Sylvia Lake Legacy: 1807-2007

Three years in the making...

The Sylvia Lake Book Committee

Jeanette Perry, Mary Whalen, Olive Horning, Katie Pistolesi, Linda
Scott, Marilyn LaPierre, Shari Barnhart, Crystal Leonard (not in photo)

In 2003, Katie Pistolesi and Jeanette Perry began the update process by sending requests for information to property owners. In 2004, money for the book publication process was donated by the Dickson siblings in honor of their parents, Andy and Norinne. We moved to Sylvia Lake in 2004, so offered to help in the effort and another letter was sent. In 2005, Olive Horning, Mary Whalen, Linda Scott, Katie and Jeanette, met for the first time to hammer out the content. In 2006, the first draft was being read and written. 2007- Book Publication.

Click here to go to the bottom of this page and read UP. This was the diary I kept, starting in June, 2006, about the book update process.

June 27, 2007: Wow... 250 Sylvia Lake Legacy books are sold. We would have to order 50 books minimum to order more. The committee has had excellent feedback. People really like the book. We are so proud of it and are thrilled with the response.

June 14, 2007: Yippee!! Yesterday the committee met to finalize the party and put Bill deLorraine's map into each of the 250 books that are stacked in cartons in the living room. We are thrilled with how the book turned out and can't wait for the party. We had an unexpected surprise when Mike Welch called to offer his live music on Friday night. He and a friend from Northbound will be playing for us at the party. How cool is that??

Hope to see many of you there. If you can't make it to get your book, they will be mailed by June 25.

May 13, 2007 : Happy Mother's Day... Wouldn't a Sylvia Lake Book be a great gift? Bill and Joanna deLorraine stopped in on Saturday morning to deliver the final version of the map for the book. I'll take it to Ferguson Printing tomorrow. We will print extra maps to sell separately in case you want to frame one. Bill did an awesome job. In addition to this version, he created a map for the "First Responders" so they can find our camps and properties quicker and easier. Thank you, Bill.

We have about 215 orders now. Remember the Book Launch Party is June 15. Don't miss it. It will be a once-in-a-lifetime party. At least, once in MY lifetime...

May 1, 2007 : The orders are still coming in, slowly. Yes, it is after the "deadline," but we would never deny people the chance to have a book. After June 15, we will raise the price of any books we have left. The deadline was to get the best count we could of how many books we needed. We won't be getting a large number of extras... We don't want to sell these books for the next ten years.

April 23, 2007 : Today I dropped the book package and master CD into the FedEx box outside of the Gouverneur Post Office. It was a great feeling... I understand that we have close to (or over) 200 orders. We are going to order a few more, but not a lot. Please get your orders in ASAP.

April 2, 2007 : Crystal tells me that we have had just over 100 orders. That's good. The printer won't print anything under 100. BookMasters, Inc. in Ashland, Ohio, is our printer. They will duplicate the CD and insert it into the cover. We will put Bill's map in ourselves. The last order day will be April 27. This week, we will be sending an invitation to the Book Launch party and one last chance order form to everyone on the Sylvia Lake mailing list. If you are not on that list, and want an order form, you can download one here.

December 2, 2006 : We've had 32 preorders for the book as of today (that I know of). There have been 11 orders online. Please get your orders in...even though the book won't be a holiday item. You can wrap a "virtual" book to put under the tree. We need 100 orders to have enough to go to print.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday to everyone, from the book committee!

October 14, 2006: We had our last book committee meeting of the season on September 27, 2006. We are working out the financial structures for our pre-ordering. The association newsletter, The Sylvia Lake Breeze, will be mailed sometime in early November and the order form will be enclosed. People who order the book will send their check and information to Crystal Leonard. In the Spring, another newsletter will go out with a "last chance" order form.

The new book will cost $55.00. (Not including shipping and handling - $5.00 per book + $2.00 for each additional book).

Meanwhile, if you want to use a credit card to order your book(s), you can do that here on the Sylvia Lake Online website. I got all that set up this week. It will "go live" when the newsletter is sent out.

Your personal photos, which you may have sent in to the committee, are coming back to you. Committee members took batches of sent-in information and are returning the stuff to their owners.

September 15, 2006: The draft of the book was available at the Sylvia Lake Association meeting. There were some minor edits, but overall, the book is getting close to being complete. It is on track to go to the printer in the Spring. The pre-order forms will be included in both the Spring and the Fall Sylvia Lake Association newsletters.

The plan is to have a Book Launch party on June 15, 2007. We will have a short business meeting and then a celebration of the book, the committee, the community and our lake. It will be wonderful!

August 19, 2006: Click here to see the new table of contents. (Adobe Acrobat file)

August 4, 2006: It's been a month since the last update. The committee is meeting on Tuesday, Aug.8, to review the 168 pages. I'm still waiting for some articles, so there are a few blank pages. But overall, we are very close to having a complete prototype. The book looks awesome. Really.

July 5, 2006: Yesterday I finished the layout for the neighborhoods. (Yippee!!) The property information is organized by "Neighborhoods" as in:

Many of the neighborhood documents are now in the hands of the "local" fact checkers. Olive is the proofreader. They will receive many readings before they go to print. If you want to see yours, let me know.

I used the photographs sent by property owners. (You will get all your pictures back, by the way.) I had some great photos of a variety of lake events from Gary Scott, the Jacksons, and Judy Butz. I have the website pics, but I can't use them in the book unless I have the original, high resolution picture. Website photos are processed differently than for printing, so dial up Internet connections won't choke trying to view them. They would look fuzzy in print.

Now I'm looking forward to the articles that lake residents are going to send in about the ice storm, the fishing, flowers, the association, critters, pontoon boats, etc. The blank pages are ready to receive the text... anytime now...

I got a number of great recipes from people that are interspersed in the neighborhood pages. Did you send your favorite one to us?

Of course, we are all thinking of Katie and Peter Pistolesi. Peter is in the hospital in Burlington and Katie is staying there with him. We are holding them both close to our hearts.

June 21, 2006: I'm working on the desktop publishing now. Almost everyone has sent in updates, some have sent family photos which I will use. I'm estimating the book will run about 200 pages (8.5 X 11). I've completed the Wintergreen Bay, North Shore, Hotel Bay, West Shore neighborhoods. I'll start on Mansion grounds next week. When all the submitted info is in on the pages, we will start "fact checking" and editing. Stay tuned.

This summer will be the last chance to get photos and stories into the Sylvia Lake book. We hope to publish this winter and have copies for sale by the Spring of 2007. Pre-sales will begin earlier than that...as soon as we know what the production costs will be.

The new Sylvia Lake book will be an actual book... but it will also include a scanned copy of the original book on a CD. The CD book will have bookmarks that will allow the user to jump from page to page. In addition to the CD, the book will include an updated map of the lake and properties by Bill deLorraine. If you have any questions, just contact a member of the committee.

The first priority is to collect camp information from those people who haven't sent any in. Information that comes to us hand-written has to be typed on a computer to go into the database.

See the committee's timeline.

Remember that we have photos of all the camps that we can use, just send in your updated information. If you want to talk to someone and give your info over the phone, do that. Call any of the committee members.

To help offset the potentially huge printing costs, the committee will be raffling or auctioning copies of the 1980 book. Watch for the chance to acquire the old book for your camp.

Ideas? Comments? Insights? Please contact one of the committee. We're counting on you to help us make this book something that everyone will want to purchase. In 1980, the book was $40.00. We are hoping in 2007, with the addition of a CD of the original book AND a updated map, this book will not cost much more than that.