The Last Journey with Viktor Schreckengost

I conceptualized, chose the artwork and worked on a committee to create the current Viktor Schreckengost exhibit at Historic Sites in Kirtland, Ohio, running from January 12, 2007 to April 19, 2008. The exhibit is entitled All Creatures Great and Small: Animal Artwork of Viktor Schreckengost. He attended the opening of the event, with his wife, Gene, and several family members. He was animated and happy throughout the evening, especially enjoying the children at the exhibit. As it turned out, this was his last public appearance. He died less than three weeks later, on January 26, 2008. To have walked the last mile of his journey with him was an important part of my own life's journey. I attended his funeral the following week and left with a determination to explore and expand my own gifts, to try to leave the world a happier place because I was here.

Walking in Their Moccasins

I am currently the project director for “Walking in Their Moccasins”, a program for 4th through 6th graders on prehistoric Native Americans of Northeast Ohio. I designed and implemented the program, including the curriculum, exhibit room, craft, hands-on activities and booklet. The project was made possible through a grant from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation, collaboration with Kathy Purmal, staff and volunteers at Lake County Historical Society, community volunteers, family, friends and The Geauga County Park District. Four hundred children from local schools attended the first sessions in 2007, held at Lake County Historical Society. The "Moccasins" program will be offered again this spring, probably at our old site in Kirtland Hills, but by the fall of 2008, should be located at our new museum site in Painesville, Ohio. A half-day of hands-on activities include spear throwing with an atlatl, a mini-archaeological dig with "Professor Whittlesey", prehistoric timeline activities and reenacting village life in a prehistoric Whittlesy Culture setting.