PINE PLAINS — A group of 10 students from Stissing Mountain High School recently returned from a two-week excursion in China as part of Stissing Mountain High School’s 13th annual China Exchange program.Under the supervision of co-coordinators Karen Pogoda and Jean Osofsky, as well as retired foreign language teacher Ritajean Schmidt, the students headed across the world on March 27 to reunite with the Chinese students they hosted in Pine Plains in January.The group attended classes at High School 29 in Nanjing and embarked on a tour of the country that included stops in Beijing, Xi’an (to see the terracotta army sculptures), Guilin, Yangshuo, Nanjing, Suzhou and Shanghai.“The Great Wall was awesome to see,” sophomore Brandon Boyles said. “We also took a cable car up Yellow Mountain and stayed at a hotel at the top. It was a bit foggy, so we couldn’t see some of the great views, but it was still really cool.”Senior Sarah Waldron enjoyed the time they spent in the city of Shanghai.“Shanghai was really populated, fast-paced and colorful,” she said. “Compared to the countryside it was really different.”While the tourist destinations were certainly memorable, Waldron said the highlight of the trip was seeing the Chinese students again. Senior Hunter Hoysradt agreed.“This is my second time on this trip, and the part I look forward to is seeing the students,” Hoysradt said, noting that he also reunited with his host student from his previous China Exchange excursion. “I was more prepared to take pictures with students this time, since last time I took pictures of tourist spots, which everyone has.”All three students said they enjoyed the experience because it allowed them to broaden their horizons.“I’m a foreign language student and want to major in psychology, so cultures are interesting to me. The trip was a great way to be immersed in a different culture,” Waldron said.Boyles said he has only left the United States once before to go to the Bahamas, so he jumped at the opportunity to visit a different country. Similarly, Hoysradt said the China Exchange program made him realize how much he likes traveling.“The program lets you see what’s out there and where you can go from here,” Hoysradt said. “Before my first trip I didn’t think I could go anywhere, especially China.”Hoysradt’s first China Exchange trip inspired him to go to Japan. He was there during the devastating earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, and while he was completely safe, he felt a bond with his host family.“Even in a foreign country, you feel like they’re your family,” he said.Hoysradt said he may pursue a degree in Asian studies in college. If he gets the opportunity to travel to China again, he’d like to meet up with the friends he’s made in Nanjing.As for Pogoda, the Stissing Mountain guidance counselor who has been coordinating the China Exchange program since its inception, she still enjoys visiting China after all these years.“The heart and soul of the program remains our friends in Nanjing,” Pogoda said. “The adult chaperones had a wonderful dinner in the home of one of the teachers who came to Pine Plains this year. There was a lot of laughing, eating and communication despite the fact that not everyone spoke English. This is what the program is about — getting to know people who have a different culture. It makes you realize that basically we are all the same despite our differences.”
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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