Miriam Butzel (2009)

2009 Community Partner Award Winner

Mirium Butzel had a passion for kids — especially the art students at the Blue Roses Theatre Company at Schenectady High, where she often attends rehearsals, plays, art exhibitions and musical performances.

Butzel formed the Henry M. Butzel Family Foundation in 1996 to support the community and public school programs.

In recognition of Butzel and the foundation’s support of the arts, the gallery space at Schenectady High School — where local visual arts students display their work and study other regional artists — is known as the Henry M. Butzel Family Foundation and Miriam Butzel Gallery.

She has also been honored by the YWCA of Northeastern New York for having a positive impact in the Electric City.

While raising her children, Butzel was an active member of the Friends of the Schenectady Museum. She also served as a board member and volunteer instructor at the Hamilton Hill Arts Center and also joined the newly formed Designer Crafts Council (then affiliated with the Schenectady Museum), for which she has been involved in many activities over the years.

Additionally, she was a member of the Parsons Child and Family Center Board of Directors for 18 years and was inducted into the lifetime board at the end of her sixth three-year term. In 2001, Parsons named its new community residence the Miriam House in honor of Butzel.