HARVEYS LAKE — For the third straight year, one lucky resident of the Lake-Lehman School District has been graced with the area’s highest honor — a golden toilet on their front lawn.
The Golden Throne Award, created in 2018 by a committee made up of Ned Palka, Brian Smigielski, Michael Gaus and George Kline to honor someone in the district for all of the good they’ve done for the community, was awarded to Noxen resident Judy Denmon at her home on Tuesday night.
“As a nurse, Judy seemed like such a natural fit for this year,” Palka said. “She’s helped tons of patients get the help and treatment that they need.”
The tradition looked slightly different this year, with masks and social distancing practiced as much as possible in keeping with COVID-19 protocols, but the spirit of the ceremony was alive and well.
“We pushed it back a bit, but I don’t think we were ever going to cancel it,” Palka said. “We didn’t get to have as many meetings this year.”
Created as a tribute to the Kingston “water heater” tradition that sees an old water heater passed around each Christmastime, the Golden Throne is just that — a toilet, painted Lake Lehman black-and-yellow with an elf sitting on the bowl.
Atop the toilet is a Christmas tree, with just two ornaments on it before Tuesday’s ceremony: a baseball for inaugural recipient Pete Egbert, head coach of the Misericordia University baseball team, and a chicken wing symbolizing the delicious wings served up by Rich and Charlotte Williams, who had the Golden Throne displayed proudly outside their Harveys Lake bar last year.
Egbert was on hand Tuesday night to see the Throne presented to Denmon; Rich and Charlotte could not attend in person, but were present virtually via Facetime.
As is tradition, the members of the Golden Throne committee didn’t just roll up to Denmon’s home quietly. Instead, the Throne was escorted by a convoy of fire trucks and police vehicles from the Harveys Lake Fire and Ambulance Company, Harveys Lake Police Department and the Noxen Volunteer Fire Company.
Denmon, of course, had no idea that the Throne was on its way to her house.
“I came outside to see if anyone needed my help,” she said. “Then I thought maybe it was a Christmas parade, or that maybe the trucks needed somewhere to pull around.”
Denmon is a registered nurse in the Geisinger Health System, and has dealt firsthand with the COVID-19 pandemic this year. She’s also dealt with health issues of her own, including a benign brain tumor discovered earlier this year.
She’s since made a full recovery, and never lost her positive spirit, something that each of the Throne committee members noted.
“Everything has always been positive and cheerful with Judy, no matter what,” Smigielski said. “She has such an incredible attitude.”
A poem written in honor of Denmon was read by Palka before the Throne was unloaded out of the truck and placed in her yard. It summed up all the good that Denmon has done for the community, especially in a year as difficult as this.
Denmon was visibly emotional as she accepted the Throne.
“I am truly humbled to receive this,” she said. “I don’t think I deserve it, but it means so much.”
The committee also informed Denmon that they had raised $150 to donate wherever she chose. Denmon said that the money would go to the Noxen Volunteer Fire Company.
Now Denmon, along with her husband and son, must keep the Throne lit up all through the holiday season into January. As part of the award, she was given her own nameplate on the back of the toilet, and an ornament gifted by Rich and Charlotte to put on the tree: a “No. 1 Nurse” ornament.
As she accepted the Throne, Denmon left the group with a few words of wisdom, and a glimpse of that remarkable spirit.
“There’s always, always hope,” Denmon said. “You just have to believe in it, because it may not seem like it right now, but it’s there.”