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This is a great day to celebrate a true Mt Abram Friend...
Becky Keniston Shaw, her twin sister Rachel, and their sister Martha began skiing at Mt. Abram when the Cross brothers opened the area. After graduating from Gould Academy, Becky lived, worked and attended college in Farmington, St. Louis, and Chicago before moving to Boston where she met her husband. Becky and Lennie married at the Bethel Inn, moved to Bethel, and opened an optometric office on lower Main Street. Becky was the office manager and paraoptometric (Paraoptometrics are the wonderful women who do all the work that makes the doctor function effectively.) until she and Lennie became the parents of twins, Jon and Jeni. Becky naturally brought her children to Mt. Abram to begin learning to ski. In due time, they joined their dad in the Mt. Abram Ski School and became leading snowboard clinicians.
Becky was killed on Route 26 in South Paris on Monday, March 10, 2003. Tuesday, in response to requests from members of the Maine Optometric Association and mindful of Becky's advocacy for paraoptometric education, Lennie asked the MOA Board of Directors to create the Rebecca Shaw Memorial Paraoptometric Fund. On Wednesday, as family and friends were attending a memorial gathering, the MOA Board held a telephone conference meeting to establish the Fund. Thursday, many members of Becky's family skied together at Mt. Abram. Someone suggested that they meet at the mountain again the following year. Saturday evening, the torchlight parade formed a heart at its conclusion. Jeni and Jon rode down the middle of the heart. Then a large portion of the Mt. Abram community crowded into the lodge for a remembrance gathering. At its conclusion, Bud announced that the mountain management had decided to hold an annual Becky's Day and donate the lift ticket proceeds to Becky's Fund. Becky's Day falls on the Thursday closest to March 10. All income from the Fund is used to support paraoptometric education.
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