BLUE MOUNTAIN LAKE — The Adirondack Experience, the museum on Blue Mountain Lake, will celebrate its annual Benefit Gala and Harold K. Hochschild Award ceremony on Saturday, July 27, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. under the stars.

This yearly celebration and fundraiser highlight the organization’s service to the Adirondack community and honor the Harold K. Hochschild Award recipient. This award, given annually to a different recipient, is dedicated to the memory of the museum’s founder, whose passion for the Adirondacks, its people and the environment inspired him to create the museum and establish the Adirondack Park Agency. The 2024 award recipients are Lee and Nancy Keet and the Cloudsplitter Foundation.

Lee and Nancy Keet have been active members of the Adirondack community for many years, supporting a variety of Adirondack organizations as board members, including the Adirondack Foundation, Adirondack Council, the Nature Conservancy, Adirondack Land Trust, AdkAction, Trudeau Institute, Adirondack Rail Trail Association, Point Positive, Lake Colby Association, Colby Foundation, North Country Public Radio, Northern Forest Atlas Foundation and ADKX.

Their tremendous dedication to improving the Adirondack region led them to form the Cloudsplitter Foundation in 1986, where Lee serves as the foundation’s chair and Nancy is the grants committee chair. The Cloudsplitter Foundation is dedicated to improving the environment, economies and lives of people in the Adirondacks. Together with a volunteer board of local residents and a small number of family members, the Keets and the Cloudsplitter Foundation have distributed $15,730,000 within the Adirondacks from 2011-2023.

The Cloudsplitter Foundation initiates specific programs that can empower the Adirondack community long-term. Some of the most recent efforts of their foundation include their Childcare Excellence Award Program, which helps recruitment and retention of childcare workers; the Employee Relief Fund, which bolsters the financial wellbeing of home health care workers in the North Country; and the Grants Advisor Program, which trains nonprofits how to apply for state, federal, and corporate grants.

“The ADKX would like to thank Lee and Nancy Keet for their remarkable dedication towards making the Adirondack region a better place to live,” said Executive Director David Kahn. “We look forward to celebrating them at this year’s Gala.”

To purchase tickets to this event or make a contribution in honor of the Keets, visit www.theadkx.org/event/benefit-gala-and-harold-k-hochschild-award.