Cobblestone Museum will honor key supporters, volunteers at annual meeting
Photo by Tom Rivers: Brenda Radzinski, shown during the Oct. 7 Ghost Walk at the Cobblestone Museum, has been an active volunteer with the museum this year. She is a docent, leading tours for school children and other groups. She serves on the museum’s board of trustees and helps with many events. She will be recognized as the “Volunteer of the Year.”
GAINES – The Cobblestone Museum will present several awards during its annual meeting on Nov. 9, when the organization elects officers and board members and reflects on accomplishments the past year.
Derek Maxfield
GCC professor Derek Maxfield will serve as the keynote speaker at the luncheon, which starts at 12:30 at Tillman’s Village Inn. Maxfield will give a presentation about Ulysses S. Grant.
The following will be recognized:
• Proctor Award – Erin Anheier will be recognized for assisting the museum in an extraordinary manner. She has spearheaded two big capital projects at the museum, writing and managing grant projects that included masonry repairs to the 1849 Cobblestone Schoolhouse. The schoolhouse also received a new roof, had wooden trim work painted, and windows restored.
Anheier also led a grant project at Farmers Hall to strengthen the foundation and add collar ties to firm up the rafters. The building, formerly the Kendall Town Hall, was sagging. The additional foundation support will stop that, and the turnbuckles will keep the building from spreading apart.
The Proctor Award is named for John Proctor, the founder of the Childs hamlet where the museum is located.
• The Rufus Bullock Award will go to Gary and Grace Kent for their “outstanding and sustained contributions to benefit the museum.” The Albion couple have been long-time supporters and volunteers for the museum. The award is named for Bullock, who grew up in Albion and went on to be elected as governor of Georgia in 1868. His outhouse form his home on Liberty Street in Albion is now at the museum. Bullock moved back to Albion and donated many valuables to the former Swan Library for the community to enjoy.
• The Frances Folsom Cobblestone Board Alumni Award is a new award for “excellence in serving the museum by a former board member.” The debut award will go to Susan Starkweather Miller, a former museum trustee who remains active with the museum, leading tours. The award is named for Frances Folsom, a former Medina resident who became First Lady in 1886 at age 21 when she married Grover Cleveland at the White House.
• The Community Partner Award will go to Camilla VanderLinden of the Dunn Martin Fund, which has provided funding for the museum’s internship program.
• New Business Partner goes to a new supporter of the museum. Lures Restaurant, led by Anna and Andre Migitskiy, shared proceeds from a day of sales at the Kendall location for the museum.
• The Donna Rodden Hospitality Award is another new award. It is named in honor of the late Albion mayor who was instrumental in having many historic sites in the community be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Patricia and Gerard Morrisey have opened their home for cobblestone events and volunteered at many other museum programs.
• The Volunteer of the Year will go to Brenda Radzinski who has been busy at many museum events throughout the year. She serves as a docent, leading tours of the museum to school children and other guests. She volunteers with other children’s programs, and prepared the script for the Oct. 7 Ghost Walk.
“She was just outstanding,” said Sue Bonafini, the museum’s assistant director. “She very rarely refused any type of assignment.”
Call the museum at 589-9013 if you want to attend the luncheon.
