ConnerMiller receives 2026 Goose Day Golden Feather award
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LEWISTOWN -- From wooden porch geese and painted courthouse windows to scavenger hunt prizes created by high school students, Rebecca ConnerMiller has found plenty of ways to make Goose Day a little "goosier."
Those efforts have earned Miller the 2026 Goose Day Golden Feather Award, presented by the Juniata River Valley Visitors Bureau to recognize people and businesses that have embraced the local holiday and helped it grow.
ConnerMiller is a technology education teacher at Mifflin County High School and an artist whose Goose Day projects have involved students, friends and community organizations.
"I first met Rebecca when she was organizing a goose-themed Chalk the Walk at Rothermel Trail in 2020," Visitors Bureau Director Jenny Landis said. "She has ideas and energy to get things started and then across the finish line."
Some of ConnerMiller's projects have since become part of the annual Goose Day celebration.
Her STEM interns create engraved wooden coins, glassware, keychains and other items for the annual goose egg scavenger hunt held throughout Mifflin and Juniata counties. ConnerMiller and friends Heather Confer and Jessica Imes then hide the eggs. ConnerMiller's students also have used their STEM skills to engrave goose-themed glassware for a school fundraiser.
Her Goose Day activities extend beyond the classroom.
Last year, ConnerMiller created wooden porch geese that were sold during Lucky Friday. Two years earlier, she and Confer baked Goose Day cakes. More recently, the two painted a photo prop for Lucky Friday, according to the Visitor’s Bureau.
ConnerMiller and Christina Kensinger also operate Brushes and Besties. Their projects have included painting "The Gospel Goose" for New Life Church and the Wild Geese: Flocking Together project, creating the goose-themed entrance to the Kish Park Mini Golf course and, most recently, painting the front windows of the Historic Courthouse for this year's Goose Day celebration.
ConnerMiller also brings the celebration home, with hand-painted geese lining the walkway to her Lewistown residence.
"The Visitors Bureau appreciates Rebecca's ongoing Goose Day spirit, and we can't wait to see what she comes up with for next year," Landis said. "We know it will be creative and fun and might just encourage someone else to embrace their own 'goosie-ness' and do something fun for our local holiday."