Alice F. Vigerstadt Memorial Old Lady Canoe Trip

Alice F. Vigerstad Memorial
Old Lady Canoe Trip

by Trevor, FNCA Waterfront Director

© Holly Pedicone 2011 Alice F. Vigerstad was unsteady on our raft to the point of scary, and raised my lifeguarding hackles like nobody else. And although some folks couldn't handle her over-the-topness, she doted on me since earliest infancy and I have always loved her deeply.

One day in 1995, Alice complained that she hadn't been on a boat ride since childhood and said (and I quote), "Is there any way you could take us old ladies on a little canoe trip? We'll be good." The following afternoon we had four canoes full of old ladies and their escorts down at the river, putting on life jackets, gingerly climbing into the canoes, and just being thrilled as the dickens!

By sheer lollygagging, we managed to stretch the usual 15 minute paddle downstream to the town beach into a 45 minute trip. When we got there, a crew met us with lawn chairs, wine, and cheese & crackers. And there we sat for another 45 minutes enjoying the beach scene until the van showed up for the five minute drive back to camp. It was the talk of the town among the Embers for days, and according to Alice, the highlight of her vacation.

Alice passed on a few years later, but each year until then she asked if I would take "us old ladies" down the river again. And thus the Alice F. Vigerstad Memorial Old Lady Canoe Trip was born!

2011

Left to right: Jesse White, Lois McCurdy, Debbie Cook, Denyse Daurat, Herb Ziegler, Louise Dole Woofenden, Nancy Little.

2002

2001

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