Standing together inside the new cooler at the Creamery, Prindle and fellow Skaneateles Historical Society member and volunteer Jim Dougherty held a pair of gleaming scissors to a piece of red crepe paper. After making a few jokes and smiling broadly, the research team tried to cut the stubborn “ribbon” in celebratory fashion and tradition.
Dougherty and Prindle weren’t chosen at random for this task, though. Together they have put in years of time volunteering at the Creamery, the historical society’s museum on Hannum Street in Skaneateles.
As a way of saying thanks to them, the society’s board decided to dedicate the new cooler to them since they put so much hard work into organizing and indexing records.
“We will eventually have a plaque honoring them,” said Karlene Barth Miller, Skaneateles Historical Society president.
Miller said their way of honoring the two men was to dedicate the archives room to them. But for Dougherty and Prindle, the honor isn’t in having their names engraved on a plaque.
“Volunteerism is its own reward,” Dougherty said.
But, perhaps with the recognition he and Prindle have received for their many years of volunteering it will spur an interest in others to jump on the bandwagon and give a hand, Dougherty said.
“We had a lot of fun doing it,” he said.
According to Prindle, he and Dougherty compiled an index of Skaneateles’ births, deaths and marriages that span more than 100 years of history. As technology changed, so did the pace of their research — using microfilm and microfiche machines eventually gave way to using computer technology as they continued their compilation of records.
“We had to start with the records that were available,” Dougherty said. “People didn’t have these things [computers] before.”
