Winter Shaul was a jokester—a prankster who loved to make people laugh--a sweetheart, an 11-year-old businessman with his career—he was going to be a truck driver—already mapped out.
Winter died in an ATV accident on March 31, 2020.
Right before what would have been his 14th birthday, last Friday, July 15, students in Scott Gray’s Career and Technical Exploration class at Middleburgh High School celebrated all things Winter with a bench they made for the Elementary School Library in his honor.
Winter was the son of Pam and Jim Shaul; Ms. Shaul said she’s touched by the students’ thoughtfulness—just like Winter’s, she said—and the skill and craftsmanship they put into the bench.
“I thought it was such a special way for them to remember my son,” Ms. Shaul said. “It’s a beautiful, beautiful thing. And to think they did the same thing for Isabel…”
MCS’s Isabel Skowfoe, 18, also died unexpectedly in 2020, a month after graduation.
The bench students made in her memory was unveiled at June’s Festival of Arts.
Winter’s cousin, Stuart Shaul—“his favorite cousin,” Ms. Shaul said—kept her updated on the bench as it came together and what was one of the toughest parts of the project: a wood-burned image of Winter on the bench’s back.
“That was just so special,” she said. “As soon as I saw it, I said, ‘Yep, that’s my boy.’ I don’t know how they did it. It looks just like him. To see his smiling face…”
Ms. Shaul remembers her son as someone who touched everyone he met.
And they remembered, too.
While visiting family in the hospital, Winter befriended an older woman in the next bed just by getting her a drink of water.
And chatting about his love of trucks.
That led to the woman sharing a catalog with trucks on the cover with Ms. Shaul, reminding her “Christmas is coming…” Ms. Shaul said with a laugh.
“He was that kind of kid.”
He was also the kind of kid who used a neighbor’s computer to apply for a job driving trucks.
He was 10.
“Imagine my reaction when they called, looking for Winter,” she said, laughing again.
“He was something. He was a prankster. He was always making people laugh.”
Winter was especially proud of his name and signed everything Winter James Shaul—his middle name comes from his dad; together they started a camp wood business, Winter’s Camp Wood, at the end of their Fultonham driveway that Winter’s sister runs now.
That was his last big project, Ms. Shaul said.
“He was definitely a businessman.”
The benches for Winter and Isabel were built from the trees that once stood in front of the High School.
Ms. Shaul said she’d thought about planting a tree in Winter’s honor, but likes the idea of the bench even more.
“It will always be there for people to sit in and remember him by,” she said.
“It was just such a nice thing for them to do for my son and our family. I can’t thank them enough.”