The Lakeville Journal and The Millerton News presented the 2025 Estabrook Community Leadership Award to Bunny Williams on Nov. 22 at the Town Grove in Lakeville.
The award, named for longtime Lakeville Journal and Millerton News owners Robert and Mary Lou Estabrook, honors individuals who exemplify community spirit and leadership. This year’s presentation took place during the newspapers’ second annual Jubilee.
Addressing more than 100 attendees, Brian Ross, Vice Chair of the Board of Directors, underscored why Williams was chosen. “Bunny has always believed, as we do at our newspapers, that community matters, and that local matters,” he said.
Williams has spent decades bolstering local organizations. She helped launch Trade Secrets 25 years ago, turning it into a major fundraiser for Project Sage, the region’s domestic violence agency. She has hosted events for local libraries, supported the Falls Village Daycare Center and Music Mountain, and founded The Great County Mutt Show to benefit The Little Guild.
Board Chair Dan Dwyer urged attendees to follow Williams’ example. “Get informed, stay informed and get involved in your community to make it a little better than it was – that’s what Bunny has done,” he said.
In her tribute, Betsy Smith — a close friend of Williams and chair of the Jubilee — called the honoree honest, energetic and warm. “She’s the essence of being civic minded,” Smith said. “I could not be prouder to be in her orbit of friendship, warmth, commitment, and making our community a better place.”
Michael Trapp, left, and Hillary Cooper
Dwyer presented Williams with the award, which she immediately dedicated back to the community.
“What I learned is that the best part of this community – as beautiful as it is – is the people. I may have an idea, but it’s just an idea,” Williams said. “It is the effort and the commitment and the generosity of people who step up to the plate to make these events happen and I’ve never seen anything like it.”
James Clark, CEO/Publisher of The Lakeville Journal and The Millerton News
Publisher James Clark congratulated Williams before highlighting the vital role of local journalism. “When you read The Lakeville Journal and The Millerton News, you become more informed about what’s happening in your communities – and more connected to your community,” he said, adding his thanks to the attendees whose support helps the newspapers thrive.
John Coston, center, recently retired executive editor of The Lakeville Journal and The Millerton News
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Izzy Fitch at Battle Hill Forge in Wassaic.
The giant metal mantis, built by artist Jim Hackett, is now part of a summer contest Fitch devised. He’ll strap it to the roof rack of his car and drive it around. When people spot it, they can take a photo, post it on social media and tag @battlehillforge, @lakevillejournal and @themillertonnews. At the end of the contest, names will be drawn at random and gift certificates to Battle Hill Forge will be awarded.
“It’s just for fun,” said Fitch, whose work often blurs the boundaries between art, utility and play. “Who couldn’t use more fun these days?”
Fitch moves through his sprawling workshop spaces like an enthusiastic museum guide leading visitors through a collection he forgot he owned. Every few steps, something catches his attention. A hand-forged daffodil. A dragonfly. A prototype trellis. A powder horn his great-grandfather taught him to make. A concrete toad inherited from his grandmother.
“Oh, this is cool,” he says, veering off course.
A few minutes later:
“Oh, I forgot to show you this.”
Then:
“You want to see something really cool?”
The tour never quite follows a straight line.
Neither does Fitch.
Long before Battle Hill Forge became known for custom gates, garden structures and sculpture found everywhere from private estates to major cultural institutions, Fitch was a child building armor for toy animals.
“I had a Black Panther that was this big and I armored it,” he says, holding his hands a few inches apart. “I made all my little people and creatures, and I armored them all up and I made all the weapons for them.”
Fitch’s father was a logger. Tools were plentiful. Toys were not.
“He wouldn’t buy us toys really, so we would have to make our own.”
The family business, if there was one, was making things.
Izzy FitchNatalia Zukerman
His great-grandfather was a master craftsman who made Windsor chairs in collaboration with his uncle, Bert Fitch. His father supplied the raw materials, Bert made the chairs, his great-grandfather carved the spindles. His relatives were renowned woodworkers. People would travel from far and wide to have his great grandfather make handles for them.
“I really learned a lot from spending time with my grandparents and my great-uncles,” he says.
Today, that inheritance is visible everywhere inside the forge.
Giant steel pumpkins wait beside elegant peony supports. Honeycomb sculptures support an endearing bee also made by Hackett. Giant orbs loom playfully. Metal mushrooms, used in classes Fitch teaches to children, line the windowsills.
Many are prototypes Some are commissions. Some exist simply because Fitch thought they might be fun to make.
“I just think of something cool,” he says. And then he makes it.
“Most of the metalworkers that I work with don’t want to talk to people,” he says. “They’re like, ‘Just tell us what you want. Give me the plans and I’ll make it.’”
Fitch is different. Part craftsman and part translator, he enjoys helping clients discover what they want before it exists.
Unless, of course, he’s distracted by a frog story.
The previous Battle Hill Forge location, in Millerton, included a small pond where Fitch often ate lunch.
“There was a dead mouse out there one time,” he recalls. “This frog was so clever. He would sit near the dead mouse and when flies came down, he would get a fly.”
He watched the frog for an entire lunch break.
The story arrived somewhere between explanations of Japanese patinas and custom railings.
It also explains a lot.Fitch notices everything: plants, insects, old tools, odd solutions, clever engineering tricks. His work is filled with observations gathered from gardens, forests, old European designs and conversations with other makers.
A peony support isn’t just a peony support. It’s an opportunity to improve something. A trellis isn’t just a trellis. Maybe it can come apart for shipping. Maybe it can help a plant grow differently. Maybe it can do something no one has considered before.
“I’m not really inventing anything new,” he says. “I just tweak it a little bit.”
After its beginning in Falls Village, moving to Millerton and eventually settling in Wassaic, Battle Hill Forge has become one of the region’s success stories. The shop is booked months in advance. Projects range from garden ornaments to monumental railings weighing hundreds of pounds. Designers seek him out. Gardeners collect his work.
Yet Fitch remains most animated when discussing collaboration.
The intern helping in the shop first met him as a student in one of his metalworking classes. Local glass artists add to his sculptures. Garden designers have helped refine his plant supports. For Burning Man this summer, he’s joining a team of fellow artists to build an installation featuring an oculus and a pair of metal sphinxes.
“We’ll have a little party,” he says.
The phrase could describe half the projects in the shop, especially the praying mantis. Technically, that sculpture belongs to Hackett.
“He makes all this cool stuff,” Fitch says. “I sell them for him because he’s one of those artists who doesn’t want to deal with the public.”
Fitch laughs.
“Which is totally smart.”
Outside, a dog wanders through the yard. A timber framer works next door. Metal rusts into beautiful shades of brown. New ideas wait in various stages of completion and there’s just a little magic around every corner.
To contact Battle Hill Forge, visit battlehillforge.com.
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