Fort Ticonderoga recently awarded Anne B. McDonald the Sarah Gibbs Thompson Pell Distinguished Citizen Award. The award was presented at Fort Ticonderoga’s Annual King’s Garden Party on July 8th.
The award was given in recognition of Anne’s lifetime achievements which reflect the spirit of Fort Ticonderoga and Sarah Pell’s commitment to history and humanity.
“Like Fort Ticonderoga Museum co-founder Sarah Pell, Anne has dedicated her life to history and humanity,” said Beth L. Hill, Fort Ticonderoga’s President and CEO. “Rooted in the past with a deep understanding of our history, she rigorously strives to make the world a better place through her service in community, government, education, civic organizations, and numerous non-profit boards including The Fort Ticonderoga Association”
Anne has served on the Fort Ticonderoga Board of Trustees since 2012. A former elementary school teacher, Anne is a life-long resident of Ticonderoga. She holds an undergraduate degree from Russell Sage College, Troy, New York, and completed master level work at State University at Plattsburgh, New York. She is very active in regional professional, political, civic organizations and has served as the Chairperson for the Essex County Republican Committee and President of the Heritage Museum Board of Directors in Ticonderoga, Hudson River Black River Regulatory Commission and developed the Ticonderoga School System Young Five Program. Anne is a past recipient of the Liberty Bell Award from the Essex County Bar Association. She is currently a member of the North Country Community College Foundation Board and serves on the Independent Judicial Qualification Commission. She has dedicated her life to serving our community, honoring our past, and fighting for a prosperous future.
About the Sarah Gibbs Thompson Pell Award:
The 2018 Award was the first to be given. The award, named after Fort Ticonderoga’s co-founder Sarah Gibbs Thompson Pell, reflects Sarah’s deep belief in her work at Fort Ticonderoga and its importance to our nation. Sarah and husband Stephen led the restoration of the fort, the restoration of the Pavilion, and established our museum in 1909. It was with great conviction that Sarah dedicated her life to history and humanity and rooted in the past, she led with fierce determination to make the world a better place. In a 1930 radio address Sarah is quoted saying in reference to our nation’s constitution “May the spirit of Fort Ticonderoga continue to preserve that unity, that justice, that tranquility, that defense, that general welfare, that liberty, and that prosperity, which the founders of our government set as the worthy objectives of this nation.”
Fort Ticonderoga: America’s Fort™
Welcoming visitors since 1909, Fort Ticonderoga preserves North America’s largest 18th-century artillery collection, 2,000 acres of historic landscape on Lake Champlain, and Carillon Battlefield, and the largest series of untouched Revolutionary War era earthworks surviving in America. As the premier place to learn more about our nation’s earliest years and America’s military heritage, Fort Ticonderoga engages more than 75,000 visitors each year with an economic impact of more than $12 million annually and offers programs, historic interpretation, boat cruises, tours, demonstrations, and exhibits throughout the year, and is open for daily visitation May through October. Fort Ticonderoga is supported in part through generous donations and with some general operating support made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
America’s Fort is a registered trademark of the Fort Ticonderoga Association.
Photo: Anne B. McDonald Receives the Sarah Gibbs Thompson Pell Distinguished Citizen Award at Fort Ticonderoga’s recent Garden Party held on July 8, 2018. Photo copyright Fort Ticonderoga