NEW SCOTLAND — Two archers are being honored at the Heldeberg Worshop’s July 18 open house.

The renovated Art Hatch and Mike Leonard Archery Building is being named after two men who helped found and expand the workshop’s archery program.

Arthur E. “Art” Hatch, who won a gold medal in archery in the New York State Senior Games, built the original archery building in 1974, which became the centerpiece of the workshop’s archery program.

Born in 1918, he served in Iceland with the United States Army Air Corps for close to five years during World War II, and was later commander of American Legion Post 1493 in Voorheesville.

He worked as a lithographer with General Electric and was a founding member of the Bethlehem Community Church in Delmar, a member of the Voorheesville Horseshoe League, and established the Rakowana Archers Club, and was its first president. He died in 2007;

Lyndon “Mike” Leonard  taught archery at the workshop for many years, served as a member of its board of directors, and was integral to the establishment of the Founders Building in 2015. He earned many medals from state archery events, including two bronze medals from the National Senior Games.

Born in 1948, he served for four years with the U.S. Air Force as a Blue Beret during the Vietnam War. He taught industrial arts at the Berne-Knox-Westerlo for 30 years; was an avid archer, hunter and angler; and held leadership positions with the Rakowana Archers, the Empire State Games, and Ducks Unlimited. He died in 2018.

Improvements

Over the last few years, the Heldeberg Workshop has renovated and rebuilt several other structures, including the Iroquois Longhouse and The Dick Weeks Theater Building, and has built a new Sugar Shack; a $5,000 grant from the Voorheesville Community and School Foundation will make the Sugar Shack operational.

Built between 2020 and 2023 using traditional construction methods, the timber-frame structure is next to a stand of 86 sugar maples, and is accessible by car and wheelchair. Beginning in 2025, the Heldeberg Workshop will hold an annual Community Maple Sugaring Festival, welcoming visitors to watch how maple sap was traditionally harvested and concentrated.

In 2022, Heldeberg Workshop received an $8,000 grant from the Preservation League of New York State to fund a Cultural Landscape Report of the property from 1750 to the present day. The property contains foundations of a pre-1767 homestead and a possible barn, a well, remains of an abandoned road, and an 1850s-era cemetery.

The Heldeberg Workshop was founded by four women in 1961, and currently provides over 100 outdoor classes yearly on 237 acres below the Thacher Park escarpment. Each summer over 1,300 Capital Region children, in kindergarten through high school, attend week-long, half-day classes focused on science and nature, art, theater, and high adventure, with weekend classes for children, adults, and families offered during the fall and spring. 

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The Heldeberg workshop is located at 353 Picard Rd. in New Scotland. The July 18 open house starts at 7 p.m.

— Melissa Hale-Spencer