Three History Center members recognized with highest honors
At its annual Members Picnic on October 1st, the Saugatuck-Douglas History Center honored Renee Zita with its top honor, the Charles J. Lorenz Award of Achievement, and also recognized Linda and Vern Slusar as Volunteers of the Year.
The Lorenz Award, established in 1997, honors the memory of Charles “Chuck” Lorenz, who gave generously of his time, talent, money, and energy in researching the early history of Saugatuck and Singapore, as well as the formation and development of the organization. The award celebrates distinguished leadership in fulfilling the SDHC’s mission to “help the community understand its past and use its history to shape its future and preserve its quality of life.”
This year the awards committee made the decision to recognize Renee Zita for this honor for her longtime service to the Saugatuck community and the SDHC. Renee Renaldi Zita spent her career as an educator, a passion she carried on after her retirement to Saugatuck. Renee has logged countless hours as a docent greeting visitors and running the gift shop at the Museum at Mt Baldhead. She also served for over a decade on the History Center board of directors, providing leadership, stewardship, and support to the organization.
She stands out as a champion and a doer, someone who uses her resources and talents to get things done. Renee has been instrumental in building the Saugatuck-Douglas chapter of the Boys & Girls Club. She is also a champion for Mount Baldhead, advocating and directly supporting everything from tree planting, gardening, painting, and maintenance of the Mount Baldhead steps, the park pavilion, and the National Register listed Mount Baldhead radar station.
The Volunteer of The Year Award honors outstanding service to History Center and it was jointly awarded to Linda and Vern Slusar, two outstanding volunteers who bring their own strengths while also working very much as a team.
Both Linda and Vern joined the SDHC in 2020 and immediately began contributing to the work of the Collections Committee. They have effectively co-chaired the committee together for the last five years. Linda has distinguished herself for her Tuesday Talks on Cora Bliss Taylor and Nat Steinberg. She also depicted Julia Morrison Heath at the first Riverside Cemetery Comes Alive program. Both have also collaborated with the History Lives here markers project, organized regular cleaning parties of the “Boat Barn” and numerous cataloging projects of books and artifacts. Vern has served on the SDHC board of directors for the last five years, regularly updating the board on important new additions to the collections and archives.