Like many volunteer-based organizations, the Genesee Valley Chapter of the Adirondack Mountain Club is only as strong and healthy as the volunteer efforts of its membership. Because of the recent extraordinary work of so many members, our chapter has never been stronger and is unquestionably one of the healthiest in all of ADK.
Each year we honor one or more volunteers who have made an outstanding contribution to the Genesee Valley Chapter of ADK. That contribution can be an extraordinary amount of time and energy spent on the chapter in general, or a discrete contribution that has been particularly noteworthy.
2023 Volunteers of the Year
Sarah Mastro
Congratulations and thanks go out to Sarah Mastro! Sarah is an Adirondack Mountain Club-Genesee Valley Chapter, Volunteer of the Year. Sarah has been involved in many ADK-GVC projects and has served splendidly on many committees these past several years. She has been a key contributor to ADK’s publicity, publications, and education endeavors. Her work on the chapter’s recent fashion show was brilliant. Sarah is also a skilled, wise, and thoughtful trip leader. Outings Sarah has expertly facilitated have proven to be wildly popular and enjoyable. She has been a key member of ADK-GVCS chapter’s executive committee.
After fine service as the ADK-GVC younger members chair, Sarah became the Outdoor Expo chair in 2023. Expo is our chapter’s biggest and most popular event. This festival style event is designed to highlight nature, outdoor recreation, and conservation. It is also designed to bring attention to all that the Adirondack Mountain Club and other outdoor organization have to offer. It is meant to generate camaraderie among outdoor enthusiasts and to inspire more people of all ages to join the outdoor community. Last, but not least, Expo serves to educate folk on ways to safely and skillfully enjoy the great outdoors. Under Sarah’s outstanding leadership, the 2023 Expo was a smashing success, reaching all of its goals.
On top of the things mentioned above, and many more things not mentioned, that Sarah has done for our chapter, she has also been providing valuable service at the state level as a ADK trailhead steward. Sarah’s kindness and charm along with her communication skills and passion for volunteerism, and her knowledge and accomplishments in outdoor endeavors made her perfectly suited to help hikers have safe and successful, outdoor experiences. Sarah is a truly marvelous volunteer and dear friend to her fellow ADKers.
John Andersson
John Andersson is a key member of ADK-GVC and an outstanding contributor to the chapter’s hiking endeavors. John leads hikes ranging from all-day to just an hour long. He is an advocate and a hike leader for the Tuesday hikes that combine a shorter, gentler hike with a longer, more challenging one so that the hike is enjoyed by all. John leads hikes to very interesting sites and topography and often provides history and background of the region. To paraphrase an unsolicited nomination, “John has been a primary hike leader for a large number of group hikes, including Tuesday hikes and Conservation Trail hikes. He is always very knowledgeable and courteous to our hiking participants. He leads both weekends and weekdays and has contributed greatly to the chapter for many years.”
John’s many outdoor accomplishments include hiking the entire Finger Lakes Trail! To learn more about his trail visit https://fingerlakestrail.org/.
A big thank you goes out to John for the many fine things fine things he has done for his fellow outdoor enthusiasts!
2020-2022 Volunteers of the Year
Jim Miller
Jim Miller’s service to our club as the Trails Co-Chair and as a trip leader has been of the highest caliber. He also plays a vital role in our chapter’s biggest event, Outdoor Expo. Not only is Jim a key person year-round in the planning of this remarkably fun, entertaining, and educational event, on the day of Expo he is best described as being a human dynamo for what he accomplishes for us. Among the many other things Jim has done for us, he has expertly provided valuable input to his fellow executive committee members in regard to our chapter’s COVID-19 policies.
Jim is a truly kind man and dedicated volunteer and listing all the things we are grateful to him for would make for a much-too-lengthy post, but we cannot resist thanking him for his superb handling of the grill at recent ADK-GVC events. Thanks for all you do, Jim, and congratulations on your well-deserved award! Jackson Thomas, Reinhard Gsellmeier
Katy Kuczek
Katy Kuczek services to our club have been brilliant. Katy has accomplished many fine things, all of which deserve acclaim and accolades. This includes doing an incredible amount of work as a kind, enthusiastic, and wise member of the education, publicity, and publications committees.
