Thank you to all those who submitted nominations for our 2020 Grand Marshal. Hands down, the nominations for this year's Grand Marshal favored one very special person...
John Sypher!
John taught at Chester Elementary School from 1959-1987. During that time he started and coached a 6th grade girls basketball team, which was unheard of in those days. He started an after school tumbling program, instructed and ran the afterschool Computer Program when the district received their first computers and continued to do this into his retirement.
"... his students will never will never forget how he touched their lives.
"Your greatest gift was you never gave up on kids".
"I strongly believe his legacy and community service to our town is unparalleled, ask any 40, 50, 60 or 70 year old who grew up in Chester."
John bought comic books with his own money in order to help children who were struggling with reading, coached J.V. Football for the high school, and established a summer camp program for children in the area which included: Building stilts and teaching children to walk on them, establishing bicycle trail and road rides around the local area, with emphasis on nature, established art projects of all kinds supplying all the materials out of his own pocket. And, in his spare time he coached a local woman's town baseball team.
John is also well know for his work at the Stover Mt. Ski Hill. It is said that from 1959 to 1987 he taught most of the children in Chester how to ski. He instructed skiers at all levels, established a ski swap, collected equipment to make sure everyone who wanted to learn had equipment, held classes on the lawn of the High School in the evening for beginning skiers, maintained the lifts, equipment and grooming of the ski hill, procured the poma lift and snow packer for the hill, established a work program during the summer for those who could not afford a season ticket, and drove the district school bus to the ski hill on weekends for free in order to save the district money and assure children could get to the ski area.
In 2015 a former student gave a scholarship to the Chester High School Alumni in John Sypher's name to be presented to a graduate going into teaching.
John's legacy is the lives of the children he touched.