Recalling that she couldn’t wait to get out of Cobleskill after graduating from high school more than 20 years ago, Maggie Jackman Pryor chuckled.
“I swore I’d never come back,” she said.
But Ms. Pryor did come back, and for her whirlwind of volunteer efforts in Cobleskill and beyond, she’s the Times-Journal Star for 2010.
Although many people have a favorite cause or two, Ms. Pryor has many. She’s active with Cobleskill Partnership Inc., the Animal Shelter of Schoharie Valley, Head Start, CREST and the Princess Prom Project, among others.
And then there are good deeds far less well-known: holiday gifts for needy families, helping a family whose home burned, a fundraising breakfast for a family who lost their father, buying bowling passes for a boy she doesn’t know.
“We need to take care of each other,” Ms. Pryor said, simply explaining her inner drive.
Helping others wasn’t foremost in Ms. Pryor’s mind when she left Cobleskill.
She moved to the Virginia-Washington DC area, where she took care of her ailing father. One episode there changed the way Ms. Pryor viewed life: She failed to find adequate companion care for her dad.
“I became more empathetic for people who need help,” Ms. Pryor said, adding that the incident probably influenced her broad work in Cobleskill.
Her father died shortly afterwards, and Ms. Pryor moved to Colorado.
“I did marketing for a dude ranch,” she said. “I guess I saw the movie City Slickers too many times.”
Thinking of her dad’s experience, Ms. Pryor then started a companion care business.
She met and married Bryan, and they had two children, Hope and Jack.
It was about that time that Ms. Pryor began thinking of Cobleskill again.
“I got thinking that it was so great to grow up in Cobleskill,” she said. “I wanted to go back. It was not a career decision. It was a kid decision.”
She sold the companion care business, now with 13 caregivers, to a friend, and in 2004 the Pryors moved to Cobleskill, where Mr. Pryor’s flooring business became Carpets and Then Some, on Route 7 west of the village.
Ms. Pryor almost immediately got involved in the community. Kids found their own activities 20 years ago, when she grew up here, but Ms. Pryor realized that adults had to be more active today for safety reasons.
She first joined Cobleskill Partnership Inc., the downtown advocacy group, and helped put together parades, the July 4 event, the holiday celebration and others.
“I wanted my kids to have a parade on July 4, and then it’s for all kids,” Ms. Pryor said. “How can you not have fireworks on the 4th? How can you not have a corn maze on Halloween? How can you not have all that great stuff?”
But while Ms. Pryor has provided activities for kids, a key element has been getting kids involved in volunteering, too.
Her work with the Animal Shelter is an example. Just before Thanksgiving, Ms. Pryor, her children and three or four of their friends stood in front of Wal-Mart with a list of shelter supplies.
They’d ask customers going inside to buy something off the list, and many did. For those that didn’t, Luke, the Pyrors’ youngest boy, asks for money.
“The kids came up with the Wal-Mart idea,” she said. “I can tell kids all day long what to do, but if they come up with the idea and want to volunteer, that’s even better because they encourage each other”
“It was great. The kids had a blast.”
As for helping children she doesn’t know, Ms. Pryor emphasizes that it’s rarely the kids’ fault that they’re needy.
“My kids want something for Christmas,” she said. “Other kids need things. We had one kid asking for socks. Socks, can you imagine.
“That helps our kids to get it. I want them to understand that some people have less, and we have to help.”
Growing up in a small town––and coming back to live in it––is central to Ms. Pryor’s efforts.
“It may sound corny, but I love being in a small town where everybody knows everybody,” she said. “There are just so many good people here.”