Of course, one of the things we are most grateful to Katy for is her services as our chapter’s programs chair. This is a vital role for our club. Our monthly programs are a key component of our club’s efforts to help people discover, enjoy, and embrace the great outdoors. Our programs are the main attraction at our chapter meetings which serve as a wonderful way for our members and potential new members to socialize and bond together. Katy’s work in this position has been outstanding. She has facilitated a remarkable array of astoundingly interesting and entertaining presentations.
Katy’s volunteerism would be worthy of the Volunteer Award in any year. The fact that she daringly took on this role during the height of the COVID-19 situation makes her work even more brilliant. In spite of the ever-changing, myriad of hurdles brought on by COVID-19 and society’s response to it, Katy found ways to share amazingly enjoyable programs with our community. Her ability to navigate those hurdles so expertly while maintaining a cheery, positive attitude is evidence of how amazing a person and volunteer Katy is. Way to go Katy! Bruce Tehan
Luke Nelson
Luke Nelson has provided outstanding service to our chapter. Luke has done a herculean number of things for our club and has done them superbly. Perhaps the most amazing of his many accomplishments was his leadership as our chairperson. Luke served in that role during the height of the COVID-19 epidemic and while the Adirondack Mountain Club was making changes in its governance. Luke handled the challenges of those difficult situations brilliantly. It is impossible to imagine anyone doing more good for this chapter than Luke has done, and Luke did a lot of it during an especially tough time. Thanks so much Luke! Bruce Tehan
Marcia Barrett
Marcia Barrett’s services to the club have been spectacular. A full list of the wonderful things Marica has done for us would be too lengthy for this article but includes: Co-Chair of the Waterways Committee, which puts on many wildly popular and fun paddles for our community; a talented photographer who has captured many wonderful scenes for our publications; an outstanding trip leader; and a key contributor at many other ADK events including Outdoor Expo. Thanks for all you do, Marcia, and congratulations on your Volunteer of the Year Award! Dave Nichols
Bruce Tehan
Bruce was honored for his outstanding service to our chapter. Over the last couple of years, Bruce has admirably filled multiple roles for the Genesee Valley Chapter. He has done so in a quiet, unassuming manner that promotes GVC positively and professionally without drawing attention to himself. He currently serves the role of Education Chair, Publicity Chair, and Publications Chair. (And Librarian Extraordinaire in his day job)
As editor of the Geneseean, he has maintained the tradition of excellence for our newsletter, created a new look, and brought in additional content from members. As Education Committee Chair, he has single-handedly ensured we have exciting and informative workshops for each Chapter meeting. And as Publication and Publicity Chair, Bruce has increased our social media presence through a continual stream of timely and relevant postings of GVC activities.
Bruce is very open-minded and willingly accepts help with chapter publicity, making it ever more effective. His efforts lead to many accolades for the chapter, not only from our members but from outside of the chapter as well. He is the amazing unsung hero of our Genesee Valley Chapter! Thank you, Bruce, for all that you do! Dave Nichols, Katy Kuczek, Jim Miller, Luke Nelson
2019 Volunteer of the Year
Beth Wheeler
The GVC-maintained section of the Finger Lakes Trail had been neglected for some time. We needed someone to take on a leadership role in soliciting volunteers, scheduling trail maintenance sessions and coordinating all of the tools, locations and FLT trail regulations.
Beth took on this very difficult role with incredible energy and passion. She announced the need for volunteers at Chapter meetings in a highly spirited manner. She also sent out requests for volunteers and sent detailed emails before the trail maintenance days to insure all volunteers knew what to expect.
She also made numerous trips to the FLT to scout our section, take pictures of particularly challenging areas and assess what tools would be needed. On the days of the trail maintenance events, she led the troops and broke them into teams and gave them assignments.
Beth also established a rapport with the FLT Conference which further enhanced our long-standing relationship with that organization.
Beth epitomizes the best spirit of volunteerism in our Chapter. Thank you, Beth!
