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Kingston Times - Featured Arts | 8/20/2009 |
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All downhill from here
Artists' Soapbox Derby conquers adversity, set to go Sunday |
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| | An unnamed test pilot in Waryas House's "Abilities Firstmobile." | |
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by Jesse J. Smith
The Kingston Artists' Soapbox Derby is ready to roll. After an uphill struggle to raise money to offset a lack of city-paid services for the annual event, organizer Nancy Donskoj said everything is in place for the annual dash down lower Broadway this Sunday.
"People are building their soapboxes, I'm getting entries in the mail, so we're doing good," said Donskoj, who owns an art gallery on lower Broadway.
This year, Donskoj stepped up fundraising efforts after city officials informed her and other event organizers that they would have to charge for police overtime and other costs incurred for festivals, parades and other celebrations. The new rules meant Donskoj had to come up with an extra $850 to reimburse police overtime and use volunteers, instead of Department of Public Works staff, to lay out 1,000 tires donated by Van Kleeck's Tire to line lower Broadway ahead of the derby.
However, Donskoj said, all of the pieces had fallen into place and the soapbox derby would run as usual, including the $500 cash prizes awarded for first place in each of four categories - adult, family, youth and "people's choice." The derby also features a new event for the non-mechanically, or fashion, inclined. The first annual "Loud Shirt" competition will be held on Broadway immediately after the race. The winner will get a $50 "visual stimulus package."
This year, judging duties for the derby will be handled by the Phoenicia-based artists' cooperative The Arts Upstairs who will be tasked with judging entries based on artistic merit, and the ability to make it down the hill relatively intact.
"We want them to pick the one they feel is the most creative, but we ask them to wait until they see it run down the hill, that's where the engineering aspect comes in," said Donskoj.
Local brewer Tommy Keegan recalls his locally legendary entry into the derby back in 2007. The creativity part, a fully operational water cannon, worked out nicely. The engineering - wheels made of beer kegs and a steering system based on a battle tank - was less successful.
"I told the judge, 'You steer it like a tank,' and he just looked at me and said, 'This is not Afghanistan, you can't drive a tank down a street full of people.'"
This year, Keegan said he's toying with a new design built around an adult version of the classic Big Wheel tricycle.
Up in Hurley, meanwhile, Ken Schoonmaker is preparing for his first derby run with his version of the Arkansas Chug-A-Bug, a backwoods buggy (complete with still) which featured in the '60s cartoon classic "Wacky Races."
"I'm a bit of an enthusiast for anything animated," said Schoonmaker, who works on the maintenance staff at Iron Mountain and spends his spare time tinkering. "And I like making unique things."
Across the river, in Poughkeepsie, residents of Waryas House, a group home and treatment center for men with developmental disabilities and substance abuse issues are working on the "Abilities Firstmobile" a derby racer named for the agency which runs the residence.
Sarah Mecklem, a Kingston resident who works as an art therapist at the house said that she'd been waiting for an opportunity to show off the creative abilities of the Waryas house men at the derby.
"I've been working here for 14 years and this is the first time we've had the right combination of capabilities to make it work," said Mecklem. "I think it's really a source of self-esteem and engagement, a sense of doing something in the world that's not just busywork and it gives some visibility to people who are often sidelined."
The 15th annual Kingston Artists Soapbox Derby will take place on Sunday, Aug. 23, at 1 p.m. on Lower Broadway in Kingston. Day-of registration is at 10 a.m. For more information, contact Nancy Donskoj at (845) 338-8473 or email donskoj@verizon.net.
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© 2010 Ulster Publishing, Inc.
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