X

A recognition most well deserved for Colton Citizen of the Year

Posted 12/22/21

COLTON – Being appreciated is a most rewarding feeling. We all strive to be recognized on some level for our efforts, even the most selfless of us. That is why Mary Jane Watson of South Colton must …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

A recognition most well deserved for Colton Citizen of the Year

Posted

COLTON – Being appreciated is a most rewarding feeling. We all strive to be recognized on some level for our efforts, even the most selfless of us. That is why Mary Jane Watson of South Colton must be beaming with happiness at being recognized as Colton’s Virginia Smith Citizen of the Year.

Watson’s efforts on behalf of the citizens of the Town of Colton and the general northern New York area go back more than 40 years and include a variety of services. Not only has she served with distinction and for decades on town governmental bodies (Colton Town Board, and Colton Fire District), she has served on the Colton Historic Society, Colton Tourism and Beautification Committee, and the Colton Citizens Committee, Winterfest, the Raquette River Blueway Trail Project, Borderline Quilters, and the Sunday Rock Legacy Project. Her interests and services run the gamut from music (as a past Treasurer of the Orchestra of Northern New York board, she helped organize 20 years of Junque Sales for the Potsdam Summer Festival to raise funds for the only professional orchestra in the area) to traditional arts (she conducted numerous interviews for an oral history project that appears on the New York Heritage website). Watson has also written grants that have brought hundreds of thousands of dollars to the community for improvements, upgrades, and projects supporting the arts and history.

A graduate of Colton-Pierrepont Central School and a now-retired CPA with the firm Pinto, Mucenski & Watson, CPAs; there is hardly a development or program in Colton that Ms. Watson has not been a part of dating back to the early 1970s; and she continues to offer her services including sitting on the Audit Committee for the Colton-Pierrepont Central School. Some of her efforts have been featured on North Country Public Radio and WWNY-TV, and area senior citizens have appreciated her presentations on the history of the Raquette River.

A key leader and member of the steering committee for the Sunday Rock Legacy Project for the past ten years, Watson wrote grants and did historic research related to the annual theme selected by the Project committee. She was instrumental on writing the Annual Program and Historical Guide that accompanied the theatrical performances connected with the Project theme, and she conducted interviews, sought out artwork and photos, and she sought donations from key contributors to the Project. Her research included the history of Sunday Rock itself, oral histories of Colton citizens who served in WWII, the history of the one-room schoolhouses in Colton, the Raquette River Hydro Development, the tradition of quilting, local businesses and companies, and men and women who made a difference in Colton.

Clearly a very deserving recipient of the recognition, Watson is not one to rest on her laurels. She continues to serve the community in several capacities. She still volunteers for the Raquette River Information Center and Colton Museum; she remains a contributor and a member of the Publication Committee for The Quarterly – a publication of the St. Lawrence County Historical Association; she is treasurer of the Colton Historical Society; and she is the secretary/treasurer for the Colton Fire District.

Watson takes her place in Colton’s historic records as the 18th person named Virginia Smith Citizen of the Year in Colton since the award was founded in 2004.