed to co-incide with the day in 1609 when a member of explorer Henry Hudson’s crew noted in his journal that area beneath Storm King Mountain would be “pleasant place to build a village.” Village historian Colette Fulton organized this year’s ceremony as part of the Quadricentennial celebration of Hudson’s voyage. She called on groups throughout the community, the Cornwall Garden Club and Historical Society to donate to create a new dedication sign that now stands on the hillside above the playground.
On Tuesday, the elementary school students gathered in the school auditorium to hear a bit of history from Fulton. She spoke of Hudson and about the two wealthy residents who purchased the land to build the park for children in 1909, 15 years before the current school was built next to it.
Musicians Emily Faxon, Ruthanne Schempf and Lydia Adams Davis, all dressed in early 20th century dresses, entertained the crowd with a performance of songs popular in that era. After Faxon and Schempf played a medly of songs on the violin and piano, Davis wowed the young crowd by singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” She also sang “Daisy” and a song first written in 1909, “Dear Hudson Fulton Days.”
Students from the fourth-grade class of teacher Heather O’Dell then took the stage with a performance that re-told the story of a quiet Indian settlement on the river that greeted Hudson and his fellow explorers in peace and traded goods to the deprived crew members. Pam McCardle, assistant vice-president of the school’s PTO, presented a large gym bag filled with new balls for students to play with at recess and told the children that they would soon have new swings, in addition to the new basketball hoops, all paid for by the parent-teacher fund.
At the end of the presentation, students began to sense that they were in for even more fun when principal Kenneth Schmidt told them to line up with banners they had created in art class and head outside. They watched as the new playground sign was unveiled then as calmly as possible headed down the hill to wait again while two newly planted maple trees were admired by those in attendance. Finally, principal Schmidt spoke one word, “recess,” and the children ran to the playground to experience the joy of play
Comments:
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Don't mean to be a cloud over a wonderful idea and celebration,
but shouldn't a "Quadricentennial" be spelled correctly on a sign posted
at a school playground?
posted by Jon Chase on 10/07/09 at 9:05 PM
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