WHY WE GIVE THE STUZIN FAMILY’S COMMITMENT TO PLACE SPANS GENERATIONS

Anne Stuzin’s headlamp beams into the dense forest of the High Peaks Wilderness. Her light refracts through rain drops, then bounces off two golden eyes. Large, low to the ground. A bear, she tells her daughter Maddie. They are tired after hiking in the Seward Range all day. Now adrenaline morphs into speed—and song. Anne and Maddie race to the trailhead, screaming Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” into the night.

Anne’s affinity for the outdoors began in Vermont, where she spent time as a child exploring the woods and waters near the rustic cabin her parents owned. Years later, after Anne and her husband, Ken, moved to Baltimore, a colleague of Ken’s suggested the Stuzins take a trip to the Adirondacks with their three young children.

When the family visited the High Peaks in 2007, Anne realized the Adirondacks offered her children what Vermont had given her. “It was a time of great adventure and discovery,” she says. The family climbed Hurricane Mountain, found swimming holes, and soon made summer trips to the Adirondacks an annual event. “Every single second was precious,” Maddie says. “When I’m in the Adirondacks now, I feel a visceral connection to who I was as a child and that unhindered time with my family.”

The colleague with travel advice was Bill Paternotte, then an Adirondack Land Trust board member, now the current chair. Bill also introduced the Stuzins to our work and in 2020, Anne joined our board of directors. For Anne, giving back to a place she loves was a natural progression. “My parents not only exposed us to the outdoors, but to a value system that planted the seeds of philanthropy,” she says. “At the Adirondack Land Trust, we’re all driven by our passion for this place and our great interest in protecting it.”

Maddie followed her mother’s lead, joining the Next Gen Council for people in their 20s and 30s interested in land conservation. “It’s a special connection between us,” Maddie says. “It’s also symbolic of what Next Gen wants to do, which is build relationships with the board so they can hear about what younger people believe.”

Back at the Sewards trailhead, Anne and Maddie arrived ahead of group members carrying the car keys. They huddled under a rain poncho, late for dinner back home. The misadventure became Stuzin family lore, one more wild moment that deepened their connection, and commitment, to the Adirondacks.