PA Wilds Team Recognizes Maguire Family
Steve Getz Receives Artisan of the Year Award
SUGAR GROVE – Eleven residents, business owners, and organizations from across the Pennsylvania Wilds region will be recognized with awards later this week for their contributions helping grow the region’s nature and heritage tourism industry.
The PA Wilds Champion Awards are given out annually as part of the PA Wilds Conservation Landscape movement, a ground-breaking partnership that began in 2003 to grow the region’s outdoors industry in a way that creates jobs, diversifies local economies, inspires stewardship and improves quality of life.
They include the Maguire family of McElhattan and Steve Getz from the Clinton County Arts Council. They and nine other winners will be recognized at the PA Wilds annual dinner this Thursday in St. Marys.
The PA Wilds organization today released information on this year’s winners:
Outstanding Leader Award– James H. and Shirley A. Maguire Family
“Success is just disguised hard work,” says Jim Maguire, patriarch to now four generations of Maguires who call Clinton County home. From logger and land developer, to restaurant owner and operator, to volunteers, the Maguire Family has made a significant mark on the region, one that is founded on their love of the natural resources and sense of community that make up the Pennsylvania Wilds.
The Maguires are probably best known in tourism circles for Restless Oaks Restaurant, a white pine and oak building with collectables on the walls that the family built in 1984. The restaurant has served thousands of visitors with its rustic charm, down-home food and warm service and was one of the first to start using the PA Wilds logo, back in the early 2000s, placing it prominently on their business sign along busy Route 220.
The Maguires have been staunch supporters and promoters of tourism and economic development initiatives on the eastern side of the region, including promoting the Pine Creek Rails-to-Trails system, local chainsaw carving exhibitions, and various beautification and clean-up projects. If they aren’t the ones directly involved in a project, they are always willing to help, lending everything from a place to meet and discuss, to financial or volunteer support, to expertise learned from their many business and community ventures over the past 50 years. The family has a keen sense for business, a love of nature and history, and the understanding that giving back to their community is important.
Artisan of the Year – Steve Getz
Steve Getz is an accomplished artist, designer and arts advocate who has championed arts efforts at the local and regional level, including working on behalf of the PA Wilds.
An accomplished painter and designer whose work has earned many recognitions and appeared in galleries, museums and other collections, Getz is probably best known among the Wilds network as one of the faces of the Station Gallery, which he and others on the Clinton County Arts Council transformed from an abandoned train depot to a stunning gallery that hosts thoughtful – and very well attended — art shows throughout the year. He has also been instrumental in organizing arts events and festivals, such as Clinton County Arts Council’s Harvest Days and the upcoming Lock Haven JAMS festival in August.
Perhaps lesser known is that behind the scenes, Getz volunteers on behalf of the PA Wilds Artisan Trail and is a champion of the Pennsylvania Wilds brand. The Artisan Trail has gone through significant changes over the last few years, including a major strategic planning process in 2015 that is repositioning the program for long-term growth and under a new brand identity, the Wilds Cooperative of Pennsylvania. Steve has been there at every turn to talk through concepts and ideas, to host events, and to explain changes to current and potential artisans, trail sites and partners. Steve has understood from the beginning that a big regional arts-related business development program doesn’t just come out of the box fully formed. It has to be built, brick by brick, and that it takes a lot of people contributing to make that happen in a meaningful and sustainable way. The Pennsylvania Wilds, one of the state’s 11 official tourism regions, covers about a quarter of the Commonwealth and includes the counties of Warren, McKean, Potter, Tioga, Lycoming, Clinton, Cameron, Elk, Forest, Clarion, Jefferson, Clearfield and the northern part of Centre county.
The PA Wilds region is known for its more than 2 million acres of public land, and also boasts two National Wild & Scenic Rivers, some of the darkest skies in the country and the largest wild elk herd in the Northeast. Visitors spend an estimated $1.7 billion in the region each year, according to the most recent statistics.
This year’s PA Wilds Champions hail from all corners of the region and their awards reflect values promoted through the landscape work: partnerships, creativity, stewardship, giving back, creating new opportunities and local leadership.
“The people and communities across the Pennsylvania Wilds contribute in many ways to this exciting Conservation Landscape Initiative,” said Jim Weaver, Chair of the PA Wilds Planning Team, which organizes the awards. “By identifying and celebrating the wonderful work that is being done across the region the PA Wilds Team hopes to inspire others to catch and harness the enthusiasm that is the essence of our rural communities.”
Special guests at this Thursday’s dinner at the Red Fern in St. Marys will include Cindy Dunn, Secretary of the PA Department of Conservation & Natural Resources; Dennis Davin, Secretary of the PA Dept. of Community & Economic Development; and PennDOT Deputy Secretary Toby Fauver. This year’s theme is “Celebrating Our Public Lands,” and will include a keynote by Marci Mowery, President of the PA Parks & Forest Foundation. West Penn Power Sustainable Energy Fund is this year’s dinner sponsor. Networking will begin at 4 p.m., program starts promptly at 5 p.m.
Other award winners are:
Business of the Year Award– Flickerwood Wine Cellars; Kane
Inspiring Youth Award – Marlene Lellock, Punxsutawney
Event of the Year Award – Ridgway Chainsaw Carvers Rendezvous, Ridgway
Best Brand Ambassador Award – Stephanie Distler, Johnsonburg
Great Places Award – City of Warren, Warren
Conservation Stewardship Organization Award – Bucktail Watershed Association
Conservation Stewardship Individual Award – Jim Leonard, Weedville
Great Design Award – Subway New Bethlehem, New Bethlehem
Member of the Year Award– Deborah Pontzer, Elk County
