Bill Madden III and Heidi Holderied are this year’s Grand Marshals | News, sports, jobs

Saranac Lake – Saranac Lake Winter Carnival Grand Marshals is Bill Madden III and Heidi Herredtied.

The couple is involved in several local volunteer groups, including winter carnival. For several years now they have offered a grant program through the Adirondack Foundation that grants people who need a little money to make their winter carnial vision reality.

Madden is a fourth generation of Saranac Lake. Height wheels grew up in Lake Placid.

Madden is an active member of Saranac Lake Volunteer Rescue Squad and Saranac Lake Volunteer Fire Department’s Dive Team. He served as Saranac Lake Village Mayor, Administrator and on Saranac Lake School Board and Boces Board. He is also a volunteer with Habitat for Humanity.

He donates his time and moves Van to Santa’s helpers and helps historically Saranac Lake moving Cure Cottage on wheels around the city for various local events. He donates and hides the judge’s tape to Carnival Parade in addition to providing storage space for the Carnival Committee year -round. He has also been a leading member of the Ice Palace Workers 101 since his early 20s before IPW even existed.

The proprietor talks about her husband.

“He’s the real volunteer,” She said, adding that he inspires her to voluntarily.

Trakeied is a volunteer for High Peaks Hospice and Mercy Care and is an Adirondack Health Foundation board member. She collects and sorts dutiful film plastic from her family’s Lake Placid business to contribute to the Trex Community Bench Recycling program in Saranac Lake.

She worked as a hotel and now works as a physiotherapist for Essex County and provides home -health services to the hometown elderly.

Madden said growing up in Saranac Lake, volunteering is a lifestyle. He has no other thoughts about getting involved in things. That’s how things happen in society, he said.

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The fund

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Madden has often heard from people who said they would become more involved in carnival, but it would cost too much. The idea of ​​starting a fund and grant program came from all of their family.

“My inspiration to start the foundation came when I was in Sylvias (tailor -made shop and shop) once and saw a bunch of young ladies who had their winter carnival court changed,” The proprietor said. “I thought … ‘Who’s going to pay for all these things?’ So I went home, talked to my family about the idea and they were all on board. “

The fund distributes about $ 2,500 each year, usually five $ 500 grants, to finance floats, costumes, concerts and shows.

“Many groups have benefited from it,” Carnival Committee Chairman Jeff Branch said “It really helps the parade.”

The proprietor said it is always nice to see these things come alive at the time of the carnival.

“It makes us sure we were doing the right thing,” she said.

They always have more requests than they can give out. All grants were awarded by December this year and next year have already been booked. Madden sometimes said the owner of money from their own pockets to events or floats. To learn how to apply for a grant or donate to the fund, contact the Adirondack Foundation.

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Ice Palace

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Madden was the bridge between the evolving phases of the Ice Palace Build, in the days when its future was not guaranteed. He helped initiate the voluntary era of the Ice Palace Workers 101 we know today.

Back then, Charlie Keough monitored the construction of Ice Palace, where the Village Department of Public Works worked.

In 1981, Madden-there was in the mid-20s sent down with a crane from his family business to help. But he was not connected at that time.

It was the next year when he made the mistake of going down to see family friend Sue Dyer at the construction site.

“How do you want to be Ice Palace President?” Dyer asked him.

The village went away from the construction and Keough was ill that year. Madden did not realize what he was coming in. He didn’t even know the first thing about building an ice cream palace.

These days there were some volunteers, but very few. Inmates from the Camp Gabriel’s minimal security state prison prison blocks during the day, and sometimes it was only Madden that stacked them with a backhoe and crane at night.

He would make awake with the inmates to get a few more rows out of them. At two or three apartments, he swam the channel that the ice blocks were floating down. More often, if they cut more rows, he would run over rows with liquid blocks. He preferred this one because he had a good success rate and said he only fell in once.

The ice blocks in 1982 started at 28 inches and grew to 36 inches at the end of the building, he said, so heavy that they could not be moved without machines. It was “Brutally cold.” Handsaws used to cut blocks sunk so deep that they could hardly be seen as they cut to the bottom. The builders had to change tools and use different machines to match the block depth.

Madden spent years asking for volunteers on the radio and in the company. They first started to seep in – mostly the food’s family and good friends – but eventually they built a core group of “Dirty Dozen.”

Dean Baker was one of the people listening to the local radio station in 1983 when he heard Madden come on the air and say they needed help to end the building. Baker is still building until today, and last year withdrew from the IPW director’s position after 18 years.

The volunteer base built over the years when people saw what happened and decided to emerge. Today there is a sturdy crew of about 50 people building the ice palace, some traveling from outside the state or taking off from work just for the possibility of being part of the building

Today, 1989’s Palace is the food’s favorite. This was around when IPW started.

Back then, Winters were longer and colder and they usually had a much longer building season. But 1983 was “A disaster.”

There was a serious thaw in January and all their work had to be beaten. Enterprise -journalists thought it wouldn’t happen. But Madden said with “Lots of voluntary help,” They rebuilt a smaller palace for a weekend.

In this time, evening and weekend herds of volunteers “Flourished.” People were connected.

“It’s like an addiction,” Said Madden. “It is very rewarding when you are aware that it is there for society. It is very short -lived, but it almost defines our society in winter. “

The highest grew up in Lake Placid and said she did not have a personal emotional connection to Carnival. But she sees what it means to her husband and her sons.

“More people come home to carnival than for any holiday,” she said.

It is once a year that brings the extended community together. Madden remembers when he lived in Connecticut in middle and colleges, he would always return to Carnival. Their sons have friends who come up every year to the event.

“We come home, and the hot tub is filled with people we don’t know,” Said Madden.

Grand Marshals will be chauffed in a jeep near the start of February 8 Gala -Parade next week, driving down Broadway and Main Street, to the referee’s tape Madden donated to the event.