Thousands of local alumni coming to Little Wolfstock IV

by Dan McClelland

Thousands of alumni from decades of Tupper Lake graduating classes will be back in the shadow of their alma mater over the weekend, all celebrating like it’s the last day of classes at the fourth Little Wolfstock at the town-owned beach and campgrounds.

There have been reports dating back several months that campsites and motel rooms here will be in short supply- if available at all this weekend. Some of Tupper Lake’s growing number of short-term rentals are apparently still available to rent for the week or weekend.

Because of a community-wide lodging shortage, one of the event organizers, Daniel “Boonie” Carmichael was able to secure the permission of the village board to permit overnight camping in the Tupper Lake Municipal Park- just for this weekend.

Unlike typical reunions in Tupper Lake, Little Wolfstock IV is punctuated with live music from start to finish.

Keyboard player and singer Clark Blanton, who has performed at all of the three past musical reunions here, will open Saturday’s big event, performing from under the pavilion at the town beach. Clark is expected to perform a song he wrote this past year- paying tribute to his late friend, Tupper Lake’s Jeff LaBarge.

Clark has expanded his part-time musical career into almost full-time work as a sessions performer on Long Island, after his retirement from a career in education.

Next up at 1p.m. and 2p.m. are two more Tupper Lake natives and Tupper High grads- Vocalist Angela Jessie, performing with Evan Bujold. After Angela and Evan is Jim LeBlanc.

Jim’s musical career has really blossomed in recent years with many professional engagements in and around his home in the Columbia, South Carolina. The singer/songwriter is very popular in that area of the south.

Adding some country to the folk and rock and roll of the first performers that afternoon will be Tupper Lake’s Brock Gonyea, with his recently fleshed out traditional country band, featuring Larry Reandeau on pedal/steel guitar and Guitarist Terry Torrance.

A retired Long Lake music teacher, Mike Nearny, joins the musical line-up this year and plays about 4p.m. With Mike will be several performers from the greater Long Lake area.

It’s traditional rock and roll from the 1960s and 1970s at 5p.m. when Jeff Gonyea’s newest band, Legend, takes the pavilion stage. Playing with Jeff are long time band mates John Reandeau, Bruce Hollingsworth and Chuck Mozdzier.

After Legend, at 6p.m. will be Tupper Lake’s Junction Jam, featuring Dennis Torres, Mike Fritts, Skip Houston and Brian LaDue.

Capping off the evening in style in classic rock will be Tommy Snye’s Bitter Sweet, who will play until 9p.m. when the entertainment closes.

All of the local and area performers are again donating their time and talent to the event free of charge. All donations by participants have gone in the past three years to local charities and community organizations. That’s the plan too this year.

The official sponsor of the fourth version of Little Wolfstock is the Tupper Lake Lions Club which will have its well-known cook shack on site for those nine hours.

The Lions carry with their events $1 million in liability insurance, which the town now requires for events on town property, like the beach and campgrounds.

The local Lions will also be donating from the cook shack sales that day at least $1,000 to the Search And Rescue of the Northern Adirondacks (SARNAK). It’s the important volunteer agency in our area which furnishes lifesaving mobile radio and communications services to anyone or any group during times of crisis here.

This year’s event will also see some craft and other vendors in and around the picnic grounds there.

Although he has received some amazing organizational help from Mr. Carmichael this year, Paul Chartier, Class of 1972, remains the principle organizer of Little Wolfstock IV. He called Boonie, this event’s “logistics guy,” who has tackled an assortment of organizational tasks for him.

The event was founded by Mr. Chartier in 2012 when he was asked to organize his class’ 40th reunion. His new assignment came after several somewhat lackluster reunions by that class in earlier decades. Of the 120 kids who graduated with Paul, only about 30, including spouses, attended their 30th reunion.

So Paul decided on his own, if he was in charge of the 40th reunion, it was going to have a major organizational twist. That’s when the musically based Little Wolfstock was born at the town beach.

So that first year he opened the event up to all those who graduated here in the ten years of the 1970s- and it was a major success in the summer of 2012.

In 2014 Paul opened it to the graduating classes of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s and it grew even larger and more and more people started making their summer vacation plans around it.

The last Little Wolfstock- No. 3- Paul put together in 2017- and the giant reunion was open to every Tupper High graduate. Over 1,500 people attended that time.

“The whole idea of Little Wolfstock, and it continues this year, was to just show up and enjoy great music, most of it from local performers or former residents, and picnic, family-style.”

There are several food options this year for those who forget their picnic baskets.

Mr. Chartier figures this year’s crowd may exceed 2,000.

Financial support for the free event has come again from some alumni, as it always does, plus a promotional grant of $1,500 from Explore Adirondack Frontier, the advertising campaign of the Franklin County tourism department.