I Love BBQ and Music Festival organizer Dmitry Feld, left poses with volunteer Adam Wild of Lake Placid during the 2023 festival. (News photo — Andy Flynn)

LAKE PLACID — More than a month after board president Dmitry Feld’s death, the Shipman Youth Center is regaining its footing and trying to honor Feld’s legacy.

“Dmitry, it’s a big loss because he was such a huge personality and a huge man. So, to lose somebody like that … it’s hard to fill his shoes because he did so much,” said Michael Durham, the newly minted board president.

Durham said the board is seeking more volunteers to help fill Feld’s massive shoes. In his work with the Shipman Youth Center, Feld regularly took on a workload seemingly larger than any one person could achieve.

“Strength in numbers. We need to keep the youth center going in the direction that Dmitry has worked so hard over the years to move it,” Durham said. “My children went there, and I want my grandkids to go there.”

The current board of the youth center is one of the best in its history, Durham said: Katie Stephenson, Ambrose Serrano, Charlie Pond, Tim Robinson, Adam Wild, Naomi Wild, Petra Weber and Kasey Donahue. At its last meeting, the board also welcomed a new member, Saranac Lake Village Manager Bachana Tsiklauri, who decided to join the board in family friend Feld’s memory.

Shipman Youth Center, Lake Placid (News photo — Andy Flynn)

At its next meeting in early March, the board will decide if it will bring back the I Love BBQ and Music Festival for another year.

Started in 2006, the festival is the youth center’s largest annual fundraiser. On Labor Day weekend every year, a variety of bands and meats come together for the popular event. Feld, a barbecue lover, spearheaded the event and took on the majority of planning tasks.

“We want to continue it, but Dmitry, I mean, there’s a (long) list of what he did. We all had a small portion of it, but he did all that. So how do we get that information and how do we do all that? We’re going to try,” Durham said. “We want to pull as many people as we can that can help us organize this.”

Durham said that the Shipman Youth Center has operation costs of about $100,000 every year. In recent years, the festival has raised around $20,000 of that total, and over the course of 17 years, it has raised more than $350,000.

Aside from the festival, the board is still brainstorming other ways to honor Feld’s large legacy.

“Dmitry was very passionate about barbecue … so do we name the (youth center) kitchen after him? Do we name the gym where we had our meetings after him? We don’t know,” Durham said. “Right now, we need to get our bearings. “

He added that Feld is one of the biggest motivators behind the board’s dedication.

“We’re getting 25, 27 children a day coming to the youth center and we can’t let them down, so we have to keep moving forward,” Durham said. “None of us on the board have actually met Tom Shipman, but we met Dmitry, so that’s our big push right now, is in his memory.”

Anybody who is interested in donating to or volunteering at the youth center can reach out to Durham at 518-524-5657 or the youth center’s executive director, Jason Hooker, at 518-523-8786. There is also information about fundraising and volunteer opportunities on the youth center’s website, www.shipmanyouthcenter.org.

The youth center, located on Cummings Road near the middle-high School, was named after Thomas Shipman, the Lake Placid Police Department’s first juvenile officer, who devoted his time to improving the lives of area youth. After he died in 1995, the building was constructed by community members in his memory. The center serves area children ages 10 to 18.