To the Editor:

How could a chance meeting lead to a legacy? To find out we need to walk in the footsteps of Bill Riehl, current resident of South Carolina and native of Colton, NY, as he meandered through the delighted crowds at the festivities of Colton Country Days during the summer of 2011. Riehl had a vision that he was anxious to share, and there on the street in front of the Zion Episcopal Church he found the person he had been told could help him.

As Riehl tells it, “I became aware of this new mover and shaker in town called Ruth McWilliams. I met her (I found her, more to the point) on the street during Colton Country Day as she was walking around with Bonnie McGee.” McWilliams, who coordinated town tourism and beautification activity, and McGee, a local teacher and resident, were approached by Riehl who explained he was looking for a way to produce the play his mother Evelyn Riehl created, Sunday Rock – The Folk Musical. Evelyn Riehl had been an area music teacher and an active community leader in town for decades, and the folk musical she wrote shared an historic perspective of Colton.

From those conversations on the street to a collaborative venture involving the Colton Historical Society, Colton-Pierrepont Central School and Grasse River Players has emerged with assistance from others including the town’s Tourism & Beautification Committee. It is now so very much more than a summertime show. Starting as a desire to simply re-produce Evelyn Riehl’s Sunday Rock - The Folk Musical in 2012 the project has developed into a multi-community collaboration and celebration of community theater, local history and educational engagement. In 2013 the Radio Hour theme tied together stories of the town during World War II and the 1940s based upon oral histories done plus the stage presentation of The 1940’s Radio Hour written by Walton Jones. Then in 2014 the theme, Abracadabra—Schoolhouse Magic, brought together historical research about one-room schoolhouses in the Colton-Pierrepont Central School District and the stage production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

As the 2015 summer events for the hamlets of Colton and South Colton emerge from the winter season, the collaboration – supported through grants and contributions made by individuals, businesses and organizations – looks forward to focusing this year on the rhythm of music, of the river and of the community during the time when the power dams were built along the Raquette River in the 1950’s.

Elaine Kuracina of the Grasse River Players Community Theatre, noted, “I love this unique community effort – the only such collaboration that exists – to benefit the students and residents and vacationers – to promote theatre, education and history.”

Among the lead-up events to be presented by the Grasse River Players before the summer stage show are a dinner theater murder mystery and a cabaret. Kuracina was an actor in the Sunday Rock - The Folk Musical 2012, and now she is in charge of planning those theater events. Kuracina has been meeting with the steering committee and has been aware of planned exhibits in the Colton Museum this summer which will highlight the 100-year celebration of the Colton Fire Department and the building of dams along the river in Colton. She is making plans to host the cabaret just prior to the opening of the museum exhibition in order to support the museum.

The school will host this summer’s musical, I Love a Piano, which celebrates the music of Irving

Berlin. In the few months left prior to summer, a good deal of effort will be expended by all the members of The Sunday Rock Legacy Project’s steering committee who were inspired by Evelyn Riehl to combine their interests and who now seek to focus their efforts through the successful collaboration. And to think, it all began with one chance meeting on the street in Colton.

This project is made possible in part by the St. Lawrence County Arts Council with funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo & the New York State Legislature.

Carol Kissam

Colton