Eden Valley Enterprises -- Grandma Gatewood Program Report

GRANDMA GATEWOOD PROGRAM
REPORT FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

It’s a long road -- no matter how you look at it! For Hiker Emma Gatewood it was more than 2,000 miles; for Eden Valley and FilmAffects it was more than two years.

In May of 2009 the Buckeye Trail Association wanted to put together a PowerPoint presentation for its 50th Anniversary. They contacted Eden Valley to provide the narration for their program which mentioned that one of their founders, Emma Gatewood, had been the first woman to hike the Appalachian trail alone -- at the ripe old age of 67! This footnote in the BTA story intrigued me and I contacted then-BTA Board Member Liz McQuaid -- “Who IS this Emma Gatewood person anyway?” So began Eden Valley’s “search for Emma Gatewood”.

Liz put me in touch with Emma’s youngest daughter, Lucy Seeds, who provided some interesting background information about the remarkable Ohioan -- after raising 11 children and a divorce from an abusive husband, Emma set off on the Appalachian Trail after reading a National Geographic article saying that no woman had ever thru-hiked the Trail alone. It was just the kind of challenge that Emma enjoyed and so she set out to be that woman.

At the time I only planned to include Emma’s story as one of the many tales of wonderful women spotlighted in EVE’s program, WHAT’S HER STORY? But Lucy mentioned that she was interested in publishing Emma’s diaries and she thought a film would be a great idea, so I told Lucy’s I’d check around to see if I could help her find a publisher or put her in touch with someone to do a film.

One of the first people I contacted was FilmAffects producer, Peter Huston. Peter, too, was intrigued by Emma’s story. And so the plan began... A storytelling program devoted to Emma, a first-person character program, a documentary for DVD and PBS.

In February, 2010 Peter and I began to work on getting a planning grant from the Ohio Humanities Council. By April, I had applied to the National Storytelling Network for a grant to do a storytelling program (this was approved in June, 2010). In the meantime, Peter had contacted PBS channel WGTE in Toledo and they agreed to broadcast the documentary for us.

That Fall the planning grant from the Ohio Humanities Council was approved. In December, 2010 the Buckeye Trail Association made a grant to help with matching funds for the Ohio Humanities Council Grant. These two grants would provide funds for research and planning to determine what materials were available for Phase 2 -- the first-person character program and the video documentary. They paid for trips to visit daughter Lucy Seeds in Florida and Great Granddaughter Marjorie Wood in Gallipolis, Ohio to allow us to get filmed interviews and pictures about Emma and her life.

Having completed the planning, we are now ready to raise funds to create the first-person character program and the video documentary. For more information, see our special Grandma Gatewood page.

In the meantime, Kelly Boyer Sagert has been busy writing the script for the storytelling program. The Westlake Community Center presented the first performance on November 1, 2011 for their Senior group. We are now accepting bookings for this program for other groups.

So -- two years from first “meeting” Grandma Gatewood, EVE is ready to introduce her to our audiences.
Just in case you think that walking the 2, 178 miles of The Appalachian Trail THREE times is more than enough to put Emma in the ranks of Amazing Americans, consider these facts:

Emma was one of 15 children of Esther Evelyn Trowbridge and Hugh Wilson Caldwell. She often acted as mother to the younger children.
She and her husband, Perry, had 11 children.
In 1958 she climbed the six highest peaks of the Adirondack Mountains in New York.
In 1959 she hiked the 2,000-mile Oregon Trail in honor of Oregon’s Centennial.
She was one of the founders of the Buckeye Trail Association and was elected to the board of directors and served through April, 1969.
The Buckeye Trail Association named a section of the Trail in Hocking Hills after her.
Between 1955 and 1969 she hiked ten thousand miles!

Peter and I hope to see you at one of our performances in the near future to introduce you to this truly Remarkable Ohioan!

- ¡ Bette Lou !

P.S.: I wish to thank all of Emma's family who have spent time talking to us about her and her life and sharing their pictures and other memorabilia with us. The lovely picture on this page is from her granddaughter, Lillian Gatewood Sullivan. All of her family members have been wonderful and we are very grateful!

If you would like to support this project with a tax-deductible donation, you can send a check made payable to Eden Valley Enterprises; 1250 East River St., Elyria, Ohio 44035 (download a convenient PDF form) or pay online with PayPal by pressing the "Donate" button below. (As a not-for-profit organization under section 501(c)(3) or the Internal Revenue Code, all donations are tax-deductible. You will receive an acknowledgment for tax purposes.)