A TRAGEDY IN SCHOHARIE:
ONE YEAR LATER

October 2019

Inside the Apple Barrel Country Store in Schoharie, it's business as usual. It's a place where the community comes together.
"Our families' idea behind this business is we're not just a business," said co-owner Joshua Loden. "We like to be a place of community.” 
Now, it's also a place where the community grieves together.
A year ago, everything changed, when 20 lives were lost right outside the Apple Barrel's front doors. In the days after the tragedy, there was an outpouring of support.
"It does give you a sense of hope, that there are a lot of really great people out there," said co-owner Jessica Kirby. "Unfortunately, a lot of them were lost that day."
For months, there has been a temporary memorial erected to the victims: 20 single crosses, carved in an act of kindness, placed at the crash site. The artist was never identified.
The makeshift memorial has become a display of love and pain. 
"This is more than just 20 crosses on a deer sculpture' it’s more than 20 footprints," Loden said. "These were real people who had family, spouses, kids."
"There were so many messages written on the deer sculpture and cross," Kirby said. "It was important that they be preserved."
That memorial is now in the hands of the New York State Museum, as a permanent memorial has been installed and will be unveiled Saturday.
All the money for the permanent memorial was raised by Reflections Memorial Foundation, created by the Apple Barrel owners. The design comes from the minds of the families.
Richard McCormack made that idea a reality.
"You can design it on paper that's the easy paper; that's the easy part," McCormack said. "Taking it from there and bringing it to life is the tough part."
A two-ton stone was carved out little by little to become the centerpiece.
What was once a site of tragedy is now a place to reflect.
Twenty footprints will line the memorial ⁠— a reminder that their memories still walk the earth. It was a project that wasn’t an easy undertaking , but it's no surprise this community can make the impossible a reality.
"We're a 'pull yourself up by the bootstraps' kind of community, and we just get it done," Kirby said.
Today, it's still busy at the Apple Barrel, but It will never again be business as usual.