Questers Hope to Give Back to Kittanning
Ruth Stephenson shows antiques to possible customers during last year’s antiquing event (submitted photo).
by Jonathan Weaver
Saturday’s “Antiquing along the Allegheny” Antique and Craft Fair in Kittanning Riverfront Park might not just preserve small collectables, but also community historical artifacts.
From 8AM-3PM, vendors will scatter through the park to show off and sell antiques, collectibles and handcrafts, but Vice President and Grants Chairman Carolyn Schrecengost said the sales might also aid two Kit-Han-Ne Questers #408 service projects.
Questers brainstormed that proceeds from the antiquing fair will go back toward to projects in Kittanning: planting flowering trees in Kittanning Riverfront Park and restoring deteriorating roadside markers (such as the two at the entrances to the borough) with the help of the non-profit Keystone Marker Trust.
Before either of the projects can begin, enough funding must be raised and permission must be received from PennDOT and Kittanning Borough Council.
“Our object is to plant some colorful flowering trees in the park,” Schrecengost said. “Those two Ginkgo trees that were on either side of the bridge, someone cut those down – I don’t know who or why, but that’s the area we’re thinking about.
“This is our 16th annual Antique Fair in the park, so we thought doing something in the park would be more appropriate than anything else. We don’t keep the money we make at the fair – we always send it back into the community.”
Work with the non-profit Keystone Marker Trust to help restore some of the deteriorating roadside markers that provide information about the origin of PA towns and villages.
“If somebody runs into one and knocks it down, generally they don’t put it back up,” Schrecengost said. “I live in Sunnyside and one of my earlier clubs had markers put up, and when they reconstructed the bridge, they took the marker down.”
In the past 15 years, proceeds from the Antique Fairs have allowed the chapter to donate more than $10,000 to local projects - including several at the McCain House Museum – home of the Armstrong County Historical Society.
Four oil portraits of past Armstrong County Judges were cleaned and repaired at the Armstrong County Courthouse.
In Westmoreland County, balcony seats were donated to the Casino Theater in Vandergrift.
Last year, $3,000 was granted to Butler County Historical Society toward the purchase of a 1928 Austin C-Cab prototype.
In the 1970’s the group collected period furniture for the Old Stone House Tavern in Worthington and held weekly tours there for about five years.
“That’s the object of our club: historical preservation,” Schrecengost said.
More information about the organization can be found online at the International Questers website at www.questers1944.org .
The Kit-Han-He Chapter – which currently has 16 active members - was organized in September of 1969 when Mrs. R. A. Walter, a longtime Quester, came from South Bend, Ind., to explain the Questers organization to the attendees. Officers were elected and a series of programs were planned at that first meeting.
The chapter name was chosen for the Delaware Indian Village of Kittanning where Col. John Armstrong and the PA militia battled with Captain Jacobs in the French and Indian War.
This chapter was instrumental in forming other chapters in Western Pennsylvania, including the Nellie Bly Chapter of Kittanning and Shaver Springs of Indiana, PA.
With last year’s fundraising drive for the Austin C-Cab Van prototype, local Questers hope to promote the creation of a chapter in Butler County.
Forms are still available for $35 per space, and will be accepted on Saturday.
Local News | jweaver September 10, 2015
