Salem educator to be honored tomorrow at Saratoga 250 Surrender Day
Mary Skelly is being honored for her exceptional work bringing history to life for her 4th grade students.
SCHUYLERVILLE, NY — Mary Skelly, a fourth-grade teacher from Salem Central School, will be honored tomorrow for her exceptional work bringing the history of the Revolutionary Ware to life for her young students.
The General John Patterson–Supervisor Thomas Wood IV Saratoga Teaching Excellence Award — jointly named after the Brigadier commander in the Saratoga Campaign and a local historian/lifelong educator — celebrates the enduring link between scholarship and civic education. It will be presented by the Saratoga County 250th American Revolution Commission at the 248th Anniversary Surrender Day Ceremony at Fort Hardy Park.
Now in her 35th year of teaching and preparing for retirement, Skelly is widely admired for her engaging, place-based approach to history. A living historian with the 2nd Continental Artillery, she regularly interprets 18th-century camp life and cannon drills for students and the public. Her philosophy of teaching, she said in a statement: “Take students to the place—there is no better connection than that.”
The Surrender Day commemoration will include cannon salutes, a flag-exchange reenactment portraying Generals Horatio Gates and John Burgoyne, the ceremonial grounding of arms, student readings, musical performances, and a keynote address on Henry Knox’s Noble Train of Artillery.