The 2024 PA Wilds Champion Awards winners were announced with numerous individuals with local ties among them. The winners were:

• Artisan of the Year: Lynn Kibbe

• Best Brand Ambassador: Starr Hill Vineyard and Winery

• Business of the Year: Mountain Top and Provisions

• Conservation Stewardship: Watershed Conservation Program of Western Pennsylvania Conservancy

• Event of the Year: Jakes Rocks Trail Fest

• Great Design: Bald Birds Brewing

• Great Places: Zippo/Case Museum

• Inspiring Youth: Brandy Schimp and Kane PTO

• Outstanding Leader: Joshua Zucal

• PA Wilds Planning Team Member of the Year: Will Hunt, Potter County Planner and GIS Director

The winners will be honored at the 2024 PA Wilds Dinner and Awards, to be held on Thursday, July 25, at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.

The Champion of the Pennsylvania Wilds Awards celebrate individuals, organizations, communities and businesses that are making significant contributions to grow and sustainably develop the outdoor recreation economy and nature tourism in the Pennsylvania Wilds. There are nine award categories open for public nominations.

Kibbe, of Trout Run, is a professional visual artisan in the Wilds Cooperative of PA who specializes in the art of scratchboard, in which parts of a dark board are scraped away little by little to create the artwork. Her subjects are almost exclusively wildlife and nature. Kibbe herself is a living example of being able to follow a dream as an artisan in a rural place, having left her job as a paralegal to pursue scratchboard art full-time.

Mountain Top and Provisions is located in Clinton County and received an award which honors a new or existing business that has taken bold steps to grow their business in a way that embodies what it means to marry conservation and economic development and to offer an authentic experience or product to visitors and residents. This restaurant and market offers live-fire cooking and smoked foods, smoked only with Pennsylvania hardwoods.

Bald Birds Brewing Company in Jersey Shore is the winner of the 2024 PA Wilds Great Design Champion Award, which honors an individual, business or organization that has done outstanding work to preserve, protect or enhance an area’s rural community character and to promote the use and understanding of the PA Wilds Design Guide. Bald Birds is located in the 153,000-square-foot former Woolrich warehouse.

Bald Birds transformed the former warehouse into a brewery-goer’s paradise. The facility is home to a 7,000-square-foot taproom, a 10,000-square-foot wedding and event venue, outdoor seating and gaming areas, two golf simulators, and a 90,000-square-foot production brewery.