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| April 25, 2024 |
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People: Mary Whitwell and the American Heritage Festival
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| Mary and one of her daughters, Phoebe |
September 28, 2006
Mary Whitwell is the type of person who gets great joy out of living. If you haven’t met her yet, you’ll want to get down to the American Heritage Festival at the Museum of the Hudson Highlands’ Kenridge Farm on September 30th. It may be the last time you will have a chance to meet this woman who radiates energy wherever she goes.
After more than a decade in Cornwall-on-Hudson, Mary and her family packed up their house earlier this month and moved to North Carolina. But she promised to make good on her commitment to coordinate the annual American Heritage Festival – and will return for her last hurrah.
A Museum Supporter and Volunteer
A member of the board of directors of the Museum for the past three years, Whitwell never intended to get so involved with the place. A veterinarian by training, she ran an animal hospital in Campbell Hall before moving to the village in 1995. With a newborn and a 3-year-old daughter, she had little time for activities outside the home.
“My involvement with the museum grew over time,” Mary recalls. “First Phoebe went to ‘bug school’ there when she was 4 and the other two followed her.”
“Bug school” refers to the Young Naturalist Program, one of the educational mainstays of the museum.
“I worked on the Festival four years ago, running the kids games, then they asked me to coordinate the volunteers,” Mary says. “It speaks reams about what I think about the Museum that I took it on.”
Involved in the Elementary School
Whitwell says when she was asked to take on the volunteer coordination she already had a lot of activities on her schedule.
At the Cornwall-on-Hudson Elementary school she was a class parent extraordinaire. Often when there was a class party, Mary would go to the Hudson Valley Materials Exchange center in Newburgh and bring in bags of supplies to guide the students in making the most interesting crafts. She served as the Kids Klub treasurer or chair for three years, trained the Odyssey of the Mind team one year, and ran a total of six Scholastic Book fairs at the school with her co-chair Chris Fowler.
A Triathlete Too
In the community, Mary was the coordinator of the girl scout service unit (her husband, George, was the treasurer of Cub Scout Pack 6) and helped with the March of Dimes’ Walk America for several years.
You may have seen her out walking or running the streets and trails of the community, dog in tow. In August, she successfully completed the West Point Triathlon – the race in which you swim 800 meters, bicycle 25 kilometers, then run for five kilometers. Mary says that crossing the finish line was one of the happiest moments of her life – and that it was made possible by the inspirations of her athletic friends.
An Opportunity to Have Fun
When the family decided to move, she told her friends not to throw her a going-away party. They did any way.
“I felt uncomfortable hearing people thank me for everything,” she says. “I really felt that I should be the one thanking people for giving me the opportunity to have fun with their kids.”
It is a generous spirit like that which will inspire all the volunteers at the American Heritage Festival on September 30th and help create a day when hundreds of people, young and old, can expect to have a day of pure fun.
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