SPRINGFIELD, Vt. — Helen Pike will present the OLLI-Osher Lifelong Learning Institute program on Tuesday, April 30. ‘Connecticut River Log Drives’ will be presented at 2 p.m. at the Nolin Murray Center next to St. Mary’s Catholic Church on Pleasant St. in Springfield, Vermont.
Author Helen Pike, will take the audience on a visual tour with archival photographs of the early log drives down the Connecticut River and explore the physical perils and economic hardships men faced as they built a new nation in the 19{sup}th{/sup} century. She’ll introduce us to such colorful characters as woodsman Jigger Johnson, dam builder Win Schoppe, cookee Tom Cozzie, lady logger Ruth Park, and the lumber king George Van Dyke.
Helen tagged along with her father, Robert E. Pike, as he interviewed aging rivermen, loggers, scalers, and mill executives that informed his most enduring book that remains in continuous print since 1968, “Tall Trees, Tough Men” and its predecessor, “Spiked Boots: Sketches of the North Country” for which she wrote the foreword to the 4{sup}th{/sup} edition. Helen is the award-winning author of two history books about New Jersey where she was raised. She lives on a stretch of the Connecticut River once known to rivermen as 15 Miles Falls in Waterford, Vermont, a town settled by her ancestors.
OLLI-Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, affiliated with the University of Vermont, is a local membership program geared towards seniors 50 years and older who want to engage in meaningful learning, “just for the fun of it!” People of all ages who are interested in this type of program are welcome to attend.
The OLLI series programs are selected with input from the local members and carry varied themes from semester to semester including history, art, music, literature, health, nature, science, travel and current events.
Programs are held at 2 p.m. on Tuesday afternoons and last about an hour and a half.
Membership is $45 for the semester, which includes nine programs. Non-members are encouraged and welcome to attend individual lectures for a single program fee of $8. Memberships, as well as single program fees, may be paid at the program.
The following OLLI program will be one week later on May 7, and will be ‘The Wonders of Woodland Warblers’ with ‘Bird Diva’, Bridgett Butler. This program will be co-sponsored by the Ascutney Mountain Audubon Society.
Brochures have been distributed throughout the area towns at businesses, the local libraries, town halls and Chamber of Commerce offices. The complete Springfield and state-wide program list is available on the internet at www.learn.uvm.edu/olli Choose State-wide programs from the menu, and then click on Springfield.
For weather-related changes to the schedule you may check the above mentioned website or SAPA TV, 802-885-6248 or call 802-885-3094.
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