Barbara Spraker Honored

The Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce's annual dinner and awards night is an opportunity for area business leaders to salute their peers. It's a chance to bend some elbows, meet some new faces and catch up with some old ones.

It's also the time when the chamber hands out three prestigious awards... including the Herbert T. Singer Community Service Award.

Canajoharie's Barbara Spraker, [Branch 6, 643,41B] recipient of the community service award, is one of the most recognizable faces in the county -- especially upcounty. The majority of her service to the region has come at the volunteer level. Her effort to get a bike path built through the county is among her contributions. Well versed in area history, she has also developed historic tours, and spoken to hundreds upon hundreds of school children over the years.

All too often we overlook those who give freely of their time in making a positive contribution to the community. Tonight at the chamber of commerce dinner, three such contributions will be recognized. They earned it. Contrary to some reports, community spirit and pride is alive and well in our corner of the Mohawk Valley.

--This editorial originally appeared in The Recorder of Amsterdam, Jan 24, 1997.

In the mid-1980s, local business leaders approached Barbara Spraker about helping the tourists who visit this Mohawk Valley community. "We said we needed a place to tell people what to do when they came to town," Spraker said. "They come off the Thruway and they have nothing to do." Spraker was then operation her own business, Spinning Wheel Needlearts. But she found time to organize the construction of the tourist information booth in the village's downtown. In the decade since the booth was built, Spraker has retired from her needlework business. But her dedication to the community is still going strong.

Over the years, the 72 year-old Canajorie native has promoted tourism, historic preservation and economic development in the Mohawk Valley. "If she believes in the project ... it's a done deal," said Karl W. Gustafson, president of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce. "She's a person who basically dedicated herself and her life to making Canajorie a better place to live and to do business." Spraker says her penchant for community service comes from her family.

She was born Barbara Voight on Moyer Street in the mid-1920s. She worked at Spraker Bank for a few years until she married Ed Spraker in 1956. As the wife of a bank employee, Spraker says she was expected to join the women's clubs and perform community service projects.

"Life was so different then. The little courtesies and the involvement we had, entertaining,...I just grew up in a time when people did this... You contributed to the community."

She's currently a commissioner on the Mohawk Valley Heritage Corridor, serves as chairwoman of the Erie Canal Trail Committee, a volunteer group helping to extend the bike path across the county, and helped establish the tourism booth in downtown Canajorie

From The Sunday Gazette, Feb 23, 1997