Black Fly
Official Name: Bug-Eye
Sponsor: Marge & Ted Glowa
Carver: Rich Kraft designs and builds houses, additions and furniture in the Tri-Lakes region. The initial designer of the Adirondack Carousel pavilion, he is a former Carousel board member (10 years, two years as president), building committee member and original Carousel concept committee member.
Rich came to the area in 1980 to study forestry at Paul Smiths College after four years in the Navy living on a destroyer and going to 29 countries. Among numerous building projects, he recently designed and built a state-of-the-art, energy efficient house as a NYSERDA, (New York State Energy Research and Development Authority) research project. He has also done custom pearl inlay work for Dave Nichol’s custom guitar shop, and is an avid photographer, skier, snowboarder, water skier and mountain trail runner.
In the early days, the Carousel board hired carver Walt Reuss to work for two weeks on the first animal, the Black Fly. Walt worked in the Goody Goody’s toy store window for that time period to jumpstart the advertising of the project, but did not complete it. Rich volunteered to finish the carving, then sand and prime it in preparation for Meg Bernstein to paint it.
Rich’s desire from his first day with the Carousel has been to contribute to the Tri-Lakes community with his woodworking skills and to create something that would be educationally entertaining for children.
