POSTED: September 13, 2009
By APRIL DIODATO
OBSERVER Staff Writer
Last summer, a community was moved by the story of a Fredonia native who made it to the Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. Their continued support was shown on Saturday morning as friends and fans, young and old, filled Barker Common to pay tribute to silver medalist Jenn Stuczynski. A ceremony was held in the athlete’s honor, with a stone monument and flagpole dedicated to her achievements.
The event, held in conjunction with Fredonia’s Red, White and Blues Festival, was attended by numerous members of the community — some wearing their Olympic T-shirts — that were anxious to meet the pole vaulter and her coach, Rick Suhr.
Stuczynski arrived at the park not long before 11 a.m., when the ceremony was due to begin. As her supporters saw Stuczynski approach, wearing a black dress and crimson high heels, many made a beeline to greet her. She graciously posed for photos, signed autographs and hugged former teachers and old friends.
“I’m just so happy that a person like Jenn is a role model for the students coming through the school,” said longtime Fredonia High School physical education teacher Ann Laduca as she waited for the ceremony to begin. She remembers Stuczynski, one of her students for four years well — she graduated with her daughter in 2000. Laduca said she sent Stuczynski over to play with the boys in order to further challenge her. She said she was awed when Stuczynski won the pentathlon at the state level in her senior year after only trying it once.
“She had the skill that very rarely came through my classroom,” Laduca said. “The sky was the limit.”
The ceremony, held near the information booth in the park, got off to a late start. Organizer Julie Essek, of the Fredonia Olympic Committee, announced that she wanted to wait for some guests to arrive.
Village of Fredonia Mayor Mike Sullivan opened the dedication a few moments later. Sullivan was followed by County Executive Greg Edwards and state Sen. Cathy Young, who each spoke briefly.
“I have never seen so much community pride, community spirit, generated because of someone who has succeeded so well and made us so happy and proud,” Young said. “I just want to congratulate everybody who worked so hard, though — it really has made a difference here and will continue to make a difference because that’s what we’re all about in the Southern Tier — we’re about neighbors helping each other, people caring, people getting involved in the community, and this is a great example of that.”
Sham Bahgat of Fredonia accounting firm Bahgat & Laurito-Bahgat approached the podium next to make an announcement. The $10,000 left over from the nearly $35,000 raised are to be used for a scholarship created in Stuczynski’s name with Northern Chautauqua Community Foundation. The Jenn Stuczynski Student Athletic Scholarship is intended for high school graduates demonstrating outstanding athletic ability who are pursuing college degrees. It will alternate between Fredonia High School and Dunkirk High School each year.
“I see a lot of young people out here and if you’re good athletes — which I’m sure a lot of you are, I can tell — please remember about the scholarship and consider talking to your athletic director about it,” Bahgat said.
Sullivan next spoke about the monument — one of only two in Barker Common — and flagpole, which he said would be visible for years to come.
“You brought this community — not just Fredonia — but all of Northern Chautauqua County together in ways that I don’t think anybody would have expected that summer,” Sullivan said. “We had a group that met almost every week. We were hitting close to the limit of capacity in the meeting room on the second floor of Village Hall. Everybody really wanted to help and as you can see, we were able to do some wonderful things.”
The mayor then asked Stuczynski to come forward and speak. She began by thanking the crowd and then gave a brief speech.
“It actually starts to hit you a little later than you would think — it’s not directly after the Olympics,” Stuczynski said. “It was actually was a couple weeks ago, I was traveling back (to Fredonia) and thinking about how much involvement everyone had here. To think that you guys sent my parents to come see me, that’s a memory that they’re gonna have and I’m gonna have for the rest of my life.”
She started to become choked up and said, with a laugh, “I don’t want to get emotional!” The crowd echoed her laughter.
“To think that I grew up rollerblading in here and, you know, playing and riding my bike, and now, here’s this,” Stuczynski continued. “It’s amazing how far I’ve come and the support that I had with you guys and... I want to thank my coach for it, too, just — to find me playing basketball and decide that I should be a pole vaulter. This never would have happened, so ... it’s everyone here, it’s not just me, so, thank you very much.”
Stuczynski was showered with applause as she stepped away from the podium.
The mayor then introduced Valerie Pawlak, who came forward to give Stuczynski a bouquet of roses from her fans. Stuczynski held the roses as the monument was unveiled. Sullivan thanked Paradis Fence and Flag Inc., Tadt Concrete and Titus A D & Co. Monuments for their work.
Essek came forward to speak last.
“It is a very special thing to have an Olympic Silver medalist in our midst,” Essek said. “She has done something very few of us have ever done ... she has risen to the height in life by raising the bar literally.”
“Many times in life we see people just not working to their potential,” she said. “For Jenn, she has continued to raise the bar. She has pushed herself and inched her way up to the position that she is today. She has challenged herself and kept trying and has achieved great success... Many generations will come by this (monument). They may not know Jenn but they will certainly see how proud our community is.”
Essek began planning an event in Stuczynski’s honor several months ago but when her original idea — a street jump — didn’t work out due to the plethora of other events happening downtown during the weekend, the ceremony was organized within the last few weeks. She had written her speech at 7:07 Saturday morning.
“It worked out very nicely and the weather cooperated very nicely,” Essek said. “I was very happy with the turnout.” Essek said the idea for the scholarship came from the Fredonia Olympic Committee “right from the beginning,” in July 2008. She emphasized that the scholarship is intended for athletes in any sport.
“It doesn’t have to be a school sport — gymnastics is not a school sport, ballet is not a school sport — we might have somebody with accelerated talent that we would say would be eligible to go for the scholarship,” Essek explained.
Stuczynski was again surrounded by well-wishers after the ceremony. She tried to best express how touched she was by the kindness shown to her since competing in the Olympics.
“It’s amazing... it’s so hard to grasp because what they did is just, I’ve never seen it before,” Stuczynski said. “Surreal is the word for everything that happened after the Olympics or outside of the Olympics. The Olympics itself is definitely a pressure cooker — it’s a lot of pressure going in there. But the things that were going on outside in support of it was what was surreal. And how everyone came together... to raise money to send my parents over there to see me and put the shirts up and the signs, and their support and their love — that’s what’s surreal about it. The Olympics itself was a meet and I had to treat it like a meet.”
Looking back, she said, it’s the encouragement others have shown her that she takes with her the most. Since the Olympics, Stuczynski had her indoor and outdoor pole vaulting season. She incurred an Achilles injury, which prevented her from participating in the pole vaulting competition at the world championships in Berlin, and said has been working to rehab it for awhile.
“So far, things are getting better and I’m just going to take my time and get ready for indoor,” Stuczynski said.
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