2018 Volunteers of the Year
Jill Nichols
Smooth-running organizations appear to be effortless to those who don’t know what it takes to make them appear that way. Jill Nichols is one of the very few individuals within our Chapter who make it all happen. Just a quick review of what she does for us: she revived the Program Committee that has provided the great workshops and programs of 2017 and 2018. This is a lot of work: it requires getting ideas for each month’s meeting at the June meeting she hosts (with great food) at the Nichols’ home; staying on top of all the champions for each program so that we have notices on the web and in the Geneseean; hosting the monthly presenters’ dinner; and sometimes having to do a mad scramble when a program falls through at the last moment. This is a big task.
But it’s not the only one she has undertaken: along with husband Dave she is one of our Club Directors, providing the GVC voice at quarterly ADK Board of Directors meetings. And, of course, this picnic itself would be a sad thing without her skill as a hostess and cook.
We’re very grateful for all that she has done and continues to do, and are happy to name her a Volunteer of the Year.
— Bill Lindenfelser
Peg Jacobs
When you think of nominating someone for the Volunteer of the year award you try to come up with someone who has done an exceptional job at helping our chapter. Well this is certainly the case when you mention Peg Jacobs’ name. Many years ago she took over the task of coordinating the Monday morning paddles for the ADK-GVC chapter. Now the Monday morning paddles have become the most popular weekly event on the waterways calendar. Typically starting in early May, Peg organizes her group of paddlers and they put together a complete paddle schedule from May and continuing deep into October, weather permitting. As the season progresses Peg gets more and more people to join her on the paddles; getting between 15 and 25 paddlers is commonplace. Peg keeps the group together by organizing breaks or treats for after the paddles… brownies are a must! The bottom line: without her devoted efforts we would not have the Monday paddle group!
On top of her dedication to the Monday paddle schedule, Peg has also been a part of the volunteer food event at the ADK-GVC Outdoor Expo where she either prepares or purchases along with her team all the food for the volunteers on the day of Expo.
And, of course, she volunteered again to help put on this great recognition picnic.
She has also volunteered at a number of ADK advocacy events helping to promote our chapter.
It is with great appreciation that our chapter presents Peg Jacobs with the honor of Volunteer of the Year.
— Charlie Helman
Yi-Ju Bott
As you probably know, the Geneseean is a great newsletter from GVC. I always urge folks within the Chapter to just take a look at the newsletters of the other Chapters to get an appreciation of what is inside the Geneseean, and to see the care and quality that goes into putting it together. This is not just a plain text listing of our monthly hikes and paddles, but contains commentary and longer-form articles and great-looking pictures. It’s well-edited and beautifully assembled. (Check out the changing themes for the different months.) Yi-Ju works with a small team (among them Jackson Thomas, Samantha Cassavaugh and Jim Bishop) to make the Geneseean happen every month. But she is the driving force behind its publication, and devotes hours every month to make it the quality publication it is. She goes well beyond our expectations as the Editor of the Geneseean.
It’s with great appreciation that we name Yi-Ju a Genesee Valley Chapter Volunteer of the Year.
— Bill Lindenfelser
Bill Schweinfurth
Bill has spent the last few years as the organizer of the annual Winter Loj trip, a tradition that goes back almost 40 years at the Genesee Valley Chapter. It’s a very big deal to put this on every year: he essentially becomes an unpaid tour director, with all of the responsibilities for publicizing the event, registering participants, working with the Loj, dealing with the inevitable problems (and complaints, sometimes), and all of this he gives us for free, year after year. On top of that he has a good time doing it, and infuses the entire event with his sense of fun. Mardi Gras bead necklaces on the Great Room moose!
As a token of our appreciation, we name him Volunteer of the Year.
— Bill Lindenfelser
Previous Volunteers of the Year
2017
Shirley and Jackson Thomas
Rich Sensenbach
Brad Alexander
2015
John Atkins
2014
Nancy Donny
2013
Jeff Patterson
2012
Dave Schott
2011
Larry Telle
2010
Bob Krenzer
2009
Donna Dinse
2008
Dave Harrison
2006
Susan Aiello
Charlie Helman
2005
Ken Harbison
Judy Immesoete