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Health & Fitness

DUCKS AND SHOREBIRDS AND FISH, OH MY!

RUMSON – Bill Doggart has fond memories of enjoying all that Island Beach State Park has to offer and precisely when his obsession with decoys began.

 

Doggart, who with his wife, Barbara, owns Sedge Island Decoys in Brick (www.sedgeislanddecoys.com), said he first became interested in decoys as a young boy. His family owned the Frances shack – which is a leased hunting cabin located in Island Beach State Park in the South Seaside Park section of Berkeley.

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“We went there all the time and I spent a great deal of time looking at the decoys stored under the shack. I’d throw them in the water and begged my uncle to take me duck hunting so I could use the decoys,” said Doggart, who buys, sells and trades decoys.

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And, he's not alone. Another passionate hunter, carver and collector will be there, too. Rumson police officer Anthony E. Ciambrone  is the honorary chairman of the exhibition. Ciambrone recently spent his December vacation duck hunting in the Navesink River. “I love seeing the tradition of carving continue,” said Ciambrone, adding that he teaches carving during wood shop classes at Rumson-Fair Haven High School. Ciambrone owns Oceanic Decoys – www.oceanicdecoys.com – where you can check out his work.

 

Doggart, who is also the 2014 president of the New Jersey Decoy Collectors organization, and Ciambrone are among dozens of carvers, collectors, and dealers who will be heading to Rumson Country Day School on Jan. 25 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for the First Annual Two Rivers Exhibition of Sporting Collectible Art, which will benefit the Horizons Student Enrichment Program.

 

Doggart said: “This area is starving for a decoy show of this caliber which will bring the collectors through the door,” he said, noting that the annual winter show sponsored by the Ocean County YMCA is not being held this year.

 

Decoys can costs thousands of dollars and there are collectors out there who want to buy them, Doggart said. A trio of  swans carved by George Strunk of Glendora sold for $7,000 each nine years ago, for example

 

Strunk, who is the featured carver at the new event, noted that the price for some antique decoys can go into “the six figures.”

 

In fact, in August 2013, an early bufflehead drake deco, made around 1910–1912 by the renowned carver A.E. (Elmer) Crowell (Massachusetts, 1862–1952), was sold for $207,000 at a Decoys Unlimited Inc. summer decoy auction July 28–29 in Hyannis, MA.

 

“There is a void with the Ocean County show not taking place,” according to Marchut, president of the New Jersey Wildfowl Carvers Association and past  competition director of the former Ocean County show. Kathy Marchut, president of the New Jersey Wildfowl Carvers Association, and a Roxbury Township resident, and Nancee Jo Luciani, of Manchester Township, who is a mentor with the Youth Carvers Group at Tuckerton Seaport, are the exhibition founders

 

This one-day event will also feature the first New Jersey State Championship Shorebird Competition and the New Jersey State Championship Decoy Competition. It is an open competition and those competing do not have to be a member of an organization or a club.

 

Chad Small, headmaster at Rumson Country Day School, said decoy collecting and its history has been a passion for him for a long time. “It’s the original folk art,” said Small, whose father was a decoy collector. Small said he favors the New England carvers and the New Jersey carvers, including the work of Barnegat Bay-style carver Harry V. Shourds. “I also like old decoys…the ones that have been shot up,” he said. Small said he has donated some of his decoys to the nonprofit Horizons student enrichment program that takes place each summer at donated facilities on the RCDS campus. These decoys will be used to raise money to support the 18-year-old program that serves more than 135 children in Monmouth County for six weeks each summer, he said.

 

This past summer, Horizons students were treated to a special wood shop class taught by Marchut and Luciani, where the students learned the history of carving in New Jersey and were able to cut out and paint their own shorebird flatties.

 

“This past summer, the theme for our curriculum was Taking Flight,” said Horizons Executive Director, Lori Hohenleitner. “For our students, project-based learning is a joyful way to deepen their connection to nature, science, and the environment. Learning about shore birds from these expert carvers was a highlight of their summer and the pride they took in the finished birds—such detail and creativity-- was unforgettable.”

 

Exhibition visitors can watch as competition decoys bob in tanks while being judged by some of the best decoy carvers in the country. Those deemed the best carvers for decoys and shorebirds will receive a cash prize. Additionally, young visitors can create their own works of art by painting a flattie.

 

Strunk, the exhibition’s featured artist known for his Delaware River-style decoys, will be on hand to talk decoys, carving, and history. Strunk, of Glendora in Camden County, is well known in the carving world. His Delaware River-style decoys are precisely carved and intricately painted in oils and his work is sought after across the country.  One of his shorebirds was featured in the movie Lincoln with Strunk’s good friend, actor James Spader.

 

Strunk has been carving for over thirty years, spending many weekends at a family hunting cabin where his dad taught him how to hunt and fish.  When he decided he wanted to make his own hunting rig, Bob White and Jamie Hand both guided him in his initial carving instruction.  Soon his own natural talents took over leading him to create the collectible pieces he makes today. Visit his website at www.georgestrunkdecoys.com to see more of his work.

In addition to activities for children, there will be opportunities for family fun, appraisals, food, and an auction on the campus of Rumson Country Day School, 35 Bellevue Ave., Rumson, NJ.  There will also be 47 exhibitors showing everything from decoys, shorebirds and song birds to wildlife artwork and photography. Admission is $10. Admission for members of Ducks Unlimited or any decoy club (and their guests) is $5. Children under 12 are free.

 

For more information about the event, visit http://facebook.com/TwoRiversExhibition or contact Marchut at 973-927-4842 or Luciani at 732-349-8046.

 

For more information about Horizons, please contact Executive Director Lori Hohenleitner at 732-842-0527 x5438  or lhohenleitner@rcds.org

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